Best Books of 2006! Woo-Sucker Punch Ninja Kick!

It's not that I haven't been reading a buttload of comics the last two weeks. Because I have. In fact I'm working on a Seven Soldiers of Victory Review, and planning to review Bendis's entire Ultimate Spiderman run. I was going to do that this week, but the thought occured to me that when next I post a blog it's going to be lucky 07, and in that vein, like every other crazy review site, it's time to wrap it up on '06. Time to go back into the year and to the best of my recollection, give you my best books of '06. History holds there should be a nice round number of these . Like five or ten or a hundred. But a hundred would be unwieldy, and honestly, so may be ten. So I'm going with five. Five really good books from the past year that I fully reccomend. And since there is only five, I won't be doing anything silly like ranking them. Just five. Deal with it.

And without much more ado:

All-star Superman
Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

In all honesty, there was maybe three or four writers who just completely pwned 2006. Morrison was one of them. He semi-quietly threw out some major good stuff. From Seven Soldiers of Victory to Batman to working on 52--even though it's tempting to give DC's year to Geoff Johns, at the end of the day Morrison's work was what kept me a proud DC fan.

And All-Star Superman was simply his best. As arguably the best book DC put out last year, ASM was no slouch. It's still ongoing, and I'll be sad when it's over. But the premise is kind of those silver age wacky superman stories of old. You've got a very mortal Superman, bouncing around in crazy situations with all the normal cast of characters we all know from the years. I don't even like Superman, in fact I kind of hate him. But that didn't stop this book from being one of the very best out there. Morrison's depiction of Lex Luthor has to be seen. And the art from Quitely is eye-gougingly beautiful. The colors are great. Just fantastic work. If you're looking for a Superhero book to read from the last year, I think this is the one.

Scott Pilgrim
Bryan Lee O'Malley

There's actually three Scott Pilgrim books that are out to get, and one of them came out this year, so technically this is okay. But I read all three for the first time this year and felt like all life to that point must have been empty and meaningless. I now know my purpose in life: To read the next Scott Pilgrim book. Collected in good chunk lollipop sized manga volumes, this book chronicles a slackless canadian layabout (perhaps even a rapskallion?) and his adventures or misadventures in love. He's constantly having to fight his girlfriend's ex-boyfriends so that he can continue to go out with her in wild video game-anime inspire fight scenes.

This is a book for everyone. I actually gave it as a christmas present to my sister and my secret santa, and they both adored the book. It's impossible not to like. It's got a charm and humor to it, that is impossible not to fall in love with. If you haven't read Scott Pilgrim, you are probably an evil doppleganger and I hope they find you and throw you into the sun.

Fell
Warren Ellis-Ben Templesmith
2006 also ushered in a bucket full of really good Warren Ellis writing. The King hath returneth. That he wrote both this and Desolation Jones(which I almost put on the list instead) puts him up there for best of the best for the year.

The concept for Fell is 16 pages, full story, 1.99. It follows Detective Richard Fell who has transfered across the bridge from the big city to Snowtown. Snowtown being something of a hellmouth for human degeneracy. The crimes in this book are often sick, disgusting, revolting, but the way in which solves the mysteries in 16 pages with a little bit of humor even, is remarkable and a testament to Ellis' abilities as a writer. There's a lot ot learn from Ellis on this book as far as how much story you really can cram into a book. There's so many books that are 6 to 7 pages longer than Fell that don't feel nearly as satisfying story wise. When you pick up Fell you feel like you're getting your money's worth. Definitely more than worth picking up.

Phonogram
Kieron Gillen-Jamie Mckelvie

If you read my review of Phonogram from a few weeks back and still didn't go pick up the book, I probably hate you, and we probably can't be friends. If I had to pick a favorite book of the entire year, it is either this or Scott Pilgrim. I would say of the two, Phonogram gave me the most food for thought while still being very entertaining. Read this book. Ponder it. Sit it down for 30 minutes. Go grab some bread or cookies or whatever it is you monsters eat. Then come back and read it again.

Love the concept. Love the art. Love the writing. Love people who listen to me and buy the stupid book.

Don't make me beg. Go buy the book idiots.

