FFF Results Post #103—2007 In Review

Five For Friday #103 Results

On Friday afternoon, participating CR readers were asked to "Name Five -- And Only Five -- Comics or Comics-Related Publications You Enjoyed Reading This Year." Here are the results.



1. Storeyville, Frank Santoro
2. Shortcomings, Adrian Tomine
3. The Kat Who Walked In Beauty, George Herriman
4. House, Josh Simmons
5. Betsy and Me, Jack Cole

*****



Sean T. Collins

* Notes for a War Story, by Gipi
* The End, by Anders Nilsen
* The Immortal Iron Fist, by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, David Aja, and various
* Powr Mastrs Vol. 1, by C.F.
* Green Lantern, by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis and various

*****



Daniel J. Mata

1. Silverfish by David Lapham
2. New Engineering by Yuichi Yokoyama
3. Comic Art #9 by Buenaventura Press
4. Misery Loves Comedy by Ivan Brunetti
5. The Arrival by Shaun Tan

*****



Art Baxter

1. LOVE AND ROCKETS Volume 2 Number 20, los Bros. Hernandez
2. COMIC ART ANNUAL #9
3. MOOMIN Volume 2, Tove Jansson
4. THE DRIFTING CLASSROOM Volume 5, by Kazuo Umezu
5. NIGER #2, Leila Marzocchi

*****



Charles Hatfield

1. Percy Gloom, Cathy Malkasian
2. Chance in Hell, Gilbert Hernandez
3. Notes for a War Story, Gipi
4. The Arrival, Shaun Tan
5. MW, Osamu Tezuka

*****



Grant Goggans

1. I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!
2. 2000 AD
3. Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together
4. Super Spy
5. Bookhunter

*****



Marc Arsenault

* Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together - Bryan Lee O'Malley
* Daybreak Vol. 2 - Brian Ralph
* The Escapists by Brian K Vaughan & company
* UnInked edited by Chris Ware
* The Comics Journal 285 - the Darwyn Cooke Interview

*****



Sean Kleefeld

1. The Completely Mad Don Martin
2. Girl Genius Vol. 6: Agatha Heterodyne and the Golden Trilobite
3. Gods of Asgard
4. Mantlo: A Life in Comics
5. Pirates vs. Ninjas

*****



Will Pfeifer

1. ALL-STAR SUPERMAN -- Best mainstream comic in years.
2. Matt Kindt's SUPER SPY
3. I SHALL DESTROY ALL THE CIVILIZED PLANETS -- Amazing stuff, as everyone mentions, and perfectly capped off by the comic strip about Fletcher Hanks' son at the end, which almost no one seems to mention.
4. PULP HOPE
5. The latest volume of THE COMPLETE DICK TRACY, especially knowing it's just going to get better.

*****



Charles Brownstein

1) Army@Love by Rick Veitch -- Month in and month out, my favorite current comics series. Veitch's smart satire takes on the current war & the culture of branding with a delicate balance of outrageousness & restraint. Fine black humor, and solid comics.

2) Shazam: Monster Society of Evil by Jeff Smith -- Every panel in this book exudes the joy of drawing & story in a way that few other's do. Smith captures the goofiness & innocence of the characters alongside gentle political satire in a book that is a smart choice for adult readers with a nostalgia for comics' old days as well as kids growing up after 9/11.

3) Multiple Warheads by Brendan Graham -- Something about this book immediately grabbed me. Maybe it was the odd size, maybe it was the charming drawing on the pleasing cover stock. Whatever it was, it held me through to the last line. Graham builds a strange, whimsical world with a tinge of darkness that is simultaneously titillating, absurd, and vaguely adorable. It's loaded with weird ideas and a visual inventiveness that feels spontaneous. It's like an underground comic edited by Mort Weisenger.

4) Love & Rockets -- Yeah, yeah, no one needs to no one needs to plug the Hernandez Brothers, since we all acknowledge that they are gods among men. But while their greatness is universally acknowledged, the constant inventiveness and visual polish of their new work isn't discussed as much as it should be. Gilbert's descendants of Luba stories are so singular and have achieved such a compelling rhythm and audaciousness that they seem to exist just outside of this reality. I love the characterization, the shifts in time, the risky decisions, and the delicate line between trashy telenovela and generational saga novel that he continues to maintain. Jaime also seems to be taking more and deeper chances by illustrating a muddy moral landscape and depicting the visceral feelings of watching one's youth pass by with increasing velocity. The guys draw pretty comics, sure. But they never stop taking chances and that is to be celebrated.

5) Hutjack'd by Alixopulous -- Not new, and in fact, I've read and given away so many copies of this comic over the years, I really wasn't sure I needed to buy a replacement for my last one when I was at APE. But I bought one anyway and reread it and love it more every time I read it. Trevor Alixopulous manages to create a compelling irreverent satire that harkens back to the socially relevant yet anarchic days of underground comix. Taking on the Asian tsunami, reality tv, and rich world bureaucracy in a non-pious but judgmental smart ass (and hilarious) way, Hutjack'd is a classic mini-comic that deserves to be read by smart people everywhere.

