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Post by arecomicsevengood on Dec 4, 2022 19:25:55 GMT
I want to know what sort of stuff should be considered for a "best of the year" list, whether that means the stuff that's your favorites or the things you think could be on there if you had gotten to it already. I have a short list of "graphic novels" that's sorta finalized but the things I haven't gotten to yet likely compromises my authority: I want to finish reading that Jason Shiga Adventuregame Comics: Leviathan, I wish I'd read the Kazuo Umezz Orochi books. Also the death of Kentaro Miura was such a big deal for so many people it seems more absurd than ever I haven't read Berserk. (Haven't read Chainsaw Man either!) There's a few books Fantagraphics put out I am making the moves to track down and read but don't know when they'll get to me: Who Will Make The Pancakes, One Beautiful Spring Day, Slash Them All, and Melag: Town Of Fables. Gotta go to the store and grip the Oni Press edition of Cristian Castelo's Wild, both Miles MacDiarmid's Hive: The Coronation and Shaheen Beardsley's Oboy Comix collection Freak did are serious contenders for me.
Favorite minicomics: Performance Of The Love Note by Angela Fanche and Career Shoplifter by Gabrielle Bell were both maybe career-best work. Heather Loase's stuff maybe the best discovery of the year. Want to reread Carlos Gonzalez's Wasp Video Xpress and Sophie Franz's Cyclops And Worm. Max Huffman's Hypermutt serial was pretty pleasurable, I liked reading Jay Stephen's Dwellings even though the kickstarter model with price inflation so the 6.66 price tag was strictly a conceptual gag bothered me.
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Post by whitecomics on Dec 4, 2022 23:14:04 GMT
Every year I wish I kept better track of my comics reading, every year I try to remember which of the books I've read actually came out that year. Offhand here's what comes to mind for me...
BOOKS
* Keeping Two * Time Zone J * Ultrasound (I've read some but not all of the GB issues, I suspect I'll really like this but haven't read the book yet) * The Karman Line (my favorite of this year's Glacier Bay output though I haven't read Glaeolia 3) * Metax - I liked this a lot but thought it had a couple key flaws that I think keeps it from being a best-of for me * Dominique Goblet, Ostende - possibly a 2021 work? either late last year or early this year
MINIS/ZINES * Harkham, Crickets #7-8 (and Color Special) * Warren Craghead, Speedy #1-3 * Frank Santoro, Pittsburg 2 / Running Numbers
ONLINE WORK * Kingly, Nick Edwards - the pacing and cartooning in this is impeccable, I don't think I've seen any serious writing about it * In a Plum, Peony Gent * Kevin H & Laura Knetzger monthly Patreon comics - I've loved these in previous years and I still love them now
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Post by mikesheawright on Dec 5, 2022 1:32:56 GMT
Things that have really stuck with me have been:
- Strange Death of Alex Raymond by Sim/Grubaugh - Gray Green by Connor Willumsen (on IG) - Plaza by Yokoyama - Everglide by Carlos Gonzalez - ending volumes of No. 5 by Taiyo Matsumoto - 2022 Comic Collection by Gizem Vural - Time Zone J by Doucet (still on the fence about this one but i do find myself thinking about it a lot) - Crickets by Harkham
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Post by mikesheawright on Dec 5, 2022 12:10:35 GMT
woke up realizing i forgot CHAINSAW MAN which does that beautiful thing where you start off laughing at/with it and then it turns into just a wonderful wild ride and i adore it. it's funny, surprisingly moving, full of genuine surprises, and the action stuff just rips so hard.
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Post by BubblesZine on Dec 5, 2022 13:43:38 GMT
A quick list...
The Gull Yettin by Joe Kessler Time Zone J by Julie Doucet Acting Class - Drnaso Orochi 1&2 by Kazuo Umezz The Great Art Exhibition by Kazuo Umezz Mr. Colostomy by Matthew Thurber All the Junji Ito books 2120 by George Wylesol Talk to My Back by Yamada Murasaki Artist by Yeoung-Shin Ma Baby Boom by Yuichi Yokoyama Men I Trust by Tommi Parrish Running Numbers by Frank Santoro Blood on the Tracks all volumes by Shuzo Oshimi Santos Sisters #2 by Greg and Fake Flow Form Specimen by Lale Westvind (waiting on Void Packer!) Career Shoplifter by Gabrielle Bell Crickets 7/8 by Sammy Harkham Powerwash by Josh Pettinger Swag 4 by Cameron Arthur Intruder by Anand Sauve-Qui-Peut by Crumbs The Devil's Grin by Alex Graham
I still have plenty I haven't read...
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Post by whitecomics on Dec 5, 2022 15:52:20 GMT
One more from me - Beatrix Urkowitz's The Lover of Everyone in the World. A great comic in itself, a very strong early (first?) release from an exciting new micropublisher, Parsifal Press, and an entry in a genre I enjoy -- a book of collected short stories but with coherent themes/presentation that make it work as a single work.
