big chunky comic books or graphic novels of the year or so. for me to read over xmas.

hey dudes. long time no see. i have curtailed buying comix cuz they cost too much $$. but the holidays are coming up and i am just going to be cold chilling at my place and i thought i would pick one or two books up.

what's good that came out this year? or even last year?

oh this is a great thread idea, thanks bro

i am bookmarking this mother

not the first three responses that would have been hoped for

i havent read it yet but everyone seems to love bottomless belly button

I don't remember if you were around when I was spazzing about the new press of Tezuka's MW, so...

Actually, there's tons of Tezuka reprints out now.

We got this lately and love it:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3097/2333061471_7fa05b9583.jpg

Also this is great:

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/Jonathan%20Lethem%20Farel%20Dalrymple%20Omega%20Unknown%201.jpg

This was a bit morbid, but I liked it:

http://www.dccomics.com/media/product/1/0/10157_400x600.jpg

Wife says that this is worth reading (I haven't read it yet tho):

http://www.pinkraygun.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/local1.jpg

I liked Fun Home! Must have a look at that new one.

I liked Fun Home too, but I don't think that's a "new one". I think it's a collection of her comic that's been running for a few decades now.

Right. It's a compilation of her strip. Still quite good.

Ah, I am clueless!

I've been continuing my compulsive bulk comic novel buying this past year and have finally reached a point where I need to buy more shelves. Just off the top of my head, here's a few that I can recommend without reservation.

Alan's War: http://www.readaboutcomics.com/2008/12/08/alans-war/
Bourbon Island 1730: http://us.macmillan.com/bourbonisland1730
Rabbi's Cat v.1 and 2: http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/graphicnovels/sfar.html
Blackjack v.1 and 2: http://www.vertical-inc.com/blackjack/index.html
Ordinary Victories v.1 and 2: http://www.nbmpub.com/humor/larcentet/ordpre1.html
Three Shadows: http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/threeShadows.html
Will Elder, The Mad Playboy of Art: http://www.amazon.com/Will-Elder-MAD-Playboy-Art/dp/1560975601
Amazing Fantasy Omnibus - http://www.marvelmasterworks.com/marvel/hcs/omniboo/omni_amfan01.html
Terry and The Pirates v. 1 through 5 - http://www.comicsbulletin.com/news/118123065210670.htm

At this point, I buy almost anything NBM or First Second publishes if I can find it at remainder price and often at full price.

Also: point.

I love Fun Home, I find Dykes a little too Boondocksy for my taste.
Local didn't do much for me, honestly. I think I'm burnt out on Brian Wood; never found anything other than DMZ that he did that I liked.

2nd Rabbi's Cat and Ordinary Victories, both wonderful. But I don't know much beyond that, as I can't afford fancy comix and just check interesting stuff out from the library when I can find it. On that tip, Lost Girls was okay, but something of a letdown. A friend was all high on Y: the Last Man, so I borrowed all 12 volumes (or whatever) and 'em over the course of a few days, but I can't recommend that. Involving, but forgettable, like a better-than-average soap opera.

I found Lost Girls disposable.
I'm a pretty big BKVaughn fan and I think 'Y' is as good as he's gotten.

Old suggestion, but if you've never read Love and Rockets, the new collections and cheap and beeeyoodiful. The giant-sized new issue that came out a few months back was also really good.

The Criminal trades are pretty great at the pulp end. Lynda Barry's "What It Is" is loopy in a really fun and interesting way. (I'm a recent covert, after seeing her do a show here in Toronto.) And Miller's Daredevil issues just got republished in a nice and new (if slightly overpriced) set of three paperbacks.

If you've never read Death Note, that's awesome Christmas sweater sofa reading, although there's about 10 volumes, and you will only end up getting addicted and spend the $$ on the lot.

Oddly, there's nothing superhero-y I can think to recommend from the past few years. Although the early Peter David X-Factor trades were pretty fun in the usual dorky Peter David way.

cosign on all that.

