• The Definitive “Best Comics of the Decade” (2000-2009) Master List.
THE DETAILS:
• Compiled from over 60 “Best of the Decade” lists.
• Only those books that made at least 5 lists are included on the master list. Organized by number of mentions.
• Limited to comics books and graphic novels released between 2000-2009. 38 comics in all.
THE LIST:
24 MENTIONS:
Y: THE LAST MAN
Brian K. Vaughn, Pia Guerra - Vertigo
19 MENTIONS:
ALL STAR SUPERMAN
Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely – DC
SCOTT PILGRIM
Bryan Lee O’Malley – Oni
17 MENTIONS:
BLANKETS
Craig Thompson – Top Shelf
16 MENTIONS:
FABLES
Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Lan Medina – Vertigo
14 MENTIONS:
CAPTAIN AMERICA
Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Mike Perkins, Michael Lark - Marvel
THE WALKING DEAD
Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn - Image
13 MENTIONS:
PLANETARY
Warren Ellis, John Cassaday – Wildstorm
11 MENTIONS:
FUN HOME: A FAMILY TRAGICOMIC (11)
Alison Bechdel – Houghton Mifflin
THE ULTIMATES
Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch, Steve Dillon – Marvel
10 MENTIONS:
BLACK HOLE
Charles Burns – Pantheon
DC: THE NEW FRONTIER
Darwyn Cooke -DC
BONE
Jeff Smith - Cartoon Books
JIMMY CORRIGAN: THE SMARTEST KID ON EARTH
Chris Ware - Pantheon
PERSEPOLIS
Marjane Satrapi – Pantheon
9 MENTIONS:
ASTERIOS POLYP
David Mazzucchelli – Pantheon
DAREDEVIL (9)
Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev – Marvel Comics
8 MENTIONS:
ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY
Chris Ware – Pantheon
LOUIS RIEL: A COMIC-STRIP BIOGRAPHY
Chester Brown – D&Q
PROMETHEA
Alan Moore, J.H. Williams III - America’s Best Comics / Wildstorm,
WE3
Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely – Vertigo
7 MENTIONS:
100 BULLETS
Brian Azzarello, Eduardo Risso - Vertigo
GREEN LANTERN
Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Ethan Van Sciver, Doug Mahnke – DC
HELLBOY
Mike Mignola -Dark Horse
SAFE AREA GORAZDE
Joe Sacco, Christopher Hitchens – Fantagraphics
THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN
Alan Moore, Kevin O’Neill - America’s Best Comics / Wildstorm
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN
Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley – Marvel
6 MENTIONS:
ASTONISHING X-MEN
Joss Whedon, John Cassaday – Marvel
CRIMINAL
Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips – Icon
PUNISHER MAX
Garth Ennis, Lewis Larosa, Leandro Fernandez – Marvel
5 MENTIONS:
100%
Paul Pope – Vertigo
ACHEWOOD
Chris Onstad - achewood.com / Dark Horse
EPILEPTIC
David B. – Pantheon
IDENTITY CRISIS
Brad Meltzer, Rags Morales – DC
KRAMERS ERGOT
Sammy Harkham, Various – Buenaventura
POWERS
Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Avon Oeming - Image / Icon
THE AUTHORITY
Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch – Wildstorm
THE GOON
Eric Powell – Dark Horse
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1) Please publish the entire list, sans covers. The titles here are “the usual suspects”, and I am interested in titles which I may have missed.
2) Please list the websites where each list was found. This will allow others to notify you of lists you might have overlooked.
3) I would enjoy reading some analysis of the “Big Picture”. Why no manga? Why only one kid’s book (Bone)? Why so much Marvel? How many of these titles were award winners, and what are some glaring omissions?
4) Thanks for posting this, it’s a great idea!
1. Well, the whole point of the list is to uncover “the usual suspects.” These are the books you’re going to see on every list. You’ll see Y: The Last Man on 24 of them to be precise.
I had to cut it off somewhere and so anything under 5 mentions it could be more of a fluke than a “best of the decade.” However, I’m sure I’d be curious as well, so here are the books with 4 votes each: Box Office Poison, Ex Machina, Flight, Girl Genius, Gotham Central, Ice Haven, Invincible, New X-Men, Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, Scalped, Superman: Red Son, & Top 10.
2. While I have all the lists written down, I did not write down where they are from. It would be great to keep a running tally with new lists added and accounted for, but I feel like 60+ lists give us a good enough sampling. And I’m lazy.
3. It’s just the nature of the selection. I was surprised at how little manga there was as well. To the point where I specifically searched out “best of manga” lists, yet found very few. For whatever reason, those worlds just don’t seem to cross over as much as I thought. And maybe the traditional comics community is just more likely to make lists?
As far as why these books and not others, I’d be curious on everyone else’s take. Hopefully the answer is “well, these are the best.” They may not be your favorites, but they are the majorities favorites.
For manga: Zetman (ongoing), One Piece (ongoing), Claymore (ongoing). Just stumbled on this, so I might have missed some criteria for being in the list. There are a bunch of manga that are OK or have their ups and downs, but those are my favorites. Anyways thanks, looks like I have a lot of reading to do.
And I have read…
NONE of those. Bits of several, and maybe most of Astonishing X-Men (I wasn’t keen). Huh!
Within its context, I’m shocked Kramer’s made it, especially when David Boring isn’t on this???? How is it you even KNOW about Kramer’s Ergot and list all that super hero garbage and scott pilgrim (and no, I’m not a super hero hater) and manage to exclude Clowes… WTF dude?
Ultimate Spider-Man is the best one on this list.
I AGREE!!!!! :D
Whoops…I didn’t put in my name and stuff so it just put it as anonymous.. -_-” ahehe
Was there a contest or something??? Too bad I wasn’t here earlier… -_-” I would’ve picked (of course as u can probably tell from my comment reply above! ^_^) ULTIMATE Spider-Man!!!!!! It’s my all time favourite comic! Which, it made me upset when stupid Marvel killed him off for more money… -_- T_T :(
No contest, just pulled from the top ten lists of various websites & blogs – so super subjective. Pretty hard to argue with that top 5 though.
What specific Green Lantern Arc got the most mentions by critics? Or is it all of Geoff Johns run?
I don’t recall which books got specific votes, but I believe it was Green Lantern: Rebirth. I’ve also heard great things about Green Lantern: Secret Origin.