Catfish: It's all movies these days, I guess

Hey, whatever gets me writing, I guess. But first, have some links: This Kickstarter for Dash Shaw's animated movie The Ruined Cast looks like it's worth contributing to, I think.

I encourage checking out the Dogs of Mars series on Comixology; it's illustrated by Paul Maybury, and it looks really nice. First issue is free, second is 99 cents. Not bad!

Here's an artist who I wasn't familiar with, but looks pretty amazing: Jeremy Sorese. That link leads to his story "In the Parlor Room", which is currently being serialized, but he's got lots of other nice comics and illustration work on his site; I think he might be one of my new favorites.

As for other artists that I like who have webcomics, here's Koren Shadmi's The Abaddon. Cool.

This webcomic is a kinda cute, satirical take on the Pied Piper story, but the really neat thing about it is the way it uses horizontal scrolling, moving different layers of the images at different speeds to make an illusion of 3-D. Beautiful.

And for one of the very best comics I've read lately, here's Sarah Glidden's devastating "The Waiting Room", a journalistic story about Iraqi refugees in Syria. Wow.

Catfish
2010, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman



Note: There are probably some mild spoilers here, in discussing the very premise of the movie, but hopefully nothing too experience-ruining until stated otherwise.

Being as generally out of the loop as I am, I have no idea what the general consensus, revelations, etc. are on this movie, so my main question upon watching it is, is it real? That is, is it the genuine nonfiction documentary it presents itself as, or is it a narrative film masquerading as one? Either way, it's a pretty fascinating piece of work, generating conflicting opinions and examining the nature of "truth" in our modern, online society, in which anyone can connect with anyone else, and choose which face to present to them, ranging across a huge spectrum from pure and unfiltered to blatantly false. As a documentary taking a close look at a specific case of trickery, it's pretty interesting, but if it's fiction, it's fucking brilliant, adding enough layers of obfuscation and manipulation to leave one's head spinning.

The hook is pretty simple, following Yanev, a twentysomething photographer living in New York, as his filmmaker brother and their friend decide to document his online relationship with a young girl named Abby who has begun making painted replicas of his photos, Rob Granito style. Soon, he also begins communicating with Abby's mother, Angela, and especially her older sister, Megan, a sexy dancer/musician/free spirit, with whom he ends up falling into a romantic relationship. Maybe it's the expectation that nothing is as it seems that gives us the feeling that this will all probably turn out to be too good to be true, but the filmmakers do a remarkable job of selling the believability of the electronic relationships, showing all manner of online communications, such as Facebook messages, photos, excerpts from emails, and text messages, all familiar sights to modern technology users, from the fonts and pixelated images to the telltale green-and-white Iphone text boxes. Maybe that's why the phone calls we see seem to be the most awkward exchanges, yet are as nonetheless believable as everything else.

But, as mentioned, it is all too good to be true, and the reveal of the truth (or "truth") is where things get really interesting, but is also where we venture into hard SPOILER territory, so read on at your own risk. When the authenticity of some songs that Megan seemed to write and record for Yanev incredibly quickly comes into question, he understandably freaks out, and they decide to pay a surprise visit to the family at their home in Michigan. At this point, we expect a scam of some sort and just want to find out the answers, but the revelation is surprisingly complex, in terms of both the actual truth (which is all tangled up with the various lies, and might be fiction itself anyway) and whatever judgment we might render on the perpetrator. All the online communication turns out to be coming from Abby's mother Angela, a homely housewife with a working-class husband and two mentally handicapped stepsons. While we may have thought of her as a liar and manipulator, we soon see that all her ruses apparently started as an attempt to escape from the difficulty of her daily life, and spiraled out of her control until she had created a vast web of fake personalities, fictional relationships, and made-up events. Is she somebody to be pitied? Even that is hard to say, since she continually makes up new lies, even while confessing to her old ones.

This point is where the movie kind of stalls, as Yanev interrogates Angela to try to find out what is and isn't real, how much of the woman he fell in love with is made up and how much is part of Angela, and just what the deal is with this obviously disturbed person. As interesting as the whole situation is, Angela ends up being kind of boring in person, although that's probably part of the point. And of course, the question of the movie's authenticity keeps viewers on their toes; is this a purposeful deflation of expectations, an attempt to make the entire story seem more "real" by relentlessly focusing on this person along with Yanev to find out what makes her tick?

That way probably lies madness, since questioning one aspect of the film causes one to wonder about everything. Yanev seems kind of false, at least at first, with a goofy grin usually plastered on his face. But as the movie proceeds, it just seems like camera-shy awkwardness. A lot of the events seem too contrived, such as a postcard that Yanev sends to Megan which we see later, but, as with any documentary, that could just be an example of selective editing from what was surely a great deal of footage that didn't make it into the final film. It's a constant tightrope walk between possible truth and possible fiction; as with the very subject of the film, the more time we spend with these people, the more we think we know them and want them to be real. Or is it the other way around, and we think it's all a ruse and search out every possible contrivance or discrepancy, congratulating ourselves on our debunking skills? Is the scene in which Yanev confronts Angela in an almost casual way rather than staging dramatic argument an example of veracity, or is it a deft defiance of expectations? Is the weird bit in which Yanev asks Angela to speak to him "as Megan" contrived, or is it a moment of human awkwardness? If the movie is fiction, how did they get the mentally impaired boys to play their part? If it's fact, Angela's husband's title-providing monologue seems awfully convenient, doesn't it?

END SPOILERS, so the conclusion can be read.

