Best of 2011: Larry Reid

A short, subjective list of the best comix of 2011

What follows is a list of my “favorite” comix of 2011, as opposed the “best.”  More important to me than any single title was the increasing profile of self-published comix in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.  These handcrafted books are appearing in greater numbers and with higher production values than at any time in recent memory. The contents are delightfully uneven, but the level of enthusiasm from both cartoonists and consumers is refreshing. To varying degrees, my three selections from 2011 all emerge from this independent tradition.

Crickets #3 by Sammy Harkham (Self-published, distributed by Fantagraphics Books)

Like many comix enthusiasts, I was primarily aware of Sammy Harkham as the editor of the ambitious anthology Kramer’s Ergot. What little exposure I’d had to his comix work left little impression until the appearance of Crickets # 3 earlier this year. Maybe it was the alluring cover that attracted me to this magazine sized comic book. The “Sex Morons” subtitle was certainly intriguing. Once opened, the skillfully rendered, enigmatic endpapers were equally sensuous. The stories mostly deal with mundane indiscretions and infidelities of married men. While they may lack drama, the fluid narrative and engaging artwork made this one the pleasant surprises of last year.

Thunder in the Building #2 by Margaret Ashford-Trotter (Self-published)

Seattle resident Margaret Ashford-Trotter is a formally trained visual artist. My experience indicates that many cartoonists emerging from academic backgrounds sacrifice storytelling skills in favor of aesthetic considerations. Thankfully, Ashford-Trotter is in full possession of both. This single story, magazine sized comic with additional illustrations, is rooted in the Northwest Noir tradition. The fictional “Young Savage” tale has the authenticity of contemporary autobiographical comix; its believable narrative enhanced by realistic artwork.  The work is sophisticated conceptually without a hint of condescension. Technically, the book was published in late 2010, but didn’t come to my attention until 2011. It was among the most memorable reads of the year.

Love & Rockets: New Stories #4 by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics Books)

Thirty years ago, brothers Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez self-published the magazine sized Love & Rockets #1. In the process they altered comix culture in the U.S. and abroad. Their sensuous comix foreshadowed a multicultural society featuring determined women facing relevant situations. Three decades later, their work resonates with equal intensity. The conclusion of Jaime’s poignant “Love Bunglers” story alone made this book essential reading in 2011. Almost unfathomably, Love & Rockets keeps getting better with age.

Larry Reid is the curator of Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery in Seattle, WA.

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Best of 2011: Ed Luce

Ed Luce

1. The Wolf by Tom Neely - A natural progression from his Ignatz winning The Blot, Tom's intensely personal and horrific vision spills across the pages of this graphic novel like so much gore and seed. It's not without its gorgeous side, as the delicately rendered last act balances out the carnage.   All without a single word balloon in sight.  http://www.iwilldestroyyou.com/

Prison Pit #3

2. Prison Pit, Book Three by Johnny Ryan - The Prison Pit series has produced some of the best gay erotic comics in recent memory (particularly Book One), without consciously setting out to do so. It could easily be subtitled "A Complex Cycle of Penetration and Regeneration".  Johnny pumps this hyper-masculine orgy of violence and sex so far beyond bursting, it can't help but tip over to the queer side.  It is a prison, after all.  http://johnnyryan.com/

3. Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22 by MariNaomi -  A different kind of blood and guts are unflinchingly on display for everyone to see in this alternately tender and bitter collection.  There's some very raw stuff in these stories but Mari's sharp, steady renderings charm and guide you through.  Sadly, it made me realize my own romantic resume would have to start at 22...http://marinaomi.com/


4. Metal Evolution documentary series by Sam Dunn (as seen on VH1 Classic) - Metal music is a major ingredient in my comic work, so I was especially excited to see the genre get its due in this eleven part series.  Each episode explores the genesis and innovation of an individual sub-genre:  New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Glam, Thrash, Shock, Grunge, Power Metal.  Props to Sam for going out of his way to get the musicians we don't hear from so much anymore, including Peter Criss and Ace Frehley.   Seriously, I thought Peter Criss was dead...

Batwoman

5. Batwoman by JH Williams - Easily the finest of the DC's New 52 books.  Splendorously dark panels and composition.  JH Williams is redefining the monthly superhero comic.  With a queer female lead, I might add.

