Letters to the Editor
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Fletcher Hanks: Acquired taste
I suspect a lot of folks will think the Fletcher Hanks collection is some kind of peculiar joke. In fact, National Lampoon once ran a parody -- Rock Bottom Comics -- whose style resembled Hanks.
Like schizophrenics' web sites, reading I Will Destroy All Civilized Planets was entertaining and peculiar at first, then got to be tedious. Hanks was clearly a nutter, but once you've plumped the contours of his madness everything seems the same.
It is something to borrow, not buy, unless you have an awful lot of esoteric-comic fans to loan it to.
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I'd like to recommend the Spiderman collection as a gift for youngsters. Last year the local paper was putting free 16 page reprint booklets of Spidey's early adventures. I mailed them to a friend, and his boys (6 year old twins, and an 8 year old) loved them. They're pretty tame and innocent by today's standards.
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Rather Weak
Um, the majority of the best of 2007 consists of collections of much older work.
I'd really have loved to see the brilliant and thrilling Deathnote included. The Holmes vs. Moriarty level conflict between L and Light, combined with the remarkable cliffhangers made this the best read of the year.
Crecy Warren Ellis' brilliant historical meditation really deserved inclusion. His ongoing work with Fell and Black Summer deserved mention as well.
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Finally....
It's looks like the European comics landscape 20 years ago.
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Please Don't Forget: "LAIKA" FIRST DOG INTO SPACE
Oh my, least we forget one of the most touching graphic novels of the year, "Laika" (First Second Press). Anyone with a compassionate heart will truly be endeared by this loving 50th year-memorial to the first living creature to enter space. I loved the author's tribute to this gentle creature. Laika gave her life for cold war politics and the machinations of men. Laika is both beautiful and moving. It is a history lesson unto itself. Most importantly, "Laika" graphically illustrates how much the animal kingdom has contributed to humanity. This hard-cover book is a collector's item and indeed a rare treasure!
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The way forward
I started buying graphic novels regularly in 2003 but have slowed down in the past year mostly because I'm tired of taking a chance on an unknown title and wasting $15+ on something I don't like.
Articles like this don't help. Why are authors like Gilbert Hernandez included with a Superman reboot? Graphic novels and video games are really going through growing pains; the best of the medium are getting lumped in with the junk. I apologize if it sounds like I'm taking the high brow route and I mean no offense to Superman fans (I sometimes buy some capes-and-tights comics too) but if only to help define the different genres of the medium to make it easier on the audience to decide what's worth buying, please consider separating in some way the different genres and spend more time on each genre.
I'm getting tired of buying the same old artists just because I can trust them. I want to branch out and buy works from other serious authors I haven't heard of. But I can't find any reviews anywhere because magazines are too busy reviewing the latest Superman or Wonder Woman reboot.
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Fox Bunny Funny by Andy Hartzell
Is brilliant and should have made this list. I loved it. It was published by Top Shelf.
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Sure, but...
...how could any list of recent cartoons and graphic novels not include
1) Stephanie Mcmillan's recently released "While the World Burns: 50 Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial" (http://www.minimumsecurity.net/) - "Visionary and honest...a groundbreaking volume of graphic literature" (Ted Rall, "Silk Road to Ruin")
2) Anthony Lappe and Dan Goldman's "Shooting War" (http://shootingwar.com) - "Fierce, shocking, over-the-top and wickedly smart" (New York Magazine)
3) Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis" (Pantheon Graphic Novels (randomhouse.com) - "Paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran....Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original..." (well, maybe not this one, because it is 4, 3, or 2 years old--but Sony's just bringing out the film version!)
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My lone recommendation for the year...
"The Walking Dead" series by Robert Kirkman: it's currently on its 7th compilation volume of the series (with the 8th volume due early next year) and is as good of a zombie read as it gets until "World War Z" gets a comic treatment (or, fingers crossed, a theatrical release). Check out the 3 volumes of hardcover compendiums for a good few days of zombie apocalypse fun!
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Any one of these...
...should be used by the creators (perpetrators?) of that awful "Kansas O'Flaherty" strip running in Salon as a guide to making a readable, enjoyable comic.
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Storeyville
Great list Douglas, but I can't help thinking that the absence of Frank Santoro’s STORYEVILLE is a bit glaring. In terms of both form and content, STOREYVILLE was indeed groundbreaking (points hammered home by both Seth and Chris Ware, so don't just take it from me). And given that it was so rare upon first release, this year’s reissue is that much more important and worthy of note.
Thanks
Nate K
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French Milk seems to be out of print
Going by Amazon, French Milk seems to be out of print. It was originally published in 2000. There is one used copy listed for $68. There are no copies listed on the used book site abebooks.com. The press, Epigraph Publishing, is a self-publishing service. Going to their site and following the link back to Amazon shows the same page for the out of print book. I could not figure out whether books can be purchased directly from Epigraph Publishing. I draw a couple of conclusions from this:
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Douglas Wolk should do a better job in making sure that the 2007 graphic novels he recommends are works that have been published in 2007 and are actually available. It only takes a few mouse clicks to do this verification.
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Before publishing with a self-publishing press, make sure that it is possible to buy the book from either the site or from Amazon. This does not seem to be the case with Epigraph Publishing.
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This list is a travesty!
How could they have failed to include Kansas O'Flaherty???
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It's kind of pathetic...
that the best Superman on the shelf is an Earth-1 rehash. Morrison's stories look like they were retellings from 1963 (and anyone familiar with Superman lore knows that's a compliment!), and given what a train wreck Superman's mainstream origin is these days, it's probably a good thing he skipped over that part all together. Though Morrison may go back to it later, who knows.
DC has jumped the shark creatively, with every new writer trying to turn Superman's past into their own little fan fiction. They've been trying to "fix" Superman's origin for 20 years now. If they can't get it right by now, it's time to retrun everything to what it was before. It may have been a little cheesy, but at least it was stable.