10/14/14 - The Best American Comics 2014 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Alright, son. Let's have a !@#$ing moment of silence, here, as one of the high points of the year has finally !@#$ing arrived. 

What, my shipment of Martian cocaine finally !@#$ing arrived? Son, that's every !@#$ week. This is a much more important event, heralding two things. 

The first being that, once again, we're !@#$ing acknowledging that American comics are reaching the point where they're being considered worthy of critical notice, as opposed to !@#$ you read on the !@#$er, or that your mom tosses in the trash the moment you !@#$ing go to college, provided you don't spend those years living in her !@#$ basement eating pizza, playing Warcrack, and not !@#$ing getting any. 

(And when she finally kicks your fat !@#$ out, they get tossed, anyway, so get a !@#$ing storage space, son. You'll thank me, later.)

I'm just the !@#$ing messenger, son. Don't hate me.

And the second? Seeing what's really !@#$ing good about a particular year's worth of American comics, broken down by actual experts in the !@#$ field. And that would be actual !@#$ing writers and artists {or writer/artists} rather than high-handed academic types who are probably all !@#$ing commies, trying to get you to read Marxist !@#$ that'll make your brains leak out your !@#$ ears. 

So what's this big !@#$ event that's got me so !@#$ing excited, son? The Best American Comics, that's what! All those great and worthy strips, stories, web comics, and installments, proudly standing alongside such things as mystery stories, American essays, travel writing, and (my guilty-as-!@#$ pleasure) Nonrequired Reading. 

(There's short stories and sports writing too, but who gives a !@#$. Wake me up when William S Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson come back from the dead, steal a car, eat mescaline-soaked cockroaches off a clown's raging !@#$, and tag-team a second person narrative about !@#$ing covering the !@#$ Superbowl for USA Today, or something. I'm not too !@#$ picky.)

Together, they fight crime. And sobriety. 

Now, for 2014, we got ourselves a real !@#$ing humdinger, son. For one thing, they have a new series editor: Bill Karatopoulos, who's got the !@#$ing chops and the attitude to prove that he's the one for this job -- go check out his website if you don't !@#$ing believe me. No offense to anyone who's had the pleasure of heading this !@#$ing insane juggling act before, but this is the sort of person we need on this title.

And this year he's joined by the one and only Scott McCloud, who some of us actually !@#$ing remember from Zot! but most of you probably know from such important things as Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics -- three works that should be on the !@#$ing shelves of every serious comics fan, and are god!@#$ essential to understanding sequential art as a proper, bonefide art form, as opposed to something you read on the !@#$ !@#$er and... well, we !@#$ing talked about that already.

How do I love these works? Well, let's do things a little !@#$ing backwards, today, son -- SPYGOD Style. 

1) It Shows Me Things I am !@#$ing Glad to See

It's always good to !@#$ing pick one of these up, look through the !@#$ table of contents, and see that this year's guest editor agreed with me on some very !@#$ing important things. McCloud makes a joke about how if Chris Ware, Charles Burns, or Daniel Clowes puts something out in any given year, you can bet your !@#$ it'll turn up in the appropriate Best American Comics, and this time they got !@#$ing two out of three.

"Next time, Inspector Gadget... next time... Muhhahahah"

But aside from (two of) those three gentle, totally !@#$ed-up giants of American comics, there's lots of other things that got printed in that same timeframe (Sept 1st, 2012 to August 31st, 2013) that, having !@#$ing read them, I deeply dug, and hoped to see honored. And this is my reward to myself for having had such excellent !@#$ing taste -- seeing that the likes of Scott McCloud agreed with me. 

(Yes, it's somewhat masturbatory, son, but !@#$ you. I take this !@#$ seriously.)

2) It Shows Me Things I !@#$ing Missed

SPYGOD reads a lot of !@#$ing comics. And SPYGOD knows all. But even SPYGOD does not have the !@#$ing time to read, or be exposed, to every single !@#$ing piece of comic art that tumbles out of America in any given year. The massive explosion of web comics alone makes that !@#$ing impossible, even for someone like me.

