Originally this was going to be a best of list but it shouldn’t really be taken that way any more. I wanted to write about good comics and reflect on what lessons I can pull from them for my own work. No particular order here. Maybe I could write more but I’ll just think about these comics more instead.
Maps to the Suns, Sloane Leong: The moments, the images that Leong choses to depict are perhaps the most interesting thing about this comic and much of her work for me. They’re unexpected. They click together and they move and they pull you through the narrative.
Online work of Alyssa Berg: It’s exciting how much Berg can squeeze of out a strict four panel, one page format. Simple but dense ideas that never come off as trite or pandering. Shimmering neon lines and scraggly textures that seem tangibly solid.
Online work of Gloria Rivera: There is so much energy even in Rivera’s most casual scribbles. She isn’t afraid to be loose, perhaps even revels in it. Her art hits that sweet spot where I derive visceral pleasure just from looking at it.
Fütchi Perf, Kevin Czap: I’ve seen a few reviews – positive ones – that comment about the plot being confusing, which to me seems to miss the point. To use the album metaphor put forward by Fütchi Perf itself, do you expect all great songs to have perfectly coherent lyrics? I don’t, personally. I just listen to the music.
The Being Being, Jason Overby: I don’t know what to say about this except that I loved it. That’s all. What a joy to read all these works after pining after them for so many years – I only have a few of the minis plus what’s online. Although could it have been printed even a little larger? The size was too bad especially given Overby’s astounding linework. I also reread 2101 after I finished this book.
Glass Surfaces and Still Pools, Aidan Koch: I’ve only read this one once so far, and relatively quickly at that. I’m waiting for the right time before rereading. But it sticks in my mind. The pages don’t go away. Along with the Overby, probably the book I’ve thought about most over the course of the year.
Air Waves Goodbye, Steve Stelling: Stelling has centered his work around wordplay in a unique way. A lot of his pages are driven by the text in a way that makes the images feel…well, secondary isn’t the right word because of course the images are essential. But the text sets the tone of the work and the images echo/reinforce/interrogate that tone.
Ley Lines: Thank God, I Am in Love, Cathy G. Johnson: Admire as much as you can, most people don’t admire enough.
Yearly Subscription, Simon Moreton: Not a specific comic, though I enjoyed each of the works I received through a service where you paid Moreton money and he sent you all of his work for the year. But it was more the simple fact of receiving home-printed, black and white comics at unexpected intervals that I found so compelling. I’m not sure exactly why. It’s a simple idea. I also think Moreton works best in short form so receiving small, unadorned minis from him was also a pleasure in that sense. He’s also started playing more with prose, which I think has worked well. It’s exciting to watch his work evolve and grow.
Crickets 4/5, Sammy Harkham: I think it’s the density of Crickets that I find most compelling. The impeccably smooth re-readability.
Sketchbook Comic, Kimball Anderson: Many long comics don’t take well to online serialization, but this one does. Form and content fit together. A slow build of small moments.
Inventory, Angie Wang: Kaleidoscopic colors and images morph together. Originally formatted in multiple pages, it seems, but it works very well as a scroll.
Favorite prose this year, none of which came out in 2015: The Recognitions, William Gaddis; Tender Buttons, Gertrude Stein; Lila, Marilynne Robinson; Bough Down, Karen Green; short stories of Lydia Davis (the shorter the better, generally)