Maybe it's better not to know the "real" answer of the movie's authenticity. The state of uncertainty turns it into a Schrodinger's Cat-style paradox of truth, somehow both true and false and all mixed up together into a delightful stew of confusion. Narrowing those possibilities down to one single answer limits the possibilities, much as meeting an online acquaintance in real life can inevitably be disappointing. That's the price of human connection, or whatever facsimile thereof we currently consider acceptable.

Summer Wars: Not really all that seasonal

Links: I'm kind of late linking to this, seeing as it has already met its goal, but I wanted to point out this Kickstarter campaign by Joshua Hagler, whose comic The Boy Who Made Silence I really loved.  This one is for a 3-D animation project, but he's a pretty great artist, so I'm excited to see anything he does.

I enjoyed Think of the Children, a webcomic which imagines that Fredric Wertham and pals were actually fighting against a demonically possessed William B. Gaines during that whole Seduction of the Innocent affair that comics people are so obsessed with.

The first issue of Double Feature Comics is up, featuring stories by Tim Seely & Ross Campbell and Dennis Hopeless & Mike Norton.  Only 99 cents for either Ipad or PDF formats.  Get it while it's hot!

You could also check out this comic from LA Times Magazine by Don Winslow and Sean Phillips.  Nice.

And here's a free download of an uncompleted graphic novel by Vasilis Lolos, if you're wondering where he's been lately.

On a more timely note, I won't be at the MOCCA fest this weekend, but if you're going, you might want to check out The Tavern of Ill Repute, an event at the I Made an Art gallery, taking place on Saturday, April 9, and including work by artists (names like Danny Hellman and R. Sikoryak, as well as several others), new animation, performers, live music and a clown (?). Sounds like it could be fun.

Okay, I'm behind on comics reviews, but here's something else:

Summer Wars
Directed by Mamoru Hosada

Japan, 2010

How is it possible that a cartoon can feel so much more personal and full of life than most live-action movies? As an anime produced by a leading Japanese studio (Madhouse), Summer Wars must have taken tons of people and money to produce, but compared to any number of blockbusters, this one feels like something inspired by life, as if somebody worked to project their own family history onto the screen. It’s an effect that works to give the crazy plot about the end of the world via virtual reality internet hacking an emotional impact, something that sticks in the heart rather than just dazzling the eyes.

That plot? After establishing a future world in which the internet has been taken over by an especially Japanese version of Second Life called OZ, in which everyone has a cutesy avatar and interacts via a shiny, candy-colored virtual space, we are introduced to a student named Kenji, who is quickly dragged over his head into two different situations at once, in the on- and offline worlds. A fellow student named Natsuki pays him to come along with her to a big family get-together for her great-grandmother’s ninetieth birthday, waiting until it is too late for him to back out to reveal that she is passing him off as her boyfriend. He gets thrown into the chaotic interactions of all the family members, as they gossip, eat together, argue, play, and act like a group who are intimately familiar with each other.  Meanwhile, Kenji receives an anonymous midnight email containing a string of coded numbers, and being a math whiz, he cracks them, then wakes up to discover that he seemingly enabled a hacker to take over any and every account in OZ, completely disrupting not only the online world, but any offline services he wishes, including traffic signals, power grids, trains, and emergency services, with little in the way of reason beyond a trickster-like delight in widespread mayhem.

The interesting thing is where Kenji’s two worlds collide, as Natsuki’s family alternately rejects and accepts him, teaming up with him to fight the online threat or viewing him as an interloper. There are subplots about a family black sheep who is involved with the ensuing chaos, a younger cousin whose online avatar, a rabbit wearing a Marty McFly jacket, is a martial arts champion that becomes a defender against the all-consuming cyber-monster, and Granny’s matriarchal leadership, not only of the family, but of various powerful acquaintances who she encourages to pull together in the time of chaos, seeming to single-handedly hold the country together.  There’s a foreseeable family tragedy, leading to scenes of devastatingly relatable emotion, and a pulling together of forces, as multiple generations marshal their resources in a ragtag effort to stand against what ends up being a world-threatening villain.

Somehow, this all ends up being an enormously satisfying conflict, perhaps due to the realistic family dynamics of Natsuki’s clan, combined with the over-the-top unreality of OZ, which is presented as a virtual reality playland full of cartoony avatars and ever-expanding physical space, even though the characters themselves only seem to experience it through tiny browser windows and cell phone screens.  The scale of the conflict keeps expanding, as the hacker turns from a creepy Shiva-like monster into a gigantic, roiling mass of Facebook profiles, eventually facing off against Natsuki in an inscrutable Japanese card game for all the world’s marbles, a kind of silly yet effectively tense battle which includes what must be the most dramatic winning throw of a card in history.

That this all works so well is a testament to the good writing, the creation of characters that interact believably. Their shared sadness and joy, fear and triumph are palpable, even in the face of just-beyond-believable events, and the reactions of the observers are what sell the real stakes of the battle even beyond the real-world consequences that we see, making the furious staring at screens and pounding on keyboards, or Kenji’s deciphering of 2048-bit encryption in his head, compelling and tense.  This is one hell of an entertaining movie, goofy and strange and sad and happy all at once, a cyber-thriller that manages to hit the viewer right in the emotional soft spot, and stay there after the brightness of the visuals fade.  That’s something special.

C2E2 2011: Always with the sketching

At any convention, I love to meet creators, and hopefully compel them to perform for me and draw something pleasing to the eye.  This year's C2E2 wasn't as lucrative in the sketch department as some other cons, but here are some neat drawrings that people did for me:



Geof Darrow embellished the print I bought with this little critter.



