Welcome to the 2022 Golden Issue Awards, ComicBook.coms annual celebration of our writers’ favorite movies, television, games, comics, and more from the past year. Here, we’re focusing on this year’s best comic releases, from ongoing serialized series to limited miniseries, to original graphic novels. We’ve chosen five nominees for eight categories that spotlight creators and their works. With these categories, we’re celebrating 2022’s best ongoing series, limited series, graphic novels, writers, artists, colorists, letterers, and cartoonists. These nominees will be voted on, and one winner will be selected and revealed in the coming weeks.
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There were a variety of delights to enjoy in 2022 across the comic book medium as the industry continues to rebuild after the slowdown brought on by the pandemic. The superhero genre offered fresh starts for some of its most significant icons and the latest in big-two publisher event comics. Outside of those familiar universes, creators offered compelling sci-fi, fantasy, and horror tales, as well as more personal journeys, conveyed through graphic memoirs and illuminating works of historical fiction. Comics are for everyone, and 2022 is a year that proves the saying.
ComicBook.com’s staff have considered a wide range of comics, including direct market releases and those aimed at bookstores, to put together its list of the most notable work and creators of the year. You can keep reading to see who earned nominations for the 2022 Golden Issues and check back in the coming days as we reveal this year’s winners.
Best Ongoing Comic Series
The ongoing comic book series is the backbone of the direct market serving comic book stores. They often feature the continuing adventures of popular characters who have been around for decades but, as our nominees this year show, they can also tell original stories that either remix familiar concepts or introduce something entirely new. Both can offer quality reading to comic book fans, and both are represented in our nominations. Here are the nominations for Best Ongoing Comic Series, celebrating the comics that brought us the most joy from month to month in 2022″
- The Amazing Spider-Man by Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr. (Marvel Comics)
- Once & Future by Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora (Boom Studios)
- Poison Ivy by G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara (DC Comics)
- The Silver Coin by Michael Walsh (Image Comics)
- X-Men Red by Al Ewing and Stefano Caselli (Marvel Comics)
Best Limited Comic Series
Not every story is a long-form saga, and that’s why the limited comic book series. The format can serve a variety of purposes, whether making a superhero crossover feel like an event, creating episodic installments in a series of such miniseries, letting creators explore a concept as much as it needs and no further, allowing publishers to elevate certain works with a level of additional prestige less feasible for never-ending stories. Here are our favorite examples of this from throughout 2022, our Best Limited Comic Series nominees:
- A.X.E.: Judgment Day by Kieron Gillen and Valerio Schiti (Marvel Comics)
- Aquaman: Andromeda by Ram V. and Christian Ward (DC Comics)
- Catwoman: Lonely City by Cliff Chiang (DC Comics)
- The Good Asian by Pornsak Pichetshote and AlexandreTefengki (Image Comics)
- Step by Bloody Step by Simon Spurrier and Matias Bergara(Image Comics)
Best Graphic Novel
There’s something innately satisfying about a graphic novel, a complete story told in comics and served in a single volume. Sure, some of our nominees are but the first volumes in longer series, but the satisfaction remains. This year’s nominees include vulnerable, introspective memoirs, surprising entries in popular franchises, and new tales of horror. The nominees for Best Graphic Novel are:
- Clementine: Book One by Tillie Walden (Image Comics)
- Ducks by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly)
- It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood (Image Comics)
- The Night Eaters: She Eats The Night by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
- Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith (Chronicle Books)
Best Writer
In collaborative comics, the writer is often the one creator tasked with coming up with new angles from which to view storied characters, fresh new ideas, and monthly adventures, all while providing captivating narration and dialogue. While an overbearing writer can muffle their collaborators’ voices, a strong one finds opportunities to bring out the best in the entire creative team. These are the writers whose work stood out to us throughout the year:
- Vita Ayala (New Mutants)
- Al Ewing (X-Men Red)
- Simon Spurrier (Legion of X)
- Ram V. (The Swamp Thing)
- Chip Zdarsky (Daredevil)
Best Artist
The artist is the backbone of any comic endeavor. Whether tasked with executing a collaborator’s vision or realizing ideas entirely their own, the artists’ work, their style, and their skill define a comic book. Here are the artists whose work we found most captivating throughout 2022:
- Peach Momoko (Demon Days)
- Dan Mora (Batman/Superman: World’s Finest)
- Fiona Staples (Saga)
- Greg Smallwood (The Human Target)
- Michael Walsh (The Silver Coin)
Best Colorist
A good colorist is capable of setting the tone of a comic book, the mood, and the atmosphere, and bringing new dimensionality to the penciller’s visuals. They are key to making a comic book feel like a cohesive whole, and to making the visuals pop off the page in just the right way. Here are those that stood out to us during 2022:
- Laura Allred (The X-Cellent)
- Jordie Bellaire (Ant-Man)
- Tamra Bonvillain (Once & Future)
- Marte Gracia (A.X.E.: Judgment Day)
- Matheus Lopes (Step by Bloody Step)
Best Letterer
Lettering is arguably the hardest aspect of a comic to appreciate, as many have been trained to see it as an art designed to be invisible. But while letters may often be subtle, their choices can make a world of difference in how a comic book is received by the reader, whether that’s through the pacing of the dialogue, punctuating certain lines in just the right way, or finding the best means of representing a character’s unique voice. Here are those we feel excelled in this field in 2022:
- Deron Bennett (We Only Find Them When They’re Dead)
- Aditya Bidikar (20th Century Men)
- Clayton Cowles (Daredevil)
- Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (Above Snakes)
- Rus Wooton (Deadly Class)
Best Cartoonist
“Cartoonist” can be a fuzzy term, but with this category, it’s our intent to spotlight creators who bring the entire process of comic book creation to their craft. From script to page and panel, often including colors and lettering, these creators offer the whole package when it comes to fashioning a new comic. Here are those who stood out this year:
- Kate Beaton (Ducks)
- Cliff Chiang (Catwoman: Lonely City)
- Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo)
- Daniel Warren Johnson (Do a Powerbomb)
- Tillie Walden (Clementine: Book One)
