Comics of the Year

Best Comic Series of the Year

*Tie* Sweet Tooth and Chew


When I got to thinking about which comic series has stood out the most to me this pat year, my thoughts were instantly drawn to Chew and Sweet Tooth. I feel indecisive in saying that these two comics tie, but I really cant say that one stands above the other. It is a special week when I have an issue of Chew or Sweet Tooth waiting for me in my pull box. If they ever happen to come out on the same Wednesday, I might just keel over from excitement. Aside from being totally awesome, the two comics share some common traits: Both comics are consistently entertaining. Both feature fantastic writing a great art. Both follow a consistent publication schedule, (when reading a story in small episodes, it is really nice to not have to wait too long to see what happens next). On top of all that, they consistently leave me wanting more.


Aside from the adherence to high quality that both titles share, the two comics are quite different from one another.

Sweet Tooth takes place in a post apocalyptic world where most everyone is dead and the newborn children are born as human/animal hybrids. The story follows Gus, a hybrid child and Jeppard, a man trying to survive in the changed world. I don't want to give too much away for people who haven't read the series, but I will say that Writer/Artist Jeff Lemire manages to make his characters unforgettable, the story deeply moving and emotional, and the art moody and cinematic. Sweet Tooth is a dramatic, tense story that unfolds slowly and always leaves me wanting more.

Chew on the other hand, is a comedy at heart. The story takes place in a world where an avian flu has killed millions, causing a chicken prohibition. (Some food lovers could argue that a world without chicken dinner is also apocalyptic...) Our hero Tony Chu, is an FDA agent with a secret. He's cibopathic, meaning he gets psychic impressions from the foods he eats, which makes him a damn fine detective. Too bad his FDA boss hates his ass and sticks him on the strangest, most bizzare cases. This comic features the talented creative team of writer John Layman and artist Rob Guillory. Keeping the story fresh, and fun seems to be their priority, oh yeah, that and putting poor Tony through the wringer whenever possible. I always get a good laugh out of each issue, but this ain't no one trick pony. Chew features some solid mystery and sci-fi elements as well, and Layman certainly seems to have a good idea as to where he wants the series to go. Excellent stuff.

I can't say enough good things about these two comics. I wouldn't be surprised to see one or both of these titles in the same spot next year.


Best Single Issue of the Year

The Unwritten #17


Yep, I flippin' loved to read Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid. I would read one of those bad boys until I had achieved nearly every possible scenario the book offered, then read it again. When I heard that the folks behind The Unwritten were going to make a comic in the Choose Your Own Adventure style, I knew I'd have to own it. Keep in mind I don't read The Unwritten, and wasn't a fan of the first trade. So a single issue from a comic series I've ruled out has to be pretty special, but this one had the power of nostalgia backing it up. Of course, the issue could have totally sucked, and they could have flubbed the concept. But they didn't. The creative team really made this issue amazing. Not only do they pull off the CYOA concept but they also manage to include a great story in the process. This one was lots of fun, and hands down my best single issue of the year.

Honorable Mention:

Neonomicon #2: I'm still having nightmares from that one.

The Sixth Gun #6: The most awesomeness packed into one issue.

Album of the Year

Welp, enough thinking about my year-end "Best Of" lists. The time has come to actually start writing about my favorite stuff for the year...So, without further ado, I give you ALBUM OF THE YEAR!


Snakes for the Divine by High on Fire.

I'm starting out with Album of the Year, because its a no-brainer. I only bought a dozen or so new albums this past year, and I had the feeling there was something special about this one when I reviewed it back in March. Simply said, this album rocks. From the opening song, to the final seconds, this album is a pleasure to my ears. Overall, Death is this Communion is still my favorite High on Fire album, but from a musical skill stand point, Snakes is a better album. It is always nice to see a band evolve, and get better. That's definitely the case here. There is a larger variety in their sounds, and each song stands out individually. Also, Matt Pike's singing/growling got a bit better as well. I can see how his singing style might be a turn-off for some listeners, but there is a slight up-tick in the listenable-ness of his growl.

High on Fire is typically a thrashy, aggressive band, and I think the times when they mix in other elements like long, repetitive riffs, and more melodic songs like Bastard Samurai is when they stand out from other bands of their ilk. Even though this album has some progressive and stoner moments, it still manages to be a powerful, heavy, and loud metal album.

Unfortunately, I never got to see High on Fire play live on tour for this album, as that always adds to my enjoyment of an album, but hopefully they'll come through Seattle again soon. If you are into metal music, and you don't own this one yet, get your hands on it. Turn your speakers up to eleven and enjoy.

Some Vacation Pictures

I'm officially back from my vacation in New Mexico. Technically, I was back yesterday, but I was pretty fried from a long day of late night travel, so I was more or less useless yesterday. I thought I'd share a few photos from my travels.

I took this picture after spending a day in Santa Fe. I didn't run into GRRM, but I did see some cool Native American jewelry, and eat a delicious thing called Frito Pie.


