Here, at the end of the 2010s, nearly every major American publisher is in the comics game. As more publishers have tapped into the booming market, bookstores, libraries, and schools have encouraged droves of new readers, which has generated new opportunities for creators. Graphic novels for young readers exploded, with the widely popular Raina Telgemeier and Dav Pilkey leading the charge. Manga continued to be a huge draw, and publishers invested even more in translations of international material. A new generation of creators who grew up with webcomics started creating their own work and distributing it online, taking advantage of crowdfunding and social media to explore new avenues for distribution and building careers outside of traditional publishing. As Hollywood doubled down on superhero projects, publishers looked for ways to capitalize on growing awareness of their properties: DC relaunched its entire line with the New 52, then did it again with Rebirth; Marvel regularly canceled books to bring them back a few months later with new #1 issues. Below, our Eisner Award-winning team has assembled a list, in no particular order, of the 25 best comics of the decade, exploring the full scope of this ever-evolving medium.
1. Check, Please! (Webcomic/First Second)
It’s impossible to escape Check, Please! in certain corners of the internet. Creator Ngozi Ukazu has found the perfect balance of slice-of-life webcomic, sports manga, and LGBTQ+ love story to appeal to a broad audience, earning herself a loyal and enthusiastic group of fans. The story revolves around students at the fictional university Samwell, mostly the young men of the highly ranked hockey team. Eric Bittle is at the center of the comic, entering the story as a freshman and a relatively recent convert to hockey after years of competitive ice skating. Bitty, as Eric is called by his friends, often speaks directly to the readers; Ukazu has smartly given him a vlogging audience and treated the readers as part of it. It provides Check, Please! with a lovely intimacy and a narrator that the audience gets invested in quickly. Ukazu’s art is bright and appealingly cartoony; Bitty himself is bubbly and charming, but quickly demonstrates his stubbornness and dedication to the people he cares about. The slow and steady progression of the love story is wonderfully paced, and Check, Please! has one of the most fully developed and exciting supporting casts in comics. [Caitlin Rosberg]
2. Daytripper (Vertigo)
Brás de Oliva Domingos dies over and over again in Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá’s Daytripper, a miniseries where each issue shows the main character’s final day at a different point in his life. The twin brothers, working with colorist Dave Stewart and letterer Sean Konot, craft one of the great comic book tearjerkers, meditating on the nature of life and death in self-contained chapters that exist in different emotional landscapes depending on where they fall in the timeline. The structure is non-chronological, but thematic bridges between issues bring cohesion to the narrative, and the individual stories are presented in an order that maximizes the depth of character relationships as they degrade and blossom. The linework, primarily by Moon with Bá handling dream sequences, is brimming with vitality, and Stewart’s coloring heightens the expressive qualities of the artwork with evocative palettes and delicate yet specific coloring. Through one man’s experiences with death, this creative team celebrates the personal connections that make life worth living. [Oliver Sava]
3. Giant Days (Boom! Studios)
The latter half of the decade got really shitty in regards to the general state of the world. Luckily, Giant Days was there to offer a balm to readers with the comedic hijinks of Susan Ptolemy, Esther DeGroot, and Daisy Wooten— three British university students learning about love, friendship, and the challenges of adulthood. Written by John Allison, with main artist Max Sarin, colorist Whitney Cogar, and letterer Jim Campbell, Giant Days is ensemble comedy at its finest, using the melting pot of university to introduce a huge range of personalities that interact in wildly different ways. If Disney made a cartoon about adults dealing with ordinary situations, it would probably look like Giant Days, which boosts the stakes of the story by exaggerating emotion. Lissa Treiman, a story artist for Disney who worked on Tangled, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, and the Wreck-It Ralph movies, launched the series with Allison, establishing an animated visual aesthetic that Max Sarin fit into flawlessly when they joined the book with issue #7. Giant Days closed out the decade with two wins at the 2019 Eisner Awards—for Best Humor Publication and Best Continuing Series—recognizing one of the most consistent creative teams in the industry for brightening the world of comics. [Oliver Sava]
4. Goodnight Punpun (Viz Media)
