Part soap opera, part mob fiction, part slapstick comedy, part ... oh, I don't know.  You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll scream at the characters, you'll get palpitations, and you'll buy way too many of the collected stories.  Terry Moore does a fabulous job at writing and drawing this opus.

Gothic horror meets pulp SF, with the occasional Nazi mad scientist thrown in.  Mike Mignola's tale of an orphaned demon and his battle against the forces of darkness is fun, with wonderfully moody art.

I avoided this Jeff Smith work for years, thinking it was too "cartoony."  Only after I read the hundredth or so reviewer saying that this was Great Stuff did I pick it up to read it.  And they were all right.  Pick it up and read it.  Then collect the trade paperback collections.  Mythmaking and the Everyman, with a bit of the Marx Brothers and the Lord of the Rings thrown in for good measure.

Peter David has done his usual job of taking an obscure character and turning it into a meaningful, well-plotted, hilariously funny but deeply moving saga.  From being a mere distaff Superman clone in the 1960s, Supergirl is now a story of forgiveness, redemption, and an edgy acceptance of both the power of past sins and the power of hope.  Neat stuff.

Take an irresponsible son of a beloved hero (Marvel's "original" Captain Marvel, not the Fawcett 1930s character).  Add in a perpetual sidekick with more experience in the bizarre than most metahumans.  Add in non-stop humor, solid artwork, and the oddball dribs and drabs of Marvel continuity, and, if you're Peter David, you have a winner.   It's light-hearted, meaningless fun that probably only appeals to comics dweebs like myself.

A cross of Dexter's Lab with South Park and his own fevered imagination, Judd Winnick tells the tale of the smartest kid in the world.   This one has you guffawing every other panel or so, except when it actually zaps you out of left field to leave a lump in your throat.

Take every story of "bad" D&D players -- the sort who'd rather hack the bad guys than talk to 'em -- and turn those tales into a never-ending series of uproariously funny cartoons (featuring truly abysmal artwork), and you have KODT, produced by Jolly Blackburn.  Your co-gamers will be rolling on the floor.  Your non-gaming friends will scratch their heads and wonder what the hell's so funny.

Similar in concept, but broader range of humor, than KODT (it makes loving fun of comics, Goths, Internet users, and SF movies as well as gaming).  Several solid guffaws per issue from John Kovalic.

"Adventure!  Romance!  Mad Science!  An Old-Fashioned Gaslamp Fantasy for the Spontaneous Generation."  The latest madness from Phil Foglio, this one has not only been running on schedule, but is about to go color.  A mix of steam-punk, Enlightenment-era Europe, and Phil's own brand of humor, it comes complete with dirigible cut-outs in the cover for the reader's amusement.  

Another Alan Moore tour de force, this one intermingles stunning art with intriguing (when not impenetrable) mysticism.  Art by J.H. Williams III.  Imagine Wonder Woman written by Crowley, and you begin to get an idea.

Stan Sakai has successfully melded samurai fiction with anthropomorphics to come up with this beautifully crafted, always-entertaining, and often moving, long-running series about a rabbit ronin and life in medieval Japan.

Imagine if the Justice League decided to kick butt and ask questions later.  Imagine if they decided to take on the real problems of the world -- if they decided to change the world, to make it a better place, to attack the diseases, the root causes of misery, the powers behind the status quo, not just the symptoms.  That's the Authority, created by Warren Ellis.  Despite some changes in creators and scheduling hitches, it's still kick-ass entertainment.

Another Warren Ellis creation, Planetary is an organization of "mystery archaeologists, mapping the secret history of the 20th Century," seeking the truth behind the secrets, the conspiracies, and the myths of the world.  Imagine Men in Black combined with The X-Files and Total Recall.  It rocks. 

Brian Bendis shows us what life is like for the cops in a world where super-heroes exist.  From the tawdry to the tragic, this story of two police detectives -- one a former "power" himself -- is marvelous, wicked fun.

Joe has used his patented "Make the audience think one thing is happening, then WHAM them from the blind side" technique several times on this comic, to great effect.  Despite some early Imagesque art that made it nearly impossible to differentiate the characters, this is one book that deserves reading.

A year-long maxi-series.  Marvelously done.