Fun Home - The Book of the Year?

[Reptisaurus!]

Alright, so ranking art is bullshit and recontextualizes it in ways the artist never wants and artists have different strengths and it's kind of insulting to reduce stuff that artists have poured their heart and soul into to a list of numbers on a page.

That said: Can anyone make a defense that FUN HOME is not the # 1 bestest comic of the year?


(P.S. Cronin... I'll TRY to do best of tomorrow, but I'm goin' to Tennessee and internet access is spotty. Night of Jan. 2cd at the latest.)

[JeffreyWKramer]

Alright, so ranking art is bullshit and recontextualizes it in ways the artist never wants and artists have different strengths and it's kind of insulting to reduce stuff that artists have poured their heart and soul into to a list of numbers on a page.

That said: Can anyone make a defense that FUN HOME is not the # 1 bestest comic of the year?

If we're talking comics, I'd say it comes in at #2, right after LOST GIRLS. FUN HOME is excellent, mind you - witty, deep, lots of emotional resonance, well-drawn, well-paced and very smartly written. I rate LOST GIRLS higher because it's an even more brilliant work, and a much more daring one. It takes more chances, covers a deeper and much wider range of topics, is also exceptionally well-crafted on every level, and does more to make one think.

[StrikeForce Albert]

All Star Superman

this book could come out once a decade and would still be worth the wait

[Stephane Garrelie]

Mouse Guard by David Petersen. www.mouseguard.net

[lonesomefool]

I'm going with Daredevil, between Bendis and Maleev finishing their run, and Brubaker and Lark starting their run, I cant think of a more consistent, quality, monthly comic.

[BillR]

Well, I didn't read it, so I don't know.

I'm a terrible comics fan, yes.

[shyguy]

I'm pretty up on new comics releases, and I have absolutely no clue what Fun Home is.

My vote goes to She-Hulk.

[Reptisaurus!]

I'm pretty up on new comics releases, and I have absolutely no clue what Fun Home is.

Yeah, I'm sure you're not alone. It's more of a comic that appeals to book nerds than a comic that appeals to comic nerds. (Or that comic nerds will have even heard of.)

JWK Lost Girls... well, I didn't read. Stupid 75 dollar price tag. THe comic art collection at my school has a copy, but I an't made it in to read it. Although what a great idea for a comic.

I dunno if I could even really compare Fun Home to Moore's work. Although it kind of has the two main traits of Moore's work; It's somewhere between non-fiction and fiction, and it's ABOUT being an excersize in craft as much as it's about anything. But Moore's NEVER done anything really personal, and all his stuff is kind of rooted in lower class disposable fictions like pulps and comics and turn of the century adventure novels.

[JeffreyWKramer]

JWK Lost Girls... well, I didn't read. Stupid 75 dollar price tag. THe comic art collection at my school has a copy, but I an't made it in to read it. Although what a great idea for a comic.

I dunno if I could even really compare Fun Home to Moore's work. Although it kind of has the two main traits of Moore's work; It's somewhere between non-fiction and fiction, and it's ABOUT being an excersize in craft as much as it's about anything. But Moore's NEVER done anything really personal, and all his stuff is kind of rooted in lower class disposable fictions like pulps and comics and turn of the century adventure novels.

They're hard to compare, admittedly. That said, this exercise in craft works excellently as an exercise in craft while being a lot more than that, and while I agree that Moore doesn't do much in the way of "personal" works (PROMETHEA being somewhat an exception, despite the connection w/ previous pulp/comics works), this one reflects a great deal about his personal opinions about some important topics (free expression, particularly).

The $75 kept me away for a long time, too, but thankfully I received it as an Xmas gift. Having read it, I have to say, the book is very much worth the price, both for the content and for the fantastic production values. 3 sturdy hardcovers, beautifully printed, slipcased, each volume w/ a jacket... really, the money is worth it. It's also well worth the time and effort put into reading it.

[Reptisaurus!]

They're hard to compare, admittedly. That said, this exercise in craft works excellently as an exercise in craft while being a lot more than that,

oooh. That might've sounded a little harsh. While ALL of Moore's stuff is an excersize in craft and some of it is PRIMARILLY an excersize in craft (Watchmen, I've heard, fits here) none of it is JUST an excersize in craft.

and while I agree that Moore doesn't do much in the way of "personal" works (PROMETHEA being somewhat an exception, despite the connection w/ previous pulp/comics works),

I was thinkin' about Promethea, but I file it as more of a lecturish exploration of his belief system than a personal work. Which is, admitedly, a pretty fine line. :) Promethea was all about "What I believe" not "Why" or "how" I believe. 'An I rate the latter two as the most interesting and important spiritual questions.

The $75 kept me away for a long time, too, but thankfully I received it as an Xmas gift. Having read it, I have to say, the book is very much worth the price, both for the content and for the fantastic production values. 3 sturdy hardcovers, beautifully printed, slipcased, each volume w/ a jacket... really, the money is worth it. It's also well worth the time and effort put into reading it.

