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So Time put out their top 10 lists, while perusing I saw, Top 10 Graphic Novels…here’s the play by play reaction as I read over them.
1. Achewood
Written by Chris Onstad
Never heard of it…looks boring. NEXT!
#2. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier
Written by Alan Moore, illustrated by Kevin O’Neill
It’s Alan Moore….ok…so it’s gonna be long…ANNND it’s the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen…a series I wasn’t real thrilled with until the second book….NEXT!
#3. All Star Superman
Written by Grant Morrison, illustrated by Frank Quitely
Good art, golden age type storytelling….hmm…ok, I can go along with this one.
#4. Marvel Zombies 2
Written by Robert Kirkman, illustrated by Sean Phillips and Arthur Suydam
No, no, no, NO. I love Kirkman but, this is his WORST stuff, not his best. Marvel Zombies 1…that was good enough…we didn’t need a SECOND graphic novel. NEXT!!
#5. Jack of the Fables, Vol. 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape
Written by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges and Tony Aikins, illustrated by Andrew Pepoy
Eh….maybe….eh…ok no…I like Willinghams’ writing but, putting this against a Fables GN…yeah…no…Bill’s stuff here was more of his Shadowpact-level writing….which isn’t horrible but, it should not be showcased on a top 10 list.
#6. Erfworld
Written by Rob Balder, illustrated by Jamie Noguchi
Again…never heard of this one…did Time just like ask a bunch of comic writers what their favorite GNs are? NEXT!!
#7. The Principles of Uncertainty
Written by Maira Kalman
-See above-
#8. Exit Wounds
Written by Rutu Modan
-See above….AGAIN-
#9. Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm
Written by Percy Carey and Ronald Wimberly
-…….where the hell is the Walking Dead or Y: The Last Man. WHERE-
#10. The Complete Peanuts, 1963-1964
Written by Charles M. Schulz
-Based on what’s come before….ok…this is a decent pick.
So to sum up this list accurately, you’ve got 3/4s worth of pretentious sounding titles that your general comic reader isn’t gonna know about.
I get the direction Time was trying to go in, Top 10 GNs of 2007 (for non-comic readers)….which is fine…but out of ALL of those you couldn’t have ONE of the below:
-The Walking Dead
-Absolute Sandman Vol 2,
-Girls
-Y: The Last Man
-Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse.
-Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk
-Invincible
-The Brave and the Bold
-Fear Agent
-Clive Barkers’ The Great and Secret Show
-Catwoman
-Birds of Prey
-Agents of Atlas
-Casanova
-Fell
-Captain America (Brubakers’ current great run of course)
-Criminal
I mean hell, if you wanna just eliminate super-hero oriented series altogether, you still have Fell, Criminal, The Walking Dead, etc.
Maybe I am being too harsh…but…come on…to not even have Fell or Criminal
What are your top ten GNs for 2007?, why those titles?
Post a comment, a blog entry, whatever, I wanna know!
… Achewood’s a webcomic, isn’t it? And it’s got terrible aesthetics. If they were going to select a poorly drawn webcomic for the top spot, at least choose xkcd.
The list kind of screams “Look! We’re being pretentious!” to me. Lots of titles no one’s ever heard of so it must be good because it’s that far from the mainstream or something like that. Or did just that little come out this year? I can’t tell anymore.
Yeah…XKCD, I could’ve gotten behind them on that.
Nice to see your still around, you haven’t posted a blog entry in forever you big goof.
Hope your doing ok.
I’m a recent convert to Achewood (been reading it for about six months), and although I find it hilarious and smart, I wouldn’t have put it here with these books. Peanuts too. I like to keep my comic STRIPS separate. But that’s me.
Putting Jack of Fables over Fables was odd, especially since Fables is in the middle of its best year. Although I guess the majority of 2007 is yet to be TPB’d.
And Like you, I don’t recognize half of it, but of the ones you listed, the only glaring ommisions to me are Fell and Criminal.
JR