Top reads of 2025 chronologically (1/3): The Dalgoda Omnibus (🐶👨‍🚀🚀), ElfQuest- Siege at Blue Mountain (cover to #3 is 👌), The Usagi Yojimbo Saga Book 1 (can't believe it took me this long), Into The Unbeing Part Two (out? 🚫 through? ✅️) @aboutcomics.com @elfquest.bsky.social @zacthompson.bsky.social

Warp Graphics Annual #1, featuring stories from ElfQuest, Panda Khan, Thunderbunny, a particularly horny A Distant Soil, and more. Fun! #warpgraphics #elfquest #adistantsoil #pandakhan #comicsky @elfquest.bsky.social

Starchild #9-12 (Taliesin Press), closing out the first and major arc of the series. Absolutely excellent. Gorgeous black and white illustrations, complex family histories, madness, obsession, magic, desire, and how stories make the world, literally and figuratively. #comicsky #starchild #jamesaowen

Akiko Vol. 7 "The Battle of Boach's Keep" TPB, covering issues #40-47 (Sirius Entertainment). This is my favorite story since the Alia Rellapor arc. Some genuinely emotional and affecting plot beats that I wouldn't have expected from this series. #akiko #siriusentertainment #markcrilley #comicsky

God's Hammer (Caliber Press). One of my favorites from Caliber. This is my 2nd or 3rd time reading it and it's still just as weird and bizarre and great as it was when I discovered it from a blind buy of one of the issues for 50 cents. #caliberpress #comicsky @jcalafiore.bsky.social #jimcalafiore

Negative Burn #50 (Caliber Comics). The last issue published by Caliber. Some excellent stories in here, including a Boneshaker by @philhester.bsky.social - "The Fix" - that was totally new to me! #calibercomics #caliberpress #comicsky #negativeburn #philhester

Baker Street "Honour Among Punks" TPB, which covers issues #1-5 (Caliber Press). This was fantastic. The story itself is pretty basic, but it is wholly elevated by the setting and characters. Its rendering is messy, chaotic, and perfect. Highly recommended. #caliberpress #calibercomics #comicsky

Rust #1 (NOW Comics). The internet tells me this is Vol. 2 but I swore the inside cover said Vol. 3. Either way, this was an excellent issue with beautifully painted interiors, very ethereal feeling. Oh and hyper violent. Loved it. #nowcomics #comicsky

Varcel's Vixens #3 (Caliber Press). Overall this was a fun series. Inoffensive and pretty tame, but still fun. #caliberpress #calibercomics #comicsky

Varcel's Vixens #2 (Caliber Press). Another fun romp, but what I most enjoyed was this ad on the back cover for God's Hammer. That series is one of my favorites from Caliber. If the original art for this exists anywhere, I'd pay top dollar for it. #caliberpress @jcalafiore.bsky.social #comicsky

Construct #4, #5, and #6 (Caliber Comics), closing out the series. An excellent sci-fi story about a truly post-human world with prescient themes about society, life, tribalism, and humanity. One of my favorite reads this year. #calibercomics #comicsky #pauljenkins #leoduranona

Haul from the NEComicCon: (1/2) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles #8 (guest starring Cerebus and signed by Kevin Eastman!), Cheval Noir #1, and Critters #1 (first appearance of Gen!). My favorite finds. #comicsky #teenagemutantninjaturtles @moment-of-cerebus.bsky.social #tmnt #cerebus #fantagraphics

Construct #3 (Caliber Comics). The human is revealed! I think. I'll never get tired of seeing robots wearing cloaks. #calibercomics #comicsky #caliberpress

Construct #2 (Caliber Comics). Another excellent issue. Goddamn I'm loving this. All sorts of cryptic loaded dialogue and mythmaking, espoused by robot "constructs" that are "the voice of the creator," which is referred to as "the human." Very intriguing. #calibercomics #comicsky

Myriad: A San Joaquin Graphic Story Collection #1. A cool collection of stories from 90s artists all from the same part of California. Most of them pretty cliche or silly in terms of plot, but some killer linear art (may favorite type of black and white rendering). #sanjoaquin #comicsky

Construct #1 (Caliber Comics). This was supremely cool and enthralling with awesome world building and lore. Admittedly sometimes hard to understand the staging of certain panels (because all of the characters are robots), but it didn't affect the storytelling much. #calibercomics #comicsky

