The Beat’s Best Comics of 2025
The Comics Beat | Beat Staff | December 11, 2025
Four D+Q Books Named to The Comics Beat’s Best Comics of 2025!
Cannon by Lee Lai
"In her sophomore graphic novel, cartoonist Lee Lai provides yet another masterclass in character-driven storytelling. Through engrossing queer-platonic relationships and devastating (yet relatable) family dynamics, we witness the unravelling of the eponymous Cannon, a chef whose life has in no way come together the way she might have hoped. Lai employs a monochromatic color palette and animal imagery to give visual weight to Cannon’s anger, regret, and grief, creating a deeply intimate, tension-filled narrative that’s hard not to stay enmeshed in even well after turning the final page." — Samantha Puc
Cornelius: The Merry Life of a Wretched Dog by Marc Torices
"Cornelius opens with a lie: the several hundred pages we are about to read are a snapshot of the 300-year history of the iconic, Mickey Mouse-like cartoon mascot of the fictional nation of Maiame. This lie sets up a dizzying, fragmented narrative of metafiction and humor, the story of a loathsome tramp in the trappings of a beloved kids cartoon. The book is structured, sort of, as a series of strips in differing art styles meant to represent different eras in the publication history of Cornelius. Of course, they all form together to tell a bigger story so that artifice, too, is a lie.
Throughout, Marc Torices hides footnotes around the edges of the page, leading you to the backmatter annotations that outline the fictional history and controversies of Cornelius and the company that publishes the character. Altogether, it’s a glorious, postmodern condemnation of “good guy” narratives and screed against the exploitation of art for capital and an industry that churns through cartoonists. Torices embraces influences as varied as Camus and Mickey Mouse, Matt Furie and Neon Genesis Evangelion. It’s a surreal journey and a towering accomplishment." — Tim Rooney
Holy Lacrimony by Michael Deforge
"Channeling the experiences of Billy Pilgrim, Michael DeForge plants protagonist Jackie—the saddest man in the world—on an alien planet where he’s asked to teach its inhabitants how to be sad. The aliens don’t have any concept of sadness. For them, it’s performance art. But after he successfully teaches the aliens how to perform sadness (per their rubric, which isn’t entirely clear), he returns to earth and finds community with others who have apparently been contacted by aliens themselves—authenticity pending. This book is bizarre, and a little bit stiff, and terribly melancholy. And it’s excellent. So it goes." — Samantha Puc
Milk White Steed by Michael D. Kennedy
"Milk White Steed is a singular work, and I am personally very glad for its publication this year by D&Q. With an easy confidence in his distinctive visual language, Michael D. Kennedy weaves together a beautiful set of West Indian British folk tales. Unafraid of diasporan specificity, Milk White Steed traverses the UK’s Midlands across decades (with occasional stops in outer space). And with rich, inky textures and mood-making magical realist colors, this dreamy book really rewards unhurried, intuitive reading." — Adam Karenina Sherif
"In her sophomore graphic novel, cartoonist Lee Lai provides yet another masterclass in character-driven storytelling. Through engrossing queer-platonic relationships and devastating (yet relatable) family dynamics, we witness the unravelling of the eponymous Cannon, a chef whose life has in no way come together the way she might have hoped. Lai employs a monochromatic color palette and animal imagery to give visual weight to Cannon’s anger, regret, and grief, creating a deeply intimate, tension-filled narrative that’s hard not to stay enmeshed in even well after turning the final page." — Samantha Puc
Cornelius: The Merry Life of a Wretched Dog by Marc Torices
"Cornelius opens with a lie: the several hundred pages we are about to read are a snapshot of the 300-year history of the iconic, Mickey Mouse-like cartoon mascot of the fictional nation of Maiame. This lie sets up a dizzying, fragmented narrative of metafiction and humor, the story of a loathsome tramp in the trappings of a beloved kids cartoon. The book is structured, sort of, as a series of strips in differing art styles meant to represent different eras in the publication history of Cornelius. Of course, they all form together to tell a bigger story so that artifice, too, is a lie.
Throughout, Marc Torices hides footnotes around the edges of the page, leading you to the backmatter annotations that outline the fictional history and controversies of Cornelius and the company that publishes the character. Altogether, it’s a glorious, postmodern condemnation of “good guy” narratives and screed against the exploitation of art for capital and an industry that churns through cartoonists. Torices embraces influences as varied as Camus and Mickey Mouse, Matt Furie and Neon Genesis Evangelion. It’s a surreal journey and a towering accomplishment." — Tim Rooney
Holy Lacrimony by Michael Deforge
"Channeling the experiences of Billy Pilgrim, Michael DeForge plants protagonist Jackie—the saddest man in the world—on an alien planet where he’s asked to teach its inhabitants how to be sad. The aliens don’t have any concept of sadness. For them, it’s performance art. But after he successfully teaches the aliens how to perform sadness (per their rubric, which isn’t entirely clear), he returns to earth and finds community with others who have apparently been contacted by aliens themselves—authenticity pending. This book is bizarre, and a little bit stiff, and terribly melancholy. And it’s excellent. So it goes." — Samantha Puc
Milk White Steed by Michael D. Kennedy
"Milk White Steed is a singular work, and I am personally very glad for its publication this year by D&Q. With an easy confidence in his distinctive visual language, Michael D. Kennedy weaves together a beautiful set of West Indian British folk tales. Unafraid of diasporan specificity, Milk White Steed traverses the UK’s Midlands across decades (with occasional stops in outer space). And with rich, inky textures and mood-making magical realist colors, this dreamy book really rewards unhurried, intuitive reading." — Adam Karenina Sherif