Two end-of-year lists for you (largely because the opportunity to flag up some excellent comics is too much to resist): a brief compilation of 10 of my favourite pieces that I wrote this year; selected on the basis of how the writing turned out rather than anything to do with what was being discussed. And following that, a list of 25 (didn't set a specific number, but came to this organically, which was nice) comics that stood out for me in 2015: in terms of enjoyment, interest, and quality.
- Corto Maltese: a hero with empathy -and legs (also see: the 'could have been' of Joann Sfar's and Christophe Blain's Corto Maltese proposal)
- Jiro Taniguchi's The Walking Man, 'ma,' and the deliberation of the active nothing
- Snapshot thoughts on comics sfx: Quitely does it
- Il mio lavoro- a Gipi artbook: 'Because that place you have drawn will be more real than an existing one'
- Natalie Andrewson's 'Lemon & Ket:' fruity island adventures get shady
- Deconstructing the thematic ideologies of Batman: Tao in 3 panels
- A Body Made of Seeing by Sloane: the assembly of self
- An interview with Dargaud editor, Thomas Ragon: 'I’m the first reader, and the first publicist'
- Sunny 5 by Taiyo Matsumoto: to be unreachable, by kindness or hope
- Holding together the Kingpin's humanity in patterned waistcoats
Writing -especially on a day-to-day, nose-to-the-page basis- can be incredibly frustrating, but looking back at the past 12 month's output has helped, in that some degree of improvement seems to have actually taken place! Which is encouraging. As this is most likely my final piece of 2015, I'd like to sincerely and deeply thank everyone who supports, and has supported, Comics & Cola on Patreon. I'm currently using the money to hire Kim O'Connor to write a monthly column, and am super excited to announce that Sloane Leong will be serialising a new comic, Maps to the Suns, exclusively here in 2016. A new chapter of the comic will be published on the blog each month, and be available to Patreon supporters a week early. I don't know if it's an achievable goal, but I'd love to harness greater support and be able to do more of these things on the blog -gather excellent writers and cartoonists and make this a home for a focused range of comics and criticism. Having autonomy is the most important thing to me, and money definitely helps with that. Thank you so much.
I've bunched in everything together on the comics list in no particular order- webcomics, ongoings, collected editions, translations, whatever! I want it to serve as a reading guide/list more than anything; I like that function and it's what I've always used these kind of lists for. The majority of the comics here I have either reviewed/written in depth about- so if you'd like to know more about a specific one, simply click on the title and it should lead you through to the associated piece (a number of these were published for The AV Club, and will take you there). In some cases, I've linked to the comic itself (if it's been posted online), or a place that can provide you with further information. See you in the new year.
I've bunched in everything together on the comics list in no particular order- webcomics, ongoings, collected editions, translations, whatever! I want it to serve as a reading guide/list more than anything; I like that function and it's what I've always used these kind of lists for. The majority of the comics here I have either reviewed/written in depth about- so if you'd like to know more about a specific one, simply click on the title and it should lead you through to the associated piece (a number of these were published for The AV Club, and will take you there). In some cases, I've linked to the comic itself (if it's been posted online), or a place that can provide you with further information. See you in the new year.
- First Year Healthy (Drawn & Quarterly), and Dressing (Koyama Pess) by Michael DeForge
- Lighten Up by Ronald Wimberly (The Nib)
- SuperMutant Magic Academy (Drawn & Quarterly), Frontier #7 Sex Coven (Youth in Decline), @TruBunny (for D&Q's 25), Darla: early stories part 1 (Hazlitt), these illustrations for the Folio Society edition of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, all by Jillian Tamaki -basically every thing that involved Jillian Tamaki putting pen to paper
- Weeping Flower, Grows In Darkness by Kris Mukai (self published)
- Vacancy (Nobrow) and Thunderpaw by Jen Lee
- Lovers Only by Cathy G. Johnson, Mickey Zacchilli, and Sophia Foster-Dimino (Youth in Decline)
- The Divine by Asaf Hanuka, Tomer Hanuka, and Boaz Lavie (First Second)
- Last Man book 1: The Stranger by Bastien Vives, Balak, Michael Sanlaville
- Soft by Jane Mai (Peow Studio)
- The Highgate County Fancy Chicken Show by Eleanor Davis (The Nib)
- Newdini by Richie Pope (self published)
- Mowgli's Mirror by Olivier Schrauwen (Retrofit Comics)
- Sunny book 5 by Taiyo Matsumoto (Viz)
- Sophia Foster-Dimino's 24-hour comics
- Tillie Walden's Steven Universe fan comic
- The Hunter by Joe Sparrow (Nobrow)
- Gawain's Girlfriend and the Green Knight by Polly Guo
- Assassination Classroom by Yusei Matsui (Viz)
- Soft Float by Valentine Gallardo (Space Face Books)
- Legends of the Dark Knight Norm Breyfogle collection (DC)
- Azumanga Daioh by Kiyohiko Azuma (Yen Press)
- Wild's End: The Enemy Within by Ian Culbard and Dan Abnett (Boom)
- Rumble by James Harren, John Arcudi, and Dave Stewart (Image)
- Hellboy: The Hounds of Pluto #7-8 by Mike Mignola and Dave Stewart (Dark Horse)
- Over the Garden Wall by Jim Capmbell and Patrick McHale (Boom)
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