The Best of 2004, Part Two Join Don MacPherson and Randy Lander as they share their picks for the Best of creative forces in 2004. Don: Well, Randy and I have already sounded off on the best comics of 2004 (click HERE to jump over to that feature), and now it's time for us to share our thoughts on who stood out as the best creators of the year. Randy: In part two of our Best Of 2004, we'll highlight some of the creators we think you should be paying attention to. Though I might gripe about the number of top-selling comics that I hated in 2004, I blame a lot of that on the editorial side of things, and in many cases higher-up than that. Because the talent pool in comics is only getting bigger, and while too many great folks are forced into projects not really suited to them by editorial whim or a market that supports a very narrow type of stories, there are still a lot of big talents out there. I had a hard time editing down almost all of these lists to a manageable number, and there are almost certainly a number of names that almost made these lists for both me and Don. Which means, as always, that we couldn't name everybody. Even with unlimited time and space, it would be difficult to name everyone who has caught our attention in comics in 2004. Best Writer Randy: Don and I both make no apologies about following writers more than artists in general, and one of the first things I tend to notice about an upcoming project is whether or not the writer is someone whose work I've enjoyed in the past. A good writer can get me to try out characters I previously haven't cared for, or get me interested in a new launch even if the concept doesn't bowl me over, and there are a lot of good writers in the industry right now. Don: And given enough alcohol in my system, a good writer can get me to do a lot more than what Randy describes. ... What? What'd I say? Randy: What surprised me in 2004 was how many of my favorite writers were the writers who have been around for quite a while. Kurt Busiek has a stellar year with Superman: Secret Identity, the finale of JLA/Avengers and the start of a great run on Conan. Peter David really caught my eye again with Fallen Angel and Madrox. Grant Morrison impressed with off-beat work like Seaguy and We3 as well as taking back the classic fun superhero style at DC with JLA: Classified. And Geoff Johns came on strong late in this year with revitalized stories in Teen Titans, JSA and The Flash and a fantastic new direction in Green Lantern: Rebirth. Don: Well, I wouldn't call a story that returns Hal Jordan to his traditional Green Lantern role a "new direction," but the mini-series is proving to be a good read. I agree with a couple of Randy's choices. 2004 wasn't a high-profile year for Peter David. Sales-wise, it was probably one of his less successful years. However, creatively speaking, it was a pinnacle. Fallen Angel marks his strongest contribution to comics storytelling, and given his past accomplishments, that's nothing to sneeze at. The same can be said for Busiek's Superman: Secret Identity, a coming-of-age story that realizes that growing up doesn't stop when one reaches voting age, or marriage or even the birth of one's first child. Randy: There are newer and more esoteric names on my list, of course. It was 2004 where I finally realized that Stan Sakai of Usagi Yojimbo is one of the consummate craftsmen of this industry, in terms of writing as well as art. My respect for Andy Diggle grew all the more when he maintained the strength of his work on The Losers and kicked off a fantastic space operatic adventure in Adam Strange, and Robert Kirkman had his breakout year for me with strong turns on The Walking Dead and Invincible. Phil Hester blew me away once again with his writing talents on the Deep Sleeper miniseries. And though he's not really a new name outside of comics, I've got to give credit to Joss Whedon for showing up the majority of the other TV/movie to comics guys with his respectful yet fresh and exciting take on Astonishing X-Men. Ed Brubaker, my Best Writer of 2003, had another strong year with, among other things, Sleeper: Season Two, Gotham Central and a great start for his Captain America. Don: Warren Ellis's influence over online comics discussion has faded since he boarded up his Delphi forum a while back, but his writing hasn't weakened. Ocean is slowly shaping up to be an action-packed criticism of corporate mindsets, and though issues were few and far between in 2004, Planetary continues to impress. His stint on Ultimate Fantastic Four renewed my interest in that title as well, and his first two Iron Man scripts demonstrated the same sort of challenging philosophies about technology and its effect on society as we enjoyed in Transmetropolian before it wrapped up a while back. Damon Hurd was mentioned often in our Best of 2003 feature, and he merits inclusion this time around again... even moreso. His work on A Sort of Homecoming was touching and universal in its examination of friendship, while his work with Rick Smith on Temporary was inventive and challenging. The White Elephant, Hurd's unusual but enveloping graphic novel about a familial rift, stood out as my favorite OGN of the year. Randy: