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David B.'s "Epileptic" passes all the tests of a great work of art
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EPILEPTIC VOLUME I by David B.
The best book of the year arrived from France as the first half of a bold two-volume memoir by the French cartoonist David B. (neé Pierre-François Beauchard.) Using his older brother's epilepsy as the touchstone, volume one (with the second half scheduled for late 2003) combines the story of a family in crisis with the portrait of a young artist in the making. Though a two-volume autobiography of a cartoonist may seem indulgent, David B.'s scope and artistry put Epileptic on a par with Art Spiegelman's holocaust masterpiece Maus.
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 Full Review |
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BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS by Kim Deitch
Kim Deitch, an overlooked veteran of the 1960s "underground" comix movement, may finally get his due with this trade-published novel. It follows the career of Ted Mishkin, a brilliant animator of the 1930s driven to madness by a (possibly imaginary) malevolent, bipedal cat named Waldo. Using a charming drawing style reminiscent of 1930s cartoons Deitch explores the nature of reality, the mystery of inspiration, the exploitation of pop culture and the redemptive power of art.
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KRAZY AND IGNATZ 1925-1926 by George Herriman
The reputation of George Herriman's Depression-Era Krazy Kat has long exceeded its availability. At last, with a commitment to print every single full-page Sunday strip, Fantagraphics will publish an annual volume covering two years worth of strips. (The 1927 - 1928 installment has just arrived.) One of the most poetic and profound works of any popular art, now we can see for ourselves how the Zip...Pow! of a brick hitting a silly cat's skull signifies one of the greatest portraits of love ever conceived.
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9/11 BOOKS
Post-September 11, the comic book community banded together in a spirit of generosity. With profits earmarked for charity, creators and publishers of every stripe contributed gratis to five different 9/11-related projects, totaling over 750 pages of work. The best of these books, 9-11: Emergency Relief and 9-11: Artists Respond commemorate a powerful good in response to a powerful evil.
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Full Review pt. 1 | pt. 2 |
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ROSETTA
Superbly edited for the right combination of experiment and entertainment, Rosetta stands out as best anthology book of the year. The book is perfect for newcomers to the world of alternative comix; each artist has a brief biographical introduction, and the reader gets treated to a crash course on the limitless possibilities of comic-making, including autobiography, abstraction and fiction.
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ONE HUNDRED DEMONS by Lynda Barry
Labeling her first (nearly) non-fictional book, "autobiofictionalography," with wit and color Lynda Barry examines her painful change from outgoing child to sullen teenager. Though some of it may be made up, these seventeen vignettes on subjects ranging from dancing to hair lice have the honesty and detail of pure truth. Barry's water colored pages may be the prettiest of the year, but that's just the surface. Watch out for the demons underneath.
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EIGHTBALL #22 by Dan Clowes
Having long since established himself as a master of alienated, weirdo characters, most famously in Ghost World, Dan Clowes has now begun to explore the formal properties of the comix medium. This single, self-contained issue of his regular series Eightball finds inspiration in the style of filmmaker Robert Altman. Its 29 shorts range in length from a single strip to several pages; each one works alone as well as with the others, weaving multiple characters and multiple stories into one cohesive whole.
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SUMMER OF LOVE by Debbie Drechsler
Printed in the woodsy tones of green and brown, Drechsler's Summer of Love tells the quiet story of a suburban girl growing up in the 1960s who tries to navigate a new school and new relationships. This is young adult fiction the way it ought to be — full of anxiety, passion, anger and love — but not at all for just young adults.
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PROMETHEA by Alan Moore and J.H. Williams III
Proving that not all superhero comic books have to be dull and stupid Promethea pushes the boundaries of a seemingly limited genre. The last ten issues (#13 - 23), as written by Alan Moore and penciled by J.H. Williams III, present a cosmology in comics form as the heroine, who looks like combination of Wonder Woman and a hood ornament, uses the Tarot, the Kabbalah and astrology to explore the mysteries of the universe and the meaning of life.
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SPX 2002
Like a Philly cheese steak, the fat, cheap SPX 2002 satisfies any hunger through sheer volume. Published in coordination with the Small Press Expo, a yearly convention for alternative cartoonists, SPX 2002 contains over 300 pages and fifty artists for a mere $10.
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