The 2017 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Awards Nominations for Comics

Welcome to the 2017 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Awards, where we here at ComicBook.com take a look back at the year that was and choose the best of the best in comics and comic book-related media.

Here, we are specifically looking at actual comic books, the medium that has birthed the superhero movie and television boom while also containing a multitude of stories unlike anything in film and television.

It was quite the year for comics in 2017. The Marvel Universe underwent a hostile Hydra takeover in the Secret Empire event and came through the other side to begin the Marvel Legacy era. Meanwhile, DC Comics continued its Rebirth and development of the Young Animal imprint, producing “comics for dangerous humans” as curated by Gerard Way.

But while the big two continued their event cycles, the rest of the comics industry put forth great new and continuing works. Image Comics published some of the most beloved creator-owned comics on the market, including Saga, Seven to Eternity, East of West, and more while also introducing new works like Angelic, The Old Guard, God Country, Black Cloud, and others.

Dark Horse Comics, which is already the home of Hellboy and the BPRD universe, introduced a brand new superhero universe with Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormstom’s Eisner-winning Black Hammer, which has already spawned spinoff Sherlock Frankenstein & The Legion of Evil with more on the way in 2018.

IDW Publishing continued to release some of the best licensed comics in the industry, including its ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line and Transformers lines. BOOM! Studios found a new cult sensation Giant Days and a new hero in Mech Cadet Yu, and Valiant continued to build its own superhero universe with the relaunch of X-O Manowar, the debut of Bloodshot Salvation, and miniseries like Rapture, Secret Weapons, and Eternity.

The staff of ComicBook.com considered all of these great titles in paring down the list of nominees that follows.

Best Comic Series

The Best Comic Series category is where we nominate the best ongoing series, new or continuing.

These series represent the finest of the challenging art of sequential storytelling, which is unique in how the audience is able to judge the work as it is being written.

The nominees are:

• Doom Patrol (Young Animal; Gerard Way, Nick Derrington, Tamra Bonvillain)
• Saga (Image; Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples)
• The Ultimates 2 (Marvel; Al Ewing, Travel Foreman)
• Batman (DC; Tom King, David Finch, Mitch Gerads, Mikel Janin, Joelle Jones, Clay Mann)
• Copra (Copra Press; Michael Fiffe)

Best Limited Comic Series

The Best Limited Comic Series category represents those comics that come with the numbered with an “of X” attached.

These comics keep in the serialized comics tradition, but are begun with a clear ending in sight. Their limited nature allows for some of the finest artists available, those whose linework may not lend itself to the harsh monthly or bi-monthly schedule of an ongoing series, to express themselves in a less confined way.

The nominees are:

• Mister Miracle (DC; Tom King, Mitch Gerads)
• Aliens: Dead Orbit (Dark Horse Comics; James Stokoe)
• Rapture (Valiant; Matt Kindt, Cafu, Robert De la Torre)
• Secret Weapons (Valiant; Eric Heisserer, Raul Allen, Patricia Martin)
• Runaways (Marvel; Rainbow Roswell, Kris Anka)

Best Graphic Novel

The Best Graphic Novel category represents the comics that you’re at least as likely to find on a bookstore shelf as a you to find on the rack at a comic book store.

While there are exceptions, these graphic novels tend to take on a much wider variety of subjects than traditional serialized comics, from memoir to true crime to fantasy or anything else, as illustrated by this year’s nominees.

The nominees are: 

• Fantasy Sports 3: The Green King (Nobrow Press; Sam Bosma)
• My Favorite Thing Is Monsters (Fantagraphics; Emil Ferris)
• Spinning (First Second; Tillie Walden)
• Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero (Drawn & Quarterly; Michael DeForge)
• Boundless (Drawn & Quarterly; Jillian Tamaki)

Best Indie Comic

For better or worse, the direct market for comic books is dominated by the “big two” publisher of Marvel and DC Comics. The Best Indie Comic category is where we make sure that the creator-owned and small press titles get their due.

This year’s nominees include several superhero stories existing outside the Marvel and DC Universe’s, as well as space opera and epic fantasy.

The nominees are:

• Copra (Copra Press, Michael Fiffe)
• Saga (Image; Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples)
• Seven to Eternity (Image; Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, Matt Hollingsworth)
• X-O Manowar (Valiant; Matt Kindt, Tomás Giorello, Doug Braithwaite, Clayton Crain, Renato Guedes)
• Secret Weapons (Valiant; Eric Heisserer, Raul Allen, Patricia Martin)

Best New Series

Any creative industry lives and dies by the strength of its newest ideas and comics are no different. Without an influx of new ideas or creative revisions on old ideas, the comic book industry would stagnate and wither away.

This category honors the series that launched in 2017 that most ignited our optimism for the future of comics.

