Image Comics; $9.95

The creative team of writers Todd Livingston and Robert Tinnell and artist Neil Vokes - also on our list at #9 - top the Best Comic Trade Paperbacks of 2004 with another original graphic novel, one that packs even more punch than their first Image Comics hit, The Black Forest.

Where the first time out this trio blended genres by putting the adventure movies and the classic monster films of the 1930s together, this time they've combined gritty westerns and vampire tales. The resulting concoction is a highly compelling, massively entertaining read. The story flits back and forth from the “actual” events in the 1870s to the 1932 film version of what happened when the vampires came to the town of Javer's Tanks, Texas. Vokes' art is in color this time - beautifully done by Scott Keating - and the production is beautiful. The Wicked West is difficult to put down and it will be hard to forget. Don't miss it!