Best Comics of 2023

I started collecting comics sometime in 2018, got slightly serious in 2019 and then got stonewalled by the pandemic. Thankfully, in 2023, I managed to be more disciplined. (The plan is to begin a lending library dedicated to comics. So if you’re in Delhi and interested in exploring comics and graphic novels , do get in touch.) The best of the year (in no particular order):

1. The Blood of the Virgin – Sammy Harkham. In a hard-to-define story, Hollywood of the 70s is the key character. Harkham’s effort to show his struggles in making a B-grade horror movie and his experiences as a displaced Arab Jew in the US were a delight to read (and see).
2. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands – Kate Beaton
3. Paying the Land – Joe Sacco.   Both these two works are set in Alberta – the oil rich province of Canada. Beaton deals with the rampant, normalized sexism that’s a norm in the industry. Her work is autobiographical and stems from her experiences of the two years she spent there. Sacco digs deeper and portrays all the conflicting opinions and impacts that the discovery of oil has had on the land. The role of the Church and State in the forceful ‘education’ of the tribes was viscerally portrayed with Sacco’s pen.
4. Days of Sand – Aimee de Jongh  (blogged earlier)
5. Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness – Kristen Radtke. This one caught me off guard. Radtke digs deep into the ongoing loneliness pandemic and uses the comics format to make us come face to face with the despair of being cast away and the yearning to get connected.
6. Clyde Fans – Seth
7. Grass – Keum Suk Gendry-Kim &
8. The Waiting – Keum Suk Gendry-Kim. Both these works are set in the backdrop of the Korean War and deals with the manner in which countless families were ripped apart by the border. The third part was released earlier this year and will be added soon
9. Ayako – Osamu Tezuka. Japanese manga set in post WWII Japanese society. Nice thriller.
10. Essex County – Jeff Lemire.

PS: Best Non Fiction of 2023 & Best Fiction of 2023