6. Your Scene Sucks - The words "hipster" and "scenester" get thrown around a lot but can anyone actually explain the finer points of who these people are?  This site and book series attempt to chronicle, with lovingly crafted illustrations and damningly spot-on footnotes, the many exotic scene species including "Indie Jesus", "Crabcore" kids and "The Screamolester".  Also my go-to guide for character and costume design.  http://yourscenesucks.com/

7. Junque Land #1 and #2 by Jay Fischer & Robin Bogert - Anthropomorphic monster porn, wordlessly illustrated with slobbering, bodacious flair. http://www.junqueland.com/


8. Artist Jose Gabriel Angeles - Take your pick from this comic-zine-painting-print-poster-toy-shirt producing man-machine; it all bares the same insanely intricate, chromatically acidic, ugly-gorgeous sense of design.  http://crudedude.net/

Jose Gabriel Angeles

9. Decibel Magazine - This magazine (along with the aforementioned Metal Evolution series) has completely revitalized both my creative juices and iTunes library.  The only extreme music/metal monthly, it also features comics and artwork by three of my favorite creators:  Chuck BB, Mark Rudolph and (occasionally) Tom Neely.  http://www.decibelmagazine.com/

10. Forming, Volume One by Jesse Moynihan
As bratty as it is pretty, a kinda-sorta re-imagining of man's evolution at the hands of a group of mystical/extraterrestrial douche bags.  It has easily garnered more gawking from casual passersby than anything else I've read this year.  http://jessemoynihan.com/


Ed Luce is the creator of the comic series Wuvable Oaf about love, metal and cats.  In 2011, he had exhibitions of his art -- simultaneously -- in New York and San Francisco.  You can buy his comics here: http://wuvableoaf.com

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Best of 2011: Malachi Ward

There have been many best-of lists in the last few weeks. Comics is a relatively small world, so there's also been quite a bit of overlap. The second part of "The Love Bunglers" by Jaime Hernandez was fantastic, we seem to agree. On the superhero side of the fence Waid/Martin/Rivera's run on Daredevil was a favorite. You won't get any argument from me! Sure, I would've liked to see Marti's The Cabbie a little more and a little higher, but overall there seemed to be a lot of consensus this year. So instead of adding the usual suspects to the pile, I'm going to try and throw in a few of my favorite things that don't seem to be getting the same level of attention.

We'll start comics-related but not comics proper: Sammy Harkham has had a good year as a designer, particularly in the last few months. I particularly liked his cover for The Blue Bourbon Orchestra by Carson Mell, and that new Kramers looks fantastic. Plus he did a great cover for the new Bonnie Prince Billy album.

That album, by the way, Wolfroy Goes to Town was really great. Will Oldham is always solid, but this was a particularly strong entry into his catalogue. Listen to it again, everybody!

One of the album's highlights is the backup vocals of Angel Olsen. She steals a bridge in the great "Quail and Dumplings" with a throaty, appalachian bravado. After listening I felt compelled to track down the singer. Turns out she released a collection of songs recently, called Strange Cacti. It's lo-fi folk, her voice elevating the music into haunting, beautiful territory.

Speaking of haunting (and the pleasant tones of a lady's voice, I suppose) one of my favorite sequences of podcastin' this year was the October entries in the Stuff You Missed In History Class show. It's always a great podcast, but in October Deblina Chakraborty and Sarah Dowdy focused on creepy tales from history, and the results were always a lot of fun. I particularly liked "The Mistress of Murder Hill". Oh, and also the two-parter on Blood Work.

What's that? I haven't actually mentioned any of those comics I said I would? I assure you the stream of consciousness you witnessed above was intentional. I guess I should slip in at least one comic before I go.

Self Made Hero is a great UK publisher, and in 2011 they put out my second favorite comic of the year. (I said I agreed with "The Love Bunglers"!) Sandcastle, written by Pierre Oscar Levy and drawn by Frederick Peeters, is a truly great bit of science/fantasy fiction. (I'm not going to get retentive about those genre lines right now) The story follows a few characters - a family, a young couple, some American tourists - as they spend a morning at a little beach lined with cliffs. ...And that's about as far into the plot as I can go without spoilers. Levy's story unfolds expertly, unease naturally shifting to fear, as the reader and characters must confront their fates. Peeters, in turn, does an incredible job, particularly with his subtle manipulations of character design. Find this thing and read it!

