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Post by commond on May 3, 2023 17:01:17 GMT -5
March: Book One was nominated for a number of categories, though didn't win any. It's a firsthand account of the life of civil rights activist, John Lewis, and covers an extremely important period in American history.  March is different from other reality-based works from 2013 in the sense that it's co-authored by Lewis himself and is, in fact, an autobiography. I have plenty of general knowledge about the civil rights moment, but the extra details here were illuminating. From a comic book fan standpoint, the major draw is Nate Powell's black and white artwork. I wasn't familiar with Powell's work before reading Book One, but it struck me as a mix of Paul Pope and Darwyn Cooke, two of the premier artists of the time. Powell's art brought the story to life, using language of comics to turn Lewis' memories and life experiences into something visual and visceral. It goes without saying that this is an important work. The civil rights movement had a connection to comics, too, as there was a 1957 comic called Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story that was distributed among civil rights groups, churches and schools. Lewis read the comic as a teenager and it inspired him to follow King's vision, and organize and participate in nonviolent protests. Fitting then, that he should create a comic book himself all these years later.
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Post by commond on May 8, 2023 17:24:48 GMT -5
I finished Matt Fraction's Hawkeye. It wasn't really a series I loved as I was reading it issue by issue, but it all came together in the end, and I thought the ending was cool. I can understand why it was well-received as the storytelling is completely different from a typical Marvel book, and Aja's art is stylish and chic. I really liked the character of Kate Bishop. I'm not sure if other writers can write her the way Fraction does, but she was the most memorable thing about the series, to me, and had the best lines.
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Post by commond on May 9, 2023 18:10:15 GMT -5
Richard Stark's Parker: Slayground is probably the best the best looking book of 2013 so far as Cooke continues to work at the height of his powers.  The story is slight as it's basically Parker hauled up in an amusement park. picking off hoodlums one by one, however the artwork is masterful. I should preface that last comment by adding that I read it through Amazon's Kindle Unlimited, which is an awful way to read a comic book. |
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Post by commond on May 13, 2023 18:18:19 GMT -5
Bad Houses, by Sara Ryan and Carla Speed McNeil, was totally up my alley and catapulted its way into my top 10 for the year.  It's basically the story of how a group of people's lives intersect at an estate sale in a small Oregon town. It's the type of story that people would categorize as "slice of life," but personally I don't go to a lot of estate sales in my everyday life. Ryan's novel is a gentle meditation on love and loss, and the reasons why people hold onto items and hoard their belongings. If you enjoy Finder, then you'll be pleased with McNeil's artwork. I highly recommend this if you like Optic Nerve or Love and Rockets from the same era, or if you're a fan of creators like Terry Moore. |
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Post by Rob Allen on May 13, 2023 23:57:57 GMT -5
Bad Houses, by Sara Ryan and Carla Speed McNeil, was totally up my alley and catapulted its way into my top 10 for the year. I read it a few years ago and liked it as much as you did. The next year I met McNeil at a con and had a great conversation as she signed my copy. |
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Post by commond on Jun 24, 2023 18:43:43 GMT -5
I finally finished Gene Luen Yang's two volume graphic novel, Boxers and Saints, which deals with the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-foreigner, anti-colonialist, and anti-Christian uprising in China at the end of the 19th century.  I offhandedly thought this would be realistic fiction since it was reality based, but there was a huge amount of fantasy involved as both protagonists experience visions throughout the tale. I wasn't really taken with Yang's simple lines or the coloring on the book, but it was an entertaining story and remarkably easy to read despite being around 500 pages in length. The two books tell the same story from both sides of the conflict, and are highly character driven as opposed to a fact-based, historical account of the uprising. The characters were likeable, and you get used to the fantasy elements after a while. Yang spent six years working on these novels, and it certainly feel like a hefty accomplishment. For some reason, the only Eisner nomination he received was in the Best Publication for Teens category, which is fair enough in the sense that the central protagonists are teenagers, but not exactly a ringing endorsement for it as a 500 page magnus opus. The upshot here is that I enjoyed this a lot, and I'm glad I read it. The female protagonist in Saints was awesome, and probably one of my favorite characters from 2013 in general. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2023 18:52:13 GMT -5
