More meta-stuff: comics-focused lists vs. general interest lists

This is a continuation of the meta-list project. For previous posts, start here.

Here's the breakdown of the lists I compiled. There are only two categories here: comics-specific sources (including blogs and The Comics Journal) and general interest sites (including newspapers and web magazines). You might assume that this essentially divides the list into experts vs. non-experts, but this is not true; Chris Mautner and Douglas Wolk both had their lists incorporated in the general interest category. That's not to say that every general-interest list was compiled by someone with especially compelling opinions about comics; but then again, that's also true of the comics-specific lists. There were a number of newspaper and magazine lists, however, which seemed to include a lot of material from the same publisher/imprint. This suggests that review copy distribution might have a greater effect on the general interest lists.

BREAKDOWNS OF WHAT CHARTED ON EACH LIST

As you might expect, the content and format of books charting on each list varied quite a bit. As you can see looking at the tables below, comics-specific sites tended to include more series, whereas general interest lists tended to favor single volume graphic novels. (One exception to this is that the general interest lists had far more Vertigo series to chart.) For reasons I haven't quite parsed, web comics did much better on the general interest list. I'm tempted to attribute it in part to Lev Grossman's list for Time, but (a) that only counts for half the web comics, and (b) it includes the one web comic to make the comics-specific list, Chris Onstad's Achewood.

There were significant differences in content as well. The comics-specific list included twice as many manga titles. As Jog suggested, those manga titles making the general interest list tended to be single volume affairs, perhaps mirroring the general public's greater interest in done-in-one graphic novels or big, chunky omnibus type things. I'm not so sure I totally agree with this line of reasoning--as mentioned earlier, Vertigo titles did much better on the general interest list than on the comics-focused one. For folks who wait for the trade, I don't know if I see much difference between manga and Vertigo collections, at least in terms of format.

I think this is actually more of a content issue. I don't think it's a coincidence that the manga titles charting on the combined list tended to be exactly the ones which North Ameircan comics-oriented bloggers tend to champion: Tekkon Kinkreet, Monster, the Drifting Classroom, the collected works of Tezuka, and so forth. We're all aware that there's a revolution going on in Borders and Barnes and Nobles across the United States and Canada, but it seems that there are relatively few North American critics who have really embraced the kind of manga which kids are buying. This seems especially dire with regard to shojo--it's being championed by Matt Brady (non-Newsarama version), Johanna Draper Carlson, and a few others, but it's not making the same kind of waves as the titles noted above. I'm not trying to accuse anyone of any prejudicial thinking; I haven't exactly made shojo manga a priority. Ideally, I'd like to see greater fluidity in the categories, fewer lists where you can pick out a token manga choice. Maybe that will happen as the comics industry matures. And this does seem to be an even more severe problem in the general interest lists, which seem less likely to have even a token manga choice.

Superhero comics seem to be just as popular among the general-interest lists as the comics-focused ones. I don't really have any conclusion to draw from this, except to note that the vast majority of titles in each list fall outside the superhero sub-genre. Also noteworthy is the slightly greater success of collections of vintage material on lists from comics-focused sources. This is largely attributable to the greater success of classic comic strip collections on comics-focused lists.

The breakdowns for each category appear below, followed by explanations for the terminology I used.

COMICS-SPECIFIC:

Single volume graphic novels: 38
Comic book series: 24
Graphic novel series: 22
Comic strip collections: 10
Other: 4
Single issue comic books: 2
Web comics: 1
Newspaper comics: 1

Manga: 12
Other non-English: 5
Superhero: 15
Vintage: 15

GENERAL INTEREST:

Single volume graphic novels: 51
Comic book series: 24
Graphic novel series: 12
Comic strip collections: 8
Web comics: 4
Other: 2
Single issue comic books: 1

Manga: 6
Other non-English: 7
Superhero: 15
Vintage: 11

THE COMBINED META-LIST:

Single volume graphic novels: 42
Graphic novel series: 21
Comic book series: 19
Comic strip collections: 9
Other: 4
Web comics: 2
Single issue comic books: 2
Newspaper comics: 1

