(A Dakota North paper doll by Tony Salmons stolen from The Factual Opinion.)
Just because file under other does not currently have a lot of time to talk about all the wonderful things that should be filed under other it does not mean that wonderful things are not happening. Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics etc. during the week ending 06102012:
Frank Santorm posted a New Talent Showcase. I've been a fan of Ed Choy for a while and that new James Joyce book featured there looks really great.
Girls Read Comics Too has a nice reader spotlight interview with Heather Peagler. I know Heather and her husband Seth mainly through HeroesCon. Heather's "comics story" is interesting in that she came to comics as an adult and it was a non-super-hero comic that lured her in. Oh, and she's a lady. That mythical new reader that can be brought in by new quality material that allegedly does not exist? Well, there she is. Heather is also a big supporter of small press, indie, creator owned comics and minicomics. If we had a few thousand more Heather's we'd be doing pretty well. Heather and Seth blog about comics and comics events at Exile On Plain Street. Now is a good time to go ahead and book mark their page or add it to your blog reader as they are ramping up for Heroes Con. (Just two weeks away!) (p.s. Heather also posts convention sketches of Pinky and the Brain on Tumblr. One of which is drawn by me.)
Speaking of HeroesCon, the show is in just a few weeks in Charlotte NC. I hope to be there on Indie Island. They are going to have a Fun Run for the Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Foundation. Eric Canete, who happens to be one of my absolute favorite artists, is doing a t-shirt for the run and is offering portfolio reviews for participating artists. Details about the fun run here. Details about the portfolio reviews here. If you don't know Eric Canete's work you need to go look at his mind blowing sketches here right now.
A few days ago if you had mentioned the name Tony Salmons I would not have had a clue who you were talking about. But if you showed me images of the comics he worked on I would say, hey that's a lot of my favorite stuff. Michel Fiffe has a fascinating three part interview with Salmons over at The Factual Opinion. If you don't have time to read it you should at least check it out to treat yourself to some of the amazing art that has been posted.
This week Darwyn Cooke reminded us that your heroes will always let you down. (Unless they have the decency to die first.)
Shawn and Adam talked a little bit about just what exactly a McGintyfest is over at The Dollar Bin. They also talked about Chris Schweizer'sCrogan books. But I can't think too much about that because when I think of Chris Schweizer I think of a shot of a thing called The Kraken that nearly killed me. In a another episode of The Dollar Bin from a few weeks ago but I just listened to this week they have an interesting interview with X-O Manowar's Robert Venditti. Oh, and then they talk about McGintyfest some more here. And dang, that Adam guy sure does hate that Torrance character Kirstan Dunst played in Bring it On. She's just a fictional cheerleader Adam! Get over it.
Laura Hudson is stepping down from the Editor-in-Chief role at Comics Alliance. It has been really impressive what she has done there in a short time. I have a lot of respect for how Comics Alliance has handled a lot of the stickier issues over past few years. But Hudson is also a very solid writer so if stepping down means more writing then that ain't bad.
Have you read Howard Chaykin's American Flagg? It's just about the best think ever by one of my all time favorite cartoonists. You should probably read it. My own collection is woefully spotty. So, for me, the series being released digitally is kind of a big deal. Now, I may or may not start buying digital copies of personally. Digital comics just don't smell as good to me. But, it's great to know it's there. If I can find the time to dig out the issues I do have and try to put together a read through then maybe Comixology will get some of my money. You can catch a preview of it here. Digital actually seems to serve Chaykin's over the top colors very well. Quick, somebody loan me the money to buy all the digital issues. And a cell pad pod phone. (I'll never pay you back.)
And speaking of over the top colors. I talked a little bit last week about Matt Seneca's piece on Paradax. Well, I also went blabbing about it on twitter and I was all "wah wah wah all that cool stuff came out before I ever knew comic book shops were a thing". Sam Henderson saw my tears flooding the streets of twitter and decided to save the Earth by sending me a package of old Eclipse and Pacific Comics plus one of his own books. And for this, Sam Henderson is currently the greatest human on Earth. Bow before his glory.
Also this week had my wife's birthday. She's pretty rad. I kinda lover her and stuff.
And that's just a taste of some of the interesting things going out there in the wonderful world of comics and things. I can't keep up with it all but I do keep up with a lot of it on twitter and I try to re-tweet the good stuff. You should probably follow me there. If you did something to make comics better this week then high-five!
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
For this forth (and allegedly final, sob) edition of the Good Minnesotan anthology the 2D Cloud gang decided to make a box of comics. I've said it before and I'll say it again, what's better than a box of comics? Nothing. Nothing is better than a box of comics. The box is really lovely. The scan at the top of the post does not do it justice. The height and weight is about the size of an index card as are the four minicomics inside. Each mini comic is about 20ish pages long with it's own lovely cover (pictured above). I've talked about the Good Minnesotan folks for the past few years and honestly each of the previous editions has been one of my favorite comics from each year it was released. Like Kramers Ergot or Mome, Good Minnesotan is a really good snapshot of the state of alt comics at the moment of production. But unlike Kramers or Mome the product has a much more home made feel. It's not enough to read these comics, you want to hold them, examine them and find a really special place on your book shelf for them.
