Yesterday was Thanksgiving, a day I absolutely was not going to write during for “I was cooking a turkey and entertaining a house full of guests” reasons. So, your regularly scheduled edition of Comics Disassembled is unfortunately not waiting for you today. Instead, you’re getting one of my favorite annual traditions on SKTCHD. It’s a look at ten things I’ve been thankful for from the year in comics, and this one might just be its most eclectic edition yet. Let’s get to it.

The Entire Country of Spain, Drawing So Well

Is it just me or does it seem like all the best artists in comics are from Spain these days? Spoiler alert for my upcoming SKTCHD AWRDS, but it will feature a fair few names from that country on the art side. And why wouldn’t it? The country has a little bit of everything to offer readers, from the blockbuster superheroics of Jorge Jimenez and insane (slash remarkable) layouts of Javier Rodriguez, the poetic beauty of Emma Rios and fierce character work of Álvaro Martínez Bueno, all the way to the mad genius of David López and the eternal glory of Marcos Martín. And that’s just scratching the surface of the artistic talent in the country.

The thing that unites all of those artists beyond simply being from Spain, though — and this is true despite the differences they may have in style — is a rare gift at comic book storytelling. You read a comic by any of them or really any number of other artists from Spain (David Aja, Javier Pulido, David Lafuente, etc. etc.) and the common ground they share is their ability to connect readers to the story they’re reading, and often in wholly unique and astonishing ways. I’m not sure what’s fueling all that. Is it the history of comic art and artists in the country? Is it the way they value the medium or even life itself? Is it in the delicious foods? It’s impossible to tell.

Whatever it is, these artists make my life as a comic book reader so much better, and their gifts are something I delight in endlessly as I marvel at what they bring to the page.

Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs, Embracing Who They Are

There’s almost a stigma around comics from the 1990s. The retrospective energy surrounding them isn’t exactly positive, both in terms of the way the industry worked and the quality of the work. And if you talk about the era, it’s almost expected that some folks will turn their nose up about them, making you feel like need to speak about the work in hushed tones only.

I get it to some degree. It was a weird time for comics, with the latter half of the decade almost killing the direct market and it being a stretch of pure, unadulterated overkill in all ways it could be — and I’m not just saying that because Overkill sounds like he could be a 1990s comic book character. Big guns, big muscles, and big pouches were everywhere, and the only thing cheesier than the cheesecake were the comics themselves at times. In short: 1990s comics could be kind of bad!

But they also could be pretty dang awesome.

That dichotomy is something Tony Fleecs and Tim Seeley clearly recognize, as their Image series Local Man doesn’t just occasionally star 1990s characters — we didn’t just get notable early days Image stars like Shadowhawk and Stryker but oddballs like Boof — it fully commits to understanding and appreciating what made those comics special and insane while building on all of it. One could say it’s deconstructing 1990s excess, but Local Man thrives because Seeley and Fleecs embrace it all while doing something new and endlessly engaging with it. It feels like the entire history of them as comic fans and creators, and seeing that duo connect with who they are as readers and storytellers in that series is exactly what I want out of comics. They could have turned their noses up to the 1990s as well, discussing the merits of Youngblood or Savage Dragon only in the privacy of their own homes. But instead, they channeled its powers into something new and honestly spectacular.

While Local Man is a comic about a down-on-his-luck superhero returning to his tiny home town with his tail between his legs only to find himself at the center of a shocking conspiracy, it’s also the story of the lifelong love affair its co-creators have with comics. That’s special. In short, Local Man couldn’t have come from anyone else, and it’s all the better for it.

Comics, Being Everything

If you looked at my favorite comics of the year lists from ten years ago, you’d find a sea of superhero comics with intermittent releases from Vertigo, Image, and others. A big part of that was I was less adventurous with my comic reading than I am now. While my pull list may have been more varied than the average comic shop customer’s, I lived a very inside the box life in terms of what I read, both out of choice and a lack of awareness. I was far more single-threaded as a reader than I am now. It wasn’t all me, though. The comic landscape was much more limited than it is now in terms of what genres and stories are both published and widely available.

But then, a growth phase hit. In the past ten or so years, variety has surged as publishing lines expanded and the number of publishers in the direct, book, and digital markets increased. There are downsides to that. Some of those publishers have proven to be bad actors, and there are probably too many comics right now for the size of the audience. But it has resulted in some astonishing work and a mind-boggling amount of diversity in the types of stories being told. If you simply looked at the list of titles being considered for my annual SKTCHD AWRDS, you’d find a staggering mix of genres. Slice of life! Science fiction! Drama! Historical fiction! Speculative autobio! Horror! Comedy! Mystery! You name it, you’d find it there. Heck, you’d even find superhero comics in there, and a variety of flavors of those as well.

There’s always hand-wringing about the state of comics and how things are really going for fans of the medium. Much of that drama focuses on which stories are not being told, with little emphasis on the incredible breadth of what is being told and the quality of much of it. Is every comic perfect or even great or good? No. But are there also probably more great comics coming out now than ever before? Almost certainly, even if you won’t necessarily find them all at your local comic book shop. And that’s fine. For those who are willing to adventure, there’s greatness waiting for you no matter what type of story you want to read. And that’s a spectacular thing, something that keeps the fire of my fandom burning bright while expanding the possibilities of what being a comic even means to me.