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Jan 06, 2008

Ori rated it:

While The Best American Comics of 2006 had an admittedly liberal-bias (not so much a problem for me) the comics ran the gamut from conventional to wildly experimental narrative in a variety of artistic forms, so nebulous that it was difficult to categorize some of them as styles. There was fiction and nonfiction, reportage and memoir, with varying degrees of whimsy and seriousness. While there were some obvious gaps, these were acknowledge and explained by Harvey Pekar in his introduction, and More...

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Oct 12, 2007

Dave-O rated it:

A solid collection that is organized very well. The anthology has works ranging from the autobiographical (which in his introduction, Chris Ware notes is a staple of these kinds of collections) to the fantastic to the esoteric. Each piece is graphically beautiful in its own way, sort of like different dialects of the same language. Introspection and inner dialogues are the chief modes of communication in these stories, which if you think about it is pretty logical for the comics medium.

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Nov 22, 2008

Leah rated it:

All you haters need to calm down. I read this book with the expectation of it being sort of a comics/graphic novel sampler, and I was not in the least disappointed.

If you are so on top of the graphic novel scene that you've already read all the full length works sampled from in this book, what were you expecting to gain from reading a collection that so obviously tries to give a broad perspective of what graphic novelists out there were doing in 2007? I think these "Best of" More...

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Nov 30, 2010

Paul rated it:

This book is 100% dedicated to its art form. This is evident as soon as you examine the dust jacket and realize that every available space, even the inside of the dust jacket, is covered in comics. And the love with which the volume was put together shows. These are indeed great comics, without a superhero comic among them. This is the kind of comics that I love, the kind that read like a drama, rather than an action movie.

The strong comics just keep coming. Some of the artists I More...

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Oct 07, 2009

Terry rated it:

I guess I need another format "shelf", as I think I said with the 2008 Best American Comics. I didn't enjoy this edition as much as I enjoyed the one edited by Lynda Barry; this anthology in general probably reveals the most about the editor's personal aesthetic than any of the other "Best American ..." collections, though each one of those shifts with the tastes of the current editor as well.

My only quibble with the Best American Comic series is that so many of More...

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Mar 28, 2009

Todd rated it:

Got this at the library because my family was out of town this week and I wanted something easy to read in my sudden extra hours. I got this mainly because it has a long-ish story by Gilbert Hernandez.

This is a wildly uneven collection. A few were good but most weren't. Aside from the Hernandez one, there is a hilarious piece by R. and Ailne Crumb visiting their daughter at her squat in NYC. The aging counterculture hippies trying to understand their daughter's counterculture was nic More...

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Dec 06, 2010

Peacegal rated it:

This book is a compendium of (mostly) entertaining comics. There are some obvious inclusions, such as excerpts from the acclaimed Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic and Art Spiegelman’s Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!.

There is some truly lovely artwork here, and some that is amateurish and poor. Likewise, the plotlines range from engaging to totally nonsensical and pointless.

My personal favorite was a delightful historical story called Won’t be Licked! More...

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Sep 03, 2008

Steve rated it:

When you buy a book with a title like The Best American Comics 2007, you're obviously going to go into it with a certain preconceived notion of the book's quality. In fact, you might even set your expectations for the stories contained within its pages so high that you set yourself up to be let down. I feel that this scenario might have indeed been the case with a few of the critics whose personal biases led them to pan the book, but in my estimation it does not disappoint.

Some have More...

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Jul 21, 2008

Summer rated it:

There are at least two things wrong with this title. First, these comics are not all from 2007. Second, if this is the "best" 2007 has to offer, then America might as well pack it in when it comes to comics and only rely on artsy French imports and cheap generic manga.

This collection lures you in with promises of Alison Bechdel! Charles Burns! A Hernandez brother! R. and Aline Crumb! Lynda Barry! Art Spiegelman! But anyone who would be interested in the Bechdel will have r More...

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May 24, 2008

Trane rated it:

Chris Ware's 2007 selections for The Best American Comics are as good as I could possibly imagine them to be, though there are few surprises if you're already tapped into the underground/alternative comics scene. Work included in this volume includes comics by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Crumbs (of all sorts), the absolute genius Lynda Barry, Ron Regé Jr., Sammy Harkham, Adrian Tomine, Ben Katchor, Gilbert Hernandez (but no Jaime!), Charles Burns, Seth, and many, many, much much more. T More...

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Aug 06, 2008

Jason rated it:

ok...
i'm going to add my voice to the din of complaints that this book has received thus far in its brief shelf life...although i think my problem with it will not be the same as what other curmudgeonous types might think...
as far as i know the issues that have been raised already revolve around the fact that all the selections in the book are excerpts from larger works and not enough shorter complete pieces were included...

this is not my issue...
my issue is the com More...

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Mar 31, 2008

James rated it:

after two years, the best american comics series is definitely off to a good start, and i hope that they keep publishing these because it's about time that comics got the recognition that they deserve in the literary world, but let's call this edition the sophmore slump.

after the wide variety of stuff (happy, sad, introspective, funny, superhero, autobiography, etc.) that guest editor harvey pekar put together for the first edition, chris ware's (guest editor this time) decision to p More...

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Mar 22, 2011

Penelope rated it:

For some reason it took me forever to get through this book.

Thumbs up:
"The Canary-Colored Caravan of Death" (excerpt from Fun Home) by Alison Bechdel
"Just a Bad Seed" and "Once, We Ran" by C. Tyler
"Glenn in Bed" by Kevin Huizenga
"No Midgets in Midgetville" by Kim Deitch
"Won't Be Licked! The Great '37 Flood in Louisville" by Dan Zettwoch

Thumbs down:
"Fuc 1997: We Share a Happy Secret, More...

