2008 Meta-List | 2009 Meta-List
This meta-list of the top 100 comic books of 2008 is compiled from over a hundred "best comics of 2008" lists from critics across the internet.
This is based on an idea and a lot of work by Dick Hyacinth. Dick published a meta-list of the best comics of 2007 and was working on a 2008 meta-list when he stopped blogging. Fortunately, Dick had published links to the 2008 lists. I went through every list, compiled everything into one spreadsheet, and then quantified the data to produce this meta-list. Thanks to Dick for his part in this project.
Methodology: I gave each critic 550 points. Critics who wrote unnumbered lists distributed their points evenly among the books on their lists, while critics with numbered lists distributed their points according to a formula created by Chad Nevett. I only counted lists that had five or more books; for numbered lists with more than 20 books, I only counted the top 20. I also only counted general "best of" lists, not lists limited to a certain genre or type of comic book.
I'll post more analysis and information about the meta-list in a future post, but for now, here is the Best Comics of 2008 Meta-List:
| Rank | Points | Title |
| 1 | 2356 | Bottomless Belly Button , by Dash Shaw |
| 2 | 1511 | Acme Novelty Library #19 , by Chris Ware |
| 3 | 1266 | All Star Superman , by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely |
| 4 | 1181 | Too Cool To Be Forgotten , by Alex Robinson |
| 5 | 1112 | What It Is , by Lynda Barry |
| 6 | 1086 | Ganges #2 , by Kevin Huizenga |
| 7 | 988 | The Alcoholic , by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel |
| 8 | 981 | Skyscrapers of the Midwest , by Joshua Cotter |
| 9 | 876 | Kramers Ergot 7 , by various |
| 10 | 803 | Capacity , by Theo Ellsworth |
| 11 | 769 | Swallow Me Whole , by Nate Powell |
| 12 | 767 | Scalped , by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera |
| 13 | 766 | Omega: The Unknown , by Jonathan Lethem,Karl Rusnak, and Farel Dalrymple |
| 14 | 730 | Skim , by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki |
| 15 | 662 | Three Shadows , by Cyril Pedrosa |
| 16 | 634 | Travel , by Yuichi Yokoyama |
| 17 | 575 | Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 ,by Jaimie Hernandez and Gilbert Hernandez |
| 18 | 573 | Gus & His Gang, by Chris Blain |
| 19 | 504 | Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!, by Art Spiegelman |
| 20 | 488 | Burma Chronicles , by Guy Delisle |
| 21 | 474 | Criminal , by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips |
| 22 | 471 | Local , by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly |
| 23 | 465 | Freddie and Me , by Mike Dawson |
| 24 | 461 | Good-Bye , by Yoshihiro Tatsumi |
| 25 | 453 | Essex County Vol. 3: The Country Nurse , by Jeff Lemire |
| 26 | 422 | Jin and Jam #1, by Helen Jo |
| 27 | 418 | Tamara Drewe, by Posy Simmonds |
| 28 | 412 | Achewood , by Chris Onstad |
| 29 | 397 | The Education of Hopey Glass , by Jaime Hernandez |
| 30 | 381 | Echo , by Terry Moore |
| 31 | 368 | The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard , by Eddie Campbell |
| 32 | 367 | Alan's War , by Emmanuel Guibert |
| 33 | 359 | The Lagoon , by Lilli Carre |
| 34 | 354 | Casanova , by Matt Fraction and Fabio Moon |
| 35 | 339 | Joker , by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo |
| 36 | 338 | Berlin: City of Smoke , by Jason Lutes |
| 37 | 317 | Willie and Joe: The WWII Years , by Bill Mauldin |
| 38 | 308 | Powr Mastrs vol. 2 , by C.F. |
| 39 | 304 | The Umbrella Academy vol. 1 , by Gerard Way and Gabiel Ba |
| 40 | 303 | Slow Storm , by Danica Novgorodoff |
| 41 | 297 | BodyWorld , by Dash Shaw |
| 42 | 275 | Fluffy , by Simone Lia |
| 43 | 273 | RASL , by Jeff Smith |
| 44 | 270 | MOME , various |
| 45 | 267 | Black Jack , by Osamu Tezuka |
| 46 | 264 | Complete Little Orphan Annie vol. 1 , by Harold Gray |
| 47 | 257 | Sammy the Mouse #2 , by Zak Sally |
| 48 | 255 | Fight or Run, by Kevin Huizenga |
| 49 (tie) | 243 | Blue Pills , by Fredrik Peeters |
