Episode 303: Our Favorite Comics of 2018 - a podcast by Stergios Botzakis & Derek Royal

Time Codes:

• 00:01:28 - Introduction
• 00:03:49 - Context, and a few statistics
• 00:10:41 - Our favorite comics of 2018, part 1
• 00:40:03 - Our honorable mentions, part 1
• 00:54:46 - Our favorite comics of 2018, part 2
• 01:29:23 - Our honorable mentions, part 2
• 01:47:47 - Our favorite comics of 2018, part 3
• 02:08:23 - Wrapping up our favorites
• 02:11:19 - Contact us

It's that time again! It's the end of the year, their very last weekly review episode of 2018, and so the Two Guys are ready to share what they consider to be their favorite comics of the past twelve months. This is Sterg's first time doing this, but he successfully steps up to the plate to reveal what he considers his 10 favorites of 2018. And Derek does the same.

Before that, though, they go over a few statistics from the past year. Over the course of 2018 -- at least up until the time of the recording of this end-of-the-year show -- The Comics Alternativereleased a total of 171 episodes of the podcast. Of that number, 55 were interviews, 10 were webcomics shows, 11 manga episodes, 10 from the Euro comics series, 6 were young reader shows, 16 on-location episodes, and 1 special. (And since Sterg and Derek recorded this "Favorites" episode, there have been at least three other shows for the current year, an on-location, a webcomic, and a Euro comics show. Maybe a manga episode will go up before the new year, as well?)

But of much more importance are the various titles that both Sterg and Derek picked as this year's favorites. Each chooses, in no particular order, what he considers to be his 10 favorites of 2018:

Sterg's Top 10 of 2018

• Is This Guy for Real?: The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman- Box Brown (First Second)
• Wytches: Bad Egg Halloween Special- Scott Snyder and Jock (Image Comics)
• The Nib- various, edited by Matt Bors
• Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World- Penelope Bagieu (First Second)
• Blammo#10- Noah Van Sciver (Kilgore Books and Comics)
• Coyote Doggirl- Lisa Hanawalt (Drawn and Quarterly)
• Tom the Dancing Bug- Ruben Bolling
• Lore Olympus- Rachel Smythe (Webtoon)
• Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction - Jarett Krosoczka (Graphix/Scholastic)

 

Derek's Top 10 of 2018

• Motor Girl Omnibus/Strangers in Paradise XXV - Terry Moore (Abstract Studio)
• Hasib and the Queen of Serpents: A Tale of a Thousand and One Nights - David B. (NBM Publishing)
• Live/Work- Pat Palermo (AdHouse Books)
• Sabrina- Nick Drnaso (Drawn and Quarterly)
• The Arab of the Future 3: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1985-1987- Riad Sattouf (Metropolitan Books)
• The Winner- Karl Stevens (Retrofit/Big Planet)
• Young Frances- Hartley Lin (AdHouse Books)
• Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, Vols. 1-3 - Inio Asano (VIZ Media)
• Berlin - Jason Lutes (Drawn and Quarterly)
• The New World: Comics from Mauretania- Chris Reynolds (New York Review Comics)

The Honorable Mentions…These Titles Almost, but Just Didn’t Quite, Make It onto Each Guy's List

For Sterg

• Bezoar#3- various
• Now - various, edited by Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
• Nancy - Olivia Jaimes
• Baseline Blvd- Emi Gennis (Kilgore Comics and Press)
• Tyler Cross: Black Rock- Fabien Nury and Bruno (Hard Case Crime/Titan Books)
• On a Sunbeam- Tillie Walden (First Second)
• Black Hammer- Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston (Dark Horse Comics)
• I Am Young- M. Dean (Fantagraphics)

For Derek

• One Dirty Tree- Noah Van Sciver (Uncivilized Books)
• Come Again- Nate Powell (Topshelf/IDW Publishing)
• The Troublemakers- Baron Yoshimoto (Retrofit/Big Planet)
• Is This Guy for Real?: The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman- Box Brown (First Second)
• Mister Miracle- Tom King and Mitch Gerads (DC Comics)
• Will Eisner’s A Contract with God: Curator’s Edition- Will Eisner (Kitchen Sink Press/Dark Horse Books)
• The Lie and How We Told It- Tommi Parish (Fantagraphics)
• Gideon Falls- Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino (Image Comics)
• Slum Wolf- Tadao Tsuge (New York Review Comics)
• Alchemilla- Sara Volta

 

 

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