Possibly the greatest week for graphic novels ever!

I'm still making my way through reading this week's graphic novel arrivals, but I seriously can't remember there ever being so many great and diverse ones coming out in one single week. Here's a roll call: Book of Genesis by Robert Crumb (which I may attempt to read at some point even though I've tried reading the Bible before and it did nothing for me), Trotsky by Rick Geary, Johnny Cash I See A Darkness by Reinhard Kleist, X-Men: Magneto Testament by Grek Pak and Carmine Di Gianomenico (softcover edition of a powerful Holocaust story which despite its title fortunately doesn't have any superhero stuff going on), The Summit of the Gods and A Distant Neighborhood by Jiro Taniguchi (which I blogged about the past couple of days), Refresh Refresh by Novgorodoff, Percy and Ponsoldt (a graphic novel adaptation of a short prose story about three boys whose father is off in Iraq and they've lost communication with him - this is getting good reviews, but I didn't think it really explored its premise very well and read way too fast), Cancer Vixen by Marcia Acocella Marchetto (new softcover edition), Logicomix An Epic Search For Truth by four European cartoonists about mathematician / philosopher Bertrand Russell and other logicians (I'm almost halfway through this book and it may shoot to the very top of my favorite graphic novels I've read this year - a more thorough blog entry will be happening later today or tomorow), Ball Peen Hammer by Rapp and O'Conner (a post apocalyptic scenario that I wanted to like way better than I did - that makes two books from excellent publisher First Second this week that underwhelmed me with the other one being Refresh Refresh, but of course it could very well just be me), Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles Vol. 3 by Neil Swaab (a very funny demented comic strip collection of a loser guy and his talking stuffed teddy bear), Best American Comics 2009 (hardcover short comics anthology edited by Charles Burns), The Discworld Graphic Novels (adaptation of Terry Pratchett fantasy novels, The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic), Buffy The Vampire Slayer Vol. 5, High Moon by David Gallaher and Steve Ellis (from DC's online Zudu imprint, this looks like some kind of werewolf / cowboy hybrid), Berserk Vol. 31 by Miura, Power & Glory by Howard Chaykin, Absolute Promethea by Moore and Williams III (of which I had an entry for here earlier this week), Batman The Black Glove (softcover version of a great Batman story by Grant Morrison and J. H. Williams III), Hellboy Library Vol. 3 by Mike Mignola, Sleeper Season 2 by Brubaker and Phillips, Fables The Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 by Willingham and Umbrella Academy Vol. 2 by Way and Ba! There was also a Yaoi title and three Marvel hardcovers that really don't need to be in that format (they may not even really "need" to have been collected).

Any four or five of the above listed graphic novels coming out in the same week would have been a pretty big deal, but for this many to come out in one week (and most of them of such a superlative quality and added price points for most people who don't have infinite pocketbooks) is somewhat akin to the movie industry and the way they back load all of their Academy Award contenders for release at the end of the year. Usually the various comic companies (especially Marvel) uses the last week of the month to try to crowd comic store shelves with their comic book periodical releases, but as happy as I am to have seen so many great new graphic novels this week, I'd rather releases get spread out better so that this feast or famine for discriminating comic book readers doesn't happen as often as it does. With graphic novels, releasing them all at once isn't as bad as releasing tons of comic titles at once though because at least with the better graphic novels most of the publishers will keep them in print for a good stretch and they're usually easy to reorder. Anyway, I think that the above listing of graphic novels that came out this week would make great additions to people's gift getting / receiving lists.

Back to reading Logicomix An Epic Search For Truth for me!