Here is my ‘Best of’ for 2012. Maybe I shouldn’t deliver it particularly triumphantly, seeing as we are now two weeks into January – yeah, sorry about that. Regardless, from my limited recollection of the year that just happened, I attempted to recall three of my favourite titles from the past twelve months. I won’t lie; I tend to favour superhero and mainstream comics. I do try to branch out – I mean, I read a whole Jeffery Brown book once – but I always come back to superheroes. I don’t know why, it’s probably their capes. Capes are cool. However I digress, so here they are: my top three titles of 2012.

Hawkeye

I don’t think I’ve shut up about this book since it first came out. I love it; the colour scheme, David Aja’s minimalist approach to the art and Matt Fraction’s delightfully sarcastic sense of the humour. This is a series that doesn’t take itself too seriously and it’s that exact freedom that carries it. The ability to make a reader laugh out loud should never be overlooked. Hawkeye is everything that was missing from your pull-list, a cheerful reminder that, sometimes, comics can just be really fun.

Hawkeye focuses of the lives of Clint Barton and Kate Bishop. Bishop, who readers might recognise from Young Avengers, is sort of like Barton’s apprentice – although she’s had to rescue him on more than one occasion. Even on the page, they have a great chemistry and their banter with each other is entertaining to read. While there’s action and bad guys, this is mainly the life of a man who has a mean arrow-shot and more money than I’ll ever see in my lifetime. When he’s not being an Avenger, he’s not sure what to do – and that’s what makes Clint Barton not so different from any other directionless young adult. He dedicates his free time to saving stray dogs, has sex with strange woman and… er, forges political assassinations (although maybe only a select few of us partake in that last one).

Matt Fraction and David Aja are a dream team. This series was a favourite of mine last year and one that I’ll continue to lap up in 2013. It’s unlike anything that mainstream comics are producing at the moment and– actually, you know what, I don’t know what else I can possibly say about this. Just read it already.

Hawkeye is an on-going series by Matt Fraction, David Aja and Matt Hollingsworth, published by Marvel. #8 is due out on 27th February, the first collected volume is out from Marvel in mid March.

Batman Incorporated

I was introduced to comics by Grant Morrison. Not personally – although that would’ve been cool – but his comics were the first ones I ever read. Retrospectively, as a sixteen year old girl, maybe The Filth wasn’t the most apt introduction to comics – but hey, we’ve all got to start somewhere and I still love his writing today. Morrison said himself that Batman was “too sexy” a character to walk away from which is why, unlike other books, he returns again and again with more havoc to wreak on Gotham. It’s of no surprise to anyone that Batman Incorporated features on my ‘best of’ anything list.

This year, Batman Incorporated returned. This wasn’t a series intended to tie in with the New 52 but, thankfully, doesn’t suffer from being forced into the reboot. Instead of a questionable filler issue for DC’s Zero initiative, we were treated to a smirk-worthy origin story with art from the wonderful Frazer Irving. DC’s agenda aside, Morrison is back to tell the story he always intended to tell. He has Batman Incorporated mapped out to the bitter(sweet) end and has given himself twelve issues to do it.

Batman Incorporated’s first run saw Bruce Wayne build a global empire of heroes willing to join Batman. In the first issue, we saw Batman and Catwoman frolic across Tokyo’s skyline. In the current run, all eyes are on Gotham as Talia and Leviathan get set to wage war against Batman. Caught up in all of this is Damien Wayne, the son of Bruce and Talia, a mere eleven years old (although, if the New 52 timeline is to be considered, he was celebrating 2.2 birthdays a year). His own mother has put a bounty on his head and the battle ensues.

So, what’s so great about this comic? You have the delightfully bratty Damian Wayne, Morrison villains like Professor Pyg and the return of Matches Malone. Make no mistake, this isn’t the ‘jumping on’ point that most of the New 52 titles intended to be. I’m excited to see how it concludes and will be extremely disappointed to see it end. All love for Morrison aside, I can sum up my love for Batman Incorporated in one word: Bat-cow.

Batman Incorporated is an on-going series by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham, published by DC comics. #7 is due out on February 27th. The first series of Batman Incorporated is available in trade paperback, also by DC comics.

Punk Rock Jesus

Punk Rock Jesus was a six-part series written and inked by Sean Murphy. Fast-paced and addictively gritty, the only anti-punk aspect of this book is the precision with which Murphy executed this story. A scathing commentary on reality television, celebrity culture and the media, it also dealt heavily with faith and religion. Despite its radical premise – a reality TV show that depicts the life of the clone of Jesus Christ – the book was remarkably humane and, where other writers would have fallen short, Murphy carried a clever and convincing plot right until the very end.

The book provokes some serious questions. Does the media too much power? Why did we become such a celebrity-obsessed culture? In an age where people are famed for drinking too much (Geordie Shore) and being married for a month (Keeping up with the Kardashians), maybe Murphy’s suggestion that someone would create a reality show depicting the cloning of Jesus Christ isn’t quite as far-fetched as it should be. The treatment of Chris’ dysfunctional mother, Gwen, highlights the extent some people will go to for entertainment – she suffers from emotional and physical abuse, to the point where her life is endangered. Would we really risk someone’s life to make entertaining television? The answer should disgust you.

Told entirely in black and white, adding to the punk ethic of the book, as the book’s appearance and thick-stock pages resemble a fanzine, Murphy’s art loses nothing from the lack of colour. If anything, it gains from it. Perhaps best known for his work on Grant Morrison’s Joe the Barbarian, his inks are detailed and the standard of art throughout the book is sensational. It captures the chaos of the book perfectly and both detailed cityscapes and character’s expressions stand out as a result of Murphy’s talent.

What makes this book the most compelling is the contrast between Chris and his bodyguard, Thomas. Thomas, who is linked with the IRA, hasn’t led a saint-like life. But he’s a man of faith and he dedicates his life to protecting Chris, no matter what happens. Chris, on the other hand, rejects his alleged heritage and the idea that he’s the Second Coming of anything. You have a huge ex-IRA bodyguard struggling with faith and trying to find meaning in his existence and you have a scrawny teenager who plays punk rock shows to avenge the life’s he had forced on him. Thomas and Chris learn a lot from each other and, as readers, we learn a lot from each of them. Hands down, one of the best comics I’ve read – not just of 2012.

Punk Rock Jesus was a series by Sean Murphy, which concluded in January 2013. The trade paperback will be available by Vertigo on the 3rd of April.

As usual, the only predictable thing about the list that develops is simply how wide it is, a sterling indicator of just how diverse the readership is, and how varied and original the material they have to choose from.

This year we changed things around a little. Every year Joe asks those involved for their top 3 comics of the year, and every year there are some (we who write for the blog are guilty as heck of this) who pick 5, 10…. or in Zainab’s case this year a record breaking 21 comics. So when that happened I got in touch and got a top 3 for inclusion in the master list, which means we can say that this year, as well as being a wonderful list of recommended reads, it’s also statistically fairer than ever before!

We had 32 respondents nominating 75 different comics (I’ll post the full list of 75 titles in the comments later).

Here we go then…. the FPI Master List 2012, the best of the best…..

This year’s absolute winner, with 5 votes:

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image Comics).

Second place with 4 votes:

Nao Of Brown by Glyn Dillon (Self Made Hero)

Joint third place with 3 votes:

2000AD by various (Rebellion)

Daredevil by Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, Chris Samnee et al (Marvel)

Runners up with 2 votes: loads of them….

Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel (Jonathan Cape)

Blacksad: A Silent Hell by Canales and Guarnido (Dark Horse)

Building Stories by Chris Ware (Jonathan Cape)

But I Really Wanted to be an Anthropologist by Margaux Motin (Self Made Hero)

Department Of The Peculiar by Rol Hirst and Rob Wells

Ellerbisms by Marc Ellerby

Hugo Tate by Nick Abadzis (Blank Slate Books)

Mudman by Paul Grist (Image Comics)

Thunder Brother Soap Division by Paul Rainey

Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)

Number 1 daughter Molly brings you her best 3 of 2012 (and 1 from 2011 – mean daddy Richard)

Ellerbisms – Marc Ellerby

I picked this up at Thought Bubble 2012 and I really enjoyed it,because it was full of emotion, and I love Marc’s artwork.

I really liked the fact that it was his real life story about his relationship with Anna, and how involved I felt. It gets really complicated, even really upsetting at times, but that just shows how powerful and moving it is.

The Everyday – Adam Cadwell

This was another diary comic that I picked up at Thought Bubble, this was really good as well, with Adam writing about his life and all the things that happened to him. Not as emotional or moving as Ellerbisms, but lots of fun watching all the little things going on in his ‘everyday’ life!

And it was fun finding out about Adam’s love of Vimto!

Drama – Raina Telgemeier

I loved Raina’s Smile so so so much, and was ever so excited about this one. Dad described it to me as Smile plus Glee, and that sounded great to me!

And it was everything I wanted, and more. Maybe a bit more for older readers than Smile, but still just as fun and good and with great characters and art.

Troop 142 – Mike Dawson

Mean father wouldn’t let me have this extra in here, because he said it wasn’t published in 2012. Mean.

