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Wednesday, December 20, 2006
The year in funnybooks
I contributed to PW Comics Week Critics Poll for the best graphic novels of the year. I'll post my personal list later on down but I figured I'd use this blog to talk about my favorite floppies of the year. I find my comics reading goes between so-called "highbrow" stories in books and the fun stuff in magazine form. I do occasionally read indie books in pamphlet form but for some reason I prefer that type of material between two Chipp Kidd designed hardcover while I get my genre jollies from something I can read in its entirely on the bus trip back from the comic book store. In no particular order here are my favorite books from 2006 that are stored in a longbox:
Casanova #1-6 by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba
Basically this is everything I want a comic to be. Fraction packs every one of the sixteen story pages with intrigue, adventure and wit and Ba's art reads like some cool strange foreign spy movie poster come to life. Every issue stood on its own but it all leads up to a "season finale" (that's issue #7). It's sort of like TV but nothing on TV is like a psychedelic James Bond.
Solo #12 by Brendan McCarthy
This is everything I imagine comics are. McCarthy ended DC's anthology series with its best issue yet and probably one of the most experimental and fun comics DC has ever published. McCarthy offers a wide range of both art and story styles but they all work together. McCarthy leans more to the poetic and intuitive side of comics. His art looks what would happen if Gary Panter was a British kid who grew up listening to Madness and spray painting anti-Thatcher graffiti.
Batman Year 100 #1-4 by Paul Pope
Many comics tried to make something out of current political anxieties but Pope's sci-fi superhero story did it the best. The superhero trope of a secret identity became a means to contemplate the rights to privacy in a world where those rights are no longer respected. Pope didn't feel the need to hit you over the head with "a message." He just told a rollicking good story featuring a character open to many interpretations
The Escapists #1-6 by Brian K. Vaughan, Philip Bond, Jason Alexander and Steve Roslton
A comic book about making a comic book could have been the most insufferable thing to read but instead Vaughan and various artists drawing in various styles made something pretty damn good out of it. Like Chabon's original novel, this was really a story of young people trying to achieve their dreams against the corruption of the adult world and superheroes were, excuse the pun, the key. The last issue was especially strong, both a celebration of creativity and having the guts to escape your hometown.
Daredevil #82-88 by Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark and David Aja
I didn't think Brubaker could write anything as strong as Sleeper for a company owned character but with Lark and one issue by Aja I was thankfully proven wrong. With a stylish dark but always readable look, Matt Murdock and his supporting cast try to survive in the pressure cooker of prison. Murdock's battle to hold on to his civil side was particular compelling. Good pulp-y fun.
Seven Soldiers #1 by Grant Morrison and J.H. Williams III
This just might be the loudest and most breakneck comic I've ever read three times in one sitting. Williams's drawing in the style of all the other 7S artists and then some was a magnificent feat probably only one in 100,000 artists could pull off. Morrison put you right in the middle of the action and as many questions about the maxi-series were answered about as many more arose. This issue also led to my favorite interview I've ever done.
52 #1-32 by Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, J.G. Joes, Kieth Giffen and a cavalcade of artists
Honestly, every issue of this series has been pretty uneven and some have been outright mediocre. But at this point this weekly series has been a compelling mapping of the DC Universe. Most of the joy of reading is seeing how close this book comes to succumbing under its own weight in bizarreness but instead managing to make it all make some sort of sense.
Wolverine #42-48 by Marc Guggenheim and Huberto Ramos
Yeah I put a Civil War tie-in on my list. Why? Because it's awesome. Guggenheim manages bombastic superhero action (Wolverine's been burned to a skeleton! Now he's in Tony Stark's Iron Man suit!) and having the main character come to terms with the futility of vengeance. Ramos's art was made for this crazy kind of storytelling and the epilogue issue saw him really stretching out depiciting Logan's view of the afterlife.
Cross Bronx #1-4 by Michael Avon Oeming and Ivan Brandon
Brandon and Oeming invent Santeria Noir with this crime book. It's a portrait of a man who has been beaten down so hard he can't look up as much as it is a story of revenge. The trigger happy blue ghost who haunts this book is one of those perfect looking comic book creations.
Angry Youth Comix #12 by Johnny Ryan
Ryan's work is at its best when his crude scatological humor reaches truly astounding levels of grotesqueness. This joke-pocalypse brought on by sociopath/comedian Boobs Pooter is an all-time high (low) from Ryan's special type of genius
Now, how about some graphic novels! They're even in best-of order (also, you can tell I had finals going on while having to write about these books).
1. Fate of the Artist by Eddie Campbell
Campbell has pulled off the unthinkable: combining experimental storytelling techniques and domestic comedy.
2. Castle Waiting by Linda Medley
Through many years, locations and species of talking animals Medley keeps strong characterization a constant.
3. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Family relationships, homosexuality and autobiography itself are examined in this smart memoir.
4. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Both a great coming of age story and a story of race, it also has a monkey urinating on God's fingers.
5. Absolute New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke
The best superhero story in decades gets its due with a beautiful expansive addition.
6. Sloth by Gilbert Hernandez
Both Hernandez’s imagination and humanism is put to good use in a story of rock 'n' roll and urban legends.
7. Monster by Naoki Ursawa
There’s medical drama and criminal intrigue in this continuing series but the real strength is reading the psych-outs Dr. Tenma and his supporting cast go through in this modern noir story.
8. 24Seven by Various
An astounding collection of bright and talented new creators are featured in this anthology edited by NYC Mech’s Ivan Brandon.
9. Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. Volume 1: This is What They Want by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen
Not only hilarious it's better written and better drawn than "serious" superhero comics.
10. Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezi
Quite simply: this is the freakiest comic I have ever read.
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