The Comics of 2024 portion of The SKTCHD AWRDS continues today, as my absolutely real, completely not fake awards show highlights my favorite comics, graphic novel, manga series, webcomics, zines, or whatever else from 2024. That was a challenge, because this year was a monstrous one both in terms of the quantity and quality we saw from the medium of comics. To celebrate that, I’ll be handing out 25 awards to my Comics of 2024, with each award designed to highlight characteristics that stood out from each work I’m writing about.

But because this task is a very subjective one, I had rules that guided me as I decided what could or could not make my list. Those rules were the following:

• These aren’t the “best” comics of the year. I don’t believe I can determine that on my own. What I can do is share my favorites and why they stood out. That’s what this is.
• Another reason this isn’t a “best of” list is while quality was my primary determinant, I’d be lying if I said the pleasure of the reading experience didn’t factor into my thinking. So, keep that in mind.
• I only considered a single-issue title if it released a minimum of three issues — or three issues worth of pages, which is an important caveat — within the confines of this year by the time my list was complete (which was December 9th).
• Work released in 2024 was my sole focus. However, if I read it in single issues (or some other format) in 2023 or before, it wasn’t an option. Apologies to many, many trade paperbacks, 5 as well as some graphic novels that were rereleases or collected work released in another form! 6
• That said, if a comic had been released in another language but arrived in English for the first time this year, it was eligible for these awards.

That’s it! Let’s get to today’s quintet of award-winners, with my two favorites from the year being featured within.

The Hardest Decision Award: Frontier

Why it stands out: Guillaume Singelin’s Frontier earns a rare kind of award from me in the sense that it isn’t in reference to something about the book, but something about me. That’s because reading Frontier resulted in what proved to be the most challenging decision I had to make during this entire endeavor. For months, I had known with certainty what my Comic of the Year was. But reading Frontier put that in doubt. It’s just that good, and good enough that I briefly considered splitting my Comic of the Year award between two titles.

I couldn’t do that, though. So instead, this English translation of a graphic novel from France earns The Hardest Decision Award. Frontier and my eventual pick for Comic of the Year do have something in common, though, and that’s that they exist on a tier of that’s entirely their own. Like with its soon-to-be-revealed twin from this year, Frontier isn’t just one of my favorite comics of the year but one of my favorite comics ever.

It tells the story of a trio of individuals (and a baby monkey) existing in a version of the future where humanity mostly lives in space, and because people are how people are, the future and our species have been shaped by corporate greed and the exhaustion of resources — including people themselves. That’s the foundation Frontier is built upon, but really, it’s all set up for Singelin to tour the worlds and environments he’s created as this graphic novel’s leads ping pong from one status quo to another. It’s like space tourism, except our tour guides are the huddled masses that society has chewed up and spit out as they try to survive a reality that isn’t of their choosing.

That sounds like a bummer. It isn’t. This is an unbelievably entertaining and engrossing read, one that pairs Singelin’s remarkable cartooning of characters — into chibi adjacent models nonetheless — with his endless enthusiasm for filling every nook and cranny of his pages with details that reflect this reality and its denizens. To read this book is to become immersed in it. You can’t help but be swallowed up by this story and Singelin’s practically limitless imagination. This story has a ton of depth in every way a story can have depth, but it’s also the reflection of a cartoonist with real vision for both what the medium of comics and humanity are capable of — for better or worse. Frontier is a masterclass of science fiction storytelling by one of the most exciting cartoonists in comics, and easily one of my favorite reads of the year.

The Sum of its Parts Award: Helen of Wyndhorn

Why it stands out: On the strength of its creative team alone, Helen of Wyndhorn seemed likely to succeed, both in terms of sales and proving to be a quality comic. Writer Tom King, artist Bilquis Evely, colorist Matheus Lopes, and letterer Clayton Cowles are notable both individually and for their collaboration on the DC series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, so we know what they’re capable of. That meant that this Dark Horse series had both a high floor and a high ceiling. We knew that and expected it, but what this series also proved is that sometimes even known creative teams can add up to more than the sum of their parts if they find the right story to tell.

Helen of Wyndhorn has a great concept at its core. It’s the tale of a broken family, and the destructive truth at the core of said family — that the fictional reality the father of the titular Helen created for his fantasy series is actually real, with the entry to that world being near her grandfather’s estate of Wyndhorn — that’s been hidden from its lead for her entire life. That alone makes it spicy. But the fact that the creative team encases it in bookends of a sort that showcase the lasting power of stories and how some truths can prove to be too much to believe makes it that much easier. This is a unique and entertaining read, and a fantasy story that delivers a different flavor than we’re used to from the genre.

But let’s be real: While all the parts are great, this is Evely and Lopes’ show. Helen of Wyndhorn is, simply put, one of the best looking comics of the year, and a constant showcase for the gifts of Evely and Lopes. It’s an endlessly detailed comic, as we explore a world that’s loaded with wonder, peril, and big emotions. In an average artist’s hands, this could have been a solid if not unspectacular comic. With Lopes and, particularly, Evely at the head of it, it’s one of my comics of the year. It takes all four core members of the team to make something this spectacular, though, and this quartet proved themselves once again as one of the strongest creative teams working today.