The Sacrificers #17 (Image Comics / Giant Generator). No doubt this is Remender's best series to date. Absolutely savage and uncompromising. #rickremender #thesacrificers #giantgenerator

Starchild #6, #7, and #8 (Taliesin Press). This series is so goddamn good. I've never been more bummed to not have the next issue! Praying I'll find #9 and #12 sometime soon so I can finish this out. Not sure how well known Starchild is/was, but it deserves recognition. #starchild #comicsky

Klor #3 (Sirius Entertainment). It probably would've been smarter to read Animal Mystic before this spinoff, but whatever. Overall, it was okay. #siriusentertainment #comicsky

Starchild #5 (Taliesin Press). Now with Sin City parody! Or, pawody I suppose. #taliesinpress #starchild #sincity #frankmiller #comicsky

Starchild #4 (Taliesin Press). Another excellent issue. This Cerebus parody was great. I presume the use of Wolverine's hairstyle is a reference to the Wolveroach controversy? #starchild #taliesinpress #comicsky #cerebus @moment-of-cerebus.bsky.social

Swords Of Shar-Pei (Caliber Press). This is my shit right here. A surprising amount of character development. Totally uneven as a cohesive story, but each individual issue was awesome. The tagline is so hard I don't even care if it's overused. "NOT DOG... SHAR-PEI." #caliberpress #comicsky

Cheval Noir #11 (Dark Horse Comics). Another set of great chapters from The Forever War, The Roach Killer, Delirius, and Coutoo. #darkhorsecomics #chevalnoir #comicsky

The Essential Starchild Book One (Coppervale Press). Stoked to find this yesterday as I've been meaning to dive into Starchild for awhile but couldn't find the first few issues. These group drawings from Wagner, Smith, Doran, Owen, and Sim are so g/d cool. #comicsky @moment-of-cerebus.bsky.social

Haul from Crazy4Comics in Northborough, MA: Swords of Shar-Pei, Myriad, Starchild, Akiko, Aliens, Lords of Misrule, Baker Street, The Bradleys, Dr. Strange, some Dark Horse randoms with sick Darrow and Mignola covers, The Extremist, The Birth Caul, Deadworld, Roulette, and Bacchus. #comicsky

Akiko Vol. 6 (Sirius Entertainment). Stoked to have stumbled upon this today because I'm missing issues #32, #35, and #37. I definitely prefer reading the floppies, but love having the TPB in my collection. The Moonshopping storyline was fun! #akiko #siriusentertainment #markcrilley #comicsky

Klor #2 (Sirius Entertainment). I assume all of these pages were painted in color, scanned, then reduced to grayscale for printing. While I love black and white comics, grayscaling what would otherwise be colored is not my thing. The color covers are gorgeous, though. #siriusentertainment #comicsky

Finished up The Complete ElfQuest Vol. 3 (Dark Horse), so here's the back cover. The Dreamtime saga was cool, but I was most taken by this harrowing moment during Rogue's Challenge. An absolutely hellish, unsettling image that really struck me. #elfquest @elfquest.bsky.social #comicsky

Klor #1 (Sirius Entertainment). Knowing nothing about this series other than that it has some relation to Animal Mystic, this was a fun issue. Klor is just like a giant asshole I guess who is going to get converted by some portly humpty dumpty looking dude. I'm in! #siriusentertainment #comicsky

ElfQuest: Hidden Years #5, from The Complete ElfQuest Vol. 3 (Dark Horse). Goddamn the backstory for Skywise is intense. This story had my eyes bulging out of their sockets. @elfquest.bsky.social #elfquest #comicsky

Got started on The Complete Elfquest Vol. 3 today (Dark Horse). As beautiful as the color illustrations are, I so adore this comic in black and white. But it's still great! @elfquest.bsky.social #elfquest #comicsky #darkhorsecomics

Cheval Noir #10 (Dark Horse Comics). Great stories including The Roach Killer, The Tower, The Forever Wars, Coutoo (by Andreas, whom I know best from the most excellent Rork), and Delirius (Lone Sloane). The Giger cover is sick, too. #darkhorsecomics #chevalnoir #hrgiger #comicsky

The 7th System #3 (Sirius Entertainment). Just when I thought this issue was getting boring, Dominisk dies! Well, maybe. Probably not. Really wish this wasn't printed on glossy paper, though. Black and white comics belong on newsprint paper only! #siriusentertainment #comicsky