(And then there's the issue of whether I !@#$ing understand that what I'm seeing is a !@#$ing comic, and not just some weird thing I ran across online. We'll get into that when we talk about the Kuiper Belt.)

So reading something like Best American Comics is an eye-opener in more ways than one. It constantly exposes me to amazing new !@#$ that I wouldn't have !@#$ing known about unless I saw it there. In that sense, it operates like a lot of modern art magazines: you don't know for sure if that giant !@#$ing toilet you saw walking down the street the other week was a hallucination, a new supervillain, some performance piece gone awry unless you know the right people, or just an out-of-season Halloween costume. But if you don't know the right !@#$ people, and don't happen to go to certain !@#$ galleries, the only !@#$ way you're going to learn about that artist's lonely cry against the widespread enslavement and degradation of our porcelain brothers and sisters is if you !@#$ing read something about it.

"Today, 5th Avenue. Tomorrow, MOMA. Suck it, !@#$es!"

And that's what Best American Comics does for me, every !@#$ing year.

3) It !@#$ing Exists, Period

Just that, son. But let me quote Kartalopoulos at length:

"Comics are fortunate to have been included in the Best American series for a number of reasons. For one thing, Comics' ongoing inclusion in a larger project that also recognizes outstanding short fiction, essays, and more reaffirms comics' important and coequal status among culturally significant literary forms. Additionally, while networked technology has wonderfully democratized expressions of opinions, taste, and critical analysis ... the Best American Comics, by virtue of its careful process, lush presentation, and visibility, articulates a particularly forceful notion of critical distinction that, at its best, can elevate the field."

Which is a fancy way of saying "You made it. This is proof. Now go make more art."

* * *

Now, as for the overall presentation? This year was especially !@#$ing excellent. I loved having Jaime Hernandez on the cover, and I was thrilled as whipped otter !@#$ to have Raina Telgemeier do the endpapers as, essentially, a perfect two-panel story that's both emblematic of her work and the series as a whole. (When you read it, you'll see what I !@#$ing mean.)

I also really liked how McCloud divided the !@#$ book up. Rather than have one, primary introduction, followed by the selections, which is how just about everyone does it*, he broke the selections down into logical subsections, and then put a separate introduction for each section. So we get a short introduction, followed by smaller pieces for such things as Great Comics are Not a Genre, Memory Boxes, Family Tree, Strange Adventures, and (my favorite name for my least-favorite kind of work) The Kuiper Belt.

And then we have the entries, themselves. Keep in mind that, as you may have !@#$ing noticed by now, I have my own strong opinions on this !@#$. So what they liked, I might not like, and if I don't mention one of your favorite !@#$ing things, well, don't cry. It's in there, after all. 

(And what the !@#$ do I know, anyway?)

Don't shoot, Rob. Someday I'll like your new stuff. Really.

What I am Glad to See:

The Hive, Charles Burns: 

Jesus !@#$ing Christ, son. What else is there to !@#$ing say about this, especially now that Burns has completed this trilogy with the publication of Sugar Skull? The selection they chose for this book really highlights the jumbled-up nature of the narrative -- showcasing the pervasive, thick-as-!@#$ sense of dread that this whole series had leaking from its pores like surreal !@#$ing pus. You probably !@#$ing knew it was going to make it in here, but this portion helps show why. 

Saga, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples:

At last, an honor worthy of this superior title! If you've been digging Saga all along, I'm sure you'll agree that this portion -- a darkly humorous take on the age-old ritual of meeting the parents -- is as good a piece as any to showcase the writing and art on this work. And if you haven't been reading it, this excerpt from issue 7 will hopefully sell you on the concept. Go grab the first trade paperback and tell 'em SPYGOD !@#$ing sent you. 

Crime Raiders International Mobsters and Executioners, Jaime Hernandez:

You didn't know Love and Rockets was back? Well !@#$, son, where the !@#$ have you been hiding? This story from #5 has all the hallmarks of this brother Hernandez: winsome but !@#$ed-up ladies and gentlemen in search of a better !@#$ situation, who often make bad choices for good reasons (and vice !@#$ing versa), starring in storylines that intersect at weird !@#$ angles and lead to states of emotional, social, and legal confusion. Jaime says he does his best to avoid letting things turn into genre pieces? Read this and you'll see a master of !@#$ing unclassifiable masterpieces at work.

