Ah, comic books. Once considered fit only for delinquent children and invalids, the medium is currently enjoying a renaissance in popular culture. Nary a week goes by where a potential comics-to-movies franchise is not launched, while graphic novels now regularly make critics top ten lists. The stigma around comics has not completely evaporated (some are so presumptuous as to think women don’t read comics), but like the last few years before it, 2007 pushed their creative boundaries past the horizon.
Books. AHEM. Funny thing about books. We read our fair share of them this year, but very few were actually released this year. With so many choices – spanning from the dawn of recorded history to present – you can hardly fault us. So while our new book list may be nothing short of depressing, don’t fret. Funnybooks weren’t the only fare on our menu.
All-Star Superman (Limited Series, DC)
Comics owe a debt to Grant Morrison that they will still be repaying long after he’s dead. Already a legend for writing groundbreaking works including The Invisibles, Animal Man and Batman: Arkham Asylum, Morrison continually outdoes himself, this time by making Superman fun again in the peerless All-Star Superman, the greatest Superman comic any of you will ever read. I was not a fan of Superman comics, finding the storytelling clunky and the hero gratingly moral unambiguous, but that was before DC gave our Scottish compatriot and the amazing artist Frank Quitely the keys. All-Star Superman is free of continuity, allowing Morrison to tell any story he wants: Time traveling Gods vying for Lois’ affection, Bizarros and Kryptonian scientists all appear; Lex Luthor makes a memorable prison break; and Superman tests the adage “you can’t go home again”; all set against the backdrop of a man of steel who is coming to terms with his own mortality. Potent – and did we mention fun? – stuff. —Robert Starvation
The Sword (Ongoing Series, Image)
The Sword caught me totally by surprise. I picked up the first three issues a couple weeks ago on a whim at the comic shop when they didn’t have most of the stuff I wanted and I was jonesing for something to read. I mashed through those first three issues at top speed. Beautiful artwork and excellent writing bring a small town family and their father’s dark secret to life. I would say that the first issue bears a little too much resemblance to A History of Violence but takes a sharp turn near the end. The Luna Brothers get major points for using a handicapped female lead character effectively in this work. I can’t wait for future issues. —Ryan Jovian
Y: The Last Man (Graphic Novels, Vertigo)
What young man hasn’t fantasized about being the last living Y chromosome on Earth? But as Yorick Brown discovers in Brain K. Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man, being the sole survivor of a mysterious plague that killed every male animal on Earth except him and his monkey is not a never-ending sex fantasy so much as a feminist subversion of the idea, with our supposed hero often at the mercy of neo-Amazons who want him eliminated, an army of Israelis who want him as a bargaining chip and various governments who don’t always know quite what to do with him. Y ends its 60-issue run in January 2008, leaving behind a story that was often smart, painful and funny, usually within pages of each other. —Robert Starvation
Black Adam: The Dark Age (Limited Series, DC)
Take a villain who is sometimes a hero best known as Captain Marvel’s nemesis, strip him of his powers and send him on a quest to regain said paranormal abilities and revive his long-rotting love Isis and you have Black Adam: The Dark Age, a limited series that has been so consistently excellent that not to spin it off into a regularly monthly would be a grave insult. It might even necessitate a duel. —Robert Starvation
Doktor Sleepless (Ongoing Series, Avatar)
2007 was the year when Warren Ellis finally delivered another ambitious science fiction saga with big ideas and copious use of the epithet “bastard”. The first few issues of Doktor Sleepless couldn’t avoid the inevitable comparisons to Transmetropolitan, but by its third installment, the plot thickened and eyebrows arched. Classic Ellis at the top of his game. —Robert Starvation
I am not really sure where the mad genius Doktor Sleepless (proxy of the mad genius Warren Ellis) is taking us on his dystopian adventures, but I was hooked after about half a page. I’m not joking. This may be just an entry on a big list of comics, but to me this is easily comic of the year. —Ryan Jovian
30 Days of Night: Red Snow (Limited Series, IDW)
If you liked the other 30 Days of Night comics, then 30 Days of Night: Red Snow is a real kicker. It takes us back all the way to World War II to an incident where the Nazis and Russians have to depend on one another in order to survive a vampire attack. Of course, everyone can’t get along for too long and people’s heads start getting blown off simply because they’re the enemy of the human war, never mind the war they were fighting against the vampires. Ben Templesmith’s watercolour-esque artwork and splendid writing just never get old in this new twist of history. —Sam Pagan