Journey #8 (Aardvark-Vanaheim). This panel really demonstrates how emotively William Messner-Loebs can render faces. Their emaciated sunken cheeks, wrinkly around the eyes, lack of distinction between skin and hair... fantastic. This works best in B&W, too. #comicsky #williammessnerloebs

Journey #7 (Aardvark-Vanaheim). While this cover doesn't do him justice, I really love the character of Wolverine MacAlistaire. He's usually rendered quite differently, though, in a way that suits him. But this here cover is fucking ugly. #comicsky #aardvarkvanaheim #williammessnerloebs

Escape #1 (Image). An excellent first issue into Remender's latest outing. This feels very grounded with no supernatural / magical elements, which I can appreciate, because while The Sacrificers is probably his best work to date, Napalm Lullaby didn't really grab me. #rickremender #comicsky

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind #4 (Viz Comics). I'm missing issue #5, but have #6 and #7. Really need to find it because I feel like I'll miss something important otherwise. #miyazaki #nausicaa #comicsky

It's Halloween, so I took my first stab at Red Room: The Antisocial Network (Fantagraphics). Bought this blindly out of support for Piskor's family and liking him on Cartoonist Kayfabe. I knew it was splatterpunk, but it's like, a fucking lot. #edpiskor #fantagraphics #comicsky #splatterpunk

Backed times a million.

Journey #5 (Aardvark-Vanaheim). Two cute stories. As it reads on the back cover: "Counterrevolution and wind... lots and lots of wind." #comicsky #williammessnerloebs #aardarkvanaheim

The Sacrificers #16 (Image). Very excited that this series is back. So absolutely intense and operatic and dramatic and powerful and surprising and fucking focused. This series is so consistently hitting on its themes ten-fold. @imagecomics.com #thesacrificers #rickremender

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind #3 (Viz Comics). I am happy to report that this issue is not oriented horizontally, it's just the cover. Phew. Another excellent issue with great worldbuilding. #miyazaki #nausicaa #comicsky

Cheval Noir #4 (Dark Horse). It's a shame that Philippe Druillet's writing is so bland given his wildly psychadelic and erratic art. Maybe it was just a poor translation, but the Loan Sloane story was disappointing. However, Fever in Urbicand was excellent. #comicsky #darkhorse

Journey #4 (Aardvark-Vanaheim). Bummed I don't have #3, but I can get the gist of what I missed. William Messner-Loebs really is an excellent illustrator. This shot of Wolverine MacAlistaire taking a dump is particularly good. #comicsky #williammessnerloebs

HAUL: Neat Stuff, Cerebus, Omaha the Cat Dancer, Journey, Dalgoda, Empty Zone, Safety Belt Man, Animal Mystic, 7th System, Klor, Fang, Artesia Afield, Akiko, Baker Street, The Realm, Snarl, Kaos Moon, Django & Angel, Starchild, Mister X, Caliber Spotlight, Saint Germaine, Airwaves, and Cheval Noir!

Cerebus #14 (Aardvark-Vanaheim). Recently picked up some floppies missing in my collection. I think this is the best cover of the issues before High Society. Also, this logo is superior to the few that came after. @moment-of-cerebus.bsky.social #cerebus

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind #2 (Viz Comics). This issue ruled. The battle with the airships was wild. Sometimes a bit hard to follow, but I'd pick up the impact of each beat which would bring me back in. Really loving the lore building with the spores, Ohmu, etc. #miyazaki #nausicaa #comicsky

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind #1 (Viz Comics). Blind buy today for $2. Not disappointed in the slightest. I don't really know Miyazaki's work, just a general sense of him culturally, but so far this is excellent. #miyazaki #moebius #comicsky

Poison Elves Vol. 1 (Sirius Entertainment). I didn't read the first two issues of "I, Lusiphur" in this book because they were almost entirely text, and Drew Hayes was not a very good writer of prose. But I enjoyed the other issues a good deal, when I could understand what was going on. #poisonelves

Finished up The Usagi Yojimbo Saga, Book 2 (Dark Horse). Unsurprisingly excellent. Grasscutter was sick, as was the entire arc of the conspiracy of eight that weaved throughout most of the stories. This painted cover from the gallery is incredible. Now to find Book 3. #usagiyojimbo #comicsky