Malachi Ward is the co-creator of Expansion. His work has appeared in various anthologies, including Study Group 12, Nobrow and Mome.  He lives in Pasadena, and can be found on the web here: http://malachiward.blogspot.com/

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Best of 2011: Iain Laurie

While I've thoroughly enjoyed Grant Morrison's take on Batman over the last few years, it's been Scott Snyder's phenomenal Black Mirror that has truly earned a place in my favourite ever Batman stories. Beautifully written and illustrated, its quiet, gripping horror never lets up and marks Snyder as the most exciting new writer to appear in some time.

Iain Laurie is the unique talent behind Powwkipsie and All the Dead Superheroes.  He is also the co-creator of the webcomics Black Cape, Roachwell, Mothwicke and the upcoming Bark Weed.  His love of Batman borders on the unwholesome.

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Best of 2011: Steven Weissman

Here are some cartoonists I appreciated this year:

Steven Weissman is a cartoonist based in Los Angeles.  He has written and drawn comics for Marvel Entertainment, Nickelodeon, and Fantagraphics.  His current weekly strip "Barack Hussein Obama" is gearing up for a physical release in 2012.

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Best of 2011: Anders Nilsen

This year, Anders Nilsen released his enormous, career-spanning collection of Big Questions.  He followed it with a tour that took him across North America and Europe.  In September, he braved our Proust Questionnaire, so we invited him back to share his highlights of 2011.  

Here are nine things he came across in his travels that he "really dug:"

1. Viande de Chevet, various artists, (Stephane Blanquet, Editor)(UDA)
2. Going Back, Cathy G. Johnson (Self Published)
3. Quodlibet, Katja Spitzer (NoBrow)
4. Pure Pajamas, by Marc Bell (D&Q)
5. That Adele song I kept hearing everywhere I went
6. Islands by Brendan Munroe (self-published)
7. Rise and Fall by Micah Lidberg (NoBrow)
8. Dylan Reider's video part for Gravis shoes.
9. Mariah Robertson photo show at the Baltic Museum in Newcastle, UK

Viande de Chevet, cover by Blanquet

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Best of 2011: Metaphrog

This year has seen us reading and rereading for both work and pleasure: often travelling with a few books and the time and headspace just to read.

Among many books, we have enjoyed Patricia Highsmith’s The Glass Cell, although “enjoy” is perhaps an odd word for such a bleak and at times harrowingly brutal and claustrophobic novel. Highsmith worked as a script writer for comics in the '40s and it is easy to see why Alfred Hitchcock was attracted to her first novel Strangers on a Train. Most of her work deals with obsession and is often morally ambiguous: despite being labelled “psychological thrillers” her books are of high literary merit. Without consciously making a plan or deliberate choice in sticking with miserable, dark and disturbing writing we revisited some Angela Carter. Her collection of short fiction, The Bloody Chamber, is based on folk tales and fairy tales and makes an ideal travel companion. Even without a reservation in the quiet coach people tend to avoid pale sickly readers with their eyes bulging out.  Most recently, we finally finished Alan Sharp’s A Green Tree in Gedde. The author himself now describes the writing as “baton-twirling prose”, but it is a lively first novel, and in 1965 when it was released, created controversy for its subject matter. Set in Greenock, Glasgow, Manchester and Paris and examining the lives of four young people, including incestuous siblings, the book bristles with stylistic experimentation, Joycean passages and street philosophy yet manages to be emotional, poetic and convey gentle wisdom.

Strangely, and completely coincidentally, Alan Sharp also wrote the script for a film we have enjoyed re-watching, called The Hired Hand. A trippy, acid western: Peter Fonda’s almost languorous direction contrasts with the stark,  brutality of the story itself. This could be disconcerting and occasionally is but the blissed-out soundtrack and hallucinatory overlaying of images combine to create a striking and unusual film.

On its own the soundtrack to The Hired Hand is beautiful, a short piece composed by Bruce Langhorne, ideal for creating an isolated mood.

A similar hypnotic atmosphere can be achieved by listening to Jungle Joy by Keijo a CDr on the outa label (the CDr sampler outa001 is also wonderful) - real instruments with electronics creating melodic experimental music.

For working, instrumental music makes sense. Not so that we feel we’re in an elevator or to create an ambience; that would be funny: it’s just that music somehow helps focus and lyrics are an obvious distraction to thinking or writing. So lots of jazz, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Sun Ra and also idiosyncratic composers like Moondog, Erik Satie, The Fall or Ennio Morricone.

