Hello Comic Book Fans,
It's the end of the year. And that means it's time to look back at the best of 2010. So here's your chance to nominate the best writers, artists, stories, characters, comics and moments of the year. The categories are listed below. You may nominate up to two entries per category. You do not have to nominate for every category (in other words, you may nominate 0, 1 or 2 entries per category). Nominations for "best single panel" should include images. I will leave the nomination thread open for about a week. And, most importantly, have fun.
Best Writer
Best Artist
Most Underrated Writer
Most Underrated Artist
Best Self-Contained Story (Single Issue or One-Shot)
Best Story Arc
Best Limited Series
Best Ongoing Series
Best Original Graphic Novel
Best Webcomic
Best Reprint or Archive
Most Underrated Title
Best New Title
Best Male Character
Best Female Character
Best Villain
Best New Character
Best Supporting Character
Best Team
Biggest Surprise
Best Cover
Best Single Panel or Splash Page
Best Fight Scene
Best Character Recovery
Best Superhero Story in Another Media
RIP Award for Fictional Characters
Replies
Since Bill is on an out of state vacation, he asked me to re-post his suggestions from the Memory Box thread as official nominations here.
Doc Beechler said:
I think I'm going to post my nominations in segments.
Best Writer: Geoff Johns
I usually try to nominate two candidates per category but not this time. For me, there's Johns and then there's everybody else.
Best Artist: Mark Buckingham, Ivan Reis
Some recent guest artists on Fables, though not bad, reminded me how important Buckingham is to that title. Meanwhile, Reis was a big star on Blackest Night and one of the best parts of Brightest Day.
Most Underrated Writer: Jay Faerber, Eric Shanower
Jay Faerber belongs on this list every year. Shanower is often ignored in fandom because he works on history (Age of Bronze) or kids comics (the Oz books) but he is one of comics' finest across all genres.
Most Underrated Artist: Art Baltazar, Dustin Weaver
Baltazar is another artist who is underrated because he works on all-ages fare but he takes something that's actually quite difficult (comedy) and makes it look easy. I almost nominated Dustin Weaver for best artist but, as a relative newcomer with SHIELD, I think he has a better chance in this category.
I forgot Doc Beechler's addendum, so here it is:
I also nominate Pluto (mini series) and 20th Century Boys (ongoing series) by Naoki Urasawa.
In the first round, I occasionally had trouble coming up with two nominees because I had a clear favorite. In this second round, I'm having the opposite problem. I often have three nominees per category and I'm having trouble cutting it down to two. This was especially the case with Best Single Issue. I am having a very difficult time deciding between three very different comics: a beginning, a middle and an end.
Best Story Arc: "Rose Red" (Fables #94-98), "The Viltrumite War" (Invincible #71-76)
Fables is back on top and Rose Red is one of its best stories ever, filling in Rose's background while also moving the character forward. As for the Viltrumite War, it's a story that's been building since the first year of the title and I think it's a story we're going to remember for a long time.
Best Limited Series: Brightest Day, The Guild
I feel a little awkward about nominating Brightest Day as a 26-issue limited series but then I remember that 52 won this category and I feel a little better. The Guild was so good that I posted a reminder to myself in the Cappies Memory Box thread. I would have loved to include several other mini-series as well.
ps. Don't forget to check the Memory Box yourself and make your suggestions official.
Best Ongoing Series: Fables, Green Lantern
I could have thrown Invincible into this category as well considering that "The Viltrumite War" has taken up most of the year, but it got squeezed out by two other incredible series. I could have also nominated "Brightest Day" from Green Lantern for story arc but decided to spread the love across multiple titles.
Best New Title: Brightest Day, SHIELD
Brightest Day bridges that territory between limited series and ongoing series (planned to end with 26 issues, but 26 isn't exactly the number you think of for a mini-series) so I double nominated it here. SHIELD had one of the best opening issues I've ever read.
Most Underrated Title: Star Wars: Legacy, Tiny Titans
You don't have to be a Star Wars junkie like me to love Star Wars: Legacy. It's a wonderfully rich book with unusual protagonists, shifting alliances and amazing villains. All-ages books are underrated in general (I talked about that today with my local comic shop guy) and that's doubly true of Tiny Titans.
Best Original Graphic Novel: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour (Vol. 6), Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale
I couldn't nominate anything in this category for a couple of years and now I'm confronted with an embarrassment of riches. Scott Pilgrim and Shepherd's Tale are both incredible stories and either would be a worthy winner.
Best webcomic: Batman and Sons, xkcd
I'm not a regular xkcd subscriber or anything but you know that a comic is good when you start quoting it randomly in conversation. Batman and Sons makes me laugh.
