We have excluded our own publications including Scoop, The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, The Official Price Guide To Mickey Mouse Collectibles, and The Official Price Gide To Pop Culture Memorabilia: 150 Years of Characters & Collectibles. We have also not included our favorite online monthly, the fantastic Toy Collector Magazine, because different Scoop contributors have frequently contributed to it.

As usual, John Morrow, Roy Thomas, Michael Eury, and all of our friends at TwoMorrows Publishing performed very well in this category. Here's the countdown:

Best Publication About Comics, Characters, or Collectibles #10 – Modern Masters – Volume 18: John Romita, Jr.
TwoMorrows Publishing; $14.95
It would be difficult to imagine another artist who has had the impact on Marvel Comics over the past thirty years that John Romita, Jr. has had. His work on Amazing Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men, Daredevil, Thor, and Iron Man, among others, has set him among the top artists in the company’s history. Shorter runs on titles such as Punisher: War Zone, Wolverine, The Eternals, and Black Panther have been no less memorable. Writers George Khoury and Eric Nolen-Weathington have captured the significance of this major creator in the latest Modern Masters book from TwoMorrows, and any Romita fan will want to check it out.

Best Publication About Comics, Characters, or Collectibles #9 – Alter Ego #76
TwoMorrows Publishing; $6.95
This issue, editor Roy Thomas presents a spectacular interview with comics industry legend Joe Simon, creator of Captain America among other things, about his long and storied career. Interviewer Jim Amash asks the questions and we get the benefit of Simon's recollections. Not to be missed by Golden Age fans!

Best Publication About Comics, Characters, or Collectibles #8 – Modern Masters – Volume 15: Mark Schultz
TwoMorrows Publishing; $14.95
The rich and beautiful art of Xenozoic Tales creator Mark Schultz gets the spotlight in the latest Modern Masters volume from TwoMorrows Publishing. Accompanied by copious illustrations from various stages of Schultz's development process, the lengthy and wide ranging interview in this edition provides readers with an insight into the writing as well as the art of this popular creator.

Best Publication About Comics, Characters, or Collectibles #7 – Charlton Spotlight #6
Argo Press; $7.95
Charlton Spotlight #6 is the latest issue of the lovingly created magazine that spotlights the comics, characters, and creators of the longtime former publishing house Charlton Comics. This issue features extensive samples and two full, previously unpublished comic stories, one of E-Man and one of Mike Mauser, both written by Nick Cuti and illustrated by Joe Staton, their creators. Space Western, Doomsday+1, Sarge Steel, Dr. Graves, Peacemaker, Thane, Son of Vulcan, and Mastermind are among the featured properties, and along with Cuti and Staton creators in the spotlight include Steve Ditko, Tom Sutton, Dick Giordano, Don Newton, John Buscema, Bill Fraccio, Tony Tallarico, Ray Dirgo, George Wildman, Sal Gentile, Joe Gill, Pat Masulli, and others.

Best Publication About Comics, Characters, or Collectibles #6 – Leonard Maltin’s Movie Crazy
Dark Horse Books/M Press; $19.95
Each issue of Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy, the noted critic-historian's somewhat quarterly newsletter, is packed with tidbits from Hollywood days gone by. It frequently features interviews with, or articles about, lesser known stars or behind the camera talent that aren't as well known to today's fans, but that's not to say it's lacking in star power. There have been plenty of well known celebrities featured in its pages, too. Over the span of its issues to date, Maltin has done an excellent job of painting an insightful picture of the film business for what he has described as a modest subscriber base, unlike like his more well known projects (such as his annual movie guides).

Now the interviews and features of the first five years of Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy have been collected into one volume, a great new book from Dark Horse Comics' M Press imprint. Ranging from some great research on what could have been Orson Welles' second film to a candid interview with Father Knows Best's Robert Young, and from interviews with two pioneering female animators (Betty Kimball and Marie Johnston) to explorations of Hollywood's PR history, this book is a page turner for anyone remotely interested in how things used to be in the movie business.

