A review by kirstiecat
The Best American Comics 2010 by Jessica Abel, Neil Gaiman, Matt Madden
4.0
If you're like me, you're utterly exhausted in the harshness of winter. After I survive work, I do about two hours of hardcore reading each day at the gym and then at night, when I'm taking a bath so hot it scalds my skin, I like to read comic books. It usually helps me laugh and gives me a little perspective on things.
That said, some of these comics are about very serious matters such as 911 and WWII. They greatly vary in their divulging of politics, dreams, personal and world histories, human relationships, outer space, and even religion. Most of these didn't make me laugh at all but had a much more serious intent. At the same time, Gaiman did a great job compiling excerpts of graphic novels and comics as well as from a wide variety of these writers and illustrators themselves in terms of fame. You will find excerpts from Jonathan Ames' The Alcoholic, Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Library, Peter Kuper's Ceci N'est Pas une Comic, R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis, Lethem's Omega the Unknown and, perhaps the most famous right now, Brian Lee O' Malley's Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe. At the same time, there were quite a few comics I didn't know and perhaps my favorite of the whole collection was Derf's The Bank excerpt from Punk Rock and Trailer Parks about a guy who works at a small club and gets to take The Clash around.
This collection is recommended for those who don't know who to look to before making a commitment to buy and read an entire graphic novel and, while not all of these grabbed me, I did enjoy many of them. I'd be really interesting to see collections of best comics from other countries as well. If anyone has any recommendations for me I'd love to hear them.
That said, some of these comics are about very serious matters such as 911 and WWII. They greatly vary in their divulging of politics, dreams, personal and world histories, human relationships, outer space, and even religion. Most of these didn't make me laugh at all but had a much more serious intent. At the same time, Gaiman did a great job compiling excerpts of graphic novels and comics as well as from a wide variety of these writers and illustrators themselves in terms of fame. You will find excerpts from Jonathan Ames' The Alcoholic, Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Library, Peter Kuper's Ceci N'est Pas une Comic, R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis, Lethem's Omega the Unknown and, perhaps the most famous right now, Brian Lee O' Malley's Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe. At the same time, there were quite a few comics I didn't know and perhaps my favorite of the whole collection was Derf's The Bank excerpt from Punk Rock and Trailer Parks about a guy who works at a small club and gets to take The Clash around.
This collection is recommended for those who don't know who to look to before making a commitment to buy and read an entire graphic novel and, while not all of these grabbed me, I did enjoy many of them. I'd be really interesting to see collections of best comics from other countries as well. If anyone has any recommendations for me I'd love to hear them.