Day Three of The Comics of 2024 portion of The SKTCHD AWRDS is here, and it is a doozy. This section of my absolutely real, completely not fake awards show continues my focus on the comics, graphic novel, manga series, webcomics, zines, or whatever else that stood out from 2024. And what a year it was! 2024 was undoubtedly one of the biggest in comics history, both in terms of the quantity of material and its quality. To celebrate that, I’m handing out 25 awards to my Comics of 2024, with each designed to speak to characteristics that stood out from the work I’m writing about.

But because I am me, and 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.
• I only considered a single-issue title if it had 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). 7
• 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, 8 as well as some graphic novels that were rereleases or collected work released in another form! 9
• That said, if a comic had been released in another language but was released in English for the first time this year, it was eligible for these awards.

With all that out of the way, let’s get to the next five of my Comics of 2024, with today’s slate led by an old favorite.

The Constant Award: Kaya

Why it stands out: Wes Craig’s long-running Image series Kaya faces an unusual challenge created by this era of comics. In a time where miniseries reign supreme and long-running ongoings are few and far between, it can be difficult to maintain heat for even the most notable comics. And for a comparatively long-running series like Kaya, a title that’s an artful, thoughtful fantasy series crafted by a singular creator and his partners-in-crime in colorist Jason Wordie and letterer AndWorld Design, it could be an even bigger problem. To paraphrase Harvey Dent from The Dark Knight, your average comic series either dies a hero or lives long enough to be overlooked for end of the year lists. People have a tendency of gravitating towards the new hotness when these types of celebrations come together. So, with that in mind, how does a creator sustain positive momentum when you’re 20+ issues deep?

For Craig, it seems the answer is quite simple: by making a comic that is really, really good, and consistently so.

It’s hard to sleep on Kaya if only because the craft remains so world-class. Craig is a phenomenal cartoonist and an outrageously gifted storyteller. While the story of the titular Kaya and her chosen one brother Jin is a good one, one where readers are taken on a tour of this world its creator has imagined as our leads try to get to a place where the latter can develop the requisite skills necessary to fulfill his destiny, it’s really how Craig tells the story that stands out. The layouts, the character acting, where he places the camera, what he leaves to the art instead of the words…everything. You name it. Craig is an impeccable craftsman, someone who knows the story he wants to tell and knows that the only way he can do that is by being himself.

In an era of change in comics, Kaya stands out because it’s a constant. A constant because of the primary voice behind it. A constant because of its uniform quality. A constant because it’s always its own thing. So, sure, it’s been around for a while, and some sleep on it because of that. But Kaya’s still got it, just as it always has — and assuredly always will until Craig reaches this story’s conclusion in the way he knows to be best.

The Superhero Comic of the Year Award: Local Man

Why it stands out: It’s long been said that superhero comics are perpetually stuck in the second act. Most characters have been around for so long that true introductions are rare, even with constant relaunches, and finality and/or true progress are often mythical ideas in the genre — especially these days. Neutral is the gear they stick to, even though they are constantly dealing with endings and beginnings of some variety. That’s baked into these stories, and it’s something most readers understand to be true, even if it can be frustrating at times.

Maybe that’s why Local Man hit me as hard as it did. Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs’ Image Comics series about a failed superhero going back to his hometown to find out who he is after he was kicked out of the world’s preeminent superhero team is a celebration of its creators love of 1990s cape comics. But it’s more than that. This story is fundamentally built on a level of “what’s next” that’s typically impossible for the genre. Its main focus is on evolution. What happens when a superhero cannot be a superhero anymore? Who are they without that side of them? And what do they do when they realize they didn’t like who they were then anyways? Oh, and what happens when your already really old dog accidentally becomes immortal? These are all great questions, and ones Seeley and Fleecs dig into.

All that combines to make a comic that isn’t just a series of fantastic jokes about how insane (and amazing) 1990s superhero comics were, but a story that has depth, emotion, and progress in a way we rarely get to see in this space. Crossjack, the hero at the heart of Local Man, may in fact suck. But what Seeley and Fleecs posit is that doesn’t necessarily mean the man underneath the mask (of a sort) has to. That makes for a much more interesting story, and one that only continued to improve throughout the three arcs and 15 slash 25 issues that made up its run. Local Man was certainly atypical for this genre, but thanks to that in part, it was the finest superhero comic I read in 2024.