Pride of Baghdad
Brian K. Vaughn-Niko Henrichon

Incendiary. Beautiful. Brilliant. Brian K. Vaughn was the man about town in comics this year. There's nothing he wrote that you shouldn't have read. But this was the opus. Straight to graphic novel, this based-on-a-true-story, allegory about a family of lions who escaped from the zoo during the US bombardment of Baghdad dazzled.

This is up there with Dark Knight Returns. The Watchmen. Those great canonical books of the medium. Maus. It's immedietely applicable to the current situation in Iraq, as that is most directly what it is addressing. But the meditation it ends up offering on war, dictatorships, and freedom makes this something on the level of comic's Animal Farm. This book is hopefully just the first in many great works from hopefully the next great shining star of comics.

I've yet to encounter anyone who has read the book that didn't come away staggered.

Honorable Mentions: Ed Brubaker's Criminal; Warren Ellis's Desolation Jones; Rick Spears' Pirates of Coney Island

Here's to '07 folks.

Spider-man Reign # 1; Justice Society of America # 1; Wolverine # 48; Newuniversal # 1

Spider-man: Reign # 1
Kaare Andrews

This little one man band of a show shows a lot of promise promise promise. It's basically, to tell you what you've already heard a million times before reading this review, The Dark Spider Returns. People aren't just saying that either. The degree to which this is derivative of Dark Knight Returns is raither staggering. I like to think it will differentiate itself further down the line and make this really something special. But here's the premise: Peter Parker is an old man, long since retired, living in a fascist state, watching things spiral out of control, until he is called into action once more as Spider-man. And all of this happens in the rain, with lots of lightning. And there's a TV news channel with plastic phases reporting the government news. So I don't know. What's that sound like to you?

I mean, honestly, if all this book ends up becoming is Dark Knight Returns in a Spider-man skin, it will still be worth a read. But Spider-man isn't Batman. They are diffrent characters with diffrent sensibilties. There are certainly feints towards exploring those diffrences, but we'll have to see if they are picked up or this book just follows the already set out cookie cutter story of the Dark Knight Returns.

It is pretty cool though. The whole Reign thing is pretty lame though. We'll see. If I sound all over the map on this review, it's because I really want to like this book, and it hasn't done anything staggeringly wrong. But this book is very close to a misstep into me hating it realm.

The art is kind of cool at times too.

Justice Society of America # 1
Geoff Johns- Dale Eaglesham


This book is really really good. It's actually better than the JLA restart I raved about from Meltzer. Johns presents some really cool new faces to the team, weaves in a mystery, and drops a bombshell at the end. It's good stuff.

Honestly the book should be picked up just for the New Starman character who is already a blast.

The premise of the story is basically The Justice Society starting anew. No more no less. Picking new team members. Introducing old faces. It's a great book to start on and get into what has always been a fantastic series. So don't sleep. Better than advertised. And if the previews for the coming year are any indication, this book is going to have some crazy things go down.

Wolverine # 48
Marc Guggenhiem-Humberto Ramos

I picked this book up mainly to see if there was going to be any hope for one of my favorite heroes, the Flash, since the current team in conjuntion with possibly suspect editorial directives, conspired to put out one of the most putrid piles of piss with the gall to still call itself a DC comic. Heh. I'm a little bitter about that. So rather than review that book, I'm going to do something positive. I'm going to talk about how the next creative team who are going to be writing The Flash, the one currently writing Wolverine--how they are going to do a-okay.

I honestly have been sleeping in this whole Wolverine mess and in particular Mr. Guggenhiem's writing of this book. I mean, I should have known better, a lot of people told me it was decent. But I put it off. Waited. And this issue seemed like the perfect excuse.

Wovlerine # 48 is pretty much a one-shot, that focuses entirely upon just what happens to everyone's favorite hand bladed canuck when he is destroyed beyond recognition, such as in a massive inferno styled plane crash. It's a very probing looking into Wolverine's mindset, and honestly, it kind of makes you wish the poor guy could just die in peace.

The artwork for this book is a lot of fun, bouncing through styles, from anime/mangish looking characters, to full on paint jobs. It's all pretty fun. Some hits, some misses. But good stuff all the same. The transition between Logan's dead world, and alive world is very cool. And I'm excited if Ramos is indeed following Guggenhiem to Flash. And I happen to like the thick neck by the by.

