It’s me! Your erstwhile Comic Strip and Golden Age fanatic reporting to you live from the Poorhouse.   I find myself in these somewhat Dickensian straits thanks to the quality and quantity of must-have reprints that were published over the past 12 months.  I tell ya, I was like a kid in a Comics shop–oh wait...

Whilst preparing this article I calculated that I had purchased 46 Collected editions over the course of the calendar year and 33 of them were Comic Strip collections.  All 46 books are gorgeous–they look great on the shelf and they are a joy to read and re-read and they function as text books of comic technique.

I realize the World Economy–like the Chicago Cubs– is in another “re-building year“, so in good conscience, I have reviewed all the reprint books I purchased & devoured this past year and I have listed below the creme de la creme–this is the stuff you really have to have:

• Mickey Mouse Vol 1 and 2 Race to Death Valley/Trapped on Treasure Island
• Walt and Skeezix Volume 5
• Carl Barks Donald Duck in Lost in the Andes
• Pogo Volume 1

But why these four?

Hyperbole is all but redundant on any Best-Of Lists.  Any apropos description– fantastic art/great pacing/fabulous cast of supporting characters/marvelous storytelling– comes off as tired and cliched.  I have spent the last two weeks trying to figure out why these four are the best of the year–why they mean so much to collectors on a gut level– here goes: (more…)

Santa must have been some-what disillusioned or at the very least pre-occupied this Holiday season, because I landed quite an unexpected haul this year.  My stocking runneth over with all kinds of comic book goodies.  Here is a just a brief summation of my first official time on the Nice List:

Marvel Masterworks The Inhumans Volume 1– a gorgeous reprinting of the Lee/Kirby Inhumans back-up series for Thor, followed by the short but fabulous Kirby and then Neal Adams(!) runs from the gone-but not-forgotten Amazing Adventures.

The Late, Great Joe Simon.

Simon and Kirby Library: The Superheroes-- this book– by itself– is a must have for all comic fans, The complete Fighting American, 3-D man and Stuntman (whoa!) are worth the price of admission.  But my copy was signed by the late, great Joe Simon, by our pal and series editor Steve Saffel (Happy Birthday, Steve!) and also by Neil Gaiman who wrote the Intro. Dang–I hope Santa isn’t on the Heroes mailing list because if he reads this he will realize his mistake and make a surprise January visit to replace this gem with some socks or maybe a nice scarf.

The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all-time.  This book is the result of a poll taken by over 1000 professional cartoonists.  It is a great book!  I have spent the last few days scouring Netflix and amazon in search of these celluloid classics. (#1 is What’s Opera, Doc)   Thank God that Heroes is the kind of Comic Shop that offers a variety of books like this in addition to their ample stock of Usual Suspects!

An Iron Man Spatula from Williams-Sonoma.  It makes Waffles that have Zero Trans(istor) Fats. Also, Captain America/Spider-man/Hulk Head cookies from Sur Le Table. My wife (a civilian!) claims all three cookie heads tasted the same, but I know the Cap Cookies were the tastiest!)

Christmas is always so much more fun when you get Comic related gifts!

So my question for Heroes United (sounds like a Soccer team doesn’t it?) is–

Share with us:  What did you get this Uncanny X-mas???

This, the fourth and final category, was definitely the hardest for me to compile. There are so many awesome ongoing series being published right now that it was nigh impossible for me to choose just ten. For the most part the series that I picked are brand, spanking new. I guess those stood out to me the most because they are fresher than longer running ongoing series. Some of the runners-up include House of Mystery, Fables, Zatanna, Buffy, Muppet Show and Fantastic Four. There was no question about what #1 would be, but the rest of them were difficult to rank. I would love to hear what your favorites of 2010 were, so let me know in the comments section!

1 ) Thor The Mighty Avenger

2 ) American Vampire

3 ) Sixth Gun

4 ) iZombie

5 ) Stuff of Legend

6 ) S.H.I.E.L.D. (Marvel)

7 ) Darkwing Duck

8 ) Black Panther The Man Without Fear

9 ) Detective Comics

10 ) Action Comics

Hello again and welcome to the third installment of Shawn’s Favorites of 2010! This category is for my favorite mini-series that either began or ended in 2010. There were a ton of minis that just barely made the cut, I’m looking at you Baltimore Plague Ships. There were just too many awesome mini-series that came out last year and it was difficult to choose just 10 that were my favorites. Here are the ones that made the list, ranked in order with #1 being my absolute favorite.

