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There’s just a few hours before the Jewish year 5769 becomes 5770, so we’re using the opportunity to reflect upon the best comics the past year had to offer.

1. The Complete Essex County by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf Comix)

This flawlessly rendered, potently melancholic collection hit me like a punch in the soulnuts–and I couldn’t care less about ice hockey. An interlocking trilogy, Essex County documents almost a century in the lives of an extended family in a small farm town in Canada. Estranged brothers. A lonely son. A wayward nun. Lemire captures generations of disconnect in a heartfelt (as opposed to sterile Bergman-y) way, and somehow, after so much sadness, he leaves the reader feeling inspired.  JEFF NEWELT

2. Tales Designed to Thrizzle by Michael Kupperman (Fantagraphics)

3. Asterios Polyp by Dave Mazzucchelli (Pantheon)

4. The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames & Dean Haspiel (Vertigo/DC)

5. Little Nothings Vol2. by Lewis Trondheim (NBM Publishing)

6. A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Drawn & Quarterly)

7. Brat Pack by Rick Veitch (King Hell Press)

8. The Beats by Harvey Pekar, Paul Buhle & Ed Piskor (Hill & Wang)

10. Masterpiece Comics by R. Sikoryak (Drawn & Quarterly)

Related Posts:

The Best of 5768: Comics

The Best of 5767: Comics

The Best of 5769: Television