The Best American Comics 2008 55
eldavojohn writes "The Best American Comics of 2008 was a book I purchased on impulse. Not being a graphic novel or even political cartoon fan, I read the introduction at a bookstore (which was, itself, a comic strip) and decided to give it a try. I expected to find humor. What I found was not only humor but sadness, anxiety, insight, happiness, remorse and a gamut of human emotions. I expected black ink on white paper. What I found was water color, wood cuts, cubism and even a comic about the start of cubism. In short, I was pleasantly surprised to find the Americana here that I had previously relegated only to historical novels." Read on for the rest of eldavojohn's review.
The name of this book is going to be hard to digest as your best DC, Marvel and Image comics are nowhere to be found in this book. If you claim it's because there's no way the price of this book could cover these big name titles, you may be on to something. But I found this to be a refreshing and complex addition to what I knew comic books to be. Nowhere would I find the black and white world of Superman or the Gotham City of Batman but in their places stories more akin to Maus and Persepolis. | The Best American Comics 2008 | |
| author | Lynda Barry |
| pages | 352 |
| publisher | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
| rating | 7/10 |
| reviewer | eldavojohn |
| ISBN | 9780618989768 |
| summary | Collection of the best American comics of 2008. |
The book itself is a collection of clippings from comics released in 2008. Some are more complete than others. Prior to this book, I had never heard of any of these names. But several of these comics gave me reason to look up the authors and actually purchase more of their works.
Instead of reviewing each comic, I will relate what I recall a week after reading it and the permanent impressions it left on me. The first comic, Burden caught me off guard as it starts out as an endearing story about a brother making amends for his no-good dead-beat brother Charlie. Charlie seems to have led a less than desirable life dodging rent, stealing from loved ones and leaving his father to rot in a home. This beautiful story crumbles away to a horrific end in the final page as Charlie's brother says goodbye to him.
There were a few comics related to the war in Iraq. The first (David Axe's autobiographical War-Fix) being a reporter who seems to go to Iraq out of boredom or some strange driving force despite his clear inability to cope with the nature of war. Another comic dealt with the political debate here and the Left's political views.
Some of the comics had a more timeless folklore aspect to them. One was a reincarnation of an old Japanese proverb called The Crab and the Monkey but had a sobering ending that I did not recall from the original proverb. Another entitled Turtle Keep It Steady by Joseph Lambert had little to no text and retold the fable of The Tortoise and the Hare. It also explored the merits of consistency in friends and those around you in a very simple way. Seven Sacks left me confused and concerned that I had missed some myth or fable allusion through the whole story. The story is well illustrated and may cause one to wonder what responsibility this boatman has in delivering unsavory characters across a river to possibly carry out devious acts while holding bags that make noises.
Several comics were purely historical. The Saga of the Bloody Benders is one part homicide case and one part legend. The story takes a historical account of a family of settlers that brutally murdered and waylaid dozens of innocent people in 1870s Kansas. The story recalls a simpler time and notes how peculiar all the signs pointed to the Bender family yet no one implicated them. Another comic Berlin recalled a German viewpoint of the May Day Massacre of 1928 and the Reichstag elections of 1930. So rarely is a story told from the unpopular side of a historical conflict.
One of the comics took a look at Picasso's beginning as an artist discovering cubism. I do not know enough of the true to story to know if it is historically accurate but it certainly cast Picasso in a ... different light.
One of my least favorite parts of the books was a set of Matt Groening's "Life in Hell." Some of it is cute and childishly funny. Most of it is inane and a bit tedious to read. While this repetition may be humorous, it pales in comparison to the other emotions displayed in the book.
Eric Haven's Mammology is humorous on several different levels and is layered to include evolutionary commentary on mammals versus reptiles. Cathy Malkasian's Percy Gloom is an interesting commentary on a group of people called "Funnelheads" that clearly become an analogy for a cult of worshipers.
One of my favorite comics was a woodcut done in cubism by a Bronx art teacher named John Mejias. I showed this comic to a friend who teaches ESL in the Bronx and she laughed at several panes discussing the inside jokes of "what you should do" in each of the situations that Mejias was lampooning. Personally I found the clipping from Mejias The Teachers Edition to be heart touching asking in the end how he is to teach students art when every assignment is graded to a standard with no room for individuality or self expression.
I omitted more than a few comics that didn't strike me as that great. There are lengthy comics about the life an older TV show host, a few selections from The New Yorker, a comic about an ostracized Chinese student in America and I'm certain I'm missing many others in this 352 page hardcover book.
This comic spans so many different kinds and styles that it seems like it would be a great addition to any collection for the $15 it costs.