Ed Choy Moorman drew a doggie inside a minicomic.



Becky Driestadt drew another doggie, and an especially cute one, if you ask me.



This graffiti-style sketch by Dave Crosland was pretty amazing to see; he did it with these really thick markers in a matter of a couple minutes, then added details with a calligraphy pen and blew on the marker to create that cool splatter effect.  I love this guy's work.

And here are some additions to my Groo sketchbook:



Jim Zubkavich!



Sean Galloway!



Brian Hurtt!  I love this cartoony style from him, and he lamented that he is "stuck" drawing in his current more realistic style rather than something more like European children's comics, which he would prefer.  Man, I would love to see a comic from him like that.



And finally, Ryan Browne, who really knocked this one out of the park.
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To next year, during which I will certainly be trying to continue to expand my collection.

C2E2 2011: Not a sophomore slump exactly...

This past weekend was the second annual Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo, and judging by this year's show, it should continue to grow into the excellent comics-focused convention that the area needs. Based on the schedule and information available beforehand, I had wondered if the show was already showing signs of decline, but I needn't have worried; while the scale did seem to have contracted, with what seemed like a little bit smaller space, a narrower range of programming, and fewer big-name creators (at least outside of the Marvel/DC axis), the show continued to be very enjoyable, with presence from most of the major publishers, a varied retailer section that wasn't too crowded, and a thriving artist alley. There was never a lack of things to do and see, whether your preference lies in meeting writers and artists, hearing publisher announcements, buying anything comics-related you can think of, or just gawking at people in strange garb, and the crowd was full of like-minded people to interact with.

So what could be different and/or "better" about the show? Speaking from a purely selfish perspective, I would love to see more of an indie/artcomix presence, with booths for publishers like Fantagraphics, Drawn and Quarterly, Picturebox, Pantheon, or even manga publishers like Viz, Vertical, or (while I'm dreaming) the elusive Kodansha. A stronger indie artist presence would also be nice, especially self-publishers and makers of minicomics. I don't know if any of this is economically feasible, for the companies, the creators, or the show itself, but I've never let practicality get in the way of my wishes. On a more likely note, I would like to see a greater range of programming, especially panels focused on creator (or critical) discussion, and less in the way of publisher announcement panels, which are perfectly fine, but seem to all run together in their "here's what's coming up next!" enthusiasm. And on a layout note, the webcomics section could stand to be rethought as well; as it is, it was a simple aisle in artist alley, but it didn't include some of the more well-known webcomics artist like Danielle "Girls with Slingshots" Corsetto or Evan "Rice Boy" Dahm.



Minor complaints and wishful thinking aside, I had a great time at the con, and in addition to meeting creators I admire and spending lots of money on comics, there was information to be learned, and thus related in an overly excited manner:

Item! Sanford Greene has a story called "Rotten Apple" in the second issue of the revived Dark Horse Presents anthology, and it looks amazing, a demonstration of a new, energetic, brushstroke-heavy style for him. It's one of several reasons the series looks to be worth checking out.

Item! Ray Fawkes' new graphic novel One Soul from Oni Press looks like it could be really good, using a neat formal conceit in which eighteen characters are followed throughout their lives, each one given one panel per double page spread, allowing patterns to emerge throughout the course of their unconnected lives, which range across the course of human history. It's a bold leap of faith in readers' willingness to go along on such a complex journey, and hopefully the content and characters will live up to the presentation.

Item! The webcomics collective Four Star Studios (which consists of Tim Seeley, Mike Norton, Josh Emmons, and Sean Dove) is taking a leap into the convoluted waters of digital publishing with their venture Double Feature Comics, a monthly digital-only release that will feature short stories following a changing theme (the first month is "action", followed by "monsters") and a lineup of great writers and artists that includes Mike Norton, Ryan Browne, Phil Hester, Chris Burnham. The issues will be ninety-nine cents, and they will be available in PDF format, or via an IPad app that will include features like commentary and the ability to view the pages at pencil, ink, and color stage. It looks like a cool venture, and hopefully one that will pay off for all the talented people involved.

Item! Dave Crosland's art continues to look amazing, and he's actually doing some comics here and there, including a story in Boom!'s recent CBGB series.  He is also regularly posting images to his blog, Alphabet Attack, going through the alphabet to come up with cool stuff to draw.  Check it out.

Item! As always, there were plenty of new and interesting comics to discover.  Some others that looked interesting include Terra Tempo: Ice Age Cataclysm (beware a flash intro and overly-designy, hard-to-navigate site), which appears to be about kids traveling to the ice age and having well-researched adventures; Jose Lopez's Mariachi Samurai, about which little information is to be had beyond the cool title; and the webcomic Free Mars.
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So that's all the news that's fit to print on my end.  More content to come over the next few days though, and I'll be hoping for continued convention excellence from C2E2 in the years to come.

