The Year in Comics (Scratching the Surface)

It's been a big year for comics, particularly when it comes to acceptance in the commercial mainstream. Probably the most significant thrust in that direction was Time magazine naming Alison Bechdel's Fun Home as its Book of the Year. I was very enamored of Fun Home when I read it over the summer, even if I never quite wrote the review I promised (I'd wanted to spend more time with it before writing, and, alas, that never happened), but even I wouldn't've expected it to leapfrog over all the other books released this year. For her part, Bechdel is nonplussed by it all: "I'm still a bit flummoxed by it. I mean, Fun Home is an odd little book. Go figure." (Link via The Beat, quoting Gay People’s Chronicle.) Will this be enough to put Fun Home back on the shelves of the Marshall, Missouri, Public Library? I'm not holding my breath.

Whenever you start compiling Top Ten lists, comparing apples and oranges, you end up with some oddities. One such oddity occurred in figuring some of Time's lists. Fun Home was named the top book of the year by Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo. But Time's comics reviewer, Andrew D. Arnold, made his own list of the year's top comics. On that one? Fun Home was number five, after Jessica Abel's La Perdida, The Pushman and Other Stories & Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons & True Stories edited by Ivan Brunetti, and the Fantagraphics reprint of E. C. Segar's Popeye. Oh well, I guess it's great just to be nominated. Filling out Time's comics list are Cancer Vixen by Marissa Acocella Marchetto, Kevin Huizenga's Curses, American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, Kings in Disguise by James Vance and Dan Burr, and the new Absolute compilation of Neil Gaiman's Sandman, with various artists. In all, that list is made up of six original graphic novels and four collections of already published material, which is four too many for my money, but they're all good comics regardless.

Publishers Weekly did its own survey of comics critics, and as it happens, ten titles received three votes or more, so that's an easy cut-off point (although every title that received any vote from any of the twelve critics surveyed is given a mention). Fun Home topped that poll, as well, with half the critics naming it to their lists.

While we're on the subject, you can also take a look at Ken Tucker's Top Six comics at Entertainment Weekly, which he categorizes as Best Mini-Series, Best New Series, etc. He doesn't include Fun Home on his list, but that just goes to show that we've got an embarrassment of riches these days.

If you're jonesing for more year-end comics surveys, take a look at Tom Spurgeon's round up of lists from various sources. Pick your favorite comics commentator and go to town.