And the nominees are:

• Runaways (Marvel; Rainbow Roswell, Kris Anka)
• X-O Manowar (Valiant; Matt Kindt, Tomás Giorello, Doug Braithwaite, Clayton Crain, Renato Guedes)
• Mister Miracle (DC; Tom King, Mitch Gerads)
• Black Bolt (Marvel; Saladin Ahmed, Christian Ward)
• Mech Cadet Yu (BOOM! Studios; Greg Pak, Takeshi Miyazawa)

Best Writer

Comics is a collaborative medium, but the ideas often start with the writers.

The nature of mainstream comics means that writers are often capable of working on multiple series at once, balancing different narrative, characters, and sometimes entire universes at once.

Our nominees are the writers whose imaginations fueled some of our favorite stories, in comic books or otherwise, of the past 12 months.

The nominees are:

• Tom King (Batman, Mister Miracle)
• Christopher Priest (Deathstroke, Inhumans: Once and Future Kings)
• Al Ewing (Rocket, Royals, USAvengers, The Ultimates 2)
• Greg Rucka (Black Magick, The Old Guard, Wonder Woman)
• Brian K. Vaughan (Paper Girls, Saga)

Best Artist

Comics is, has always been, and will always remain a visual medium above all else. 

A writer may pen the script, but a script it will remain until the artist puts pen to page.

These artists sculpt characters from blank white pages and build worlds out of nothing, but more than that they convince us that time passes and that movement takes place on a static page. They create the tension of a fight scene or a car chase to life without the benefit of actors or visual effects.

The nominees are:

• Nick Derington (Doom Patrol)
• David Marquez (Defenders)
• Fiona Staples (Saga)
• Christian Ward (Black Bolt)
• Kris Anka (Runaways, Star-Lord)

Best Colorist

With all due respect to the many, many fantastic black-and-white comics that have been created over the years, colorists are an important and too often overlooked part of the creative team involved in the creation of a comic book.

The colors on a page create the mood, informing the reader of what the tone is meant to be and what they should be feeling at any given moment, and providing the pop that brings a static image to life.

The nominees are:

• Jordie Bellaire (All-New Guardians of the Galaxy, Batman, Hawkeye, Occupy Avengers, Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Punisher MAX: The Platoon, Redlands, Royals)
• Tamra Bonvillain (America, Doom Patrol, Secret Empire: Brave New World)
• Matt Wilson (Black Cloud, Paper Girls, Runaways, Star-Lord, The Unworthy Thor, The Wicked and the Divine)
• Dave Stewart (BPRD: The Devil You Know, Hellboy and the BPRD, Hellboy: Into the Silent Seas, Lobster Johnson, Maestros, Mother Panic, Rasputin: Voice of the Dragon, Shaolin Cowboy: Who’ll Stop the Reign?)
• Elizabeth Breitweiser (Kill or Be Killed)

Best Inker

The contributions of a talented inker to the final page of art can often be overlooked, but all it takes is a look at a raw pencil page to understand how much goods inking adds to a comic book story.

Inkers create depth and shadow, giving comic book artwork a raw edge or smooth finish.

The nominees are:

• Jonathan Glapion (Dark Nights: Metal, Suicide Squad)
• Danny Miki (The American Way: Those Above and Those Below, Batman, Dark Days)
• Jay Leisten (Green Lanterns, The Incredible Hulk, Monsters Unleashed, Weapon X, X-Men Gold)
• Mark Morales (Astonishing X-Men, Deathstroke)
• Scott Williams (Dark Days, Suicide Squad)

Best Letterer

Its often said that the best lettering goes unnoticed because it so seamlessly integrates itself into the art.

There’s certainly truth in this, as bad lettering can make a comic book unreadable, but there’s more too it than just that.

Lettering helps define the voices not just of the characters whose words are being represented, but of the stories they exist in as well.

The nominees are:

• Joe Caramagna (Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider, Darth Vader, Doctor Aphra, Falcon, I Am Groot, The Mighty Captain Marvel, Runaways, USAvengers, The Unstoppable Wasp, Weapon X, X-Men Blue)
• Janice Chiang (Die Kitty Die!, Gumby, Riverdale)
• Clayton Cowles (Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, Astonishing X-Men, Bitch Planet: Triple Feature, Black Bolt, Bullseye, Edge of Venomverse, Generation X, Invincible Iron Man, IvX, Justice League of America, Mister Miracle, Nightwing: The New Order, Occupy Avengers, Redlands, Royals, Secret Warriors, Thanos, Venom)
• Chris Eliopoulos (Spider-Men II)
• Marilyn Patrizio (Batman, Justice League)

Favorite Publisher

Finally, we come to publishers. For better or worse, comic book publishers have an unusual amount of visibility compared to their counterparts in other mediums – how many people read a book based on the publisher or see a movie based solely on the studio that produced it? – but with this comes great responsibility as well.

These publishers can serve many different purposes. They are custodians of the unique narrative experience that is the multidimensional, time-shifting shared universe where the modern mythology of superhero exists. They also have the responsibility to ensure that new talent finds a place in the comics industry and that unique voices are heard. To that end, we also considered imprints with their own mission statements and editorial oversight when choosing nominees for this category.

The nominees are:

• DC
• Image
• Marvel
• Valiant
• Young Animal