year in review – Urbane Turtle

In 2020, in the first couple months of this Urbane Turtle experiment, I posted a Year in Review of some of the various forms of media that got me through a difficult year. I was very explicit that it wasn’t a “Best-Of,” and I did not limit it to any medium.

But after a full year as a semi-professional comic critic, I want to share with you my Top 10 comics from the year that was. There is not much in the way of ground rules for how books qualify for this list. They had to release new issues in 2021. I’ve spent the last 2 weeks catching up on a backlog of releases and am happy to finally share this with you all.

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2020 has been a hard year for everyone, there’s no way to say it that doesn’t sound trite. So let’s get it out of the way.

All things considered, I’ve been fortunate. But there have been times that living through one more unprecedented event after another has been too much to bear, and there isn’t another dish I can wash. That is where escaping into entertainment has been a saving grace, and luckily there has been a lot to enjoy in pop culture, if nothing else, while we’ve been cooped up.

This list isn’t a Top 10, and it’s not a “Best Of,” I can’t claim to have read or played or watched enough of a cross section of things that came out this year that I can say with confidence they are the best in their given medium. But they are some of the highlights of these dark times for me, ten-ish things that brought me joy or made me think. If you’ve not checked any of these out yet, it’s worth doing so.

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