2nd Rabbi's Cat and Ordinary Victories, both wonderful.

I'll second both of those readily, with extreme emphasis on the former.

ALSO:
THE AMAZING REMARKABLE MONSIEUR LEOTARD, by the legal team of Campbell & Best, is neither big nor chunky, but, gosh, it's the swellest thing this side of LOVE AND ROCKETS: NEW STORIES #1.

Two other recent-ish things that have not already been named here (totally cosign on Dykes, Bottomless Belly Button, Omega, The Rabbi's Cat and the Love & Rockets omnibuses, btw):

That JOURNEY omnibus that IDW published will take you a while to get through, and I remember it being really fun when I read it in the '80s--William Messner-Loebs' epic about a Michigan frontiersman in the 19th century--Wolverine MacAlistaire is sort of half Popeye, half the Spirit

ZOT: THE COMPLETE BLACK AND WHITE STORIES--man is Scott McCloud ever a great storyteller when he turns it on

Also, you know what DC Showcase I found to be most easily readable at length? JONAH HEX.

Bottomless Bellybutton

Har har

Jonah Hex is great.

Is Fun House reprints of Dykes to Watch Out For? It can't be. One, it is not in that syndicated strip format and two, it is good rather than irritating as fuck.

Except this fake Mark Trail strip:

http://joshreads.com/images/07/05/motrail.gif

Wolverine MacAlistaire is sort of half Popeye, half the Spirit

Love this description. Speaking of old A-V titles, I wish somebody would publish a Collected Neil the Horse.

thanks everyone!

forks: alan's war i had had my eye on.. so it's awesome? also, amazing fantasy looks sick too. is it b&w or colour?

also intrigued by rabbi's cat. because i'm jewish and all.

is death note that japanese thing?

I love me some Journey; got all the original (somewhat browning) floppies. WM Loebs is greatly underrated, on the same level with Mike Grell and Mike Baron. I guess the eisner-y likealook of his work turns some people off.

I've got a good run of Neil the Horse as well; I'd buy a collection in a heartbeat!

Fun Home is totally new material Abbott.

I own that Zot, still haven't read. Need to get around to it.

Alan's War is one of the best things I 've read this year; beautifully presented and really touching with its honesty and gentleness. Less a war story and much more of a man's soul on paper. And the art feels utterly unique. Check this out:

Amazing Fantasy is BYOOTIFUL color and production, perfectly slick and archival. Packed with little bells and whistles and a real joy to flip through. Intro by Steve Bissette!

Rabbi's Cat is from Joann Sfar; his jewishness is very much a part of the story in this and his other work. I also recommend Klezmer and virtually anything else he gets near. I really need to get his kid's stuff; Sardine and Little Vampire look great. High, high recommendations.

Death Note is that Japanese thing. Douglas got me and my girl hooked on it and I ended up buying the whole damn thing for about 120. It's not worth that, but there's a hundred buck box set that Amazon is pimping in preparation of the inevitable live action remake in america (i assume) and i actually think that's a fair price. It's a great read, even if the ending is unavoidably a bit of a let down. You might also want to try Battle Royale if you've got cash to burn. Best bet on both would be to get the first issue or two in jpeg format before deciding if you wanna blow a lotta money.

by the legal team of Campbell & Best

Dan is actually a lawyer IRL.

Giant comics not mentioned here: Popeye vol 3, the latest in the greatest thing to happen to comics in the 21st Century; the new expanded re-release of Spiegelman’s Breakdowns.
Absolutely enormous comics not mentioned here: Kramer’s #7, a 2-foot by 1-foot monster
Normally-thick comics not mentioned here: I thought the latest Paul book by Rabagliati was a real huge step forward, great to see him pushing himself to develop as a cartoonist at age 50 or whatever

Don't know who rabagliati is? Do tell?

i didn't know rabagliati was such an old geezer (but duh, if i'd thought abt the timeframe of his strips, that wld make total sense)!