Only Inio Asano can take what is a relatively simple premise—a boy matures into adulthood—and turn it into one of the oddest, most emotionally devastating comics of the decade. Goodnight Punpun’s main character is a bird, rather than being drawn in the same precise, clean style as all the other (human) characters. He behaves like a teenage boy, and he is treated like a teenage boy, but he is drawn as a bird (As an aside: God is represented by a photograph of a face rather than a drawing). The absurdity of this juxtaposition speaks to Asano’s capacity as a writer, because it is far and away one of the most nuanced depictions of adolescence and growing into adulthood any comic has ever featured. The length of the series allows Asano to unfold his story with patience, pausing now and again to render this odd life with a lived-in texture. Doing so allows him to build out his world and build up his characters, making their emotional lives full, complex, and deeply satisfying to read. [Shea Hennum]
5. Hark! A Vagrant (Webcomic/Drawn & Quarterly)
Long before Hamilton hit the scene, Hark! A Vagrant made funny, pop culture references to history cool. In the humor comic, based on historical events and famous works of fiction, creator Kate Beaton’s skill with pacing and sense of humor are excellent, and her ability to convey a lot of information in a single panel has made her work eminently meme-able. (You might recognize the final panel of her comic about the relationship between Edgar Alan Poe and Jules Verne.) A limited grayscale palette and sketchy lines give Beaton’s work a retro feel, and allows the facial expressions and ridiculous situations to be at the fore. It’s surprising that a comic about the history of murderous royals and rampant disease is laugh-out-loud funny, but Hark! A Vagrant really is just that good. Leaning into the ludicrousness of the human condition and leaving space for giggles has cemented its place in internet canon. [Caitlin Rosberg]
6. Helter Skelter (Vertical Comics)
In Kyoko Okazaki’s Helter Skelter, Liliko is the it girl—a hot young model with the eyes of Japan on her—but this glamour comes at a price, as Liliko subjects herself to an ongoing series of medical procedures so that she may be beautiful. The maintenance of beauty—of being the most beautiful—requires incredible violence, which is ultimately what Helter Skelter is concerned with: How far will you go to be beautiful? What will you do to yourself? What will you do to others? Under the weight of this violence, which comes to infect everyone in Liliko’s life, the body and the psyche begin to wear away. Drawn in Okazaki’s largely unassuming style, the book’s violence is never quite excessive, and erotic content is never quite erotic. Rather, it feels unnerving and odd, as though we shouldn’t be looking at it. [Shea Hennum]
7. Here (Pantheon)
The concept of Here is deceptively simple: one physical space depicted at different points in time from a fixed angle. From there, Richard McGuire engages in an astounding formal experiment that highlights the magical way comics can depict the passage of time in a single image. Originally conceived as a black-and-white, six-page comic in 1989’s Raw Vol. 2 #1, Here expanded into a full-color graphic novel over the next 25 years, abandoning the original six-panel structure to present the story in richly detailed two-page spreads. Those spreads become more complicated as McGuire layers on panels that each show a different moment in time, so an image of a living room in 1915 will also have a panel of a buffalo lying in a forest in 10,000 BC, next to a panel of a girl lying on a rug in 1970. Working with color artist Maëlle Doliveux, McGuire constantly shifts his visual style to emphasize these temporal shifts, showcasing his versatility as an illustrator. There’s a mesmerizing musicality to the way McGuire arranges panels to create harmony and discord on the page, creating a millennia-spanning experience. [Oliver Sava]
8. Hawkeye (Marvel)
Hawkeye should be the new template for launching a superhero comic: Hire creators with a unique vision who are enthusiastic about collaboration and passionate about the property. Start the series with three standalone issues that can all function as a character’s introduction, and then start expanding the story by bringing in new collaborators and characters. Written by Matt Fraction with main artist David Aja, colorist Matt Hollingsworth, and letterer Chris Eliopoulos, Hawkeye represents a jump in the visual language of superhero comics, breaking from convention to explore new avenues for depicting an individual’s perspective. Issues #11 and #19 are standouts, with the former using visual icons to get into the head of Hawkeye’s dog, Lucky, while the latter uses sign language illustrations to delve into Clint Barton’s deafness. The inclusion of Kate “Hawkeye” Bishop provides an exceptional foil for Clint, and artists like Javier Pulido and Annie Wu give Kate-centric chapters their own distinct look. Superhero comics don’t get much cooler than these 22 issues of Hawkeye, and by tying the formal innovation to character development, the creative team gives the book heart to go with its swagger. [Oliver Sava]
