When it comes to writing, the most challenging format has probably got to be writing comics for an established character. You don't have a blank slate, you've got players with a history of interactions, burdened with years of baggage that you can't just shrug off; characters who have seen it all, done it all, showed it all -- and you're tasked with using them in new ways for an audience that has read it all.

It can be done, but rarely, and when it is, it gets people's attention.

Scott Snyder, you've got our attention.

My first exposure to Snyder's work was probably BATMAN: THE BLACK MIRROR, a tale from when Dick Grayson wore the mantle. But Snyder's been toiling away at DC Comics and the Dark Knight for most if not all of the New 52 era, introducing such elements as the Court of Owls and Zero Year. He brought back the Joker in two separate hair-raising, stakes-raising epics. He even made Commissioner Gordon as Batman an interesting concept, ultimately delivering a stronger, better Batman than ever.

For a character whose history is probably the second or third longest in the history of the medium, Snyder succeeded in finding new things for the character to do. And that is what our readers noticed when they selected him as the winner of this award.

Not that competition for our Best Comics Writer of 2015 wasn't fierce. This is the first year the category has been included in our annual Best Of awards, and the write-in candidates were flooding in (something we should have foreseen). In the end, Snyder took in 17% of the vote, with writers like Rick Remender, Gail Simone and Charles Soule hot on his heels.