not already mentioned: GUS and ISAAC THE PIRATE, both by Chris Blain
Paul Gravett's excellent (and chunky!) BEST CRIME COMICS anthology
two terrif biogs from fantagraphics, on ditko and kubert respectively
the second ANTHOLOGY OF GRAPHIC FICTION edited by Ivan Brunetti
and from last year, GET A LIFE by Dupuy and Berberian

I put the second Brunetti Anthology on my Amazon wish list. I just finished reading the first one about a month ago, actually - how does the new one compare?

the 2nd yale anthology is chock full o' good stuff again, tho perhaps brunetti goes a little too heavy on excerpts from longer and commonly available bks by clowes, ware, chippendale etc - together, the two volumes do make a pretty superb intro/sampler of AMERICAN non-superhero strips and comics w/out any guff by the likes of dave sim, terry moore, jeff smith etc etc - now someone (dear old paul g again, prob) needs to do the same for British/Euro/Japanese/Latin American etc strips

ZS, have you seen the Art Out of Time collection edited by Dan Nadel and published by Abrams a cpl of years back? That is an outstanding, and slightly less familiar yank-centric collection of 'unknown comics visionaries' that includes stuff like 'Herbie' by Ogden Whitney, the extraordinary native american newspaper strip 'white boy' by garrett price, unclassifiable moments of genius by bob powell and howard nostrand, jack mendelsohn's faux-primitive 'jacky's diary' and primo work by american primitives fletcher hanks and rory hayes, both of whom have great fantagraphic collections in print, too - abrams, btw, also brought out mark evanier's gorgeous kirby bk this year

No I haven't, and I'm new enough to comix/graphic novels (I only really started reading late last year, I guess) that I'm only familiar with Abrams, Clowes, Ware and Chippendale out of all the names you mentioned up there. I will check it out as soon as possible, thanks!

We should really have a Sfar S|D but basically Search everything, but especially: Rabbi's Cat, Rabbi's Cat II, Klezmer, Vampire Love, The Professor's Daughter.

i read the death note spin-off novel last night! i am not proud.

Don't know who rabagliati is? Do tell?

Canadian. Does pretty/post-ligne-laire, subdued observational/but not shit semi-autobio comics about his ‘70s youth. D&Q do translations of them a year or three after their Francophone publication.

i didn't know rabagliati was such an old geezer (but duh, if i'd thought abt the timeframe of his strips, that wld make total sense)!
Yeah, he’s still a young cartoonist though, didn’t start until he was about 40. Like Alan Moore and magic.

Alan's War

Seconded, thirded and fourthed! Halfway through (bought when I couldn't find Dykes last night (insert obvious joke here and move on))

I love Fun Home, I find Dykes a little too Boondocksy for my taste.

See this sounds good to me!

A friend was all high on Y: the Last Man, so I borrowed all 12 volumes (or whatever) and 'em over the course of a few days, but I can't recommend that. Involving, but forgettable, like a better-than-average soap opera.

Waiting for the one volume or at least collated versions. Mainly because I am cheap!

Old suggestion, but if you've never read Love and Rockets, the new collections and cheap and beeeyoodiful. The giant-sized new issue that came out a few months back was also really good.

Someone was raving at me about this last night. Appears that I made the mistake of starting with a very early one. He recommended Death of Speedy as a starting point. Yes/no?

yeah Death Of Speedy is super-brilliant. if you started with one of the new ones though, it's better to suck it up and get the next five and just roll through. all seven = about $65 from Fanta site. Death Of Speedy = $18.95 by itself?

if I hadn't bought seven or eight vols of Dykes last November I'd have leapt at the new anthology, great soap opera

Mordy's wife is right to like Local, but maybe it is better in issues than collections? That said, its distribution was so poor (or I paid so little attention) that I missed the last issue, so there is something to be said for the collection.

hyggeligt, I am a bit of a Jaime hata, but if you bought one of the really early L&R books (Music for Mechanics, say), then you have ended up with total rubbish. Jaime gets a bit better from there, while Gilberto starts turning out works of genius.

