jessa crispin (of bookslut) has an interesting take on year-end lists. despite being someone who reads a lotttttttttt of comics and graphic novels (and is officially writing a master's paper about them), i actually do not think any graphic novels will end up on my best-of-2005 list. SOR-RY, bookslut! i guess i'm just not AWARE enough to be as good as you! stunted reading, my fanny.
i mean, epileptic was pretty good, but not enough to beat some of the other 154 things i've read this year. ice haven wasn't new, and i haven't read black hole yet (dude, that thing is HEAVY, and i generally stop by the comic book store on my way home from campus, when i'm already lugging a bunch of books). i did really love spiral-bound but otherwise there weren't any books that really grabbed me this year. i have been very into some of the continuing series that i read, but they don't count. i think 2006 will be a good year for graphic novels, but 2005 was a little bland.
i haven't actually even begun thinking about my top ten books this year--narrowing it down is gonna be rough. i did read some pretty bad books this year, though, so at least that'll make it a little easier. :)
like "ice haven," i think "black hole" is not technically new either, b/c it was serialized before it came out. i agree that it looks daunting, but it moves pretty fast. (i know this is comics heresy, but i find that lots of pictures makes a story move faster.) it was probably the best graphic novel i read this year.
ReplyDeletei want to check out this thing that adrian tomine wrote the introduction for, by this japanese guy, it's called "the push man and other stories"; have you heard of it?
yeah, i have it--it's pretty neat, the artist does a lot without using any words.
ReplyDeletebeing a fast reader, i wasn't really daunted by the length of black hole--which i hadn't read in its serialized form, so it's new to me!--but the act of carrying it home from the store. :)