The BEST* Comics of 2024!
*according to a wide array of sources
Hello, everyone! Every year, as part of the monthly NEWS digest, I try to offer a roundup of the annual “Best Comics” lists in one convenient place. This is an impossible thing to quantify, of course, but I enjoy finding the one or two titles that were clearly the outlying favorites of a particular venue or critic and discovering some hidden gems that fell through the cracks. Part of me wishes I could contribute more meaningfully to such discourse, but I’m always so behind in my reading it would be more accurate to release a list titled “Favorite Comics I Read in the Past Year.” I’ve scheduled this to post while the Comics Book Club discusses My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book Two, which should have been on more of these lists even if it was on most of them.
Lists
I’ll start with the SKTCHD AWRDS from SKTCHD, where David Harper lists his favorite creators who released work in 2024. The Comics Journal had lists from each of its contributors from over the past year. The breadth of styles and forms on these lists always amazes me. Comics are awesome! Rounding out my go-to sources for the NEWS Digests, Graphic Policy had one list of favorites from their contributor Brett and another from Logan. From Cover to Cover also had favorite comics of 2024.
At The Guardian, they released a Best Graphic Novels of 2024 and had columnist Rachel Cooke provide her favorites, though it’s a little late to give any as Christmas presents as she suggests. Sorry about that!
Publishers Weekly has a list of best comics among several categories of the Best Books of 2024. Make sure you click the “list” button or it’ll look like they’re only praising Final Cut by Charles Burns. They also provided a list of the 10 Must-Read Manga of 2024. Games Radar also had separate lists for the 25 best comics of 2024 and the Top 10 manga of 2024.
The Library Journal had a list of eight comics that they deemed the best of 2024, including some of the manga from other lists. The New York Public Library curated a top ten list, some of which I had never heard of and one that’s an underrated love letter to the city. The School Library Journal had two lists, one for graphic novels and one for manga. As you can probably guess from the name of the publication, these selections are mainly for children and young adults.
Comics Beat had the most lists out of every publication I could find! On top of their already impressive 50 Best Comics of 2024, they had the ten best webtoons and 22 best manga. On top of all that, they had a creators survey about 2024 with some nice previews and anticipation for 2025. Meanwhile, CBR chronicled the most comics with a whopping Top 100 list. Here’s their Top 10, but you can scroll backwards through the whole thing if you’re so inclined.
Other pop culture mainstays had their own lists, of course. Boing Boing chose six comics. (Ignore the “gift guide” aspect. Sorry again!) Comic Book Herald has another Top 50 Best Comics of 2024. ComicsXF had 24 favorite comics of 2024. Polygon’s list included many of the entries from other lists, but a couple of nice surprises. SlashFilm had a top ten list dominated by Big Two and Image books, but a couple of outliers. IGN crowned a Big Two book the Best Comic Series of 2024, but the runner ups and honorable mentions also are worth reading.
The Mary Sue named their 15 Best Comics of 2024, which included some diverse choices, anthologies, and a crowdfunded book if I wasn’t mistaken. This one had something for everyone. Book Riot had a list of eight must-read comics of 2024.
Moving on to publications you might not expect to see here, Cosmopolitan had a list of twenty graphic novels that included some surprising selections. The Hollywood Reporter’s list included superheroes, memoir, and manga. The Irish Examiner had a list of the year’s best comics and graphic novels from Irish writers and artists. Similarly, the CBC named the best Canadian comics of 2024.
Forbes had a list of the top ten graphic novels of 2024 with several titles that are on other lists. They strangely introduced their list as the “top non-manga” but were one of the few publications to not offer a separate manga list. NPR’s list has a wide range of styles and reader age ranges with a majority of memoir and biographical comics. The Washington Post has a Top 10 and The New York Times has top choices for 2024.
We’re almost done, but first I wanted to single out a couple of friends of the newsletter.
had a list of the best comics of the past year. It’s always cool to see someone I discovered on Instagram on one of these lists, and and including Benjamin Marra’s What We Mean By Yesterday, Volume 1 is proof that they know comics.Meanwhile,
over at had two lists, one devoted to the 10 Best Manga he read in 2024 and his 10 Favorite Manga Characters (2024 Edition). You have to love a list that gives an Honorable Mention to Satan. Josh makes me think I should follow through with my idea from the intro.While on the subject of manga, the people over at Manga Bookshelf chose their favorites from 2024. The Graphic Library posted a personal Top 15. Geek Vibes Nation presented a Best of 2024 that featured a wide variety of publishers and genres. James Kaplan at Panel Patter provided his favorite comics of 2024. There’s a lot of Big Two books, but also Blacksad, so it’s not all bad.
Finally, when it comes to lists, AIPT had their Best Comics of 2024 split into two parts: here’s part one and here’s part two. This was covered on their podcast, which you also can listen to here. They also had a fan reader poll. Whew!
Videos
For anyone who would rather see a presentation than scroll through a wall of text, here’s a short list of videos on YouTube. I probably shoulda led with this.
First up, TLDR had their Best Comics of the Year episode.
ComicTropes did a video on Top 10 Horror Comics of 2024.
Indie Comics Relay split their Top 10 Indie Comics of 2024 into two videos. Here’s part one and here’s part two with their top five.
Lost’n Comics is another YouTube channel with lots of great interviews and recommendations. Here’s their video on the top 25 comics of 2024.
Last but certainly not least, Kat Calamia of
from the released a video on her Comic Uno channel with her Top 10 Comic Books of 2024! I’m a big fan of her work, so definitely check out the video, her channel, and Lifeline Comics.That’s everything! I’m sure I missed other venues, critics, podcasts, lists, and channels. My apologies if I accidentally left off you or your favorite! Let me know in the comments what some of your Best Comics of last year were or what you may have discovered. What do you recommend for us to read in 2025? Please like, share, and subscribe! Thanks again for everything. Take care of each other.
Thanks for the shout! -Kat
Good one, Devin!