Thanks to Zainab for sending it along, it was great…. such a fun read, Mike Dawson really describes a camp of any sort, many camps have things going wrong, someone always brings something they’re not meant to, but it’s usually bringing a phone not drugs! I would have liked it to be longer, but it seems like he got everything in the book.

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, Guy Deslisle (Drawn & Quarterly/Jonathan Cape): Delisle is one of those creators I often recommend to people who normally don’t read comics – his work is travel lit in comics form, and as he often finds himself staying in unusual spots most of us won’t visit there is a fascination to get a glimpse into another society, another culture. Delisle brings these places and the people to life, captured with an artist’s eye for little details that give a depth and air of verisimilitude to his depictions. This latest volume covers from the everyday family life (trying to find a nearby supermarket in East Jerusalem which sells the right sort of nappies for their youngest) to the serious (streets facing each other with Arab families on one side and fundamentalist Israeli settlers on the other, each loathing the other). As with his previous works Delisle rarely judges the different characters and societies he encounters, but instead presents what he sees for the reader to draw their own conclusion, and even the more extreme characters are depicted in human terms, not as stereotypes. What Delisle always captures though, isn’t just other cultures, but simply human life in all its myriad forms. Truly remarkable.

Saga, Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image): this slice of romantic science fiction adventure has featured heavily in our guest Best Of posts recently. I came late to it on the recommendation of colleagues and also curiosity driven by how often our guests were picking it out – as the first collected volume has just come out I decided to check it out and am delighted I did. It’s a lovely, touching romance – two star-crossed lovers from opposite sides of a long-running intergalactic war – but it mixes high romance with realistic touches to keep it grounded and more believable. The elements move from one of the most touching childbirth scenes in comics since that classic MiracleMan story years back and some terrific character and dialogue scenes (including a voice-over from their child) to large-scale sci-fi (organically grown starships in a forest? Wonderful). By the end of the first volume I was totally hooked and have to follow what happens next.

Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, Mary and Bryan Talbot (Jonathan Cape):

This husband and wife work came out way back at the start of last year, but it hit the headlines again recently, not only being one of the first comics works nominated for the major Costa literary award (in the factual category) but, at the start of this January, winning it – a brilliant achievement and one that’s made all of us who love the medium very happy (and how nice it wasn’t in a new graphic category, but in among the regular prose books, treated simply as a quality literary work). Cutting between two biographical strands, that of Lucia Joyce, daughter of the famous writer and young Mary’s life and her relationship with her noted Jocyean scholar father it’s a fascinating and warm look at family, at the expected roles of women in society in different eras and served with a good helping of history too. Engaging, emotional and very warmly human, this is also a work you can easily share with friends who don’t normally read comics – which I’ve been busily doing for the last few months. Mary and Bryan were kind enough to do one of our guest Director’s Commentary posts about Dotter last January and you can read it here; we also have a report on their talk at the world’s largest literary festival, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, last summer on the blog here.

Grandville: Bete Noire, Bryan Talbot (Jonathan Cape/Dark Horse)

My reading year was book-ended (sorry, terrible pun) by works involving Bryan Talbot, and that’s no bad thing of course. I first saw some of this third Grandville book on Bryan’s iPad during the Book Festival and had been eagerly awaiting the printed work; it did not disappoint. In fact I’d go as far as saying this is his best Grandville yet. Our tenacious badger detective is asked by an old French friend to consult on a baffling case, which soon leads them into a huge conspiracy on a national scale. It’s an absolutely cracking adventure tale with allusions to modern day concerns (the price of unbridled capitalism over humanity), while the art, as you would expect, is simply gorgeous and astonishingly detailed – seriously, I’ve been back through this book twice just to admire some of the lovely Steampunk art and layouts and pick up on details I missed on that first reading. There are references aplenty to discern in there too, from Wind in the Willows (with a dash of Danger Mouse!) to Bond to art history (“this is not a pipe”) and dashes of romance and humour laced throughout the well-paced adventure, and we even learn a little more about LeBrock’s history. Again the physical book is a lovely looking hardback, the sort of book that wouldn’t look out of place among a rack of fine Franco-Belgian bande dessinee albums, one of those books you’re just happy to have on your shelves.

Interview With the Vampire: Claudia’s Tale, adapted by Ashley Marie Witter from the novel by Anne Rice (Headline)

Anne Rice’s original mid-70s novel Interview With the Vampire is a landmark in the genre, as important and influential as Stoker’s Dracula was in 1897. I re-read it recently and although so many have borrowed from it in the last few decades the original retains its lush, erotic, decadent, enticing, sensual air. The novel was the biography of Louis during his vampiric life across two centuries, the sequel expanded on his maker, the arch vamp Lestat, but here Ashley takes the most fascinating – and tragic character – from the Vampire Chronicles, the vampire child Claudia, and instead of a comics adaptation of the novel she reworks that tale but seeing the events from the perspective of Claudia, vampirised as a small child, growing in her mind across the long decades into a mature being but her body forever locked into the form she was in when she passed from mortal to immortal. The artwork, mostly monochromatic with a sepia tint (except for some strategic splashes of blood, bright scarlet like the lurid early colour Hammer horrors) has a bit of a manga influence, and is appropriately sensual and lovely.

La Douce, François Schuiten, (Casterman): Schuiten is one of the great European artists and I often wonder why more of his backlist isn’t being translated and republished for the English language market. Our own Wim put me onto his La Douce, a tale of a train driver, dedicated to his great steam locomotive “La Douce”, facing the end of the steam era as electric trains come in. There’s a tale of obsession here, true, but also the admiration for the heavy work but huge pride the engine crews had for their steam locos, the character of the engines, each individual, almost a living thing. Scenes alternate between the gritty, smoke-blackened faces of the engine crew shovelling away to the elegant, seemingly effortless grace and speed of La Douce, a gorgeous streamlined engine (reminiscent of our own achingly beautiful, Art Deco inspired Pacific Streamliners like the Mallard). Schuiten captures small moments (the fireman oiling the rods during stops, or polishing the brass, a common practise with all steam engine crews worldwide, a pride in their machine you simply don’t see today) with huge scenes such as this elegant machine roaring across the landscape, or a coastal scene where old trains and cars lie semi-submerged, near a towering town reached only by a huge cable-car network, like some urban fantasy scene. And being Schuiten he has to add something different – in this case you log into a website, hold relevant pages up to your webcam and see animation appear! He thought the streamlined train itself suggested speed and movement, even in static pages (and indeed it does), so he decided to take it further with this ‘enhanced’ component to the physical book. My French isn’t very good, but this book just called to me and I managed to muddle through (having images to give context always helps when struggling with another language!); beautiful work and, again I think why is this not being translated?

New Deadwardians, Dan Abnett and Ian Culbard (DC/Vertigo): I like zombies, I like vampires. But ye dark gods of horror, but they have both been overcooked and overused in recent years as everyone jumps on the bandwagon. And here come Dan and Ian, gleefully taking two of the most over-used horror icons of recent years and smashing them into something new and interesting, combining horror with alt-history science fiction in a Victorian then Edwardian Britain where an undead menace saw the upper classes take ‘the cure’, becoming immortal vampires, to be strong enough to fight the zombie hordes. Now years after the main battles (glimpsed in splendid flashbacks that pay homage to classic Brit movies like Zulu) we have Scotland Yard’s last homicide detective, a former vampire army officer, now jaded and passionless (or so he thinks), investigating the murder of a vampire aristocrat. The story develops cleverly, feeding in details of this alternative Britain, making comments about class divisions, society and exploitation (like Romero they use horror to reflect real world concerns), and builds up those layers to a very satisfying conclusion. The collected edition is due this spring; I’m hoping Dan and Ian plan to return to this setting as the world they have crafted seems perfectly set up now for further stories. You can read an interview by Matt with Dan Abnett discussing New Deadwardians and other work on the blog: part one and part two here.

Blacksad: a Silent Hell, Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido (Dark Horse): I utterly adore the Blacksad work of Canales and Guarnido (Spanish creators who made their name in the Franco-Belgian BD market, translated into English by a US company – viva the international nature of our medium!). The previous three albums (translated and collected into one edition by Dark Horse) was superb and this fourth tale is one I had been eagerly waiting on, with huge expectations. That can be a problem of course – sometimes you get too excited, expect more than anyone can realistically deliver. Not so here – it’s another hugely compelling 40s/50s style gumshoe noir, this time seeing out feline PI working down in the jazz and blues scene of the Big Easy. Engrossing, well rounded characters, gripping storyline and astonishingly detailed, beautifully painted artwork – frankly this is about as perfect as any comics work can be.

Manhattan Projects, Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra (Image): Imagine that the atomic bomb was just the public cover work and that the Manhattan Projects (yes, the plural is deliberate) is really more concerned with a range of fantastical experiments and works. Throw in real historical characters such as Feynman, Einstein, General Groves and Von Braun, but here rather different to the ones we knew, have some brilliantly bonkers scenes (Japanese samurai robots beamed by portal into an attack on the base lab during the war, a cannibalistic, psychotic genius scientist who learns the plans of multi dimensional aliens by killing them and eating their brains) and you have a wild, hugely imaginative ride. And as it goes on it becomes clear there is a story arc underlying the oddball events, which is clearly building to something – and I am pleased to say so unpredictable has MP been so far that for once I have no idea where it is going, which is hugely refreshing for me as often even with a good work I guess where the later acts will take me.

