This past year was a fantastic year for original graphic novels so I'd like to present the first in what I hope will be an annual tradition, my Epsteins (my version of the Eisner Awards) for top ten of the year. The title will be followed by the creator (or creators) and then the date for which I originally blogged about the entry if you'd like to read about why I think these books are the best of the best.
1. Alan's War by Emmanuel Guibert, blog entry November 12th
2. What It Is by Lynda Barry, blog entry May 31st
3. Acme Novelty Library v. 19 by Chris Ware, blog entry November 10th
4. American Widow by Alissa Torres and Sungyoon Choi, blog entry August 7th
5. Solain by Asano Inio, blog entry November 10th
6. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle, blog entry October 11th
7. Too Cool To Be Forgotten by Alex Robinson, blog entry July 17th
8. Me And The Devil Blues by Akira Hiramoto, blog entry August 13th
9. Life Sucks by Jessica Abel, Gabriel Soria, and Warren Pleece, blog entry April 29th
10. The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel, blog entry October 2nd.
While things from my perspective this past year were great on the original alternative graphic novel front, on the superhero periodical side of the industry, this past year has been an especially bad one for the caped and long john set. All of the events were big duds that once again aren't paying off with good endings onto themselves, rather just leading into the next event.
The superhero comics I have enjoyed this past year were: Thor, Hulk (even though the whole "red Hulk" thing is being dragged out), Marvels Eye Of The Camera, Daredevil (has started picking up with the new Lady Bullseye story arc), Invincible Iron Man, All Star Superman (the only Morrison of the year that's made sense to me), Umbrella Academy, and Mark Millar's Wolverine and Kick Ass (both of which are always horribly late and not because of Millar). My pick for most overlooked superhero comic is Madman by Mike Allred (which I think is getting better and better and maybe only really qualifies as a "superhero" title because the lead character wears a costume).
There was a lot of great new editions of classic comics from yesteryear such as the Howard The Duck and Tomb of Dracula Omnibus', and the Jack Kirby Omnibus' that DC has been doing.
SGT. Rock The Lost Battalion by Billy Tucci has obviously been a labor of love and Vertigo's new Unknown Soldier series has been very good. Into next year I'm looking forward to Bendis and Maleev finally starting their Spider Woman series because their four year run on Daredevil was amongst that character's best stories and in my opinion Bendis works better with more grounded characters, not big groups of super powered team books like Avengers or Secret Invasion.
2 comments:
That is cute :D
You announce the top ten favorite customers of the year too :P
There's not enough numbers (especially in a list of ten) for my favorite customers, it would be like a mother asked to choose her favorite child!
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