Best Comics of 2009. My List. The CBR list.

I devoted a "When Words Collide" column to my Best Comics of 2009, and I submitted that same list to CBR for their cumulative, democratically-determined "Best of" list. (Last year, the list I submitted was a bit different than the one I posted in my column, because of something to do with reprints being allowed or something -- I can't remember, but I know it was a slightly different list.)

The blurbs I submitted to the CBR list weren't all used, so here's what I sent in, for anyone interested:

1. Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli (Pantheon)
Elegant, overpowering, clean, and as messy as humanity. This is what graphic novels can be. This is what "Asterios Polyp" is.

2. Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe, by Brian Lee O'Malley (Oni)
One volume away from the finale, O'Malley lets his protagonist grow up a bit, but doesn't leave the genre-smashing fun behind.

3. Detective Comics, by Greg Rucka and J. H. Williams III (DC)
The best artist in comics working off a pulpy Greg Rucka script? Yeah, this is the stuff.

4. Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye, by Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart (Vertigo)
This is a comic from the future sent back through time to make fun of the Disney buyout of Marvel before it was even announced. Also: it's gorgeous.

5. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, by Naoki Urasawa (Viz)
Some have hyperbolically called this the "Watchmen" of manga, and that's not all that far off. But it's quieter than "Watchmen," and about a lot more than just comics.

6. Scalped, by Jason Aaron and Various (Vertigo)
Whether it's tight single-issue stories or expansive, series-long narrative threads, Jason Aaron is creating something special here. Frankly, it has ascended to become one of the best serial narratives ever.

7. Batman and Robin, by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, and Philip Tan (DC)
The first three issues are some of the best Batman comics ever. Frank Quitely is a master of comic-book-fu.

8. Punisher, by Rick Remender and Various (Marvel)
Giddily trashy, this would be the cult comic of the year if it weren't so unabashedly appealing to the mainstream. But this is still a subversive little gem of a superhero comic.

9. Wednesday Comics by Various (DC)
Pound for pound, penny for penny, you couldn't ask for a better weekly dose of comic book art. Worth the price just for the Karl Kerschl.

10. I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Nimura (Image)
A story unlike any other this year in a comic that didn't look like anything else this year. Engaging, powerful stuff from Kelly and Numura.

Overall, the CBR list was surprisingly diverse, and I think that's because of the lack of clear, consensus Marvel or DC picks -- "Detective Comics" and "Batman and Robin" were the only two superhero books in the Top 10. Last year, five superhero comics cracked the consensus Top 10. I also think the edition of the Robot 6 bloggers added some much-needed diversity, and "Driven By Lemons" wouldn't have made as much of an impact on this list without their votes, I suspect.

Basically, with each of us submitting our Ten Best, and with a lot of diversity of choices, it probably only took a few people to rank something in their personal Top 10 for it to rank in the Top 25 overall.

I've seen some criticism of the list already, and it's different than the criticism of last year's democratic picks. Last year, even I criticized the list for ranking mediocre superhero comics too high ("high" meaning "low," number-wise), while this year the criticism from the message boards is about the "obscure indie picks" in the Top 25, and the idea that these comics don't represent what was covered on the CBR main page throughout the year.

I wouldn't call most of the picks obscure -- some readers even named "Asterios Polyp" as obscure, which is just an ignorant statement -- but it is interesting to think about whether CBR has a responsibility to cover the best comics throughout the year, not just the popular ones. I'd love to see that, and with "Comics Should Be Good" and "Robot 6," plenty of non-Marvel and DC comics are discussed, but the reality is that the site is about mainstream, mostly superhero comics. That's the audience. When I write columns about "The Drifting Classroom" or reviews of "Powr Mastrs," that kind of stuff gets practically no hits. I write those things for myself, and to raise awareness. But they aren't the kind of profitable articles for CBR that something like my "Top 10 Geoff Johns" column was.

