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.

2000s

I have also elected my best of the decade, best of the naughts, best of the oohs, best of the ahhs. Trimmed to five, this list is neither shocking nor necessary. Call it an excuse to put up images on a sinking comics blog.

1. Seven Soldiers by Grant Morrison and many fine artists (2005-6).Thirty issues born to the world in an odd order made me feel the full happy weight of the floppy. Above, J. H. Williams III gives me a face I'll never forget from issue zero.

2. 100% by Paul Pope (2002-3).

Pope's story of Gastro -- exotic dancing for the lovers of digestion -- has many pulsating and moving moments like the one above. See-through pocket, new gun, clenching fist, clenching fist.

3. Eightball #23 by Dan Clowes (2004).

Archaic pop American ennui. Tights. Andy the Death-Ray is our hero. He pops a squirrel. He very majestically cannot sleep.

4. Cecil and Jordan in New York by Gabrielle Bell (2008).

I have spent good time with Bell's collection. The scale of all these smart stories still wows me; the cage above lets you witness an illusion of magnitude.

5. The Fixer by Joe Sacco (2003).

The dizzy story of Neven and Joe, storysellers of Sarajevo. Read it for weird intimacy, for clear-as-mud conflict.

Abstract Comic

The generous and regular people at Abstract Comics: The Blog are counting down the release of their book Abstract Comics by snooping around for possible and eclectic examples of "non-representational" or "non-narrative" (my empty shorthand, yes) sequential art. I just finished reading Grant Morrison's two Hellblazer issues from 1990 and thought that this page from #26 out of context could qualify.(Art by David Lloyd.)

Sound Effects, Part 4

The very first panel of Batman and Robin #1 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, courtesy of Ain't It Cool News. This comic comes out tomorrow and oh wowie zowie. I'm really just registering my thirst in this post. Enlarge!

Next up: Little Orphan Annie.

Icons, Part 2

(From Seaguy #1 by Morrison and Stewart. Click to enlarge.)

Following Lynda Barry's dissection of her character, the debut of Grant Morrison's new character and dud superhero Seaguy is obstructed by ennui and tv. From the get-go, Seaguy is outmoded, his brand and iconicity pallid next to the absurdity of Mickey Eye and the ubiquity of Xoo. Mickey Eye: a doppelganger Disney program advocating "am-bi-gyoo-ity" and a zany non-sequitur from the previous panels. Xoo: malleable and sentient food item that brainwashes and silences. How can Seaguy compete with global marketing? "But everything's been done," he says, and eats. What strikes me about this sequence is the shadow of the fork-and-food in the second panel. This code or glyph shines on Seaguy's face, and should probably mean something, communicating as it were over Seaguy's mouth and under Seaguy's words. It's an enigmatic and esoteric contrast to the advertising tableau of the fourth panel (SG's Xoo endorsement). A nice touch by artist Cameron Stewart.

Four parallel lines, that's all? Read between them. Maybe I should have used the word "umbra."