Shank Year End Wrap Up (Readings): Best Comics Of 2009

by Benn Ray

While 2009 may have been The Year of Meh for music (as I like to call it), comics, on the other hand, seem to be experiencing a new golden age.

There were more excellent graphic novels in 2009 than there was time to read them. R.Crumb's Book of Genesis, Ken Dahl's Monsters, Josh Neufeld's A.D.: New Orleans After The Deluge, David Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp, Seth's George Sprott, Hans Rickheit's The Squirrel Machine, Tom Gauld's The Gigantic Robot, Michael Kupperman's Tales Designed to Thrizzle, Joe Sacco's Footnotes from Gaza, David Small's Stitches, R. Sikoryak's Masterpiece Comics, Harvey Pekar's The Beats, and 2 books Atomic released this year - Julia Wertz's Fart Party Vol. 2 and Emily Flake's Lulu Eightball Vol. 2. By any metric, 2009 was an exceptional year for comics.

And frankly, 2010 is already off to a stellar start with Hotwire Comics V3 and Newave!

And oddly, in 2009, like my friend Eric Hatch, I found myself drawn back to the supposedly "dying" format of the single issue/floppy comic. There was something particularly rewarding once again about taking home a tiny stack of comics each week and reading them.

The following are the best comics of what I've read in 2009.

1. BLAMMO #4 by NOAH VAN SCIVER
BLAMMO #5 by NOAH VAN SCIVER
Noah van Sciver is a cartoonist out of time. And with a little luck, he may be the spearhead , the catalyst, the inspiration for a new wave of alternative comix funnybooks. Artistically, his style is like a raw Peter Bagge. Tone-wise, he has a great eye for satire and self-deprecation. In a medium chock full o' precious handmade craft-projects passing for comics, uninteresting and unoriginal naval gazing, and nonsensical child-like abstract scribble - Noah van Sciver's Blammo comes off as a much-needed cry of "enough." And he's prolific as hell too. With a little luck, Noah van Sciver will be the future of comics.

2. I WANT YOU by LISA HANAWALT
Sometimes a great comic requires the reader to ask of its creator, "What's wrong with this person?" Lisa Hanawalt's introductory comic does just that. She plays with her illustration style (which is consistently impressive) and her subject matter is frequently disturbing and funny. A complete and pleasant surprise. 

 

3. SWEET TOOTH by JEFF LEMIRE
Jeff Lemire's monthly Vertigo series concerns a post-apocalyptic world where most human life has been wiped out. There are a handful of people left, but their motivations are usually nefarious and desperate. And there is also a genetic anomaly going on. A new batch of kids are born that are sort of animal/human hybrids. The title character, Sweet Tooth is one of these unique beings - but even among the new genetic anomalies he is uncommon - he's older than he's supposed to be and he's far more intellectually functional than his mutated brethren. Lemire's comic, although a bit too rapidly paced, has a warm, mesmerizing quality despite its bleak and cold atmosphere, and that is largely due to the sweet Chauncey Gardiner-esque charm of its title character.

4. HOUSE OF MYSTERY by MATTHEW STURGES/VARIOUS
This Vertigo series manages to balance both the intriguing sort of ongoing narrative one would expect from the DC Comics imprint with the horror short story anthology aspect of the original series from which this takes its name. Fans of Gaiman's Sandman series may remember Cain and Abel, well the House of Mystery is Cain's house - or at least was (and sort of is again). Current occupants have a pub that where tabs are paid with stories.

5. BATMAN & ROBIN by GRANT MORRISON / VARIOUS
Okay, I was highly skeptical when DC Comics killed off Batman. I'm not fond of this sort of gimmick. With first tier superheros like Superman and Batman, you know when they "die" they're only mostly dead. And soon they'll be back and their death will become an embarrassing memory for all involved. I also don't like it when comic companies finally concede to the whining of their fanboy base and bring back from the dead beloved second tier heroes like Barry Allen's Flash or Hal Jordan's Green Lantern. By bringing them back from the dead, writers negate the ultimate heroic sacrifice those characters made and create an atmosphere in their universe where there are no real repercussions for heroes and villains and their deeds - only for the mortals who inhabit those worlds. So when DC let Grant Morrison kill off Bruce Wayne's Batman, I rolled my eyes. Then I read this new Batman series, and after years of comics creators struggling to work with the Batman-as-psychopath/fascist character template constructed by Frank Miller decades ago, this new dynamic that Grant Morrison has is entirely refreshing. Dick Grayson - the original Robin, has assumed the role of the Bat. Dick was never as messed up as Bruce, so the character is easier to relate to. And his Robin is Batman's son (also dorky, I know - but it works here) - a kid raised by assassins. So the new dynamic is Dick Grayson wrestling with assuming his father-figure's role while trying to teach said father figure's actual son - who just so happens to be a psychopath. It's a new take on a beloved character, and so far it's a lot of fun.

