5 Indie Comics That Would Make Excellent Animated Series

Independent comics have become one of the most important parts of the comic industry. While there have always been self-published books and smaller companies putting out comics for decades, the 21st century has seen the rise of an entirely new ecosystem of indie comics. Back in the day, you would start out at an indie company and then get a job at the Big Two, but now it feels like people start out at Marvel or DC and then start working at Image, Dark Horse, BOOM!, Dynamite, and any number of other publishers, making creator-owned works that they can sell off for adaptations. This has led to the greatest writers and artists in the industry to create some amazing indie comics, books that have gone down as favorites of readers.

Indie comics have been having some success outside the comic industry for a while now, with one of the biggest being Invincible. An animated series based on a comic book is an amazing idea and Invincible has proven that you can do one that still stays faithful to the comics while appealing to a whole new fandon. Animated series’ are the perfect ways to take an indie comic to the next level and it’s honestly kind of surprising that we don’t see more of them. These five indie comics would make for blockbuster animated series, so finally maybe someone besides Robert Kirkman can make off indie comic adaptations.

5) Saga

Saga is one of the most beloved indie comics of all time. While you’re more likely to hear someone complaining about the release schedule than praising it, there’s only so much animosity about the delays because fans love the it and its characters so much. The book follows the family of Alana, Marko, and Hazel, soldiers from separate sides of a war who fell in love and started a family, having a daughter, on the run from the powers that be and trying to have some kind of happy life. Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples have created something special with Saga. It’s the kind of comic that appeals to anyone who reads it and that’s why it would be perfect for an animated series. It has everything you could want from an animated show – great characters, exciting action, a cool art style that would make amazing in motion, and, most importantly in my opinion, a heaping helping of emotion.

4) DIE

Kieron Gillen is low key one of the greatest writers in comics right now, his indie works running the gamut from music-loving magic users partying in London to young people given godlike powers because of an immortal’s desire to never die. He’s a man of many talents and loves TTRPGs, teaming up with artist Stephanie Han to create DIE, a comic that served as a primer for a TTRPG he designed. The series followed a group of adults who had been pulled into a roleplaying game for two years who end up going back to that world to rescue the one person they were forced to leave behind as adults, coming face to face with the trauma of their lives and the secrets within each of them. It’s an outstanding fantasy series about identity and how games help us define our lives, with Gillen and Han creating all-new TTRPG archetypes and giving readers a glimpses of the history of TTRPGs. Han has a unique style that would look fantastic in motion and Gillen’s characters will hook anyone. Add in top shelf lore and you have a comic that is more than ready to become an animated series.

3) East of West

East of West is a stone cold modern classic, teaming up two of the most popular creators in the industry right now – Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta – for an apocalyptic future Western that has to be seen to be believed. The book takes place in the 2060s, in a world where the Civil War kept getting bigger, leading to seven countries fighting over the continent of North America. The war was ended by a prophecy called the Message, leaving all of the sides in an uneasy cold war preparing for the end of world. Death, a Horseman of the Apocalypse who decided he wanted to be family man and lost that family to the other Horsemen, learns that his loved ones are still alive, leading him on a mission across the country just as the prophecy heats up. This book needs to be adapted and the best way to do that is with an animated series. Dragotta’s work on the book has the perfect anime sensibility; this comic would look amazing in action. It has deep lore, fun characters, and the kind of action that needs to be seen in motion.

2) Astro City

Astro City is one of the best comics you’ve never heard of. Created by comic legends Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson, the book took readers to the titular city and introduced them to the Samaritan, the Confessor, Jack in the Box, and many, many more. Busiek took archetypes from Marvel and DC, creating all-new versions with their own unique history. Astro City has been running for 31 years now. Counting all the ongoing series, miniseries, and special issues, there are over a hundred issues, bringing the super city to life perfectly. It’s one of those books that doesn’t get the praise it deserves and an animated series would be perfect to get it the most attention. It takes familiar archetypes and shows just how great they can be in any setting, recontextualizing the history of comic books, all while giving readers the kind of superhero epics in a mature setting that viewers love so much nowadays. Astro City is a legend and it needs to spread further.

1) Monstress

Monstress is another book that you may not have heard of but deserves way more attention. Written by Marjorie Liu with art by Sana Takeda, Monstress follows Maika Halfwolf, a girl with a psychic link to a monster in a world on the brink of war. It’s often described as a “kaiju steampunk” book, but it’s so much more than that. Liu and Takeda, both women of Asian descent, decided to set their steampunk fantasy in a world that wasn’t Western-inspired, but Eastern, giving it a unique visual identity and allowing it to explore ideas that more Western steampunk can’t. Monstress is one of those books that is usually thought of as a masterpiece by anyone who reads it, so an adaptation would be fantastic and allow more people to discover this masterpiece. Monstress is in development for TV currently, but looking at the book, it’s plain to see that it should go the animated route. It’s basically a manga already, so it might as well get the animated treatment.

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