We do listen to songs, and lyrics, particularly to wind down or to build a bridge between work time and relaxation time. Sometimes the weirder the music the better: Jess Conrad’s "Why Am I Living?"

But also classic stuff like Black Monk Time by The Monks, or more obscure singer-songwriters like David Ackles or Val Stoecklein.

The Chet Baker album Let’s Get Lost is hauntingly beautiful, and the Bruce Weber film makes for interesting viewing. Even for people not interested in jazz or Chet Baker’s life the biography: Deep in a Dream The Long Night of Chet Baker by James Gavin is an extremely powerful and disquieting piece of writing.

Graphic novels we’ve both read this year include Le Petit Bleu de la Cote Ouest by Tardi and Manchette (we are glad to see Tardi’s work available at last in English), Daniel Clowes’ Wilson, which isn’t really a graphic novel. Rather, the character is brought to life through single pages in different styles and although Wilson as a character is a little stiff and a little dislikeable, the formal experimentation (at times the cartooning recalls Ivan Brunetti) makes for a powerful and entertaining book. Chris Ware’s Lint is similarly bleak and distasteful, but it is, after all, satirising a bleak and distasteful world. There’s a lot going on, on each page spread, and in the layout, so the book rewards careful rereading. We are often asked to recommend graphic novels of literary worth but are equally happy tuning people into humorous strips like Sam Henderson’s The Magic Whistle, semi-autobiographical comics like Keith Knight’s The K Chronicles, social commentary from Ted Rall or Tom Tomorrow or classic strips such as Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts.

Metaphrog are a Franco-Scottish cartooning duo comprised of writer, John Chalmers, and artist, Sandra Marrs.  They have created the surreal drama Strange Weather Lately and the ongoing adventures of Louis.  This year saw the release of a remastered version of the first Louis story: Red Letter Day.

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Best of 2011: Rob Miller

Thanks to the relative luxury of working at Hope Street Studios I have access to all sorts of comics and graphic novels that perhaps I wouldn't necessarily pick up, so with that in mind....

Jeff Lemire's Essex County came with a heavyweight reputation, and although I greatly admired the structure, theme and could see what he was doing, I found the art just too raw, a bit too primitive overall for my liking. So I approached volumes 2 and 3 of his Vertigo title Sweet Tooth with some trepidation, but found it to be excellent. The art is occasionally quite patchy - I can only picture a single truly striking, memorably rendered scene across the 3 books - but the writing is very well paced, strong and genuinely affecting. I went back and picked up Book 1 to complete the set (so far.... I can't wait for more....)

Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth

Speaking of the 'New 52' we've been very lucky in that Frank Quitely has been generous enough to share his comp box with us, allowing the Studio the chance to indulge themselves in all things 're-boot'. Hmm.... Really there's been nothing to tempt me back to (reading) mainstream comics, but Tony S. Daniel's work on Detective Comics #1 showed improved confidence, managing to reference both Jim Lee and Frank Miller (aided by some lovely, restrained colouring) whilst stamping his own authority on the character, especially (and perhaps unusually) in the more subdued moments - 'he is the goddam Batman artist'.... ....only the quiet, sketchy subtlety of Greg Capullo's work on Batman slowly crept up on me too. Of particular note was his attention to peripheral characters, with some lovely facial expressions and body language throughout. Then again, in spite of its obvious slick look, there were some outstanding, moody pages to be found in the heavy blacks of the Batman and Robin title, courtesy of Patrick Gleason with Mick Gray's inks. So Bats wins the art wars hands down, so many of the other titles are of course technically brilliant, created by talented teams, far beyond anything I could ever hope to aspire to, but in their own way everything's just a bit flat and uninspiring.


It's no surprise that writing-wise Grant Morrison's Action Comics is already by far the best and most interesting of the bunch, and the art is great too (although, typically of bonus features, the roughs for #1's cover had much more life, energy and verve than the actual finished, polished product).


Two other artists who leapt up in my estimation were Cameron Stewart (yep, that's that Frank connection again!), who I knew primarily from his Seaguy (despite the story passing me by) and Batman and Robin work, but the exclusive sneak peek of his forthcoming Batman Incorporated pages blew me away - just gorgeous! I cannot wait to see these collected and put out as a trade. Again, Doug Mahnke's work on Grant Morrison's Frankenstein also made a real impact - I hadn't been all that taken with his chunky work on Final Crisis, but I loved this stuff, the art really contributing to the book's appeal.