This forth edition of the series has a wide variety of stuff in there. Art comics, comedy fummetti, psychedelia and even some comics featuring little stuffed knitted guys... it covers the alt comics spectrum. Buck Sutter has some haunting photo comics in there. Luke Holden has some really great stuff in his stoned out high school notebook style. Great stuff from Anna Boingiovanni, Raigne Hogan, Megan Hogan, Lupi, Nic Breutzman, Ed Moorman... actually, I liked all of it. The most ambitious piece is a comedy history lesson from Kevin Cannon that is both hilarious and great to look at.
Without counting the pages, my rough estimate would be that the majority of the book leans towards art comics. That's just my general impression based on what stood out to me.
This edition of Good Minnesotan is currently a part of a Kickstarter fund raiser. As I type this, it appears that the funding has met it's goal but I still recommend getting in on it before 8:00 PM on Sunday July 25 and you might be able to get some great extras at a very nice price. It's also a great chance to pick up the other Good Minnesotan editions.
Yes. I realize this is months late. I'm usually sick of reading year end best lists by Thanksgiving. I started writing this around Thanksgiving and I've been meaning to post this for a while but, I've been very busy.
I read a lot of great stuff in 2009. Some of it I even reviewed here. Let me just take a second to say that if you gave me stuff in 2009 (or 2008) that has not yet been reviewed then I apologize. 2009 was a challenging year. (For a lot of us.) I will still review everything I've been sent as soon as time allows.
Every time I do one of these things I preface it by saying that I don't think the word "best" has any place in art criticism. I of course use it. I used it a while back when I tweeted what I thought was the "best" graphic novel of the decade. (Louis Riel.) I use it in part as a kind of short hand to save the time of going into my whole philosophy of art criticism and in part as concession to the fact that I'll never get the rest of the world to stop using it any faster than I'll get the rest of the world to realize that 2009 was not actually the last year of the decade. (Or that 2000 was not the first. But alas I live in a world where everyone else apparently has eleven fingers and counts to ten by going zero, one, two, three ... ten. Oh well. You can't have it all. Press on.)
I want to do things a little different this year. Sure I'll tell you what my favorite stuff was but rather than just focus on a list of products I want to talk about a few creators whom I think had a strong year. I think that one thing that has become apparent in 2009 is that the comics game has officially changed and won't go backwards. No one just makes strips, or minicomics, or webcomics anymore. Minicomics guys post their stuff on the web. Webcomics guys collect their stuff into minis. Cartoonists make prints, t-shirts, animation, toys etc. Cartoonists blog, and tweet and update and podcast and all kinds of things. Some of them even review cartoon and hillbilly themed food stuffs. To just name a bunch of products I enjoyed from the year does not really sum it up anymore. I can't possibly talk about all the stuff I liked but I can talk about a few of the folks I liked. So without further ado and in no particular order...
Minicomics and Webcomics Patrick Dean.
I'll talk about Mr. Dean first because if I was forced to name one minicomic as my favorite of 2009 it would probably be his book Knocked 'Em. The way I calculate which minicomic is my favorite is just by thinking back and figuring out which one I picked up the most and thought about the most. Dollar for dollar it is just a great buy. The art is fantastic. The story is fun. It's a great big huge art object. This book more than any of his others really showcases all the element's of Dean's drawing that makes his stuff so much fun for me.
Patrick also had strong comics in a couple of anthologies this year including the excellent Fluke Anthology which of course is associated with the Fluke comics fest in Athens of which Dean is an organizer. Dean has also posted a ton of comics on his blog. His comics blog has become one of my favorites. Patrick Dean links you should check out: My review of Knocked Em'. Patrick Dean's comics blog. Fluke.
Josh Latta.
I could have just as easily called Josh Latta's Redskin Rashymy favorite book of 2009 but I'll give Knocked 'Em a slight advantage for being a more ambitious art object (and partially because I called the last Rashy book my favorite of 2008). If you want to know what I think a minicomic should look and feel like then get a copy of Redskin Rashy. The cartooning and storytelling are excellent. The story is fun. The characters are great. The production is precise. Redskin Rashy was published by Wide Awake Press and that means J. Chris Campbell helped with the book design and production. There is nothing crazy or gimmicky about the design and production. It's just good. Very good. It just looks right and feels right. It's what a good minicomic should be.
Latta's blog is also a must read. He posts custom avatars commissioned from his customers/fans. They are usually hilarious. A bunch of them were collected in another great looking minicomic from WAP. Latta's blog also offers some great reviews of everything from french comics to cartoon candy and hillbilly soft drinks. Latta also had a really great comic in WAP's FCBD anthology which you can read here. Latta is also one of the two best facebook/twitter status updaters on teh intronets. Josh Latta links you should check out: My review of Redskin Rashy. Lattaland. Josh Latta tweets. Josh Latta Flickrs. Avatards. The fuo interview with Josh Latta.