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Jul 03, 2009

angrykitty rated it:

here's the problem i have with this collection...many of the pieces seem to end in the middle of their narrative....and i'm not even talking about the ones that are specifically marked as excerpts....instead of making me want to find and read the whole piece...if there actually is a whole piece.....it makes me not want to have anything to do with the comic....with only a few exceptions.....overall....the comics are pretty good though....

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May 04, 2010

Anastasia rated it:

This was a particularly interesting collection of blocked comics. I wouldn't say "the best" but definitely a nice collection.

Most of the stories strayed into memoir territory with quaint illustrations to accompany the memories. Those really entranced me.

Some were odd flights of fantasy and dream. Those left me feeling unresolved.

Others were small narratives that are always entertaining because they include pictures.

All in all, an enter More...

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Apr 17, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

Lots of fun, although I found the crowdedness of many of the comics made them a slog. It's almost like they don't think their stories are worthy of taking up the space. If that's the fashion these days, I'm not into it. It's okay, guys, take the space. I have several favorites, but I was delighted to find a very nice comic about the Louisville flood of '37 by a guy new to me, Dan Zettwock.

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Jan 29, 2008

Sundry rated it:

If it were more consistent, I would easily give this collection 4 or 5 stars. Some of it is just wonderful. But the stuff I don't like I don't like almost passionately!

It shouldn't surprise me given that I recently read Chris Ware's book Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth, and I wasn't too taken with that. The strips I don't like in this collection are the ones that deal with dreams, which was part of what I found disconcerting in JC.

That said, this collection did More...

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Feb 18, 2009

Michael rated it:

Maybe I have the wrong perspective on what this collection is about, but while some of the art in this collection is interesting and stunning, most of it is not that great and several of the stories are just incoherent. Maybe I'm just too dumb to "get" it, but most of these stories are just too weird for me to understand. Dense prose, abstract art, and at some points the art is compressed into space that is too small to read. Maybe I need to stick to super-hero comics.

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Feb 24, 2008

Tara rated it:

this book did exactly what i wanted it to do for me: get me started on comics/graphic novels. i had no idea where to begin, so i started here. it contained work i liked, and work i didn't. i followed up on the ones i liked, getting works by the same artists/authors (what is the proper term for someone who creates comics??), and i'm going from there.

i don't really care whether or not this book contained really the "best" comics of 2007... that's such a subjective endeav More...

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May 01, 2008

Chad rated it:

Almost gave this 3 stars, but there was some really great, near genius sequential art/storytelling in here. But there was also some absolute crap that I can't understand how it got published, let alone got into the BEST American Comics anthology. It doesn't have to have great art to be worthwhile, but some of the artwork was very disapointing with pointless stories. Well, obviously I'm missing something that Chris Ware saw. Several pages of a character searching for a song he heard in a reco More...

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Dec 22, 2008

Ero rated it:

Oh, this book is amazing. The whole 'best' thing is problematic of course (as is 'american'), but this volume does a great job at bypassing all that and just delivering page after page of mind-blowing wonderfulness. Occasionally a page or two will only seem so-so, but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and it's a good read.

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Dec 10, 2008

Erin F. B. rated it:

Kinda blah. I didn't finish but it's due back at the library on Friday, and I can't quite muster the energy to renew it online. This collection makes me feel the same way that I feel about certain types of music; either too lame and uncool to get it, or too smart and discriminating to waste my time on it.

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May 11, 2008

Meg rated it:

The tricky thing about anthologies is that they contain such different texts. I think what really made me lose my focus on this anthology was that the comics presented were so unrelated that it felt jarring switching from one writer/artist's work to the next. Some of the works caught my attention completely (John Porcellino's, Art Spiegelman's, Jonathan Bennett's, and most of all the one about watching loved ones sleep). However, there were enough that didn't fit with my taste (notably the Krame More...

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Aug 06, 2011

Lena rated it:

Great variety of art styles, based on different decades in history and fantasy. Some of the stories feel cut off in the wrong place, or they drag on too long and get a little boring. But still, this "best american" collection is a great one, as always.

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Dec 29, 2009

Raina rated it:

Standouts here were Jonathan Bennett (he needs to publish and/or TRL needs to purchase one of his graphic novel(s)), Lauren Weinstein, Vanessa Davis, and a bunch of old favorites. Only skipped over a few in this one, so I must like Chris Ware's taste too.

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Nov 01, 2009

Christy S rated it:

Check out the website for the Best Comics series for reviews, contributors, and previews.

Not currently available at Teton County Library, but ask to borrow it from another library!

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Jun 29, 2010

Charlotte rated it:

I love these collections. I usually get to find new artists/comicstrippers to try out and scope the tried but true favorites. These anthologies are also usually a great introduction for friends unfamiliar with the indie comic world.

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Jul 19, 2009

Nicole rated it:

I was not into David Heatley's pieces. He had a dream comic about protecting his family from a black Sambo character which seemed really really REALLY unnecessary considering how many high quality submissions are sent in each year.

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Feb 18, 2009

Flissy rated it:

I picked up this anthology because of my growing interest in graphic novels. I figured it would be a good way to educate myself on contemporary artists and discover who I like.

Allison Bechdel
Gabrielle Bell
Anders Nilsen

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Sep 26, 2011

Carolanne rated it:

I enjoyed this diverse collection of comics (thank god no superhero comics).
I am new to the world of graphic novels, but the artist Gilbert Hernandez has already left a bitter taste in my mouth. His comics are lewd and trashy.

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