Comics & graphic novels we loved in 2014

18 Dec 2014

Our staff share some of their favourite comics and graphic novels from the past year.

Bronte Coates, Digital Content Coordinator

The last two years I’ve had clear winners for my favourite comic of the year. In 2012, I was blown away by Chris Ware’s Building Stories and in 2013 I fell in love with Marion Fayolle’s In Pieces. But this year, the water’s a lot murkier – in a good way!

I thought Box Brown’s biography of Andre the Giant was terrific. I loved the artwork in Bastien Vives’ Polina. I was incredibly impressed by Eleanor Davis’ How to be Happy and her scope of work. I was equally impressed by Fluid Prejudice – a collection of comics and drawings focusing on underrepresented, marginalised and alternative visions of Australian history, edited by Sam Wallman.

As an aside, Wallman is also the illustrator of an amazing, upsetting and important online comic about what it’s like to work inside an Australian detention centre. He (along with Nick Olle, Pat Grant, Pat Armstrong and Sam Bungey) was nominated for a Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism for this piece and if you haven’t read it yet, you should immediately. Find it here.

Returning to books, it’s an older release but I also only came across David Heatley’s My Brain is Hanging Upside Down this year and his comics about his mother and father made me unexpectedly tear up. And a very, very late addition (I only read it last weekend thanks to a last-minute lend by Ford who shares his recommendations below!) to the comics I loved is Behold, the Dinosaurs! by Dustin Harbin. It’s gorgeous, fascinating and tactile in the very best way.

All this said … I do have a stand-out ‘graphic book’ this year! I read Trent Parke’s photography book Minutes to Midnight back in February and now in December it is still the book I want to show everyone when they come visit my house. His vision of Australia is darkly fantastical with a touch of the supernatural and the voyage you take across the country with him is deeply emotional, fraught with intense romanticism and brooding realism.

Chris Somerville, Online Team Member:

I’d been a fan of Simon Hanselmann’s since I came across his tumblr a while back, which followed two unemployed stoners, a witch called Meg, her familiar Mogg a black cat, and their housemate Owl, a kind of playboy loser. This year his graphic novel, Megahex, came out complete with a blurb from comics legend Daniel Clowes. While a lot of webcomics-turned-into-books feel like they were ‘written for the internet’, Hanselmann’s collection avoids this trapping; his detailed characterisations and and ability to create pathos is novelistic in the best possible way. Not to mention, his art style is gorgeous without being cloying, and his plots are very blackly funny.

Emily Gale, Online Children’s Specialist

The story behind Line of Fire, which is a genuine first-hand account of the first few months of WWI, is almost too good to be true. To recommend it to you I think I need only share with you the words of French illustrator Barroux (Mr Leon’s Paris):

It was a beautiful winter’s day – freezing cold but not a cloud in the sky. I came across two men in blue overalls clearly emptying out of the contents of a basement in a big, old house onto the pavement. Amongst old furniture, mouldy books and old magazines, a cardboard box caught my eye. I picked it up and shook it. Inside, there was a notebook and a medal (the Cross of War). I opened the notebook and read these lines: ‘3 August 1914. Today we’re off. Mobilisation has been declared, and it’s time to go, leaving behind wife, children and family…’

Barroux used the words of this (still) unknown soldier to create a graphic novel using a crude style which suits the mood perfectly.

Ford Thomas, Online Team Member:

Looking back, I’m realising that this was a really, really good year for comics. Here’s a few I was really into …

In the second installment of Hip Hop Family Tree, Ed Piskor continues his flawless history of hip-hop. Each page is an easter-egg-ridden, meticulously-researched walk through the culture, music and people of hip hop. Presented like one of the ‘70s Marvel Comics treasury editions with some extra bells and whistles – such as a spot varnish on the cover – the book feels like a big beautiful old comic you’ve just found at garage sale. The content itself is informative, immensely entertaining, and really, perfect for anyone who likes books.

With the release of Bumf, the mighty comics journalist Joe Sacco returned to his roots with satire – this time with looser linework and breezier storytelling. If you enjoyed Sacco’s past work (though perhaps 'enjoy’ is not the right word to use here considering the subjects Sacco usually covers), you will find the change of pace refreshing but no less stimulating as he takes you on this absurdest romp through past wars and American Presidents, past and present.

Emily Carroll’s Through the Woods is a great collection of horror fairytales. Carroll’s comics will appeal to already existing comic fans but this release is also a nice way to ease new readers into the medium.

Ms Marvel by G Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona is a teen superhero story of the Spider-Man-mould but for the twenty-first century. Our hero, Kamala Khan, is an Islamic Pakistani American high school student who writes superhero fan fiction – until the day everything changes … Kamala has to figure out how to use her powers, which is awkward and challenging, just like high school stuff.

Over Easy by Mimi Pond is an amazing time-capsule early adulthood story. Possibly you’ve never heard of Pond but you may have seen her work considering she wrote the the first ever full-length broadcast episode of The Simpsons …

Porcellino is just the best and so no surprises that The Hospital Suite is so good. It’s refreshing to read something so matter of fact about illness and Porcellino makes it easy with his economic storytelling.

Finally, I really loved Michael DeForge’s work this year. If you’re looking for somewhere to start his series Lose has received great critical and commercial success, having been nominated for every major comics award including the Ignatz and Eisner Awards.

Some of my other notables include …