Dustin Harbin.
Despite having been in the same place at the same time as "Dharbin" several times over the past few years I have tragically never managed to come home with his comics. I have read a lot of his comics online though. 2009 saw Harbin post a lot of great comics on his Dharblog under the Dharbin strip name. Harbin adds a new strip each week. (Sort of.) His strips are usually one full page of comics with occasional multi-part stories. The subject matter is whatever he felt like drawing that week. Sometimes auto-bio. Sometimes historical. Sometimes literary adaptations. Sometimes simple nutt and fart jokes. He is bravely trying everything and pushing himself to be better. Week to week you can watch the cartoonist grow and try to find his voice. It's a welcome rarity in comics. What I see in most webcomics is that the creators put their strip out there and define what it will be from the start and seldom seem to grow or change. They seem to set up rules about what their strip will be and are then confined by them. I call it the style cage. They try to find a comfortable (or at least marketable) style and lock themselves into it and it becomes a cage that limits their potential. Harbin seems to have gone in the opposite direction. His only rule seems to be to challenge himself. (Josh Latta is another example of avoiding that style cage by allowing his style to change from issue to issue.)
If you go to Harbin's strip page and read the comics from oldest to newest you can watch him refine his craft from page to page. He also posts sketches, commissions, a book club and random bloggy type things on the blog. Taken as a whole, the Dharblog experience is like watching a cartoonist study and experiment with what it is to be a cartoonist and he welcomes you along for the ride.
And, when Harbin is not busy with all of that, he helps organize the last great American comics show. Dustin Harbin related links you should check out: Dharbin's diary comics on Flickr. Dharbin's comics strips. Dharbin's blog. HeroesCon.
Wertz's Fart Party webcomic has been one of my favorites but seems to be all but dead now as she moves on to bigger things. Still, as far as 2009 goes it was one of my favorites. As far as diary/auto-bio comics go, Wertz's might be the funniest. I don't think I've ever held any of her books or minicomics in hand but I've read some great samples online. Julia Wertz links you should check out: Fart Party.
I don't think I read any new paper comics from Kochalka in 2009 but American Elf continues to be one of the only webcomics I read on a daily basis. I've read it every day for years now and I still look forward to it. James Kochalka links you should check out: American Elf. Blog. Glorkian Warrior.
J. Chris Campbell
As the main man behind Wide Awake Press, J. Chris Campbell was involved with the design and production of some of the best minicomics I read in 2009. Campbell co-edited the Fluke Anthology with Brad McGinty. That book is one of the better looking minicomics I've seen is was my favorite anthology minicomic from 2009. Campbell and WAP also put out a Free Comic Book Day online anthology called The Ancient Age and a Michael Jackson tribute comic called Off The Wall which both included some fantastic comics. Campbell's own comics were strong in both of the mentioned anthologies and he put out at least one new minicomic of his own. Campbell has made a lot of cool minicomic over the past few years. I think I have most of them and I keep planning to do a big write up covering all of them as soon as I have time. Many of Campbell's minis are pocket sized. I love pocket sized minicomics. They are a lot harder to make than you might think. I see a lot of them where it is obvious the creator did not take the size into account when they laid out the book and did the lettering because the the things are hard to read. Campbell however has the pocket sized mini down to a science. Lights Outfrom 2009 is a good example of his pocket sized minis. Nice full color card stock cover. One panel per page layout. Cool character design. Funny dialog. Just plain cool. In a perfect world I would be able to buy a new little mini like this at the check out counter of my nearest gas station every week. J. Chris Campbell links you should check out: Main site. Wide Awake Press. Off The Wall. Ancient Age. My review of Fluke 2009.
Ed Choy Moorman
Since I started file under other I get a lot of packages in the mail but few of them get me as excited as the ones that feature Ed Moorman's return address. This year Moorman sent me two of my favorite minicomics of the year. Dark Cloud Comin' and The Love Song of Kermit the Frog. Dark Cloud Comin' shows Moorman pushing his cartooning chops. It is a Miyazaki styled fantasy adventure with a lot of room for Moorman to show off his range. It looks beautiful and it is a fun read but it lacks some of the emotional weight his other comics have. That can be explained away in part because most of his comics are auto-bio and this is fiction but I think the real difference is that his auto-bio stuff feels like stories that he had to tell where Dark Cloud Comin' fells a bit like an exercise. Still, as far as exercises go, Moorman nails it. The Love Song of Kermit the Frog is a collection of Muppet themed comics. There are auto-bio bits as well as a semi historical bit on Jim Hensen. What's nice about the Hensen story is that it feels as real and personal as the auto-bio stuff. It's a beautiful little comic. Maybe I'm just a sap that loves Muppets but there is a sequence where Hensen is learning of his brother's death off panel and Moorman shows a lifeless un-maned Kermit puppet in panel. It is simple but it is powerful. Some spots in the book feel rushed and you can see the artist testing the waters and trying to find his voice. But when he nails it, he's scary good.
