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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