Congratulations to Leonard Maltin on yet another great contribution to film history and to Dark Horse's Mike Richardson for publishing it!

Best Publication About Comics, Characters, or Collectibles #5 – Back Issue #27
TwoMorrows Publishing; $6.95
If you’re a fan of comics from the 1980s, how long have you waited to read creators Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland interviewing each other about Camelot 3000? Now, with a collected edition finally on the way, these creators participate in the latest of Back Issue’s Pro 2 Pro interviews. There’s a lot more, as usual, but this would have been enough for us by itself.

Best Publication About Comics, Characters, or Collectibles #3 [Tie] – Modern Masters – Volume 14: Frank Cho
TwoMorrows Publishing; $14.95
The National Cartoonist Society Award, the Charles Schulz Award, and numerous other recognitions have gone to Liberty Meadows creator Frank Cho, so why not the one of these Modern Masters books from TwoMorrows Publishing, too? With work on Shanna the She-Devil, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Savage Red Sonja, Jungle Girl, and The Mighty Avengers behind him, what makes this creator tick and what’s coming next? Interviewer Eric Nolen-Weathington opens up Cho’s career and creative process in this excellent volume (longtime Cho fans will want it as a companion to the excellent and out of print Frank Cho Illustrator).

Best Publication About Comics, Characters, or Collectibles #3 [Tie]-  Comics NOW! Magazine #3
Comics Media Partners; $5.99
Seventy years of Superman, the use of decompression in comics storytelling, and plenty of columns, news, and information are packed into the latest issue of this new publication for comic book fans. The Skrulls and Hellblazer also get the spotlight in this issue.

Since we saw the first issue of Comics Now!, we've known it was worth watching. This issue looks like these guys are pulling it together into something we can really look forward to issue after issue. We hope it continues along these lines!

Best Publication About Comics, Characters, or Collectibles #2 – The Flash Companion
TwoMorrows Publishing; $26.95
Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, and Bart Allen have more than a few things in common, but the central comparison is that each of these DC Comics characters have been better known as The Flash, the fastest man alive. Now writer Keith Dallas takes readers on a speedy tour through publishing and superhero history with The Flash Companion, another in the seemingly endless series of invaluable volumes from TwoMorrows Publishing. With articles about the early creators who shaped the character (including editor Julie Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox) and interviews with more recent writers and artists (such as Mark Waid and Scott Kollins), this book is packed with an incredible amount of information. There’s something in it for Flash fans of every generation.

Best Publication About Comics, Characters, or Collectibles #1 – Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles
IDW Publishing; $49.99
We're somewhere between speechless and babbling, and let's just get this out of the way right now: yes, this book is that good.

While the rest of us sit around and ponder just how we knew next to nothing about Noel Sickles previously, Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell can enjoy the fact that they have put together one of the best definitive volumes on an artist we've seen in a long time, or maybe ever.

The "ever" part comes in because most have never heard of Noel Sickles, and this book is easily going to put him back on the radar of discerning fans. Even in-the-know artists who have been aware of his major contributions to the world of comic strip storytelling are going to be blown away by the scope of this book, which is one part career retrospective and one part collection of Sickes' all too brief years on the Scorchy Smith strip.

Starting with an introduction by artist Jim Steranko, the book details his approach to art, his long friendship with Terry and the Pirates creator Milton Caniff, and his avoidance of self promotion, which is part of why many don't know his work even if they've been influenced by it.

Scorchy Smithy and the Art of Noel Sickles would be a steal at double the price. Our congratualtions, and thanks, to Mullaney, Canwell, and the folks at IDW Publishing for this tremendous piece of history. No library comic strip collections will be complete without it.

Even if these guys decided to quit right now, the service they have provided to the history of comics would be landmark. With Scorchy Smithy and the Art of Noel Sickles, they have set the standard for collected editions.