Best of the Decade: Comics

FULL LIST: Techland’s 10 Best Comics of the Decade

Top 10 Comics of the Decade.  A difficult task, the top ten list, as some of my fellow Techlanders (Techlandites? Techlandians?) have already remarked. I’m a nerd, of course, so at first I tried to find some quantifiable metrics to determine The Ten. But when sales numbers and movie tie-in revenue dollars didn’t pan out I changed tactics. I went with my gut.

I scribbled out the top ten comics I could remember loving from this past decade.  Well, that list was no good either. Finally, I went the long way.  I put to paper every single comic I have ever loved. Be it stand alone graphic novel, or ongoing series.  That list, littered across two notebooks and a few text docs was over 50.  And from there I culled it down through research of what actually came out this decade and a little raw instinct.

(More on Time.com: The 10 Worst Things About the Worst Decade Ever)

Picking just ten comics was brutal.  I feel like I was betraying some of my dearest friends. I was digging through my drawer boxes like an archeologist. Thousands of books.  And looking at what I’ve come up with it still seems slanted, biased. But here were my criteria:

Great art and the test of time. First, great story telling can support poor art but c’mon, these are comics and I run column called Panel of the Week. Great art is a must (usually). Next, I favor a lot of complete runs here.  There’s something to be said about letting a writer and an artist tell a complete story without having to hand it off to the next team. Stand alone tales that have no tie ins, no crossovers, and need no other issues to tell a story. These are what stand the test of time.

So with that I give to you the FULL LIST: Techland’s 10 Best Comics of the Decade!

More on Time.com:

Cover Story: The Decade From Hell

Tech Buyer’s Guide 2009

The 50 Best Inventions of 2009

Related Topics: best of the decade, Blankets, Invincible, Mouseguard, Planetary, superman, The Authority, The Walking Dead, Y-Last Man, Gaming & Culture, Lists
  • http://grendel2000.wordpress.com grendel2000

    That’s quite a good list btw even if i don’t agree with everything (i think invincible is overrated for exemple).
    Personally i would had James Robinson’s “Starman”, Geoff Johns “Green Lantern”, Ennis’s “Preacher” or “Punisher” (preacher being a masterpiece in my opinion) and maybe some stuff from Brubaker who also seems to be missing fromyour list if i’m not mistaken, “the Sleeper” saga, “Captain America”, “Daredevil” or maybe the short lived “Gotham Central”…. I also enjoyed john ostrander’s “Suicide Squad” and his version of “The Spectre” but those are older; same goes for O’Neil’s “The Question” ….

  • Mike Williams

    The post-9/11 Captain America run was on my short list, the series drawn by Cassaday. Daredevil had a few runs that nearly made this list as well, I love Alex Maleev. Oh and the first handful of volumes of Punisher MAX are very, very good. And then there’s Criminal…

  • ralves00001

    Your list is quite a good one, when super-heroes are considered. However, it feel at times redundant and/or quite limited in scope for a “best of comics” list.
    As you say, these lists depend on gut feeling, and, of course, on what you have actually read. However, Ultimates/Planetary/Authority is quite redundant (and I have them all in the supedupper hardcover editions).
    Furthermore, whether you agree with his opinions or not, Sim and Gerhard’s Cerebus needs to be in a list like this one for the sheer scope and craftsmanship of the book. Many would argue that the same thing goes for Love & Rockets. I am not even going to mention manga or european comics, because I’ll grant you that US publication of these is at best scattered and hard to find.

  • http://grendel2000.wordpress.com grendel2000

    i just realized that i forgot Fables in my previous list…much better than invincible in my humble opinion :-)

  • http://djtrudeau.wordpress.com djtrudeau

    I agree that this is a good list. I’ve been putting together “Best of the Decade” lists and the comic/graphic novel list is the most difficult one. I, for one, am glad that the post 9/11 Captain America didn’t make your list. I thought the art was great but the writing was incredibly heavy-handed. Brubaker’s Cap knocks it right out of contention.

  • dernjg

    That’s an extremely narrow definition of comics, if you’re looking at the product of only four American comic companies. The past decade saw the flood of manga comics to a world stage, as well as the rise of webcomics as the new dominant source of read comics. Many of these produced stuff that’s top 10 material.

  • http://bac2483.wordpress.com bac2483

    Some great comics on your list. Recently I picked up “I Kill Giants” and I confess it would make my top 10 list. I also really enjoyed the bite-sized episodic crime stories in “Fell”, a fabulous Warren Ellis/Ben Templesmith collaboration. And one of my personal favorites Eric Powell’s “The Goon”

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