9. The Love Bunglers (Fantagraphics)
Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez’s Love And Rockets has endured for nearly 40 years, surviving multiple industry shifts by changing its format while never compromising the creators’ visions. While both brothers have built up sprawling casts for their respective parts of the book, Jaime’s characters have aged in real time, giving their relationships the weight of history. Originally published in Love And Rocket: New Stories #3 and #4, The Love Bunglers is an ode to Maggie Chascarillo, the central figure of Jaime’s stories and one of the most complicated and lovable characters in comics. This graphic novel showcases Maggie’s appeal, chronicling formative events from her childhood while exploring her thorny romantic relationships in the present, exposing her vulnerabilities to intensify her moments of victory. When it comes to expressive figure drawing, it doesn’t get much better than Hernandez, who knows how to communicate honest, full emotion with streamlined linework tied to a deep understanding of body language and facial expressions. There’s a particularly powerful pair of nine-panel grids toward the end that highlights the shared life experiences of Maggie and her boyfriend, Ray, distilling decades of history in snapshots of two lovers. [Oliver Sava]
10. Margot’s Room (Webcomic)
When it comes to horror comics, Emily Carroll’s name is often at the top of any list for her visually lush, spooky stories. The terror in her work is often rooted in interpersonal relationships, blurring the lines between the monstrousness that people are capable of and literal monsters. What makes Margot’s Room so remarkable is the way that Carroll leverages the webcomic medium, turning the story into a choose-your-own adventure with only one ending. The first page of the comic features a short stanza and a single image with several hyperlinked pieces. If the reader is particularly lucky or pays close attention to the opening text, they may open the comic in chronological order. Even out of order, the individual installments stand well on their own; what unfolds is the story of a marriage that ends in violence, though not the sort one might expect. The miniature chapters require the reader to scroll, sometimes vertically, sometimes horizontally, sometimes both. It’s a genius way to pull the reader even further into an already engrossing and anxiety-inducing story, and it elevates Margot’s Room from being one of the best horror comics to one of the best comics of the decade. [Caitlin Rosberg]
11. March (Top Shelf)
With the growing popularity of kids’ and YA graphic novels also came a rise in comics being used as educational materials, and Congressman John Lewis’ March trilogy stands as one of the top titles taught in classrooms. (The National Endowment For The Arts even has March lesson plans for different grade levels available to the public.) Co-written by Lewis and Andrew Aydin, with art by Nate Powell, March follows Lewis from his early days growing up in rural Alabama through his time as a civil rights leader, building to the 1965 march on Selma to protest the disenfranchisement of Black voters. March’s first book stumbles a bit as it works through the biggest pieces of background information, but the subsequent two chapters more than make up for it as they settle into Lewis’ experience during the civil rights movement. Powell’s stark black-and-white artwork is acutely attuned to the emotions of the story, reinforcing the terror of the harrowing attacks on Lewis and his companions as well as the joy they experience when their activism leads to change. The March books became even more relevant in the midst of the shifting political tides of the decade’s latter half, and with its presence in schools, March gives future generations an accessible, poignant look at why they need to stand up to bigotry in all its forms and continue the fight for human rights. [Oliver Sava]
12. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters (Fantagraphics)
It’s hard to think of a debut graphic novel this decade that landed with more force than Emil Ferris’ My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, which had the extra benefit of an international shipping snafu to build hype for its release. This semi-autobiographical bildungsroman follows a 10-year-old girl in late ’60s Chicago as she enters the early stages of adolescence, triggering hormones that have her emotions going at full blast. Karen’s investigation of her upstairs neighbor’s murder introduces a parallel narrative detailing a very different coming-of-age for a Jewish girl in Germany during the rise of Nazism, with both storylines showing the personal effect of structural inequality. The book is presented as Karen’s illustrated journal, composed of intricately cross-hatched ballpoint pen drawings on notebook paper with chunks of text written with the immediacy of a diary entry. Ferris’ immense artistic skill makes Karen a preternaturally gifted visual storyteller, but Ferris maintains a sense of play in her imagery, which reinforces the character’s youth. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters functions as both complex character study and love letter to “high” and “low” art, with Ferris taking cues from classical masters and the popular art of her childhood to give her story a visual style that is constantly shifting. [Oliver Sava]