However, my favorite writer of the year was clear to me even early on, and I didn't really waver much, as three of the books he was writing were on the top of my reading pile whenever they came out, and all of them entertained me greatly. With a terrific (fortunately temporary) finale to Runaways, continuing nail-biters in Y: The Last Man, a solid showing on Mystique and Ultimate X-Men and the debut of the fantastic political/superhero Ex Machina, Brian K. Vaughan is my pick for Best Writer of 2004. Don & Randy's Best Writer: Brian K. Vaughan Don: Our lists differentiated a bit in this category, but our ultimate pick for the top writer of the year is the same. I wasn't as taken with Vaughan's work on Ultimate X-Men, but there's no denying that when he writes something set outside of a shared continuity, it's going to be entertaining, intelligent and thought-provoking. Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina have incredibly strong, social contexts as their foundations, and built upon them are some incredibly well-realized, fascinating and down-to-earth characters. Best Artist/Art Team Don: A comic book is nothing without good writing; even amazing art can't rescue it if the script is a mess. But without strong visuals, even the best script imaginable can be pretty much worthless if paired with the wrong artist or art team. For example, Mark Millar's intense but realistic super-hero scripts wouldn't have nearly as much impact if not for the richly detailed and expressive figures that Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary contribute to Ultimates and Ultimates 2. Their Neal Adams-inspired work captures both the larger-than-life nature of the characters and their humanity all at once. Why Adi Granov isn't being hailed as the next Alex Ross, I don't know. We've only seen a couple of issues' worth of his work on Iron Man thus far, but it's more than enough to enable him to stand out from the crowd. At first, I thought his detailed, enhanced style wasa bit stiff, but his work in the second issue of Warren Ellis's Iron Man dispelled that notion. Mike Wieringo, Karl Kesel and Paul Mounts's work on Fantastic Four maintains a strong sense of Silver Age wonder in the book, balancing the more ambitious yet grounded scripts Mark Waid provides for the book. Pascual Ferry and Dave McCaig's work on Adam Strange is a big part of the reason that a limited series that wasn't expected to turn many heads has surprised so many people. The simpler style of Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan Jr.'s collaboration on Y: The Last Man always impresses me with the rich level of detail and realism it manages to convey every month, and I love that the book isn't populated by super-model, muscle-bound paragons. The characters look like real people. Michael Lark's move to Marvel in late 2004 was a major blow to DC, as he, Stefano Gaudiano and Lee Loughridge did amazing work together on Gotham Central, captures a gritty look that combined a noir sensibility with a slightly surreal touch at times. Randy: Our lists are pretty divergent in this category, and in fact only two of your choices were on my initial list, although I certainly wouldn't scoff at the talents of anyone you named. Two of my favorites have a background in animation, as Scott Morse continued to impress with his work, whether it was relatively high-profile DC work like Batman: A Room Full of Strangers or his indy work like Spaghetti Western or the fantastic Pink: Grrr! sketchbook, and Darwyn Cooke did a jaw-dropping rendition of DC's Silver Age in New Frontier. On my "up and comer but should really already be stars" list, we've got Cliff Chiang for his work on Human Target and Ross Campbell, coming off a really strong debut on Too Much Hopeless Savages and impressing even more with his work on Spooked. This category just about killed me, because I've got about a half-dozen names that I had to trim in order to keep this list manageable. For me, though, the best artists were the ones who did such a great job I couldn't imagine anyone else on the book. Tony Moore did that for The Walking Dead, although Charlie Adlard certainly changed my mind after a good number of issues passed by. Guy Davis and Dave Stewart did such an amazing job on B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs that I actually preferred them to Mike Mignola, creator of the characters, in some ways. Then there's the team of Ethan Van Sciver, Prentis Rollins and Moose Baumann on Green Lantern: Rebirth, turning in not only career best work for all involved but also an impressive balance of gritty elements and wide-eyed science-fiction/superhero elements. Don's Best Artist: John Cassaday Don: Last year was a turning point in John Cassaday's career. Sure, he'd turned heads before, but with his particpation on the highest-profile X-Men project, with a cult-favorite TV writer no less, brought his style to a wider audience than ever before. He did some wonderful work on Astonishing X-Men, bringing a greater degree of realism to some unreal characters, and in the process, he breathed new life into them. But that's not why I selected him as the best artist of 2004. No, it was for that and his