It's holiday time again, and The Comics Journal is done for 2018. We will be back next year with much more of the best, most relevant comics coverage on the internet. In the meantime, if you can't wait, this is a good opportunity to go back and read some of the articles we published this year that you might have missed. Here is an incomplete selection of the best pieces from 2018.
A Cartoonist's Diary:
There were many great installments of this ever-popular feature this year. Six that stood out include Marc Bell, Colleen Frakes, Alejandra Gutiérrez, Tom McHenry, Summer Pierre, and Katie Skelly.
Columns:
10 Cent Museum: Austin English began his new column with a mission statement involving Lyonel Feininger
Comic Book Decalogue: Greg Hunter with Ben Passmore
Comics Dragnet: Sloane Leong trawled the internet for fresh webcomics
Event Horizon: Tom Kaczynski on Ted McKeever's Eddy Current
Fiffe Files: Michel Fiffe on Vince Giarrano
Grid: Ken Parille looked at the plight of superhero comics
Hare Tonic: R.C. Harvey on Bill Holman
High-Low: Rob Clough on Kevin Budnik
Ice Cream For Bedwetters: Tegan O'Neil on Mike Grell's Green Arrow
Retail Therapy: Peter Birkemoe answers questions about The Beguiling
Riff Raff: Frank Santoro on John Pham
Search And Destroy: Matt Seneca on Barry Windsor-Smith's Weapon X
What Was Alternative Manga?: Ryan Holmberg on Tsuge Tadao
Features:
Alec Berry on Cody Pickrodt's defamation lawsuit (with followups)
RJ Casey wins the most controversial article of the year for the second time in a row with his take on the comiXology Originals giveaway at this year's SPX
Kim Jooha on the movement she calls French Abstract Formalist Comics
Juliet Kahn on hating Cathy
Annie Koyama on her impending departure from publishing
Bob Levin on the return of Dan O'Neill
Mark Newgarden on The Inkwell
Anders Nilsen on Geneviève Castrée
Eric Reynolds on the pernicious effects of Amazon
Cynthia Rose on Peyo and René Goscinny
Tucker Stone and David Brothers on Panther's Rage
Marc Sobel on 2001 Nights
Ng Suat Tong on Mort Cinder
Michael Tisserand on Eugene Majied
Frank M. Young on Cecil Jensen and Elmo
Interviews:
Michael Dooley with a fine arts roundtable of Marc Bell, Esther Pearl Watson, Joe Coleman, and Robert Williams
Mark Newgarden with Eddie Campbell
Alex Dueben with David Collier
George Elkind with Antoine Cossé
Jillian Tamaki with Eleanor Davis
Jeremy Sorese with Kevin Czap
Charles Forman with Max de Radigues
Patrick Dunn with Nick Drnaso
Mark Newgarden with Justin Duerr
Cynthia Rose with Brecht Evens
Alex Dueben with Liana Finck
Kristy Valenti with Ellen Forney, Megan Kelso, and Raina Telgemeier
Michel Fiffe with Charles Forsman
Ardo Omer with gg
Sean T. Collins with Phoebe Gloeckner
Rachel Davies with Anna Haifisch
RJ Casey with Zach Kanin
Tucker Stone with Ales Kot
Kim Jooha spoke to Patrick Kyle
Maryn Pedlar with Hope Larson
Josh Kramer talks to Jason Lutes
Oliver Ristau with Catherine Meurisse
Aug Stone with Roman Muradov
Alex Dueben with Cullen Murphy
Rachel Davies with Tommi Parrish
Rob Clough with John Porcellino
Alex Wong with Jason Shiga
RJ Casey with D.R.T.
Alex Dueben with Craig Thompson
Sam Jaffe Goldstein with Eli Valley
Annie Mok with Ronald Wimberly
Joe McCulloch with Jim Woodring
Reviews:
Noah Berlatsky on Out of Nothing
Judy Berman on Grace, Jerry, Jessica and Me
RJ Casey on Oblivion Song
Helen Chazan on Die Laughing
Rachel Davies on Why Art?
Toussaint Egan on LAAB
R.C. Harvey on The Goat Getters
Charles Hatfield on From Lone Mountain
Shea Hennum on Weegee
Greg Hunter on All the Answers
Robert Kirby on Flayed Corpse
Sloane Leong on Homestuck
Chris Mautner on Now 1 and 2
Joe McCulloch on Monograph
AJ McGuire on Now 3
Sara McHenry on That Night a Monster
Tom McHenry on Everywhere Disappeared
Carta Monir on Pinky & Pepper Forever
Jake Murel on Super Late Bloomer
Dan Nadel on Herbert Crowley
Brian Nicholson on Dalston Monsterzz
Tegan O'Neil on Days of Hate
Leonard Pierce on One Dirty Tree
Austin Price on Land of the Sons
Mindy Rhiger on The Prince and the Dressmaker
Oliver Ristau on Resident Lover
Sean Rogers on I, René Tardi
Mel Schuit on The Ideal Copy
Matt Seneca on Poochytown
Keith Silva on It Will Be Hard
Katie Skelly on Mean Girls Club
Tessa Strain on Prism Stalker
H.W. Thurston on The Best American Comics 2018
Edwin Turner on Tongues
Irene Velentzas on Go West!
D W on Iceland
Frank M. Young on Crazy Quilt
Obituaries:
Stan Lee (also remembered here and here and here)