*****



Jason Michelitch

* Crecy (Warren Ellis, Raulo Caceres)
* Sock Monkey: The Inches Incident (Tony Millionaire)
* Bookhunter (Jason Shiga)
* I Shall Destroy All Civilized Planets (Fletcher Hanks, Paul Karasik)
* Comics Journal #284, specifically the presentation of "Mugwhump's Big Night" by Roger Langridge

*****



Josh Lambert

1. Exit Wounds
2. Criminal
3. Notes for a War Story
4. All-Star Superman
5. Love and Rockets Digests

*****



John Vest

1. A Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography Of Emma Goldman, Sharon Rudahl
2. Criminal Vol. 1: Coward, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
3. The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Volume 2, Chester Gould
4. Maggie The Mechanic: The First Volume Of "Locas" Stories, Jaime Hernandez
5. The Fun Never Stops!: An Anthology Of Comic Art 1991-2006, Drew Friedman

*****



Jamie Coville

1. Invincible -- Image
2. The Walking Dead -- Image
3. Monster -- Viz
4. I''s -- Viz
5. Path of the Assassin -- Dark Horse

*****



Dan Coyle

1. Human Diastrophism by Gilbert Hernandez, Fantagraphics
2. Golgo 13 by Saito Pro, Viz
3. Nat Turner Book Two by Kyle Baker, Image
4. Casanova by Matt Fraction, Fabio Moon, and Gabriel Ba, Image
5. Thunderbolts by Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato, Marvel

*****



Brian Nicholson

Including books that came out before 2007 that I didn't read until 2007:

1. Jimbo: Adventures In Paradise, Gary Panter
2. Tekkon Kinkreet, Taiyo Matsumoto
3. Powr Mastrs, Chris Forgues
4. The Mourning Star, Kazimir Strzepek
5. Marbles In My Underpants, Renee French

*****



Joe Schwind

* LAIKA by Nick Abadzis
* COMIC ART 9, Todd Hignite, Founding Editor
* THE ORIGINAL ART OF BASIL WOLVERTON, From the Collection of Glenn Bray
* WALT AND SKEEZIX Volume Three 1925-1926 by Frank King
* WALK A MILE IN MY MUU-MUU by Bill Griffith

*****



Francis Peneaud

* The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill, America's Best Comics.
Because it's mad and you need annotations to really enjoy it.
* Poison the Cure #1, Jad Ziade & Alex Cahill, New Radio Comics.
A fully-realised dark future with convincing aesthetics.
* Exit Wounds, Rutu Modan, Drawn & Quarterly.
One of the most understated stories I've read recently.
* Agents of Atlas, Jeff Parker & Leonard Kirk, Marvel Comics.
What super-hero comics can aspire to: fun and engrossing, with unexpected twists (and not bloodily violent!).
* Shiny Beasts, Rick Veitch & others, King Hell Press.
Only Veitch could write and/or draw these weird short tales.

*****



Kiel Phegley

1. Madman Atomic Comics by Mike & Laura Allred
2. Glister by Andi Watson
3. Reading Comics by Douglas Wolk
4. Blue Beetle by John Rogers & Rafael Albuquerque
5. The Last Call by Vasilis Lolos

*****



Dan Boyd

1. Moomin, Tove Jansson
2. Notes for a War Story, Gipi
3. Daybreak, Brian Ralph
4. Scott Pilgrim, Bryan Lee O'Malley
5. Exit Wounds, Rutu Modan

*****



Patrick Godfrey

* The Blot by Tom Neely (I Will Destroy You)
* Maxwell Strangewell by the Fillbach Brothers (Dark Horse)
* Black Adam by Pete Tomasi & Doug Mahnke (DC Comics)
* Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba (Dark Horse)
* Gutsville by Simon Spurrier and Frazer Irving (Image)

*****



Fred Hembeck

1. The Spider-Man Omnibus by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
2. Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones
3. Mary Perkins, On Stage by Leonard Starr, Volume 1
4. The Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen by Mort Weisinger and Various
5. John Romita And All That Jazz by Roy Thomas and Jim Amash

*****



Marc Sobel

1) Love & Rockets, Los Bros Hernandez
2) Superspy, Matt Kindt
3) Sandman Mystery Theatre, Matt Wagner, Steven Seagle, Guy Davis
4) Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature, Charles Hatfield
5) New York Times Funny Pages (especially Mister Wonderful)

*****



Aaron White

1. 1-800 MICE. Matthew Thurber taps right into the sweet spot where my best dreams happen.
2. The Job Thing by Carol Tyler. I'm sorry that her whole corpus to date pretty much fits in two slender volumes; there's so much to love in what we've got, though!
3. The Hobbit by Marc Bell and Peter Thompson. The pantheistic blending of character and landscape spellbound me.
4. Moomin. If my stuffed animals could still come to life and act out stories for me it might come out a bit like this.
5. The Comics Reporter. Part of this nutritious breakfast.

*****



Dan Morris

The Blot
Super Spy
Multiple WarHeadz #1
Maggots
Storeyville

*****



Alan David Doane

1. Crecy by Warren Ellis and Raul Caceres (Avatar)
2. Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Marvel/Icon)
3. A Treasury of Victorian Murder: Saga of the Bloody Benders by RickGeary (NBM)
4. Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (Marvel)
5. The Comics Journal, edited by Michael Dean and Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)

*****
 
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