Corporate Skull, Jamie Smart (online): I’m on record here previously for describing Jamie Smart’s online serial as “arse-splittingly funny”. And yes, quite far into its run now and I stand by that thoughtful and erudite analysis. But there’s a whole lot more to the casually hilarious violence, the sex and volumes of inventive swearing (which are, let’s be honest, a huge part of the pleasure). Jamie has been developing a growing story arc for both our eponymous hero and a larger conspiracy that takes in corporate-political dirty dealing secrets but also harkening right back to pre-history. And he puts it all online free, creating it for us on the side while he does his busy day work! It’s genius, and like most very clever works it looks deceptively simple and he makes it look easy, but there’s clearly a lot of thought put into what you might mistake at first glance for mostly a gag strip – and indeed it is a gag strip, but it’s so much more too. Love it. I do hope he gets around to doing a printed edition in the future.

2000AD: There are particular strips I could mention from this year’s Progs of The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, and I will, but really this is for the whole comic, it was just such a food year for 2000 AD (and in its 35th anniversary year too, no less). Brass Sun was just a beautiful piece of fantasy/SF work, for example, and the Dreddfather himself, John Wagner, sculpted a slow-burn, build the tension then explode the entire story over our characters epic for Dredd, once more shattering the Big Meg, then this was followed by a team of writers and artists who so carefully took the broken pieces of the Dredd world he left them, then created an intricate piece of plotting that saw three different strips which started off making odd references to one another before developing into one mega-narrative being told from three streams in each strip, coming together in the issue-spanning Trifecta at the end of the year. One of the most intelligent and innovative comics works I have read in a long time, a good example of the sort of clever storytelling that no other medium could have handled as effectively; my hat is off to all involved for this stupendous effort – one of the best bits of British comics works in years and another reminder that even aged 35 our beloved 2000 AD can still surprise us all and deliver something clever and new and exciting. A collected Day of Chaos volume is due very soon from Rebellion.

Honourable mentions – I’m well over on selections already and this may be a bit indulgent, but I claim editor’s privilege, so I will finish this section by giving some quick mentions for a few other works that I very much enjoyed this year. The Tale of Brin and Bent and Minno Marylebone by Ravi Thornton and Andy Hixon (Cape) – very unusual in terms of storytelling and visually fascinating, a combination of semi biographical with dark fairytale, the magical and wondrous with the perverse; new talents on the scene to watch for. Adamtine by Hannah Berry (Cape) – I loved Hannah’s debut, Britten and Brulightly and her second graphic novel, a delightfully atmospheric horror tale, created creepiness in the everyday setting. Prophet by Brandon Graham, Simon Roy et al (Image) is one of the most intriguing and highly unusual pieces of science fiction comics works I have seen in years – it starts off with our hero awakened in a weird, alien future to re-create the Earth Empire, but soon the seemingly straightforward narrative fractures into many unusual shards and angles. Unpredictable and showcasing some truly imaginative sci-fi concepts, probably one of the most out-there SF concepts since Kirby went cosmic.

Hawkeye by Matt Fraction and David Aja (Marvel) – I’ve never really thought much of Hawkeye, but I picked this new series up on the recommendation of Glasgow FP’s Nicola and it turned out to be one of the most fun reads I had all year; funny, adventurous, sometimes sexy, happy to take the mickey out of the genre, stylish, brilliant. Batgirl by Gail Simone et al (DC) – Gail continues to shape an intriguing series of stories while also paying as much attention to the emotional side of her characters, not least Barbara coming to terms with being out of her wheelchair, her guilt that she has been cured when others haven’t, and her desperate need to prove herself worthy of that gift. Batwoman by JH Williams III et al (DC) – very strong female characters, enticing story arcs and some of the finest artwork and kinetic layouts you’ll find in any monthly comic right now. The Silver Darlings, Will Morris (Blank Slate) – the only reason this isn’t in my main selection is simply because it only arrived in the store as I was rushing to get things finished before the Christmas holiday period, so I haven’t had time to read it properly yet, and this gorgeous looking work is one I will not rush, I want to sit down in the New Year and take my time with it. It’s also a lovely looking design, – neat, slim hardback, the sort of edition you just want on your shelves or that makes a classy present. WizzyWig by Ed Piskor (Top Shelf) – a cleverly told look back at a supposedly legendary early hacker that is also a pleasurable nostalgic trip for those of us who remember using some of the early machines that feature throughout, and how these then new technologies seemed so amazing as we started to learn what we could do with them.

And having over-indulged in picks, I need to select a top three so our own Richard can do his traditional number crunching on all of our Best of the Year posts to see what patterns emerge, so from this list, for my top three of 2012 I am choosing Jerusalem by Guy Delisle, Blacksad: a Silent Hell by Canales and Guarnido and my final choice, and indeed my top pick for the whole year, for a brilliant year of different writers, artists and strips and most especially for culminating in that astonishing, bravura piece of editing, writing and art that was three strips converging seamlessly into one gigantic Dredd epic, my favourite comics read of 2012 goes to dear old Uncle Tharg and his various droids for the mighty 2000 AD. I’ve been reading it since the very first issue and 35 years on it can still surprise and delight us all and create something daring and audacious.

Books

Intrusion, Ken MacLeod (Orbit)

Ken is one of those authors that, when a new book of his arrives, I clear my other never-ending to-read pile to get straight into. With his last couple of books he’s been mostly working in very near-future tales and Intrusion continues this trend, drawing on our current state of the world to depict a British society that could easily be tomorrow, dealing with the rights to choose their own path for their own children for a young couple in a society where conformity to the norm (for the greater good, of course) rules, where the surveillance society of today has been taken to its logical (and worrying) extreme (again for the greater good, of course). As you’d expect from Ken he mixes a cracking tale of his characters (ordinary people simply trying to get by with their young family) with fine science fictional touches and much commentary on current hot topic subjects that concern and worry anyone who watches the news. Gripping, thought provoking and stimulating intelligent science fiction from one of our best.

Seven Wonders, Adam Christopher (Angry Robot)

In 2011′s Best of the Year I named Adam’s Empire State as a book to watch for as it was due right at the start of 2012 (Paul Cornell had also highlighted it in his guest Best of the Year). Well to be honest I’d happily include that in my 2012 selection, but since I am already over-running here with my picks, I will instead restrict myself to this, Adam’s second book to come out from Angry Robot in 2012. The world’s superheroes have long since vanquished the supervillains, save for one, the Cowl, still operating on the West Coast of America, which does make some wonder why the city’s protectors – the eponymous Seven Wonders superteam – can’t seem to bring him in. As an ordinary citizen finds himself developing superpowers the status quo will be challenged, but, just as you think you can see where Adam is taking this story he changes tack, brings in twists, new elements and blind-sides the reader to create a very satisfying piece of work that shows obvious love for the superhero genre. A cracking read, the second of his books I have read this year, the second I have enjoyed so much I’ve been recommending it to everyone who will listen. I even forgive Adam for using a title that has stuck an old Fleetwood Mac song in my head for weeks…

Heretic Land, Tim Lebbon (Orbit)

I’ve been reading Tim’s work for years and he still consistently challenges me with each new work. This book, like most of his more recent oeuvre, has been more fantasy based, but still showing some of his horror background – he can go from describing some astonishing different society or history one moment and the next plunges us into brutal acts of violence. In this tale of conflicting histories and the theologies that underpin them there are all sorts of elements from sort-of romance, a father’s quest for his lost son, a dying god, a virulent priesthood whose determination to wipe out any hint of a theology opposed to their own (with dreadful consequences). There are some truly terrifying moments and, unlike some more generic fantasy works Tim never sugar coats or romances the view of struggle and combat, but delivers the description and details in hard fashion – you won’t find anything honourable or romantic about drawing a sword and launching into battle here, you will be down in the dirt and blood and bits and that’s how it should be, while the theological society depicted draws clear analogies to those in our own world who put some religious dogma above the value of human life, instead of it being in service of humanity.

London Falling, Paul Cornell (Tor)

It’s been quite a while since Paul turned his considerable talents back to novel writing – since I first read his early (and interesting) work years ago he has been busy with script work (not least some of the most satisfying episodes of the revived Doctor Who) and has carved himself out a terrific reputation (deservedly so) with comics readers, including work with the Big Two of DC and Marvel. London Falling sees the start of a new prose series, starting with a seemingly normal undercover police operation to bring in a seemingly un-arrestable gang leader in a somewhat run-down, post economic crisis Britain. But events rapidly spiral into strange directions and our normally grounded coppers have to face the fact that there are supernatural elements behind this criminal empire and that now it has touched them, each member of the team can see shadows of the ‘other’ London. Terrifying, but slowly they decide that, dammit, they are coppers and they will adapt their normal police procedures to tackle this threat because that’s their duty… There are some terrifying concepts and quite horrific moments in here, some brilliant dialogue and characters that seem realistic and who grow throughout the tale and, as you’d expect from Paul the intriguing plot ideas are balanced with some very emotionally satisfying elements. Superb.