C2E2 2011: Purchases which were made

I should have more posts to come about the recently-completed Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo, but until then, here's a cataloguing of all the stuff I brought home with me:

In the back there are several prints and posters, including a Shaolin Cowboy print from Geof Darrow, a poster advertising the upcoming revival of Miranda Mercury from creator/writer Brandon Thomas, a God Hates Astronouts image from Ryan Browne, an Officer Downe print from Chris Burnham, and a giveaway Mouse Guard thing from Archaia.  That's a copy of the Big Funny comics newspaper from out of Minneapolis on the left, and moving to the right you can see the first volume of Skullkickers, Dave Crosland's Slop: Analecta, the first three issues of Yi Soon Shin: Warrior and Defender, Ryan Dunlavey's Tommy Atomic, Sean K. Dove's Fried Rice #1, Miranda Mercury #295, God Hates Astronauts #2 (along with a 24 hour minicomic from creator Ryan Browne), Becky Driestadt's Tiny Kitten Teeth #2, Josh Filer's Gross, Grandpa!, and (starting over on the second row), two 24 hour minicomics from Zander Cannon, Kill All Monsters from Michael May, and two minicomics from Ed Choy Moorman.  Also, right in the middle, is Sanford Greene's 1000 and Lucy Knisley's Here at Hogwarts.  Finally, there are various giveaway issues from DC, Archaia, and Dynamite over on the right.  And that's most everything that I bought and/or was given for free and found worth mentioning.  Whew!

I'll have more coverage to come over the next few days, so stay tuned, as the inaccurate saying goes.

C2E2 2011: Should we prepare for a sophomore slump?

Last year's inaugural Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo was a pretty great convention, at least from the standpoint of somebody who is used to Wizard cons as a baseline; it seemed like they really pulled out all the stops to get some great guests and scheduled lots of quality programming.  I had a great time.  Looking at the schedule for this year, however, things seem to have dropped off a bit, with less in the way of guests and panels that catch my interest.  I'll still be there, press pass around my neck, but I'm curious to see how the show develops.

Anyway, like I did last year, here's my breakdown of interesting-sounding panels and programming which I might or might not actually attend.  I'll note that I've pretty much completely ignored the mainstream sorts of announcement/banter panels that Marvel and DC usually do, since those do not interest me in the least, but I might pop in to one of them out of curiosity, maybe with the intent of live-tweeting or writing snarkily about the experience.  That sounds like a great use of my time, right?

If you're interested, the whole schedule is available here, so feel free to follow along and suggest activities that I don't mention or try to coordinate schedules and stalk me.

FRIDAY, 3/18:

3:30-4:30 PM - Black Comix: African American Comics and Culture - This could be interesting, although I don't really know much about any of the panelists.  It does seem like one of the few discussion panels of any interest though...

4:30-5:30 PM - Food and Comics - This actually sounds dumb, unless it's all about cooking manga or something, but there's an element of curiosity in what the hell they're going to talk about.  I kind of dislike C.B. Cebulski, but he does seem like a guy who likes to eat, and Rick Bayless is involved with food, if not comics.  Yeah, sounds stupid.  I'll probably go.

6:00-7:00 PM - Gab Bonesso “Will Work for Comics” Comedy Tour - I have no idea who this person is.  I expect lots of jokes about chubby nerds living in their mothers' basements.

6:30-8:00 PM - Comedy Death-Ray Featuring Patton Oswalt - I would love to go to this to see Patton, since he's a pretty great comedian, but it's one of those "pay extra" events, and I am cheap.  Maybe I can flash my press badge to get in...

SATURDAY, 3/19:

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM - Top Cow: We Create...Universes - Ha ha ha ha, right! That is a hilariously pretentious title, considering that the "universes" Top Cow creates are really just excuses to draw lots of boobs.  I'm curious to see if they actually try to justify the constant cheesecake and explain how, no, really, they're crafting an elaborate mythology behind all the T&A.

12:00-1:00 PM - State of the Comicsphere - This seems to be more of a discussion on digital comics platforms rather than a blogger-based sort of thing, and while that may or may not be all that interesting, Comixology's David Steinberger is one of the guys on the panel, and he's a cool dude, so it might be worth checking out.

1:00-2:00 PM - CSC: Interpreting Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - Unlike most of the "educational" panels (sessions? classes?) at the con, this one seems to be a criticism/examination/thesis of a comic, rather than a how-to lesson, so that's kind of cool.  I doubt I'll go out of my way to go, though...

1:30-2:30 PM - Vertigo - This is just about the only publisher-focused panel I'm interested in, since I do dig a lot of Vertigo books.  This does seems to be smaller than last year though, with only Shelly Bond, Scott Snyder, and Bill Willingham listed as participants, as opposed to the lineup of eight or so editors and creators previously.  This might be one to check out, and then wander off at the first sign of boredom.

2:15-3:15 PM - Eliza Dushku and Tahmoh Penikett Q&A - I try to avoid celebrity panels, especially when they're not comics-focused, but I am on record as enjoying Dollhouse, despite its flaws, so maybe if I walk out of Vertigo, I can pop into this one for the hell of it.

3:30-4:30 PM - CSC: Representing Science and Medicine in Comics - Based on the title, I thought this might be something about the use (or misuse) of the subjects as usually seen in the medium, but it appears that it is actually about using comics to teach medicine and science.  Interesting?

4:00-5:00 PM - Oni Press Panelmonium 2011 - What was that I said about publisher panels? I heard last year's Oni panel was fun, and I'm friends with Cullen Bunn (who is on the panel with Brian Hurtt, Greg Rucka, and Ray Fawkes), so I think I'll try to check this one out.  Don't let me down, Oni!

4:30-5:30 PM - 2011: The Year of Warren Ellis - This seems to be a promotion for the various Ellis-focused books that Sequart is putting out this year, as well as a documentary in which they give him blow jobs (I'm assuming). I do like Ellis, so I could check it out, even if my proposed essay for their Transmetropolitan book didn't get accepted (I hope I don't sound bitter or anything...).

4:30-5:30 PM - Webcomics Roundtable - Featuring nobody you've ever heard of, rather than, say, actual Chicago webcomics stars like Lucy Knisley, John Campbell, and Spike!

