I’m not a fan of doing end-of-year lists. I’m not against them. It’s just that I don’t like to rank things and I haven’t read enough this year (still playing catch-up!) to justify trying. Instead, I’ve rounded up everyone else’s best-of lists for 2024.
Digging through these lists is a great way to get a better sense of what 2024 has to offer. They give readers an insight into the various corners of the comic book world, showing how broad and wonderful the medium is. Hopefully, by looking through these lists, you’ll have a stack of new comics/graphic novels on your to-read list.
Let’s jump in and see what we can find.
Lists from the comic book media
Below are what the comic book media thought were the best reads of the year. Some of these are the traditional sites. Others are respected podcasts, blogs, newsletters, and YouTube channels.
The AIPT Comics staff come together to showcase their best picks in several categories over two parts.
There’s also an episode of the site’s podcast dedicated to unpacking all the 2024 picks.
The site picks 15 comics from 2024, with the selection leaning towards superhero titles, superhero-adjacent, and horror.
CBR (100-76 | 75-51 | 50-26 | 25-11 | 10-1)
CBR continues its annual tradition of counting down their top 100 comics of the year. I always find the site’s selections interesting because CBR hasn’t been dedicated to comics for a long time and the comics coverage they tend to do day-to-day is very superhero and multimedia-adjacent. To an extent, this list reflects that, but also includes several surprises along the way.
ComicBook.com doesn’t do a traditional list. They do the Golden Issues Awards instead. Categories include Best One Shot/Graphic Novel, Best Limited Series, and others. The winners lean heavily into the superhero and superhero-adjacent.
In this episode, Comic Book Club discuss their top comics and graphic novels of the year. The selections feature picks from different parts of the comic book world.
Comic Book Couples Counseling (Part 1 | Part 2)
Comic Book Couples Counseling (and guests) dug into their favourite comics of 2024 over two parts.
Dave of Comic Book Herald has collated his top 50 comics and graphic novels. It’s an eclectic list, digging into a lot of different corners of the comic book world. He has been saying on social media that he tried to read broadly and keep on top of releases this year. It shows with this great and varied list.
As a bonus, Dave also did a livestream with friend of the site Arpad Okay where both discussed their favourites of the year.
Comic Book Yeti did their third annual end of year awards through their podcast. They highlight their picks in 14 categories in the three hour episode.
DC Comics has has had a good year, with some solid comics. Comic Frontier’s list reflected this with the publisher making up 50% of the site’s list. The rest of the list is filled out with other superhero and superhero-adjacent comics that might be right up your alley.
Comicon
Comicon broke up their end-of-year celebrations with multiple lists. This includes Best Comic Series, Best Original Graphic Novels and Collected Editions, and Best Single Issue.
Comics Beat
Comics Beat did three lists this year. There’s the 50 Best Comics, 22 Best Manga, and 10 Best Webtoons. As always, the site features an eclectic mix of comics, featuring a wide range of publishers, styles, and genres.
The site’s Marvel and DC columns also did their own top 10 lists too.
The Comics Journal asked their contributors to share their top comics of 2024. The result is As a result, the list covers all kinds of comics from the mainstream superhero, manga, art comics, newspaper strips, and everything in between. This is the broadest list I could find by far.
The site has shared their 24 favourite comics for 2024.
Speaking of broad, Doom Rocket also offers a list of interesting comics from different corners of the comic book world.
You’ll have to let our browser translate this one from Italian. But it will be worth it for these 15 alt-leaning reads.
Lars Ingebrigtsen has put together a nice selection of reads from the alternative side of comics.
The YouTube channel Near Mint Condition spotlighted their favourite comics and graphic novels of the year. However, they did a second video that brought as many people as possible from Comics YouTube to share their picks too. Check it out if you have two hours to spare.
Newsarama, a subsection of GamesRadar, put two lists together. Their top 25 comics list feature 25 selection across several genres from Direct Market publishers. There’s enough variety for those looking for more than just superhero selections.
Their top manga list also features plenty of variety from romance and slice-of-life to big action-heavy series.
SKTCHD’s David Harper shares his favourite comics of the year. The result is an eclectic mix of selections that don’t favour any type of comic over the other.
