2010 Graphic Novel Favorites

In the first two of what I hope will be a long and fruitful series, The Unwritten is a comic about stories, all stories, and their importance in our everyday life. It begins with Tom Taylor, the real life inspiration for the world famous fantasy character Tommy Taylor, star of fourteen books, whose identity is suddenly challenged. But it seems that there are forces at play beyond Tom’s understanding, forces that want him dead. The Unwritten is all about the eff ect that stories have, not just in our personal lives, but in important historical events. The second volume features the Song of Roland and ghostly encounter with Josef Goebbels. These are delightful and surprising books and I can’t wait for the following volumes.

The Sanctuary by Nate Neal is one of the most adventurous, exciting, complex and beautiful graphic novels. A clan of pre-historic cave people begins to turn against itself when leadership of the clan comes up for grabs. Meanwhile an artist tells the story of his people on the deepest walls of the caves, and faces the consequences of the impact the story makes on those who see it. Nate Neal creates a language for the clan, and tells the entire story without any recognizable words, making The Sanctuary a quiet and dark collection of gestures and expressions

The famous opera retold by renowned artist Yoshitaka Amano (conceptual artist for the Final Fantasy series of games, artist for Neil Gaiman’s The Dream Hunters, and Greg Rucka’s Elektra and Wolverine: The Redeemer) Mateki, is a stunning read. Spare narration accompanies a combination of pencil, pen, and ink drawings, telling of Shaana, the flute playing warrior, and Kouran, the maiden of light, his love, and the evil Yasha, the lord of darkness. It is a well known fantasy but what sets Amano’s adaptation apart is the gorgeous artwork. At times half finished, with webs of lines and partly colored figures, Amano’s pages burst with a sense of fragility and wonder, much like the nature of the fantasy itself. Really, each page is a feat of illustrative skill and daring and does not always directly relate to the action of the narration—preferring instead, it seems, to allow the reader to relish in the art, interpreting for themselves the purpose of each page

Need a reason to care about Batwoman? I’ll give you two: Greg Rucka and J. H. Williams III. Gotham’s newest protector, Batwoman, has her hands full with a new leader of the Religion of Crime. Greg Rucka’s writing is as superb as ever, mixing suspense with pitch perfect dialogue. However, the true gem of this collection is J.H. William’s III artwork. He employs a beautiful and exuberant range of layouts: from the sharp, red and black motif of the Batwoman scenes, to the simpler layouts when Batwoman is out of costume, to the complete change of style (in line work, page layout, everything) you’ll see in the flashbacks. If only more superhero comics were like this!

A decade after its original European release, Dark Horse Comics finally brings France’s current best-selling comic to the United States. This hardcover collection of the first three volumes of Blacksad features the gorgeous watercolors of Juanjo Guarnido,
whose credentials include work as a lead animator on Disney’s 1999 film Tarzan.
Blacksad follows the misadventures of John Blacksad, a feline private investigator in
writer Juan Diaz Canales’ anthropomorphized version of the 1950s. Canales’ expert characterizations of both the bewhiskered Blacksad and a colorful menagerie of supporting cast members will captivate readers and leave them caterwauling
for more.

Fantagraphic’s publication of shojo (Japanese comics which largely appeal to girls from middle school age to high school) superstar, Moto Hagio’s story collection, A Drunken Dream, is a welcome and celebrated relief to the mainstream, translated Japanese comics, giving the reader a meaningful and deeply felt experience. A number of the stories feature supernatural elements, premises which could (but not necessarily) be labeled as sci-fi, though Hagio’s exploration of loss (in “Marie, Ten Years Later,” “The Child Who Comes Home,” and the heart wrenching “The Willow Tree”) and identity (in “Hanshin: Half God,” and the improbable but deeply moving, “Iguana Girl”) is equal to the best that any literature offers.

The second volume in Katsuhiro Otomo’s science fiction masterpiece, Akira, follows the eff orts of our heroes as they struggle to prevent the awakening of the universal psychic force that is Akira. Having been captured after a showdown against their telekinetic former friend Tetsuo at the end of the first volume, protagonists Kaneda and
Kei must navigate the labyrinthine military complex in order to find Tetsuo before he fully realizes his own psychic abilities and uses them to awaken Akira. The painstaking technical detail of Otomo’s illustrations and the intricacy of the storytelling makes reading Akira an experience like no other.

A pictorial landscape of smudges and rough pencils--the twining of string--the long trail of ants through a featureless building, surrounding fallen bodies, blowing like smoke across the sky. As either a fantasy landscape or ethereal representation of Renee French’s struggles with migraines and Argentine ants, H Day, is superbly done.

Picturebox’s year certainly wouldn’t be complete without Brian Chippendale’s long awaited new book, If’n Oof, a 900 page, single panel, behemoth. Shifting between one dream to the next, we follow If, one experimental specimen among many. The intensity of the Chippendale’s artwork here is what really impels the reader. From states of psycholdelic zaniness to wide landscapes and quirky, ill-fitting characters, this is a land of dreams and the impossible, exploding with questions and little answers. Magnificently done and worth the wait.