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The Best American Comics 2007 (Best American TM)
by Anne Elizabeth Moore

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/772122.The_Best_American_Comics_2007?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Best American Comics 2007 (Best American TM)" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178218599m/772122.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/772122.The_Best_American_Comics_2007?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Best American Comics 2007</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/24477.Anne_Elizabeth_Moore">Anne Elizabeth Moore</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7996155?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 2 of 5 stars 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 filler, incomprehensible, or both. The preponderance of crudely drawn, narcissistic "diaries" display the worst of the literary comics movement, detailing in mostly unreadable terms the minutiae of these cartoonists' everyday lives. Frankly, if I wanted to hear hipster douchebags complain about their lives, I would just talk to my friends. Unfortunately, most of the selections here, including work by stalwarts like R. Crumb (and his daughter), Ivan Brunetti, and Jeffrey Brown, are all in this vein and pretty dull and, ironically, homogeneous as a result; for as many cartoonists who cite "punk rock" as an influence in their pieces and bios in this book, they all seem pretty generic, "punk rock" apparently being taken as code for "lazy and not having any actual story."
 
 Chris Ware is this edition's guest editor, and like his own comics, his inclusions are idiosyncractic and favor weird design over coherence. He admits in his introduction that it's not 2007's "Best" so much as what appealed to his taste over the past year (and the suspicious number of Chicago-based cartooniosts suggests a lot of his buddies were on the list). That Ware acknowledges this doesn't really excuse it, leading to a lot of ugly comics--Paper Rad's oh-so-punk-rock titled "Fuck You 9" stands out most egregiously--and little in the way of anything actual humans might want to read. Ware also alludes to the absence of superhero comics in this collection, which, aside from token nods in the "Distinguished" list in back to things like Kyle Baker's "Plastic Man" and DC's Vertigo line, is conspicuous and just as boneheaded an omission as superhero nerds' refusal to acknowledge anything that doesn't involve capes. 
 
 As much as I'm admittedly being bitchy, there's some good stuff, you just have to search for it. Aside from the above listed excerpts, you get some nice period pieces from Dan Zettwoch, Miriam Katin, and Sammy Harkham, as well as loopy weirdness by Gilbert Hernandez (mining his "busty locas" vein), Lynda Barry, and Ben Katchor. Not surprisingly, those artists who aim for craft and cohesion accomplish more with their work, both as a sequential narrative and with a reader, than the dashed-off naval-gazing that comprises most of the collection.
 
 Overall, I would suggest just reading "Fun Home," "Black Hole," "Shortcomings," and, hell, an issue of "Batman" or something rather than slogging through all the unremarkable stories included here to find the gems.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/347733?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Kerry's review
rating:

status: 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 filler, incomprehensible, or both. The preponderance of crudely drawn, narcissistic "diaries" display the worst of the literary comics movement, detailing in mostly unreadable terms the minutiae of these cartoonists' everyday lives. Frankly, if I wanted to hear hipster douchebags complain about their lives, I would just talk to my friends. Unfortunately, most of the selections here, including work by stalwarts like R. Crumb (and his daughter), Ivan Brunetti, and Jeffrey Brown, are all ...more 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 filler, incomprehensible, or both. The preponderance of crudely drawn, narcissistic "diaries" display the worst of the literary comics movement, detailing in mostly unreadable terms the minutiae of these cartoonists' everyday lives. Frankly, if I wanted to hear hipster douchebags complain about their lives, I would just talk to my friends. Unfortunately, most of the selections here, including work by stalwarts like R. Crumb (and his daughter), Ivan Brunetti, and Jeffrey Brown, are all in this vein and pretty dull and, ironically, homogeneous as a result; for as many cartoonists who cite "punk rock" as an influence in their pieces and bios in this book, they all seem pretty generic, "punk rock" apparently being taken as code for "lazy and not having any actual story."

Chris Ware is this edition's guest editor, and like his own comics, his inclusions are idiosyncractic and favor weird design over coherence. He admits in his introduction that it's not 2007's "Best" so much as what appealed to his taste over the past year (and the suspicious number of Chicago-based cartooniosts suggests a lot of his buddies were on the list). That Ware acknowledges this doesn't really excuse it, leading to a lot of ugly comics--Paper Rad's oh-so-punk-rock titled "Fuck You 9" stands out most egregiously--and little in the way of anything actual humans might want to read. Ware also alludes to the absence of superhero comics in this collection, which, aside from token nods in the "Distinguished" list in back to things like Kyle Baker's "Plastic Man" and DC's Vertigo line, is conspicuous and just as boneheaded an omission as superhero nerds' refusal to acknowledge anything that doesn't involve capes.

As much as I'm admittedly being bitchy, there's some good stuff, you just have to search for it. Aside from the above listed excerpts, you get some nice period pieces from Dan Zettwoch, Miriam Katin, and Sammy Harkham, as well as loopy weirdness by Gilbert Hernandez (mining his "busty locas" vein), Lynda Barry, and Ben Katchor. Not surprisingly, those artists who aim for craft and cohesion accomplish more with their work, both as a sequential narrative and with a reader, than the dashed-off naval-gazing that comprises most of the collection.

Overall, I would suggest just reading "Fun Home," "Black Hole," "Shortcomings," and, hell, an issue of "Batman" or something rather than slogging through all the unremarkable stories included here to find the gems....less

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