Best of 2010: special mention

Daytripper by Ba and Moon. To be honest, I could have used a lot more humor. That aside, it struck me as a sort of Little Nemo in Slumberland homage. McCay's single page structure is dilated over the course of an issue: a pattern of ever-increasing nearness (to a goal, a girl, a revelation) followed by spectacular/mundane catastrophe at the end (imagine if every Nemo or Rarebit Fiend strip ended with an obituary). The series plays out way more optimistically than McCay's haunted pattern. Above is only the first page of issue two and is the easiest formal echo of McCay: bottom right wake up, orders to go and find the dream girl.

For kicks, here's the bottom of a 1906 Nemo strip, which I got from the great Comic Strip Library. Mundane catastrophe and wake up. But, daddy, I wanna be the princess' new playmate!

Best of 2010: finds, part three

From Pascal Doury's "Paul" from RAW volume 2 issue 1 from Rust Belt Books in Buffalo. Certainly the most hectic thing.

Best of 2010: finds, part two

R. O. Blechman, more Blechman, his Book of Jonah.

Just before the whale.

Best of 2010: finds

Ethyl Corporation ad from The Saturday Evening Post, May 22, 1944. O, "oceans of gasoline," you are lackadaisical poetry and environmental degradation rolled into one. You could learn a little something, CAPP ads.

Bought outside Humboldt University in Berlin this summer: U-Comix Sonderband 28 von Rick Geary from 1980. Looks like it's one of Geary's earliest collections of comics, reprinted and translated (I assume translated -- he's from Missouri). A forty page meditation called "Television" mixes ornate and grotesque studies of tv's architecture, attractiveness, culture, and solitude. Way better than Batman Forever's mid-nineties brain suction tv parody thing.

Best of 2010: misc

Kate Beaton, "Great Gatsbys": rest of the series here.

Gabrielle Bell, "How I Make My Comics": full strip here.

Dan Zettwoch, "Gets Cute!" (among others).

Best of 2010

Jim Woodring, Weathercraft: at last, comics free of bland words.

Brendan McCarthy, Spider-Man: Fever: could have been another Weathercraft.

Naoki Urasawa, Pluto volumes 1-8: the simple question of robot or human? robot or human or robot or human orobotorhumanorobotor...

James Sturm, Market Day: best two pages all year.

Grant Morrison, Batman & Robin 13-16, Return of Bruce Wayne 5-6, and Batman, Inc 1: Morrison as Descartes, breaking down all that's false and building up what's clear and distinct.