This is me getting you to read Love and Rockets. Don't make me get the gun.

Drama, Raina Telgemeier:

How do you follow up on something as astoundingly good as Smile? You tell a story about a high school drama club, with all its interpersonal ups and downs, romantic entanglements, moments of sexual confusion and discovery, and tiny victories over life, circumstance, and the fact that The Show Is All. There's sweet and saccharine in this graphic novel, which, while it's aimed at young adults, is one of those works that cuts across age lines and reminds us all of what a !@#$ing sweet nightmare our teenage years could be. Just !@#$ing read it, and grab Sisters while you're at it. 

March, Book One, Rep. John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell:

It's one thing to know that Rep. John Lewis is the last of the American Civil Rights Movement's "Big Six" left alive. It's another to know that, out of everyone who spoke in the 1963 March on Washington -- where Rev. Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech -- he's the only one still walking the Earth. But when I read this piece of his ongoing biographic work (Part 2 comes out January 2015), and saw his first meeting with MLK, as a young man wanting to help desegregate a college? Goosebumps, son -- all the way up and down my @#$ back. That and sadness as I read further, and saw that, when he got home, his parents just didn't dare help him with that part of the journey, for fear of what might happen to their home, their work, and their lives if word got around that their son was causing so much trouble.

It was reading a comic book that got him here, believe it or not.

Some people like to !@#$ing forget that, within a human lifetime, this kind of !@#$ was a concern. Some people want us to forget, because they really don't want to talk about its lasting consequences. And some people think that racism doesn't still impact lives all over the nation. !@#$ them. Read March.

Depression Part 2,  Hyperbole and a Half:

What? You haven't been reading this webcomic? Shame on you, son. In addition to being funny as !@#$, it's also filled with the kind of naked honesty you usually only get to hear after someone's had one !@#$ drink too many, and is about to !@#$ all over the bar, shoot the ceiling lamps out, and confess to having shot Abraham Lincoln with time-bullets. And no one needs to deal with that kind of !@#$ just to hear a raw, human confession of being broken, and trying to figure it the !@#$ out.

I've known a whole lot of people with depression in my time. This is, bar none, the best !@#$ explanation I've ever heard. I wish I'd read it ages ago. You'll be !@#$ing glad you've read it now, and gladder still that this amazing writer is getting her due in this series.,

Cul de Sac, Richard Thompson:

Yes, it's a re-run of his previous stuff that just happened to fall within those dates. But you know what? As McCloud readily admits, this teensy little movement of the goalposts is worthy, given that Thompson's excellent work has been so cruelly smacked down by !@#$ing Parkinsons. And his work is truly amazing, heart-affirming stuff. For this collection, they chose the final week's worth of strips, along with a final Sunday that brilliantly encapsulates both comics and the strip, itself. Go buy his !@#$ book and see why we are poorer people for not having this strip in the paper every !@#$ day.

I'd also like to mention, in passing, that McCloud did give some love for one of the big two comic companies by recommending Hawkeye, which is done by Matt Fraction and normally drawn by David Aja. Marvel apparently wouldn't allow Best American to feature a snippet in this year's edition, due to legal !@#$ not worthy of mention here**. But I'm sure you can !@#$ing find a copy and read it.

Speaking of finding copies and reading it, we're on to...

What I Want to See More Of:

 ... where I admit I got !@#$ing blindsided by some awesome !@#$ that, having had a little taste, I now must read in its entirety.

Multiple Warheads, Brandon Graham:

Holy sweet Jesus riding a snowflake into Hell with a machine gun! This is, bar none, some of the trippiest, most creative, head-over-heels weird narratives I've seen in some time -- easily an equal to works like Finder, only maybe more screwy. What could just be a long and deadly trip across a surreal and dangerous future landscape becomes an exercise in massive creativity, wordplay, and worldbuilding. There isn't anything in here that wasn't clearly thought out, and crafted to make me !@#$ing want to know more. Excellent !@#$, son. Truly.

