The Best American Comics 2007 (Best American TM)
by Anne Elizabeth Moore
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 264)
Read in January, 2008
Well, I think the title of this book can safely be called a misnomer. As is typical of any anthology and of "literary comics" collections in particular, the material included here is all over the place in terms of quality. The strongest pieces are excerpts from longer works--Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home," Seth's "Wimbledon Green," Adrian Tomine's "Shortcomings," Art Spiegelman's "Portrait of the Artist"--and most of the rest of the material is fil...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of comics
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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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
lovers of comics, artists, people who like graphics
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
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Read in March, 2008
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 pi...more
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 pi...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
Colorists, teenagers, bankers
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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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 read Fun Home ...more
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 read Fun Home ...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
new comics readers, people looking for variety
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 endeavor, anyw...more
i don't really care whether or not this book contained really the "best" comics of 2007... that's such a subjective endeavor, anyw...more
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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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Read in April, 2008
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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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
Bluebard, anyone interested in exploring graphic narratives
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 turn me on to a...more
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 turn me on to a...more
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I'm really disappointed with the state of American Comics these days. This collection doesn't exactly cheer me up. I've been reading all sort of comics my entire life, and the underground comics scene is exactly the same as were ten years ago. Not to sound like a prude but it seems underground comics is code for cartoons by dorks who need an excuse to draw boobs and wieners.
Most of the comics I've read so far in this collection are self-indulgent, uninteresting, boring, and sometimes incoher...more
Most of the comics I've read so far in this collection are self-indulgent, uninteresting, boring, and sometimes incoher...more
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chris ware edited this. He points out that art used to be sequential, illustrative, and "sentimental". (At least christian art throughout the ages.) Then only recently art became conceptual. But comics brings it back to something more primal and real and intimate. I love good comics. david heatley, anders nilson, and c.f. stand out in this collection, but most of the other stuff, you couldn't read to your kids as bedtime stories. In fact you probably shouldn't read them at all. I...more
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Read in March, 2008
One of my classmates said of this book, "if these are the best American comics of 2007, they were working within a pretty narrow view of the field" (or something to that effect).
I'm not much of a reader of comics or graphic novels, but I'd agree with my friend - there must be things out there that go completely unrepresented in here. I would definitely not recommend this compilation as an introduction to the "genre". The high point for me was the excerpt from Fun Home,...more
I'm not much of a reader of comics or graphic novels, but I'd agree with my friend - there must be things out there that go completely unrepresented in here. I would definitely not recommend this compilation as an introduction to the "genre". The high point for me was the excerpt from Fun Home,...more
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As has been mentioned this collection feels woefully limp and padded by the most expected comics artists. Do we really need any story Crumb tosses off anthologized?
Chris Ware's introduction really does clarify that the book is more concerned with personal tastes than representation, so suppose I can't fault it in light of such a goal. However, to the extent that he all but apologizes for not throwing Clowes in as well shows exactly how insular this collection comes off.
That all said I en...more
Chris Ware's introduction really does clarify that the book is more concerned with personal tastes than representation, so suppose I can't fault it in light of such a goal. However, to the extent that he all but apologizes for not throwing Clowes in as well shows exactly how insular this collection comes off.
That all said I en...more
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Read in April, 2008
I guess I'm more on top of my graphic novels than I thought - half the selections I'd read in full, like Fun House, Black Hole, Shortcomings, Ben Katchor and Lynda Barry stuff. The rest of comic-dom (that without clear plotlines and characters and is interested in mostly the visuals, which I appreciate in theory...) just ain't for me so I skimmed fully half of the book. But to directly contradict my first sentence, I'm also not as up on comics as I thought because almost everybody had been in (t...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Robin by:
read a review somewhererecommends it for: those who like off-beat graphic novels
This one was on display in the library and I started reading it during my lunch break recently. So far I have seen a number of authors and illustrators whom I've enjoyed such as Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, Lynda Barry and John Porcellino.
3/17: Some of the artwork didn't appeal to me. There's some pretty offbeat stuff in here but it's a great way to introduce new authors and illustrators to a wider audience. I would have preferred that the author bio information was with the selection by th...more
3/17: Some of the artwork didn't appeal to me. There's some pretty offbeat stuff in here but it's a great way to introduce new authors and illustrators to a wider audience. I would have preferred that the author bio information was with the selection by th...more
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Read in February, 2008
I enjoyed reading this, but I have to admit that I thought that the exerpts could have been better selected. The one that I had read before picking this up--Black Hole by Charles Burns--didn't seem well represented. A couple were very cool; a futuristic and really confusing color comic by the mysterious "CF", and one man's memoir of the great flood of...St. Louis? (will fix later).
Most of the others didn't make me want to run out and find the other full length comics, even thoug...more
Most of the others didn't make me want to run out and find the other full length comics, even thoug...more
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Read in October, 2007
this kinda goes back to my "anthologies suck" theme -- in this case because they are kinda boring. most of the stories in here, i've come across other places. most of them mine that standard indie comics autobio territory pretty well. so your mileage may vary.
i think the huizenga story is great and C.F.'s story was genuinely something new, amazing and brilliant. also has good work by the usual supsects, Tomine, Hernandez, Brunetti, Burns, Bechdel, Harkham, etc. which you've pr...more
i think the huizenga story is great and C.F.'s story was genuinely something new, amazing and brilliant. also has good work by the usual supsects, Tomine, Hernandez, Brunetti, Burns, Bechdel, Harkham, etc. which you've pr...more
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Read in February, 2008
I slipped and fell on my coccyx last Monday. Stupid snow.
I sat through classes & then went to work but my tailbone was throbbing with pain. I went home and took a pain killer and curled up into the fetal position. Tracy & I watched a few episodes of "Life on Mars" but then I got tired of TV but was too zonked for book-books. Luckily I had bought this and had yet to read it.
I stayed up until 2:30 finishing it.
The highlights: C.F., Paper Rad, & Gilbert Hernandez.
I sat through classes & then went to work but my tailbone was throbbing with pain. I went home and took a pain killer and curled up into the fetal position. Tracy & I watched a few episodes of "Life on Mars" but then I got tired of TV but was too zonked for book-books. Luckily I had bought this and had yet to read it.
I stayed up until 2:30 finishing it.
The highlights: C.F., Paper Rad, & Gilbert Hernandez.
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
people curious about those comics everyone is talking about
It wasnt long after I had purchased this book and was reading it at home that I realized it was not put together for a reader like me. Having already read most of the material in this anthology, I was a little pissed off that there was nothing new or previously unpublished. But I guess its a little dumb of me to expect that, after all this is the Best American Comics of 2007. Duh.
So for someone who wants a little bit of an introduction to comics, this book is great!
So for someone who wants a little bit of an introduction to comics, this book is great!
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