A review by mountsleepyhead
The Best American Comics 2016, by Keiler Roberts, Lynda Barry, Dave Lap, Gilbert Hernández, Char Esme, Alex Schubert, Liana Finck, Kate Beaton, Walter Scott, Chris Ware, Lauren Poor, Joe Ollman, Casanova Frankenstein, Sophia Zdon, Beto Rodriguez, Ben Katchor, Anne Emond, Bill Kartalopoulos, Richard McGuire, GG, Nina Bunjevac, Julia Wertz, Geneviève Elverum, Drew Friedman, Gabrielle Bell, Joe Sacco, Lance Ward, Marc Bell, Adrian Tomine, John Porcellino, Roz Chast, Cece Bell
3.0
3.5 stars
These Best American Comics anthologies are almost always pretty good, and they are one of my favorite things to recommend to people who think comics are just dudes in tights punching bad guys. My review is less about where this book ranks on its own--because on its own, in a vacuum, it's excellent and full of incredibly interesting artists and voices--but where it ranks in the Best American Comics series. It's not my favorite, but it's better than some of the more middle of the road entries.
There are some great artists (and some great ones I had never heard of, which is why I read these things in the first place) but there were 3 very lengthy excerpts from graphic novels that really hamper the amount of artistic diversity of the anthology. There's like, 30+pages of Cece Bell's excellent El Deafo, but at that volume you're already reading a fourth of the book and it doesn't make a lot of sense having so much of it occupying valuable space that could be showcasing other artists. The anthology also features lengthy segments of Nina Bunjevac's Fatherland and Lance Ward's Adult's Only,which, to the excerpt's credit, was my favorite discovery of this anthology. So it's a double edged sword. And yet, the selection from Ward's graphic novel could have been half as long and I still would have wanted to read the whole thing, so I'm going to stick to my line in the sand about graphic novel excerpts. It's important to include them, since that is where some of the best work is beign done, but it has to make sense and be self-contained (and probably no more than 10 pages at the absolute max).
That said, guest editor Roz Chast does a great job balancing excellent new work from Best American Comics stalwarts like Chris Ware, Lynda Barry, John Porcellino, and Adrian Tomine, with newcomers whose output is limited to their Tumblr or very small self-published comics (notably Anne Emond, Keiler Roberts, and Sophia Zdon, and their contributions are the sort of stuff that can make these anthologies so special). As is the case with anthologies, I didn't love everything and actively disliked a couple of entries, but hey, that's the fun of these things! Outside of the large swaths of excerpts, this is one of the better Best American Comics anthologies.
These Best American Comics anthologies are almost always pretty good, and they are one of my favorite things to recommend to people who think comics are just dudes in tights punching bad guys. My review is less about where this book ranks on its own--because on its own, in a vacuum, it's excellent and full of incredibly interesting artists and voices--but where it ranks in the Best American Comics series. It's not my favorite, but it's better than some of the more middle of the road entries.
There are some great artists (and some great ones I had never heard of, which is why I read these things in the first place) but there were 3 very lengthy excerpts from graphic novels that really hamper the amount of artistic diversity of the anthology. There's like, 30+pages of Cece Bell's excellent El Deafo, but at that volume you're already reading a fourth of the book and it doesn't make a lot of sense having so much of it occupying valuable space that could be showcasing other artists. The anthology also features lengthy segments of Nina Bunjevac's Fatherland and Lance Ward's Adult's Only,which, to the excerpt's credit, was my favorite discovery of this anthology. So it's a double edged sword. And yet, the selection from Ward's graphic novel could have been half as long and I still would have wanted to read the whole thing, so I'm going to stick to my line in the sand about graphic novel excerpts. It's important to include them, since that is where some of the best work is beign done, but it has to make sense and be self-contained (and probably no more than 10 pages at the absolute max).
That said, guest editor Roz Chast does a great job balancing excellent new work from Best American Comics stalwarts like Chris Ware, Lynda Barry, John Porcellino, and Adrian Tomine, with newcomers whose output is limited to their Tumblr or very small self-published comics (notably Anne Emond, Keiler Roberts, and Sophia Zdon, and their contributions are the sort of stuff that can make these anthologies so special). As is the case with anthologies, I didn't love everything and actively disliked a couple of entries, but hey, that's the fun of these things! Outside of the large swaths of excerpts, this is one of the better Best American Comics anthologies.