Best of 2013 Part 2c: Monthly Comics

A few days ago I did my best of 2013 list for the books I had read in the second half of the year. In a departure from previous such lists I divided the books and the comics into separate posts so that I didn’t have one massive post up. Massive posts are a bit tough to handle, especially when you are promoting them on social media. And with the split posts, the directions are different and there’s no unnecessary crossover.

So, with the novels and graphic novels already having been covered, I now delve into my favourite monthlies of the year. This is the final “best of” list I’m doing for 2013 that involves reading.

You can check out my top-of-the-month lists on my Reading Awards page and this list is both an extension, and a continuation of what goes on there.

Let’s see what makes the cut and which comes close then!

Comics Picks of The Week 02.10.2013

This week was filled with reading a lot more than just the regular DC books. I read a fair amount of Marvel stuff this time, and also other titles from other publishers, particularly Vertigo, which is a DC imprint. A lot of these comics were really good, some not so much, and that’s pretty much normal really. Never a full week of solid comics. An impossibility I think.

I wasn’t able to get around to reading any graphic novels this time around, sadly, mostly because I was caught up reading a really big fat military space opera novel. It was written by a favourite author so that helped get over that a little bit but the book still took too much time. Not to mention that I was generally short on time so had to make do with reading single issues.

Perhaps this week I can get a couple graphic novels down!

In the meantime, here’s another edition of this new feature. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.

All-New X-Men Special #1 by Mike Costa (Comics Review)

With Marvel’s ongoing Battle of the Atom crossover event across the X-Men books, I’ve finally given in and started to read these books. I was already following Brian Wood’s X-Men but having read the first month’s worth of Battle of the Atom issues, I have this hankering to catch-up on both All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, mostly because these series are still “young” and the catch-up isn’t too daunting. There’s already a new issue of the former out, yesterday, and I’ll be reading it soon.

However, before I do any of that catch-up, I decided to read Mike Costa’s one-shot All-New X-Men Special #1, following an interview he did with CBR regarding the Arms of the Octopus mini-crossover he is writing across All-New X-Men, Indestructible Hulk and Superior Spider-Man. It was a fun interview and it got me really interested in the story here, so I went ahead with reading the issue. I was expecting something a bit intriguing and entertaining. I ended up getting something that I really enjoyed on all levels, something that is worth rereading and is memorable.

Comics Picks of the Week 11.09.2013

DC’s Villain’s Month went ahead full-steam last week with a ton of new releases. And on the other side of things with Marvel, their X-Men: Battle of the Atom event also continued apace with the release of X-Men #5. My reading is still all primarily DC, thanks to Villain’s Month because there are just so many comics to read. I’m attempting to change things around but its going to be slow. Just a comic or two here obviously doesn’t work and I intend to grab some graphic novels at the least.

We shall see what happens when it happens.

In the meantime, here’s another edition of this new feature. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.