13. The Nib (Webcomic/self-published)
Once a mainstay of nearly all newspapers, political cartoons have been pulled and their reach limited, as political cartoonists get fired left and right. Despite losing funding halfway through this year, The Nib has continued to serve up new content every day, and since last year has also published a quarterly magazine. Along with the standard one- to four-panel political cartoons, The Nib presents a variety of different opinions and educational comics essays from creators all around the world. There have been truly remarkable comics about everything from Peter Thiel’s obsession with living forever to the challenge of combating whitewashing in superhero comics. A few have even gotten meme-ified and spread around the internet writ large, especially ones like Mat Bors’ “Mister Gotcha.” The Nib is unrepentantly political, fiercely supportive of creators, and devoted to telling stories that are both honest and important. Whether it’s a single-panel joke or a dozen pages of complicated history, The Nib has become a home for mandatory reading. [Caitlin Rosberg]
14. O Human Star (Webcomic/self-published)
O Human Star is the sort of webcomic that invites rereading. Creator Blue Delliquanti has made a series of careful, intentional visual choices that are easy to miss at first glance but which add texture and richness to an already complex and emotional story. Delliquanti has seamlessly blended a character-driven story about love into the kind of future that fans of the best speculative fiction will appreciate: There are functional robots and AI, all of the technological advances that The Jetsons and Star Trek promised. The technology is shown not just for fun and entertainment but also for the genuine benefit of people, an element that is often missing from stories that feature AI at this scale. The overarching theme is one of self-discovery and self-acceptance, each character approaching their personal growth with varying levels of grace and discomfort. The complexity of love portrayed in O Human Star serves as a gentle but important reminder that not everyone’s needs are the same, and not all relationships require the same kind of affection. Delliquanti’s character design and attention to detail make the comic a joy to look at, and sharp readers would do well to pay attention to their color choices. O Human Star has just begun its final chapter so now is the perfect time to jump in and catch up. [Caitlin Rosberg]
15. Octopus Pie (Webcomic/Image Comics)
When it comes to slice-of-life webcomics, readers are not starved for options. The genre is filled with comics that offer fans growing casts of nuanced characters and stories that run the gamut in tone and content. What makes Meredith Gran’s Octopus Pie stand out is how she embraced the evolution of her story and the webcomic medium. Gran’s characters are all drawn appealingly, just cartoony enough to be flexible, but they are all capable of doing deeply unappealing things. They are human both in their joy and failings, and a big part of Octopus Pie is watching each of them struggle with their choices and make new, harder ones. Much of Octopus Pie is in limited grayscale, drawn to fill a browser comfortably, but as the comic continued, individual updates changed shape, in some cases stretching vertically for several scrolls to take advantage of what the internet can do that print cannot. Colors from Valerie Halla and Sloane Leong gave the comic even more depth, and Gran brought Octopus Pie to a close with remarkable grace and compassion for her characters, her readers, and herself. [Caitlin Rosberg]
16. On A Sunbeam (Webcomic/First Second)
Despite taking place in a world where people travel through space on giant fishlike starships, On A Sunbeam is a deeply relatable story about a woman at two key periods in her life: navigating school as a teenager and professional life as a young adult. Heavily inspired by the lush fantasy of Studio Ghibli movies, Tillie Walden creates a spellbinding queer sci-fi romance in these pages, taking her time to build a distinct cosmic environment that feels lived in. Releasing new graphic novels every year since 2015, Walden has emerged as a preeminent name in the world of YA comics, exploring new facets of growing up in each work. On A Sunbeam was originally released as a webcomic, and putting each chapter up as one long scroll makes for an especially smooth and immersive read by eliminating the breaks between pages. In print, you get a stronger sense of the full scope of the story when you hold the 544-page novel, but whichever way you choose to read On A Sunbeam, you’ll be treated to striking visuals and empathetic storytelling. [Oliver Sava]
