Favourite Comics of 2023 Part Two: Mark Waid's Shazam!, Tradd Moore's Doctor Strange: Full Sunrise, Alex de Campi's Parasocial, Bad Karma

Once more, I pull from my favourites from DC, Marvel and indie presses. For those who know of Mark Waid, it should be no surprise that he and Dan Mora are absolutely having a blast on Batman/Superman: World's Finest, and their readers arem too. Also, Marvel, in particular, surprised me with Tradd Moore's bending, gob-smacking Doctor Strange: Full Sunrise, while Alex de Campi kept producing superior creator-owned Parasocial and Bad Karma with Saskatoon artist Ryan Howe (always have to plug fellow Canuck artists). Image seems to producing phenomenal creator-owned books, so they got two spots.

DC
Batman/Superman: World's Finest, writer Mark Waid and artist Dan Mora

2023 was quite the year for both Waid, penning a World’s Finest: Teen Titans revamp and Shazam! and Mora, also drawing Shazam!, gifting art lovers with many breathtaking covers and interiors. It’s no surprise then, that Waid, a masterful character writer and neo-classic scribe, is obviously having so much fun writing Bruce and Clark in a classical way, but just skirting outside of trenchant continuity. Mora’s gloriously detailed, heroic and expressive pencils shine in this whimsical title. This combination wooed me. While it’s a master class in character writing from Waid, the accompanying pencils from Mora warrant a re-read. Waid always pens a heartfelt script and a plot that does some unexpected and entertaining turns, such as minor character beats as Supergirl and Robin having an unresolved feud in the background. I found myself pre-ordering the collected hardbacks. And still do.

Marvel
Doctor Strange: Full Sunrise
Apparently, Tradd Moore and Heather Moore had carte blanche to show the good doctor journeying through the spiritual plane, getting through all manner of kaleidoscopic escapades. The result was this trippy, oversized, visual feast. Moore’s art takes centre stage. And for this, I am grateful. On terra firm, Strange acts as a mid-wife to an otherworldly character holding Strange’s life in balance. Stephen Strange’s other-dimensional adventure features phantasmagoric splash pages and sweeping vistas. While there are allusions to Gnosticism, this yarn’s all about the trip, not these religious allusions, and a tremendous tribute to trippy Silver Age experimentation that was a way to draw out the college hippie set. Heather Moore’s colour palette is bonkers. (Ed. note: Where has this colourist been all my life? I must pay more attention and look into them.) The journey is mind-bending and dense. Strange appears as arguably a slender transwoman or at the very least androgynous. I would wager that the whole works would make Steve Ditko himself, a heady Doctor Strange architect, blush with pride and appreciation. Once again, this is a book that might very well stand outside of continuity, unlike anything else from Marvel in 2023, for readers who want a stunning, expansive journey with the Sorcerer Supreme.

Indies
Parasocial from Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson
Bad Karma from Alex de Campi and Ryan Howe
I have committed it to print before and will do so again-de Campi writes across genres and so exceedingly well. Some have compared her to a modern Alan Moore, and in this sense, this descriptor is accurate.

Parasocial (Image Comics)
Parasocial, de Campi and Henderson’s second collaboration, is billed as a modern version of Stephen King’s Misery. That said, it does expand far more on this fan-celebrity symbiosis. In the end, both parties come out looking culpable. Parasocial is particularly timely, given the modern pop-cultural addiction to social-media use and consumer adoration of a particular TV show or movie or celebrity, the latter of which often has feet of clay. Once again, de Campi shoehorns in social shredding or social commentary into the plot without making it completely feel she is doing so. Henderson’s pencils disarm readers because her work is seemingly simplistic and cute. Beware messenger, as anyone who read their redux feminist goth Dracula! Motherf**ker!, knows. This story goes dark, disabusing the presumptive reader of that notion. The duo proves once again they can do contemporary horror and suspense.

Gorgeous cover by Tony Stella.

Bad Karma (Image)

Bad Karma, de Campi’s team-up with Canadian artist Ryan Howe and artist Dee Cunniffe, is a stunner of an original graphic novel. Damaged army vets Ethan and Sullivan discover that Aaron Carter, an innocent man, is on Death Row for a mercenary job they did a decade ago and embark a Christmas road trip to save him. So, it’s pulp to bone. And as I read it,

Bad Karma just kept getting better and better. It felt as though an auteur directed a 1980's action flick that was too smart for a studio film script with fallible, loveable characters. Ethan’s ex-wife Cheryl is also not resigned the traditional limiting supportive girlfriend/nagging wife/vindictive ex role. She kicks some serious ass. Howe's art seems deceptively simple at first but is, in fact, nuanced. Dee Cunniffe's colour palette and use is dynamic and moody. de Campi explains in the afterword that she spent four years doing this one, first as a Panel Syndicate webcomic, enjoying it all the while and after raising funding, took Bad Karma to Image Comics. All this hard work and love shows in each panel. Bad Karma is fun and sad and smart as hell and sometimes feels like you’re watching an action movie circa 1985, such as the original Lethal Weapon flick.