1 ) Daytripper

2 ) Joe The Barbarian

3 ) Marvelous Land of Oz

4 ) Mystery Society

5 ) Avengers Children’s Crusade

6 ) Strange Tales II

7 ) Meta 4

8 ) Strange Science Fantasy

9 ) Heralds

10 ) Cars Adventures of Tow Mater

Welcome back to my list of favorites from 2010! This is the category for best comic collection of new material. It could be a trade paperback, a hardcover or a digest-sized book. The only thing is, it has to be all-new material. This was a tough category for me. There were so many awesome books that came out in 2010. If I look back on this in a week or so I might think differently but right now these are my top 10 favorites. Again, I ranked them in order of most-favorite to least-most-favorite. My list is highly debatable so if you disagree with me let me know what your favorites are. Here we go!

1 ) Afrodisiac HC

2 ) Set To Sea HC

3 ) Duncan The Wonder Dog TP

4 ) Loverboy TP/HC

5 ) Crogan’s March HC

6 ) Return of the Dapper Men HC

7 ) Bodyworld HC

8 ) Richard Stark’s Parker The Outfit HC

9 ) Scott Pilgrim vol 6 Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour

10 ) Neil Young’s Greendale HC

As we say hello to 2011 I am looking back on 2010. This is the first of four posts listing my top 10 favorite comics of 2010. Allow me to clarify things a bit. My top 10 lists are highly subjective and so instead of calling them the best I decided to call them my favorites. Plus, I feel like I haven’t read a lot of the books that would be considered the best of 2010 (like Wilson, X’ed Out and Market Day). I kept my list to books that I bought and I kept the list true to my taste. This category is for my favorite trades or hardcovers that collected previously released material. I included Adam Hughes‘s art book in this category because it does include previously published work and because the Original Content TP/HC category was overflowing with contestants. Each category is ranked in order from most-favorite to least-most-favorite. I really want to hear what your favorites are so please let me know in the comments section!

1 ) Wednesday Comics HC

2 ) Beasts of Burden HC

3 ) Batwoman Elegy HC

4 ) Muppet Show On the Road TP

5 ) Mouse Guard Legends of the Guard HC

6 ) Simon and Kirby Superheroes HC

7 ) Cover Run The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes HC

8 ) Cinderella From Fabletown with Love TP

9 ) John Stanley Library Melvin Monster HC vol 2

10 ) Toy Story TP vol 1 Return of Buzz Lightyear

In today’s final holiday gift suggestions blog, I’ll focus on our bread and butter, Super Heroes!  Here are some great suggestions for a variety of heroic fans.

1) Shazam: the Golden Age of the World’s Mightiest Mortal

I first heard Chip Kidd talking about this book at this year’s C2E2 Convention in Chicago, and the slideshow he presented got me excited to see the finished product.  Now that’s it’s in the store, it more than lives up to the hype.  Kidd and collaborator Geoff Spear dig deep into the Captain Marvel vaults to give a pictorial history of the character’s merchandise through the years.  Want to see stills from the various black and white Captain Marvel serials?  They’re in here along with items featuring the largely forgotten Hoppy the Flying Marvel Bunny!

2) the Marvel Encyclopedia/the DC Encyclopedia

These are always popular gift suggestions.  Do you have a friend or family member who is just getting into comics and wants to know everything about every character?  These are great ideas for them, as well as longtime super hero fans who want the ultimate in source book material.

3) Wednesday Comics HC

One of the great books published in recent years, the deluxe Wednesday Comics HC collection features every strip from the 12 issue newsprint series along with a couple of unused strips and sketchbook material.  All this and it’s all published in a glorious oversized format.  Who wouldn’t want to see Ryan Sook‘s Kamandi or Karl Kerschl‘s Flash strip in a large bookshelf format?

4) The Simon and Kirby Superheroes/The Best of Simon and Kirby HC

Longtime Heroes friend Steve Saffel worked closely with the legendary Joe Simon to start bringing the many volumes of the Simon and Kirby archives back to the public.  The Best of Simon and Kirby is a great overview of some of the legends classic works before they went on to create so many timeless characters for Marvel and DC.  And The Simon and Kirby Superheroes reminds us just how relevant their early costumed heroes were for their time, and how influential they remain.  These are great books by great people that any fan of comics history should want to include in their library.

5) 75 Years of DC Comics: the Art of Modern Mythmaking by Paul Levitz

If you haven’t seen this coffee-table sized opus from Paul Levitz, you’re in for a treat.  If there’s any person qualified to do a complete examination of DC’s history it’s Levitz, and he more than delivers in what is one of the year’s great studies of comics history.  At over 700 pages in length, this is the ultimate gift idea for any lifelong DC fan.  It’s also large enough to be a hefty weapon, though we don’t encourage that kind of thinking during this or any other time of year.

