Three more mainstream news outlets - Forbes, NPR, and Mental Floss -have chimed in with their best of 2016 lists, including a number of familiar titles and a few surprises, running the gamut from superheroes to self-published fan work.

Rob Salkowitz at Forbes compiled his list of the best comics of 2016, which consists mostly of creator-owned and independent publications:

  • Angel Catbird by Margaret Atwood and Johnnie Christmas (Dark Horse)
  • The Fix Volume 1 by Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber (Image)
  • March Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf)
  • Monstress Volume 1 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda (Image)
  • Panther by Brecht Evans (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Patience by Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics)
  • Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Toward a Hot Jew by Miriam Libicki (Fantagraphics)
  • The Vision Volume 1 by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles (Marvel)
  • The World of Edena by Moebius (Dark Horse)

NPR’s “Guide to 2016’s Great Reads” includes 31 titles, many of which have a firm hold on best of lists for 2016, but there are still a few surprises in the mix:

  • ODY-C Cycle One by Matt Fraction and Christian Ward (Image)
  • Demon by Jason Shiga (First Second)
  • Patience by Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics)
  • Plutona Volume 1 by Jeff Lemire, Emi Lenox, and Jordie Bellaire (Image)
  • The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon (Simon & Schuster)
  • The Best American Comics 2016, edited by Roz Chast (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Mooncop by Tom Gauld (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Peplum by Blutch (New York Review)
  • Monstress Volume 1 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda (Image)
  • Hot Dog Taste Test by Lisa Hanawalt (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • The Greatest of Marlys by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Tales from the Flood by Simon Stalenhag (Design Studio Press)
  • Pretty Deadly Volume 2: The Bear by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios (Image)
  • Paracuellos by Carlos Gimenez (IDW)
  • The Vision Volume 1 by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles (Marvel)
  • Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier (Graphix)
  • Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay by Ben Katchor (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg (Little, Brown)
  • The Arab of the Future Volume 2 by Riad Sattouf (Metropolitan Books)
  • Cook Korean: A Comic Book with Recipes by Robin Ha (Ten Speed Press)
  • Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (Image)
  • King Baby by Kate Beaton (Arthur A. Levine Books)
  • Patsy Walker A.K.A Hellcat Volume 1 by Kate Leth and Brittney Williams (Marvel)
  • The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew (Pantheon)
  • The Familiar Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain by Mark Z. Danielewski (Pantheon)
  • Panther by Brecht Evans (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Faith Volume 1: Hollywood And Vine by Jody Houser, Francis Portela, and Marguerite Sauvage
  • Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze (Marvel)
  • The White Donkey: Terminal Lance by Maximilian Uriarte (Little, Brown)
  • March Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf)

Like NPR, Mental Floss picked 31 graphic novels for their best of 2016 list. Their top ten include the following:

  1. March Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf)
  2. The Vision Volume 1 by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles (Marvel)
  3. Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier (Graphix)
  4. Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (Image)
  5. Hilda and the Stone Forest by Luke Pearson (Flying Eye)
  6. Patience by Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics)
  7. Spidey Zine by Hannah Blumenreich (self published)
  8. The Sheriff of Babylon by Tom King and Mitch Gerads (Vertigo)
  9. Black Hammer by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston (Dark Horse)
  10. The Flintstones by Mark Russell, Steve Pugh, and Chris Chuckry (DC)

March Book Three and Ghosts have dominated best of lists this year. Both books were included on Amazon’s best of 2016 list (see “Amazon's Best Graphic Novels - 2016”), Publishers Weekly’s top graphic novels list (see “PW's Top Graphic Novels of 2016”), Michael Cavna’s list of the top comics of 2016 for The Washington Post (see “'Washington Post' Names Best Graphic Novels Of 2016”), and Paste’s best of 2016 list (see “'Paste,' 'The Guardian' Name Best Comics of 2016”). Interestingly, The Guardian, The New York Times, and Slate did not have the two titles on their best of lists (see “Unusual, Independent Selections Top New Best of 2016 Comics Lists”).