The writing is really quite good. Solid dialouge. Very good interior monolauge. Interesting meditations on life and death, and Logan's history. As with any good Wolverine tale, questions are always met with more questions. It's sad that marvel is having to strip away Wolverine's secrets more and more. It's interesting to know, but once it's gone it's gone. Things like this though, show how with a little imagination, one can still mine the folds.

Good book. Now go fix Flash good sirs.

Newuniversal # 1
Warren Ellis-Salvador Larroca

Strange solar event awakens, or creates in various people on the planet, diffrent kinds of powers. There's a couple white guys from diffrent places. Some scientists. A japanese girl. Violence. Sci-fi mumbo jumbo.

Really I don't know why I bothered with this. I pretty much know what kind of Warren Ellis story I like, and this isn't it. I've got Desolation Jones going on, and that's fantastic. The Phillip K. Dick bend into that world is going to be a lot of fun, I'm a fan. Fell is fantastic. I mean. I should have enough. If that's all Ellis were up to this year, fabu. Good year. Drinks all around.

That said. There is actually nothing wrong with this book. The artwork is pretty good, it's not as stylized as something like The Eternals, but it's good stuff. I didn't like the weird C on the japanese girl's face. I hate face tatoos, especially glowing ones. You've gone and drawn this perfectly wonderful face, and now you've mucked it up with a lame C thingy.

The writing is also fine. There's a fun bit about John Lennon being the beatle who is still alive and McCartney being the one that is dead. There's really not enough to have happened in this issue to really judge how strong it will be or won't be. If you have a lot of confidence in Ellis, and he has never let you down. Then give it a shot. But I definitely feel there are better number ones out there to be picking up. If it were a judgement between all of the books in this review as to what to buy, you'd buy JSA, Spider-man, Wolverine, and then this. But I try to give books a chance. I'm not going to throw something away after one issue, so if this book comes around and ends up being completely diffrent than how it looks like it will obviously be, then hoo-ray.

The Lone Ranger 1-2; MoonKnight 6; White Tiger 1

The Lone Ranger
Brett Matthews-Sergio Cariello

I have to cop to it up front, when I was really little, I used to wake up at 5:30am every saturday morning, just to watch the latest rerun(which for me was brand new) of the old Lone Ranger series. And in addition to that, the actual movie of the series, was pretty much completely awe inspiring to me.

So why it took me two issues to bother with this title I've never fully understand. Maybe I was afraid they would make a childhood fave into something really cheesy. I don't know.

But what we've got here is Lone Ranger: Year One. And it is pretty darn fantastic. The first two issues fly by really quick, but you get the ambush, and the mysterious set up of a larger conspiracy against the Lone Ranger headed by one really evil Black Bart. We even have a very tortured and troubled Tonto on board already. It's a lot of fun. You really don't need to know anything about the Lone Ranger to appreciate the book. I can't really imagine what it would be like to read this book with no knowledge of the series, but it must be nice. Basically what you've got here is the making of a legend.

This is a good western comic, and that makes it a good change of pace if you're looking to branch out of the tighted wonders. Though again, there are a lot of similarities to Batman here, so you won't feel totally adrift. The art is excellent, the story telling is good--just a very solid book to be reading. One minor quibble I had was that the transitions between time periods were needlessly jarring. But I look forward to spending more time in all of these diffrent time periods of the character.

MoonKnight # 6
Charlie Huston-David Finch

Another childhood fave. I have always thought MoonKnight was really cool, and as I've said in my earlier reviews of this book, I am really happy with what Huston is doing here. This book just gets grittier and grittier. With seemingly no end in sight. It almost functions as a horror movie with Marc Spector against himself.

The gore level of this book is amazing, and the art is just flat out grimy. My only complaint is that the issues just won't come fast enough. Basically MoonKnight is becoming a face skinning nutcase who can't distinguish between reality and delusion anymore.

The interior monologue is once again very good and very clever. The dialouge is needlessly complicated and difficult sometimes to process. It's hard sometimes to remember who is related to what, and what they are going on about. But I get the sense that Huston is really feeling the medium out right now with this book. He's trying really hard and really pushing to see just what he can do with the medium, and for the most part it's been a raving success.

This is a great book if you are into delusional gritty gore happy brooding hero types. Dark stuff indeed. But it's good to see MoonKnight back on his feet.

