2012 Year In Review - Part 5

It's that part of the show where I list things. Because we all love lists, right? Well, I do at any rate, and it is my blog.

Favorite Ongoing Series (minimum 6 issues):
1. Daredevil
2. Dial H
3. Angel & Faith
4. Hawkeye

That's easily the strongest class I've had since I started this. I did factor in the number of issues, because I think it's easier to have a great 6 issues than a great 12, or 15. I do wonder, if Dial H hadn't lost Santolouco, whether it could have taken the top spot. Lapham was a good artist, but it didn't seem like the sort of book his style was suited for.

Favorite Mini-Series:
1. Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom
2. Atomic Robo and the Flying She-Devils of the Pacific

Small crop of candidates this year. One possibility got shunted into a different category, and the only other mini-series that shipped at least half of its issues this year was Villains for Hire. No thanks.

Favorite Anthology:
1. Batman Beyond Unlimited
2. Atomic Robo Real Science Adventures
3. Rocketeer Adventures 2

It's a disparate set of books, but they all have multiple stories per issue, told by several different people. I considered ranking Batman Beyond Unlimited in the ongoings, but I wasn't sure how that should work. I like the Batman and JLU stories, but can't stand the Superman one. So where does the book rank as a whole, especially since it's the work of different sets of people?

Favorite Trade:
1. Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment
2. Excalibur Visionaries - Alan Davis, Volume 3
3. Finder Library Volume 2
4. Runaways, Volume 5 - Escape to New York
5. WildCATS Version 2.0, Volume 4 - Battery Park

As always, these are books I bought this year, not necessarily ones that were released this year. Obviously, since none of them were released this year. I bought more trades this year than I ever have, but I'm not sure it was necessarily a stronger year. All of those books were really strong, though.

Favorite Writer:
1. Ann Nocenti
2. Christos Gage
3. China Mieville
4. Kelly Sue DeConnick

I figure this has to go to Nocenti. I'm pretty sure she's the writer whose work I spent the most time trying to decipher. And not in a "Why is the character behaving like this, is the writer an idiot?" way I did Remender on Secret Avengers. Beyond that, major turnover from last year. DnA laid a couple of eggs, and I didn't think this year's Robo was Clevinger's strongest work, and I didn't buy anything by Brill.

Favorite Artist (minimum 110 pages):
1. Rebekah Isaacs
2. Norm Breyfogle
3. Chris Samnee
4. Dustin Nguyen

Honorable Mention (artists with less than 110 pages): David Aja, Gabriel Hardman, Paolo Rivera, Mateus Santolouco. I'm not necessarily ranking the honorable mentions, just listing them in alphabetical order. As for the favorites, Nguyen narrowly edged out Scott Wegener. Which is a testament to his skill considering Wegener drew those panels of Futuresaurus Rex coughing up and then catching two Mausers. In fact, perhaps I should reconsider. . .