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Friday, December 30, 2005
Best of 2005 post
A lot of great work came out this year. I will remember 2005 as a time I got really excited about comics. There were so many great graphic novels that I only had to go as far as my student bookstore to get and great comics that made walking into the local comics hut every Wednesday an event to look forward to.
As for the best of the year I found it a battle between David B.'s Epileptic and Charles Burns's Black Hole. Both are some of the greatest books I've ever read. The subjects and themes are so fasicanting (I found myself bookmarking both books with a piece of scrap paper that I used to work out all my thoughts on the respective books) and both are beautiful to look at. I went with Black Hole becuase when I read Burns's art I feel the same way I do as when I read a comic by Jamie Hernandez or Alex Toth. I think to myself "this person was born to do comics." Those thick lines, expressive faces, the use of black-and-white and lighting are all just beautiful.
Not only did I read two of the most remarkable books I'll ever read in my life, I read one of those single issues that confirmed for me the power the comics medium has. Kevin Huizenga's Or Else #2 was a knock-out. I read it three times in two days and Huizenga's mastery of telling stories in comics, from the most abstract to the most concrete, always astounds.
Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly's WE3, the last issue and collected edition came out this year, was the best work I had read by both artists and I've read almost everything Morrison has written. That great optimism for life he has shone through a book that got pretty grim at times. It was also a real joy to see an already talented artist like Quietly evolve so dramitaclly with the techniques used in the book. They weren't just flashy, they helped make a great story greater.
Reading comics wasn't just exciting, reading about comics was, too. One of comics' greatest publishers got a blog. Mark Fossen and Jim Roeg arrive at roughly the same time and both prove to be real smart people talking smart about comics. David Campbell is who I want to be when I grow up. He's fucking Airwolf!
This year has left me so positive comics that I've got big hopes for 2006. I hope people will capitalize on the good that was done and we'll see better works and better fandom. How can I not be optimistic: Epileptic is my number two choice for best of the year!
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