Every year, all us lucky critics at PW Comics Week vote on what we thought were the best graphic novels of the year. Some years, it’s tricky combing through all the great work. Other years, there’s a lot of great work but one or two titles stand out and make our job relatively easy.

2021 was one of the latter. Rarely a good idea to vote against Bechdel (whose winner, The Secret to Superhuman Strength, I wrote about for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune).

The results of this year’s PW Graphic Novel Critics Poll were published today. Here’s a quick rundown of what won:

1. The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
2. Run: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, L. Fury, and Nate Powell
3. No One Else by R. Kikuo Johnson