all-too rare contributions to Planetary. That book clearly means more to him than any other project he's worked on because it features the very best work he's ever produced (or ever will, perhaps). Randy's Best Artist: Cameron Stewart Randy: Your pick is enjoying a high profile at the moment, and there's no denying he deserves it. My choice, however, is still somewhat on the fringes, though hopefully that will change given his role in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers later this year. Cameron Stewart continued to blow me away this year, whether it was his work on Morrison's whacked-out Seaguy, the finale of his run with Ed Brubaker on the noir Catwoman or a standalone issue of Peter Milligan's Human Target. I can't wait to see what he brings to Seven Soldiers: Guardian, or indeed what else he'll get up to in 2005 and beyond. Best Colorist Randy: At one point in this year, some colorists were griping that they don't get a lot of recognition for their contribution to this industry, and they're not wrong. The best coloring, like a lot of the production aspects of comics, is often invisible to the casual reader. However, it's one of the aspects of modern comics that I think have really improved across the board, and I often notice standout colorists as much as I do standout pencillers and inkers. 2004 was an embarrassment of riches for good colorists, with a few standing out above the rest. I usually try to name all of the colorists in this category individually, but I have to give credit to one teams in particular in regards to achievement in coloring, the team that has done the re-coloring for Dark Horse's Chronicles of Conan series, reprinting the Marvel Conan work. Their work varies depending on which member did the colors, but the overall effect is stunning, giving classic artwork by Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema and others a fresh new look. Most of my other favorite colorists, though, do it as a one man (or one woman) job. Steve Oliff is a longtime veteran of the industry who gave Lan Medina's impressive work on Aria an even more beautiful finish, and Dave McCaig did the same for the artwork of Pascal Ferry on Adam Strange (as well as doing a stellar job over Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines on JLA: Classified). Nathan Eyring continued to impress on Fallen Angel, Christina Strain did the same on Runaways and Randy Mayor did impressive work across a variety of Wildstorm books, including Ocean, Authority: Revolution and The Intimates. Don: One mustn't overlook the key contribution that Patricia Mulvihill makes to 100 Bullets every month. Artist Eduardo Risso's noir art would be nothing without the neon colors that intersect with it in every issue. And when discussing colorists, how can we forget Laura Martin, formerly Laura DePuy. Her work enhanced John Cassaday's meticulous pencils brilliantly on Astonishing X-Men and Planetary, reinforcing the dark, mature mood of the formerly and the surreal energy of the latter. Martin did a great job of taking over the coloring work on Ultimates 2, but I was sorry to see Paul Mounts go. Speaking of whom, his work on Fantastic Four earns him a spot on my list as well. Never has the Human Torch looked so cool, and the effects he creates for the Invisible Woman's powers are lovely. Randy's Best Colorist: Dave Stewart Randy: We don't really do "runners up," but if we did, my runner up for colorist of the year would be Moose Baumann. Baumann has been a mainstay on Green Lantern for a long time, and it's safe to say that Green Lantern: Rebirth would not be the same without him. Given that there's such an emphasis on green, it would be easy for the book to become a little tired or monochromatic, but Baumann keeps it looking bright and exciting on every page. However, my favorite colorist of 2004 is the same as my favorite colorist of 2003, and that's Dave Stewart. Stewart has done a variety of projects for different publishers, but where I remember him from especially is his work at Dark Horse, especially on B.P.R.D. and Conan. In both cases, Stewart enhances already exceptional artwork, digitally painting Cary Nord and Thomas Yeates on Conan and using a more traditional style on Guy Davis for B.P.R.D. Don's Best Colorist: Dave McCaig Don: Green Lantern: Rebirth makes it clear the strength of Baumann's work just needed a higher grade of paper to make itself known; I love the glowing greens and yellows he brings to that book. It was Stewart's work on DC: The New Frontier that caught my attention in 2004; he toned down the more modern computer coloring effects to deliver a look that was more traditional in tone, in keeping with the Silver Age celebration that the book represented. It was a tough category, but ultimately, I think my nod has to go to someone Randy mentioned earlier, and that's Dave McCaig. He offers up some slick computer coloring effects, but more importantly, he maintains a nice balance between the wide-eyed wonder of the sci-fi elements and the darker atmosphere of mystery that looms over the book. He did the same sort of thing for Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu's Superman: Birthright. Best Cover Artist