To be honest, the intro to my 2012 comic-books-in-review entry could be swapped into this space and require next to no editing. Though I’ve now been reading and collecting comics for 35 years, the field and I continue to drift apart. The majority of what’s being offered at local shops nowadays too often falls into two categories that aren’t for me: titles susceptible to company-wide crossovers; and adults-only creator-owned works interested in pushing boundaries beyond the limits of what I can leave lying around the house without feeling guilty. The more these categories expand, the more my finicky preferences are marginalized.

That’s not to say my pull list is restricted to Scooby-Doo and Highlights Magazine. Several titles found their way onto my weekly reading stack in 2013, many of them proudly so. I put off spotlighting them here on MCC for a few reasons:

1. Entries about comics consistently draw the least traffic of all subjects.
2. My recurring frustrations with the medium nowadays leave a bitter taste that’s not fun to dwell on.
3. So many other subjects keep snaring and holding my attention first.
4. I reread last year’s summary and depressed myself with how little had changed.

Now that C2E2 is coming up this weekend, what better time to cross this off my to-do list, traffic or no traffic? The following, then, were my favorite comic book series throughout 2013, in no particular order:

This way for my Top 9…