“The Nerdies” are the end-of-year awards from Nerds on Earth. They are only awarded to the most excellent of things, and are selected by Nerds on Earth writers and editors, with input from readers via our social media.
Our category today is “Best Indie Comic,” and what a year for comics it has been.
This year’s slate was super impressive (pun totally intended), but we narrowed it down to four before opening the vote to determine the winner of the Nerdie Award for Best Indie Comic, namely anything not from Marvel or DC. Basically, we’re talking about creator-owned type titles here and the slate is great.
2018 Nerdie Award for Best Indie Comic
Saga
What is there left to say about a comic book like Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples? The space-fantasy book from Image has won every imaginable award a comic book could possibly win. Saga has won Eisners, Harveys, a Hugo, and everything else in between. Now, Nerds on Earth bestows Saga with its highest honor yet, our indie book of the year.
Though only six issues were published in 2018, it’s hard to imagine any book from any company that published a full schedule this past year would have been as impactful as the latest arc of Saga. Vaughn and Staples inject this series with so much humor, passion, and authenticity that when tragedy strikes, as it frequently does, it’s crushing. No spoilers here, but the ending of this arc was shocking and sad for Saga readers.
In a medium where Marvel and DC cheapen character death on a near weekly basis, Saga drives home its deep focus on characterization by keeping the stakes high. Every character stays with you. Every death matters. This last one was devastating. And now we fans have to wait for what’s next with at least a year-long intermission. No Saga for a year, but we fans will need that time to recover. I doubt we ever will.