Even though it felt like it lasted forever, 2020 is finally behind us and while many are ready to move forward and not look back at the chaotic and challenging time, when it came to entertainment 2020 wasn’t all bad. Especially in the world of comics and graphic novels, 2020 was a year with some truly outstanding offerings despite the challenges. With that in mind, the ComicBook.com team came together to choose the best in entertainment — television, movies, comic books, and games — from the past year.
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With the pandemic briefly disrupting the world of comic books in 2020, graphic novels in particular had a time to shine offering readers a complete story to enjoy during uncertain times and within that category, there were some outstanding offerings last year, delivering to readers complex and engaging stories as well as some of the greatest achievements artistically, pushing boundaries and, even if for a few pages, taking the reader to other worlds and adventures. Some made us think, some made us laugh or cry while others reimagined tales we thought we already knew. There was stiff competition in this category in 2020, but there can be only one winner.
And the winner of the 2020 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Graphic Novel is…
Dracula, Motherf**ker! by Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson!
Published by Image Comics, Dracula, Motherf**ker! took the familiar Dracula story and flipped it on its head by taking the themes of gender roles and sexuality so present in the Dracula mythos with a reimagined continuation that puts the power firmly in the hands of the vampire’s brides. Mix in the psychedelic hues and cultural cues of the early 1970s and a bit of grindhouse horror and pulp, and the result is a story like no other where the scares are rooted not in what goes bump in the night, but the imbalance of power that holds people down — undead or otherwise.
A tricky concept even without working with such an iconic story, de Campi’s writing is incredibly sharp and fine-tuned. From cover to cover the story delivers perfect pacing, revealing the right bits of information at the right time to slowly unfold the terror. Both a slow burn and a thrill ride, it’s never dull something aided spectacularly by Henderson’s art and colors. The story leaps off the page in full, vibrant psychedelic color, but the art itself creates a story within a story. Paired together, de Campi and Henderson create a Dracula story with a pulse, one that easily makes it the best of the best.
Nominees:
- Blue in Green
- Dracula, Motherf**ker! — WINNER
- Hedra
- Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio
- Planet Paradise