| 49 (tie) | 243 | Abandoned Cars , by Tim Lane |
| 51 | 242 | Little Nothings , by Lewis Trondheim |
| 52 (tie) | 238 | Ochre Ellipse #2, by Jonas Madden-Conner |
| 52 (tie) | 238 | Madman Atomic Comics , by Mike Allred |
| 52 (tie) | 238 | Monster Men Bureiko Lullaby , by Takashi Nemoto |
| 55 | 234 | Paul Goes Fishing , by Michel Rabagliati |
| 56 | 232 | Goddess of War , by Lauren R. Weinstein |
| 57 | 229 | Bat-Manga! , by Jiro Kuwata |
| 58 | 226 | Nat Turner , by Kyle Baker |
| 59 | 225 | Inkweed, by Chris Wright |
| 60 | 223 | Monster , by Naoki Urasawa |
| 61 | 221 | Boy's Club #2, by Matt Furie |
| 62 (tie) | 220 | Army @ Love , by Rick Veitch |
| 62 (tie) | 220 | Curio Cabinet , by John Brodowski |
| 62 (tie) | 220 | Empire Park, by Jason Shiga |
| 62 (tie) | 220 | P.S. Comics #4 , by Minty Lewis |
| 66 | 217 | Disappearance Diary , by Hideo Azuma |
| 67 | 213 | Popeye vol. 3: Let's You and Him Fight! , by E.C. Segar |
| 68 | 212 | American Flagg! , by Howard Chaykin |
| 69 | 211 | Captain America , by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, and Luke Ross |
| 70 | 210 | Jamilti and Other Stories , by Rutu Modan |
| 71 | 205 | The Walking Dead , by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard |
| 72 (tie) | 202 | B.P.R.D. , by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, and Guy Davis |
| 72 (tie) | 202 | Lucky vol. 2 #2, by Gabrielle Bell |
| 74 | 197 | My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down , by David Heatley |
| 75 | 196 | An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories vol. 2 , by various |
| 76 | 195 | Wormdye , by Eamon Espey |
| 77 | 191 | Glamourpuss, by Dave Sim |
| 78 | 188 | Fables , by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham |
| 79 | 185 | Gary Panter , by Gary Panter |
| 80 (tie) | 183 | Blue Beetle #25 , by John Rogers and Raphael Albuquerque |
| 80 (tie) | 183 | Far Arden , by Kevin Cannon |
| 80 (tie) | 183 | Fishtown , by Kevin Colden |
| 80 (tie) | 183 | Interiorae #3, by Gabriella Giandelli |
| 80 (tie) | 183 | Petey and Pussy , by John Kerschbaum |
| 80 (tie) | 183 | Welcome to the Dahl House , by Ken Dahl |
| 86 | 180 | Tokyo Zombie , by Yusaku Hanakuma |
| 87 | 165 | How to Be Everywhere, by Warren Craghead |
| 88 | 162 | Solanin , by Inio Asano |
| 89 | 157 | Angry Youth Comix #14, by Johnny Ryan |
| 90 | 156 | Northlanders , by Brian Wood and Davide Gianfelice |
| 91 | 155 | Mesmo Delivery , by Rafael Grampa |
| 92 | 152 | Speak of the Devil , by Gilbert Hernandez |
| 93 (tie) | 147 | Cat Eyed Boy , by Kazuo Umezu |
| 93 (tie) | 147 | Don't Cry for Me, I'm Already Dead, by Rebecca Sugar |
| 93 (tie) | 147 | Dungeon, by Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar |
| 93 (tie) | 147 | Judenhaas, by Dave Sim |
| 93 (tie) | 147 | Only Skin #3, by Sean Ford |
| 93 (tie) | 147 | Deitch's Pictorama , by Kim Deitch,Seth Deitch, and Simon Deitch |
| 93 (tie) | 147 | Heavy Liquid , by Paul Pope |
| 93 (tie) | 147 | Y: The Last Man , by Bryan K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra |
Other "Best Comics of the Year" Meta-Lists:
2005 Meta-List | 2006 Meta-List | 2007 Meta-List
2008 Meta-List | 2009 Meta-List
Glad to see the list pop up somewhere. Interesting stuff.
ReplyDeleteNice! Thanks for doing this! I'll try'n do a wrap-up review post on CSBG like I did last year, unless I'm lazy.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm still boycotting Omega the Unknown on principle, Gary Panter or no.
Ganges # 2 was the one with Video games and shit, right?
ReplyDeleteThat would be great to see a wrap-up post. But you have to give Omega the Unknown a try -- it really is fantastic. Totally deserves its ranking. And you are correct about Ganges #2. The first half was basically a weird fighting video game, and the second half was about the main character playing in a Doom-style game with his co-workers. It's excellent. (Both Omega and Ganges are in my personal top 10 for 2008.
ReplyDeleteOkay, cool. I bought that. I might even still have it somewhere... maybe? I'm pretty sure I liked it.
