ON HEAVY ROTATION : MY END OF 2025 COMICS WRAP-UP.

COMICS

Jan 01, 2026

In my reading, as you can see, comics are BACK for me in a big way so I thought I’d just give you a little introduction to my thinking when it comes to these things as it might seem like a huge subjective curveball to regular readers of this blog.

About 25 years ago I was as heavily into the form as a person can be, but due to some grim associative things up to that point I’d dialled back my obsession a bit, but now thankfully I seem to be over all of that. A source of huge relief and joy, the form holds some huge magic for me and has done since my childhood. “Peanuts”, “Asterix”, “Calvin & Hobbes” and “The Far Side” were all huge constants for me growing up, embedding a solid passion for the newspaper strip and single panel aspects that still abides with me today.

I was never that into superhero comics. The only characters I returned to were Frank Miller’s take on Batman and Alan Moore’s subversions of the “hero” in work like “Watchmen” and “Top 10”. The soap operatics of Spider-Man and the flag shagging of Superman never appealed to me in a lasting way. This being the case and in reflection of the sort of prose I generally read, the world of underground comix was just waiting for me to discover it.

My best friend at the time hipped me to Jim Woodring, R. Crumb, Peter Bagge, Chris Ware, Jamie and Gilbert Hernandez, Julie Doucet, Johnny Ryan, Daniel Clowes, Joe Matt, Seth and by proxy of this literally hundreds of other people. I also discovered the extraordinary books published by Seattle’s Fantagraphics and Montreal’s Drawn & Quarterly, two companies who’s taste and curation has hardly ever turned me wrong. To call my realisation of this immense, richly populated but admittedly niche universe a revelation would not be an understatement.

Certain countries have a highly productive and deeply respected cartoonist community and have done since the 19th century. In France, Belgium, Japan, Canada and of course America making comics is a vocation that holds a deep place in their respective cultural melange. I find the deep history of the comic form absolutely fascinating and consistently hilarious, which is of course the point.

Anyways here’s what I read in that regard during 2025 :

Milk White Steed - Michael D. Kennedy. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2025)

The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor - Bryan Talbot. (Jonathan Cape. 2025)

Dirty Plotte : The Complete Julie Doucet. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2025)

The Weight - Melissa Mendes. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2025)

Drome - Jesse Lonergan. (23rd Street. 2025)

The Devil’s Grin - Alex Graham. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

Yokai : Shigeru Mizuki’s Supernatural Parade. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2025)

My Gorilla Family - Iijima Ichiro. Translated from the Japanese by Ryan Holmberg. (Smudge. 1970)

Dogtangle - Max Huffman. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

My Favourite Thing Is Monsters : Book One & Two - Emil Ferris. (Fantagraphics. 2018/2024)

Nocturnos - Laura Pérez. Translated from the Spanish by Andrea Rosenberg. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

The Complete Far Side : 1980 / 1994 - Gary Larson. (Andrews McMeel. 2014)

Ultra Heaven - Keiichi Koike. Translated from the Japanese by Ajani Oloye. (Last Gasp. 2024)

Nausicaä of The Valley of The Wind - Hayao Miyazaki. (Viz Media. 1982/1994)

Death in Trieste - Jason. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

Cannon - Lee Lai. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2025)

Buff Soul - Moa Romanova. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

Processing : 100 Comics That Got Me Through It - Tara Booth. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2025)

Muybridge - Guy Delisle. Translated from the French by Helge Dascher & Rob Aspinall. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2025)

Love & Rockets Library 13 : Angels & Magpies - Jamie Hernandez. (Fantagraphics. 2017)

Love & Rockets Library 15 : Children of Palomar & Other Tales - Gilbert and Mario Hernandez. (Fantagraphics. 2023)

Akira : Vol 1 & 2 - Katsuhiro Otomo. Translated from the Japanese by Yoko Umezawa, Linda M. York & Jo Duffy. (Dark Horse. 1982)

NO. 5 : Book 1 & 3 - Taiyo Matsumoto. Translated from the Japanese by Michael Aries. (Viz Media. 2021)

Tokyo These Days: Book 1, 2 & 3 - Taiyo Matsumoto. Translated from the Japanese by Michael Aries. (Viz Media. 2021)

Zegas - Michel Fiffe. (Fantagraphics. 2017)

The Swamp & Other Stories / Nejishiki - Yoshiharu Tsuge. Translated from the Japanese by Ryan Holmberg. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2020/2023)

Red Flowers & Other Stories - Yoshiharu Tsuge. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2024)

Wake Up Pixoto! - Weng Pixin. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2025)

Hate : Revisited / The Complete Hate : Volume One - Peter Bagge. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

A Drifting Life - Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Translated from the Japanese by Taro Nettleton. (D&Q. 2013)

The Wrestler - John Kenn Mortensen. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

Masterful Marks : Cartoonists Who Changed The World - Monte Beauchamp. (Simon & Schuster. 2014)

Santos Sisters - Greg & Fake. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

Night Drive - Richard Sala. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

Search & Destroy : Vol 1 & 2 - Atsushi Kaneko. Translated from the Japanese by Ben Applegate. (Fantagraphics. 2019/2025)

Cornelius : The Merry Life of a Wretched Dog - Marc Torices. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2025)

The Giant Jam Sandwich - John Vernon Lord & Janet Burroway. (Red Fox. 1972)

The Wendy Award - Walter Scott. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2024)

The Cabbie Vol 1 & 2 : Definitive Edition - Martí Riera. Translated from the Spanish by Katie LaBarbara & Andrea Rosenberg. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

We All Got Something - Lawrence Lindell. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2025)

The Complete Peanuts : 1981 / 1982 - Charles M. Schultz. (Canongate. 2015)

A Doorway to Joe : The Art of Joe Coleman. (Fantagraphics. 2023)

Big Questions - Anders Nilsen. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2011)

Tongues - Anders Nilsen. (Jonathan Cape. 2025)

You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation! - Fletcher Hanks. (Fantagraphics. 2009)

The Weirdo Years : 1981 ~ 1993 - R. Crumb. (Knockabout/Kitchen Sink. 2013)

Precious Rubbish - Kayla E. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

Mansect - Koga Shinichi. Translated from the Japanese by Ryan Holmberg. (Smudge. 2025)

Holy Lacrimony - Michael DeForge. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2025)

Baby Blue - Bim Eriksson. Translated from the Swedish by Melissa Bowers. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

Tedward - Josh Pettinger. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

Nancy & Sluggo’s Guide to Life : Comics about Money, Food and Other Essentials - Ernie Bushmiller. (New York Review Comics. 2024)

Nancy Wears Hats - Ernie Bushmiller. (Fantagraphics. 2025)

Crumple : The Status of Knuckle - Dave Cooper. (Fantagraphics. 2000)

The New Yorker Cartoon Album : 1975 / 1985 - Various Artists. (Andre Deutsch. 1986)

A Single Match - Oji Suzuki. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2010)

The Adventures of Tintin : The Black Island / The Calculus Affair - Hergé. Translated from the French by Michael Turner & Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper. (Egmont. 1938/1960)

Wimbledon Green - Seth. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2006)

It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken - Seth. (Drawn & Quarterly. 1996)

The GNB Double C : The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists - Seth. (Drawn & Quarterly. 2011)