Northlanders (Ongoing Series, Vertigo)
Vikings, bitch. Romans too. What else do you need in your comics? Oh, you want lots of violence and top-notch artwork? Northlanders has those too. There is a lot to be said for a comic whose single issue released at the time of this writing got it onto the list. —Ryan Jovian
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 (Ongoing Series, Dark Horse)
What could be better than a comic series that canonically continues the storyline of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? A series that does that while maintaining the wit and spirit of the television show’s heyday. With creator Joss Whedon overseeing the effort and writing some of the issues, Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 8 has restored fans faith in the Buffyverse. Not bad for a run that would only make up two hour-long episodes on the small screen. —Robert Starvation
Shortcomings (Hardcover Graphic Novel, Drawn and Quarterly)
Adrian Tomine has a knack for his impeccable characterizations of human beings, in their messy, self-pitying, bumbling, prejudiced glory. Shortcomings follows Oakland movie theater manager Ben Tanaka as his long-term relationship with his girlfriend disintegrates and everyone he cares about moves to New York. By the tale’s bitter end Ben may have been revealed as a self-obsessed prick, but fuck likability. Who hasn’t been there at some point in their lives? …I can’t be the only one. —Robert Starvation
Doctor Strange: The Oath (Graphic Novel, Marvel)
This was the only new comic I read this year, and at the time of purchase, I didn’t even know it was new. Finding a Dr. Strange comic book or graphic novel these days is like finding good humor in an episode of Xavier: Renegade Angel. Best part about Brian K. Vaughn’s The Oath isn’t that Dr. Strange, the miraculously charming man that he is, finds the cure for cancer to ensure Wong will forever be by his side, but Night Nurse Linda Carter that saves him from death (but not without the help of his charming aura hovering above the operation conversing his story the entire time) is so super hot, I’m actually debating whether or not to cosplay as her at Comic Con 2008. By the Flames of Faltine, Dr. Strange proves to be the ultimate Sorcerer Supreme who will no doubt save us all from the evil claws of the super-natural and vicious teeth of cancer! —xtine
Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse (Ongoing Series, IDW)
This isn’t for the faint of heart, let me tell you. Ben Templesmith’s talking worm-possessed corpse investigator doesn’t take anything lying down, let alone censor himself. Having been used to only Ben’s art style (and loving it, of course) I was glad to see that he also had some keen writing skills as well. The first of his works that I have read, Wormwood is so cleverly done it actually had me laughing out loud. Don’t miss this absurd and obscene graphic novel, available with a free tentacle monster.* —Sam Pagan
*Not responsible for exploding bowels; a necessity of the tentacle monster’s birthing.
Lucifer: Evensong (Graphic Novel, Vertigo)
Lucifer: Evensong is the final chapter in the story of the greatest comic creation ever devised. Lucifer is indescribable, unbelievable and unmistakably literature. The fact that it is wrapped in the mere trappings of a comic shouldn’t fool you. Mike Carey now stand with the greats (for those who don’t know our obsessions, this would be Miller, Moore, Gaiman, Morrison, Vaughan and Ellis) who have elevated “funnybooks” to a higher form. The fact that a few of these men are still not celebrated as if they are traditional authors, and those that are had to become traditional authors, is a travesty. One which is amplified all the more once you’ve read this masterful series. —Ryan Jovian
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (Hardcover Graphic Novel, America’s Best Comics)
Only Alan Moore would think mixing a Jeeves and Wooster tale with the Cthulhu mythos was a good idea – and only Alan Moore could make it work so seamlessly. One of many historical documents in the alternative history that makes up the The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’s world, Black Dossier jumps between the various incarnations of the League (recounted in source material as diverse as a sequel to Fanny Hill, Shakespeare’s “lost play” and a beat novel by one Sal Paradyse) and the further adventures of the perennially youthful Allen Quartermain and Wilhelmina Murray. Black Dossier also has the honor of being the first Moore piece that requires 3D glasses to properly follow the story through to its conclusion. —Robert Starvation
Civil War (Graphic Novel, Marvel)
