The Appeal of Standalone Comic Books

In a special, year-end episode of Off Panel, friend of the show Brandon Burpee returns to chat about the year in comics before we count down our 20 favorite comics of the year. We discuss the year in comics, Brandon's disconnect from the larger conversation, the perils of being overinformed, deciding what to read, how the Big Two are doing, the end of Krakoa, the Ultimate Universe's return, honorable mentions for our faves of the year, our top 20 comics of the year, and more.

Bonus! By popular demand, our lists in full can be found below.

David Harper

1. Ocean by Lucie Bryon
2. Damn Them All by Si Spurrier, Charlie Adlard, Sofie Dodgson, and Jim Campbell
3. Wild’s End by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard
4. Impossible People by Julia Wertz
5. Monica by Daniel Clowes
6. Why Don’t You Love Me? By Paul B. Rainey
7. Kaya by Wes Craig, Jason Wordie, and AndWorld Design
8. Now Let Me Fly by Ronald Wimberly and Brahm Revel
9. Danger and Other Unknown Risks by Erica Henderson and Ryan North
10. A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll
11. Time Before Time by Declan Shalvey, Rory McConnville, Geoffo, Joe Palmer, Chris O’Halloran, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
12. Peacemaker Tries Hard! by Kyle Starks, Steve Pugh, Jordie Bellaire, and Becca Carey
13. Night Fever by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Jacob Phillips
14. Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy by Faith Erin Hicks
15. Clementine Book Two by Tillie Walden
16. Lights by Brenna Thummler
17. Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki
18. w0rldtr33 by James Tynion IV, Fernando Blanco, Jordie Bellaire, and Aditya Bidikar
19. Mobilis by Juni Ba
20. X-Men Red/Immortal X-Men by Al Ewing, Yildiray Cinar, Kieron Gillen, Lucas Werneck, and more

Brandon Burpee

1. World’s Finest – Waid, Mora, and Bonvillain
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Campbell, Smith, Federici, and more
3. Darth Vader – Pak, Roberson, and Gorham
4. X-Men – Duggan, Cassara, Caselli, and more
5. Local Man – Fleecs, Seeley, Simpson, and Sobreiro
6. Daredevil – Zdarsky, Checchetto, and De La Torre
7. Peacemaker Tries Hard! – Starks, Pugh, and Bellaire
8. Ambassadors – Millar, Charest, Quitely, Kerschl, Coipel, etc.
9. Radiant Black – Higgins and Carlos
10. World’s Finest: Teen Titans – Waid, Lupacchino, and Bellaire
11. Superman – Williamson, Campbell, Dragotta, and more
12. Void Rivals – Kirkman and De Felici
13. Immortal X-Men – Gillen, Werneck, and Ryp
14. Adventures of Superman – Taylor and Henry
15. Nightwing – Taylor, Redondo, and Byrne
16. Dark X-Men – Foxe and Scharf
17. Titans – Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott
18. The X-Cellent – Milligan and Allred
19. Jean Grey – Simonson and Chang
20. Batman – Zdarsky and Jimenez