-No final tally for the meta-list yet--my shop didn't get in any copies of the latest Comics Journal. I know some stores did, but as Jog pointed out, it wasn't on Diamond's shipping list. Maybe it made it out to the west coast and not to the rest of the country. I do know that my shop carries TCJ, and it wasn't there this week. It's possible that Diamond missed filling it, since they were apparently missing a few other items as well. Hopefully it will turn up next week; as soon as it does, I'll have those rankings for you.
-And why not get the best of 2008 ball rolling? I'm going to try to keep a running tally from the beginning of the year, because I don't want to leave something off the list. Not that this was a problem with my best of 2007 list--I probably would have included Terr'ble Thompson if I hadn't thought it was a 2006 release, but that's about the only oversight. But my best of lists are my version of bagging, boarding, and indexing, I guess.
So--the best comic/graphic novel of 2008 thus far is...Little Nothings: The Curse of the Umbrella by Lewis Trondheim. This is NBM's collection/translation of Trondheim's comic-format blog, which I struggle to read every time it's updated. Little Nothings consists of one page strips, often illustrating Trondheim's travels, particularly those related to his career as a prominent cartoonist. It's a very funny book, maybe the most charming of Trondheim's translated work. If it had come out in 2007, it definitely would have made my top 10. NBM has some sample pages here.
OTHER NOTABLE RELEASES VERY MUCH WORTH YOUR TIME: Reich #1, Hickee #4 (for the Graham Annable strip alone; also has a very nice cover)
NOTABLE STUFF WORTHY OF CONSIDERATION THAT I HAVE BOUGHT BUT I HAVE NOT READ: Blue Pills (I'm about 1/3 of the way in, and I'm not really digging it, honestly), Paul Goes Fishing, Crickets #2.
NOTABLE STUFF WORTHY OF CONSIDERATION THAT I HAVE NOT YET BOUGHT OR READ: the new Maakies collection, Hotwire vol. 2, the latest volume of MOME.
I'll try to update this as the year goes on, maybe once a month if I can remember.
-Do folks really expect Marvel's advertising to use the word "whom"? (Also: here, maybe?) Somehow I think that might elicit an unwanted reaction from the target audience.
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3 comments:
I wonder if the "whom" folks' next project will be a petition to get Marvel to correct "thru" to "through" in future Essential printings.
Ooh, my local French-language library has Little Nothings in the original. I'll have to give it a try. It'll be good for my French.
I got an ARC of Blue Pills. I really enjoyed it, but when I wrote my review, I struggled not to praise it too much, because pleasant and well-made as it is, it's quite slight and not really exceptional in terms of craft or structure. It made me think of what Douglas Wolk said in Reading Comics: that comics can convey the subjectivity of the artist like no other medium. I guess I enjoyed it because I enjoyed hanging out in Frederik Peeters' mind. He seems like a really nice guy, you know? ...but that doesn't make Blue Pills the next Epileptic.
I really liked Blue Pills, but I think I might be another case of overpraising. It's not a mindblowing reinvention of the medium that will change your life forever or anything, but it was a really nice story. Still, it's probably the best thing I've read this year so far.
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