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.

Balloons, Part 3

(From Paul Pope's Comics from Mars #1. Click to enlarge.)

What looks like Goofy the dog's absurd brother dog short circuits atop an elaborate tricycle. Unseemly tiny repairmen emerge down below. Pope makes fine use of white space in the fifth panel for a sense of scale. The cracked words of the robot keep repeating in the top left corner of panels three through six, moving in and out of clarity. In sequence and in story, we descend to the level of gremlins and remain aware of the skipping record high above.

Paul Pope's Adam Strange is without a doubt one of the best Wednesday Comics comics. Paul Pope is without a doubt.

Up next: maybe John Byrne Superman? Desolation Jones? Gawrsh.