10 Best Comic Books Of 2018

by Ewan Paterson

1. Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles

The Snagglepuss Chronicles
DC Comics

Honestly, who would've thought that, in 2018, we'd be talking about a Snagglepuss comic being one of the best comic books on shelves?

And yet, despite how obviously surreal that statement is, it feels so right to say that The Snagglepuss Chronicles was one of the finest stories of the year. What Mark Russell, Mike Feehan and Ben Caldwell have created is nothing short of extraordinary, and it all - somehow - stems from Hanna-Barbera's cartoon of a pink cougar.

Russell had previously deployed the characters of the Flintstones to great success just the other year, but Snagglepuss goes one step further by recontextualising the character during the second Red Scare, when The House Un-American Activities Commission loomed over Hollywood with a hysteric obsession regarding 'subversive' activity. The demagogic populism of Senator Joseph McCarthy was in, and countless creatives were called before HUAC as a result.

The year is 1953, Puss himself is a gay, Tennessee Williams-esque playwright, and it is from this premise that Russell tells one of the most heartfelt, intelligent and thought-provoking comics of the year, if not this decade. It is masterful, devastating, and stunning in equal measure, and it comes from the unlikeliest of characters.

Simply incredible.

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What were your favourite comics of the year? Let us know down in the comments below!

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.