By Zack Quaintance — More best of lists! This time it’s the Best New Comics Series of 2019. There was a lot to pick from here (thanks Vault!), and, yes, I’ve really stretched the definition of a Top 10 here, including two entires that have secondary lists of books buried within them. But you know what? This is my non-profit site and there are no shareholders, so rule-bending is rampant.

Hope you enjoy this piece as much as I like breaking the rules!

Best New Comics Series of 2019

1. Vault Comics (Various)
Writers: Various
Artist: Various
Colorists: Various
Letterers: Various
Publisher: Vault Comics (Obviously)
So, I Tweeted this last week, but I wanted to do a Top 10 Best New Comics Series, and I could have done it entirely with Vault Comics. This publisher had an absolutely HUGE year, one arguably unparalleled in the world of direct market creator-owned comics since that wave of Image books changed everything in the early 2010s. We have essentially seen an upstart publisher rise into the creative taste-maker of the monthly indie comics sphere. It remains to see how long they can hold that position, but if the next few years are anything like this one, the future is very bright indeed. I mean, just look at this theoretical top 10, it’s incredible:
-Black Stars Above
-The Mall
-Money Shot
-The Plot
-Queen of Bad Dreams
-Relics of Youth
-Resonant
-Sera and Royal Stars
-She Said Destroy
-Test

2. Undiscovered Country
Writer: Scott Snyder & Charles Soule
Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli & Daniele Orlandini
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Crank!
Publisher: Image Comics
Speaking of that early 2010s Image explosion, a lot of the series that propelled that wave came to an end this year, specifically Paper Girls, The Walking Dead and The Wicked + The Divine (with Saga still on indefinite hiatus). Undiscovered Country, however, is an incredibly worthy successor, and one of the most visionary and exciting new concepts that the publisher has launched in years. This book envisions a United States being shut off from the world for decades, and a team venturing into a vastly changed country. There are only two issues out so far, but hoo man have they been a doozy. This is a story told with the highest levels of comics craft and a deep concern for what’s happening in the country today, and the result is a book that is not to be missed.

3. Dawn of X (Various)
Writers: Various
Artist: Various
Colorists: Various
Letterers: Various
Publisher: Marvel Comics
In the past decade or so, some solid stories have been told with the X-Men characters, but due to a combination of false starts, contested movie rights, and questionable line-wide practices...none of those runs have felt fresh or weighty. That, however, has changed in 2019...drastically. Sure, it was House of X/Powers of X that reinvigorated this property, but it’s the six Dawn of X titles that are really living in that House of X (groan...sorry!). And five of the six titles have just been stellar. Sure, some of the initial excitement has worn off a bit, but that’s to be expected, especially with as many titles as they’re giving us, all on an aggressive schedule. But the upshot of that is the higher volume also enables more idiosyncratic ideas like Marauders. Anyway, one of the biggest stories of 2019 in comics was the X-Men resurgence, and the following books are the reason why:
-Excalibur
-Marauders
-New Mutants
-X-Force
-X-Men

4. Superman Smashes the Klan
Writer: Gene Luen Yang
Artist: Gurihiru
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Publisher: DC Comics
This is a rare comic that is both important and powerful, reminding us that some of the dark forces currently at work in our country have been here for many years...but also that the decency of the vast majority of people here (be it in the kindness many show to neighbors, or the personification of our ideals that is The Superman), can rise up to fight them. This is a more personal story than much of Gene Luen Yang’s previous work at DC Comics, and it mixes his childhood experience (which he heart-rendingly details in the back matter) with Superman’s long history combating hate. It all adds up to an immersive and deeply emotional comic that even with its over-sized length is nearly impossible to put down once you get started.

