The Best American Comics 2018

The Best American Comics #13

by Bill Kartalopoulos

“I love comics. Comics is (Comics ARE?) a perfect language, robustly evolving and expanding like any other living language,” writes Phoebe Gloeckner in her Introduction to  The Best American Comics 2018 . This year’s collection includes work selected from the pages of graphic novels, comic books, periodicals, zines, online, and more, highlighting the kaleidoscopic diversity of the comics language today.
 
Featuring GABRIELLE BELL • TARA BOOTH • GEOF DARROW • GUY DELISLE • EMIL FERRIS • JULIA GFRÖRER • SARAH GLIDDEN • SIMON HANSELMANN • JAIME HERNANDEZ • JULIA JACQUETTE • GARY PANTER • ARIEL SCHRAG, and others

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Anthologies, Fiction, Comix, Short Stories, Comics Manga

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2018

Reviews

[Wil Wheaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some fantastic entries in this volume, from creators I wouldn't otherwise have discovered. That's what I want from a collection like this, and it's why I gave it 3 stars instead of 2.

I wanted to give it 2 stars because this is mostly excerpts from larger works, and while they give us a sense of what those larger works are, I was left feeling unsatisfied over and over again, like I was just getting into a show and someone grabbed the remote and changed the channel.

I know it's tough to collect and represent what's going on in comics these days, because there are so many fantastic webcomic artists and indie graphic novelists out there. If anyone cares, I would recommend that in the future this series splits itself into multiple volumes, maybe one for online work and another for indie work, so we can dive deeper into stories and get a more satisfying experience.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I approached this volume with trepidation after last year's disastrous entry, but I'm pleased to see some selections in here from books I might actually consider putting on a best-of list myself, especially Guy Delisle's Hostage or Sarah Glidden's Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. (It wasn't good for me, but the critically-acclaimed My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1 is also included.)

There is still too much fixation on being an alternative comix sampler or indie publisher showcase for my taste, but I can forgive that if I at least discover something interesting of which I was not previously aware. The excerpted gem from this volume for which I'll be seeking out the full work: Playground of My Mind.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series. I’ve been reading it since 2006 and for the most part they are consistently outstanding.This edition gets 4/5 mainly because of a few weaker entries but generally the comics are very good. This year I had bought and owned submissions by the following, all of which were great: Gabrielle Bell, Tara Booth, Guy DeLisle, Emil Ferris, Sarah Glidden, Jesse Jacobs, Joe Ollmann, Keiler Roberts, and Ted Stearn. Interestingly, my favourite entries were from books I’d already read. Surprisingly, submissions that made the Notable List and therefore were not included shocked me by their omission: Ben Passmore, Roman Muradov, Anders Nilsen, Juliacks, Kevin Huizenga, John Porcellino, Seth, Dash Shaw, Leslie Stein, Jillian Tamaki, Chris Ware, Sophie Yanow, Michael Deforge, Eleanor Davis, David Collier, and Sammy Harkham. Any of these creators could have replaced several unnamed entries. Oh, a taste of nostalgia and a pleasant surprise for me was the incredible Geof Darrow piece. Seek this out.

[Gabriel Infierno · Rating 4 out of 5]

La verdad que me gusto mucho la antología por que me dio la posibilidad de leer autorxs que no tengo la posibilidad de leer de otra forma y de descubrir a un par que no conocía, especialmente agradecida de leer los trabajos de Chloë Perkis, Keiler Roberts, Michael Ridge, Richie Pope, Laura Pallmall, Julia Jacquette, Alex Graham, Sarah/Margot Ferrick, Julian Glander, Casanova Frankestein, Abraham Diaz, Gabrielle Bell and Lale Westvin, asi que tiene un montón de cosas interesantes.

[Megan Kirby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great memoir comics and a series of Susan Something strips I can't stop thinking about, counteracted with some gross-out comics that were definitely not for me.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

As per usual, this is a really mixed bag. A lot of my favorite selections I had read in their entirety (Sarah Glidden, Guy Delisle, Simon Hanselmann, Jesse Jacobs, Keiler Roberts, Emil Ferris), or was aware of the work already (Tara Booth). This collection functioned less as a source of discovery of new work for me. And a lot of the work I wasn't familiar with was pretty unpleasant with gratuitous violence.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good collection. I liked it better than the previous year's collection, as you could actually tell what was going on in most of the comics. I like Phoebe Glockner and her introduction very much. Her graph of first letters of last names of the contributors versus those of the general America public was deliciously quirky! Also, though my taste is not very similar to that of Bill Kartalopolous, I like his foreward, which talks about artists challenging our assumptions about how art can or should work.

