LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! Behold, this year's Hammy Awards! Where the writing staff gives a wink and a nod to the finest in comicdom and throws some serious shade at the undesirables.
Important opinions herein!
Madman's Picks:
Comic of the Year:
The top nod has to go to Manifest Destiny again. There are zero books out currently that can hold a candle to Dingess’ and Roberts’s work.
No surprise here. Matthew Roberts for his amazing Manifest Destiny covers.
Best new comic:
Maybe it’s fueled by my love of the Netflix Daredevil show, but I'll take as many issues of Daredevil/Punisher as Marvel can throw at me. Great artwork and writing.
Most Overrated:
Spider-Gwen
Most Underrated:
I've been preaching the Gospel of Spider-Woman since issue uno and haven’t had a reason to stop yet. It's fun to see how a superhero deals with being pregnant and then a single mother raising her baby. Fun stuff. And, oh yeah, Porcupine the babysitter!
Most Disappointing:
Outcast. Damn, be it The Walking Dead comic or Outcast, it seems Kirkman’s writing is running out of steam and becoming extremely predictable. Summary of Outcast would be as such…exorcism into fist fight…repeat.
Rob Liefield:
The Coming of the Supermen my ass. Every time I convince myself to pick up a book with Superman in it I end up hating it so much. I don’t even think I finished the first couple of issues before I used them to clean dog poo off my shoe. Seriously, I hate you DC wankers.
Best miniseries:
Off the top of my head I can barely remember what miniseries that I read to be honest. I’ll go ahead and give it to Drive, because I remember that one. Fast cars and jackassery on the streets of LA. The artwork more then made up for the watered down plot.
Worst Miniseries:
Marvels new Civil War mega event reboot thing. Zero cares were given.
Writer of the year:
I so want to say BKV, but seeing as Saga has seemed to slip a bit; I'm giving the honor to Manifest Destiny's Chris Dingess.
Artist of the Year.
Saga's writing may have slipped but the artwork has not. I gotta go with Fiona Staples here. One of my all time favorite eye candy dealers and she’s just getting started.
Art Bee's Picks:
Comic of the Year:
My pick for this year’s Comic of the Year was an easy choice. Manifest Destiny is the best comic on the roster. It double teams you with amazing artwork and killer story. The current Sasquatch story arc has me jonesing for the next issue every month. Since the series started, they have not failed to deliver a great issue.
Over the past year, very few covers have excited me. Having to pick one to be the best for the year is a tough choice. Darth Vader #19 would have to be it. This cover is very sharp with Vader standing behind two other force users with lightsabers drawn. The cover reminds me of a cosplay pose for a picture at a comic convention and that is always a plus in my book. Who doesn’t like cosplay?
Best New Comic:
Tales From the Darkside was an amazing new series that has hit the scene recently. For those of us, who are suspense and horror fans, there are no better people to have behind the wheel than Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez.
Most Overrated:
About three years ago my fellow HCB companions turned me on to Saga, and at that time it was a very good story. Over the last year the series seems to have strayed from the story to take on some political topics. Truly I felt the side track in the story destroyed the storyline. I wished it was only an issue or two, but it seemed to go on and on. This was a comic which was dropped from my pull list.
Most Underrated:
Over the course of this last year Skottie Young started pouring out a series called I Hate Fairyland (or the variant title, Fuck Fairyland). This is a nice little spin on a fairy tale that is full of funny antics along with some comic violence. If you have not picked up an issue of this series, do so. You will not be disappointed.
Most Disappointing Comic:
During the SpiderVerse event, Marvel introduced a new character, Silk. Instantly my heart started beating to the rhythm of her webs. Unfortunately Marvel treats their commodities as secondhand whores, so after putting this fresh new character into her own title, they diluted it down so much with events and crossovers it was impossible to understand what was going on without getting Spider Woman, Spider Gwen, etc.
Most Likely to Be Burned First for Heat in the Event of a Post Apocalyptic Earth “This is the End” Scenario (AKA The Rob Liefeld):
Of all of the titles over the last year to be burned for heat, my choice would definitely be DC’s The Flintstones. This was not only a huge letdown, but a crappy job at a comic book.
Best Miniseries:
The only thing Marvel has been doing right, in my opinion, is the Star Wars line. This year they produced a nice mini-series called Obi-wan & Anakin. This wasn’t the greatest mini-series ever, but it was the best of the very few I read this year. Besides how can someone go wrong with Obi-wan and Anakin.
Worst Miniseries:
Abstain.