Don: We all know the old adage... "You can't judge a book by its cover." But we do. We all do, to some extent. If it didn't matter, graphic artists who design book jackets would be out of work. Advertising executives would be selling used cars. And all comics would just have text on the cover, listing the title and issue number. Andi Watson isn't a name that immediately comes to mind when one thinks of outstanding cover artists, but he's able to set his comics apart from the hundreds of other titles out there. He does so not only with his minimalist style, but with an eye for what's different, what stands out. His covers for Love Fights use a powerful simplicity to catch the eye. Conversely, J.G. Jones employs a strong level of detail and an almost haunted look for the striking covers on Y: The Last Man. His incorporation of story elements from each issue without giving too much away is always a pleasure. Becky Cloonan's Demo covers conveyed the same sort of quiet, reflective tone that characterized each issue of that outstanding series, and Jock's covers for Losers in 2004 were always inventive, and he brought an interesting edge to the Batman with his covers for Detective Comics. Darwyn Cooke's front and back covers for DC: The New Frontier were quite striking as well. He challenged us with the image on the front cover for the first issue, and offered a nice mix of symbolic and iconic visions of classic characters. Don's Best Cover Artist: James Jean Randy: I did a whole visual feature on my favorite covers this year, so you know that this category is one that's important to me. Every name you mention is also on my list, especially Becky Cloonan for her stark, eye-popping designs on Demo. However, I've also got a couple other names to add. Michael William Kaluta did amazingly lush cover work for Lucifer and Fallen Angel, really giving those books the dark fantasy feeling that let readers know immediately what they were getting into with those books. Guy Davis had some beautifully designed, striking images for B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs. Stan Sakai has been at covers for a long time, and he has clearly perfected that art with Usagi Yojimbo covers that always hint at the story without giving it away. Then there's Jim Rugg, whose beautifully-designed covers for Street Angel really caught the eye, and reflected the strange, stellar quality of the book within. Randy's Best Cover Artist: Tony Moore Don: When it comes right down to it, though, no one boasted a more unique style and sense of design when it came to comic-book covers than James Jean. There's an interesting mix of realism and surrealism in his work. His unusual, ghostly style suits the tone of Fables perfectly, but I was pleased to find that he brought his soft but striking sensibilities to super-hero comics as well, such as Batgirl. Randy: I don't disagree with your assessment of James Jean's skills, and certainly he could have been my favorite as well. However, the guy who always nailed the tone of the series and yet managed to keep each cover looking different enough for me was Tony Moore. His covers on The Walking Dead persisted after he left the book's interiors, and I hope that he will continue on as cover artist for as long as the book runs. Best New Creative Team Randy: One of the dangers of reviewing comics for as long as Don and I have is that you can become a little jaded, and one of the cures for that is the occasional injection of new talent onto familiar or new books. 2004 was not as good a year as 2003 for new creative teams, but there were certainly some impressive ones to be found if you were willing to look for them. In the "duh!" category, I have to mention Joss Whedon, John Cassaday and Laura Martin on Astonishing X-Men. I wasn't sure about Cassaday's art style for Whedon's classic superhero writing style at first, but I have definitely come to believe that this team is a dream team for X-fans. I might have a little more contention on this point, but I also believe that the team of Brian K. Vaughan, Andy Kubert and Danny Miki are a dream team for Ultimate X-Men fans, and they've written some of my favorite X-Men stories of the year. Don: J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Ploog didn't get many issues of Abadazad on the stands before the crumbling of CrossGen Comics, but they did amaze audiences with the sheer imagination they poured into the book, and Nick Bell's colors really added a lot of energy and magic to the mix. Steve Gerber, Brian Hurtt and Brian Haberlin offered up a unique project in just about every way with Hard Time, so much so that it lives on long past the cancellation of the other three titles in the DC Focus line. Dan Slott and Juan Bobillo were matched up well on She-Hulk, as both brought slightly different sensibilities to the realm of super-hero storytelling. Randy: Dark Horse had a couple of strong new creative teams this year as well. The team of Mike Mignola, Guy Davis and Dave Stewart on B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs was so exceptional that I might even give it the edge over pure Mike Mignola Hellboy, and of course Kurt Busiek, Cary Nord, Thomas Yeates and Dave Stewart