I'll definitely try and track it down. I'm moving soon, but my library Fu is strong and I can generally interlibrary loan anything. IF I don't end up buying it. I'm even more interested if I know that Moore's talkin' about real stuff amongst the fairy tale characters boinking.

Not that I'm AGAINST fairy tale characters boinking, mind, and I'm all for modernist porn in general. Porn Should Be Good, man. And most of it really isn't.

[stealthwise]

Well, that settles it, I'm ordering LOST GIRLS. It's only $55 (Canadian!) on chapters.ca, and I've got a $10 off coupon, as well as a 10% discount. Moore's never let me down (although A SMALL KILLING was a little bit underwhelming on the first read), and I'm hoping to get the time to thoroughly enjoy the book.

That said, I haven't read FUN HOME, so I'd say that my book of the year is PRIDE OF BAGHDAD.

[Reptisaurus!]

That said, I haven't read FUN HOME, so I'd say that my book of the year is PRIDE OF BAGHDAD.

That'd be a top twelve-er for me. If it wasn't quite WE32 it was as close as we're probably ever gonna get.

I was pretty happy with ALL of DC's original graphic novels this year; They were all hovering in the "very good but not QUITE brilliant range." When it's Vaughn, who's creator owned work I've had SERIOUS problems with in the past, this makes me really happy.* When it's Gilbert Hernandez, who's my favorite comic writer ever at least 1/3rd of the time it's a little dissapointing.

[ChrisMRich]

My favorite comic book is Rex Mundi, but I'd have to say it wasn't as good (though it came out much more consistently on schedule and that's a big plus) in 2006 as it was in 2005, so maybe it wasn't the best comic book of the year. Likewise, while I always love Brubaker's Captain America, I don't know if it's as good this year as it was when it started in 2005. I'd have to carefully check the dates of publication before I could definitively say Captain America was the best comic book of the year.

I join in those praising Daredevil, or at least Brubaker's Daredevil. I was less a fan of Bendis' Daredevil, and while I know BMB and Bru have similar styles and philosophies I just like Bru's DD better than BMB's. I don't know if I can definitively say Daredevil was the best comic book of the year.

I think that the definitively 'best' comic book of 2006 that actually came out in 2006 has to be Checkmate, or at least it was before I stopped following it. I really need to start buying it again and grab the issues I missed, when I can. But since I dropped it to buy other things on my pull list for financial reasons, I don't think I can really call it the 'best comic book of 2006.'

The book I look the most forward to seeing the next issue of is Ed Brubaker's Captain America, hands down. Whether or not it's really 'the best', the fact that I look forward to it the most and that it's the one monthly book (Rex Mundi is a bi-monthly indie, I won't likely ever /need/ to drop it because of money) I wouldn't /ever/ drop from my pull list for financial reasons, I'd have to put it really close to the top.

[Beast]

Agents of Atlas. No contest. It's great to see Marvel dusting off some of their Golden Age characters and re-introducing them to the modern audiences. While the sales may not have been anywhere near what could be considered stellar, the critical acclaim that the series recieved was amazing.

Hopefully sales for the trade means that Marvel will risk another venture into the archives and dust off some of their long retired Golden Age characters for future endevors. The writer, Jeff Parker, has really delivered some impressive work this year. Both in Agents of Atlas and X-Men: The First Class.

[Reptisaurus!]

Maybe this'd do better on Com. I figure SOMEBODY had to have read Fun Home and not liked it, or liked somethng better.

Their were two impetus for this thread. (Impetuses?) for this thread. First, their was a year end review that Cronin linked too on the blog, where the dude didn't mention Fun Home and, well...

Let's face it. There's only a handful of comics released each year that are worthy of being slapped with a serious and GOOD literature tag. You have doofy 'ol superheroes running around in bright orange leggings and shooting lasers out of their butts, you're writing a comic that is kind of fundamentally absurd. And Fun Home was THE heavily reviewed comic of the year among book nerds, and it was an amazing example of craft. Just kicked the livin' shit out of everything else I read this year.

And if you HAVEN'T read it, you're in no position to make "Best of the Year" critical judgements or to pass yourself off as an authority. And then there's thsi guy who dismisses it in a couple words, but ignores the major flaws with Shadowland and Late Bloomer.

(The overlay of the silly science fiction plot on the awesome carnival story and the pure unevenness of reprinting decades and DECADES worth of material.)

I wanted t' here some, y'know, reasonably intelligent anti FH arguments. "Pretentious" is a bullshit adjective used by douchebags who don't get it, "Overwrought" is an AMAZINGLY bad description for such a clinical portrayal of a fucked up life. And while the art was (A) pretty subtle, and (B) not as amazingly good as some of the stuff this guy lists, it was certainly not "Poorly Drawn."
I mean, you like that Herzagava or what-the-fuck ever guy OK, and his art is boring, boring, boooorrrrrring. Boring enough that I'm in no way interested in his writing.

So, in conclusion, this guy is wrong and also DUUURRRRR! I likes Chocamate Ice Cweam.