Exogene, T.C. McCarthy (Orbit)

With Exogene I moved on to the third of T.C. McCarthy’s utterly addictive future-war science fiction series – each of the books is set in the same near-future setting where international co-operation has vanished as nation states fight purely for control of the world’s dwindling resources; you think Iraq was a barely disguised war for oil, it’s nothing compared to this brutal future. However each book, including this one, follows different characters, so although best read together you can jump into any of them. In this one a veteran special ops soldier, close to the raw edge of burn-out, is tasked with a back-ops mission involving escaped ‘Betties’ – the US Army’s genetic warrior women, designed to serve unquestioningly for a period before ‘spoiling’ (like Replicants they may be superior to humans in some ways but they are not designed to last) – who have somehow managed to exceed their ‘best-by’ dates to establish their own culture in Asia. McCarthy again creates a brutal scenario and morally dubious characters shaped by endless war, hating combat and yet also conversely driven to it for the adrenalin rush, it captures that thousand yard stare of the combat veteran and the complexities behind war, with this volume also paying homage to the great Apocalypse Now and that voyage up river into the Heart of Darkness. If you love 2000 AD’s Rogue Trooper you should be reading these.

Also on the book front this year I combined my lifelong loves of both prose and comics by revisiting a science fictional character I have loved since I was a young boy – The Stainless Steel Rat. With the sad new of the passing of the great Harry Harrison in 2012 I had the urge to revisit the tales of Slippery Jim, the galaxy’s greatest thief, and so when back home visiting I dug out my old Rat novels from my old bedroom. Unlike so many novels today which weigh in – often unnecessarily, I think – at a vast, thick page count, these rarely go much over a couple of hundred pages. A quick and enjoyable read, but a wonderful one, just delightful adventure, inventive, funny and with some decent morals in there from our crook with a conscience. I combined this with reading Rebellion’s collected edition of the 2000 AD Stainless Steel Rat adaptations, from the comic’s early days, the strips which first pointed me to Harry’s books as a boy (another debt I have to 2000 AD). A wonderful walk down memory lane and in a year that has proved pretty hard and stressful and emotional there was a lot of comfort in going back to those works, of course, but the nostalgic aspect aside both novels and the comics still stood up well, I thought, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Really, why has no-one made a series of sci-fi films with the Rat yet, eh?

Film & TV

Moonrise Kingdom (Dir: Wes Anderson): It seems to simply and easy to throw terms like ‘quirky’ into any description of Moonrise Kingdom, nonetheless it is indeed quirky, odd and wonderfully charming. A tale of two young childhood sweethearts and the oddball companions and family around them, it could have been schmaltzy or cheesy and instead it is engaging and endearing, inventively shot and left me smiling for days after watching it.

Skyfall (Dir: Sam Mendes): What can I say about this? Bond hits the fiftieth anniversary year in suitably swaggering, hugely confident manner. Dan Craig is, for my money, our best Bond since Connery; he’s just perfect for the part, and this film managed the seemingly contradictory aims of updating Bond for the less fantastical, more hard-edged post Bourne world, while not only keeping but glorying in retaining some of those elements which are what make a Bond film Bond and not just any other superspy thriller. And seriously, just how terrific was it to see that classic Aston Martin again? And national treasure Dame Judy Dench once more showing her M to be more than a match for 007.

Eddie, the Sleepwalking Cannibal: One of my finds from the Edinburgh Film Fest, chosen, I admit freely, purely on the title alone, before I knew anything about it (come on, how could I resist such a title, really?). This Danish-Canadian oddball art-horror-black-comedy is wonderfully unusual – a famous Danish artist who hasn’t actually created new work in years agrees to teach at a remote rural art school in Canada, where he inherits looking after the developmentally challenged Eddie, nephew of the school’s sponsor. When stressed the backward but normally gentle Eddie sleepwalks though, and usually catches and kills animals, eating them raw. Our artist friend thinks this is a good way to get rid of his odious neighbour’s barking dog, but when Eddie also sleep-kills and eat the neighbour too things go further than he planned. And then he finds his artistic spark suddenly re-ignited… Is the bloody accident the cause? And if so what to do…. Still waiting on a distribution deal in the UK, I think, which is a great shame, it’s a brilliant and unusual work, if you see it getting a screening then take advantage of it.

Rust and Bone: This French film looks like it could so-easily turn into a clichéd unlikely romance between two very different but damaged people, the sort of thing we’ve all seen many time before. And indeed there is a romance here between the rough-edged bruiser who can barely look after his son or hold down a job, moving to crash at his sister’s home in the south of France and the educated marine biologist who looks after the killer whales in the aquarium. But it’s really not what you think, the path which leads to these two damaged people (he emotionally stunted, she disabled by a dreadful accident at work – some amazing prosthetic and effect work to make the wonderful Marion Cottilard look as if she has lost both legs) to come together, first as friends, later perhaps a form of romance may develop, is convoluted and unpredictable – often I really didn’t know which way it was going to go, which I enjoyed, and a couple of major scenes took me totally by surprise.

Grabbers: Another of my finds from the Edinburgh Film Fest – this Irish creature-feature revels in its love of classic B-movie horror-science fiction flicks, in a manner reminiscent of the excellent Nathan Fillion-starring Slither, but with a uniquely Irish take on things, from dialogue (heroine whacks the alien monster with cry of “shut up, ye gobshite”) to a plan to survive the monstrous attack (it involves the pub and gallons of booze). It’s enormous fun, pays homage to some classic SF and horror flicks along the way and has some memorable characters. I reviewed it back in June and called it “this year’s Troll Hunter” (which was another of my Film Fest finds the previous year) – it has been getting a limited theatrical release recently and a DVD release so you can check it out for yourself.

The Artist: a pure delight from start to finish, a charming and warm love letter to those early glory days of the silent movie era and the birth of Hollywood and the film star, another film that just had me smiling for days afterwards. And as a bonus the brilliant French live action Lucky Luke film I reviewed at the Film Festival a couple of years ago finally got a UK release on the strength of The Artist’s performance as leading man Jean Dujardin also played the comic book cowboy.

The Almighty Johnsons: I’ve actually been enjoying several series on SyFy this last year – the final season of Eureka, new Warehouse 13 and Have (both of which have developed well beyond their original fun but limited odd event of the week beginnings to become quite compelling), but this second season of telefantasy about mortal reincarnations of Norse gods living in New Zealand has just been brilliant, developing further this season from a slow start to become much more complex as Axl (mortal host to the spirit of Odin) continues his quest to find the woman who is host to his great love, Frig – their reunion should, in theory, cause he and his brothers to transcend their mortal form and regain full godlike powers. But this wonderfully quirky and unusual Kiwi work is far more than the quest it is framed around, there are some brilliant characters and a great mixture of the myth/fantasy elements with the more down to earth elements of family life. It’s odd, it’s different, it’s Kiwi and I love it.

And I can’t miss out a mention to Fringe, which continues to be one of the smartest science fiction series I’ve enjoyed in years, long since evolving past its weird-case-of-the-week beginnings into a complex, reality and time-line crossing linked narrative with characters that you become very attached to. Special mention must be made for John Noble’s incredibly nuanced portrayal of Dr Walter Bishop; that man has consistently displayed some incredible acting craft throughout the series.

Kenny Penman is also the publisher of Blank Slate Books, one of a group of new young Brit publishers making a noise in the world of comics and winner of Best Book 2012 at the British Comic Awards for the acclaimed Nelson….

TOP 3 COMICS 2012:

1. Building Stories – Chris Ware

However you approached the notion that the ‘narrative’ could be assimilated in a number of non didactic ways – eventually this still felt like a story about one main character.

As one expects now from Ware it looked simply amazing – some of the pages with the flowers as lovely as anything in comics. I also thought the writing was assured as any Ware comic to date. I found the whole thing a well of optimism in the intresting-ness of near normal lives.

Brilliant. Let us hope Ware never tires of striving for perfection – this came close.

2. Love & Rockets New Stories and God and Science: Return Of The Ti-Girls – Hernandez Brothers

This years L&R was devoid of Maggie and felt like a time out from the tying together of loose ends that Jaime’s work in the last 2 issues had turned into the best comics of their respective years. It was still excellent though and gave some character to Vivian who has always seemed a little undefined in the L&R universe.

Gilbert unexpectedly returned to Palomar and those of us who had missed the work he did on those incredible stories cheered. In truth it felt a little like sleight of hand, the story environment and most of the characters felt familiar but Gilbert used it rather pointedly, using Pio’s words to more or less stick two fingers up to those who slight his more recent non Palomar work. The ending also leaned much more to work like The Troublemakers maintaining the B-moive series tone to a larger than expected extent.

God and Science added a load of new pages to Jaime’s superhero girl team from L&R NS 1 and 2 – as lovely to look at as any comic you will see. Another year is almost always another great year for the brothers – any small quibbles aside, these guys still make the most consistently good comics year after year.

3. The Great Unwashed – Pleece Brothers

This book took forever to finally appear – and you might still find it hard to find given it seems near impossible to get copies out of the publisher.

