12.21.2005

Dembicki's Top 10 for 2005

Below, in order, are my top 10 picks for Best Comics for 2005. I've also include my top five picks for Most Disappointing Comics for 2005. (Feel free to add your own!)

1) Tricked by Alex Robinson. It took Alex four years to make this book and it was certainly worth the wait. It's pure gold. I don't typically like these kinda stories, but Alex draws you into the characters and weaves the story together beautifully. This is how you write good comics.

2) Project: Superior by various artists. Chris Pitzer pulls together some entertaining superhero comics from the small-press and alternative comics field. Although the comics are wonderful, I gotta give top kudos to Chris for the superb production of the book. Great editing, spot coloring and printing! At a time when alternative comics are getting quite expensive, it's refreshing to see publishers like Ad House putting out superb comics at reasonable prices.

3) Freddie & Me by Mike Dawson. Mike is working on graphic novel documenting how he grew up listening to the rock band Queen. He's published parts of it in mini comics. The story is funny and the art is great. Check it out.

4) American Elf by James Kochalka. This is my favorite Web comic. You never know what you're going to get. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's silly, sometimes it's reflective, and sometimes you just like the simplicity of the art. And I fully respect James for trudging on each day with it now for something like five years. Even if you do a weekly comic, you know the effort that goes into it. And to come up each day with a strip that has something to offer the reader? That's even more challenging, but James does it.

5) Street Angel by Jim Rugg. There are so many ninja and zombie comics out there (and most of them are crap) that I don't even bother to read any of them. But I dug Jim's work in Project: Superior so much that I had to check out the new trade of his high-school dropout/skateboardin' ninja chick comics. It's awesome. Wonderfully original, charming and funny. Jim's also one of the best illustrators of urban settings that I've ever seen.

6) Hoax #1 by various artists. Weird and twisted. That's all I can say about this book. Karl Kressbach, Lydia Gregg and a few other folks pitch some disturbing stuff but all the stories have a strange lure to them. You just can't stop reading. I think it has to do with the illustrations, which are top-notch. Give this a go. This crew is the new alternative. Trust me on this.

7) Pan-Gea by James West. (Disclaimer: I'm friends with James and also do a Web comic with him.) When it comes to cartoon fantasy, it's hard to beat James. His illustrations tend to be simple, yet there's so much energy and eroticism in them. Pan-Gea captures it all. Not only that, it's in full color so you can see the wonderful craftsman that James is with color.

8) Capacity by Theo Ellsworth. Theo lives in another world. Most of the work in Capacity looks like he does it on the fly, just letting his mind wonder and go wild. It's really an adventure to read his mini comics. The latest issue, #6, is by far his best, as he has perfected his craft. Don't overlook this gem when you're searching for something original.

9) Death by Sexy by Evan Keeling. (Disclaimer: Evan's another friend, and he also does a great Web comic.) I like concept pieces, and I like pieces with parameters even more. Here, each page is essentially a promotional poster for a D.C.-based rock band, but Evan has some fun with them and makes it into a sequential comic. Lotsa fun to see how he has to work in stuff like date, time, location and price into each page without making it drab. E-mail him at etkeeling@yahoo.com to buy a copy.

10) Foul Play! The Art and Artists of the Notorious 1950s E.C. Comics By Grant Geismann. Wow. If you love horror comics, get this. It reprints a number of Classic EC Comics and provide awesome biographies on the EC crew. I was blown away by the quality and amount of research that went into it.

BONUS!
11) I rarely really read mainstream comics, but this one got my attention. Marvel has its Essential series which reprints classic Marvel comics, but the quality isn't so hot and it's rather pricey. Well, DC finally got on the ball and starting reprinting some of their classics. Showcase has great reproduction and you can't beat the price.I got Showcase: Green Lantern, Vol. 1 , which is over 500 pages, for $10. And it's worth every campy penny. (There's also a Showcase featuring Superman, Metamorpho (odd choice), Jonah Hex and Justice League. I can't wait for House of Mystery with Berni Wrightson coming out in a few months!)

Now the stinkers...
1) Bigfoot by Richard Corben, Steve Niles and Rob Zombie. I always thought you can't go wrong when Richard Corben illustrates a book. I was wrong. Steve Niles and Rob Zombie fail miserably in writing this story. It had some much potential but it's crap. Even Corben's work didn't seem inspired and I can't say I blame him.

2) SPX Anthology 2005 by various artists. I don't know what it is, but this book just doesn't do for me what previous volumes did. I especially didn't care for the stories about turds, including one where the cartoonist says he like to pee on shit in toilets and pretends he's playing Asteroids. Nasty.

3) True Porn #2 by various artists. Great cover, weak interior. I didn't see anything that was much new or different from #1. It was just missing that "magic," ya know?

4) Superf*ckers by James Kochalka. Just didn't rock my world. The humor seemed rather forced and the price for the book ($7 for 32 pages) was waaay too high, even if it's in color.

5) PVP by Scott Kurtz. This Web comic used to be consistently funny but it seems to have lost a lot of steam lately.