What do you think? Should CBR focus more on the "good" comics throughout the year and not just wait until the end of December to point out the best stuff? Is it a problem that the list doesn't reflect the bulk of CBR's mainstream emphasis? Is it a bad thing when a list makes you look up some new comics you may not have heard of? And in what universe is "Batgirl" even a Top 100 pick?!?

I Write for CBR, But I Dance Harder

After making a promise to link to my CBR writing and, in general, update this blog a bit more, I have just simply failed to do anything. Twitter has abducted my blogging impulses and spit them out into short bursts of the clever. Or the not-so-clever but-merely-obvious. I suspect I'm not the only one who has fallen into its clutches and lost the will to blog. (Geoff Klock, do you feel the stare of kinship?)

Yet I've written so much for CBR over the past couple of months, and I have brought barely any of it to your attention. And you tell me that you sometimes don't even READ my columns or reviews unless I link to them here. I feel you on that. I don't read everything at CBR either (shhhhh, that's supposed to be a secret, because I tell everyone that I read all of their stuff all the time). I mean, I read my own stuff, because I always know that I'll find a typo that slipped by me the first time, and because I forget what I've written about ten seconds after I submit it (does anyone else have this problem, or is my memory just old and full of crusty bits?).

Really, it's about time I linked you to my recent stuff. So: I wrote a bunch of stuff about Captain America, way back in June. Remember Cap? Remember June? And an early review of/reflection on "Asterios Polyp" that I must have linked to already, but now everyone and their mother is all like "blah blah, it's the best graphic novel, blah blah" and basically just repeating the kinds of things I said way before they even saw the book. Try to keep up, okay everyone else?


What else? Oh, I had a bit of fun talking about the behind-the-scenes of the comic review and riled up Peter David in the process. I didn't do it on purpose, but it ended up stirring the pot o' X-fans nonetheless. Good times, I suppose, and it happened to coincide with something similar Roger Ebert talked about. Synchronicity? Or am I just a crotchety old guy too? Or maybe he was reading CBR and thought that he could steal my column topic and run with it? Maybe all of the above.

Then I talked up an obscure little title called, I think, "Wednesday Comics"? I don't know what happened to that series, but a couple of dudes keep trying to talk about it each and every week, even when one of them has no internet.

I dabbled in the world of cats and romance with Ethan Young, and then I celebrated my one year "When Words Collide" Anniversary the only way I know how: alone. I already told you about the New Awesomeness of SDCC 2009, so I won't bother linking to it here.

And I reviewed a TON OF STUFF. Like this comic about a guy who's really sad. And one about another guy who's kinda sad, but really, really fast. Nobody sad here, is there? And, oh, this review didn't get me any dates with the Shatterstar cosplay crowd. I don't even remember this one, but this one was Gruenwaldy! This one was disappointing, and this one made Joe Casey send me an e-mail, but now we're best buds so it's all good. This one was the best Daniel Way comic I've ever read, and this one was like that novel and TV show but TOTALLY different from what happened to Batman at the end of "Final Crisis" as someone pointed out to me vehemently in San Diego. This one has less ass hair than the first issue. This one features too little Bryan Hitch, and this one is pretty epic for a comic about two disfigured cowpersons. This one's rural noir, while this one is pretty good but not good enough for Andy Khouri. This one is like a tv show I wouldn't bother watching regularly, but isn't bad. This one has an Asgardian frog. This one: tends to piss people off unless they love it. This one I wouldn't take home to Mama. Dad, sure! This one's in space. This one's foldy. This one has big teeth. This one is too much splort and not enough anything good. This one was sent to me by an editor, but I suspect he wishes he didn't send it to me now that he's read the review.

Okay, now comment on all that stuff!

When Words Collide: Adventures in MoCCALand

So there was this thing in NYC last weekend? MoCCA Art Fesival? Perhaps you've heard of it?