Moorman also had comics in some of my favorite anthology books of the year but I'll get to those later in this post.
As a side note: I also love that one of Moorman's packages came with a hand written thank you note that was written on the back of what appears to be an Art History class assignment. I get to read about half of one of Moorman's answers to a question about the Arts and Crafts Movement in the late nineteenth century. Awesome. Ed ChoyMoorman links you should check out: Main site. Store.
Sally Bloodbath
Sally Bloodbath makes a lot of great minicomics, shows up in anthologies and edits the always good Always Comix. I really enjoyed the comics she posted on her web blog live journal thingy in 2009. Her auto bio stuff is as good as any I've seen in the past couple of years. Her drawing and storytelling chops have gotten really strong over the past year or so. It reminds me a bit of Julie Doucet which is about as nice a thing as I can possibly say. Sally Bloodbath links you should check out: Live Journal. Always Comics.
Michael Kupperman
Kupperman is the other half of my two best facebook/twitter status updates on teh intronet. Oh, and he makes really good comics too. Teh intronets was made better in 2009 by his Here Comes Madness blog and Snake N' Bacon cartoons. Michael Kupperman links you should check out: Here Comes Madness Snake N' Bacon
Kate Beaton
Most of the funniest and most interesting comic strips I read in 2009 were on Kate Beaton's blog. I'm not smart enough to explain why Beaton's comics are so funny but I'll give it a shot. They have the spontaneous irreverence of comics you would draw and pass around in 11th grade English/Lit class and the sophistication of comics I'm not classy enough to actually read. Kate Beaton links you should check out: Hark a Vagrant T-shirts and such
Megan Rose Gedris
I think I mentioned Yu + Me Dream on my best of list last year. It's one of the few strips that remains in my blog reader thing. It does not always make a lot of sense to me but it is always lovely to look at. Her ability to shift gears and change styles for each part of the story is astounding to me. Megan Rose Gedris links you should check out: Yu + Me Dream Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space
Brad McGinty
I've talked a lot about my pal Brad's stuff here at file under other. I think Brad only put out two new minicomics in 2009 so that is kind of a down year for him but when you combine those with the pages posted on his Paper Pusher blog and all the pages he had in various anthologies it's a very impressive stack of comics. Brad's story (with Cate Bosserman) in the WAP Ancient Age anthology showed some fantasticly brutal action. His piece in the Fluke Anthology which he co-edited showed some fantastic cartooning chops. His random strips on Paper Pusher showed his shoot-coffee-out-your-nose-ha-ha-funny wackiness. (Some of which are collected in the lovey full color minicomic Tobey Maguire Comics and Stories published by WAP. Yeah, that J. Chris Campbell guy. Again.) Brad also found the time in 2009 to make a whole bunch of awesome cartoons. Brad does most of the writing, animation and voices in these things. It's really amazing. People that have money need to wake up and start throwing it at this guy. My only fear is that one day he'll be too busy blowing his cartoon millions to make any more comic strips. Brad McGinty links you should check out: Paper Pusher Ancient Age Cartoons Fluke
T. Avery
Way back in September I started a review of T. Avery's most recent Dirthead collections but my life spiraled out of control and I never got it finished. The Dirthead books are collections of webcomics. Like most webcomic collections, attention to the printing of the minicomic version is mostly an after thought. I seldom see webcomics collected as minicomcis where the finished project stands out as a great looking book or art object. But, I really do enjoy the quality of the comics themselves both in the collections and on Avery's website. Avery's drawing style is much closer to the illustration style of comics I grew up with than the Disney knock off style I see in the majority of webcomics. Avery's characters look, move and act much more like real people than the over the top chariactures I see in most webcomics. That's not to say that I don't like the over the top cartoony stuff. I actually love it. But for what Avery is doing here, a more reserved style is not only appropriate but refreshing. These comics are really all about the dialog. Avery's dialog is very real and honest. The cast is pretty big and each character speaks with his or her own voice. That is impressive to me. Some of my favorite writers can't seem to figure out how to keep all their characters from speaking with the writer's voice. (Or maybe they just don't realize they are doing it?) In Avery's comics each character is their own person with their own life and little ongoing story points. And all this in a strip format without it turning into ongoing soap opera. It's a nice balance I don't see in a lot of ongoing webcomics. Especially with a cast as big as this. T. Avery links you should check out: Cheating At Solitaire Store
Minicomic Anthologies
So, have I mentioned that Fluke Anthology from 2009? It's great. I have to put out the disclaimer that I am actually in the book but I promise you I would love it either way. Its' a great looking book with lots of great comics and is about as well made as a minicomic can be. Editors J. Chris Campbell and Brad McGinty along with all their WAP pals did a great job putting it together. You can watch them make it here. You can read more about it here.