ReplyDeleteAlso Omega wasn't in your top ten! I find this strangely validating.
Ahhh! You're right! I must have been thinking of my alternate-reality top 10. (Where Xavier died years ago and Magneto heads up the X-Men.)
ReplyDeleteNow I remember: I read Omega this year, after I had written my list. But I did love it, and it would have been on my list if I had read it in time.
Glad this is finally up. I love lists like this; it's fascinating to see how things stack up. Now I've gotta revisit my list and see how my tastes compare. I do know that I would have had Swallow Me Whole in the top one or two if I had read it before I completed the list, so that affected things. I'm also surprised to see Solanin so low; I think my ranking of it was what got it on the list at all. Maybe that came out too late for a lot of people to notice? The same goes for Three Shadows, maybe. I'm also impressed that Jin and Jam was so high; that's basically a minicomic. And how did Far Arden get on there? It didn't come out until 2009. I guess that's the webcomic version?
ReplyDeleteOkay, looking at my list, it looks like I didn't contribute to the ranking of Skim, Blue Pills, Speak of the Devil, or Jamilti, since you only counted the top 20. And Magic Trixie didn't rank; boo! Neither did Pocket Full of Rain, which is interesting. And other than Monster (which is another one that I didn't read enough of until 2009 to put on the list, otherwise it would have been high), Black Jack (but not the Eisner-winning Dororo!), and various artsy stuff like Travel, Tatsumi, and Monster Men Bureiko Lullaby, there wasn't much manga. I wonder if that's because a lot of manga was limited to manga-only lists which weren't considered for being too limited. I would think Nana might have made an appearance, and maybe Real? I dunno.
Overall, an interesting list. I can't complain too much, although Terry Moore's Echo seems strangely popular, and I would be happier if Joker wasn't on the list at all. But I do know that one was popular with a lot of people, even if I hated it.
Okay, enough blather. Lists! They're bizarrely fascinating!
I'm planning on posting another list that shows the number of lists that each book appeared on. For instance, five different people had Echo on their list, while only you (52 points) and one other person (110 points) had Solanin.
ReplyDeleteIt's also important to remember that everyone only had 550 points to dole out, which means that a person who listed 20 books gave fewer points to his or her top book than a person who only listed 5 books. Far Arden (I'm assuming it is the web version) was only selected by one person, but she ranked it as her top book out of five, which gave it 183 points. That's one reason why the bottom end of the list might not reflect a critical consensus as much as the top half, since a single entry like that can give a ton of points to a book.
Man, this sort of thing must be heaven for math geeks and statisticians. That's pretty crazy how one or two people can affect the bottom of the list. Which makes me wonder about something like Y: The Last Man, which one would think would make it onto several lists. But maybe it was low, and on lists that had lots of entries. Wild and crazy stuff, man.
ReplyDeleteWell, Y only showed up on two lists: the Washington Post had it on an unnumbered list of six books (92 points) and the Graphic Novel Reporter had it on an unnumbered list of ten books (55 points). I'm actually surprised that it didn't show up on more lists.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. If I remember correctly, the only issue of Y that came out in 08 was the final one, so maybe that's why it got less attention. Or maybe it just got lost in the shuffle; there were a hell of a lot of good comics last year. I think I had it listed as an Honorable Mention or something.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little surprised by Y not showing up more also, but I guess only issue #60 came out. Seriously though, what an issue.
ReplyDeleteScalped finishing up at #12 on the year is wonderful. What an incredible title that is, and Aaron and Guera are one of the best teams in mainstream comics today.
Nice to see some Blue Beetle love on there - John Rogers and Rafael Albequerque's run on that title was an incredibly underrated one.
I must admit, I'm perplexed by Omega the Unknown. I read the entire series but I found it incomprehensible. It was a difficult read that worked really poorly as a month to month read...perhaps it'd be better in trade, but it was not an enjoyable read for me.
Thanks for compiling this list. It's an excellent look at the year and gives me a ton to add to my reading list.
Showing up higher, rather.
ReplyDeleteScalped is terrific. I hope it maintains its high ranking in 2009, but I'm worried that people will forget about it now that it's been ongoing for a couple of years.
ReplyDeleteI read Omega in trade, and I can imagine it being tough to understand in single issues with a month break in between each issue.
having thought about this very little, I still have to say I am a little confused by the statistical choices for this list. why would a book ranked number one by a reviewer who ranked 20 titles have less weight than a title listed at the same spot by a reviewer who only had a list of ten? Wouldn't you have been better served by simply assigning a value to each rank and doing the calculations from there? I would think that would reflect a more valid reality as well as making your job a hell of a lot easier. Just curious, I suppose, nothing that matters much I suppose, and quite likely a choice that has some pretty solid reasoning behind it...
ReplyDelete