Anyway, Todd Casey and I hit the MoCCA Festival hard and came back with some stories to tell and some comics to read. My story popped up at CBR in yesterday's "When Words Collide." Read it and enjoy!

Review: Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #3

In the history of my CBR reviewery (and I've written well over 300 reviews in the past 15 months), I've only given the coveted five-star review three times. "Casanova" #14 got the perfect score. So did "All-Star Superman" #10. Now, another comic has joined that elite rank: "Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye" #3. Man, did I really like this comic.

You should read the heck out of the whole series and then eagerly anticipate the final three issue mini which, according to Cameron Stewart, we can expect in the summer of 2010!

Review: Astonishing Tales #5

This is a terrible comic with the single redeeming feature of Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra's story. Their "Mojoworld" might not be all that great, but it's funny, it looks different from everything else, and it has a sense of absurdity about it.

The rest of this comic isn't worth reading at all. Check out my CBR review to see why.

Review: Ultimate Spider-Man #133 -- UPDATED

Though I use words like "tragedy" and "weighty" and "Bendis," I provide a spoiler-free review of the final issue of "Ultimate Spider-Man." But it's not very hard to connect the dots and figure out what happens, especially when I quote from the solicitations for the "Ultimate Comics Spider-Man" series headed our way later this fall.

Oh, and as an extra bonus for Geniusboy Firemelon subscribers, here's my one-sentence review of "Ultimatum" #4: It reads as if it were written by Sid from "Toy Story."

UPDATED TO ADD: Bendis, via Twitter, emphasizes that this is NOT the last issue. There are two double-sized issues left. Yet, as I pointed out to him, when Marvel.com solicitations for #133 clearly say "this final issue," then why would we assume otherwise?

Reviews: Aliens #1 and Incredible Hercules #129

I wrote a couple of CBR review from last week that I never got around to linking to: Aliens #1 and Incredible Hercules #129.

Surprisingly, the Aliens comic ended up with the better score, although I'm quite fond of the Hercules series. But Arcudi has some fun with subverting reader expectation in the Aliens comic, and the art on the newest issue of Hercules is too hammy for my tastes.

See what I have to say, and then come back here and tell me what you think.

Review: Batman in Barcelona: Dragon's Knight #1

Boy, I'm not a fan of that Jim Lee cover. It's got a bit of the Spanish architecture in the background, but it's such a generic pose otherwise. Some might call it "iconic," but I'd just call it lifeless and insipid.

Anyway, I didn't review the cover over at CBR, I reviewed the inside bits. You know, the story and the art and the dialogue and the stuff that matters. Because everyone knows that a Batman story from the past about that one time he fought Killer Kroc in Spain is totally essential to understanding the Batman mythos.

But I shouldn't tease, because I did like this issue, and it was fun to see Bruce Wayne doing the Batman thing after reading three issues of the supposed "Battle for the Cowl" that was really not about battling for the cowl at all, was it?

Review: Ghost Rider #35

I review the heck out of "Ghost Rider" #35 over at CBR. You should probably read the comic, read my review, then come back here and say, "you were right about everything! How can you be so right?"

So the ongoing "Ghost Rider" series ends, an uglified Sailor Moon is injected into the Marvel universe, and we have to wait a few months for the continued adventure of Johnny Blaze and company.

Such is the hardscrabble life of a Spirit of Vengeance.

Review: X-Force #15

Yes, the Mutant Messiah is still cause for a whole lot of fervor. Everyone's out to kill her or save her, because the fate of the world depends on it. It's a tired concept that doesn't seem able to evolve into anything new, and "X-Force" #15 just gives us more of it.

Clayton Crain's doing some pretty nice work on this issue, though, taking his style into more of an expressionistic realm, giving a deranged look to the proceedings.

Yet, it's just a whole lot of fuss over the Mutant Messiah and do we really want to see more of that, with Cable, Deadpool, and Stryfe thrown into the X-Force mix? I don't think I do.

Check out my CBR review of the issue for more details: X-Force #15

What do you think about this Kyle/Yost/Crain confection?