Pinstriped Bloodbathis another great minicomics anthology. Like the Fluke book, this one has a really clever cover design. The cover opens up like a suit jacket. It might be the coolest looking minicomic from 2009. Even without the gimmick it's a great looking cover design that suits the gangster theme of the comics. The book is edited by and contains some comics by the always great Jeff Zwirek. My favorite story in the book was Change Your Name by Sam Sharpe.
Random non-minicomic stuff I liked in 2009:
I've talked about 2D Cloud books here before. Specifically the Good Minnesotan minicomic anthology. The third Good Minnesotan volume the 2D Cloud gang grew the series into a full trade paperback. It is a fantastic looking book with quality and content comparable to Fantagraphic's Mome series. It is a really solid anthology with material ranging from the cute the disturbing. This is another book with a great comic by Ed Moorman. The cover by Nicholas Breutzman is one of the better looking covers I can think of in recent memory. 2D Cloud also published a really great graphic novel called Yearbooks. The book is drawn by Nicholas Breutzman, written by Nicholas Breutzman and Shaun Feltz and features some wonderful coloring by Raighne Hogan. Its a beautifully produced book. The color pages are so vibrant it feels like you are holding and original water color painting. I had to double check a few times to see if the page was still wet. The story is a kind of Charles Burns/David Lynch high school anxiety study. The story telling ranges from straight forward narrative to stream of conciousness. The art also meanders a bit from the straightforward Daniel Clowes school to a loose sketchbook style. Each change feels appropriate for that moment in the story and is true to the highschool notebook feel of the story. The book shows a lot of range in storytelling, art and production. A very impressive book from a small press team that seems to grow by amazing leaps and bounds every six months or so.
Speaking of Mome. I ended up buying the Winter 2009 volume of Mome. It came out in winter of 2008, which is confusing, but I read it in winter 2009 because the cover told me to. I liked most of it. I can't decide if I like the Dash Shaw bit or not. I should like it. It is the exact kind of sci-fi stuff I love. Like TXH 1138 or Solaris. But, for some reason, I felt I had to force my way through it. Maybe it's the sixteen panel per page format? I loved the Josh Simmons' piece. Open letter to comics publishers; If you put Josh Simmons in your book I will buy or steal a copy.
Ghost Stories. Have I ever mentioned Ed Moorman you guys? Besides making his own comics, Moorman edited a benefit anthology called Ghost Stories. Not only that but he managed to land a Xeric grant for the thing. I really enjoyed the book. It's a thick anthology with a lot of contributors so there were bound to be some misses but most the stories are hits. Some of my favorite folks are in it and some people I had not heard of like Evan Palmer, Sean Lynch and Lucy Knisley won me over. At just $10 it is a great value.
Another anthology I enjoyed was side B: the music lover's comics anthology. I talked about it a while back. It is a book I've gone back to several times to revisit certain great little stories. It is one of the more successful theme anthologies I can think of. Oh, and it has that Ed Moorman guy in it too.
Comics are expensive and I don't buy a lot of original graphic novels but I did like the originalThe Surrogates miniseries enough to buy The Surogates: Flesh and Bone the first time I laid eyes on it. In the spirit of full disclosure, the author of the book, Robert Venditti, is a pal of mine but I honestly did love the first series and thought that Flesh and Bone was at least as good if not better. I think Venditti's writing is sharper in this and Bret Weldele'sart and storytelling are stronger and more effective. The only edge the first series might have over Flesh and Bone is that the original had a more visually prominant villain with the robot Steeplejack character. But this is a prequel and you are seeing robot technology devlep so it would have been really cheap for Venditti to force the characer into this book. Flesh and Bone came out around the same time that the movie of the first version came out. While the book and the movie did get their fair share of press in the comics community, I feel like the quality of Flesh and Bone got lost in the movie hype and a lot of people might have over looked this book. I don't like to tell anyone how to spend their money but if you like sci-fi and mystery then you probably need to check out both of The Surrogates graphic novels. There is not a doubt in my mind that if you like the Ellis and Templesmith book Fell, then you are going to love The Surrogates. Weldele and Templesmith both have styles that I did not quite know what to make of at first but I've become a big fan of both. Weldele and Venditti both look to have a lot of exciting projects coming out in the near future. You should check out thier sites here and here.
My pal Jeremy Massie also had a graphic novel out in 2009.The Deadbeatcollects what was originally a series of minicomics I talked about here and here at file under other. It's a great looking little graphic novel. Close to manga format in size. The story reads great as one book. The comic had the look and wacky fun of a super hero romp but the twist is that it is actually a quality drama. Massie's cartooning chops are strong but I'm most impressed by the writing. Especially for a first book. The book is very affordable and worthy of picking up for repeat readings. Massie has a lot of interesting stuff in the works and you can check it out on his blog.
