Today’s Best of the Year comes from a good friend of the blog, a writer who I think has shared his faves with us several times now (a Best of the Year without him just wouldn’t be right) and one of the busiest scribes in comics, Mike Carey. Mike has created a diverse array of titles from the small press to 2000 AD right up to the Big Two of Marvel and DC, from major series like the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil and Hellblazer to more unusual work like Crossing Midnight, My Faith in Frankie and God Save the Queen, not to mention his major Vertigo series, the quite excellent Lucifer (must-read work for anyone who loved the Sandman).
And somehow Mike has also found time to pen a series of prose novels starring his down-at-heels freelance exorcist Felix Castor. Set in a London which is almost like the one we know but slightly different (supernatural phenomenon are now mostly accepted as real – ghosts, werebeasts and more – and there are even moves in Parliament to pass legislation to protect the dead and undead from exploitation and give them certain rights), the books, beginning with Devil You Know use elements of the Noir-esque detective novel, with a hard-edged, gritty feel of the street mixed with the supernatural, added to which each book gives the impression of a larger event building in the background to the main narrative and of Castor’s world growing around him; I find them quite addictive and I’m glad to say the fourth in the series, Thicker Than Water, will be published in March by the good folks at Orbit. Let’s see what Mike’s been enjoying this year:
FPI: Could you tell us what your favourite three comics/graphic novels and/or books have been this year and why they stood out for you?
Mike: Things Just Get Away From You, by Walt Holcombe (Fantagraphics). I picked this up for the gorgeous black and white line art, and discovered a strange little masterpiece. Holcombe draws in a simple, clear, endlessly endearing cartoon style, but his stories are full of bittersweet observations on human relationships and the tangles they can get into. Okay, most of his love affairs cross species barriers, but somehow you don’t even notice that when you’re reading. I read The King of Persia – the first story in this collection – with a growing sense of “Where have you been all my life?”
Tongue of the Dead, by David Baillie. Dave’s darkly funny, twisty-turny fantasy saga, now available in one handsome volume – and with loads of value-added stuff at the back. I already had this as a three-parter, and loved it when it first came out – but it was well worth picking it up again for the Zombie Interviews, Dave’s authorial commentary and The Forgetful Stranger. Buy it from the stall at Camden Market.
Jessica Farm by Josh Simmons, Fantagraphics. Simmons’ declared intention of drawing one page of Jessica Farm per month until 2050 strikes me as… well, wilfully perverse. But there’s no denying the charm and power of this surreal little epic. When you get to the last page, and do the math, and realise that it will be eight years until you read the next instalment, your heart will plummet into your lower abdomen.
FPI: In other art forms was there anything in the world of radio, TV, film or other artistic endeavours that really drew your attention this year?
Mike: In the Valley of Elah was an amazing study of what wars do to the world and to the people who fight them. Tommy Lee Jones investigates the disappearance of his soldier son, running foul of the army and almost destroying his marriage in the process. You go in expecting a fairly standard conspiracy thriller, but Paul Haggis delivers something else – a fable for our times, in which the myth of David and Goliath is agonisingly turned on its head.
No Country for Old Men was a powerful companion piece to the Coen Brothers’ Fargo, exploring many of the same themes of the nature of evil and the law of unintended consequences. Javier Bardem’s Oscar was well deserved.
The Orphanage also blew my mind in a good way: a spectacular, emotionally devastating ghost story with a pay-off that lifts you up and then drops you on your head.
In terms of music, Shearwater’s ROOK was the album of the year for me. Listen to Lost Boys, ideally with the lyrics in front of you, and you’ll be sold at once on Jonathan Meiburg’s ethereal voice and Blakean vision.
FPI: On the professional front how did you see the comics world in 2008, from your own point of view as a creator putting your work out there (did you feel it was a good year for you?) and what did you think of the way the comics biz was in general this year? The business becoming more diversified, more accessible to new readers and creators or less welcoming?
Mike: I’m worried about the tyranny of the big event. I remember the late eighties and some of the atrocities that were done to the plot logic of my favourite comics by the necessity to tie into/build up to/follow on from major company-wide crossovers. DC and Marvel are smarter now than they were then, but it’s still very much a question of what the market will bear. I’d like to see a sort of event holiday for 2009, but of course that won’t happen for any number of reasons.
Hypocrite? Me? No, no, no. Messiah Complex wasn’t company-wide, it only involved the X-Men books.
FPI: What’s the next project you are working on that we can look forward to?
Mike: Ender’s Shadow – an adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s novel for Marvel, following on from Chris Yost’s adaptation of Ender’s Game. Shadow isn’t a conventional sequel, by any stretch of the imagination. It’s the story of Ender’s Game, told through different eyes with a different pay-off. Obviously that means you already know where the story is going – but you’ll still be amazed at how it gets there.
FPI: Lastly, are there any new names you’ve come across recently you’d like to pass on as one to watch for?
Mike: I’m always the last with the news, so no.
Oh, wait – the Fleet Foxes. Their debut album was pretty much flawless: kind of like the Beach Boys stepping out of a time warp, miraculously un-aged, and deciding to work in a more folk-rock idiom.
December 19th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Thoroughly enjoyed the Fleet Foxes album as well (their earlier EP is well worth getting hold of, too) although I have to say The Felice Brothers were even more of an eye-opener in my book, and my discovery of the year has to be singer/songwriter Joe Pug. Worth tracking down online – samples available to hear at Last.FM