White Tiger # 1
Tamora Pierce, Timothy Liebe-Phil Briones

Well....the cover looks nice. The cover is by David Mack. It's very pretty. I like it a lot. I bought the book because of the cover. Good job David Mack. In fact I had this book lying around and a co-worker saw it and was really interested because the cover was that good. So good job David Mack.

I mean. I like Tigers. And BAM. There's a White Tiger, right there on the cover. Behind a pretty ass kicking lady with dark hair, I'm thinking about getting my hair darkened, so jealous of brunettes. It's really cool how the utility belt on the cover is kind of done in a diffrent style than everything else. Almost cartoony next to the painting water colors of the rest. Just all in all a job well done.

Oh. How's the actual book you ask?

Oh the book? It's a pile of steaming crap. I'd say you might enjoy it if you are a fan of White Tiger, but how many fans of White Tiger are there really out there? Probably less than there were before. The book where it tries to be funny is appallingly not. Where it tries to be serious, it comes off awkward. The art is par the course for anything. The whole trip to the superhero costume store felt entirely out of place(yes I know it exists in the "616", but still...). This book just howls lame. Actually the thing is, it's bad, but it's not really bad enough to get a kick out of as being bad.

That said, I'll give the book a chance. Maybe it will find it's footing a few issues in? It is written by a women, and I like to see more women writing in the business. But really....acck. Instead of buying this book, buy an extra copy of Phonogram and give it to a needy child for this christmas.

Nightly News 1; Pirates of Coney Island 2; Wonder Woman 3

Nightly News
Jonathan Hickman

You have to respect this book. The coolness quotient this one man band of a book oozes, even if you don't like the book, you have to respect this book. Nightly News is Jonathan Hickman's rage against the horrors of modern day conditioning. It's about the two percent that own it all versus the 98 percent who own nothing. It's about violent politcal change. It's about how much the news sucks.

And it's pretty good.

The artistic style of the book can best be described as whatever that mess of information is that you see when you turn on your 24 hour news network. It's information overload. You don't read this book so much as it is shot at you, and you collect what you can. At it's height it's a powerful call to arms. At it's worst it's another in the long line of "You're not your fucking khakis".

And while I enjoyed the first issue immensley the seeds of fight club are there, and it bugs me. I don't feel like this book needs a cult driving it. It would have been enough to be a core of angry men. But to throw this Durden-esque claptrap on top of it...it makes me worry.

But for now, this is a good book to be checking out and I do recommend it. As I said before, even if you don't like, you kind of have to respect it. But you'll probably kind of like it.

Pirates of Coney Island
Rick Spears-Vasilis Lolos

Love this book. If you are at all romantic about the anarchic vibes of the ramones, then this is the kind of book you want to see. It's funny to review this book right next to Nightly News because while Pirates isn't as overtly political a book, it's the kind of book which might be a more successful glamorization of an ideal, and a more successfull call to arms.

Pirates of Coney Island is as near as I can tell about a gang of kids at Coney island who approximate something of a non-sea fairing, group of pirates. It's more akin to Tom Sawyer than anything really, but it wears the clothes of that sort of glue hoffing punk esctatica that even nostalgically will always be in vogue. This is about doing what you want, when you want, and giving the big number one to the authority the whole way through.

What's really fun with the book is how Spears intermarries both pirate and comic book tropes. The Pirates have their own batcave. They have their own roles in the crew, each one a speciality--even though they aren't dressed the part(though one boy does don an eye patch), they do feel like pirates.

I really had a lot of fun reading Pirates of Coney Island and am very excited for the next issue. I actually jumped right into the series without having read issue one, so I still have that to catch up on, but missing that info didn't really affect my enjoyment level of the book.

I guess the diffrence between the two books appeal is that in the end I'd rather drop out with Kerouac, then blow up with Osama. The revolution of Pirates is micro, where the one in Nightly News is more macro. Inward vs. outward.

As a final note, and something I should have mentioned sooner--Vasilis Lolos...just whoa. You can draw my wedding pictures any day sir. Love his art. It slightly reminds me of the gorrilaz animation, but it has this wonderful edge and depravity to it--and the colors just explode off the page. The fun thing with Pirates is reading it after going through a pile of fairly dark grim colored books, and then Pirates just explodes on you with blues and greens and reds and yellows. It's beautiful stuff. I can't wait to see more from Lolos.