Manga: 10
Other non-English: 7
Superhero: 13
Vintage: 12


Single volume graphic novel: A book, generally square bound with a relatively large page count, which encompasses the entirety of a story in its pages. Also used to describe collections of material with no additional volumes planned. Examples: Exit Wounds, I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets
Graphic novel series: Same format as above, except that it's a multi-volume series. Examples: Scott Pilgrim, Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus
Comic book series: The traditional North American format of a 20-60 page, stapled comic with multiple issues. Examples: Captain America, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Note that limited series which were mostly published in 2006 or earlier and had a graphic novel collection appear early in 2007 were counted as graphic novels; example: Beyond!)
Single issue comic book: Same format as above, except the story is finished in one issue. Differs from a single-volume graphic novel in length, format, and (perhaps most importantly) likelihood of being stocked in a general interest bookstore. Example: Crecy
Web comic: A comic for which new installments first appear on the internet. Examples: Erfworld, Achewood
Comic strip collection: A collection of short-form comics which originally appeared in newspapers or as strip-format web comics. Examples: Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto, The Complete Dick Tracy
Newspaper comics: Comics which first appear in newspapers; may also appear on the internet, but usually through newspapers' websites. Examples: Mister Wonderful, Garfield (the latter is hypothetical)
Other: Things I cannot easily categorize, like Ivan Brunetti's Comics: Philosophy and Practice (a pamphlet included with an issue of Comic Art #9) and Elvis Road (essentially an enormous poster; see the description here).

Manga: Comics originally published in Japanese.
Other non-English: Comics originally published in languages other than English or Japanese.
Superhero: Action-oriented comics featuring superpowered or costumed characters. I included BRPD and The Umbrella Academy in this category.
Vintage: Books reprinting material which is over 30 years old.

And that brings us to the lists themselves. In addition to the two meta-lists for each category, I've also included the combined meta-list for ease of reference. There are a few comments on the categorized lists; my comments on the combined meta-list can be found here.

In general, I was struck by how lists from comics-focused sources were more likely to include quirkier, less conventional comics. I'm reminded of recent debates over the merits of comics specialty shops vs. general interest bookstores for fulfilling the needs of customers and publishers. There seems to be a similar question for comics criticism, and it appears that publications and websites devoted to comics coverage advocate a more diverse array of material. Many of you are probably saying "duh" right now, but I thought it best to point this out.

LISTS FROM COMICS-SPECIFIC SOURCES:

1. I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets (682)
I was rather surprised by this placement. Anyone who reads comics blogs knows that Paul Karasik's collection of Fletcher Hanks' comics was a big hit among comics fans, but this has to be better than anyone involved could have expected. It's noteworthy that I Shall Destroy... appears 16 places lower on the general interest list. Perhaps the works of Fletcher Hanks held greater resonance for those already immersed in the language and traditions of comics.
2. All-Star Superman (557)
3. Alias the Cat (441)
This doesn't even appear on the general interest lists. It's not like Pantheon is a small budget press which can't afford to distribute review copies, so I guess we have to attribute this discrepancy to wildly differing tastes between the two categories of list-makers.
4. Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (440)
5. Powr Mastrs (439)
See comments for Alias the Cat above.
6. Exit Wounds (428)
7. Shortcomings (391)
8. Immortal Iron Fist (352)
9. Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus (342)
10. Criminal (298)

11. The Blot (295)
12. Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto (290)
13. King City (274)
14. Crecy (256)
I wonder how high this would have charted had it been published in a more conventional graphic novel format by a more conventional publisher. This did not appear on the general interest list at all.
15. Chance In Hell (254)
16. Maggots (244)
17. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 (238)
See comments in the general interest list below.
18. The Umbrella Academy (227)
19. Shooting War (226)
20. Dr. 13: Architecture and Morality (219)
I'm counting this as a single volume graphic novel, given that (a) its previous format was in backup stories in an anthology, and (b) pretty much every specified the title of the collected edition.

21. Complete Persepolis (216)
22. Fluffy (214)
23. Notes For a War Story (212)
24. Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil (206)
25. Nat Turner volume 2 (204)
26. The Complete Terry and the Pirates (201)
27. The Complete Peanuts (198)
28. Achewood (190)
This is the only web comic on the comics-focused list, and it owes its placement to only a handful of lists. Comics critics either aren't reading webcomics, or they're not liking what they see. Or maybe they're not taking web comics seriously because they aren't printed. It will be interesting to see how Dash Shaw's Bodyworld does on best of 2008 lists.
29. Love and Rockets digest series (189)
30. Acme Novelty Library #18 (186)

31. Tekkon Kinkreet (183)
32. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (174)
It got about as many points from comics-oriented lists as general interest lists, but those points went a lot further on the other list, where this comes in at #17.
33. Apollo's Song (173)
34. Superspy (171)
35. House (169)
The Professor's Daughter (169)
37. Captain America (162)
38. Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice (156)
Elvis Road (156)