17. The Passion Of Gengoroh Tagame (Bruno Gmuender)
A pioneer in the history of gay manga (that is, comics for gay men by gay men, rather than simply comics about gay men), Gengoroh Tagame’s work has enough historical value for him to earn a spot on this list. But they also have aesthetic value. While some of the material presented here is playful and light, many of the stories are violent. Rather than merely depicting sex for prurient interest, Tagame explores desire more broadly. Doing so requires him to render desire honestly, with its workaday contours as well as its more uncommon wrinkles. He demonstrates the ways in which sex and sexuality touch every aspect of our lives, and the way those things are, in turn, touched by other aspects of life. This is what gives Tagame’s comics their force, and whatever their value as pornography (your mileage will, of course, vary here), they undeniably have value as art. [Shea Hennum]
18. Peplum (NYRC)
While there are numerous articles urging critics, journalists, and readers to “credit the artist” in comics, “the artist” is a non-distinct professional who pencils, inks, and colors. Each of those jobs bring their own distinct value to the work—none more so than in the inks. The ink gives lines their weight, their texture, their contours, their sharpness or lack thereof. It is the ink that gives your favorite comic its particular shape, feel, and movement. Few cartoonists are stronger proof of the importance of inking than Blutch, and few of his works are more illustrative than Peplum. Here, Blutch adapts the Satyricon, a Mennipean satire pockmarked with passages now lost to time. This fragmentation turns into a dreamlike quality in Blutch’s hand, and he conjures a whole world—bodies have heft, clothes texture, shadows depth, and visages the mileage of years. With simple, elegant lines, Blutch composes scenes as striking as they are refined, and what at points becomes nightmare for its characters never ceases to be a dream for readers. [Shea Hennum]
19. Prince Of Cats (Vertigo/Image Comics)
So much of this decade has been about reinventing the language of comics, and for Prince Of Cats, Ronald Wimberly turns to one of the most influential linguists of all time for inspiration. A retelling of William Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet from the point of view of Juliet’s cousin Tybalt, Prince Of Cats recontextualizes the source material in an ’80s-styled urban environment visually interpreted with exaggerated forms and bold graffiti art. Building on hip-hop’s Eastern influence, Wimberly also turns to manga for storytelling cues, delivering dynamic action sequences that reinforce the fighters’ formidable skills. Wimberly’s dialogue keeps the theatrical spirit of Shakespeare’s verse in tact while modernizing the vocabulary. Originally published in a flimsy paperback by Vertigo in 2012, Prince Of Cats received a deluxe oversized hardcover reprint from Image four years later, presenting the story in a format that matched the scale of its script and visuals. [Oliver Sava]
20. Smut Peddler 2012 Edition (Iron Circus)
The launch of crowdfunding giant Kickstarter 10 years ago completely changed the landscape for independent publishing. Iron Circus Comics was always at the forefront of that wave, and Smut Peddler is one of the cornerstones of the publisher’s ever-expanding empire. It wasn’t the first anthology to be crowdfunded, but the legacy it created is unmistakable. Smut Peddler is full of erotica that’s welcoming and attractive to often ignored readers, a book made for and by women, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ folks, and people of color. The individual stories span the depth and breadth of what erotica can be, and the book as a whole portrays sex and erotica as something enjoyable, sweet, and funny. Smut Peddler is fun and beautiful and sexy all at once, and features the skills of 36 incredible talents from indie comics. Smut Peddler proved that erotica, crowdfunded erotica at that, can offer all of the same nuance, joy, emotion, and adventure as any other genre, with satisfaction and pleasure to spare. [Caitlin Rosberg]
21. Sunny (Viz Media)
Drawing on his own experiences as a child in foster care, author Taiyo Matsumoto lovingly unpacks the interior lives of a group of children. Each of them deals with the disorientation of parental abandonment in their own way, and Matsumoto’s rendering of each character allows him to explore the various ways in which we cope with trauma. Each character inhabits their own rich emotional universe, and across Sunny’s six volumes, Matsumoto evidences the infinite depth of emotion that children have but that adults often deny them. Solemn and understated, the series turns on events that ring deep with emotional resonance—brought to life by Matsumoto’s unique style, which blends roughhewn pen work with soft ink washes to create expressive and heartbreakingly tender images. [Shea Hennum]