Cameron Stewart's Batman and Robin

A bit late, but my art discovery of the year was Edvin Biukovic, who contributed 4 issues of Human Target in 1999. In fact, an earlier Star Wars book aside, this was about all his contribution to mainstream comics as he died suddenly from a (just diagnosed) brain tumour aged 30. Take it from me and hunt it down - you won't be disappointed, it simply gets better with every viewing.

I've always followed Fables, and it's been a joy to watch Mark Buckingham grow into a sublime artist from the earlier books, whilst enjoying what is some of the best adult comic writing from Vertigo, both pacey and intelligent. In saying that, I can't help think the book has peaked, and the last few trades (whilst still entertaining)
just can't hit the heights of the war against the Adversary and the death of Boy Blue. Even the art, much as it pains me to say it, seems to have simplified to the extent that, rather than looking like a controlled, skilled use of minimal line and spotted blacks with excellent composition - it all just looks a bit sparse, occasionally samey and you catch that slight sense Mr Buckingham's 'coasting'. 

Thanks to someone having a clearout at home (guess who?) the first 4 trades of Eddie Campbells' Bacchus have now surfaced in some sort of order, so I'm currently marvelling at the sheer scope of that. From the moment I first spied the character (the sort you wished you'd visualised and created) in passing; his worn look, the suggestion of warmth, a life lived, I've been anxious to get to grips with this mammoth saga. Lucky for me It seems all 1000+ pages are set to be reprinted by Top Shelf in 2 volumes next year, so I'm very much looking forward to that.

It'd be most unfair of me to think back over the year without mentioning the publishing bete-noire of the last twelve months, so here goes....

Ham-fisted
Offensive
Lazy
Yet

Tremendous
Essential
Raw
Repulsive
Ordinary
Rubbish

I finally got round to buying some comics from sometime Khaki Shorts contributor Noah Van Sciver (who cut me a great deal, sending me 2 issues of Blammo together with The Death of Elijah Lovejoy and Dueling) and he certainly merits a mention here. I enjoyed his little comical / serious vignettes, and rate his drawing, a great sense of environment and sweetly emotive and expressive when needed. Elijah Lovejoy and Dueling were to prove the springboard for his forthcoming 182 (give or take post-editing) graphic novel The Hypo, about Abraham
Lincoln, so that'll be one to look out for next year.

Talking of next year and the underground, it's no surprise that 12 months sporadically working on 'digitally transferring' the comics of John Miller, Dave Alexander and Frank Quitely (for sometime 2012 publication - front covers to all pending!) has seen each of them grow even further in my estimation, whilst knocking my own confidence tenfold. The opening 12 pages of The Collected John Miller, 1990 - 1999, was nearly enough to have me hanging up my pens for good - simply astonishing, quite unlike anything! So if that wasn't depressing enough, a few months of chipping at 80 pages of The Greens, et al, followed by 150 or so of The MacBams it's a surprise I can be bothered to put pen to paper ever again! It's amazing how close working reveals the hitherto hidden skills and layers of drawing at play, be it composition, style, technique, etc. and how one's own art
develops all the better for it.

Glasgow Comic Con in June provided the opportunity to meet the very charming David Lloyd, another of my artist heroes, and Kapow! afforded me the opportunity to see beyond the clouds of (oddly smelling) smoke that often envelop the Glasgow comic scene - such a range of work on offer from my underground contemporaries down South made for a very humbling and shaming experience, which has changed the way I look at such comics for good (and for the better).

Art by Jean Pierre Lapeyre

Finally, it'd be unfair to not mention Curt Sibling publishing his 5th (and best) Total Fear collection (I know, one day I'll get round to working up the courage to ask him about collecting all 7 issues of the earlier, mid '90s series of this....), which didn't disappoint. Furthermore, it was nice to see him branching out with the fantasy tale King Evil and collaborating on Hiss, also notable for featuring the sublime art of youngster Stephen McShane - the new kid on the local block, and a definite talent to watch. Amazing to think of all the great comics out there, but when it comes down to direct influences, and people who inspire you to push your work on even more, they most often than not can be found scribbling in the next room.... For all his fleeting sightings, I have to mention Jean Pierre Lapeyre - the snippets of his work I've seen suggest that his forthcoming weighty tome will be the underground book to look out for here next year. Shades of John Miller and a whole host of arty and original thought - this is without a doubt the one I'm waiting for.