I finally finished Gene Luen Yang's two volume graphic novel, Boxers and Saints, which deals with the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-foreigner, anti-colonialist, and anti-Christian uprising in China at the end of the 19th century. I offhandedly thought this would be realistic fiction since it was reality based, but there was a huge amount of fantasy involved as both protagonists experience visions throughout the tale. I wasn't really taken with Yang's simple lines or the coloring on the book, but it was an entertaining story and remarkably easy to read despite being around 500 pages in length. The two books tell the same story from both sides of the conflict, and are highly character driven as opposed to a fact-based, historical account of the uprising. The characters were likeable, and you get used to the fantasy elements after a while. Yang spent six years working on these novels, and it certainly feel like a hefty accomplishment. For some reason, the only Eisner nomination he received was in the Best Publication for Teens category, which is fair enough in the sense that the central protagonists are teenagers, but not exactly a ringing endorsement for it as a 500 page magnus opus. The upshot here is that I enjoyed this a lot, and I'm glad I read it. The female protagonist in Saints was awesome, and probably one of my favorite characters from 2013 in general. I read Boxers some time ago, but never got around to Saints. I had found a cheap used copy of Boxers, but not of Saints, and I never did buy a copy of the companion book, but I want to. I need to revisit Boxers and get to Saints at some point. -M |
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Post by commond on Jul 12, 2023 18:45:33 GMT -5
Rachel Rising was one of the better ongoing titles of 2013.  It's a horror series about a young woman who wakes up in a shallow grave and discovers she's been murdered, but has no recollection of the events that led to her death. At first glance, it has little in common with Moore's Strangers in Paradise, but on closer inspection there are distinct similarities -- namely strong female characters, superb cartooning, a cracking sense of humor, and an unflinching approach to the darker aspects of the story. The book has been criticized for its slow pace, and struggled to sell, but, from my point of view, Moore is one of the great modern cartoonists and I put my trust in him completely when it comes to how he wants to pace his story. Moore received several Harvey and Eisner nominations for the series, culminating with the Harvey award for Best Cartoonist in 2015. He deserved a few more Eisner nominations if you ask me, however he was nominated for Best Writer/Artist in the 2014 awards. I believe Moore has continued working with the characters in various books since the ongoing series concluded. They occupy the same fictional world as the Strangers in Paradise crew, which is a neat touch. Definitely a book I would buy on the regular if I'd been into comics a decade ago.
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Post by commond on Jul 25, 2023 9:07:00 GMT -5
I quite enjoyed Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin's experimental, pay what you want digital comic, The Private Eye. The last thing I wanted to read from 2013 was another sci-fi comic, but Vaughan came up with this cool concept of a future where the cloud burst, everyone's info was leaked, and the internet no longer exists. People are now incredibly protective of their privacy, to the point where they don't go out in public without wearing disguises. It's basically a noir style murder mystery, but with modern commentary on social media and the internet. Vaughan's writing may not be for everyone, but I find his dialogue, and the way he paces his stories, to be extremely accessible. It took me a while to get a feel for Martin's work, but once I did it was an eye-opener. I loved the sideways format, and the way that he channeled Moebius every time he drew a crowd shot. I'd definitely recommend it the creators ring a bell or you like the genre. Might even creep its way into my top 10 for the year. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 25, 2023 12:11:30 GMT -5
Private Eye is pretty damn good, I really enjoyed it.
