My Favorite GNs of 2017

It's that time of year again, when I single out what I feel are the best graphic novels I've read that were published in the last year. I read a lot of them, and these are the ones that have stayed with me most. Enjoy!

Favorite Book
My Favorite Thing is Monsters
Set in 1968 Chicago, this book is a coming of age tale/murder mystery/holocaust survivor story/appreciation of classical art that prominently features monsters from the movies and popular culture. It's gorgeous, has more layers than an onion, and will pop your eyes out with its artwork. It's a masterpiece of a book, and an instant classic. People will be talking about it for decades, and I cannot recommend you read it enough.

Favorite Memoir
The Best We Could Do
This multi-generational account of an immigrant family from Vietnam is a heartfelt and enlightening look at the effects of war on a people, the hardships that many refugees endure, and the complicated ways families operate. It's a beautiful and very human book that I feel contains an important story for contemporary times.

Favorite Biography
The Abominable Mr. Seabrook
Watching the title character destroy himself with alcohol is painful to observe, but his life is fascinating and exceptional. This meticulously researched account of a proto-Gonzo journalist who dined with cannibals, observed voodoo rituals, and roamed the Arabian Desert with Bedouins is well-detailed, beautiful, utterly engrossing, and devastating.

Favorite Coming-of-Age Story
Spinning
Tillie Walden's account of her childhood/adolescence hiding the fact that she is gay while being a competitive ice skater is beautiful, understated, gut-wrenching, and memorable. I feel this book would be very popular with YA readers, but it will resonate with older readers as well.

Favorite Music Book
California Dreamin': Cass Elliot Before The Mamas & the Papas
Artist Pénélope Bagieu is a genius. This biography of Mama Cass is exquisitely drawn, not to mention that it contains beautiful and seemingly effortless storytelling. Not just for fans of classic rock or folk music, this book speaks to anyone with a dream of changing their life circumstances.

Favorite True Crime GN
The Hunting Accident

This book about turbulent relationships between fathers and sons hinges on an incredible true story that involves a robbery, mob connections, poetry, prison, an infamous murderer, a shotgun blast to the face, and a trip through hell. The artwork is appropriately dark and phantasmagorical, and the story will leave you breathless.

Favorite New Series
Rock Candy Mountain
As I have stated repeatedly in the past, I am totally in the can for anything Kyle Starks publishes. This comic is his first ongoing series, and it features hobos, trains, fist-fights, and the devil himself. Go read it if you like fast-paced action and intrigue as well as witty and funny dialogue.

Favorite Series
Fantasy Sports
All the entries in this series have been pure gold. Full of jokes, magic, sports, and intrigue, these comics are fun, fascinating, and exceptionally beautiful to boot. The latest entry features the most compelling rounds of mini-golf ever put to paper, and I cannot wait for the final volume in the series coming next year.

Favorite Book for Younger Readers
Real Friends
This memoir of childhood is an intimate and moving depiction of elementary school friendships. It is full of relatable moments and surprisingly complex characters and has much to offer any reader, girls and boys included.

Favorite Nonfiction Book
Dogs: From Predator to Protector
The latest in the Science Comics series is simply fantastic. A book that covers all kind of ground, from genetics to heredity to breeding to the history of domesticating animals. It's a rare fun and funny book that is chock full of information. Plus, Rudy the narrator is adorable.

Favorite Adapted Webcomic
Demon
These books (4 in all) are also easily the most depraved books of the year, but they are ingenious, funny, and compelling. This account of the machinations of a maniacal killer over a period of centuries as he tries to avoid capture while also foiling a plot to take over the world is beautifully plotted and paced. And gross. It will offend you and make you squirm, I guarantee. Not for kids. 

Favorite Book About Mythology 
Pantheon
Giving Demon a run for its money in terms of gross-out factor, Pantheon is exceptional in that it is colorful, hilarious, raunchy, irreverent, and apparently extremely faithful in retelling myths from Ancient Egypt. You will never look at salad the same after reading this book. I know I don't. Also not for kids.

Well, that's my list. Happy New Year!

Science Comics: Dogs: From Predator to Protector

I went into reading this book thinking it would be a light, breezy read about the history of dogs. I was right about the first part, because boy was I surprised by how much more comprehensive and detailed it turned out to be, all while still being light and funny in tone. Pulling off this tough balancing act, the latest volume in the Science Comics series, Dogs: From Predator to Protector, touches on a great many scientific subjects, including genetics, evolution, and DNA. And better yet, it covers all this ground narrated by a cute and energetic pooch named Rudy.

As you can see from the excerpt, this is a colorful, interesting, and informative book. It touches on all kinds of issues and information about dogs, including an account of how they evolved from wolves, became friendly with people, and have been bred in particular ways to suit specific jobs and human whims. Along the way, there are many interesting episodes and asides, including information about how they see, smell, and hear. This book gets at how they socialize, why they sniff butts, why they chase balls, and what their barks can mean. Amazingly informative and gorgeously playful, this book should be a big hit with anyone who loves dogs, science, good comics, or learning about the world.

