7. Matt Groening, Will
And Abe's Guide To The Universe (Harper)
Groening's Life In Hell comic has become pretty pro forma over the last decade, as, um, a couple of other projects have bogarted his attention. But one aspect of the strip never got tired: Groening's illustrations of conversations with and between his two small sons, who brought all the warped logic of childhood to bear on topics from God to foreign countries to geeky fare like monster movies and Star Wars. Many of the old Life In Hell books are indispensable, and this one joins the best of the bunch: The collection of strips about interactions with Will and Abe lacks the acerbic despair of Groening's early work, but nonetheless, it contains some of the most adorable and enjoyable work he's ever done.
8.
Mike Carey/Jim Fern, Crossing Midnight Vol. 1 (DC)
Mike Carey's ambition sprawled all over 2007, from excellent books like Re-Gifters to so-so efforts like Faker, but the best of the lot was his new ongoing series Crossing Midnight, which fuses traditional Japanese fairy tales with original mythmaking, gives it all a mystery twist, and sets it in the modern day. The latest issues have been a little unfocused, and it remains unclear where Carey is going, but the first five issues—already collected in a trade volume—are stellar, exciting work, with all the resonance of old stories and all the vivid intensity of new ones.
9. Frank King, Sundays With Walt And Skeezix (Sunday Press)
As if the yearly blessing of Drawn & Quarterly's vintage Gasoline Alley reprints weren't enough, now the comics archivists at Sunday Press have employed the same D&Q design team of Chris Ware and Jeet Heer to package 200 full-page Gasoline Alley Sunday strips into a handsome 16" by 21" hardcover. By the mid-'20s, King had begun to experiment with his art, working with silhouettes, shadows, close-ups, and even some light surrealism. In the Sunday strips—and especially in the weeks when Walt and his young ward would take a long walk or a drive in the country—King used the limited color palette of the comics page to render the outside world as though it existed in a perpetual state of autumnal twilight. He drew pictures worthy of getting lost in, and Sundays With Walt And Skeezix is huge enough to make that prospect seem plausible.
10. Stan Lee/Steve Ditko, The Spider-Man
Omnibus, Volume 1 (Marvel)
You could choke an elephant with this book, the binding could be a little friendlier, and the price tag will make some fans think twice, but it's still terrific to have all of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's pioneering Spider-Man comics in one book. Ditko's dramatic, inimitable art is the perfect complement to Lee's prose, which transposes all the worries of adolescence to the shoulders of a skinny, gifted, guilt-ridden nerd named Peter Parker. The partnership ended badly, but for a while, Lee and Ditko were reinventing comics with each frame.
11.
Various artists, Flight Vol. 4 (Villard)
The all-original Flight anthologies invite animators and graphic artists to explore the narrative comic form, with invariably lush and luscious results. Any page from any of the Flight books could blow up into a fantastic poster: The colors are amazing, glossy, and vivid, and the design is wildly varying and creative. But most amazing, the stories are invariably creative, expansive explorations of strange little worlds, surprisingly child-friendly but involved and challenging enough for adults.
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