Tom Spurgeon is running a listing of 2013 comics that deserve more attention, and there are a lot of them. And they are all so distinct and good. Check it out to see what you’ve been missing. I mean, did you really know there was an Alain Passard (owner and chef at the three-star French restaurant L’Arpège in Paris) cookbook that is in a graphic novel with art by the great Christophe Blain?
And that’s the most obvious example. There is not enough time in the day to read them all, that’s the problem.
Yes, yes I did. I’m a sad, sad person.
Sure, we’ve sold more than a score of copies already….
-B
There is quite literally just one book on that list that seems interesting.
Yeah, I’m not remotely interested by any of these. Apparently you have to be really into “outside of outside the mainstream” comics to appreciate them.
Brian and Ralf:
I’ve read about 10 books on the list, and they are all excellent.
If I was going to recommend just ONE of the books to anyone, it would be GOOD DOG. Anyone who likes dogs would like this book — it’s a wonderful (and sad of course) story in the Jack London/Anna Sewell vein. A really underrated book that I hope gets more attention.
Good stories aren’t about being mainstream or alternative or independent or “outside of outside the mainstream”.
almost all of these comics are completely in my wheel house, but i’ve only heard about maybe 1/3 of them.
any theories on why they’ve been so under reported?
Interesting to see the book with the Rodrigues cartoons. I always found his work fascinating yet repellent; thus the appeal!
For budgetary reasons can’t possibly purchase these small press books (I am assuming small press), but I hope librarians will step up and sponsor them!
I’m always a little confused when people say a recommended comic or whatever is out of their wheelhouse. I mean, I usually don’t like romantic comedies. But if a person with broad knowledge of movies generally tells me a particular romantic comedy is good, I’ll check it out. Ditto comics. I’m not much into superheroes, but if a person that writes broadly on comics recommends on, I’ll have a look. The flip-side is that there are folks with super narrow tastes or genre interests that allow them to like things that suck (I’m that way with detective shows and giant monster comics), so if they recommend something I’m not going to take it too seriously. This applies to comics critics who seem to like every indie comic that crosses their desk, or anything written by committee and Marvel or DC.
What I’m saying is that if something is good, but you’re unwilling to check it out because it’s outside your comfort zone, then you’re going to miss out!
Underreported because the comics press isn’t tuned into mainstream publishing.
How many sites report on the titles coming from Jonathan Cape? Or Self Made Hero?
Or on the titles offered by university presses? (Start with the University Press of Mississippi. They won an Eisner a few years ago.)
The Origins of Comics: From William Hogarth to Winsor McCay
Thierry Smolderen, Translated by Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen
(It’s on the cover of their catalog!)
Dangerous Curves: Action Heroines, Gender, Fetishism, and Popular Culture
Jeffrey A. Brown
Chester Brown: Conversations
Edited by Dominick Grace and Eric Hoffman
Drawing from Life
Memory and Subjectivity in Comic Art
Edited by Jane Tolmie
How about all of the kids titles out there? Scholastic Graphix? Capstone, with their amazing Super Pets line of chapter books (soon to be GNs)? Lerner?
Or the various art book publishers printing lavish editions about comics? Abrams is the most visible.
Did anyone notice the Best American Comics anthology this year? Anyone notice how many established books were selected (Are You My Mother?, Habibi, Unterzakhn…)?
I used to do this with my monthly lists, but nobody seemed to notice.
It was too much work for too little reward.
I was going to do an article about how October 2013 was going to be a milestone, a touchstone in comics history. NYCC, Walking Dead, numerous amazing Fall titles, the PBS documentary, various movies… I believe 2013 will surpass 1986 as the Greatest Year in Comics.
But just looking at October…
There’s Marvel’s OGN on the Avengers (an enjoyable read)
Wallace and Gromit: The Complete Newspaper Comic Strip Collection Volume 1: 2010-2011
How to See by John Ruskin, Hunt Emerson (Illustrated by), Kevin Jackson
P. Craig Russell’s Opera Adaptations Clothbound Set
Uzumaki (3-in-1, Deluxe Edition)
Freud by Corrine Maier, Anne Simon (Illustrated by)
Simon’s Cat vs. the World by Simon Tofield
Divas, Dames & Daredevils: Lost Heroines of Golden Age Comics by Mike Madrid
Explorer 2: The Lost Islands
Ame-Comi Girls Vol. 1 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray
The Spectral Engine by Ray Fawkes
The DC Comics Guide to Creating Comics (paper original): Inside the Art of Visual Storytelling by Carl Potts
Messiah: Origin by Matt Dorff , Mark Arey
Johnny Hiro: The Skills to Pay the Bills by Fred Chao
Rage of Poseidon by Anders Nilsen
Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story by Peter Bagge
Treasury Of Mini Comics Volume One by Michael Dowers
Dogs of War by Sheila Keenan, Nathan Fox
Battling Boy by Paul Pope
And that’s just the stuff on Edelweiss!
Diamond Book Distributor clients:
Sin Titulo by Cameron Stewart
Triton of the Sea by Osamu Tezuka
Road Rage by Hill! King! Matheson!
Black Kiss II by Howard Chaykin
Soho Dives, Soho Divas by Rian Hughes
Again, this is just October, and just a cursory glance. Mr. Spurgeon delves into the more obscure and arty (thank you!) whereas Edelweiss and Diamond show the more mainstream presses.
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