Still, it’s a beautifully made book – it has heft and feels lovely in the hand as well as being very nicely designed. If you aren’t familiar with the material it’s nearly 25 years old but read it now and it could have been made yesterday. In the history of UK self-publishing – Velocity (the comic where most of this first appeared) may well have been the most accomplished thing ever to have come out of a bedroom or garden shed. Most strips run 6 – 8 pages with longer work like Montague Terrace (soon to see new adventures coming from Cape) giving the work a little more room to breathe.

Warren’s art is fantastic – if you have ever loved Toth or the ink wash art of Creepy and Eerie where people like Ditko did outstanding work the work here is the equal of much of that. A simply sensational book – put the work in to track down a copy.

…. AND THE REST:

Aside from those top 3 here are a bundle of things I liked this year. Not necessarily the best, but some stuff you might have missed which I liked a lot.

It’s great to see a lot of effort going into making comics important for kids again in a way that looks to making something parents will want to read with their children. With both Reprodukt in Germany and NoBrow in the UK starting stand alone imprints momentum can only increase. Currently leading the pack has to be Toon Books and I loved their book ‘The Shark King‘ – wonderful, pared-down art bu Kikuo Johnson and lovely colouring. Also worth searching out was Sam Hiti’s ‘Waga’s Big Scare’ released by Carol Rhoda books.

UK comics continue to put out some great books and leaving aside Blank Slate’s own – my faves this year were ‘The Nao of Brown‘, ‘Dockwood‘ and the scabarous genius of Krent Able’s ‘Big Book of Mischief‘. Out of the US scene Koyama Press began to emerge as a major voice and my unmissable books of theirs were ‘By this shall you know him’ by Jesse Jacobs which managed to be charming, experimental and beautifully drawn at the same time, and Tin Can Forest’s ‘Wax Cross’ which again felt like an east European folk tale made magically real on the page.

Ron Rege Jr. returned after what seemed like a long break and his ‘The Cartoon Utopia‘ was as mind-blowing as you might expect – a book to lose yourself in for hours. Now we are with more formally experimental comics, Fremok did a great collection of Marco Turunen’s work ‘Ovnis A Lahti’ in France and Reprodukt had a new book by Anke Feuchtenberger ‘Die Spaziergangerin’ – which brought together work from her early design heavy period and some astonishingly detailed current drawing. There was a new ‘Victor & Vishnu’ book from the brilliant Jeroen Funke and I loved it as much as the first without being able to read the Dutch (the first book is wordless) – Jeroen and the Lamelos crew are making great comics – it can’t be long until someone picks them up for English publication as part of the whole Flemish comics goldrush.

In the US small press – almost everything Box Brown put out through Retrofit is worth a look and I loved Angie Wang’s ‘Girl Apocalypse’, Sam Alden’s ‘Farmer’s Dilemma’ and Michel Fiffe’s 2nd issue of ‘Zegas’ – all three are making great comics and I fully expect their names to be heard more in the coming year.

If there is one comic I want translated more than any it is the brilliant series ‘Soil’ by Atsushi Kaneko – you might know Kaneko from the translated volumes of his hyperkinetic ‘Bambi and her pink gun’. The 11th volume just came out and this huge science fiction story seems fantastic. Kaneko makes some incredible art like a combination of Charles Burns (BTW his new book this year was great too) and Matsumoto – go on, someone put me out of my misery.

Finally, for pure fetish object of the year nothing beat the beauty of the reprint of Manuele Fior’s ‘Cinq Mille Kilometres Par Seconde’ done in a tiny edition by French press Esprit BD Editions. The book is coming out in an English version next year and is well worth adding to your buying list now. This edition presented the art around 2.5 times the original book and is simply beautiful. Looking forward to a great comics 2013.

Giants Beware by Rafael Rosado, Jorge Aguirre: Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.  Claudette lives in a town famous for its giant-slaying and huge giant-repelling stone walls. Despite this rich history, the townspeople are now content to sit in their safe haven and no longer actively seek out giants, a development Claudette is not happy with. And so she sets out  dragging along her culinary sensation of a little brother and best friend and feminist princess-in-waiting, Marie to do what she has always dreamed of. Bristling with personality, humour and verve, Giants Beware is simply a must-read comic.

But I Really Wanted to be an Anthropologist by Margaux Motin: Richard describes this as ‘Posy Simmonds meets Sex in the City’: I’ve never watched Sex and the City so I’m going to take his word for it. I have to admit I grappled a little with this choice, it seems a slight, sort of trifle-y choice, but not everything has to be thematically important and deal with ISSUES.  It is so beautifully rendered and the humour so entertaining,  you’ll find yourself, like me, rifling through it in one sitting.

Through the Walls by Jean-Luc Cornette, Stephane Oiry: Oiry’s art made this book for me, his fine-lined whimsy prettily off-setting Cornette’s tales:

‘Through the Walls is a series of little stories about unconnected people possessing the same ability: to walk through walls, or pass through any kind of material- people animals, metal. Having eased the reader in with a light, humorous opener, Cornette then begins to insinuate ideas that unsettle and make you question. What at first glance appears to be a collection of quirky, light vignettes, turns out to be something altogether off-kilter, and as the book goes on, it interjects a weird thought here, some jarring behaviour there, getting progressively more morally dubious and indeterminate.’

CowBoy by Nate Cosby, Chris Elipoulous: My dad imbued his love of kung-fu movies and westerns in me from a young age and the tone of CowBoy is perfectly done, serious but with knowing asides. It was the first book I read early in the year and knew it would make it to this list:

‘On paper, a comic about a 10 year old  boy riding through the wild west to round up errant members of his family doesn’t sound like it would work -shouldn’t work- let alone be one of the best books of the year, but that’s exactly what it is. Sick of his family’s errant ne’er do-well ways, Boyd has taken the law into his own hands  and decided to round them all up one by one and deliver them to the Marshall. The best and perhaps most surprising thing about Cow Boy is the depth of emotion it manages to convey.’

Nobrow 7 Brave New World: Volume 7 of the Nobrow anthology was where it all came together beautifully for me. Both the comics and illustration sections were outstanding and the sheer quality of the contributors involved staggering: Joseph Lambert, Anders Nilsen, Tom Gauld, Jiliina Tamaki, Joost Swarte, Micahel DeForge and many, many others.

‘The illustration in Nobrow has always been of a high standard, but as with most multi-author anthologies, the comics have been a little inconsistent, although these have steadily and vastly improved. As much as I enjoyed The Double, Brave New World is a wowzer- it felt like there was a greater creative scope at play here.’

Batman The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion: I’m a childhood Batman fan, but I’ve always read in trades, which allows you to pick and choose the Bat titles you’re after. I’m a big fan of what Snyder’s doing with the book:

‘Snyder describes his approach to Batman as ‘steak and potatoes’ and on the evidence of this, The Black Mirror and The Gates of Gotham, it’s one that serves him well. The Court of Owls combines a lot of elements to deliver a  Batman story that triumphs on several levels and is intriguing, entertaining and engrossing.’

Koma by Pierre Wazem, Frederik Peeters: This had a little of everything- ambition without pretension:

‘Bold and skewy, imaginative and fresh, bursting with ideas, humour, charm, weirdness and above all just so much heart: in the story, but more from the people behind it, whose sheer effort and talent is evident on every page. It’s that heart which pushes you onwards through its flaws and knotty, convoluted bits. . . It jumps from genre and plot-point to sequences like a joyful little character bounding through the stages of a video game, incorporating everything from super-heroics, otherworldly creatures, mystery, family drama, emotion, surrealism, creationism.’

Pippi Moves In by Astrid Lingdren, Ingrid Vang Nyman: I love slightly twisted children’s books and this comic adaptation of Pippi Longstocking fulfills that remit beautifully. Vang Nyman’s skewy, weird, static drawings (those eyes!) combine with the ultimate parent-less fantasy as Pippi marches through life young, rich and good at everything.

The Complete Rainbow Orchid by Garen Ewing: The first time I read this, and collected together as Ewing originally intended, I believe. I’m a sucker for ligne claire, but Ewing’s adventure of a search for a rare, possibly non-existent flower left me more excited than that sentence can possibly recount. I have no further words for it: it’s just a fantastic comic.

Amulet 5 Prince of the Elves by Kazu Kibuishi: There are two ‘series’ I follow religiously- The Stuff of Legend and Kazu Kibuishi’s excellent Amulet adventure books. Kibuishi excels at world building and where the last volume felt that perhaps the end was nigh, he developed new angles here in a manner that felt real and fitting and left me once again eagerly looking forward to 2013′s book.

Best mini-comics:

The Monkey in the Basement/ It Doesn’t Exist by Corinne Mucha: I wrote about Mucha being the queen of mini-comics here, do yourself a favour and go buy some. Monkey won her an Ignatz, but I particularly enjoyed It Doesn’t Exist which was more thoughtful in tone.

New Sludge City by Brendan Leach, Retrofit Comics: Box Brown had a stonker of a year with Retrofit Comics, and in an ideal world he would receive recognition of some kind. I’m a fan of Leach’s art: its sharp and scrapy looking and he handily writes rather well too. Sludge City reminded me of Inception, but perhaps only in the swapping mind/bodies sense.