have done amazing things giving us the "ultimate" version of Conan. Their take is not only fun fantasy adventure every month, it has re-ignited interest in a character whose comic fandom had cooled considerably in recent years, as well as bringing that character to a whole new audience. Andy Diggle, Pascal Ferry and Dave McCaig have performed much the same job for DC's space adventure hero Adam Strange, and while that miniseries is only half over, I already find myself hoping that the team will return for a longer engagement on that character or other space-faring DC-ites in 2005. Don & Randy's Best New Creative Team: Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Tom Feister & J.D. Mettler However, my pick for Best New Creative Team, despite strong competition, was pretty much a lock the moment I read Ex Machina #1, and the story arc that followed only cemented that feeling in my mind. Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Tom Feister and J.D. Mettler are working together like a well-oiled machine, turning out funny, suspenseful and thoroughly engaging political/science fiction on a month-to-month basis. They came in strong and haven't let up since. Don: I have to agree. It's not surprising the art team is working well together -- they share a studio, after all. Their realistic style meshed well with Vaughan's vision for a comic book that's primarily about politics. Best Ongoing Creative Team Don: Hmm... that title's a bit misleading. Does it refer to a creative team on an ongoing title, or to that or an established creative team that's worked on several projects together, including something in 2004. I'm going to go with the latter, especially given the rising prominence of limited series designed for collection and the original graphic novel. These days, some of the best ongoing series are ones that feature the vision of a single creative team practically from start to finish. Remember Preacher? Starman was as well, to a certain limited extent. Well, fitting that definition as well are Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan Jr., the team heading up the never-disappointing and always thought-provoking Y: The Last Man. The same can be said for Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso, who presented not only their much-lauded 100 Bullets in 2004, but a truly unique stint on Batman as well. Also meriting note are Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano and their rotating writers on Gotham Central, Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker. Together, they've created an amazing police procedural that's not at all dependent on the super-hero elements that are incorporated into it. Randy: Once again, plenty of agreement here, as the Y: The Last Man team made my list as well, although we should also credit Goran Parlov for his strong contributions to the title in 2004. Also, while Gotham Central is a great example of creative synergy, Ed Brubaker has a similar creative fusion going on with Sean Phillips over on Sleeper: Season Two. And though it is Peter David's writing that drew me to Fallen Angel in the first place, I think it's hard to argue that the art team of David Lopez and Fernando Blanco have made themselves indispensable to that book as well. Finally, though the book ended in 2004, the Runaways team of Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona and Craig Yeung brought the whole thing to a great finish and promise to bring it back in style in 2005. Don's Best Ongoing Creative Team: Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely Don: My top pick in this category is a creative team that's collaborated on a couple of high-profile projects in previous years and one lesser-known one in 2004. They're also teamed for what promises to be one of the most unusual and interesting mainstream super-hero projects of 2005, if not *the* most. I'm speaking, of course, of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Their work on We3 was easily the best 2004 example of the immense potential in the medium, and I'm eagerly anticipating the final issue, due in just days. There's a reason this New X-Men and JLA: Earth 2 team keep pairing up, and their All-Star Superman later this year should be something to remember as well. Randy's Best Ongoing Creative Team: Andy Diggle & Jock Randy: Wow, that's a pretty good pick, and I'm definitely looking forward to All-Star Superman as well. However, my pick for Best Ongoing Creative Team is the one that was my pick for Best New Creative Team last year. The Losers is always a fun action ride, but the book loses a little something when the art team changes. When Andy Diggle and Jock are together, though, the book is firing on all cylinders, and it's hard to pin down if it's the stylized art or the snappy fast-paced writing that's more responsible for that feeling, leading me to assume that it's both, a true example of creators working together perfectly. Best Publisher or Imprint Randy: Now we come to my least favorite award, the Best Publisher or Imprint. It's not my least favorite because I feel it's unimportant, it's because this might be the toughest category for me to pick. It's really hard to name every publisher who