Oh, and big thanks due to Tom Campbell, that's for sure, a former local artist (responsible for the Alex Ross approved Freedom Collective) who adapts Red-Eye pens for ink, and is probably in an odd way the most influential person presently at work in Glasgow comics - his home-made brush wares have made ripples with the manufacturer and found their way into ink work by Gary Erskine and Frank Quitely. By encouraging me to take up these mighty pens he's been directly responsible for an incredible loosening up of my own work, in turn opening up a new avenue of personal expression and creativity. Thanks Tom, you're my comics guy of 2011!

Rob Miller is a Scottish cartoonist and publisher, responsible for Elexender Browne and Scots music-scene comedy Big Moff. As hinted here, next year his Braw Books imprint will release early work from Frank Quitely, Dave Alexander and further archival work from John Miller.

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Best of 2011: Craig Collins

It's been a busy year, and as ever I'm absolutely terrible at keeping up with new releases as they come out. As a result, this is nowhere close to a comprehensive look at comics in 2011. Instead I've decided to arbitrarily hand out some very special awards to their deserving creators, and in doing so highlight some comics that I've particularly enjoyed and admired in 2011.

Best Use Of A Judas Priest Song:

Here we see Cobraxe and Rondo giving a thoroughly boozed-up rendition of Judas Priest's "Painkiller" as the party at Triumph Mountain enters full swing, only to be suddenly attacked by the fearsome Midas Grub. This gives you some idea of Matthew Allison's unconventional take on costumed adventure. Calamity Of Challenge is a weird and uproarious space-heroes tale following our hideously deformed part-mechanical hero Cankorr as he faces his abrasive team mates, bizarre villains and his own future self. Raucous behaviour, unsettling pinups, characters full of self-loathing and biting criticism and some serious space violence are all on offer in Calamity Of Challenge and it's my favourite thing going right now. Matthew's collected the first volume together and the second is in progress online now.

A special mention also has to go to Matthew's contribution to 2011's Strange Kids Club anthology, taking the award for Best Wearing Of A Lacoste Shirt with this young man:

Best Use Of An Ossified Man:

As a sturdy club to defend yourself against the Midgets Of All Nations with, of course. The Goon has been a perennial favourite of mine going back to Eric Powell's self-published Exploding Albatross Funnybooks days, and it's worth noting in an age of reboots and remakes some titles simply continue to be great comics. Sticking to its strengths while occasionally introducing new ones, The Goon is that rare "horror action comedy" that actually contains some unnerving horror, delightfully madcap action and depending on your taste some outrageously funny comedy. Ossify 'em, baby!

Best Falling Down A Giant Hole:

It's clearly been a good year for Leeds based illustrator Kristyna Baczynski, being Artist In Residence at the increasingly popular Thought Bubble festival and with spots in the likes of Solipsistic Pop and Nelson, neither of which I've managed to read yet of course. However I did pick up her beautiful minicomic Ladder, concerning a bear who falls down a giant hole and endeavours to escape. Ladder is a great example of Kristyna's work, containing many of her hallmarks - the wonderment of nature, delight and melancholy coupled with innovative layouts and a confident style that suggest Chris Ware if he warmed up a bit. Ladder is easily the most charming comic I've read this year.

Best Homo-Lupine Sex Scene:

If you pick up Tom Neely's sumptuously painted The Wolf purely for explicit wolf sex, you'll get what you're after. But there's so much more to be appreciated in this surreal and haunting tale, which is why The Wolf is turning up in so many of these end of year lists. This raw and nakedly emotional exploration of love, commitment and man's nature sees Neely's wolf-headed man stalking the night in search of his mate only battle for their very lives. Beautiful and visceral and with very little in the way of comparable work, Neely has created a truly individual book that certainly sets a high bar for his next project.

Most Appropriate Parody:

There are no doubt several arguments for and against the Occupy Wall Street protests. Rather than intelligently engage with any of these, Frank Miller opted for a more abrasive (and sensational) approach of declaring them “a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists". Hey, he's got a book to sell. Missing the fact that the Occupy movement has nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with economic equality, Miller urged the pond scum to WAKE UP and ENLIST against the enemy that is staring us in the face, "al-Qaeda and Islamicism."