Flocks by L. Nichols, Retrofit Comics: A perfect example of what mini-comics can achieve:

‘Despite the topical nature of her subjects, Nichols retains an even handed, non-judgmental tone, perhaps because the focus is largely on her individual struggle here. Discussions and stories about religion and homosexuality are still rare, so it makes me proud to see it being done in comics and done in such a beautiful, resonant and evocative manner.’

Gold Star by John Martz, Retrofit Comics: And just to hammer home how awesome Retrofit was this year: this is the fourth entry from them on this list, and no, they’re not paying me. Martz’s Gold Star= situational comedy with a sharp little twist.

Ablatio Penis by Will Dinski, 2D Cloud: Review upcoming, hopefully. On the surface Dinski’s comic appears to be a pithy and timely commentary on politics in the USA and the maneuvering of morals and campaigns, but ostensibly it’s about what defines a person and the difference in the way in which we perceive ourselves and the way others perceive us.

Farmer’s Dilemma by Sam Alden: A comic about a fox cub raised by two chickens, which is essentially about growing up, expectations and fulfillment. Alden’s art is a thing of quiet majesty here. I’m really proud of the fact that I managed to grab a copy of the print edition of this- it’s one of my most treasured possessions.

The End of the Fucking World by Charles Forsman, Oily Comics: I’ve only read the first seven issues of Forsman’s slice of Americana out of fourteen and it’s pretty breathtaking what he achieves over 12 pages per issue. The reader never feels theyr’e being skimped on in any way: I don’t know how he does it, but it’s a lesson in storytelling.

Murder She Writes by John Allison: Is there anyone left who hasn’t heard of John Allison’s comic mastery? It seems perfunctory at this point, but Allison’s output and quality shouldn’t be taken for granted. As consistently good as Bad Machinery is (and it is very good), I do enjoy the spin-off tales featuring one of the kids outside their normal environment. Mystery is my favourite genre and Lottie my most-loved character, so this was a real treat.

The Whale House by Andrew Cheverton, Chris Doherty, Angry Candy: I really liked this, though it’s perhaps technically a first issue rather than a mini-comic. However, I don’t know when, or if, we’re getting another and it certainly impressed me enough to merit a spot on here. An intriguingly set up mystery complete with rambling country house and oddball characters. I’d love to see more.

Comiques vol 2 by Anne Emond: Anne Emond is very funny and makes comics that are snarky and familiar and warmly-drawn. This is a collection of them. You know someone is good when you wish they produced more work. I wish Emond produced more comics, but I was happy to settle for this this year.

Webcomic of the year: Black is the Colour by Julia Gfrorer at Study Group Comics: there should be no excuse for missing out on this- it’s online, it’s free, it’s bloody superb.

And that is it for 2012. Honourable mentions to Saga and Days of the Bagnold Summer who just missed out on spots. Often when you become really immersed in something it can be difficult to gain perspective and writing about comics does take away the pleasure of reading them a little, which is ironic as that’s usually what gets you started in the first place. Looking back, I think what I’ve personally been most surprised and impressed by has been the discovery of creators who self-publish and distribute and the genuine quality of that output. Most of my reading material has revolved around that area and it’s one I’m looking forward to exploring further next year. Happy 2013!

Frankly, it’s been a quite magnificent year for UK comics. There seems to have been more great works of increasing diversity than ever before. The British comic scene is growing and growing, beginning to get some recognition outside these shores, with both Europe and the US beginning to take note.

Personally, it’s been a great year on the FPI blog as well, and there’s been much fun spreading the word of UK comics far and wide.

An absolute highlight was being part of the inaugural British Comics Awards, held at this years Thought Bubble festival. Everyone worked hard for this but special mention must go to organiser and prime-mover Adam Cadwell, who also shepherded a new publishing company into existence (Great Beast with Marc Ellerby), published issue 2 of his Blood Blokes comic and published the beautiful hardback collection of his comic The Everyday. Busy year for Cadwell.

I’d like to once more offer congratulations to all of the nominees and the winners; John Allison (Best Comic), Raymond Briggs (Hall of Fame), Josceline Fenton (Emerging Talent), Luke Pearson (Young People’s Award), Woodrow Phoenix & Rob Davis (for helming Nelson to Best Book). The British Comic Awards will return in 2013 at Thought Bubble.

So, here are what I reckon are my top ten for 2012, in alphabetical order…

2000AD

This really had to be in here didn’t it? I spent most of this year detailing my weekly walk to the shops to get a dose of Thrill-Power (in the 2012 2000AD Pledge – posts here). For a while I thought I’d deal with individual strips, with Wagner et al’s Judge Dredd Day Of Chaos obviously a high point, but Edginton and Culbard’s Brass Sun coming very close.

(To digress slightly here… Brass Sun was going to be in the ten, until the final cut. In the end it dropped off the edge as it really needs to have the concluding book to make it a complete work.)

Back to the point… The end of the year brought the excellent Cold Deck storyline to a close with the simply audacious brilliance of Trifecta, where Judge Dredd, Lowlife and The Simping Detective joined together to deliver one wonderful conclusion to a great story, technically original, a real thriller. But the work had already been done thanks to writers Al Ewing, Rob Williams, Si Spurrier and artists Henry Flint, D’Israeli, Simon Coleby and Carl Critchlow.

So, for the whole year of enjoyment, for the cumulative effect, but especially for Day Of Chaos, for The Cold Deck, for Trifecta, 2000AD makes it on here.

Abelard by Renaud Dillies and Régis Hautiére

Made me cry. And by now many of you know just what a hopelessly sentimental fool I am. But more than that Abelard surprised me with the intensity it packed into the imagery. It may look superficially cute, but this tale of the immigrant experience is something that tugs at the heartstrings without falling into cutesy sweet, and mixes that sentiment with absolute brutality at almost every point along Abelard’s journey of wonders.

“I’m just soppy, and something like this really does get me every time. But I got to the end of the book, turned that final page and had a good, long cry. A harder heart than mine may find it too sentimental and determined to break hearts with a mix of sweet imagery and brutal themes, but I’m too busy wiping away the tears to hear those complaints thanks very much.“

Arthur and Posy Issue 1 & Issue 2 by Ella Risbridger and Graham Johnson

This is a wonderful little comic book, rough, raw, vibrant, absolutely charming. It’s the tale of Arthur and Posy: “A big glittery gay fairytale fandango about a boy who’s too pretty to be a boy and a girl who doesn’t want to be a girl”.

That’s how Risbridger and Johnson describe it on the back covers, and it absolutely nails the mood and the themes in here. But what it doesn’t do is give you a sense of the sheer joy and warmth in Arthur and Posy. Just a few pages in and I’m already deeply involved with the comic, wanting to discover just what will come next…

“I love how Risbridger’s writing them, love Johnson’s artwork. I love the sense of playfulness that goes through it all, a lovely mix of picture book and comics, big typography and raw lines. But it simply works. We sit, outside time and place, and exist in a simple world, where we get completely wrapped up in what happens to these two. It’s quite wonderful.“

But I Really Wanted To Be An Anthropologist by Margaux Motin

Like I said in the review, this one is easy; “Posy Simmonds meets Sex & The City. With all the best of Simmonds and little of the worst of S&TC“.

It’s sublimely funny, quite beautifully drawn, fashion iconography, meticulous design, a gorgeous line, a definite page-turner, and funny, so funny. Did I mention funny?

“…it becomes something more than merely S&TC repeated for the comic page. Suddenly it becomes something deliberately exaggerated for comic and comedic effect, Motin taking her life and exposing it to ridicule, not in the ways those Yummy Mummys tend to, but in a genuine artistic view on her life, and all her faults, all her triumphs.“

Funny and gorgeous. I mentioned that already yes?

The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward – by H.P. Lovecraft, text adapted and illustrated by I.N.J. Culbard

As a Lovecraft novice, this finally did the job, all thanks to Culbard’s perfect adaptation.

“With all the Lovecraft I’ve read so far, including Culbard’s At The Mountains Of Madness adaptation, I’ve bemoaned the fact that I never really got the chills and the creeps I was somewhat hoping for. Page 39 of The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward. That’s when I got the chill I was after, a huge great chill, right down my spine. I nearly shouted out in excitement once it had passed. At last, at last, at last.“

The thing is, this was my 10th choice here on the list, simply because I was putting off the most difficult decision on this list – choose this or go with another Culbard illustrated book, the far funnier than this one Deadbeats. Hideously tough choice, but this one snuck it just for the chills.

Cindy & Biscuit by Dan White

This was on the best of 2011 list for issue 1, and as good as that first issue was, as wonderful, as heart-rending, issue 2 takes everything White delivered there and ups the ante. I haven’t gotten around to issue 3 yet, but I’m confident that nothing in there would displace this from its position here.

“For every moment [White] makes us thrill to the exploits of his heroine kicking butt and taking down the bad guys, there are moments of quiet sadness, that our experiences tell us are all too terribly real. In Cindy & Biscuit Issue 1 it was the realisation that whatever she did, no matter what monstrous threat to the human race she vanquished, she still had to go home to a critical look and disparaging remark from a mom too busy to care. And here it’s the realisation that she can do so much good and yet still, when she gets back on the school bus, she’s the outcast at the back, teased and picked on by her peers. 

