My Comic Year (Without Annotation . . But Hey, I Got Pictures!)

In light of the Eisner turnouts, here's my own shortlist of highlights from 2007, which I never got around to last January for reasons I'd rather not get into. Glad to see Eisner agreed with some of 'em. There were not-bad, not-great exceptions - - - Walking Dead and Thunderbolts come to mind - - - but mostly my comics year was one of more zombies and superheroes, of abominable flatness, of myopic visionaries, of more zombies and superheroes, of denser and duller continuity,of letdowns and kissoffs and heartbreaks none of which stung but gave off a chickenshit pffft, of Mark Millar's self-aggrandizing hyperbole, of more zombies and superheroes . Then these eleven beauties happened. Only wish I could whip up a few words to say about the lot 'cause they deserve it. But I can't.

My favorite comics of 2007, then, incidentally the best comics of 2007 as well. Alphabetically.





20th CENTURY BOYS Naoki Urusawa

THE ARRIVAL Shaun Tan

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD Mark Waid & George Perez

I SHALL DESTROY ALL CIVILIZED PLANETS! Fletcher Hanks

THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, David Aja

ONE MORE DAY J.Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada/ SENSATIONAL SPIDERMAN ANNUAL Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca - - - Not a typo, this.

THE PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP: THE TRIAL OF COLONEL SWEETO AND OTHER STORIES Nicholas Gurewitch

THE SPIRIT Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone

SUBURBAN GLAMOR Jamie McKelvie

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY: APOCALYPSE SUITE Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba

'Nuff said. Excelsior.

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

We'll all find out in January 2009, when Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert team up for this particular Batman story arc.

*SQUEEE!* ^_^

Read more here.

Eisner 2008 Winners

Best one shot for me is Matt Fraction's Sensational Spider-man Annual #1. Agree with The Umbrella Academy (though wouldn't mind if Nightly News won) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (then again, Immortal Iron Fist should've) wins though. Brubaker's Captain America is one of the year's best titles bu his Uncanny X-men sucks ass, so it's a toss between Joss Whedon and Brian Wood for me. Which reminds me, no DMZ win yet? Everybody loves Y: The Last Man; Naoki Urasawa’s Monster was another sorry miss for best continuing series. We better see Locke & Key in next year's awards. Your thoughts? Here are the winners:

Best Short Story: “Mr. Wonderful,” by Dan Clowes, serialized in New York Times Sunday Magazine

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot): Justice League of America #11: “Walls,” by Brad Meltzer and Gene Ha (DC)

Best Continuing Series: Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan, Jr. (Vertigo/DC)

Best Limited Series:The Umbrella Academy, by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá (Dark Horse)

Best New Series: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty, and Andy Owens (Dark Horse)

Best Publication for Kids: Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Mouse Guard: Winter 1152, by David Petersen (Archaia)

Best Publication for Teens: Laika, by Nick Abadzis (First Second)

Best Humor Publication: Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories, by Nicholas Gurewitch (Dark Horse)

Best Anthology: 5, by Gabriel Bá, Becky Cloonan, Fabio Moon, Vasilis Lolos, and Rafael Grampa (self-published)

Best Digital Comic: Sugarshock!, by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon

Best Reality-Based Work: Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, by James Sturm and Rich Tommaso (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)

Best Graphic Album—New: Exit Wounds, by Rutu Modan (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint: Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, by David Petersen (Archaia)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Strips: Complete Terry and the Pirates, vol. 1, by Milton Caniff (IDW)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books: I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks (Fantagraphics)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material: I Killed Adolf Hitler, by Jason (Fantagraphics)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan: Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White, by Taiyo Matsumoto (Viz)

Best Writer: Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Criminal, Daredevil, Immortal Iron Fist (Marvel)

Best Writer/Artist: Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #18 (Acme Novelty)

Best Writer/Artist—Humor: Eric Powell, The Goon (Dark Horse)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team: Pia Guerra/Jose Marzan, Jr., Y: The Last Man (Vertical/DC)

Best Painter or Multimedia Artist (interior art): Eric Powell, The Goon: Chinatown (Dark Horse)

Best Cover Artist: James Jean, Fables (Vertigo/DC); The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); Process Recess 2; Superior Showcase 2 (AdHouse)