5:30-6:30 PM - The Middleman Reunion Panel Q&A - Did I say I was avoiding non-comics panels? I hope this doesn't count, because I loved this TV show (and the comic it was based on), so I wouldn't mind attending.

5:45-6:45 PM - Sword Cut Test with Dragonsong Forge - Oh, the silly stuff that ends up happening at a comics convention.  Yes, this is people cutting things with swords. May I suggest stacks of the aforementioned Top Cow comics?

7:00-8:00 PM - Dwayne McDuffie Memorial - Even if I'm not planning to go, I think I have to mention this, so as not to look like a complete jerk.

SUNDAY, 3/20:

12:45-1:45 PM - Drawing Fire: Editorial Cartooning in a Positive Age - I don't know if I'll go to the con on Sunday, but if I do, I'll try to make this panel, just because it's interesting to see editorial cartoons addressed at all.  Could be fun?

1:00-2:00 PM - Horror Comics Today: A Writer's Perspective - I don't know if this would really be of much interest to me, but it's another panel that Cullen Bunn is on, and hey, there could be some interesting discussion. Sure, it's being led by a guy who calls himself "Decapitated Dan", but still...

1:00-2:00 PM - Garth Ennis Spotlight - Hey, it's Ennis. I bet it would be fun just to listen to his Irish accent for an hour.

4:00-5:00 PM - Fables: The First 100 - One on One with Bill Willingham - I'm enough of a Fables fan to at least consider this one, even if it doesn't actually sound all that fun.
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So that's all the panels; aside from that, I should mention that CBR is sponsoring the bar at the Hyatt, so that should be worth checking out and maybe hanging out with various people I may have rubbed shoulders with online. Maybe that's where I'll find Kiel Phegley...

So, if you're going to be at the con and want to meet up, drop me a line (my email, Twitter, and Facebook are over in the sidebar), and if there are any events I missed (at the con or at peripheral locations) or notable stuff to look for, I'll be sure to update this post. C2E2 II, here I come.

2010: Comics continue to blow my mind with quality

This post is going up much later than originally intended, due to the lack of energy to blog regularly that comes with a new addition to the household, combined with a big project at work, but I'm finally getting around to the all-important task of letting people know my personal ranking for comical books that I read in the previous calendar year.  Enjoy!

2010 was a pretty great year for comics, and that's coming from the perspective of someone who kind of limited his intake to only certain portions of the medium.  I avoided most superhero/direct market mainstream stuff this year, although it doesn't seem like I missed too much on that front, and I read much less manga than I usually get to, but I still found tons of great comics to rave about, from great works from old pros to new discoveries and exciting imports.  It continues to be a pretty awesome time to be a fan of the old words-n-pictures.  So, without further ado, here are my picks for the best comics of 2010:

25. Temperance

Cathy Malkasian's allegory/fable/whatever it is about a sheltered people, their knowingly lying religious leader, and the wrathful deity they obey/fear is a confounding work, and a fascinating one, with some excellently moody art.  I still don't know if I really understand it, but it's a strange, unforgettable book.

24. Market Day

James Sturm's story about a rugmaker coping with changing times is beautiful and arresting, a look at an era when craftsmanship was overtaken by tradesmanship and the effect that shift has on one man's life and self image, full of beautiful art and evoking an interesting, lived-in feeling.  What could be a dry subject becomes intensely emotional and realistic; a real triumph.

23. Set to Sea

"Visual poetry" might not be the best way to describe this book, but it does come to mind, given the literal pursuit of its central character toward a career in poetry writing and its structure, which starts out punctuated by dramatic events but slowly evens out into a trip through his life as he discovers the value of experience when trying to craft meaningful words.  It's lovely to look at, full of beautiful seascapes and cartoony movement.  It may be a small and quick read, but it doesn't seem that way in subsequent memory.

22. Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour

The finale of Bryan Lee O'Malley's popular series might have been somewhat overshadowed by the release of the movie adaptation, but the perfectly-stuck landing that was performed here should not be ignored; O'Malley has gotten better and better over the course of the series, and this volume was a great demonstration of his skills, including hilarious humor; clean, clear art; exciting, fantastical action; and heartfelt emotion.  Fans couldn't have asked for anything more.

21. King City

After Tokyopop gave up on much of its OEL product, it seemed like the rest of Brandon Graham's story of a "cat master" and his adventures through the wacky futurescape of the title was going to be lost to the ether, but a miracle happened and the series was rescued from oblivion, released in an even better format, serialized across twelve large-size issues, which gave Graham (and friends) the opportunity to add nice covers and extra content to the already content-packed story.  Graham has an amazingly fertile imagination, and getting to read any of his comics is a treat, both for the well-drawn characters and clean art, but also the detail packed into the panels, the constant wordplay, and the cool/weird sci-fi concepts.  Interestingly, the structure of the comic itself ended up being less of a driven plot and more of an amble, a good-time hang-out with the characters in the environment Graham created.  It makes one wish he could just keep going on the series indefinitely, letting his imagination just pour onto the page each issue and seeing what happens.  Maybe we'll get that from Graham at some point, but for now, these twelve issues are going to have to suffice.

20. Officer Downe

Joe Casey is another imaginative creator, a writer who can be counted on to come up with fascinating, exciting concepts, at least in his creator-owned work where his imagination is unfettered by corporate control.  He's also great at finding artistic collaborators who bring a lot to the table, and Chris Burnham appears to be keyed into Casey's mental wavelength, bringing his vision of a brutally justice-minded LA cop given immortality through psychic powers to life in exciting, visceral fashion through his grimily detailed linework.  It's a psychotically violent romp, with a bit of social commentary and a heaping of style.  It's pretty awesome stuff, a crazy action story with a brain.  If only more comics, or any entertainments, were like this.