Albuquerque boasts the world's longest tram which climbs to the summit of the Sandia Mountains. The views from the summit are quite spectacular, and the amount of snow at the summit was a trip. I wasn't expecting the freezy temps nor the blustery wind, but my weak ass did brave the elements long enough to snap a photo of one of the trams making the climb up to the summit.


The vacation crew and I did some sweet desert hiking on Christmas Eve. The great thing about hiking in the desert is that trails aren't essential. We pretty much just picked out a spot in the distance and went there. The company, the weather, and the location all combined to make this one of my all-time favorite hikes. We even made it to the top of the big mesa you can see in the back ground of this photo.


Just a photo of your friendly neighborhood blogger while taking a photo of a massive rock wall.


This cool looking rock formation is called a "hoodoo". We came across about a half dozen or so of these on our hike.


The Petroglyph National Monument site just outside of Albuquerque was probably the biggest disappointment of the trip. The government was a bit slow in protecting this site, and as a result there is a shit-ton of lame graffiti, often right next to the art the site is trying to preserve. There were a few nice petroglyphs to see, but the massive amount of graffiti was pretty disheartening. We did hear a lot of coyote howls, and later saw one of the coyotes, so that was pretty sweet.

All in all, it was a great vacation, and I still have a few more days off before school and work crank back up.

"BEST OF" Posts

It's the most wonderful time of the year! And I'm not saying that because it is the Holidays, though the Holidays are pretty awesome. I'm saying it because it is the time of year that bloggers from all around the internet start posting their year-end "Best Of" lists.

I pretty much cant afford to buy newly released books, nor am I cool enough to get free reading copies, so I sorta live vicariously through other bloggers through the year, reading their reviews, and filtering out the books I most want to read in the future, and then buy 'em when they come out in soft cover format. One great way to discover the hot new reads that I'll be reading once they cool off a bit and cost less is to read the year-end "Best Of" posts that cooler, more talented bloggers put out this time of year. Now, I realize not everyone on my blog roll has created such a list, but I've compiled a list of those who have. These are people who's blogs I devoutly follow, checking in whenever they post new stuff, and I really value their opinions so I think their "Best Of" posts are definitely worth taking a look at.

I'll kick things off with one of my favorite bloggers, The Speculative Scotsman. This dude consistently cranks out solid material at his blog, and his year-end lists are solid too. His "Top of the Scots" lists include movies, and games as well as books.

Over at the Mad Hatter's Bookshelf, there's a Long List edition of his best reads for the year. Which has me hoping for another, more detailed list in the future. One cool thing about this post though is that there's some interesting stats to check out.

Magemanda from Floor to Ceiling Books took a somewhat different approach to the typical year-end list, handing out awards in 20 Categories. Probably the coolest awards post so far, who else is gonna hand out an award for "best kiss"?

Pat from the Fantasy Hotlist released a list of his Top 10 Books for the year, plus an additional ten runners up. This is a horribly dull list post, but I'm sure he'll kick it up a notch when he hands out his year-end "Hotties" awards.

The Wertzone has long been a steady source of book recommendations for me, so I wasn't too surprised to find that Adam's Wertzone Award for best novel of 2010 post featured a bunch of novels I'll be reading sometime in the future.

The folks at Speculative Book Review are one of my favorite team blogs. The reviewers there have a nice variety of fantasy tastes, which overlap with my own preferences plenty often. Their The Year's Best post reflects the diversity of preferences presented by their reviewers.

Last up is the Fantasy Book Critic. the Top 25 Novels post there comes complete with a fancy little cover collage. There's also links to the reviews, if you want more information.

That's all the "Best Of" posts for now, hopefully the other folks on my blog roll will put their "Best Of" lists up soon!

Comic Quickies

Strage Tales II #3: The Strange Tales mini-series, where some of the biggest names in indie comics write in the Marvel Universe, wraps up with this issue. This final issue features some big names from the indie realm: Terry Moore, Dean Haspiel, Alex Robinson, and Kate Beaton, who all feature stories in this issue. The interesting thing is, aside from the two great comics by Kate Beaton, I was more entertained by artist/writers who were unknown to me. Young People by Michael Deforge which featured Spidey, Jubilee, and Iceman was pretty damn funny and With a Little Help from my Friends by Eduardo Medeiros which featured Spiderman, Juggernaut, The Thing and a sweet little old lady was not only funny, but had some cool artwork as well.

The standout story for this issue was easily the story simply titled Silver Surfer by James Stokoe. Not only was the story cool and engaging, but the artwork was absolutely gorgeous. Check out the first page splash:



Pretty pretty right? Me likey.



Dracula The Company of Monsters #2: I liked the first issue so much that I went back to my local comic shop and picked up the other two issues they had on hand, so this is gonna be a Dracula-centric installment of Comic Quickies.