[Steve Portigal · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's good to see all the different styles in the form. But I can't say anything in this particular selection moved me or made me interested enough to seek out more of the author's work.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finding it too joyless, heartbreaking, and obvious in its need to shock, I have to admit that I couldn’t finish Phoebe Gloeckner’s acclaimed comics/prose hybrid book, “Diary Of A Teenage Girl.” With this in the back of my mind, I was wary picking up the new 2018 edition of “Best American Comics” because my enjoyment of the series tends to be directly related to how my tastes lines up with the guest editor’s. Happily, Gloeckner’s choices for this volume of the anthology serve as a great reminder not to equate an artist with their characters. Unlike “Diary Of A Teenage Girl,” the pieces in “Best American Comics 2018” are largely warm, humorous, and surprising without being mean-spirited.

Aided by series editor Bill Kartalopoulos, Gloeckner’s selections provide a wide-ranging overview of the current landscape of comics, mixing relative unknowns with established voices, with a particular emphasis on the flood of amazing female cartoonists working today. There’s a lot - I mean A LOT - of excerpts in this edition, which further reinforces that so-called graphic novels are definitely the stars of the medium right now, but there are also a fair amount of exciting and experimental stories from various zines and online sources. Every volume of the series leaves me with several new artists to check out but this edition gave me a longer than average list. I’m really impressed this year.

“Best American Comics 2018” includes pieces from some of my favorite big-name graphic novels from last year - “Hostage” by Guy Delisle, “Rolling Blackouts” by Sarah Glidden, and “The Abominable Mr. Seabrook” by Joe Ollman - so, in the interest of spotlighting some other creators, these are my lesser-known...

FAVORITES:
“The Warlok Story” by Max Clotfelter - The author recalls the disgusting, embarrassingly vulgar comics he used to make as a misanthropic teenager.
“Sunburning” by Keiler Roberts - Pleasant and wry autobio comics in the vein of John Porcellino and Jenny Zervakis.
“Things I Regret” by Ariel Schrag - An unflinching inventory of Ariel’s mistakes, poor choices, and missed opportunities.

Lastly, I still believe that “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters” by Emil Ferris is gorgeous but I don’t “get it.” I know I’m in the minority.

[Annschi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kein guter Jahrgang.

[Manintheboat · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Oh Phoebe Gloeckner is the editor this year... this is going to be FUBAR." and it is.

[Riddhish Bhalodia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent collection, and served it's purpose to introduce me to some series and artists that I might like but that's about it.

[Walaka · Rating 3 out of 5]

My enjoyment of this series really depends on how closely my sensibilities match those of the guest author. In this case, not so much...

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inherently 5 stars since reading this got me doodling comics again.

Newly OBSESSED with the pattern painting comics of Tara Booth (it me) and creepy-cute ethereal furry brown abstractions of Margot Ferrick. Previously-established obsessions reinforced: My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris, Megg Mogg & Owl by Simon Hanselmann, Crawl Space by Jesse Jacobs. Stoked to see that Julian Glander makes comics--stumbled on Lovely Weather We're Having in the Steam store and thought it was hilarious.

The author's note for Andre Krayewski's "Miss V: My Last Love Story" had me choked up, and the comic itself was so dirty old man but I found myself laughing anyway--weirdly delightful.

Not as smitten with the excerpts towards the end but chalk it up to anthology fatigue.

[Brianna Sowinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love finding new artists through these anthologies.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rec. by: Previous entries, and an MCL returns cart
Rec. for: D'you need me to draw you a picture?

The graphic arts, including in particular those works of sequential images and text that we call comics, are a legitimate form of art. That's no longer even remotely controversial—and to their considerable credit, series editor Bill Kartalopoulos and this year's editor Phoebe Gloeckner don't waste much time justifying the mere existence of the art form in their Foreword and Introduction (respectively) to The Best American Comics 2018. Instead, Kartapoulos and Gloeckner focus on the state of comics art in 2017, and on the organization of this volume, which is... alphabetical, by artist? Seems like an odd choice at first, but at least in this case it works out very well.

I'm not going to go through every comic in detail this time—I experienced The Best American Comics 2018 as more of a continuous flow, and did not take many notes as I went along. However, I did have some thoughts...

The first comic is by far the one I found most disturbing, personally—and remember that this is due merely to the vicissitudes of alphabetical order. Gabrielle Bell's "Ghost Cats" is an autobiographical look at cats Bell knew growing up, and if you're any sort of cat-fancier, you will most likely find their fates as traumatic as I did. As Bell does—her artist's Statement says,

Part of me retains such a stark, vivid memory of that time, and another part of me isn't even sure if I didn't imagine the whole thing. For the record, though, I'm pretty sure it happened.
—p.1

The artwork in the selections this time tends towards crudity—which of course can also be seen as energy, or intensity. Some, like Max Clotfelter's "The Warlok Story," even include faint horizontal lines from the notebook paper on which they were drawn. This is not a complaint—such vitality is a valid editorial preference! But it did mean that "Forest Spirits," Jaime Hernández' excerpt from Love and Rockets (v.4 #2), stood out to me for its clean lines.