Of the satirical responses that emerged, Richard Pace's was surely the best. Perfectly imitating the caption-heavy, tightening screw pace of Miller's signature work The Dark Knight Returns, Pace deftly hangs Miller with his own rope by simply setting Miller's frothing statements against some evidence to contrary, making his absurd darkened-room paranoia clear as day. The coup de grâce is delivered in Miller's own words by the Dark Knight himself, and Miller succumbs to a fatal brain aneurysm that leads to a remarkably funny final beat.

Some have suggested that Pace's parody is too harsh in the final panel. But if you're going to throw that kind of shit around, what can you expect? 

Craig Collins writes comics and is the co-creator of Roachwell, Omniscient Zorgo and two live human beings.  He will return to Graphic Eye in 2012.

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Feature: Best of 2011

2011 has been a double-edged year for comics.  On the one hand, it has been an incredibly dark year, with the world losing many great and important figures (some far too prematurely) — Bill Blackbeard, Dylan Williams, Dwayne McDuffie, Jerry Robinson, Bill Keane and, only recently, Joe Simon.  There have been the ongoing struggles with freedoms of expression — Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat having his hands broken by authorities, Charlie Hebdo’s offices being firebombed, Susie Cagle arrested at the Occupy Oakland protests… It became that reading Tom Spurgeon’s Comics Reporter each morning was almost as depressing as the front page of /r/politics.  Add to that the fact that we had a run of three of the worst comics-based films in the fecal trifecta of Green Lantern, Captain America and Thor, which only seemed to correlate with the general downward trajectory of most mainstream comics…including DC’s relaunch.

On the other hand, it has been a banner year for the medium.  We’ve had some incredible new talent emerge — in no small part thanks to the Center for Cartoon Studies — with small, boutique publishers releasing daring, vital works that seem to have been selling in record numbers at conventions (which, in turn, have been reporting record attendance). Kickstarter, too, has become a near ubiquitous platform for independent creators to launch their work and its incentive-based pricing is rapidly emerging as the business model of the social media age.  Then, February saw the last publisher abandon the Comics Code, leaving Archie comics finally free to indulge in profanity, cannibalism, and sadomasochism — score one for free speech.  We’re also in a true golden age of reprints, with Fantagraphics, IDW, Drawn & Quarterly, Humanoids and Dark Horse continuing to put out beautiful archival editions of classic material for new readers and working towards a true comics canon.

And, of course, in May we launched Graphic Eye!  As part of our end-of-year celebrations, our contributors will all be revealing their Best of 2011 lists, and we’ve also invited some guest contributors to share their 2011 picks with us.  We’ll be publishing one per day for the next two weeks, so keep ’em peeled.

Thanks to all our readers who have made our first few months such a success.  With a load of great content lined-up for the coming year — new comic strips, more videos, bigger features  — we look forward to welcoming you all back (except the ones who were here to look at pictures of Catwoman’s boobs… you lot can stay away.)

-- Gavin Lees

Gavin’s Top Comics of 2011

(in alphabetical order)

Anya’s Ghost

First Second have been killing it this year with their all-ages titles, bringing in pedigree indie talent like Gene Yang, Faith Erin Hicks, Aaron Renier and George O’Connor to produce mature, literate works of comics fiction.  So, it was a surprise to see newbie Vera Brosgol come along and knock them all out of the park with her debut work.  Anya’s Ghost is not only smart, funny and beautifully illustrated, but also has a line of healthy cynicism running through it that resists many of the pitfalls of young adult literature.

Hemlock
I'm not normally a fan of webcomics, being something of a neo-luddite, but there was something incredibly appealing about Josceline Fenton's Hemlock. The story is rooted in Scandinavian mythology, but with some eccentric twists that make it truly her own. Fenton's artistic blend of Takeuchi Naoko and Tim Burton is beautiful to behold, and it's been impressive to see the young artist grow in her abilities over the last year, particularly in the development of her lead character.  Amazingly, she's still only in college, so goodness knows what we'll see from her in the future.  My money's on big things.

I Will Bite You!

