Old names and ambitious first-timers produced great graphic novels on everything from teen friendship and time travel to horrifying murder mysteries From The Big Short to Normal People: the books that defined the decadeWith so many hairpin turns over the last 10 years, it makes sense that the greatest and most inventive works in comics would come from unexpected, contradictory corners: young adult and horror. As the YA comics market boomed, it attracted more and more brilliant cartoonists, with superstars such as Raina Telgemeier finding a huge readership outside the world of superheroes. At the same time, new voices such as Emily Carroll and old ones such as Al Columbia produced far darker, yet necessary, visions of the world
Over this decade of upheaval, many fortunes have reversed. DC relaunched its entire shared universe as The New 52 in 2011, then threw in the towel and returned to the status quo after five years. Marvel spent the decade integrating the corporate values of its new owner,
Disney, into its editorial decision-making to become far slicker, if more divided between nostalgia plays for older readers and squeaky-clean comics for kids. Some reclusive creators produced new work, including Columbia’s Amnesia: The Lost Films of Francis D Longfellow. Some industry stalwarts received long-due accolades, such as Lynda Barry’s MacArthur “Genius” grant. And the decade produced a pile of amazing, beautiful comics, many of them from voices that hadn’t been heard before 2010. Here are my favourites.