Something I haven't seen in other volumes of this series: a couple of the comics, like Margot Ferrick's "Margot" and Casanova Frankenstein's excerpt from "A Taste of Purgatory," were actually printed sideways on the page, to accommodate their more horizontally-oriented layout. While it was a little awkward to rotate the book on my lap, I think it was a good idea to give these a little more space to spread out.

I've always greatly enjoyed reading the Best American Comics volumes I've come across, and this one was no exception. Phoebe Gloeckner and series editor Bill Kartalopoulos put together an excellent survey of the field as it was in 2017, and I very much hope the series continues to prosper.

[Grady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that was depressing.

I know there’s immense creativity and artistry in this collection, but so much of it is ugly - grotesque bodies, stories full of gory violence (usually a metaphor, but not always) and self-loathing, comics perhaps as therapy for the person who writes and draws them, but I walk away from the collection feeling sickened and sad rather than stimulated or enlarged in spirit. Is there another medium where we value emotional authenticity so highly over proportion, beauty, empathy and access? Or perhaps I’m just poorly suited to be a reader of these and should stick to texts.

Selections I did like -all drawn either realistically or with geometric precision - include Guy Delise, the excerpt from Hostage, about a single garlic clove; Sarah Glidden, Sam’s Story, the account of a man deported and separated from his wife and kids because of post-9/11 suspicions; and Julia Jacquette, excerpt from Playground of My Mind, my favorite of the collection, which conveys a fantastic and colorful sense of wonder and discovery.

[Ian Hrabe · Rating 2 out of 5]

An improvement over Ben Katchor's old white dude comics edition from last year, but I wish there was more grounded material. The trend over the last few years has skewed toward more avant-garde/weird for the sake of weirdness stuff that doesn't resonate with me at all. Gloeckner does, however, do a great job putting together a diverse collection of work. Even if it's pretty hit or miss (leaning more on the miss side of things), it's a neat book to flip through.

[Cara Byrne · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I love comics. Comics is (Comics ARE?) a perfect language, robustly evolving and expanding like any other living language. The pictures say what words could only struggle to express, the words tell us things that images could only describe in awkward pantomime" (Gloeckner xi). My favorite entries including "My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Book 1 (Excerpt)," "Susan Something in: Megapets," and "Playground of my Mind (Excerpt)."

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Pandemic Goal #23: Get the “to read” pile under control. Somehow I read the “Best of...2019” before this 2018 volume. Ah well.]

A collection full of creativity. I didn’t love all of the selections, but even those I didn’t not love had a unique point of view that I could respect. And the artistry throughout was stunning and/or shockingly aggressive and/or beautifully meticulous. A lot of emotion.

[patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just OK.

However, the excerpt from Julia Jacquette’s Playground of My Mind was outstanding. I’d like to read in full her graphic memoir about growing up in a Columbus Park Towers apartment in Manhattan, and the modernist playgrounds (1960s and 1970s) she played in as a child. Her illustrations are wonderful.

[Kaitlyn Novotny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gloeckner picked a surprisingly wide array of comic styles that open the possibilities of meaning, interpretation, and the notion that (almost) anyone can be a graphic artist. It's hopeful, inspiring, dark, depressing, and more..making you want to find the original pieces and get the backstories of ALL the authors. But I love "The Best American Comics" collection no matter what so ?

[Kat Hulu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conflicted about this one. On the one hand, it really focused on women’s voices and experiences in a way that no other book in the series has so far (though a couple came close). But on the other... boy, there was a lot of absolute garbage.

Predictably, I did love the “megapets” (or whatever) bit.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I’m rereading this volume?

I feel that I’m growing out of alt-comix, or have for some time. Guy DeLisle’s one of my favorite authors, Emil Ferris, Julian Glander, and Jesse Jacobs had fantastic entries, as did Jaime Hernandez, but as always not every entry is for everyone.

[P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

These always give me new people to seek out! And they are also totally influenced by their guest editor, stop lying Bill K. That's part of the fun.

[David4439 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. As with all these anthologies, it’s hit or miss.

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the artists who are new to me, my favorites are Margot Ferrick and Jesse Jacobs.

[Michael Kitchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As anthologies go, some of it I liked, and some I didn't. Still, it's an excellent example that comics and sequential art are not just about costumed super heroes.

[Brendan]

This year is the worst,. Get Phoebe Gloeckner to draw comics but don't let her edit anything anymore

[Phyllis · Rating 3 out of 5]

FROM LIBRARY