Another book I bought was The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb. The world's greatest living cartoonist adapts Genesis. I'm a big fan of both Crumb and the Bible so, yeah, I was sold on this the first time I heard about several years ago. There is not a lot to say about it. It is what it is. R. Crumbdoes Genesis. It's a rare miraculous thing where fans of a creator anticipate and talk about a work for years and when it comes out it actually lives up to expectations. Almost everything you could say about this book was already said before the book came out. Imagine if The Phantom Menace had lived up to the expecations of Star Wars fans. What would they have done with themselves? They would have seen the thing and walked out and said, wow, that certainly is a Star Wars movie. So, that's about all I can think of to say about Crumb's Genesis. Wow, that certainly is R. Crumb doing the Book of Genesis. The only thing that surprised me about the book is how the art seems to get better from chapter to chapter. For one thing, I did not hink Crumb could get better. Another thing is that if I were to expect any quality change I would expect it to be that the art would deteriorate toward the end of the book as the artist loses some steam. But this is the opposite. The last chapters about Joseph are just plain gorgeous. I think it might be the best art of Crumb's career. Or at least the best I'm familiar with.
I don't read a lot of mainstream comics. It's not that I don't like them. I like big dumb super hero comics just fine and even more I love going to comic book shops and buying them. The main thing keeping me from being the mainstream floppy pamphlet funny cook eficianado that I once was is the price. Comics are rediculously reaking expensive. But still. I read a few. I really liked Wednesday Comics. I like the idea, I like the format but most of all I like Paul Pope and Kyle Baker. Let me make this very clear to any mainstream publishing folks that may read this. If you put Paul Pope or Kyle Baker in your comics there is a much better chance I might buy them. I also loved, loved, loved the Kamandi story by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook. That Kamandi story got me as excited about reading comics as just about anything I've read in the past fifteen years.
I also liked the Strange Tales book Marvel put out. It had Paul Pope in it. Again, if you put Paul Pope in your comics there is a much better chance I might buy them.
The absolute best non-Paul Pope, Kyle Baker or Kamandi mainstream comic series I read in 2009 was Supergirl Cosmic Adventures in the Eight Grade. Love that comic. Wish it had not just been a mini series. I also like the Johnny DCBatman The Brave and the Bold, Tiny Titans and Super Friends books. The Johnny DC line knows how to make good comics. Pay attention everyone else!
What little money I do have to spend on superhero comics is spent mostly on the Marvel Essential and the DC Showcase Presents lines. For me it'a all about the value for the dollar and you can't beat the Essential and Showcase books. Yeah, the don't have color but color is for suckers. I'm pretty sure color comics cause cancer and should be avoided as much as possible. This past year I enjoyed the Challengers of the Unknown, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Captain America and Daredevil books. Great comics by some of the best folks that ever made comics.
I also buy the occasional Archie digest at the local grocery store. I don't live near a comic shop so the Archie books are the only comics I see on a regular basis. Well, the grocery store does stocks some Marvel comics but they cost an insane amount of money and flat out suck. They are ugly and they don't make any sense. (I looked at this one Mark Millar Avengers thing at the grocery store and it had this sequence of pictures, notice I did not call it a story, about how the Red Skull is Captain America's son and he carves his own face off because, ya know, that's what kids shopping for comics at the grocery stores want, stories about guys carving their own faces off. Gah!) The Archies are pretty good though. I get them for my daughter and we both enjoy them. She prefers the double digests. Lots of reading material and variety for a small price. I even like the new look stories that a lot of people have trashed on teh intronets. I would prefer if they did not use the word realistic when talking about the art style. It's not realistic, it's just different. I don't have any problems with them mixing up the art and going off model. As long as they don't abandon the past. Which, they haven't. The digest books offer a good variety of stuff from the past fifty or so years.
TV Cartoons:
Oh man I loves me some cartoons. I've said it before and I'll say it again; we are in the golden age of the television cartoon. Yeah, I know there will never be anything like the collective goodness of every kid on earth watching Saturday Morning Cartoons at the same time but we have so many choices now. Nick, Nicktoons, Disney, Disney XD, Cartoon Network etc. My faves are still Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Star Wars: Clone Wars. Those two shows are too good for TV. We don't deserve shows that good. We should be ashamed of ourselves for alowing ourselves to watch them. I also like Flapjack, Chowder, Phineas and Pherb, Spectacular Spider-Man, Wolverine and the X-Men, Spongebob, Ben 10... I could go on. Lots of great shows. Marvel's Super Hero Squad thing is weird but occasionally funny. It does not seem to have anything to do with the comic characters. It's basically a bunch of pre-schoolers dressed up as Marvel characters living in a city where Stan Lee is mayor. I reckon that's as good an idea for a cartoon as any. My daughter thinks it's funny so I guess Marvel knows what they are doing. I hope Squad, Spidey and Wolverine survive the Disney takeover. And since I'm talking cartoons, my three year old's favorite show is Max and Ruby.
As far as TV shows with people in them go, No Reservations is still my fave.