The site spotlighted their five top issues of 2024.
Lists from the entertainment sites
What did the general entertainment sites have to say? Find their top picks below.
Book Riot has eight selections from the year that touch on several topics from culinary adventures to lush fantasy.
The site has selected 12 reads that cover a bunch of different genres.
The entertainment website has put together a varied list of picks from the year.
IGN has gone down an awards route as well, with the link above reveling their winner and honourable mentions.
This list has 15 picks that cover a broad range of genres and different corners of the comic book world.
Polygon offers a broad list, which covers manga, alternative comics, superhero, and genre comics.
Publisher’s Weekly (Editor’s Choice | Manga)
Publisher’s Weekly had their critics vote on the top graphic novels of 2024. The result was a tie for the second year in a row. The link also lists all the runners up for anyone wanting to dig deeper.
The publication also created a top 10 for manga, featuring many goodies.
School Library Journal (Graphic Novels | Manga)
The publication has two lists full of reads that younger readers will love.
Slash Film’s lists offers up the notable superhero and superhero-adjacent comics, plus a few surprises too.
Lists from the news sites
Yet again, traditional media joined in on spotlighting the best comics and graphic novels of 2024.
CBC highlights eleven graphic novels by Canadian creators.
Forbes spotlights ten graphic novels from several genres.
The Guardian
The Guardian had two lists this year. In the first list, published on 2nd December, book reviewer James Smart picks 16 graphic novels that cover a variety of different genres. A second list was published on 8th December by Rachel Cooke. I was critical of Cooke’s list last year as there were so many reprints of older material present. This year’s edition is an selection of literary-leaning graphic novels, with no reprints in sight.
This list features a number of Irish creators.
This list is behind a paywall so I can’t comment on it.
NPR always a big selection of books to recommend at the end of the year, which often has a healthy selection of graphic novels. 2024 is no different, with a fine selection for kids and adults.
The New York Times’ list cover a lot of what you’ve already seen if you’ve been browsing he above lists.
The Bezos-own masthead highlight ten literary graphic novels.
Other lists
And here are a few lists that didn’t fall into the above categories.
The ALA has a huge selection committee, who have been nominating great reads throughout the year. As of writing, September-December’s picks have not been reveled. So maybe come back to this one in a few weeks if you want to know what else they recommend.
Instead of doing a curated list, the digital comics marketplace is highlighting the bestselling titles for 2024 in a number of categories. As you can expect, this will be restricted by the publishers they have partnerships with. However, it also means that some independent and lesser known titles get to shine through.
The London-based store always has great list for kids and adults.
The New York Public Library (Adults | Teens | Kids)
The New York Public Library system has a huge batch of recommendations, broken down into different age-groups. There’s bound to be something for everybody here.
What were the standouts of 2024?
Some years there are runaway successes that are able to penetrate the mainstream and alternative worlds of comics. There wasn’t one of those this year but there was one graphic novel that popped up more than others. That was Sunday by Olivier Schrauwen.
Sunday is the comics equivalent of slow cinema. The graphic novel takes place over a day, where the focal character does a whole lot of nothing around the house. The comic has been praised for how it’s a window into the character’s mind, it’s experimental nature, and the use of slapstick.
Other titles that popped up regularly in lists also included:
- My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
- Final Cut by Charles Burns (Pantheon Books)
- Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath (IDW Publishing)
- Rare Flavors by Ram V and Filipe Andrade (BOOM! Studios)
- Transformers by Daniel Warren Johnson and Jorge Corna (Skybound/Image Comics)
- The Jellyfish by Boum (Pow Pow Press)
- Mary Tyler Moorehawk by Dave Baker (Top Shelf Productions)
- Drafted by Rick Parker (Abrams Comics Arts)
- Blurry by Dash Shaw (NYRB)
- Search and Destroy by Atsushi Kaneko (Fantagraphics)
- Ultimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman, Marco Checchetto, and David Messina (Marvel Comics)
- The Power Fantasy by Kieron Gillen and Casper Wijngaard (Image Comics)
What were your favourite comics/graphic novels of 2024?
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