You can purchase The Best American Comics 2008 from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Re:Why is it in slashdot? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What happened to all the comic books ??? (Score:5, Informative)
Two things happened:
1. The prices went up.
2. The old distribution system collapsed.
In the old days, comics were cheap. They were printed poorly on cheap newsprint and they cost less than a dollar. (When I started reading comics, a new issue cost a quarter.) Unfortunately, there were a number of paper shortages in the 1980s and 90s that sent the price of the type of pulp newsprint that comics were printed on up through the roof. Simply put, with the price of paper going up and the improvements in printing technology over the years, eventually you could print high-quality comics on good white paper for about the same price as you could print them on newsprint -- which is to say, about ten times more than they cost in the late 70s.
Meanwhile, as the prices went up, the audience for comics was steadily shrinking. Movies, TV, and videogames were all competing with comics for kids' attention. Even though the quality of the printing was getting better, comics sales just couldn't match the highs of the late 60s and 70s. And this was a problem, because magazine publishing can be a fairly risky business, and that was how comics were being distributed at the time -- like magazines.
Magazines, typically, are considered "returnable." A retailer orders a magazine, tells the publisher how many copies he thinks he might sell, and the publisher sends that many copies. But if the copies don't sell, the retailer is allowed to send the unsold copies back to the publisher. But because the cost of shipping back whole copies effectively means the retailer is paying for unsold goods, however, they compromise. Instead of sending back whole magazines, the retailer can tear the covers off the magazines and just send the covers back. The inside pages are supposed to be destroyed.
That was how comics worked when you bought them in the supermarket or a 7-11. Any unsold copies had the covers ripped off and the insides pulped. But because the cover price of a comic book was less than a dollar anyway, any comics that were returned really hit the publisher hard. Publishers needed to be sure they'd sell a certain number of copies to break even, and for a lot of titles, those numbers just weren't there anymore.
The 1980s, however, saw the rise of comics fandom. College students and folks in their 30s were reading comics, which led to two new phenomena. One, comic book conventions appeared in virtually every major city. And two, the first comic book stores appeared.
Initially, the main purpose of comic book stores was to buy nice, pristine copies of new issues that hadn't been pawed by kids on the spinning racks, and also to buy back issues. But the comics publishers saw a new opportunity in comic book stores. They realized that they could print up their comics on good quality paper, at a slightly higher price than was customary in the 7-11s, and sell them directly to the comic book stores for sale to the fan audience. More importantly, the comics they distributed to comic book stores would be non-returnable. In other words, a comic book ordered by a comic book store was a hard sale, where a comic book ordered for sale on a magazine rack was essentially being sold on consignment.
Sales continued to dwindle, and eventually the magazine distributors who used to carry comic books didn't see any profit in it anymore. The magazine-rack comics market effectively disappeared. In its place were a number of distributors that handled nothing but comics and related memorabilia, and they sold exclusively to comic book stores and other retailers who were willing to handle their merchandise on non-returnable terms.
That's the situation that you're left with today. So if you're surprised that Borders seems to be the only place that still racks comics, don't be -- Borders is probably one of the only chains big enough to be able to cut a deal that makes it feasible for it to deal in non-returnable magazines (which is, in essence, what comics are).
The moral of the story is: If you want comics, go to a comic book store.
Why Don't You Suggest Them? (Score:5, Informative)
Are these really the "best" that American comics has to offer? The submitter hits on the fact that the bulk of the comics that reach U.S. readers are superhero stories from two or three big publishers. The list of authors represented in this book reads like a roster of the exceptions to the rule -- the people who have made names for themselves by getting their offbeat comics published, usually by one or two or three of the better-funded "indie" publishers (Fantagraphics, Top Shelf, Last Gasp). What about the comics that simply aren't reaching an audience because they weren't created by a known "name"? Was any attempt made to hunt them down and represent them in this book? Or is this just the same old club, getting together and congratulating themselves yet again?
Disclaimer: I'm the submitter.
I'm sorry you feel that way about this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, perhaps it was made for me and not for you. But I will cherish it and probably look for 2006, 2007 and 2009 when it comes out.
If you know of such truly indie unheard of comics, the link on the summary has a submission page [bestamericancomics.com] for suggestions of Lynda Barry and Co. to consider.
Also for the people tagging this article XKCD and Sinfest, webcomics are eligible:
Are Web comics eligible?
Yes, Web comics are eligible, if they were first posted within the eligibility dates (September 1, 2007, through August 31, 2008, for this next edition). Send hard copy, carefully labeled as to date of first posting and URL, to us at the Houghton Mifflin address.
Nothing would make me happier than to see a mom and pop printing press featured in one of these books. I ordered two things from Paping on the cheap and their website gave me reason to believe they do all the woodcuts by hand.
I love that.
Re:What happened to all the comic books ??? (Score:2, Informative)
Interesting abridged history of comic book publishing there.
Just wanted to add though that for those in Asia where comics (not just mangas) have a small but dedicated cult following, there's another big bookstore that carries comics — Kinokuniya. Here in Dubai, Kinokuniya in the new Dubai Mall is the only place that stocks a healthy collection of graphic novels.
Re:I've read it... (Score:3, Informative)