This impressive blend of educational and entertaining comics was created by Andy Hirsch. He has a number of comic book series, including The Baker Street Peculiars, as well as a couple of other graphic novels under his belt, including his own Varmints. He has volumes in the Science Comics series coming soon, one about trees and the other cats. He speaks extensively about his work on Dogs in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been glowing. Johanna Draper Carlson gave it high praise, writing, "All the Science Comics are great, but this is one of the best of the bunch, an outstanding read." Kirkus Reviews stated, "The scope and depth of information is truly impressive and could be formidable, but the comic-book format keeps things on the accessible side as well as helping to illustrate more complex points." Suzanne Costner wrote that it was "an excellent introduction to the history of domesticated dogs, and offers enough basic facts to give readers a good place to start researching the topic more deeply on their own."

Dogs: From Predator to Protector was published by First Second, and they have a preview and much more about this book here.

A preview copy was provided by the publisher.

Little Vampire

Little Vampire is a collection of three stories starring a little undead boy. To say that these tales are off-beat would be about right, and I think that they are excellent examples of effective and well defined world-building. His mom is some kind of supernatural being (a vampire or a ghost?); his dad (guardian?) is the Flying Dutchman, and his friends are all monsters of different types. He has a flying, talking red dog who accompanies him on his adventures. These stories seem fantastical and based on fairy tale logic, but they are also rooted in some pretty straight-forward real world considerations. The result is enjoyable, surprising, somewhat gruesome, and very satisfying.

In the first tale, Little Vampire decides he is lonely as the only child among the monsters and wants to go to school. Unfortunately for him, there is no one in the school at night when he can go. So he starts doing a young boy's homework and then strikes up a correspondence with him. The captain of the monsters is alarmed by these letters, as they may jeopardize the monsters' secret hiding place. So the Little Vampire has to go meet the boy to ensure their secret is not revealed, and, after some moments of alarm and terror, the two end up being fast friends.

In the second story, the little boy, whose name is Michael, decides he needs to learn kung fu to defend himself from bullies at school, and Little Vampire takes him to the unlikely training grounds of Rabbi Solomon. After a rigorous, secret ordeal, Michael is ready to take on lots of malefactors, but it is really for nothing. Some of Little Vampire and Michael's monster friends decided to take matters into their own hands and ended up killing and eating the bullying classmate. Not wanting to be party to murder, the gang then goes on to seek out magicians who can bring the boy back in one piece.

A visit to Rabbi Solomon's place (in the original French)

The last story is slightly less supernatural, about rescuing some dogs from a cruel owner who feeds them lipstick and tests various products on them. Of course, the rescue is not a smooth operation, and the children and monsters have to think pretty quickly to deal with all the repercussions of their actions.

Eisner Award winning graphic novelist Joann Sfar, a prolific French artist with more than 100 books to his credit since 1994, is responsible for this charming and creepy set of stories. Sfar has won many awards for his work in Europe and the US, and he is well known for idiosyncratic works such as Sardine in Outer Space, The Professor's Daughter, and The Rabbi's Cat. He has a pretty sardonic sense of humor, as seen in the English version of his homepage.

The reviews I have read of this book have been positive. Kirkus Reviews wrote in two different reviews that this book "will keep preteen comic-book fans amused" and "offers plenty of gags." John DeNardo worried that the horror parts might be too much for younger readers, but in the end concluded that he might be over-protective and that "these stories flesh out a highly imaginative world." Tina Kelley wrote similarly that the "unruliness, combined with some gross-out jokes and frightening characters, may give some parents pause. For those same reasons, of course, young readers will probably love it."

Little Vampire was published in the US by First Second. I may be mistaken, but it seems the book is out of print here currently, though I do see lots of copies available online from used book sellers.
 

B+F

B+F is a delightful reading experience. It is an oversized, wordless story about a woman and a dog making their way through a primordial world. Along the way, they encounter exotic landscapes and creatures. There are an adorable and puckish skeleton puppy, horrific mole-creatures, and exotic and teeming mini-animals that defy description. And the artwork, as you can see below, is beautiful, colorful, and evocative.

I know many educators might shy away from this book because of the nudity of the female character, but there is nothing prurient about her in the visuals or her actions. She just does not wear any clothes, just like the dog does not either. I found myself completely taken up in their adventures, and there is much here to thrill, delight, frighten, and bewilder readers of all ages. I should also say I was shocked at how everything resolved. I cannot rightly say that I enjoyed the ending, but I also loved it. I felt it was an incredible, moving, and thought-provoking book as well as an admirable narrative achievement.

Those mole critters are up to no good.

Author/artist Gregory Benton has been making comics since the early 1990s for a diverse bunch of publishers including Nickelodeon, Vertigo, Entertainment Weekly, Disney, Tower Records, DC Comics, and World War 3 Illustrated. Benton speaks more about his career and work on this book in this interview.

This book won the 2013 MoCCA Award of Excellence, and it has received great reviews. Publishers Weekly wrote that the story might be a "bit insubstantial, both in terms of length and in character and thematic development, "but that "the artwork is absolutely beautiful, with breathtaking treatment of light." Larry Vossler commented that "B+F caught me completely off-guard with it's alien charm but it also made me heavily uneasy; and I really like that." Patrick Hess called it "an achievement in using art in the purest sense of the word to take the reader on a journey of wonder and reflection."

B+F was published by AdHouse Books, who provide a preview here.

I met Gregory Benton at this year's HeroesCon, and I totally gushed about his work to him. He was a great guy to talk to, and he drew this beautiful dédicace for me.

It is too good for me not to share. Thank you, Gregory!

Ruff!