So sad, so beautifully sad,and so beautifully real.“

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

Oh, I meant to talk about this before now, I really really did. Meant to talk about it every moment from receiving all six copies I ordered. One for the Bruton household, five for the primary school library.

Raina Telgemeier’s debut book Smile proves consistently popular with each new school year that reads it, and although Drama takes the subject out of the autobiographical and into pure fiction, and does so with slightly older themes it’s still a book that has been pounced on and absolutely adored.

And as at school, so in the Bruton household. If my darling daughter ever gets her arse into gear I’m pretty sure she’ll tell you how great it is, but until then, you’ll just have to put up with me telling you how absolutely uplifting it is, how wonderfully it reads, how entertaining it is. Perfect stuff.

Ellerbisms by Marc Ellerby

Look, you’re going to have to trust me on this one as I haven’t reviewed this yet in this collected form. But I did review Ellerbisms in comic form here and here. This new collection takes all that was powerful and effecting, all that was funny, all that was truthful, and brave, and impressive and makes it simply better, more complete.

“And much to my delight over the months since the stuff in volume 1 came out Marc started putting more and more detail in his work, started linking pages, making more of a story from strip to strip. It just got better and better. But something happened to Ellerbisms along the way whilst I was reading it, something absolutely remarkable and absolutely fascinating. Marc fell in love”

And all that is still in here, but with distance it’s been given context, been made stronger, more coherent. It is now a complete story, albeit one with an arbitrary end, as do most diary comics. Ellerby has made something very special in Ellerbisms, but in collecting it here, he has turned something special to something sublime.

(And before we move on, a brief mention for Ellerby’s other thing, his whinging ginger ninja Chloe Noonan had a Colour Special and a digital omnibus this year, and they made it onto this year’s long list.)

Hugo Tate by Nick Abadzis

My absolute love for Nick Abadzis’ quite incredible Hugo Tate has been something I’ve talked of a number of times over the years. But this year, thanks to this quite wonderful  complete collection of all the Hugo Tate strips from Deadline, I got to tell you all…

“….whilst Deadline hit its highs early and then coasted down into obscurity and cancellation, whilst some strips burned fast and bright, some vanished outright, and the girl with the tank went global, Nick Abadzis’ little stick man with attitude developed and developed and developed, outgrew his humble single page origins, got form (but never a real face) and went on to take on the world (or at least a big part of the USA).

And now, thanks to this Blank Slate Books collection, this thing of beauty and wonder is at last available to all. Finally everyone has the chance to see a class cartoonist grow and develop his creation right in front of your eyes, going from raw and rough to polished and precise, brilliant and brutal faster than some of those indie bands of Deadline went from cover star to job centre.”

The final line of my review is simple; “But Hugo Tate is that rarity. I beseech you, seek it out. A masterpiece“. I can’t argue with that at all. Masterpiece.

Smoo by Simon Moreton

Here we go, another one I’ve read but haven’t managed to review yet. But I have reviewed much of Simon Moreton’s work, including issue 5 of Smoo published earlier in 2012. I used the phrase “beautiful reduction” in the title of that review, and it really does summarise Moreton’s work in my mind so very, very well. Issue 5 was beautiful reduction, issue 6 is beautiful reduction near perfected.

What Moreton does here isn’t traditional, certainly isn’t narrative driven. In fact, it’s not a lot of things. But what it actually is is quiet simplicity, gentle beauty and complete clarity in the vagaries of the imagery that Moreton has been delivering consistently over the last few issues, and although it’s quiet, although it’s gentle, it’s also incredibly powerful to me.

And that’s it. I’m done. Seriously. Finished. There’s the 10. Which means now I spend my time explaining and apologising for what you’ve just read….

As far as what was bubbling under, what made the long list… well, you could look at any of the monthly best of posts I do here for those, but I must mention a few; the as yet unreviewed The Everyday by Adam Cadwell, the similarly not reviewed Hilda and the Bird Parade by Luke Pearson are in there somewhere just shy of the ten. Likewise Martin Stiff’s The Absence is probably down here in the next ten rather than the top 10 because it was in the top 10 last year and in 2010.

Dotter of her Father’s Eyes by Mary and Bryan Talbot is another sitting in the next 10, and Bryan Talbot’s recently released Grandville Bete Noir would very probably be there or there abouts, except it still sits on the pile of Christmas books yet to be read.

Perhaps the most glaring omissions here are three comics that feature already in several best of lists here on the FPI Blog: Saga, Martin Eden’s Spandex, and Glyn Dillon’s Nao Of Brown. Simply no time – I have Grandville, Spandex and Nao in the review pile right now. Saga will have to wait until we get a break in all the great UK comics coming out, which thankfully, right now, looks like never.

There really is so much great comic work out there right now, and yet there is but 24 hours a day available. And actually, thanks to the new tablets the doctor has me on, I’m beginning to use a couple more of those 24 hours for sleep now.

But regardless of what I’ve missed, of what I have wrong, of what you reckon is your top 10 for the year, I can categorically state that the 10 I’ve picked right there above this are 10 of the best I’ve read in 2012, and a fine, fine collection they are as well. Here’s to 2013, may it bring wonders anew.

We shall start with our continental correspondent: Wim Lockefeer:

2012 was a good year for comics, I think. It was the year that I tried superhero comics again, after having ignored them since the whole DC overhaul, and what I read (Batman, Swamp Thing, Dial H) I quite liked. Still, the most interesting comics are often to be found outside your average 32 pamphlet (paper or otherwise). Which is why these ten titles more often than not have hard covers :

1. Les Ignorants by Etienne Davodeau (Futuropolis)

Davodeau is one of the best and most original voices in current French comics. He is among the very few who dare to tackle non-fashionable social issues, or write about ordinary people.  Les Ignorants is in a way a continuation of his oeuvre, but also a sincere detour. The book is the journal of one year of Davodeau’s life, when he worked in the vinyards of his friend, Richard Leroy. He doesn’t know anything about wine, and Leroy doesn’t read comics. Together they talk, drink (wine, naturally), read and try to show why they chose to dedicate their life to that one thing. Les Ignorants is a very warm-hearted book, steering miles away from sensation and action, but leaving you with a sense of accomplishment. And a thirst for wine.

2. Cartoon Monarch by Otto Soglow (ed. by Dean Mullaney, IDW)

Otto Soglow’s The Little King is one of the earliest comics I remember. It ran in the newspaper that my grandparents bought and its cartoony, almost schematic style together with an almost complete lack of dialogue won me over at a very, very young age. I’d been looking for a comprehensive Little King collection for a while, and this edition really delivered. The book contains about 400 pages of strips, from the early 1930′s until 1975, from The Little King and its predecessor, the Ambassador, painstakingly reproduced.  I still thoroughly enjoy the often absurd and childish, but never silly ideas of the cartoon monarch, who is often wiser than you’d think.

3. Swarte Comics by Joost Swarte (Oog & Blik)

Early in the year the long-awaited collected comics by Dutch Clear Line king Joost Swarte finally was published (in English, as Is This All There Is by Fantagraphics). That title was quite ominous, as indeed, the collection was far from complete and, sadly, seemed aimed at confirming the (totally wrong) impression that Swarte is an illustrator first, and a cartoonist second (or even third…). Thanks to the two tiny Swarte Comics volumes that Oog en Blik published when Swarte won the Marten Toonder Award, we know differently. The books contain strips by Swarte for Hollands Diep and The New Yorker, and show him as keen a satirist as when he did Passi Messa. Highly recommended!

4. La Douce by François Schuiten (Casterman)

Even though I’m a great admirer of François Schuiten’s art (especially in the Cités Obscures series), he has always been a very imaginative and creative architect to me – it always seemed as if his characters were nothing more than a pretext for him to be able to draw extreme buildings from extreme angles.  And again, in La Douce, the main character is not a person, but rather a Type 12 steam locomotive that Schuiten fell in love with while working on the design for the future Belgian Rail Museum.  The result is nothing less than a poem, an ode to streamlined speed and yesteryear technology, but at the same time to the love between the most unlikely of partners.

5. Goliath by Tom Gauld (Drawn & Quarterly)

It takes a special kind of genius to retell a story that’s known by all and turn it into the lost episode of the Office.  In Tom Gauld’s Goliath, the Philistine giant is not so much the champion of the enemies of the jews, but rather a lowly administrative assistent, who happens to be bigger than everybody else. Solely based on his extraordinary size, and without any additional character or talent assessment, he is picked to act as his army’s champion. Goliath flees the army, but is bullied and shamed into his role. Like so many office temps, goes beyond the call of duty, and dies in the process. Once more, Gauld tells much more than his sparce drawings would suggest, and once more he does it masterfully.

6. When David Lost His Voice by Judith Vanistendael (SelfMadeHero)

Earlier, with her debut Dance By The Light Of The Moon, Flemish cartoonist Judith Vanistendael showed herself a most sensitive and observant writer, full of empathy for all her characters. In her new book she has shed almost all references to her great examples  and morphed that early promise in a very moving, poetic story about human suffering, loss and the inevitable finality of life. The story in itself is heartwrenching, but the art simply takes your breath away. Vanistendael has completely freed herself from the shackles of any “style”, and uses lines and colors, backgrounds and frames as they fit her purpose. Truly a a great book that deserves wider recognition.

