{"id":140,"date":"2014-01-16T01:08:57","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T01:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/?p=140"},"modified":"2014-02-04T11:06:02","modified_gmt":"2014-02-04T11:06:02","slug":"just-the-best-of-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/just-the-best-of-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Just the Best of 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the first things that I didn\u2019t get round to doing this year was submitting my best of 2013 to the Forbidden Planet International blog<\/a>, despite being asked and knowing exactly what I wanted to pick.\u00a0 The interested party can take a look at what I picked last year by taking a short hop over<\/a>, but what of those who hang on my every word, desperate for the advice and guidance that only I can offer? I worried about those people, certainly I did.<\/p>\n

So, here\u2019s my very late guide to my favourite comics of last year – expanded from my original three picks to include a couple more deserving comics that warrant your love and attention.\u00a0 Pay heed, my dear hearts, for this party would say that it doesn\u2019t get better than this:<\/p>\n

New School by Dash Shaw<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"NewSchoolMain\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I started reading Dash Shaw<\/a>\u2019s New School three times before I got past the first couple of chapters. Every time that I picked it up I felt compelled to return to the beginning, to get the whole story in one gluttonous sitting.\u00a0 And it really is great, a wonderful science-fiction story about a boy trying to reconnect with his brother as they both butt against growing up, though in lots of ways the story is secondary to what Shaw is doing here. The pages stutter with phenomenal colour as memories of the future turn up in dreams. Thick lines bruise each page as teenage emotions break loose. It\u2019s a fine time, and lots of fun.<\/p>\n

Swear Down by Oliver East<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"4_SDcover\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Inexplicably, Oliver East<\/a> wasn\u2019t peppering the best of lists over the course of the end of the year, which seems crazy to me.\u00a0 Again, Oliver uses the course of a journey as a structure to hang a narrative off of, but this time he\u2019s speaking about something uniquely personal as he tries to work through his feelings over the traumatic birth of his son.\u00a0 I think that the very personal nature of this work has almost scared reviewers off commenting on it, but it\u2019s engaging and honest.\u00a0 I don\u2019t, as a rule, like autobiographical comics. There are exceptions of course, when that comic has something to say, and this is one of those exceptions. By turns heartbreaking and hilarious, this is vital, excellent work that demands to be read.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Call Your Hands \u201cHands\u201d by Malcy Duff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_3288\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sneaking in at the end of the year, this is the first of Malcy Duff<\/a>\u2019s comics that I\u2019ve read in a while, and it reminded me of why I love his work so much. Under a hand drawn cover (no pun intended) we find a deliberately paced vaudeville as a man chases his wind snatched hat.\u00a0 Later, we find that it\u2019s not a street that he\u2019s been chasing the hat along, but rather a plank extended from the side of a ship. It\u2019s these reversals of what we think that we are seeing on the page that Duff has trafficked in for a long time, directly forcing us to engage with what we are seeing. Don\u2019t Call Your Hands \u201cHands\u201d also features one of the most sinister moments of the year as a sinister black shape slithers into view. There is nothing quite like a Malcy Duff comic. This is no exception.<\/p>\n

Julio\u2019s Day by Gilbert Hernandez<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"4aac9e6648b74746bb4abca2908cb21c\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not many people would argue with 2013 being Gilbert Hernandez<\/a>\u2019s year, in volume if nothing else.\u00a0 But in the year that saw the publication of Marble Season, Maria M, Love and Rockets and more, it was Julio\u2019s Day that really stood out to me. A recounting of 100 years of a man\u2019s life in 100 pages, Julio\u2019s Day had a grand sweep to it that I loved, and it was great to finally see it completed. To be honest, any of his work this year could have happily sat here.\u00a0 He\u2019s a comics treasure that man, and should be kept close to our hearts.<\/p>\n

Violenzia by Richard Sala<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"comics-richard-sala-violenzia\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Richard Sala<\/a>\u2019s first direct to digital comic was a near plotless delight, a fantasma of violence that followed a silent assassin as she works her way through any number of targets. What makes this so special is Sala\u2019s art \u2013 an off-kilter style that makes the most grotesque things fun to be around.\u00a0 He\u2019s been doing this for years, and just gets better.\u00a0 One of the reasons I loved this so much is not only because it shows an established cartoonist embracing new platforms, but also because it represents a great shift in the way that I\u2019ve been reading comics this year. Not to make this all about myself, but I\u2019m more than happy to read things digitally now \u2013 and I\u2019ve probably read more this last year than any year in the past. Sala\u2019s right there among the top.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

One thing that I do notice about these comics is the fact that they are all by creators that I was already well aware of and had an interest and affection for.\u00a0 Maybe this is my own failing, in not seeking out new things as much as I should.\u00a0 Hopefully I can address that in the coming year and find some new favourite that I can carry forward.\u00a0 I hope we can all do the same \u2013 if any of the above are unfamiliar to you, they would make great places for you to start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the first things that I didn\u2019t get round to doing this year was submitting my best of 2013 to the Forbidden Planet International blog, despite being asked and knowing exactly what I wanted to pick.\u00a0 The interested party can take a look at what I picked last year by taking a short hop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29],"tags":[56,59,63,64,62,61,60,58,65,57,66],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-56","tag-dash-shaw","tag-dont-call-your-hands-hands","tag-gilbert-hernandez","tag-julios-day","tag-malcy-duff","tag-new-school","tag-oliver-east","tag-richard-sala","tag-swear-down","tag-violenzia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/NewSchoolMain.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4dZll-2g","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147,"href":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions\/147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/strip-for-me.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}