6) Essentials, Showcases, and Archives!

As a young comic reader I always enjoyed receiving DC Archive editions of classic stories.  While those are still available and ideal for fans of any age, both Marvel and DC have done a great job of continuing their Essential and Showcase lines which are very affordable reprints of renowned tales from past decades.  If you know someone just getting into super hero comics that you’re interested in buying something for, this may be the best and most varied option.

7) Popular Modern Collections in TP and HC

Maybe you’re trying to buy something for something you know who likes comics but has gotten away from them in recent years.  Why not think about getting a trade paperback of some of the most popular stories and crossovers?  For the Marvel fan try Civil War, Siege, World War Hulk, X-men: Messiah Complex, X-men: Second Coming, for DC fans try Blackest Night and it’s related crossover collections, Green Lantern: Rebirth, Identity Crisis, Brightest Day, or any of the great Grant Morrison Batman collections.

Today’s gift giving suggestions cater to the fans of comic book art.  The following art books would be a welcome addition to many collectors libraries.

1.) The Art of Brian Bolland

Fans of Mr. Bolland are treated to an incredibly in depth career retrospective. This weighty, decades spanning volume is loaded with informative essays and gorgeous fantasy and superhero art brought to life by one of Britain’s top illustrators.

2.) The Art of P. Craig Russell

P. Craig Russell’s illustrations have a very unique, dreamlike quality to them. Fans will enjoy pouring over Russell’s lush, intricately detailed illustrations in a nice, large format. Readers are treated to samples of artwork from such varied sources as sketchbook pages, album covers/compact disc inserts and independent published work.

3.) Telling Stories: The Comic Art of Frank Frazetta

Not quite an art book, but worthy of mentioning among them. Legions of fans and artistic-followers will tell you Fritz was THE TRUTH! There truly was nothing this man could not do when it came to illustration. This handsome, slip cased volume contains a wide sampling of work realized during the lone decade he spent drafting comics. Anyone who possesses the gift of sight will delight in being gifted such a wonderful book!

4.) Centifolia – Sketchbook Illustrations of Stuart Immonen

When is an art book not an art book? When its a published sketchbook! Stuart gives fans an intimate look at one of the most important pieces of artistic exercise equipment – the sketchbook. Remarkably, he only recently began keeping one of his own. This compact volume is a neat way to see what a mainstream superhero illustrator works on for fun.

5.) The Art of Hellboy – Mike Mignola

How can so much black ink on a page look so incredibly interesting and so full of depth? It’s not always what is seen that is so scary but what is sensed. Mignola is a master creature creator with a delightfully twisted sense of humor. Its not an easy task to repulse and entrance a viewer within the same image. See how he does it on every page of this nice, over sized volume.

Happy Holidays, everyone!  In today’s installment of our ‘Holiday Gift Suggestions’ I’ll go over a few of the Indie and Genre books that would make great gifts for any discerning comic fan.

1) Xenozoic Complete Collection TP

How can I talk about great genre books this year and not mention this book?  Xenozoic collects Mark Schultz‘s classic Xenozoic Tales, complete with cadillacs, dinosaurs, guns, adventuring men, and beautiful women.  This is a perfect gift for the action-loving comic reader, and more than deserves a place in anyone’s comic library.

2) What It Is

While this isn’t a new publication, it’s worth reminding people about this holiday season.  With this book, writer/illustrator Lynda Barry created what could rightly be called the best comic-themed text book to be published since Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics.  This book isn’t quite a ‘how to’ book, but goes into the process of how one discovers and refines their artistic tendencies over time.  Plus, there are thought-provoking exercises that aren’t unlike the Artist’s Way books.  Beyond What It Is, if you know someone who already read and enjoyed that, don’t forget that Barry’s most recent book Picture This is also available at Heroes.

3) Acme Novelty Library vol. 20 HC

Chris Ware is the ultimate comic book formalist/historian who manages to continually push his own creative limits with each new volume of Acme.  Volume 20 is Ware at his most cinematic as each page of the book represents a single year in the life of the formerly secondary character Jordan Lint.  You want to see an artist at the top of his game continue to push his own artistic boundaries?  Turn to Acme Novelty Library to see how that’s done on a consistently entertaining basis.

4)  James Sturm’s America: Gods, Gold, and Golems HC

Here’s another older collection that bears another mention. James Sturm is a much respected comic creator and educator, and this handsome hardcover collects three of his most appreciated works.  Though the book maintains an earnest historical tone, it’s very much a series of three entertaining pieces that should appeal to fans of the American past.

