Maybe it hasn’t said everything that it can say yet. Dead Day represents hope for the zombie genre. It’s a fascinating and smart play on zombie expectations that yields more surprises than expected. The point isn’t to further the flesh-eating bits of the monsters rather than turn into a different kind of being that keeps life from reaching its intended conclusion. Parrot’s script goes for a more cultural and social angle, on what it actually means to have dead people make visits on a yearly basis. In this case, one of the zombies has set its sights on cold retribution against those that initially got him inside a coffin in the first place. Parrot’s and Bornyakov’s tale keeps zombiism contained to single day of the year in which the dead come back to see family members or attend to unfinished business. Just when you thought everything that could be said and done with the zombie genre had already been said and done, Aftershock Comics releases Dead Day, a refreshing but still haunting tale that fundamentally challenges the idea behind “life after death”. Little Russia by Francis Desharnais (POW POW Press)ĭead Day by Ryan Parrot, Evgeniy Bornyakov, Juancho!, & Charles Pritchett (Aftershock Comics)
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It’s definitely not a comic series for everyone, but Aulisio’s incomparable style seizes your attention and commands you to take a close look at each line, panel, gesture and action. Aulisio’s frenetic scribble-like lines bring a sense of momentum throughout the series that is both refreshing and unexpected. Over the course of several issues ranging between 8 and 12 pages, we follow a space biker attempting to escape a god-like entity, who is pursuing him relentlessly. Pat Aulisio’s wordless mini-comic series Grid Observer is about movement, escapism, speed and kinetics. Perhaps it’s because the lockdown brought us all to a standstill that movement became so important to see in comics.
Grid Observer by Pat Aulisio (Self-published) Between the gorgeous art and the engaging story, this middle grade graphic novel is so good you’ll have to read it (at least) twice. While this may be the debut graphic novel for both Wright and Johnson, it reads like the assured work of experienced industry veterans. If you haven’t heard people talking about the graphic novel Twins by Shannon Wright and Varian Johnson yet, you will soon! The story is inspired by Johnson’s personal experiences with his twin brother and brought to life thanks to Wright’s inviting artwork, which is filled with consequential details that add verisimilitude to the characters. Twins: A Graphic Novel by Shannon Wright & Varian Johnson (Scholastic Kids) The following titles were nominated for the best of 2020 list by The Beat staff. Without further ado, here are the 50 best comics of 2020, as chosen by the staff of The Beat. But looking at the ocean of talents with so many stories to tell, the future looks pretty bright from where we sit. “These uncertain times” was a phrase we heard a lot in 2020 – and how the comics industry sustains itself in these new days isn’t always clear. Thank God, the medium and industry were powerful enough to survive shutdowns, lockdowns and Twitter meltdowns.
Webcomics, mini-comics, anthologies, historical non-fiction, autobiographies, fantasy, SF, haunting ephemera…Thank God for comics. Superheroes held their own with stories that showed passion and depth. Veterans cartoonists came back with books that cemented their reputations. Creators who we watched emerge as promising newcomers produced fully realized work of thrilling craft. Comics and graphic novels not only survived, but thrived as multiple new imprints and publishers made their mark and kids comics publishing exploded. Despite the upheaval in the world, reading books turned out to be a wonderful pastime for those who were homebound. 2020 challenged us all in ways we never thought we’d be challenged, but some simple pleasures made a comeback.