had one or two great hits, and when you get into the larger publishers, it's really difficult to call them the best when they've got such a wide variety of material that something was inevitably disappointing. Nonetheless, I'll plow ahead with my picks, with the caveat that just about every publisher presented something I loved and something I didn't in 2004. Though my reviews often seem to focus in on the Big Two, my heart generally lies with the smaller publishers. Oni Press maintained their usual excellent quality this year with a strong line of original graphic novels (my favorites were Love As A Foreign Language, Once in a Blue Moon and Spaghetti Western, but there were plenty more), miniseries (more Blue Monday, and the finale of Andi Watson's Love Fights), and one standout ongoing (Queen & Country). Top Shelf Productions came off an amazing year in 2003 to produce some equally impressive books in 2004, like the mammoth collection of James Kochalka's Sketchbook Diaries, the quirky and fun Less Than Heroes by David Yurkovich, the delightful all-ages Owly and of course, Carnet De Voyage, my favorite graphic novel of the year. Adhouse Books is a smaller publisher with less output, but they have a consistently excellent design sense. 2004 was kind of a lean year for their projects, at least for me, but I did really enjoy their new line of Pink sketchbooks, which launched with Scott Morse, Rob Ullman and Jay Geldhof, and I'm very much looking forward to what's been announced for 2005 so far. The publisher that really caught my attention anew in 2004 was Dark Horse Comics. A wide range of manga, original graphic novels, miniseries and ongoing series served up a number of great hits, including Conan (old and new), B.P.R.D. and Usagi Yojimbo. Though it may not properly reflect the diversity for which they've become known, I also have to point up that Dark Horse remains possibly the best publisher to do other-media adaptations, as their Star Wars line (especially the Republic material by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema) has been excellent, far better than the movies that spawned it. Another publisher which should be praised for their diversity is Image Comics. While there is no small amount of their output that I don't care for at all, I realized in writing these "Best Ofs" that Image published more of my favorite original graphic novels than anyone else this year, and they also have some great ongoing (if not monthly) titles like The Walking Dead and Hawaiian Dick, not to mention earning huge brownie points from me for picking up Deep Sleeper from Oni Press and finishing that book out. Don: Of course, we can't forget AiT/Planet Lar. Demo was an amazing experiment, and they pumped out a nce array of original graphic novel material, for which they are known, and some reprints as well. The next publisher I'm going to mention is going to throw some readers for a loop, but I think CrossGen Comics deserves some attention. Yes, 2004 was a horrible year for the company, seeing as it fell apart, and by all accounts, it didn't treat some of its employees and freelancers well at all. But at the end, CrossGen was beginning to get on track, with such projects at Abadazad, El Cazador and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Marvel Comics is really reaping the rewards of CrossGen's talent development, with many artists and colorists thriving there now. Randy: In the end, though, my favorite publisher of the year is one of the big two, and it's kind of ironic that my favorite publisher of 2004 also published the book I hated the most in the entire year. But despite Identity Crisis and the trends that it has caused moving the DC Universe into a place where I'm not sure I want to go as a reader, there can be no denying that DC Comics had another great year. Their superhero line had great reads like Birds of Prey, Adam Strange, Gotham Central, Superman: Secret Identity and Fallen Angel. Their Vertigo line continued to be strong with 100 Bullets, Y: The Last Man, The Losers, Fables and Human Target, and the Wildstorm line had some great successes as well, most notably Ex Machina. It's exaggerating to say that DC offers something for everyone at this point, but they do have a great deal of diversity, a lot of strong creative forces and strong production across the board, and that makes them my choice for Best Publisher of 2004. Don & Randy's Best Publisher: DC Comics Don: Once again, we're in agreement. DC had its problems as much as anyone else, but what it offered was a diversity of well-crafted material unlike any other publisher. Sure, there were great super-hero books, but was home to a prison drama, political thriller, sociological impossibilities and even a top-notch super-villain book. And there was so much more. DC also made efforts to bring more international fare to North American readers with its deals with Humanoids Publishing and 2000 A.D. DC just seemed more willing to take chances, and they often paid off. That wraps up our review of the Best of 2004. If there is a Best of 2005, it may be written from beyond the grave, as writing this one damn near killed me and Don. Email Randy and Don comments about this review.