The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Publisher’s Weekly has posted up its annual best 100 books of the year list (yes, its now November – already?! – and we’re moving into that time of year when we’ll all be talking about our faves of the year). Nestling among the entries is the unusual European bestseller which recently came out in English in the UK and US, Logicomix (part graphic biography, part science history, part philosophy, see Wim’s write-up on it). David Small’s graphic novel Stitches not only made the top 100, it made the top 10 selection, described as “A graphic novel to bring us all back to comics, Small’s account of his terrifying childhood is amazing. The drawings of his parents and the small suffering boy who doesn’t quite understand until much, much later will pull you along panel by panel and tear your heart out.”

(Stitches by David Small, published WW Norton)

Also featuring on PW’s best GN picks are Josh Cotter’s Driven by Lemons, Darwyn Cooke’s brilliant adaptation of Richard Stark’s Parker: the Hunter (reviewed here), Emmanuel Guibert and Didier Lefèvre’s The Photographer (which Richard described in his review as ‘a contender for best of the year’, obviously he was spot on) David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim Vs the Universe, Joe Sacco’s Footnotes in Gaza, Carol Tyler’s You’ll Never Know and Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto. On the SF&F front China Miéville, Ellen Datlow, Cherie Priest, Gail Carriger, Harry Connolly, Daryl Gregory and Paolo Bacigalupi all stood out on PW’s list of books to watch for. (via the Logicomix Twitter where they are obviously rather delighted to be on the list)

(Logicomix, possibly the best graphic novel on Bertrand Russell you might read this year! By Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna, published Bloomsbury)