6. SNAKE OIL #4 by CHUCK FORSMAN
Forsman's Snake Oil is a comic that contains a series of quirky and oddball stories that may or may not be leading to something larger. But so far, this series has been fun to read, fun to wonder about and makes me very curious to see where it's going. I have 2 comics on my list that I call "Ones To Watch", and this is the first.

 

 

7. ONLY SKIN #4 by SEAN FORD
One to Watch #2. This is another comic book that I'm enjoying following to see where it goes. Ford's Only Skin is a mystery. What's up with the ghost? What's up with the people disappearing in the woods? What's up with that mysterious dead spot in the woods? And since the tagline of the comic is "New Tales of the Slow Apocalypse", does that mean all the oddball stuff happening in this small town will have global implications? I'm having fun trying to answer these questions.

8. REICH #6 by ELIJAH BRUBAKER
Brubaker's biography of strange psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich continues. It's a curious comic biography of an equally curious figure from history.

 

 

 

9. PAPERCUTTER #9 by VARIOUS
PAPERCUTTER #10 by VARIOUS
PAPERCUTTER #11 by VARIOUS
Hands down, Papercutter is the best anthology comic going. Each issue only focuses on a couple artists, each telling a short story. The thing that makes Papercutter such a winner is the editorial selection of contributors. After each issue, I think to myself, well, that was great but who's left for them to find to top this? And every subsequent issue, they find new artists who frequently contribute their best work. These 3 issues from 2009 alone feature some of the best names in indie comics: Dustin Harbin, Damien Jay, Jesse Reklaw, Minty Lewis, Aron Nels Steinke, Elijah Brubaker, Hellen Jo, Amy Adoyzie, and more! Every issue never fails to impress and entertain.

10. BATGIRL by BRIAN Q. MILLER / VARIOUS
I'm not sure why I picked this series up - most likely I was excited by how much I enjoyed Batman & Robin. But I'm glad I did. This new Batgirl manages to convey all the fun of Buffy The Vampire Slayer that the Dark Horse series seems to lack.

 

 

Honorable Mentions:
WEDNESDAY COMICS: DC experiments with format and creates a fun comic strip newspaper. Some of the broadsheet-sized artwork is just fantastic.

STRANGE TALES: Marvel's years-after-the-fact response to DC's Bizarro collections features an all star lineup of "alternative" cartoonists applying their perspective to Marvel heroes. Sometimes very, very funny.

BLACKEST NIGHT: Zombie Green Lanterns kill the DC Universe. Creepy and fun.

BOYS CLUB #3: Matt Furie's comic manages to capture all the "charm" of having college roommates. Funny. Gross. Great art.

THE SIMPSONS' TREEHOUSE OF HORROR #15: After 15 years of this Simpsons Comics Halloween annual, the powers-that-be get wise and turn it over to underground cartoonists for sometimes weird, occasionally funny but always interesting results.

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Over the next several weeks, we will be regularly posting Year End Wrap Up lists from our friends, readers, and regular Shank contributors. So please stay tuned...

Comments

[jayinbmore]

Pretty sure you mean "Hal Jordan's Green Lantern".

[Benn]

Whoops - I do indeed.

[Greg]

You know, I wasn't super impressed by Batman & Robin.

I LOVELOVELOVE everything going on with Green Lantern/Rainbow-colored rings right now though. It's like the ultimate comics blockbuster, with enough meat for the devoted to give it plenty of depth, ace character development, and a sense of retcon-done-right (ie- taking disparate elements of continuity and having them make sense on a "why didn't someone think of that before" level). End of Geoff Johns love.

I'm still really into Scalped and Criminal too.

[Joe Rybandt]

nerds...

[Benn]

Zing!