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Post by manoopuesta on Dec 5, 2022 16:17:23 GMT
here is my list: Time Zone J by Julie Doucet Career shoplifter by Gabrielle Bell The Devil's Grin by Alex Graham Mr. Colostomy by Matthew Thurber Acting Class by Nick Drnaso Ducks by Kate Beaton Meskin and Umezo by Austin English Adiós Amigos by Begoña García-Alén Forn de Calç #2, editor Marc Charles Las Aventuras de Passer P. Malta by Andrés Magán Jaywalk #1, editor Floyd Tangeman Abysmalation by Josh Bayer other books I have in my to-read pile: Detention #2 by Tim Hensley Crickets #7 and #8 Talk to My Back by Yamada Murasaki 2 Viaxes by Xaquín Marín and Reimundo Patiño Artist by Yeoung-Shin Ma Baby Boom by Yuichi Yokoyama Who will Make the Pancakes by Megan Kelso City Crime Comics by Teddy Goldenberg
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Post by grubcubman on Dec 6, 2022 13:28:02 GMT
Some others that haven't been mentioned yet:
The Collected Genevieve Castree Zine Panique Plaine (Lagon Revue) Det Grymma Svardet (Lystring Forlag) Trains Annual by Andy Wieland Power Wash by Josh Pettinger Mint by Michael Kennedy Daria Tessler's diverse minis
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Post by arecomicsevengood on Dec 7, 2022 0:41:09 GMT
A few things not mentioned yet - Anna Haifisch's Schaapi Ruppert and Mulot with Bastien Vives' Olympia (I liked The Grande Odalisque last year and this is pretty much exactly the same) Amanda Vahamaki's Pixie Lice comic from Neoglyphic Media Aidan Koch's Stone Blue Sky and I spent a lot of time looking at Rikke Villadsen's The Clitoris, trying to write a review of it, because I liked the drawings a lot, but I'm not sure what it all added up to as a work of art.
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moe
New Member
Posts: 35
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Post by moe on Dec 7, 2022 1:43:38 GMT
The three Crickets releases were my favorite comics of the year.
A couple more that haven’t been mentioned yet: Void Packer by Lale Westvind Miasma Myopia by Floyd Tangeman
This year was also the year I finally bit the bullet and got on Patreon. Ironically, it was Frank Santoro’s staunchly anti-Patreon Hype Pup that got me on there, since I was curious how Matthew Thurber’s Pirates of the Condominium would play out. In addition to Thurber’s work, I’ve also really dug: Causeway by CF Assorted zines by Jason T Miles and Chris C Cilla
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Post by whitecomics on Dec 7, 2022 2:26:26 GMT
Ah the new Koch is a good mention, I have a copy and will make a point to read it before year's end. It's interesting especially as, I think, her first longform work reflecting her interest in climate and environmental issues (I'd also put her two Kus minis in this category, someone should correct me if I'm forgetting other examples). As someone who also thinks a lot about those subjects, and has tried to make work about them, I've very aware of how easy it is to end up with something trite and boring. Some nice drawings of trees! Some poetic words about how everything is on fire! I trust Koch to do something more compelling and nuanced, I'll read the book with strong attention to that point specifically.
I also thought I'd try to briefly tease out something that's been on my mind, beginning with Blood of the Virgin and Keeping Two. Those are two comics now completed after a lengthy serialization, where I think for many readers and certainly for me they took on a specific shape and meaning in the course of that serialization. They're good books, undoubtedly, but I think they would mean less to me if they'd appeared with a spine first or even if they'd been serialized over a few years. Both those stories have sat with me for a while. They've marinated.
So with that in mind I'm noticing other work that meant a lot to me this year and where it seems the passage of time was an essential ingredient. Whether it's Doucet, writing about an experience that happened decades ago (and also, I'd argue, combining elements of her 80s cartooning with her more recent interest in collage), or Warren Craghead quietly self-publishing three new issues of Speedy, a comic that last appeared as a Xeric grantee a few decades ago.
I guess in part that's just a reflection of a point that others have written about more articulately, that comics is an art form where you can grow old and still make great work.
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Post by BubblesZine on Dec 7, 2022 2:39:08 GMT
I didn't even hear about Aidan Koch's Stone Blue Sky (or the Man Made Lake mini). Ordering a copies of both now. I saw her do a talk in Baltimore in like 2017 and I was very inspired.
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Post by bayls171 on Dec 7, 2022 2:59:35 GMT
There’s a bunch of good shit mentioned but one I haven’t seen was Andy Barron’s Om. From Mansion press, and imo one of the best books to come out this year and I’ve barely heard anyone mention it
Aside from that, Talk To My Back, Time Zone J, Muscle Horse, Frog In The Fall, WWJ&S Summer Fun Annual, Santos Sisters, Pisstopia, Men I Trust, No. 5, and Keeping Two were all great books I read off the top of my head
I just got Demons: Bloodlust by Hyena Hell, as well as Gabrielle Bell’s new comic in the mail. Those could be contenders
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Post by dominocorp on Dec 7, 2022 4:13:27 GMT
Domesticated Afterlife was interesting.
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Post by jporcellino on Dec 8, 2022 14:53:04 GMT
I'm naughty because there's a bajillion comics I haven't read this year, but nothing I did read comes close to Joseph Smith and the Mormons. That's a landmark book, the closest thing I can come to in terms of the profound effect it had on me and the absolute mastery displayed by the author is Crumb's Genesis.
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