I bought Maggie the Mechanic. I think.

the new Jaime softcovers...there's only three isn't there? Maggie the Mechanic, theGirl from HOPPERS. and La Perla Loca

So I take it that this a 'no' to Jaime. good to know. Thanks all.

Honestly I think both the bros can do no wrong; i even like the early stuff.

'no' to Jaime.

> CRAZY TALK

srsly, Xaime is my copilot

yeah wtf you shld never say 'no' to jaime!

It should be noted that I highly value slickness and polish in comics art, and Xaime is one glossy-stylin' dude.

This is the 2k9 thing what is getting me stoked.

I've had the Humbug box on hold for a year! I think there's some weird hold-up on the rights. Again, if you don't already have it, I highly recommend that Will Elder book. It's got a lot of his work from Humbug, Trump, Help, Pageant, Playboy and (of course) Mad in there.

Even the first Jaime book has a lot of charm - you guys are being a little too hard on it I think. Also Rita Titanon is introduced!

It's Reña, but yeah, what's with the hate on early Mechanics stuff? L&R was great from Day 1! Aside from Mario's stuff, which was always "ugh, I guess we gotta publish this" from Day 1.

Jaime's wrestling stuff is great, as is Rocket Roads. The Maggie-Hopey stuff is less so.

I think there's some weird hold-up on the rights.

Denis Kitchen usually legally cockblocks anyone who tries to publish Kurtzman, but I think the biggest delay here is probably the restoration.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1582401977.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Masamune Shirow's 'Orion' is a big, fat, delicious read

i haven't read many comics this year but i second Criminal (although the back pages stuff [essays on noir movies & books mostly] doesn't get collected, right?) and gilbert hernandez's stuff. besides L&R, was Speak of the Devil his only '08 joint? i feel like there was something else.

Sloth

er...maybe Sloth is older, though.

oh yeah...wiki says '06 but that's what i was thinking of.

and Beyond Palomar (which is a...graphic novella?)

Well, Gilbert _did_ do a story in the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror special... and he has an OGN called The Troublemakers coming out in a few months.

Beyond Palomar collects "Poison River" and "Love & Rockets X."

oh wait, i think i meant New Tales of Old Palomar

That one was kinda wack, I thought.

Oh yeah, one other thing I recommend is this Best of 2000 AD book out at the moment. It collects a load of classic 2000 AD stories (early Judge Dredd, Shako (AKA Jaws with Claws), Strontium Dog, and (er) Mean Team, and much much more), presenting each one like it would have been originally published - in six page segments interspersed with other stuff. I feel that this book is essential for anyone who has ever wondered what exactly thrill power is.

Sorry, SHAKO is in fact also known as Jaws With Paws (because it is about a polar bear who goes around eating people who are trying to recover some important plot device it has swallowed.

Man, this 'Gus and His Gang' book is incredible.

^^yes!! isaac the priate - the first nbm volume, at least - is just as gd

Thanks for the heads up on Joker, btw; I really enjoyed it and wouldn't have bought it without the recommend.

Just picked up the first couple volumes of C.F.'s Powr Masters, on a whim, and 'cuz the art looked nice. Freaking great. Most satisfying and challenging graphic novel thing I've read in quite some time. Art is BEAUTIFUL, and while the story at first seems bafflingly nonsensical (read: drug-addled), it adds up in unexpected ways. My new favorite thing.

Makes me think about the localization of artistic sensibilities. I'd been vaguely familiar with C.F.'s stuff prior to this, on an "I've seen this somewhere before, I think..." kinda level, but didn't know anything about him. Reading it, I kept thinking that it seemed like something someone in Providence would do: druggy, childlike-but-threatening, technically accomplished but intentionally slapdash & goofy. And, as it turns out, it is a Providence thing. Any other local art scenes active these days that have such a distinct sensibility expressed across a number of media?

Read the first 2 volumes of 'Scalped' (issues 1-11), and really enjoyed them, though the violence is wildly OTT.