Best Reprint or Archive: Mouse Guard: Winter 1142 Hardcover
This is one of the few series for which I'd rather wait for the trade because the extras are so awesome. This second volume contained a map, cut-outs of several of the mouse cities, mice heraldry and more.
Best Male Character: Cade Skywalker, Wolverine
I could have nominated Hal Jordan and Invincible, the stars of titles I nominated for best series or best story arc. But these are the two individual heroes who impressed me the most. Wolverine is in the midst of making a play for icon status with great stories (fighting Deathlok in Weapon X), epic ideas (going to Hell), a new girlfriend (seriously, read the Jason Aaron stories) and spinoff characters getting their own titles (Daken and X-23). Plus, he stars in every X-book, Avengers and a new Astonishing title with Spider-Man. Cade Skywalker is the most complex protagonist out there as he tries to chart his own course between hero and rogue.
Best Female Character: Rose Red, X-23
This is clearly Rose's category as far as I'm concerned. However, I'll give a shout-out to X-23 as well for a pretty good one-shot and an interesting new solo series.
Best Villain: Bastion, Mister Dark
It should be getting obvious why I nominated Fables for best ongoing series. Bastion was the biggest of the bad guys in the X-Men crossover "Second Coming." You're definitely a bad-@$$ when you cow other villains like Hodge, Pierce and Trask and keep them in line.
Best New Character: Aqualad, Nick Mystery (The Mystery Society)
Nick Mystery's heroic influences are obvious- he's a cross between Nick Charles and Errol Flynn- but that only adds to his classic feel. He's witty, he's cavalier, he's suave, he's a whole lot of fun. The cynical denizens of the internet made fun of Aqualad based on promo pictures but he's actually been a pretty cool character in Brightest Day so far.
I'm going to do mine is segments as well. There is a spoiler below regarding the Taskmaster mini series
Best Writer
Geff Johns(Green Lantern, Flash, Brightest Day), Jonathan Hickman (Secret Warriors, S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Best Artist
Francis Manapul (Flash), Andy Kubert (Astonishing Spider-man &Wolverine)
Underrated Writer
Cullen Bunn (Sixth Gun)
Most Underrated Artist
Dustine Weaver (S.H.I.E.L.D)
Best Self-Contained Story (Single Issue or One-Shot)
Green Lanter: Larfleeze Christmas Special
Best Limited Series
Taskmaster, Brightest Day
Best Ongoing Series
Secret Warriors, Batman & Robin
Best Reprint or Archive
Wednesday Comics
Most Underrated Title
Sixth Gun
Best New Title
S.H.I.E.LD., Flash
Best Male Character
Steve Rogers, Dick Grayson
Best Female Character
Zatanna, Ramona Flowers
Best Villain
Thomas Wayne, Loki
Best New Character
Skinner Sweet (American Vampire)
Best Supporting Character
Alfred Pennyworth, Wallace Wells (Scott Pilgrim)
Best Team
Secret Warriors, Secret Avengers
Biggest Surprise
Taskmaster is and has always been a SHIELD agent
Best Character Recovery
Deadman
Best Superhero Story in Another Media
Scott Pilgrim from the Scott Pilgrim movie (does this count?)
RIP Award for Fictional Characters
Dr. Voodoo
Thanks for the nominations, Jason. And yes, the movie version of Scott Pilgrim counts. After all, I would've counted the movie version of Batman or Iron Man. Or did you mean "does Scott Pilgrim count as a superhero?" I'm still leaning "yes."
I'm not as sure about Doc Beechler's suggestion of Doctor Who, though I'm open to being convinced otherwise.
Best Supporting Character: Bufkin (the flying monkey from Fables)
I reserve the right to nominate a second character for this category. I did eventually come up with second suggestions after Rose Red and Mr. Dark. But for now, no other character shined in a brief spotlight more than Bufkin.
Best Team: Green Lantern Corps, X-Men
This was a tough category for me. With the events of Blackest Night and now Brightest Day, the GL Corps has fractured. The various lanterns still star in great series, but they don't seem to be as much of a team as they once were. The X-Men is a standard suggestion for me because I'm an X-Man fan. And they did come through some pretty big stories this year, "Second Coming," "Vs. Vampires" and more.
Biggest Surprise:
It's almost impossible to avoid spoilers for this category so I apologize in advance to tpb readers. I'm nominating two events that instigated eye-popping, jaw-dropping exclamations of "Wow!" "Cool!" "Yes!" and "That's Awesome!" The first is "Buffy can fly" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer #32 and the second is the "Deadman creates a forest in a middle of Star City" from Brightest Day #0.
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