Writer of the Year:
Writer of the Year was one of the hardest choices to make. This was a decision between Joe Hill (Tales From the Darkside) and Chris Dingess (Manifest Destiny). Both of these writers are extremely good at what they do. With that said my choice for this category is Joe Hill, and he is an amazing comic writer. His pen produces gold.
Artist of the Year:
This was the second hardest choice to make. Again, this choice is between Tales from the Darkside (Gabriel Rodriguez) and Manifest Destiny (Matthew Roberts). Each artist has incredible lines and depictions that bring the story to life in great ways, but “there can be only one”. My pick for Artist of the Year is . . . Matthew Roberts!
Will Dubbeld's Picks:
Comic of the Year:
Southern Bastards. Jason Aaron and Jason Latour have knocked it outta the park, or driven it into the end zone is more apropos, with this one. Dirty, wretched southerners doing horrible things to one another, drugs, murder, and BBQ are the order of the day. I love this book and I'm not even much of a football fan. Well done, gentlemen.
Best Cover Art:
DC Variants. I'm not talking 1:100 retail incentive bullshit, but the 50/50 promotions. They've done a whole run of outstanding John Romita, Jr. variants, and I'm talkin' JRJR on his A-game, a like run of Neal Adams covers in which he homaged HIS OWN classic DC covers, AND a series of coloring book variants.
Are they gimmicky? Well . . . yeah. That's the point of variants. Maybe it's my misspent 1990s youth, but I'm on board with what DC is selling.
This is a bit skewed, but I'm giving this to 451 Media Group. A fledgling company that has dropped some seriously creative titles deserves the bump. ExMortis is a WWII piece about a Dirty Dozen-style of monsters in the vein of DCs old Creature Commandos, Bad Moon Rising was about a werewolf biker gang (with art from Bong Dazo!) and Self-Storage is about some whites trash dudes buying a storage locker with a sole item of interest: a zombie girl.
Good stuff, across the board.
Most Overrated:
Whatever Nick Spencer is writing at the moment. I loved this guy's Superior Foes of Spider-Man book, but the former aspiring politico has now graduated to higher profile books and has taken the opportunity to cram political rhetoric down our throats. Not cool. Comics sure can be a platform for political statements, but Spencer is hamfisted about it and probably should stick to Ocean's 11 with Spidey's rasslin' partners.
Most Underrated:
KARNAK! Goddamnit, Karnak! Warren Ellis! An Inhuman that hasn't undergone Terrigenesis! Dude judo chops a building in half in the first issue!
Come on, people!
Cancelled by issue 8, I reckon...
Most Disappointing Comic:
Elf quest: The Final Quest.
Fuck me . . .
Elfquest was my absolute jam when I was a lad, and I stuck with it through Kings of the Broken Wheel. Recent offerings have been less than impressive...
The Pinis may have reached the bottom of the well when it comes to story ideas, and Wendy's art has deviated from a style that was very much her own and instead adopted a more manga-influenced approach.
Bloated story and yaoi-style art abound, along with disappointment.
Absolute Dumpster Fire:
Paper Girls. Damn, I wish it wasn't so, but this book could've been phenomenal but instead is dreck. All the pieces were there, but Brian Vaughn just went off the rails and tried to jam square pegs into round holes. Apparently Netflix's Stranger Things is the t.v. show I wished the Papers Girls comic was.
Best Miniseries:
Klaus.
Santa Claus as seen through the lens of Grant Morrison. GTFO, how is anybody NOT reading this series? Hit or miss, love him or hate him, Grant makes an impression and is in top form here.
Worst Miniseries:
Civil War II.
Granted, we're not through the series yet, but this thing reeks of editorial mandate because there was a movie called Civil War coming out. It also is pushing the Inhumans over Mutants trend and is penned by the not very good Latter Day Bendis. Skip it.
Writer of the Year:
Jason Aaron, step the hell up!
He shook my faith a bit (a lot . . .) with Original Sin, but he came back swingin' and recaptured my heart.
Southern Bastards, Doctor Strange, Thor, and The Goddamned are some of my favorites right now and all have the same scribe.
Well done, sir.
Artist of the Year:
Chris Burnham.
This guy can DRAW, you guys. Nameless is a beautiful horror show of detail, viscera, and non-Euclidean geometries. Phenomenal line work, insane composition and a grand sense of scale earn Mr. Burnham the top spot.
There you are, folks. This years’ Hammy Awards. Our sincerest congratulations to the winners, and to all the losers...
Do better.
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