19. Moving Pictures

Stuart Immonen is one of the best artists working in "mainstream" comics (or rather, Marvel/DC comics, which have become less and less mainstream over the past couple decades), and his wife Kathryn is fast becoming one of the most interesting writers, so any chance to see them work together is a treat for readers, and this graphic novel about the fate of works of art in Nazi-occupied France is pretty incredible, a noirish tale full of twisty dialogue whose art veers between cartoon simplicity and exquisite recreations of famous artworks and detailed backgrounds.  It's some pretty great reading, one that lingers in the mind both for its well-drawn characters and its excellent visuals.

18. Wally Gropius

This is a deeply weird comic, but one that is not easily forgettable, starting with an off-kilter take on old teen comics and throwing in a sort of dada energy, social commentary that isn't always easy to decipher, some startling sex and violence, and an angry attitude toward the idly manipulative rich and their disdain for the rest of humanity.  It's also really funny, and what seems like random incidents eventually cohere into an actual story, but the crazy contortions of the characters, the financial imagery and sound effects, and the bizarre dialogue and actions from the characters are what will haunt the mind for some time to come.  Hopefully this will be a fascinating artifact of a moment in time in the early 21st century, one that people will puzzle over long after all the problems inspiring it are forgotten.  We can dream, but at least we can enjoy the funny anger this book inspires in the meantime.

17. Pang, the Wandering Shaolin Monk volume 1

It's always exciting to see new talent emerge, and with this webcomic-turned-graphic-novel-series, Ben Costa has definitely established himself as somebody to keep an eye on.  A well-researched bit of historical fiction about the adventures of a 17th-century Chinese monk, the comic has a beautifully fleshed-out setting and characters, plenty of well-choreographed action, some interesting experiments in visual flow, lovely coloring, and a nice mix of humor and seriousness.  It should be fascinating to see how it continues on its course, and to see Costa continue to develop as a hopefully-more-appreciated cartoonist.  Get in on this one if you haven't already.

16. Smile

Raina Telgemeier has already established herself as a successful creator of girls’ comics with her adaptations of the Babysitters’ Club books, but she moves on into original territory here wonderfully with this autobiographical story of her formative years, focusing on her traumatic experiences with braces.  While the dental drama may be at the forefront of the book, from the title on down, it's really a story about surviving those pre-teen and teenage years, delivering a message about self-esteem and enduring hardship without being preachy, but organically incorporating the lessons into an enjoyable time spent with the well-defined characters in Telgemeier's family and social circles.  For kids who need to hear that message, this is pretty much a perfect delivery system, a reminder that life lasts much longer than those few years, and it's best to start standing up for yourself sooner rather than later.  It might seem a bit odd to like a book for its perceived effectiveness in delivering a message to an intended audience other than oneself, but quality is quality, even if it’s not directed at you.

15. AX volume 1

This anthology culled from an "alternative" manga magazine was kind of uneven, veering from crude to exquisite, from banal to profound, from weirdly interesting to just plain weird, but it was nonetheless essential, a great collection of the type of manga that rarely makes it to Western shores, the experimental types of stories that don't fit into the pre-made demographic categories and genre pigeonholes that have already become so familiar.  As a glimpse into the vast realm of manga that exists but will probably never be translated due to likely commercial disaster, it's great, and hopefully only the first of a long, regular series of installments.  There should be something on the manga shelves for everyone, and that now includes fans of indie comics.  It's an amazing world that we live in.

14. Cuba: My Revolution

Stories of dashed idealism are often compelling, and that's certainly the case with this autobiographical story of the Cuban artist Inverna Lockpez, who, as a young woman, fell hard for the allure of Fidel Castro, supporting his revolution with a nationalistic, populist fervor, until it all went wrong, falling into corruption and fear and nearly destroying her and her family in the process.  Dean Haspiel provides some incredible imagery here, really selling Castro's charisma, how much Lockpez's artistic drive meant to her, and the feeling of optimism slowly being supplanted by oppression, while giving harrowing scenes of war and torture a visceral impact.  Jose Villarubia adds to the experience with his colors, limiting himself to shades of red and pink, which allows him to emphasize that Communist hue as it permeates the country, but also aspects like Lockpez's mother's attempts to hold on to her glamorous lifestyle through the bright red of her outfits and lipstick, or, by eliminating color completely, the horror of Lockpez's ordeal when she is suspected of being a spy.  It's fascinating, gorgeous work all around.

13. Bodyworld

Dash Shaw cemented his reputation as one of the most talented young comics creators working with this book, a fascinating example of a way to do a webcomic-turned-print-comic.  The thick, vertically-oriented hardcover managed to approximate the vertical scroll of a web browser, and fold-out maps even mimicked pop-up windows.  Of course, those physical features wouldn't be worth much if the comic itself wasn't any good, but Shaw did great work there too, telling a funny near-future story about drugs, high school, and identity, and coming up with some crazy paint-spattered visuals and cool ideas on how to convey information in comics.  Essential reading in this modern age of bookstore-ready work.

12. The Unsinkable Walker Bean

Aaron Renier established himself wonderfully as a creator of European-style children's comics with this first volume in what will hopefully be a long-running series following the exploits of an inventive seagoing moppet and his friends as they deal with dangers both terrestrial and supernatural.  It's a lovely work, and one that seems truer to what real kids in dangerous situations would be like than most kiddie adventures, in that it acknowledges that this stuff can be scary and emotional.  I really dig it.