7. La Foire Aux Gangsters by Franquin and Jidéhem (Dupuis)

Dupuis has been spoiling us off late, with quality integrales (reprints of entire BD runs, often with extensive notes) and special editions of classic books. With this, La Foire Aux Gangsters (The Gangsters’ Funfair), a second filler story in the Spirou Et Fantasio series is giving the attention it deserves : next to the completely recoloured story, the book features quite a considerate comments section and the original art for each page. And a classic it is : it’s got suspense, great action and even a cameo by that most favourite of anti-heroes : Gaston! The book even has the original ending to the story, until now deemed to controversial for the album run. Even if you don’t read French, you’ll simply fall in love with these books.

8. Young Albert by Yves Chaland (Humanoids)

It’s a little strange, reading a book that is basically a celebration of a fictionalized Belgium-in-the-1930′s, published in an oversized, larger-than-life deluxe edition by an American publisher. Young Albert was a series in the French comics magazine Métal Hurlant, chronicling the life and opinions of a young Brussels ketje who may well have been the neighbor to Hergé’s Quick and Flupke. He’s unapologetically selfish, celebrates the traditional mores of the day and is never afraid to pick on the weak. Chaland used this character to satirize the “good old days” of the mid-20th century, while at the same time not shying away from the graphical melancholy that is so typically of his fellow ligne claire artists. With a print run of only 550, you may want to hurry here.

9. Before Watchmen: Minutemen by Darwyn Cooke (DC)

I’m not a great fan of spin-offs, prequels, sequels and similar attempts to artificially continue something finite that was great in and of itself, and I was very weary of DC’s decision to do a whole shelf of prequels to that canonised volume that is Watchmen. Still, I’m a fan, and you can’t hold a fan down, so I tried Cooke’s take on the Minutemen story, and I liked it. It showed the same broad stroke that Cooke applied to the JLA mythos in The New Frontier, whilst at the same time sticking very close to the story in the original graphic novel. Cooke indeed tends to get wordier every year, but with splendid art like that, who’s to complain?

10. Nobrow 7 (Nobrow)

And finally, my favorite anthology for the moment. Part comics compendium, part annual of fine illustrative art, Nobrow amazes me with each issue. Not only because of the production value, but also because of the lineup these guys manage to get together every time. They are all here : Joost Swarte, Tom Gauld, Luke Pearson; Anders Nilsen, Joseph Lambert and many more. The chauvinist in me is also very pleased in the continuous presence of Flemish new graphical talent in these volumes, and more particularly Sam Vanallemeersch’s simply dazzling cover.  There are two kinds of people : those who dig Nobrow, and those who don’t. Choose your side, but do it carefully.

Jailbird (http://an.oddlookingbird.com/) by Ashley Davis

This is my favourite new comic of the year. Ashley Davis’ Jailbird is an ongoing webcomic about the titular bird’s escape back to the outside world. Immediately we are drawn into the story, using my favoured form of narrative: in medias res. The first image is that of Jailbird popping her head out of the snow-blanketed ground, her heavy breathing and relieved-yet-anxious expression giving us a story unto itself. Just what did Jailbird do that landed her in the cold prison she broke free from? Why did she decide to escape into the even colder outside world? With these questions asked by the artwork alone — and not a single line of dialogue is spoken in its first 29 pages — we are sucked right in. Of course, it helps that Davis’ art is the purest possible eye candy, with rich blacks & whites and atmospheric halftones carried right into the site design, as well as clean and adorable characters everywhere you look.

The sincerity, intelligence and natural flow of Davis’ storytelling is made all the more impressive by the use of formal experimentation in every page. Throughout Jailbird’s first dozen pages alone, we are treated to: characters breaking out of panels, blackened silhouettes, elemental shapes for backgrounds, walking animations without the use of animation, dotted map lines to denote flight/movement, panels that lead into other panels, pages that pull objects from the background into the foreground, and so on.

Formal experimentation is very tricky to pull off well in comics, especially this consistently — the key is to first have a story and characters that one would actually care for, and only from there consider playing around with the format when you tackle the pages. When done correctly, it can make the comic feel even more tailored to the characters’ plight. Jailbird accomplishes this without a single false note. Even with the impressive style, there is a very real emotional core to the story, with some small scenes being either truly heartwarming or outright devastating.

The Nameless Stories (http://amei.wratbox.com/nameless/0.html) by Amei Zhao

Amei Zhao’s new webcomic The Nameless Stories began this year with its first chapter — “The Sky Is A Hollow Sea” — arriving as a jolt of expressive, elemental comics poetry. Philosophy is treated as an expression of the spirit rather than the mind, and emotion is treated as repressed/unearthed memory, with this juxtaposition of the human mind and soul revealed as a cycling, cosmic love story.

What makes The Nameless Stories accessible despite its heavy themes is the lightness of Zhao’s artwork, rendered so delicately as to be diaphanous. This is art with a lot of weight on its shoulders, and Zhao is willing to let it shake and shudder beneath the load.

balderdash! (http://balderdashcomic.wordpress.com/, to soon be on http://www.balderdashcomic.com/) by Victoria Grace Elliott

balderdash!, by Victoria Grace Elliott, is a promising new fantasy-adventure comic with a very modest beginning. A lot more baking is involved here than in most comics I’ve read in this (or any other) year — right down to actual recipes being taught by the main character at the end of each chapter. It is hard not to feel hungry while reading it.

The central character is Georgie, a young witch about to go on a journey to a far-away bakery, where she will become its assistant. So, yes, fans of Kiki’s Delivery Service will likely want to get in on the ground floor with this one. Elliott has hinted at elements of a surprisingly epic, imaginative narrative, however, which should help ensure balderdash!’s own unique place as a baker-witch fantasy.

How did 2012 go for you as a creator? Are you happy with the way you got your work out this year?

Spera: Volume I came out from Archaia this year, which made this year very important and satisfying for me both personally and professionally. To put it another way, I feel that this is the year my comics career officially began.

The second volume of Spera is currently being serialised digitally on comiXology. The main story issues are already up, and two shorts compilations are releasing by the end of the year.

I’ve also been working on an ongoing Spera webcomic that will begin serialisation in December. At the moment Hwei, Jen Lee, Rachel E Morris, Irina Levin, Timothy Weaver and Nick Sumida are involved. I plan on having a lot of fun with the story for this.

The short film 3 Old Gods — directed by Olivier Pichard and Cecile Brun, scored by Giannis Milonogiannis and written by me — was completed, and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. 3 Old Gods is set in Japan, and my script was first translated into French before being translated into Japanese. Seeing and hearing actors speak my lines in another language is a very special and unique experience. I believe this short film will show up online eventually (you can view it below!). Julia Scott’s webcomic TeleGen (http://www.telepath-generation.com/) started this year, which I helped script along with Bobby Myers.

What can we look forward to from you in 2013?

The Spera: Volume II hardcover will be out from Archaia in February. It was originally going to come out this year, but Archaia wanted to give it a better marketing push.

Hopefully some of the projects I’ve been involved with this year will see some form of release in 2013. I’ve been working on several different comics with Afu Chan, Paul Maybury, Olivier Pichard, Kyla Vanderklugt, Giannis Milonogiannis, Sloane Leong, Jen Lee and Irina Levin.

Anyone you think is a name we should be watching out for next year?

Meg Gandy of Godsend (http://godsend.shatterlands.com/comix/). She is one of the absolute best artists I’ve come across this year, and I feel like we’ll all be seeing a lot more of her soon enough.

FPI: Can you pick three comics/webcomics/graphic novels which you especially enjoyed over the last twelve months and tell us why you singled them out?

Rob: Garen Ewing: The Complete Rainbow Orchid – this is my best of the year, its such a beautiful book. It was great to read the whole story all the way through in one go.

Paul Rainey: Thunder Brother, Soap Division Parts 1 to 3 – I’m really enjoying these. I always like to read comics more on paper than on the internet as it makes me slow down and read them properly. Also I’ve only just got ‘The Two Ronnies’ joke.

Mardou: The Sky in Stereo – the first part of a really good long new story from Mardou set in Manchester.

FPI: Can you pick three TV shows and/or movies which you especially enjoyed over the last twelve months and tell us why you singled them out?

Rob: My favourite TV show is Adventure Time which I got into a few months ago. It is a perfect cartoon show.

FPI: How did 2012 go for you as a creator? Are you happy with the way you got your work out this year?

Rob: Its not been a very good year. Thoughtbubble went very well in the end so that’s a nice way to finish the year and cheer me up about comics. I’ve brought out three minicomics this year, ‘Its a Mans Life in the Ice Cream Business 2′, ‘Segway’ and ‘California – part one’.

FPI: What can we look forward to from you in 2013?

Rob: My book of stories about my family history ‘The Storytellers’ will finally come out. It will be 80 pages long and its all drawn. I’m sending it to the printer very soon. Also ‘California – part two’ will be out in January, I’m half way through it at the moment. I think that will be a three part story.