In this issue, Evan, who has been working around the clock on a super-secret project that even he doesn't know all the pertinent details about, enacts some ancient spells, and brings Dracula back from the dead. The idea of extremely powerful corporations is scary enough, but one with Vlad the Impaler/Dracula in their thrall is pretty much pants pooping scary. So it should come as no surprise that Evan, the Everyman caught up in this mess, is appropriately stressed and worried about the ramifications of resurrecting such a beast. The guy is sort of stuck, since the corporation he works for also happens to be the family business. Bringing Dracula back from the dead is just phase one of this nefarious plot, and it is hard to say what Evan's Uncle, Conrad, the company CEO has planned once Dracula is fully awake. This was definitely an issue that left me wondering/excited to see where the hell things are heading.



Dracula The Company of Monsters #3: This issue introduces a new set of characters to the story. In the opening sequence, we meet Emil Stefanescu, his daughter, niece, and third cousin, who operate a small family business: Vampire Hunters. The group is scouting out the site of a slaughter which also happens to be where Barrington Industries, (those guys who resurrected Dracula), unearthed Dracula's bones.

In the meantime, back at Barrington Industries' high security lab, Evan has created an ingenious version of the house-arrest ankle bracelet. This device, created to keep Dracula in check looks a bit like a conquistador breast plate, complete with vials of holy water, spring loaded stakes, and shielded crucifixes. Despite these precautionary measures, Dracula claims to be harmless since he is in Evan's debt for bringing him back from the dead. Evan has to decide if is Dracula genuine, or simply an extremely manipulative bastard.

Another great issue of this series, which seems to get better with each installment.

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Hey hey! It is officially the big day here in Nuevo Mexico. I hope everyone has a good Christmas, (if that's what you celebrate), I'll be busting out some impromptu carols throughout the day. I've got designs on some holiday cooking and baking, with long stretches of chillaxing mixed in. Have a cup of cheer everyone.

Review: Ex Machina v1 The Frist Hundred Days

Michael Hundred was once a civil engineer, but a strange accident near the Brooklyn Bridge gifts him with some amazing powers: the ability to talk to machines and mechanical items. Hundred used these powers to become the world's first, and only, real-deal super hero. However, he eventually tires of doing nothing more than maintaining the status quo, so he gave up the crime-fighting gig, and turned to, what else? Politics. Cashing in on his celebrity status, Hundred wins the NYC mayor election in a landslide, kicking off a political career full of drama.

Hundred has his work cut out for him as he must deal with his eccentric staff, assassination attempts, a PR disaster thanks to a controversial exhibit at an art museum, a crippling blizzard, and a crazed serial killer who's topping the city's snow plow drivers.

I know the plot synopsis I just gave doesn't do justice, but let it be said that Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days is a truly special comic. There are multiple layers at work here; the politics, the characters, and the super hero stuff, all work together to make this really special. First off, you have the characters, who are incredibly fleshed out and nuanced. Comic characters can sometimes come off as over the top, but writer Brian K. Vaughn avoids that easily and creates a unique cast that not only stand out, but stand on their own as interesting individuals.

Obviously, politics play a major role in Ex Machina, so if you aren't into that sort of thing, well, go read Spiderman or something. Guess what though? A comic about politics isn't boring as shit! As a nice touch, Vaughn ties in a few real life news items, like the painting of Lincoln with the "N" word written across it, to add some flesh to the political turmoil plaguing Hundred's life. Aside from the major news worthy stuff, Vaughn mixes in lots of the nuts and bolts daily bullshit that a mayor would have to deal with which made me feel like Hundred actually was the mayor.

Maybe I shouldn't have scared off the Spiderman fans so soon, because there's some super hero action in Ex Machina as well. Vaughn layers in a bunch of flashbacks to Hundred's old super hero days which craftily gives you his back story, and sets up the pertinent history for the series. These scenes are all well done, and play an important role in the overall tapestry of the story. I get the feeling that if a regular guy actually ever did gain some super powers, his crime fighting days might look a lot like Hundred's sloppy, trial and error, fly by the seat of your pants crime fighting style.

Not only does The First Hundred Days feature some top-shelf writing, but the art is equally amazing. Tony Harris was more or less an unknown to me before I read this, I knew he had an epic run on Starman, but I'd never read a book with his work. Simply said, he is amazing. Every single aspect of this book looks stunning, but Harris shines when drawing the people that populate this book. I haven't seen any artist nail facial or body expression like Harris. Yeeeeah, there are a few times that the facial expressions look overdone, and the body language is too much, but most of the time it is spot on, and amazing. Harris' skill at capturing facial and body expression/language adds another layer to the already great characters.

Overall this is a fantastic comic. You have a creative team that is on their A game working on a great title. Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days is definitely one of the best graphic novels I've read this year. Without a doubt I am sucked into this series, and it looks like I'll be spending more time with Mitchell Hundred, and his political staff in the future. Definitely worth a read. This one easily gets the Battle Hymns seal of awesomeness.

Grade: A+