Review – The Best American Comics 2010 by Neil Gaiman (4/5 stars)

I received a digital copy of this book through Netgalley.com.  I enjoyed this book and thought it did a great job of capturing a broad range of comics.  Some of the comics are politically or historically significant and some of them are just plain fun.  There is a nice forward by Gaiman explaining how he choose these comics to be the “best”.  Most of these comics center around life in general but some of them are sci-fi or super hero comics too.

I really enjoyed some of the comics that gave a perspective on American history.  There was a rendition of events from Katrina flooding New Orleans in “The Flood” and one that almost has me in tears called “The Alcoholic” in which the day of the Twin Tower bombing is lived, you see some of the lives that were lost and what people had to go through that horrible day, it was seen in a way I never saw it from afar.  These were probably my two favorites from a historical perspective

Then there were the funny ones like “Norman Eight’s Left Arm” in which two robots make a bet and one looses his arm and “Lobster Run” which gives a somewhat serious but kind of funny look into a young foreign couple trying to scape by in New York City.   I also enjoyed the short strips from James Kochalken which gave a humorous look into pregnancy and parenthood.

Additionally there were the strange ones: like the eerily humorous “The Lagoon” and (the one I most related too) “Mixed Up Files” about a book obsessed mother.  Of course there was a great super hero comic called “Omega the Unknown” which was kind of your classic super hero comic but more screwed up and just plain strange but oh so entertaining.

There were a couple that I just skimmed through because I didn’t find them to be all that interesting, but the majority of comics included were great.

All in all an excellent book.  Comics from all genres and tons of drawing types represented.  If you are a comics fan but have been left in the dust by the tons and tons of new comics being released then you should pick this up.  If you are someone who is interested in comics but doesn’t know where to start, pick this up.  It gives a great overview of the wide range of superb comics out there.

This book goes towards the following reading challenge:
– The 100+ Book Reading Challenge