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Post by antoine on Jul 26, 2023 14:51:04 GMT -5
I've decided to start a little project where I take a look at the winners and nominees for each year of the Eisner Awards and see if I can discover any forgotten or overlooked books, as well as getting a snapshot of the state of the industry and some insight into what comic book professionals thought of their peers' work. I should have probably started with the Kirbys, but I was already knee deep into 1987 comic books when the idea dawned on me. This isn't meant to be a review thread. Just me reading comics and sharing some random thoughts about the Eisners. Very interesting thread! Just discovered it and will read along. Every year I try and read as much as I can of the Angoulème's winners and every year I discover great books I had never heard of before. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 26, 2023 15:45:07 GMT -5
March: Book One was nominated for a number of categories, though didn't win any. It's a firsthand account of the life of civil rights activist, John Lewis, and covers an extremely important period in American history. should be in every school library in America, as far as I'm concerned. I just read the first book of Run, which is its sequel. It's also pretty good, although alas Mr. Lewis passed away before that series could be done. |
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Post by tonebone on Jul 27, 2023 12:46:54 GMT -5
The Wake was a 10 issue limited series published by Vertigo between 2013 and 2014, and the 2014 Eisner Awards winner for Best Limited Series.   Created by Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy, The Wake is an ambitious, multi-layered story that starts off as a sci-fi horror thriller before fast forwarding to a post-apocalyptic future where the story continues. I've only read the first half of the story, but I can understand why it was popular as it's not only cinematic in tone but stretches the imagination of the reader by mashing together genres and breaking all the rules. The art is a bit sketchy for my liking, but if there's one thing I've learned from reading newer comics it's that there's more emphasis on the collaboration between writer and artist than every before, and for that reason the art feels vitally important to the series as a whole. I'm curious to see how Snyder finishes the series and whether he can pull it all together in a way that floors me, as I often find that authors have a hard time concluding high concept stories in a satisfying fashion. I found The Wake to be... meh. I really liked the sci-fi horror beginning, but when they hit the post-apocalyptic stuff, I quickly lost interest. I find Murhpy's art to be a bit too much slapdash, and had me trying to disect a LOT of panels to figure out what the hell was going on. The art is pretty, and energetic, but it's not really great STORYTELLING, if it can't tell the story. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 27, 2023 13:42:59 GMT -5
I just read Andi Watson's The Book Tour, which received a nomination for best graphic album.
It's a thoroughly enjoyable pastiche of Kafka, although I think it wasn't as efficient in that regard as the Kafka chapter in David Lodge's The Fall of the British Museum. It doesn't make the book any less fun to read, but very often the main character's troubles do not come from the absurdity of the world around him but rather from his being a milquetoast.
It sometimes reminded me of the movie After Hours, too, in that things keep going from bad to worse!
The art style is very cartoony, but Watson spared no effort in drawing complex city scapes and libraries filled with books.
Another winner from the public library!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 31, 2023 11:19:57 GMT -5
Another excellent Eisner nominee (in two categories, I think) : The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, by Sydney Padua.  It's not one continuing story, but rather a succession of vignettes discussing the work of these two brilliant minds as they attempted to build and program a mechanical computer. And save England from an economic crisis. And pierce the veil between dimensions. And draw kittens in ASCII code to show the queen why their machine is important. I learned a lot about the fascinating Lady Lovelace, was introduced to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, never did get around to understand how the blamed analytical engine was working, and was thoroughly moved by the friendship between our two main protagonists. It is not a biographical work, not even a romanticized one, as it is clearly stated that we are dealing with a pocket universe in which Lovelace did not die at such an early age. This conceit allows the cartoonist to bring in people like George Eliott, Charles Dickens, Charles Dodgson and many more (Queen Victoria is hilarious). Padua is an extremely smart, funny and well-read creator; even her footnotes have footnotes! (And there are lots of footnotes. Tons of them. Most of them as interesting and funny as the main comic). Padua, with her breadth of knowledge, sharp wit and artistic prowess, reminds me of Alexandre Astier -they have the same ability to make us smile and feel a little smarter. |
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