Publisher of the Year 2010

I'm gonna go ahead and cast my vote. This is the way I see it being I spent MOST of the year buying new comics. I tried sampling from as many companies as I could and came up with pretty much the following conclusions.


Marvel - Marvel has a couple of titles that still remind me of the glory days and when they do it right, they can do it better than just about anybody. But unfortunately, Marvel is sitting on too much crap and the quality is not on par as the sheer amount of crap.

DC - DC had a tough year. If I didn't know all the outside news, I wouldn't have thought they did half bad. I tried with all my might to stay in grasp with Brightest Day because the few issues I got were pretty good in both story and art. But the sheer amount of books to keep up weighed me down. Also their Batman output can use some serious cutting. I'm getting too tired of being drawn into what looks promising only to be disappointed when it arrives. Batman is being rammed down my throat by DC and I'm about to resent it. Otherwise, I give DC props for weathering the storm and deciding to cut titles and prices. I know I'm in the minority, but I look for them to rebound in the future.

Image - Every time I give Image a chance, I find myself disappointed and this year was no different. I think Image United was an absolute disgrace to the craft of comic publishing. I really think they should be ashamed. However, no one can deny that no matter what you think, Walking Dead shined for them and Image still comes out of things looking pretty. They further followed it up with flashes of heat with Skull Kickers and Morning Glories. It's no doubt that no matter what this company does, they continue to come up a winner. I'm not always sure they deserve it, but it's clear enough people still care about them to make sure they stick around.

Dark Horse - I'd have to say their year was utterly disappointing and reminded me of almost every other year I've ever seen from them. They may be the most boring comic company to ever last as long as they have. I really can just never remember when lots of people were really buzzing about Dark Horse. They came out of 2009 looking like they were going to shake things up with the launch of Valiant Gold Key titles and instead undersold the whole notion that they needed to put quality people on these products and sell it with marketing and good covers. Instead as with just about everything I ever remember, they just bored me to tears and yet I still try a few of their books out hoping they will stick, but they just never seem to with me.

IDW - This company changed it's logo which I thought was welcome because I always hated their silly light bulb, but the new logo is just as bland as the old one. They were also touted as being a Previews Preferred Publisher, I can't remember, I think they called it Diamond. Anyway, for as much as they were touted coming into the year, I don't really have any memorable moments with them. And in this case, I feel IDW had a down year because momentum appeared to be on their side and they just seemed to underwhelm in 2010.

Boom - They seem to be finding a market with younger audiences with their licensed titles and also putting out a few nicely packaged but kid friendly Stan Lee comics. I've also heard a few good things about Irredeemable and Incorruptables. I'd say this was a solid year for them even if it is only as mostly a niche publisher. They seem to be finding their place and working it. I'd say they were a riser in 2010.

Dynamite - I'm tending to like what this brand of comics does with their stuff. Yeah, they overproduce the hell out of some covers, at least I can say that they generally have a nice look to most of them. I think Dynamite might be a riser eventually too. I find myself looking and even buying their stuff and when finished, I haven't generally been disappointed. Maybe not blown away, but feeling better buying their product than a lot of others out there. I'm hoping they continue what they've started. I think they have a little momentum going into 2011.

Aspen - Seems well in the background to me and in need of a breakthrough. Certainly the death of Michael Turner was a big blow to this company in 2008 but it doesn't appear to me at least like they've managed to build much since his passing.

Radical - Seems the only time I buy from them is when they have special priced low cost comics. I think it's a shame. I think their production values are higher than most comics but I don't think they've had a real solid over the top hit yet. I keep hoping these guys will breakthrough but so far, I'm still waiting.

So who wins with me? Mind you, this is just me. My vote. What attracts me and makes me want more and makes me feel like a company is getting it's act together. I don't have sales figures or anything to back any of this stuff up. This is all just my own personal feelings, but my personal vote for Publisher of the year is.....


AVATAR!!!

Big shock right? Okay, so maybe they only have Crossed and Night of the Living Dead currently. And yeah, they seem slanted more towards horror and gore than anything else. The fact of the matter is, no one is shaking the mold of pose-a-thon, stare down, seen it before, been there-done that kind of covers and stories like these guys are. Looking at their cover galleries, I just keep looking at covers and thinking "that looks cool". Even if it isn't my favorite subjects, they still seem to do it in a way where I at least want to look. And when I do get their books, they are genuinely well done, fun reads and with great art. I am quite enamored with them right now and I'm shocked because I went into buying this year not really having a feeling much for any of these companies because it had been nearly 2 years since I could actively buy comics and to be honest, when I see new comics, for the most part I yawn and think dammit, please....for the love of god, please stop doing that shit over and over! I'm SOOOO sick of that shit. Well, after a few months I have convinced myself that Avatar has impressed me with if nothing else, breaking the mold of boring looking comics. And I for one appreciate it. I may not come back here next year and hand it to them again. But in 2010...for me, they stood out. And I think they deserve the award, at least from my side....as Publisher of the year.

If you wanna disagree and vote for someone else, I'd certainly be glad to see what you think. That's why this thread is here!

Who wins it for you?

My vote for best publisher is IDW-Strong showing with very diverse line of major license properties Transformer, G.I. Joe, Dr. Who, Star Trek, Ghostbusters, True Blood, Machete, among many others. The properties that have been published by other companies Star Trek, Dr. Who, Transformers and G.I. Joe have had a lot of classic runs reprinted. They have also helped bring back many great comics from the 80s and 90s like John Byrne's Next Men, Grimjack and Jon Sable: Freelance and they have had working with relationships with Desperado Publishing and they have released The Art of Jim Starlin (and The Art of George Perez is slated for a February 2011), EA Comics (which just finished Dragon Age), comicmix.com (which publishes online comics), and they have to bring back Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Boom!-Boom has a good set licensed properties Die Hard, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, The Muppets, Darkwing Duck, Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers, Scrooge McDuck, and the rest of the Disney books. The rest of their line seems to rely way to much on Mark Waid and while Stan Lee's new superheroes line has his name he's basically plotting and editing books. The same with Kurt Busik on Dracula: The Company of Monsters.
I'm reading Irredeemable and Incorruptible in TPBs and IMHO Irredeemable is starting to get boring and Incorruptible seems only to be there an upcoming crossover between them. Darkwing Duck seems to be the only book that I like.

Marvel-X-Factor is the ONLY ongoing series from Marvel that has remained great, some great mini-series like: The Spectacular Spider-Girl, Spider-Girl: The End, Nemesis, Thunderstrike, and Captain America: Man Out of Time have been good but outside of those titles I really don't give a shit about the rest of the Marvel Universe.

Dark Horse-Other than Mass Effect DH has been a very BIG disappointment to me. The Dark Key books suck, I'm sick of Star Wars, Aliens, Predator and The Terminator comics I don't care that much for Conan: The Barbarian and Hellboy. The few Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Serenity comics that I read aren't as good as their TV shows and movies are.


Avatar-Since I used to read Avatar Comics when I was younger most of their titles were little more than porn. They burned me out on nude and adult covers and more expensive extended editions of their crap. I know G and BigW will say they don't do that anymore or they do it a lot less now. Frankly nothing they put even remotely interests me.