With so many best of lists flying around the web these past few weeks, it reminds me while there's tons of books moving forward, many got the ax this year because of low sales and various other reasons. The thing to remember about this is while some people may see these cancellations as a good thing, to make way for other books, every comic book series is someone's favorite comic book series, and three of my personal favorite books ended their runs this year. So let's take a look at three books I loved the heck out of that came to an end as I wipe away my tears trying to find something to replace it with.
CLONE (Skybound)
Written by Aaron Ginsburg, David Schulner, and Wade McIntyre
Art by Juan Jose Ryp
Colors by Andy Troy
When David Schulner revealed to us, over the summer, that CLONE was ending, my heart sank. This was one of my favorite on-goings because it had such a cool premise: a man discovers he's a clone and after the clones come out of the closet, America wants them dead.
There was a lot going on in this book and a lot to keep readers invested. The story was truly compelling and one of the driving forces of this book was the art work from Juan Jose Ryp. The guy packed an immense amount of detail into the pages he worked on and the book was never late or delayed. It was magic.
Sadly, this book never got a final issue. The team got to finish up the current story line and that was that. Readership never picked up on this series, which is a huge shame because this was a hidden gem at Skybound. On the plus side, I just found out the television show Orphan Black is a thing and started watching that. However, I'm still missing Luke Taylor quite a bit.
You can get collected editions this book on Comixology, or you can find yourselves the books somewhere on the new. There are four volumes of the book containing all 20 issues of this series.
SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN (Marvel)
Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Steve Lieber
Colors by Rachelle Rosenberg
Mildly spinning out of the world of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN, SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN put a group of C-List Spider-Man villains together to form the new Sinister Six. Did these villains ever actually take on Superior Spider-Man? That's not important. They did, however, cause 17 issues of laughs and over-complicated plots and planning, while dealing with the fact their all not top tier villains. Sadly, it just didn't have the readership to keep on going, even though critics loved the series.
Nick Spencer is an extremely talented writer, but this is easily my favorite series he worked on, thus far. Each issue was literally "laugh out loud" funny but it wasn't just all jokes. We actually got to know these characters through the comedy and we also got to see Silvermane in KISS makeup. That's a double win for me.
Alongside Spencer was Stevie Lieber and Rachelle Rosenberg providing a style that gave this book a distinctive look. Some of the most memorable moments in this series come from Boomerang being stuck in his own head and having fantasies that involved stick figures. Yep, this book occasionally has stick figures in it, and sometimes giant two-page spreads of car chases featuring Overdrive. This book was nuts in the best way possible.
Currently, you can pick up the single issues on Comixology or the collected editions. Currently, the first two trades of the book are out with another one hitting stores in February.
ALL-STAR WESTERN (DC)
Written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
Art by Staz Johnson, Moritat, Darwyn Cooke, and others
Colors by Michael Atiyeh
This is where the dusty trail comes to an end. After working on over 100 issues of Jonah Hex (including the Pre-52 volume), ALL STAR WESTERN came to an end. DC's book about a bounty hunter in the old west was really refreshing and writers Palmiotti and Gray put a lot of love into it and it showed.
For the most part, the comic was a pretty straight-forward western, but there were some great moments that were a bit out of the genre, like when Booster Gold transported Jonah into modern-day Gotham, where Jonah met Bruce Wayne and found out that you just can't fire a gun in public without getting in trouble.
This book also had a run of great artists, including Moritat and Staz Johnson. Both of these fine folks really defined this series, while colorist Michael Atiyeh was the glue that held everything together.
While the book is gone, you can still catch up in single issues or in trade of Comixology. Currently, there are five trades out for that book. Also, you could check out the original graphic novel JONAH HEX: NO WAY BACK by Gray, Palmiotti, and artist Tony DeZuniga, back from 2010. Luckily, if you want more, there's still tons of back issues to go through. You might be thinking "this team did over 100 issues with this character but it still ended too early?" Yes, yes it did.
While it really stinks to see some of your favorite series get cancelled, there's always a ton of other great books to check out. These were just a few of my personal favorite books that ended this year, but we want to know what you think. Were there any books this year that got cancelled that you loved?