Following the crisis that the House of M arc wrought on the Marvel universe, where close to the entire mutant population woke up as normal human beings across the world, a civil war began. Only 150 known mutants remain on the planet and a debacle has started that has friends facing off against friends, and allies against allies. In an attempt to keep the remaining mutants safe, Tony Stark starts a registration act for all mutants in which personal identities are to be revealed. Some are for the registration, many are opposed. The time to decide whose side is the most reasonable begins with Tony Stark fronting for S.H.I.E.L.D , and Captain American leading the resistance. Each story in Civil War leaves you on tenterhooks, wondering who will win the final battle of justice and who will be taken down. —Sam Pagan
Fell (Graphic Novel, Image)
Warren Ellis. Ben Templesmith. Has there ever been a better partnership? (see: Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman and Alan Moore and J.H. Williams’ Promethea before you answer that question). Fell is a procedural, crime noir and an experiment in comics storytelling all rolled into one – Fell being shorter than your average comic per issue, but about three times as tightly written and illustrated. In that spirit, I will honor it as concisely as I know how: Fell is wonderful. Read it now. —Robert Starvation
Ex Machina (Ongoing Series, Wildstorm)
As Ex-vigilante crimefighter turned Mayor of New York in Brian K. Vaughn’s Ex Machina, Mitchell Hundred knows that with power comes great responsibility. And sleepless nights, decisions that haunt you long after you’ve made them, political machinations, and the tabloid press snooping around your personal life. In Hundred’s New York, set after he is elected into office on a wave of popularity for his role in preventing the second tower of the World Trade Center from being hit on Sept. 11, 2001, not a day goes by where His Honor isn’t grappling with free speech, drug laws, gay marriage and the occasional unwelcome face from his past. If only all political thrillers came in sequential art form. —Robert Starvation
Eternals (Hardcover Graphic Novel, Marvel)
Neil Gaiman’s written many a spellbinding tale, but only recently he dipped his toe into the realm of superheros proper. And was it ever worth the wait. In Eternals, Gaiman masterfully reconciles a comic creation never meant to fit into the universe it exists in, fitting a square peg into a round hole like it was made to fit that way. Reinterpreting Jack Kirby’s human characters-cum-godlike beings and pitting them against moral, sociological and personal issues breathed new life into a series of characters that could have easily been forgotten in antiquity. Gaiman’s Eternals are as fragile as any of his other characters, without losing the qualities that make them mighty. —Ryan Jovian
As millions of nerds dressed as wizards, professors, house elfs and cats gathered on the 20th of July for the midnight release of the seventh and final Harry Potter novel, hundreds of questions were being asked which only an all-night readathon could answer. What were the Deathly Hallows? Where was the final Horcrux hidden? Was Snape really a good guy, or as dastardly a villain as Harry had led readers to believe? Furthermore, who was finally going to hook up with whom? Harry and Ginny? Ron and Hermione? Or a far more thrilling possibility of Harry running off with Hermione and incestuous magic filling the air between Ron and his sister? And fans couldn’t ignore J.K. Rowling’s thirst for blood which could only be quenched by killing a beloved character each year, starting with the unfortunate death of Cedric Digory during the Triwizard tournament. Would this bloodlust continue on through book seven? Damn straight it would. There was no doubt that someone was going to die, especially with many a Potter fanatic chanting “neither can live while the other survives” any time a discussion began.
And so the stroke of midnight brought us Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and the delightfully emotional climax of a saga that would come to wind its way across a total of more than 4,200 pages. So how did it end? Who lived? Who died? Who got laid? Quit asking me! Get your lazy ass off the computer and go read one of the greatest books (hell, one of the greatest series!) ever to grace mankind. —Jessica Nitowski
Baby carrots are turning Stephen Colbert gay. —Robert Starvation
If you consider yourself a literate person but have never picked up Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, you’re missing out on one of the best satirical children’s series on the market. Fortunately for you, the author has made himself internationally renowned (by some) and despised (by others) by ending his 13 novel series back in 2006 with a tale that left countless readers speechless on the subject for days. Also fortunate is the author’s taste for spin-offs, which has gone on to include his most recent compilation Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid which was filled with some of the greatest “Snicket-isms” to grace the series. Memorable phrases such as:
and countless others lie between the book’s cover, just waiting to be discovered by someone as curious and snoopsome as yourself. —Jessica Nitowski
