Today’s Best of the Year is a double-header, with the first set of picks coming courtesy of British illustrator Darryl Cunningham, who is also, of course, FPI’s resident cartoonist now, delighting us all with his Super-Sam and John-of-the-Night comics strips every Tuesday here on the blog and our webstore, as well as having some brilliant artwork featuring on his Flickr site and blog (well worthy of a good browse). Darryl tells me he hasn’t been able to read as many new comics as usual recently, so instead he’s opted to share his favourite film and his favourite novel series with us:
Films
The Host. A distraught family search the sewers for the monster that has taken their youngest child. Offbeat South Korean creature-feature, with more emotional depth than you usually see in such films, and a wonderfully quirky monster. (there’s a brief review of it in my post from the 2006 Edinburgh Film Festival on the blog here – Joe)
Books
Christopher Fowler’s Bryant and May detective novels. The novels feature the Met’s Peculiar Crime’s Unit, led by London’s longest serving detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May. Fowler mashes together genuine English themes and ideas, mixing the arcane mythologies of London with an Ealing comedy movie feel. The latest novel, White Corridor, is now out in hardback.
Our second set of annual highlights today comes via Matthew Badham; Matthew is a staunch, long-time supporter and promoter of British comics, especially the independent, small press titles which he writes about online (in fact he has just started a brand-new blog in the last couple of weeks) and for the Megazine. I wasn’t surprised, therefore, when Matt explained rather than pick out three favourites from different categories he would like to highlight a couple of Brit small press pieces:
Comics
I’d like to put the spotlight on Indie Review and bring it to the attention of those who haven’t come across it yet. It’s a website run by a few guys who want to big up the small press comics scene in this country. It’s a great one-stop shop for columns, reviews and small press news and well-worth adding to your bookmarks if you have any interest in British comics and our vibrant small press scene.
And the Thirteenth Floor collection by Hibernia. A classic Brit comics re-print plucked from the pages of 1980s horror comic Scream. It also contains a groovy article all about Scream, courtesy of Megazine regular contributor Ed Berridge. There’s a review here that says it’s not a must-buy, just good. They’re wrong – it is a must-buy.
This beautiful mini-comic from Stuart Kolakovic, “Ja Ljubav Te“; mini-comics don’t come much better than this (or smaller!). Stuart is one to watch, a bit of a star in the making. Word on the street is that he’s being courted by big publishers. Support his work now and say that you got there first.
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