When Words Collide: Best and Worst of Morrison

Do I dare to make a Top Five Worst Grant Morrison Comics list? Indeed I do!

Will I relent to the unyielding attacks by the pro-"DC 1,000,000" readers? Never!

Do I also provide a Ten Best list? Of course.

I don't hate any of these Morrison comics, but something has to be the worst, and it's these five.

Check out the lists in this week's "When Words Collide," see me superficially try to explain my position in 2,000 words, and then come back here to tell me your Top 10/Bottom 5 of Grant Morrison. I dare you!

UPDATE: Bill Reed fires a counter-attack at CSBG!

Review: Impaler #3

Here's a comic I didn't know anything about when I got the .pdf from Top Cow to review, but I was so impressed with "Impaler" #3 that I asked if I could take a look at the first two issues, and then ordered the collected edition of Volume 1 from Amazon.

So, yeah, it's a very good comic.

I'm mostly impressed with artist Matt Timson who uses a mixed-media style to make this comic look unlike anything else from the Top Cow line. Timson's a damned good artist, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him working on higher profile projects before long. "Impaler" is pretty cool, though, and as long as he's working on it, I'll be interested in reading the series.

Check out my CBR review and see what Vlad is up to these days: Impaler #3

Guess Who's Sliding to Mondays?

Now that Rich Johnston's FINAL "Lying in the Gutters" column has come out, I can finally talk about a secret plan that's been brewing over at CBR:

Yup, my "When Words Collide" column will move to the Monday slot beginning next week!

Obviously, I'm not any kind of replacement for Rich, and "WWC" will continue to feature the same kind of insightful/random/witty/serious/arch/dorky commentary that you're used to seeing from me, but it will be cool to be the Monday CBR guy from now on.

And, no, I'm certainly not the "next big thing" Jonah mentions in Rich's column -- I do know what that is, and it will definitely be a popular addition to the CBR site, but I'm sworn to secrecy -- but that particular new addition will not be popping up on Mondays. Mondays are all mine!

Aw yeah, Mondays!

Oh, and if you have any suggestions for topics/questions that you'd like me to tackle in "WWC," let me know. This week's final Wednesday column is based on the reader-requested "Worst Morrison Comics Ever" topic.

Review: Batman Mad Love and Other Stories

I thought Paul Dini did a decent job on his "Detective Comics" run -- I enjoyed it for what it was, though it suffered in scale compared to Morrison's "Batman" -- but he was definitely responsible for some of the best Batman stories of the 1990s in "Batman: The Animated Series" and the various comic book spin-offs of that project.

This hardcover collection brings all (as far as I know) the Paul Dini/Bruce Timm Batman comics together for a meal-sized romp through Gotham's wacky underworld. And I review the heck out of it.

See what I have to say over at CBR: Batman: Mad Love and Other Stories

And here's a question (or three) for you: Were there any Batman stories set in the regular DCU that were worth reading in the 1990s? Which ones? Why?

Review: Killapalooza #1

When Adam Beechen moved from television writer to Johnny DC writer, I said, "great." Then when he moved from Johnny DC writer to "Teen Titans" scribe, I rooted for him. I thought he would be a great addition to the "Countdown" crew.

As it turned out, "Countdown" was a disaster that dragged nearly everyone involved into the DC gutters. (Sean McKeever and Tony Bedard certainly didn't make it out unscathed, either.) And Beechen's "Teen Titans" was widely considered the weakest run on this incarnation of the series.

But I was glad to hear about Beechen bouncing back with a new series from Wildstorm, drawn by the quite-good Trevor Hairsine. Hairsine's work on Paul Cornell's "Wisdom" series was fantastic, at least until he dropped out of the project (or was pushed out), and I looked forward to seeing what he could do on something with the unlikely name of "Killapalooza."