Wonder Woman # 3
Allan Heinberg-Terry Dodson

Two things to get off my chest before starting this review. First off, it's something of a minor travesty that a character as important and iconic as Wonder Woman, who is supposedly one of the big three with Superman and Batman, only has one book, and it can't come out on a semi-regular basis. Second of all, if it means Allan Heinberg is going to continue to spin such an interesting yarn, then by all means, take your freaking time.

So yeah, I started this book kind of mad, but ended it ready for more. This is a good old fashioned superhero book with wonderful two page splash pages for battles. Lots of fights, lots of talking and drama during those fights, it's how these things are done when they're to be done right. But what hooks you into this book and makes you strap in for the long haul is contained in the dialouge from Circe to Diana(Wonder Woman): "Power you squandered...battling cyborg centurions and psychic despots...when every day thousands of women are beaten raped and murdered because they have no one to fight for them. Because you were too busy being a superhero to be their champion" Hoo boy. This book just took a turn.

One of my favorite things about Wonder Woman is how political she is. I'm not really interested as much in the greek mythology of the character, but I love when she is wrestling with politics and ideals, and real social change. I really hope this book does go to the streets and connects Wonder Woman to a more grounded place. The character could use that. And I think that's what Heinberg is attempting.

We'll see how it goes, but here's to Heinberg and Dodson telling a story worthy of Wonder Woman. Now about having more than one Wonder Woman book going....

Phonogram # 1; Punisher War Journal # 1; Angry Youth Comix # 12

Phonogram # 1
Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

I actually have issues 2-3, which I plan to read, and also review. But I was so excited by this book, that after reading the first issue I wanted to do a backflip into a moving vehicle at 120mph, before punching my own stunt double in the face. This book is that freaking fantastic.

The premise of Phonogram is basically that music is magic. Instead of lame dwarves and elves being draped over a story as the predominant mysticism, it's britpop, and Scout Niblett. It's a world where music casts spells on people. Where being on the list is a magical act. It's so fatsuck cantastic that honestly if you aren't bum rushing your local grocery store and demanding that loaves of bread be replaced by stacks of this book, then something is lacking in your human condition and you should seek high grade medical assistance immedietely.

This is the type of book Jesus would have read before he threw wine on the mobs of idiots outside his church. It just does something to you. You're like, "this book should have been written already, Grant Morrison should have already figured this one out". But it's Gillen and McKelvie, kids. And it's beautiful. Please please please be buying this. Even if you wait for the trade.

Punisher War Journal # 1
Matt Fraction- Ariel Olivetti

This is a Civil War book for right now, but that doesn't stop it from being a lot of fun on it's own right. Ennis's Punisher this ain't. Fraction's punisher owes more to Spider Jerusalem than he does the serious maniac from Garth's book. It's a pretty enjoyable book. The art is some weird balance between cartoony and realistic. It really looks neat.

Fraction has a complete ball with this book. It's Punisher as a running psycho-comic monologue. It's a book with a lot of promise. I don't think it will ever reach the lofty perches of Ennis run, but it might be a lot more enjoyable. It's got that hip self-awareness pop-culture lingo going on for it, which Fraction has somehow woven into the Punisher character very effectively--in that respect the aforementioned art is perfect, as it seems to easily bound between the cartoonish and the serious.

This book is definitely an exercise in the serious and the absurd. With a slight tilt to the absurd.

A book to keep an eye on. If you're not a punisher fan, this book might be for you.

Angry Youth Comix # 12
Johnny Ryan

This book is definitely not for the faint of humor. Think of the most offensive style of humor, the most perverse sick twisted ideas your sad sack mind can imagine, and then realize that you don't even come close to being in the ballpark of Mr. Ryan.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. It is refreshing to read humor that is edgy, without seeming to try to hard. This book reads almost stream of consciousness from someone who is just raging at the way society is. It's really a great book for the repressed liberal, even though most liberals might get very offended at it. It's a book so wrong, it's right.

There's a real sense of traction with this book that I think if someone else was trying to push these ideas, might come off a lot wrong. The Fantagraphic Books seal of approval helps a lot to get this book read in the proper context. Low the humor may seem, this is high art stuff.

If you're looking for something edgy and funny to read, definitely look for it. Johnny Ryan has two collections out of his work, I haven't read either, but I am very interested to give them a try, and I wouldn't begrudge anyone else doing so as well.