Movies: I like movies plenty but I don't get to see too many of them. I saw exactly one movie at a theater in 2009. I took my daughter to see Hotel For Dogs. It was pretty good. Nickelodeon's live action movies are usually pretty good. So there ya go, Hotel For Dogs was the best movie of 2009. Suck on that Avatar!
See you in 2010!
Oh, right, 2010 is about a quarter of the way over with. Good times.
p.p.s This article is going to have lot of spleeling errorers in it beecuza blogger's spell checker apparently thinks that working is for suckers. Oh, and cuz I can't spell.
p.p.p.s. Please feel free to use the comments section to let me know what you think of these choices and to tell me about the many other books I probably missed. It's your intronets. I just work here.
I saw over at the Candy or Medicine blog that Ed Moorman has been selected as one of the new Xeric Grant winners. The book will be Ghost Stories (pictured above). I don't know if I've seen any of the stuff that will be in that book but I've seen a lot of Ed's comics over the past year and have been very impressed. Congratulations to Ed and all of the other Xeric winners. This combined with some other news bits I'll comment on later make me sure that 2009 will be a big year for a lot of minicomic's finest.
It's that time of year when bloggy people start trotting out their "best of" lists. As I've said before, I don't think the word "best" has any place in art criticism but I do have favorites so I'll share some of them with you. I always resist the idea of doing this kind of thing before the year is actually over but I'll go ahead and do it now in the hopes that some of you might buy some some of the minicomics I'll mention.
My absolute favorite minicomic of 2008? The one that stands above the rest for me is Josh Latta'sRashy Rabbit #4. Yeah, this may all sound biased because Josh is my pal but it is the comic I read and re-read the most in 2008. I think the drawing, the inking, tones, cover, writing, story, characters, jokes etc. are all just about seamless. I can't think of a more consistent minicomic from cover to cover. You can read my review of it here and you can read the thing yourself here but more importantly you should go buy a copy here. If you can think of a better minicomic from 2008 then by all means, email me and I'll email you back my address and you can send me a free copy of that awesome book.
There were a lot of other great books I have to mention. 2008 delivered a lot of strong anthology books. I think Candy or Medicine is important because of the wide range of creators in each issue but also because Josh Blair is doing just a good job keeping the thing on schedule and getting it into people's hands. Mallard out of the UK is important for similar reasons. The Good Minnesotan books are amazing looking. Vol. 3 is more of a graphic novel format (I'll review it soon) but 1 and 2 are two of the "best" designed minicomics I saw all year. Especially 2. Shitbeams on the Loose is another anthology with brilliant design but it's format is more graphic novel than traditional minicomic. Good content too. All that said, my favorite anthology of the year is Not My Small Diary 14. It is a great looking two volume set but it's the creators that make it my favorite. Alec Longstreth, John Porcellino and many more awesome talents in one package. I think I said in my review that it is probably the best dollar for dollar comics investment you can make. And, you can make that investment here. You won't regret it.
I saw some good sketchbook minis in 2008. I think my favorite might be J. Chris Campbell's 26 Robots. Just a perfect little robot book. Full color. Full of robots. Good fun. Brad McGinty's Bird Doggin'is right up there with it just with less robots and more girls. It's a great little pin up book with some nice color pages. Rob Ullman's latest Atom Bomb Bikini would probably be on the list too but I managed to leave HeroesCon without a copy. From what I saw at the show it is a good looking pin up book.
I was really impressed by work I saw from Ed Moorman and Sarah Olesky in various books and anthologies this year. I really liked Jeremy Massie's The Deadbeat minis and look forward to the graphic novel next year. Jeff Zwirek's Burning Building Comixare great looking and a lot of fun to lay out and assemble like Leggos. (Review coming soon Jeff.)
I also read a pretty good amount of webcomics. American Elf continues to be a favorite even after having read ten years worth of the things. I think it's getting better and better. Maybe it's because Kochalka is going through this fatherhood thing with two kids about he same age as mine but I think it is neat to watch it grow. American Elf has been around so long now that it is easy to take for granted. It is a part of my morning Internet log-on just like checking my email or looking at CNN.com but still it is a favorite. I'm a big fan of Rene Engstrom's Anders Loves Maria. I dislike that "best" word but it's the "best" ongoing fiction/drama/comedy/romance webcomic that I'm aware of. The drawing is great, the characters are great and the story really moves from page to page. Engstrom covers a lot of narrative and emotional space in a page of comics. Engstrom's scanner apparently died at some point this year but even with the pages being posted via digital camera it still looks good. It's the only ongoing web comic I can think of where I really care about finding out what happens next.
I could go on and on and there is a lot of great stuff I've left out but everything can't be my favorite. I also have a large amount of minicomics I have yet to review at file under other. Those books will be eligible for next year's list (since the eligibility judge is me).
Looking forward to 2009 with no idea what to expect.
Well, first of all in the spirit of full disclosure, I am in this book so yeah, you should go buy it. As far as my pages go, what is most interesting to me is how my pages look after I've sent them off to another editor. Being a self-publisher myself I can analyze how well the other editor does putting the thing together based on the knowledge of how my pages looked originally. I have to say that Blair does a great job and the pages I sent look better here than in my own minicomic.
