ComicsAlliance’s Best Of 2016: The Best Comics For Teens

We often talk about the importance of diversity at ComicsAlliance, but we don't just mean "put more women and POC in comics." We want to see the true diversity of peoples' lives represented in our art, and Backstagers by James Tynion IV and Rian Sygh does a fantastic job of that. It shows a wide range of what masculinity can look like through the lens of a group of theatre kids at a private boys' school. The world behind the scenes is magical (literally) and a place where teens can truly become themselves. [Emma Lawson]

As someone who hasn't been a teenager for nearly a decade now, Giant Days presents a vision of what I wish those years were like. The drama is all painfully familiar, but I can't pretend my adventures were as thrilling as those of Susan, Esther and co, or that I was anywhere near as smart and funny as John Allison's dialogue, or as well-dressed and beautiful as Max Sarin's renderings of the cast. I wish I had been. Hell, I wish I was now. [Alex Spencer]

Last year, Kelly Thompson, Sophie Campbell, M. Victoria Robado and the rest of their team relaunched Jem and the Holograms as a comic, and captured the hearts of readers with their imagination and passion. One of the best new comics of 2015 continued as one of the best of 2016 as Thompson, Campbell, Jen Bartel and Meredith McClaren gave us an evil version of the team and re-introduced the Stingers, helping maintain Jem's place as an essential book for teen readers. [James Leask]

When the Archie reboot was announced in 2015, I snarked that the mandate seemed to be, "Make sure our characters actually look, dress and behave like modern #teens." But reading it, I was floored. Mark Waid gets what makes these kids work, and the brilliant artists he's paired with, including Fiona Staples, Veronica Fish, and Pete Woods, make it all a joy to read. Hopefully, the title sticks its course and keeps being something I can show everyone from younger relatives to my mom — all of which makes it the perfect continuation of Archie's 75-year legacy. [Tom Speelman]

The preteen years bring a change in perception: as children we're enamored with the present, but once we cross a certain threshold all thoughts become fixed to the myriad promises of the future. In this retro, time-twisting, coming-of-age sci-fi by four grown men (Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matt Wilson and Jared K. Fletcher), four teenage girls are confronted with exactly that. In Paper Girls, all the energy and frustration of those chaotic preteen years age is apparent in a YA adventure that also features pterodactyls, giant insects, a war between the generations, and underage smoking. It just gets it, man. [John Parker]