Best Coloring: Dave Stewart, BPRD, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cut, Hellboy, Lobster Johnson, The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); The Spirit (DC)

Best Lettering: Todd Klein, Justice, Simon Dark (DC); Fables, Jack of Fables, Crossing Midnight (Vertigo/DC); League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (WildStorm/DC); Nexus (Rude Dude)

Special Recognition: Chuck BB, Black Metal (artist, Oni)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism: Newsarama, produced by Matt Brady and Michael Doran (www.newsarama.com)

Best Comics-Related Book: Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, by Douglas Wolk (Da Capo Press)

Best Publication Design: Process Recess 2, designed by James Jean and Chris Pitzer (AdHouse)

Hall of Fame: Judges’ Choices: R. F. Outcault, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson; Voters’ Choices: John Broome, Arnold Drake, Len Wein, Barry Windsor-Smith

Other Awards

Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award: Paul Levitz

Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award: Cathy Malkasian

Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing: Archie Goodwin, Larry Lieber

Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailing Award: Atom! and Portlyn Freeman of Brave New World

The Island Did Not Jump

Shakeup on the flashbacks and flashforwards will make it so you won't know when events are happening.

The castaways on the raft with Faraday are kaput. Faraday's probably not.

The immortal Richard Alpert will be seen barefoot in the very near future.

Vincent the dog survives 'til series end.

Oh, and the island did not jump.

That's as much as they'll let you know about Lost Season 5.

That ain't much.

But with no more Wire coming, January can not come fast enough.

Shield Yourselves

The operatic , hopped-up, almost surreal evil twin of The Wire has been prone to slippage since Season 3, with the reek of contrivance and the amount of corn getting a bit too rank for comfort in Season 6, but next to David Simon's untouchable masterpiece, The Shield is the cop show you should be watching. And very little TV approximates its thick sense of doom.

And now it's coming to an end,too.

Knowledge

I've been voguing on Knowing ever since it was name-checked as Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko follow-up. The vastly underrated Alex Proyas just wrapped a few weeks ago and is deep into post with it.

Here's the lowdown: schoolkids put drawings in a time capsule and 50 years other it gets cracked one and one of the drawings turns out to accurately and anally predict every major disaster since and some that haven't happened yet. Voltage for geeks, goes without saying, despite being a Nicolas Cage movie.

Oh, and Rose Byrne's in it. Can't wait.

AMBUSH!!

I just read Ambush Bug Year None #1. Warning... Here's the side-effect:

God Speaks . . .Again

Alan Moore, yes that Alan Moore, on his favorite show on TV:

"The Wire is the most stunning piece of television that has come out of America, possibly the most stunning piece of television full-stop.

(It's) grown-up television! It's novelistic. You get to find out about all these tiny different aspects of Baltimore, to build up a huge picture of the city with all of its intricacies — from the wharf side, to the kids in the projects, to the power structure with the boardrooms and police department and governor's office. And it's got some great writers: It's got George Pelecanos and David Simon. And so many wonderful characters, Bubbles, Omar.

So yeah, everything else looks pretty lame next to The Wire."

Also thinks South Park is the bomb.

Oh,if only the rest of the planet would listen, Mr. Moore, and stop watching Gray's Anatomy.

Also on Heroes, from some other interview: "I was persuaded to watch (Heroes) by people who said it nods to Watchmen but God, what a load of rubbish! It's a late-70s X-Men at best and full of terrible ideas and characters who've all been done to death. Beyond death. And the writing shows such contempt for the viewer. The climax, a man who is going to explode is carried off into the air by his brother... did anybody bother to compare the effects of a groundburst with an airburst nuclear explosion? I'll take the former over the latter, thanks. This is supposed to be the sort of thing that superhero stories are good at. I tell you, if we are ever threatened with a scenario like that in real life I hope the superheroes aren't American because we'll be sunk."

Oh and some nice words he has to say on the 300 movie: "Racist, homophobic and sublimely stupid."

Heh.

More here.

Keep On Trekkin'

Watching the Watchmen

Over and over. The Watchmen trailer. Gasp.

Bianchi Does Ellis

Lipton Meets Hell