11. The Playwright

Eddie Campbell is a prolific creator, and the comics world is certainly the better for it, getting idiosyncratic works like this on a semi-regular basis, graphic novels that are squarely aimed at adults.  This one confronts middle-age anxieties about sex and relationships in a slightly unnerving, frighteningly honest, and often hilarious manner, and it is filled with tons of great Campbellian moments of expression (physical, facial, and verbal) and some absolutely gorgeous coloring.  Nobody else makes comics like this, so I'm happy every time I get to read more.

10. It Was the War of the Trenches

I had trouble deciding whether to include this as a 2010 book, since it was really made much earlier, but due to the peer pressure of seeing it on other lists and the comparable inclusion of at least two other compilations of foreign-language works on my list, I figured I couldn't leave it off.  Really, the fact is that it's one of the most incredible books of the year, an ugly, grimy, angry look at the devastation of war on everything it touches, an endless cascade of horrors that are all the more effective due to their reality.  This is arresting work, something everyone should read, lest we forget how easy it is to get caught up in the killing once again.

9. Koko Be Good

On a cheerier note, Jen Wang's cute graphic novel about an abrasive hipster girl learning to be a positive force in the world was fun and funny, full of loose-limbed cartooning and earned sentiment.  Wang's grasp of her characters, their voices, and the San Francisco setting is pretty incredible, making every page a fast-moving romp through life with likable young people.  Diversions don't get much more diverting than this.

8. The Outfit

Darwyn Cooke's second installment in his series of adaptations of Richard Stark's Parker novels was possibly better than the first, at least in the area of show-offy stylistic metamorphosis.  The crime/heist/violence material was as good as one would expect, but a large portion of the middle of the book jumped between techniques vertiginously to relate several different simultaneous criminal "jobs" at once, switching from illustrated prose told as a pulp magazine article, to cutesy mid-century cartooning in manner of Playboy cartoons, to goofy old-school animation, and back to the shadowy noir that defines the milieu of these stories so well.  As a bit of look-at-this cartooning, it's great, entertaining stuff, but it works wonderfully as part of the book as a whole, cementing the 50s atmosphere while retaining the hard edge of the crime stories.  And that's just one aspect of an excellent book, leaving much more to take in, a testament to Stark's original work and Cooke's masterful interpretation of it.  It's a great read, one that leaves you wanting more, always more.

7. A Drunken Dream

Moto Hagio finally got her English-language showcase with this career-spanning collection of her works, and it's enough of a taste that readers should be clamoring for more.  From the beautiful artistic filigrees that fill panels throughout, to the firm grasp of character and complex emotional examinations, every page of this book is an essential bit of reading for manga fans.  It's a damn shame that there aren't more books like this available in English, and especially a complete catalogue of Hagio's works.  Let's make that happen, people.

6. Demo volume 2

It's always awesome to see evidence of artistic growth.  Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan took the opportunity to update their name-making miniseries with a new volume, and they used it to move beyond the teenage concerns of the first 12 issues and relate fantastical, metaphorical stories about adult concerns and relationships, telling a series of done-in-one stories that revealed well-drawn characters and incredible artwork.  This is beautiful, affecting work on many levels at once, and hopefully a third volume (and more after that) will be forthcoming.

5. Daytripper

It’s always interesting to see what permutations of story types and formats develop in comics, especially in a mainstream, established imprint of a major company like Vertigo, which has moved beyond the dark fantasy subject matter of its early years into all manner of content in recent years.  This ten-issue series by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, the twin Brazilian rising stars of the comics field, might be the most literary (or “literary”) Vertigo series yet, dealing with subject matter like aging, romance, fatherhood, society, success, and probably most of all, how choices we make and random chance govern the directions our lives take.  That’s the stuff of New York Times Bestsellers and Oscar-winning dramas, and the interesting thing here is that Moon and Ba take advantage of the comics medium when telling it, not just in the use of their imagery, but in the serialization of the story in monthly installments.  This was a canny move on their part, since while the story works as a complete graphic novel, it took on its own distinctive pleasures over the course of the ten months in which the issues came out, keeping readers guessing at what exactly was going on, while immersing them in the lives of its main character and bringing him to life (ironically, considering what happens to him each issue) as somebody to care about, an example of humanity in all its multifaceted complexity.  In the end, the "mystery" of what was happening to him over the course of the series turned out to be kind of mundane, but that just made him seem all the more real, a man considering all the possibilities of life and death, and accepting his life as it was lived.  That's a pretty beautiful affirmation of humanity, and the deeply-felt moments and gorgeous art throughout the series only cement Moon and Ba as incredible talents with momentous careers ahead of them.  I can't wait to see what's next.

4. Wilson

While Daniel Clowes might not be as universally respected as it seemed like he was five to ten years ago, he can still deliver some highly entertaining comics, and that's exactly what he did with this, his first original graphic novel, which introduced readers to the highly unlikeable title character, and then proceeded to drag us along on his various adventures until we were not just used to him, but actually cared about him, or at least felt kind of bad when his misanthropy led to bad ends.  The constantly-shifting art style keeps readers on their toes, filtering Wilson's experience through a new lens on every page, and Clowes paces individual pages and withholds just enough information to deliver the perfect impact for each turn of the plot.  It's an odd book, but a signature Clowes work, and a great use of the comics medium.