This debut work from recent CCS graduate was my find of the show at this year’s Stumptown festival.  A collection of his early strips, it shows the many facets of this young artist and cements him as a real iconoclast of the form: the architectural lettering, the personification of the elements, his characters’ ability to see their own speech balloons, the near mythic scope of even his shortest strip.  Lambert will be one to watch next year.

Love and Rockets: New Stories #4

After “Browntown” in last year’s installment of New Stories, there was a worry that Jaime might have peaked — how on earth was he going to top that story?  The achingly beautiful conclusion to “The Love Bunglers” in this volume was the answer.  Pulling together strands from Maggie’s entire 30-year history in two pages was nothing short of stunning, with his art as cooly confident as ever, making it a real emotional sucker punch.  Gilbert’s work developing Fritz’s movie back-catalogue is a real mind-bender, too, weaving inter- and meta-textual strands together that lets his characters say so much, while saying so little.  It is terrifying how talented these guys are.

Mickey Mouse, Vol. 1

Forget Pogo and Carl Barks — we already knew they were classics — the real reprint revelation of 2011 was good ole’ Mickey Mouse.  Before he became sugar-coated and sanitized as the Disney mascot, Floyd Gottfredson wrote and drew the mouse as an ass-kicking adventurer, taking him from haunted houses to the Wild West and back again.  To read these strips is to rediscover a love for Mickey and marvel at Gottfredson’s amazing grasp of storytelling and humour, as well as his flawless artwork.  Naturally, with Fantagraphics overseeing the reprints, the design, packaging and presentation is gorgeous — a real worthy successor to their Peanuts series.

Nelson

This is the book that really made Blank Slate’s name as an Important British Publisher.  Nelson was collaborative graphic novel by 43 of England’s top cartoonists, each one telling a chapter in the life of its main character.  It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but the editors managed to keep a tight rein on the proceedings and what emerged was a brilliantly-told story of great depth and artistry.  It also serves as a real who’s-who of English cartoonists from the broadsheet darlings to the small-press upstarts.  It’s also an incredibly moving trip through British history for anyone who lived it along with Nel.

Nonplayer #1

I shouldn’t have enjoyed this anywhere near as much as I did.  It was ridiculously over-hyped before its release, was from a debut artist and was a comic about video games, of all things.  Yet, Nate Simpson showed he had what it takes — his wholly-digital artwork had a refined, European flair to it, recalling Moebius and Bilal, and his crafting of his fictional world inventive enough to be engaging, and relevant enough to be thought-provoking.  His painstaking artistic process (and unfortunate recent bike accident) have meant that his work continues agonizingly slowly, leaving installments of the series as a rare treat to be savoured.  This first issue is as powerful a debut as one could have hoped for.

Orc Stain

Of all the off-kilter fantasy series that have begun to emerge recently, James Stokoe’s Orc Stain is far and away the most off-kilter, and all the more fantastic for it.  Revolving around the exploits of an orc lock-breaker in a fantasy land that’s part Warhammer and part LSD nightmare, the series is a great showcase for Stokoe’s insane draftsmanship and odd sense of humour.  It’s all about dicks, you see — dicks on every page… even the mountains look like dicks.  It was the highlight of Image’s monthly schedule, but now it seems that the artist has just given up on the series and there’s to be no more.  It was awesome while it lasted, though.

The Someday Funnies

One of the highlights of comics journalism in the last few years was Bob Levin’s Comics Journal feature on this long-lost anthology of comics about the ’60s.  By some incredible fluke, National Lampoon’s Michel Choquette was able to corral all the great cartoonists of the ’70s into contributing to his book, but after a series of rejections from publishers and finally running out of money (Choquette seemed to live a globe-trotting lifestyle on publisher’s advances for several years) the book was abandoned and shut away in a storage locker.  Finally, after nearly 40 years, Abrams bring it to light and it’s every bit as wild and awe-inspiring as we expected.

The Wolf

Tom Neely is, hands down, my favourite artist at the moment.  The way he’s able to blend the cuteness of the Fleischer Brothers with horrifying anatomical expressionism is a wonder in itself, but from this art he is able to weave profound, haunting tales that meditate on the nature of art, love and existence.  The Wolf is the pinnacle of these talents — a graphic novel entirely without words, that sees Neely experiment with a dizzying array of artistic techniques and make a story about sex that completely transcends its subject matter.  The fact it features the creepiest fleshless-creatures-with-Mickey-Mouse-gloves that you’ve ever seen is just a bonus.

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