5. No One Left to Fight
Writer: Aubrey Sitterson
Artist: Fico Ossio
Colorist: Fico Ossio with Raciel Avila
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
I’ve written so much about this Dark Horse Comics series, specifically about all of the many reasons that I really like it. The crux of this fantastic book is that the entire creative team here is viscerally having a blast, going so big with every idea, emotion, and giant sequence to create a truly memorable reading experience. I loved this book from start to finish, from the stunning artwork to the clever-yet-simple concept that asks, what happens emotionally to our heroes after one of those fights in Dragon Ball Z? And the answer is the most reductive way to phrase it — one hell of a great story.

6. Little Bird
Writer: Darcy Van Poelgeest
Artist: Ian Bertram
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Publisher: Image Comics
I just wrote about Little Bird #1 for our Best Single Comic Book Issues of 2019 list, so forgive me for repeating myself a bit here — the reason Little Bird felt so stunning was this year was that it did not just drop you into a new story...it dropped you into an entirely new, fully-formed world that is unlike any we’ve seen in any other medium. It’s stunning, rendered with incredible visionary detail and laced with in-depth complex ideas about everything from politics, to religion, to nature, to diplomacy, to incarceration. The list just goes on and on and on. And the best part two is the creative team is coming back to revisit it all with Precious Metal in 2020. I, for one, just can’t wait.

7. Everything
Writer: Christopher Cantwell
Artist: I.N.J. Culbard
Letterer: Steve Wands
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Speaking of incredible visionary comics that touch on nearly every facet of society, we also have the aptly named Everything on our list. As our site contributor and my friend Harry Kassen said in his write-up as part of our Best of 2019 Contributor Picks list, ‘I’m not quite sure I understand anything that’s happening in this series, but I do know that I love reading it.’ That is 100 percent how I feel about this comic, too. It just mixes up so many interesting questions about mass market, big box commerce with the fact of being an individual within the world, and the results are abstract, surreal, utterly terrifying, and inherently confusing by design. This book isn’t done yet, but the four issue we’ve seen so far are pointing to a major achievement for all involved.

8. November
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Elsa Charretier
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Kurt Ankeny
Publisher: Image Comics
This was just such a treat of a story. It was released via Image Comics in the direct market in a sort of non-conventional format: as the first of three hardcover volumes, with the second one to come in March (I believe). More importantly, this story is intriguing and sublime. It’s told with some of the most intriguing visuals we’ve seen all year, finding interesting ways to depict plot, feelings, dangers, and more. The people feel real, even if they’re engaged in hard-boiled and frightening problems, and the challenges we seem them tackle all become relatable given the circumstances we see these characters navigate. That’s all very vague, but trust me here — this is a must-read comic story.

9. Heart Attack
Writer: Shawn Kittelsen
Artist: Eric Zawadzki
Colorist: Michael Garland
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Publisher: Image Comics
This new series is just two issues old, but it’s off to a hell of a start. Artist Eric Zawadzki is a talented and thoughtful visual storyteller, and he uses the entire breadth of the medium to engage readers, from page layout to perspective. Artwork is not all that’s for sale here, however. This is a book that combines romance (the last great under-utilized comics genre in modern times) with special powers and near-future dystopia clearly drawn from today’s headlines. It’s a detail-oriented comic that creates a compelling story through both character depth and big ideas. It’s all very well done.

10. Ghosted in L.A.
Writer: Sina Grace
Artist: Siobhan Keenan (w/Sina Grace)
Colorist: Cathy Le
Letterer: DC Hopkins
Publisher: BOOM! Studios - BOOM! Box
When I first started reading this comic, I thought it was an interesting college story (just delightfully laced with Los Angeles culture) that was tacking on supernatural elements because the industry demands sci-fi/horror/some other element touches to make a book marketable. After reading for five or six issues now, however, I’m really enjoying the ghost story stuff. Hell, I’m really enjoying everything about this comic, a slice of life book with a cutting sense of humor, well-realized characters, and a sense that anything can happen and it will, of course, be interesting. The bottom line, however, is that these characters (and ghosts!) are all just so likable.

Check out our other Best of 2019 lists, including Best Single Issues of 2019, Best Superhero Makeovers, and Best Comics of 2019: Contributor Picks.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.