Best and Worst Books of 2018

In some ways 2018 was a good year of reading, in others not. My favourite comics titles from previous Best Of lists thankfully continued to be dependably enjoyable and brilliant: Giant Days, Tom King’s Batman, The Fix, The Arab of the Future, Kill or Be Killed, Fante Bukowski, Gwenpool, Gerry Duggan’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and Southern Bastards.

But in terms of new titles and new creators to emerge from this year alone? For me there was just one: Nick Drnaso and his book Sabrina. Hmmm. A bit disappointing that there wasn’t a whole lot good that was published this year that wasn’t a carryover from previous years.

So, even though if I was being totally honest my top comic of 2018 would be Giant Days (again), closely followed by Tom King’s Batman (again!), with the others mentioned above filling up the remainder (AGAIN!), in an effort to be slightly interesting and different I’m giving The Best Comic of 2018 to Sabrina by Nick Drnaso (his other book Beverly is tops too and his single issue, Tell God To Blow The Wind From the West, is devastating). Fantastic creator, wonderful storyteller, great books – well done, sir!

Other quality comics I read this year, but not published in 2018, were:

Ultimate Spider-Man, Vols 1-5 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli
My Brother’s Husband, Vol 1 by Gengoroh Tagame
World of Tanks: Roll Out by Garth Ennis and Carlos Ezquerra (RIP)
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
Bottled by Chris Gooch
I Am Not Okay With This by Charles Forsman
Briggs Land, Vol 1 by Brian Wood and Mack Chater
Jessica Jones: Alias, Vol 4 by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos
Fear Itself: Deadpool/Fearsome Four by Chris Hastings et al.
New Mutants, Vol 1 by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir
Batman: Creature of the Night #1 by Kurt Busiek and John Paul Leon
Irmina by Barbara Yelin
Demon, Vol 4 by Jason Shiga
Shipwreck, Vol 1 by Warren Ellis and Phil Hester

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Worst comics of the year? Oh, where do I start ;)?

There’s too many to list, and who wants to read crap anyway, so I won’t bother. I will say though that Marvel’s output has been extremely poor this year, for the second year in a row, and I really hope things improve for them in 2019. DC’s output has also been largely crummy but that’s pretty much the norm for those guys.

Beyond their older, pre-established titles from big-name creators, Image’s 2018 publications have been decidedly weak, including their flagship title, The Walking Dead, so fingies crossed they turn things around next year. The new Dragon Ball stuff has been a let-down for me as well.

They all kinda merge into one terrible blob of nothing but, let’s see, eenie-meenie-miny – worst comic of 2018? Avengers: No Surrender!

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Onto the non-pitcher books!

To me, there’s no doubt: Normal People by Sally Rooney was easily the most powerful, most profound and most deeply affecting book I read, bar none, all year. Rooney’s my favourite new writer and Normal People is my Book of The Year.

The only other novel I really liked that was published this year was Patrick DeWitt’s French Exit which was as fun, clever and enjoyable as any of his previous works – he can’t write a bad book!

Other quality books I read this year, but not published in 2018, were:

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
Rope: A Play by Patrick Hamilton
Mr Salary by Sally Rooney

Worst novel of 2018? Fred Van Lente’s The Con Artist

Non-fiction-wise, I didn’t come across anything published this year that blew my hair back but I did come across some gems published earlier. George Saunders’ speech transcript, Congratulations, by the way, was inspiring and wonderful, and I discovered the brilliant Michael Finkel – I highly recommend his books The Stranger in the Woods and True Story, particularly for fans of Jon Ronson and Louis Theroux.

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Guys, as always, it’s been a pleasure – thanks for reading my ramblings, thanks for rec-ing me books, thanks for reviewing stuff not on my radar so that they’re on my radar, and thanks for being around! Hope you read some great stuff this year too, hope I was able to introduce you to something good, and hope you read an amazing book or two over the holidays and throughout the new year. This reading lark’s a bit fun, eh? Let’s keep it up!