22. This One Summer (First Second)
Life changes when you become a teenager. Your body transforms, social dynamics are uprooted, and emotions go into overdrive, summoning new, strange feelings to the surface. Written by Mariko Tamaki, with art by Jillian Tamaki, This One Summer chronicles this turbulent transitional period for young Rose, who discovers her new self during her family’s annual summer trip. While Rose is dealing with the pressure of fitting in with the older kids, much to the chagrin of her younger friend, her parents are dealing with their own pain, two threads that converge in a moving climax that shows Rose what adult problems really look like. Jillian Tamaki’s monochromatic indigo artwork beautifully channels the freedom of the season in this expansive natural environment, a feeling that contrasts with the barriers Rose puts up between herself and other people as she figures out her new place in the world. This One Summer is the first graphic novel to win the prestigious Caldecott Award, an award that typically goes to picture books for younger readers. It was another major victory in comics’ never-ending fight for respect from the literary world, one that specifically honors the artist’s contribution in enriching the storytelling. [Oliver Sava]
23. Yellow Negroes And Other Imaginary Creatures (NYRC)
It is difficult to say what is most captivating about Yvan Alagbé’s collection, the first time the author’s work has appeared in English. Collecting a number of stories about the lives of African immigrants, Alagbé depicts his characters’ interior lives, a unique set of day-to-day struggles, and their hopes and desires. Alagbé takes an almost impressionistic approach. His compositions are simple, and he relies on thick brushstrokes to create his shapes —sometimes concrete and solid, sometimes so vaporous that they give way to other, stranger forms. The result is sometimes challenging, but Alagbé’s sharp, mesmerizing images catch the eye, and they compel you to continue reading. These difficult stories stick with you, continuing to turn over and over in your head. [Shea Hennum]
24. You & A Bike & A Road (Koyama)
The diary comic is an incredibly intimate artform, giving readers insight into the artist’s mind through the combination of text and raw, spontaneous drawing. 2017’s You & A Bike & A Road chronicles Eleanor Davis’ two-month experience biking from Tucson, Arizona, to her home in Athens, Georgia, a way to combat her intensifying depression. Everything Davis put out in this decade demands attention, but her personal connection to You & A Bike & A Road sets it apart. She’s frank about her mental health and her need to be proactive in order to reach a more stable place, and she puts the reader deep inside the zen headspace she achieves when riding. As her journey continues, she becomes increasingly aware of her privilege as a white woman biking undisturbed through areas where people of color aren’t afforded the same courtesy, addressing major issues regarding racial prejudice and immigration that have only become bigger talking points in the years since. Davis’ minimalist pencil drawings are full of life; few cartoonists maximize the expressiveness of a curved line quite like her. The sparseness of her drawings and the absence of panel borders gives the visuals a stream-of-consciousness quality, revealing Davis’ deepest emotions by going straight from her brain to the page. [Oliver Sava]
25. Zero (Image Comics)
Zero is the story of a secret agent suffering intense PTSD and reckoning with the ghosts of his past. It’s also the story of an up-and-coming comic book writer learning the reality of working on his first ongoing series, sharpening his craft by working with a different artist to tell a self-contained story in every issue, à la Global Frequency. Written by Aleš Kot, with colors by Jordie Bellaire, letters by Clayton Cowles, and unforgettable design by Tom Muller, Zero bursts out of the gate with total confidence, giving readers a hard-hitting spy story that takes drastic narrative and visual turns with each chapter. Those turns get weirder and weirder until it’s a book about William S. Burroughs on mushrooms and Edward Zero exorcising the darkness within his soul. Kot assembles an incredible line-up of artists that includes Michael Walsh, Tradd Moore, Vanesa R. Del Rey, Ricardo López Ortiz, Adam Gorham, Ian Bertram, and Tula Lotay, and he shapes each chapter around his collaborators’ strengths. In a decade when superhero publishers constantly swap out artists in ongoing series to keep up with accelerated schedules, Zero shows how a multiple-artist structure can be used to spotlight specific voices rather than undervaluing individual contributions. [Oliver Sava]