2010 Comic Selection

The late aughts have been good in the comic world. I've tried to compile a short list of what I think are the ten best books of the genre that have come out this year along with a compelling* image from each and a quick footnote. I was excited to find that not only was each book either a new original story just released this year or is a continuation of a series that began within the last quarter of the decade, but also that the names on talent roster were was a harmonious mix of both old and new blood. So without any further ado, my gift guide for the bleary-eyed, pasty, social-disaster-child in your family:

The birds ponder the origin and meaning of a crashed jet in Anders Nilsen's Big Questions series.

Mosfet the Warlock toys with the very fabric of life and death in his insane epic POWR MASTRS.**

Dan Clowes' much anticipated Wilson, turned out to be a quiet, weird human tragicomedy.

In Matt Furie's Boy's Club series, Pepe falls into himself after stumbling upon a vision of real ugliness.

Jim Woodring unleashed some particularly unfair and brutal circumstances upon poor old Manhog in his newest opus, Weathercraft.

Titular character Wally Gropius, battles for love and money in Tim Hensley's absurd, architecture and money punning new book.

Rob, of Jeff Smith's newest series RASL meets a bizarre lizard faced nemesis.***

Lisa Hanawalt lays down a list of poor pet choices in her new issue of I Want You (#2).

Kevin Huizenga's Wild Kingdom features a whole lot of weird stuff, including Walt Whitman quoting W.S. Merwin in a brief advertisement for um... a hot new thing?

And finally this rather self explanatory page from Johnny Ryan's latest installment of Prison Pit, which only promises to get more gross and gory as the series continues.

Happy holiday shopping!!

* Haha.
** I cannot recommend this one enough.
*** RASL, not quite as kid friendly as Smith's previous work, BONE

Ho Ho Ho!!!

Well, the weather outside is pretty yucky - it's cold and drizzly, but I don't think that it will snow. Which it actually did once here, on Clement Street, on Christmas Eve of all things. Honestly! But even if it's not snowing out, it's still a fine time to get indoors - like in Green Apple's doors, because I just priced a used set of the Complete Spirit Archives and it'll be hitting the shelves tonight.

For those who don't know, The Spirit was a newspaper comic created by Will Eisner that ran from 1940 - 1952 and forever changed the way that comics would be viewed. Eisner's genius extended into all aspects of his strip - the art was superb and often surreal, his plots were engaging, socially conscious, yet somehow self-effacing. Eisner's work on The Spirit was so sophisticated that the Comic Industry even named their top honor after him; The Eisner Award is considered the "Oscar" of comic artists and has been awarded to Dan Clowes, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Chris Ware and many, many others.

So, in the spirit of the season (HA!) I'm reproducing Eisner's Sunday December 21, 1947 in its entirety below. And maybe I'll sneak another strip or two up here before Santa's sled hits town.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

No More Shaves

Last year, in an attempt to solve some personal problems, I decided to grow a beard. I won't get into all the sordid details, but the long and short of it is that everything worked out fine. Of course no plan of action is without its residual side effects. How was I to know that my scraggly winter beard would capture the imagination of John, manager and music buyer for Green Apple's Annex? The next thing I knew he'd recruited the majority of the male staff to grow beards right along with me and, when Christmas Eve wandered around the corner, in celebration of the holiday the beards were trimmed to moustaches and we, uh... looked good for our families...? Well, we had a party anyway.

Now it looks like that time of year is rolling around once more and, not to my complete surprise, the bearded winter festivities are beginning again. A tradition has sprung up perhaps? I don't know. But on Christmas Eve this year, if you really want to see a bunch of cool facial patterns during a last minute shopping spree, you know where to be-

GREEN APPLE BOOKS AND MUSIC
SAN FRANCISCO
CALIFORNIA
USA

*Note:
The title for this post was lifted from David Greenberger's fantastic book No More Shaves, part of his series The Duplex Planet. Just FYI. Fascinating stuff. I promise.