Unfortunately, the first issue is not very good. Not very good at all. Read my review, and find out why: Killapalooza #1

"Oww, my eye," indeed.

When Words Collide: We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us

Readers whine about and/or praise Geoff Johns and his use of Superboy Prime as a metafictional fanboy, one who complains that the DC heroes aren't how they used to be, and then cries about how everything's not the way he remembers it.

But the truth is that Superman's rogues gallery overlaps with comic book fandom in more than just that one case. Some may argue -- some like me -- that Superman's villains are all various types of comic book fans, and his heroic act is in fighting against the very readers who sustain him.

It's all part of my Grand Nemesis Theory in this week's "When Words Collide." Read it and tell me how crazy I am.

Review: Uncanny X-Men #510

What movie is this from? It looks familiar, but I can't quite place it. Anyway, it's been filtered through the pencil magic of Greg Land for this week's "Uncanny X-Men" #510 which is a pretty kickass issue about the Red Queen's assault on the X-HQ.

Flipping back and forth between this week's "Uncanny" and the Jim Lee stuff reprinted in "X-Men Forever Alpha" shows the shocking difference between the more open, airy visuals of today vs. the overly packed panels of the early 1990s. Man is that Jim Lee X-Men stuff hideous! Say what you will about Greg Land -- and I'll be the first to admit that he's just doing collage at this point -- but it's a hell of a lot easier on the eyes than a billion random shading lines and those pouches and rippling muscles.

Plus, this comic has the Matt Fraction advantage. Read my review: Uncanny X-Men #510

And, just for kicks, here's a sample of that atrocious Jim Lee stuff that turned me off his work back then and is supposed to make us interested in picking up this new Claremont-penned series:


No thanks. (And is that really even Jim Lee? It looks like it was drawn by assistants.)

Review: Agents of Atlas #5

A gorilla with a gun vs. Wolverine. That's all you really need to make a comic worth buying, right? Especially when it's as well-drawn as "Agents of Atlas" #5.

Ever since the original Jeff Parker/Leonard Kirk miniseries, I've wanted to like "Agents of Atlas" more than I actually have, and I'm not sure that's changed now that the ongoing series is out. (Though as much as I like Kirk's artwork, the stuff Pagulayan's doing here is even better.)

So what do I think about issue #5, scheduled to hit comic shops tomorrow? Read my review and find out: AGENTS OF ATLAS #5 CBR REVIEW

When Words Collide: Albany Adventures

Some comic fans get really annoyed at the media coverage of comic conventions since all the television reports ever show are the weirdos dressed in costumes, and the thousands of regular fans are forced to cry to the heavens, "it's not like that -- it's mostly just middle-aged guys with t-shirts and backpacks standing in lines, and, oh... forget it, I understand why they show the costumed weirdos on tv now."

So even though like six people out of the entire crowd at the Albany Comic Con actually showed up in costume, I had to include this image as part of the required convention coverage social contract. And who doesn't like to see Darth Vader in a Holiday Inn courtyard anyway?

So, the Albany Comic Con! I broke free from my normal "When Words Collide" routine of saying semi-smart stuff about old comics and/or interviewing someone who had even smarter stuff to say to do a full-on convention report about my experiences, past and present, at the little Albany show. Because sometimes, comic books are not about the words and pictures on the page. Sometimes they're about hanging out in a motel and talking to Herb Trimpe.

Read this week's "When Words Collide" HERE!

Wolverine: Weapon X #1 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Wolverine: Weapon X #1, about which I write the following sentences: "In this issue, we get the return of Maverick, Wolverine's old Weapon X colleague, and a growing mystery involving the Blackguard group and the introduction of some mysterious laser-claw wielding killers. Aaron is building some new mythology for Logan, not by telling stories from the past, but by using the legacy of the past to drive the story forward. Like most of Aaron's protagonists, Wolverine's fate is bound to into his history, but he has no choice but to boldly push forward and make amends for who he is and what he's done."

Read the entire review HERE.