Best Of 2015 Best Series The Fade Out (Image Comics) by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Brubaker and Phillips continue to churn out a classic noir-influenced tale, in the vein of their previous work on ‘Criminal.’ Throughout the year we have slowly seen the tale of a couple of drunken screenwriters trying to solve a murder mystery unfold in issues so tense and intelligent that makes it difficult to overlook and choose a better series. Best Original Graphic Novel The Sculptor (:01 First Second) by Scott McCloud Nothing else released this year made me feel heartache, hope, love, and sorrow in such an amplified way. McCloud easily delivers the strongest story I have read in 2015 by constantly pushing the book past the potential of the graphic novel format while never losing sight of pacing and character development. You will regret not writing and drawing this book once you have finished reading it. Best Cover Thor Annual #1 Rob Guillory Variant Cover (Marvel) by Jason Aaron, CM Punk, Noelle Stevenson, Rob Guillory, Marguerite Sauvage, and Timothy Truman Maybe I am biased since I am a huge fan of professional wrestling, but no other cover got me nearly half as excited to open an issue as this. Rob Guillory (known for the hilarious comic Chew) draws an energetic and vibrant cover; we witness Loki overseeing Thor and Hulk (who dawns a luchador mask) facing off in the squaredcircle as fans (and even CM Punk himself) cheer on in the crowd. The cover fits the tone of the story that Guillory illustrates in an annual wellworth the cover price. Best Issue Airboy #1 (Image Comics) by James Robinson and Greg Hinkle James Robinson takes on the task of writing a story about Airboy, a public domain character rooted in worldwide heroism and beating up nazis during World War II, and turns it into a humorous and often heartbreaking semimetaautobiography. We embark on the crude journey alongside Robinson and artist Greg Hinkle, a journey that details what turned out to be the basis of the story as well as the self-destruction of Robinson himself. I don’t believe I have ever read a more honest comic book and this is as close to literally bleeding on the page as it gets. Best OneShot Hank Johnson: Agent of Hydra (Marvel) by David Mandel and Michael Walsh This is the first of two ‘Secret Wars’ palette cleansers on the Best Of list. David Mandel (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, SNL) and Michael Walsh deliver a tale of a day in the life of Hank Johnson, a runofthemill Hydra Agent, and this is easily the funniest. book. of. the. year. Mandel flawlessly translates the Larry Davidesque humor to the comic page, which is beautifully assisted by the incredible Michael Walsh, whose art is always a treat to look at. Best Limited Series Old Man Logan (Marvel) by Brian Michael Bendis and Andrea Sorrentino By now we know that ‘Secret Wars,’ an event that started off so promising, has turned into…a bit of a convoluted mess? I think that is the nicest way of putting it. There were few bright spots within the event, and one of which came in the form ‘Old Man Logan.’ Calling back to the theme of the original storyline, Bendis and Sorrentino don’t shy away from seamlessly branching the OML universe to the current Marvel U without losing any of the grit and despair felt within the original series. Publisher Image Comics Simply stated, no other publisher has been able to touch Image these past few years, and 2015 was no different. Setting the trend for independent publishing, Image leads by example as they continually publish the comics people truly yearn to read, forcing the other publishers to keep up and turn out quality series of their own. Best Television Adaptation Marvel’s Jessica Jones Out of all of the comicrelated properties that have made it to television or continued on (most being solid, few being unwatchable), Jessica Jones was by far the standout this year. Who could imagine that a flawed, selfdoubting, troubled female lead who makes what seems like the wrong decision every step of the way could turn out to be the icon for feminine empowerment and individual motivation. Best Movie Adaptation Marvel’s AntMan This movie seemed doomed from the start; we heard more about the drama behind the scenes (Edgar Wright vs. Marvel, Wright discussing how this has been years in the making before leaving the project) than we did about plot or direction. AntMan was a film that nobody seemed overly excited for, and once it was released it turned viewers’ expectations upsidedown, not unlike Guardians of the Galaxy. Though set up in a similar format as the first Iron Man movie, AntMan takes on a life of its own, standing out as the only comedicheist movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and was even successful enough to fasttrack a sequel when none was in the works. Article by Rob Pettinato Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website