3. Love and Rockets: New Stories #3

Is this the best work of Jaime and/or Gilbert Hernandez's career?  Who can say, given the thirty or so years of excellence they've contributed to the medium, but the work here is pretty amazing all around.  Gilbert's shocking story of violent exploitation of "lesser" cultures in the name of progress is horrifying and funny all at once, a great addition to his growing catalogue of "B-movies", but Jaime's stories are what got all the attention, and rightly so, being a heartfelt examination of his characters' past and present, one that fills in backstory, reveals heartbreaking moments that had been papered over, and continues to make these people feel so, so real.  This is an amazing example of how great these creators are, and the way comics can be used for maximum effectiveness to tell emotional, realistic, beautifully real stories.

2. Acme Novelty Library #20

Chris Ware has also earned his reputation as one of the greatest cartoonists ever, but he never sits still, always striving forward to come up with new ways to use the comics medium to tell stories, and he broke new ground again with this latest installment of his ongoing "Rusty Brown" story, which veered away from the main narrative (if there can be said to be one) to follow a tangential character's entire life from birth to death.  It's a dazzling display of Ware's talent, and any number of amazing ideas are on display, from the indications of language development in the early years; to the glimpses of memories, thoughts, desires, and self-deceptions experienced throughout; to the haunting depiction of death.  Most interesting, however, is the way Ware leaves out key information, suggesting and implying events but only detailing their consequences and/or vague memories.  There's also a striking shift in style meant to evoke the experience of reading a book written by a character that takes inspiration from the alt-comics work of creators like Ron Rege, Jr., making for a bit of emotional horror that puts a cap on the ongoing destruction that the main character has wreaked on others' lives throughout his lifetime.  As a whole, it's a virtuoso work, not just one of the best works of Ware's estimable career, but one of the best graphic novels made, period.

1. How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less

As great as Ware's book was, I went with this as my top choice because it affected me more deeply, which is the prerogative of a list-maker, to arbitrarily prioritize one work above another for ephemeral reasons.  Sarah Glidden's amazing exploration of Israel, both the physical country and the place it held in her head, is a work that settled deep in my brain and stayed there, making me consider how complex the various issues (political, emotional, religious, and otherwise) which swirl about the region are, and how thousands of years of history and millions of individual voices have rendered it near-impossible to fully understand, even when you have a personal stake in it and do your best to educate yourself about it.  Glidden's openness about her feelings and the way they were reinforced or overturned is remarkable, as is the way she entertainingly guides readers through her experience on her Birthright trip through the storied land, revealing the people she travels with and meets as real and fascinating and recreating them and their setting beautifully in her watercolored art.  For me, there was no better comics-reading experience in 2010, and considering the quality of everything listed above this book, that's saying something.  Ultimately, any attempt to rank works of art is futile and basically pointless, but it's a great way to explore what affects one and what sticks in the mind and memory rather than glancing across the surface.  That so many quality works penetrated that surface and will remain in the memory for years to come is a testament to how many wonderful, excellent, long-lasting comics are being produced right now, and how exciting it is to experience the continued growth of our beloved medium.  So, what's next?

Honorable mentions:

Empowered, volume 6

Joe the Barbarian

Mesmo Delivery

Orc Stain

Peepo Choo

The Sixth Gun
Strange Tales II
X'ed Out

Not yet read:

Afrodisiac

Duncan the Wonder Dog
Grandville Mon Amour
The Wrong Place
You'll Never Know volume 2

Lucky in Love: Some incomplete coverage

Links: Hey, if you're looking forward to Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover's upcoming Gingerbread Girl as much as I am, did you know it's going to be serialized in its entirety on Top Shelf 2.0 before its release?  That's pretty sweet.

And speaking of free stuff to read, the well-regarded first volume of Duncan the Wonder Dog is also available online, which is nice, since it is apparently almost completely sold out.

And why not some classic manga too?  A blog called Black Sun is posting some of Shigeru Mizuki's GeGeGe No Kitaro stories, which is one of those series that people like me are always calling to be translated.  This might be the best chance we have of reading it, at least for now.

Lucky in Love
Written by George Chieffet
Art by Stephen DeStephano

This is a pretty good book, following its titular Italian-American fellow as he grows up in Hoboken, goes off to war (although not combat; he's a mechanic in the Air Force), and returns home for some Best Years of Our Lives-style depression.  It's all very well told, with realistic details coming through even when the art takes such a cartoony style, but being the first half of a two-volume series, it's somewhat incomplete, setting up themes that will presumably be dealt with later.  Still, it's quite good.

However, there was one scene that I thought was excellent on its own and stood out in the memory the most.  It's a dream sequence that Lucky has about the last hours of an acquaintance that died when his plane was lost at sea, and it takes a much more somber mood than the rest of the book, using some amazing charcoal-grey shading to emphasize death's inevitable approach.  My favorite panel of all is this one:



That's the plane dumping extra weight in an attempt to stay aloft, and DeStephano manages to use the shading to give a sort of ironic twist to what looks like an action-packed war scene.  That burst of lines radiating outward might normally signify the triumphant dropping of bombs, but this moody gray takes away that exciting blast and makes it a desperate action, and one that we know is doomed to failure.

The war experience seems to be central in Lucky's story, affecting his self-image as he returns home a hero even though he did nothing to deserve it, and that seems to be the message in this scene: heroic imagery twisted into something sad, as men slowly sink to a pointless death.  War is hell, with effects reaching far outside and long beyond the actual conflict, and this scene manages to illustrate that rather effectively.  Even if the rest of the two books surrounding it end up adding up to something less than great, this one is worth reading if only for this moment of striking darkness.