5) Parker: the Outfit

There are a plethora of reasons why Darwyn Cooke regularly finds his works in almost everyone’s ‘best of the year’ lists. This second book in a series of Richard Stark’s Parker adaptations finds Cooke continuing to draw upon his animation background to great effect, while doing an even better job of boiling down noir to its most basic and essential elements.

6) Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth

Ever wonder why comics don’t include more elements of math and philosophy?  Okay, even if you’ve never wondered that, this book will at least give you evidence that such an undertaking can be worthwhile. European creators Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou do a superb job of telling the story of philosopher Bertrand Russell and his perilous search for the absolute truth found in math and philosophy.  Though that might initially seem like a heady topic for a comic book to tackle, the creators make it as fun as it is educating.  If you like comics that make you think, look no further than this great sleeper book.

Christmas is right around the corner and the time for buying gifts is running out. If you still have some comic fans on your list I have a top five list of books for the young and young-at-heart.

1) Thor The Mighty Avenger

I love this book! It is beyond wonderful. Roger Langridge’s storytelling combined with Chris Samnee’s art makes for a perfect superhero book. Every page is filled with love and joy. You can definitely tell that Langridge and Samnee love what they do. Thor The Mighty Avenger is an out of continuity book so you don’t have to worry about knowing characters’ histories. There is an over arching story but, for the most part, each issue is a stand alone and easily enjoyed on its own merits. The first trade paperback just came out and it contains the first four issues. It is currently up to issue #7 and unfortunately it is being canceled at issue #8 but at least that means it will be easily possible to collect the entire series of this wonderful comic!

2) The Little Prince

Joann Sfar recently adapted Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s beloved children’s classic and it is fantastic. I love the way Sfar interpreted the story. It is a beautifully packaged hardcover book and at $20 it is worth every penny. It would make a perfect gift for an older child or an adult who remembers reading the story when they were younger. Along these same lines, Jim McCann and Janet Lee‘s Return of the Dapper Men is a fantastic book. Everything about it is wonderful. It is a modern take on the fairy tale genre. The art is beautiful and that story is thought-provoking. Again this could easily appeal to a child or an adult.

3) Tiny Titans

Tiny Titans makes my heart smile. It is geared towards younger kids but anyone can enjoy this comic. It is full of activities and it is also full of DC related jokes. Art Baltazar and Franco do an amazing job on each issue. Each issue is adorably humorous. Most recently they did a Tiny Titans/Little Archie crossover book. Aw Yeah Titans! I would love to wake up Christmas morning and find a few issues tucked into my stocking or a few trades wrapped up under my Christmas tree. If you are looking for other kids superhero books Chris Giarrusso‘s G-Man is an excellent book too. Or if you are looking for a cute and adorable Marvel comic, his Mini Marvels are both cute and adorable.

4) The Muppet Show Comic Book

I am sure you have heard me wax poetic about the Muppet Show Comic Book before but that is because they are that good. I particularly love the Roger Langridge issues but all of them are fun to read. My favorite storylines are Meet The Muppets, On The Road and Treasure of Peg Leg Wilson. The comic book is magically able to capture the feel of the show. It truly is like watching an episode of the show. Kids can giggle at the sight gags and adults can enjoy the word play. It is the perfect gift for any comic book fan or any Muppet fan!

Boom! Studios (who publish the Muppet Show Comic Book) have a wonderful kids’ line. They genuinely put out high-quality books that kids and adults can enjoy. There have recently been a number of titles that have really stood out to me. Cars The Adventures of Tow Mater was an excellent book that was goofy and fun and yet well-written. Tow Mater is my guilty pleasure. I really do adore that tow truck. Also, Darkwing Duck is amazing. It completely captures what was awesome about the cartoon and puts it on the page. The same can be said of Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers even though only one issue is out so far. With the release of Toy Story 3, the Toy Story comic would be a perfect companion gift. I really enjoyed The Mysterious Stranger and The Return of Buzz Lightyear. The current issues (Tales From the Toy Chest) have been great too though.

5) Secret Science Alliance

This is the perfect gift for that precocious child on your list. The book is about three kids who happen to all be secret scientists. They discover that a villain plans to rob a local museum so they attempt to stop him using their brains and their inventions. Secret Science Alliance is a really smart book that any kid interested in science would enjoy.  It might even get them interested in inventing. It will also appeal to Indie comics fans as it is written and drawn by Eleanor Davis and inked by Drew Weing. Davis is well known for her mini comics including The Beast Mother and Bugbear. Weing’s recent book Set to Sea was reviewed on this very site!