I think I got "gold," son.

Translated, from the Japanese, Adrian Tomine:

I've loved Tomine's work since I read Shortcomings on a lark, and went back to find out where this adept chronicler of racial, sexual, and social hangups in an urban setting had !@#$ing come from. This short little piece of storytelling from the diary of a young mother, taking her mixed-race son to America to meet the father, is something new from him, but his eye for people's strange fixations and reasonable concerns that turn toxic over time is here to see. I think I need to get this issue of Optic Nerve. 

"Mom" from Viewotron, Sam Sharpe:

Goofy anthropomorphisms aside, this one really got to me. The story of a man trying to reconnect with his clearly-unwell mother, and how she starts sliding down the crazy stairs in front of him, is sad and haunting. It's one of those pieces where you read it and then really want to know what the !@#$ happened next, but at the same time are kind of !@#$ing afraid to open up that door. You know it's not going to shut well. Not at all.

August 1977, Nina Bunjevac:

This is yet another one where the piece was so !@#$ing amazing that it's still haunting me. Somehow a story about a would-be bomber's last letter to his family (prior to being blown the !@#$ up) is transformed into a crazy-as-!@#$ hallucinogenic critique on a certain, Eastern European country's socio-religious issues, complete with some very strange visuals. And on top of all that, the art is !@#$ing fantastic.

You don't normally get giant doom-hooters at hate rallies.

Hip Hop Family Tree, Ed Piskor

This one's a queer kettle of fish, son. Speaking as someone who was around when the art form came together, this take on it doesn't quite pass the !@#$ sniff test. But then, it isn't really !@#$ing supposed to, either. It's like Rock & Roll Comics meets Love and Rockets, tossing enough true stories and odd anecdotes into the mix while casting the creators and soldiers of Hip Hop as urban heroes trying to keep it real, pay their bills, and not get shanked by their fans. It's a trip, son, and if you're a music fan you need to be on it.

"Canadian Royalty" from Lose, Michael Deforge

McCloud put this in his Even Stranger Adventures section, and that's putting it !@#$ing mildly, son. A brilliantly brutal and surreal exploration of a Canada you didn't know existed, complete with a fully-realized (and totally OTT) royal family, this selection from Lose is like being given a travelogue of an alien world that exists just north of !@#$ing Montana, and apparently has better TV than we do. Deforge clearly needs to pass me what he's using, because this !@#$ is brilliant.

And you think Prince Charles had it bad?

Hyperspeed to Nowhere, Lale Westvind

At last, we find something in McCloud's !@#$ing Kuiper Belt (as in, really far out there in space) that I actually kind of dug. Usually, I can't get excited by really "out there" !@#$ that melts the standards of the art form, rather than allowing the weird to exist within it (or at least play around with it). But this colorful, hyperkinetic work tickled my inner Jack Kirby enough that I was willing to roll with it, and demand more. I'm sure you will, too.

And by now, I think I've !@#$ing talked this thing up enough. I've got some comics to !@#$ing track down, son. And you have a new book you should check out as soon as possible.

Like now.

SPYGOD's Verdict: Three thumbs up for yet another intriguing showcasing of work from old stalwarts, new talent, and faces we don't see nearly enough of. The new series editor is promising, and McCloud's editorial choices are excellent and well-considered. Like any collection, there will be some things that will astound you, others that bore you, and some that simply defy description, but all of them have something to show why they were judged to be The Best.

The Best American Comics 2014 -- Get it at your local comic store!

* That said, they still have yet to beat Lynda Barry's illustrated introduction for the 2008 edition, which was, as with most things she does, sheer !@#$ing genius. And I'm still !@#$ing mad that DC Comics wouldn't let her put Paul Pope's Batman Year 100 in there, because of stupid legal !@#$. !@#$ you, DC -- in the !@#$ nose.

** And !@#$ you too, Marvel. In the other !@#$ nose.