This is another solid one dollar comic and I'm really impressed that Blair has edited, assembled, printed and distributed five of these in a year or so. This has been a really exciting year for minicomics anthologies seeing several put out multiple issues of good quality. Pretty cool.
This issue has three lovely pages from Ed Moorman. I really love his drawing and character design. Somewhere between Dan Clowes and Sam Keith. This story covers a good amount of distance for three pages but it felt unfinished. I hope it is a part of something longer that I will eventually get to see.
Andrew Goldfarb also delivers a nicely designed three pager and Maggie Morrill contributes a well drawn one page comic with a great punchline. These two stoires represent the short comedy style that is pefect for this kind of small book.
LikeEpisode 1 before it, Good Minnesotan Episode 2 is an example of how great a fine hand crafted minicomic can be. This book is a truly beautiful thing to read, look at and hold. The first issue was really strong and the second improves upon that good start.
I'm always excited to see some work from one of my favorite young cartoonists, Ed Moorman. The book starts off with a beautifully drawn Moorman piece about Bob Dylan. (Samples above.) It's a fun little illustrated fake interview where Dylan speaks in song lyrics to answer the interviewer's critiques. I can tell that Moorman is playing around with it and experimenting with his cartooning chops and page layouts. There is a Chester Brown kind of thing going on with the panel arrangements and some really nice sight gags that are both funny and true to the whimsical side of Dylan. I can't speak for how a Dylan fan would feel about it but as a comics fan I like it a lot.
Meghan Hogan delivers a lovely piece that is more of an illustrated monologue than comics but it's still an enjoyable piece. The drawings have a lot of emotional weight and Hogan gives the character an honest and believable voice.
Like the first issue, Good Minnesotan 2 has an inclination toward adventurous art and design. There are several pieces that are part sketch, part mixed media and part poem. These things are fantastic to look at but often hard to review other than to say that I really enjoy them. Joseph Nixon (sampled above) contributes several exciting pages with spontaneous graffiti feel to them.
Raighne Hogan again contributes some beautiful and ambitious work. Cloak of the Moon features Raighne Hogan working with Alex Witts in a story that is more traditional in it's execution but still a treat to look at.
Luke Holden's untitled piece (sampled above) seems to come from a different world than the rest of the book. Much of the Good Minnesotan work feels like and attempt to fuse mixed media, painting, poetry and prose into cartooning but Holden's work is much more a study in cartooning itself. Holden uses a strict system of panels and rigid pacing like Brian Chippendale's Maggots to play around with motion and light. Like Maggots, if there is a story going on I have failed to notice it but there is a tone and life to it worth reading. I'm not sure reading is the right word though. There is something about the short lapse of time between the many panels that challenges my mind. It makes me study each panel for changes in detail and feels more like a game than a story. It's almost the opposite of Josh Latta's panel-less Rashy Rabbit #4which moves so quickly without the panel borders that it seems to read itself. Holden's panels, again, like Maggots, force you to be invested in each panel, each motion, each transition. Having read and re-read Maggots and now this, I still don't know how to wrap my mind around this kind of storytelling. I know there will be continued discussion on it. Looking at this piece, and Moorman's piece and this book in general, I am increasingly aware that minicomics/alt comics/underground comic/etc. comics are officially in a post-Chester Brown post-Fort Thunder world. I as a cartoonist and writer-abouter-of-comics need to invest more time and thought into these kinds of narrative experiments if not to improve myself to but better understand the work of others. At this moment, all I can say is that I like it but I just don't yet know why. Let me also be clear that I'm not assuming that Brown or any of the Fort Thunder gang are influences on Moorman, Holden or any of the Good Minnesotan cast. I'm just saying that this art must come from a place similar to that art and that it is a place I need to spend more time visiting.
My favorite entry in the book is The Ripoff by Nicholas Breutzman and John Holden. It's probably the most traditional bit of comics in the book and there is nothing especially outstanding about the cartooning or writing. It's just really good. Honest characters in a funny situation. Just good comics. Good writing, good drawing, good inking, good lettering. Just good comics. I like it.
If you, my file under other reading pal, have not been able to hold an issue of Good Minnesotan in your hands then you really should make the effort. As I always say, the computer scans can't do the book justice. It is simply a beautifully crafted minicomic anthology that needs to be held in your hands to be appreciated. As I said in my review of the first issue, I am excited that a book like this exists and I am encouraged that a regional group of talent this good was able to get together. I hope to see more and more of this kind of thing. Good Illinoisan? Good Oregonian? Good Virginian? Chop chop you forty-nine other states. What are you waiting for?
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
(p.s. Apologies for not covering every single contributor and piece in the book. It's a pretty thick book. I tried to include as many of the contributor's links as I could find in the credits under the cover image. I encourage my file under other pals to check out the links. You will find a not of really neat stuff. I did.)