40. Casanova (155)
41. Alice In Sunderland (150)
42. Bookhunter (147)
43. MW (144)
44. King Cat Classix (143)
45. New Engineering (137)
Spent (137)
47. Fell (135)
48. Sundays With Walt and Skeezix (134)
49. Mister Wonderful (129)
Uptight (129)

51. Aya (124)
52. Red Eye, Black Eye (123)
53. Moomin (122)
54. Drifting Classroom (120)
55. Monster (118)
56. Empowered (115)
57. The Complete Dick Tracy (113)
58. Rodolphe Topffer: The Complete Comic Strips (112)
59. Walt and Skeezix (111)

60. Hack/Slash (110)
How to Be Everywhere (110)
Love and Rockets: Maggie the Mechanic (110)
Last Call (110)
Laika (110)
65. The Spirit (109)
66. The Arrival (108)
Remember, this came in at #14 on the combined meta list.
67. The End (106)
68. Storeyville (103)
Essex County series (103)
Essex County was at #20 on the combined list.
70. EC Segar's Popeye (101)

71. Don't Go Where I Can't Follow (100)
Dragon Head (100)
Punisher (100)
74. Emma (98)
Nana (98)
76. Army@Love (95)
77. Beach Paradise (92)
Bow Wow Bugs a Bug (92)
79. Nextwave: Agents of Hate (89)
The Princes of Time (89)

81. The Salon (85)
Suburban Glamor (85)
83. A Treasury of Victorian Murder: The Saga of the Bloody Benders (84)
Scalped (84)
85. Annihilation (83)
86. Yotsuba&! (81)
The Cat Who Walked in Beauty (81)
88. Good as Lily (80)
Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (80)
90. The Early Years of Mutt and Jeff (78)

91. BRPD (76)
92. The Boys (75)
93. Garage Band (74)
94. The Order (71)
Speak of the Devil (71)
96. Fables (70)
Percy Gloom (70)
Phonogram (70)
Personal editorializing: Percy Gloom is second only to Town Boy among books which were shafted by comics critics.
99. New Tales of Old Palomar (69)
100. Back in Bleck: Blecky Yuckerella volume 2 (67)
Parasyte (67)
Tamara Drewe (67)
Tamara Drewe got all its votes from British list-makers; I'm curious to see how it charts for 2008, now that it's available in North America.

LISTS FROM GENERAL INTEREST SOURCES:

1. Exit Wounds (657)
2. Shortcomings (550)
These two did well on comics-focused lists, but they really pulled away from the rest of the field among the general interest sources. This alone doesn't prove the "Chris Ware and his ilk have undue influence" theory (especially since there isn't a whole lot of formally ambitious work on this list), but it's interesting that the four titles which bested Exit Wounds and Shortcomings on the comics-focused lists could safely be described as more "fun" than these two graphic novels. Also worth considering are comments made by Douglas Wolk and others concerning writing about comics for general interest publications and websites, specifically the advocative function of such writing. Perhaps some of these list makers thought that advocating graphic novels with more serious subject matter would make a better case for comics as a serious medium. But that's all speculative, and I don't want to take anything away from what Rutu Modan and Adrian Tomine have accomplished. These books did very well on both lists.
3. All-Star Superman (351)
4. Criminal (349)
5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 (303)
Now here's a stunning contrast--this was only 17th on the comics-focused list. That's still pretty high, of course, but this is exceptionally high. I seem to recall this doing better with entertainment-oriented publications and websites, as opposed to traditional newspapers and alternative weeklies.
6. The Arrival (275)
Another big difference (it's #66 on the comics-focused list). I'm not sure why this clicked so much better with general interest sources.
7. Y the Last Man on Earth (255)
The first example of Vertigo titles placing higher on this list.
8. The Killer (237)
9. Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (219)
10. Superspy (215)

11. Essex County series (210)
12. I Killed Adolf Hitler (181)
I really can't explain why this graphic novel was so much more successful on the general interest lists. It didn't make the top 100 for comics-oriented lists.
13. The Plain Janes (171)
The Minx line really did much better with the more mainstream-type publications. I suspect it has something to do with better publicity, given that this book in particular received a rather lukewarm response among comic bloggers.
14. Micrographica (170)
The Professor's Daughter (170)
16. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (169)
17. I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets (168)
You know, this is a pretty good showing, really, given the relatively tame nature of this list.
18. Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto (154)
19. EC Segar's Popeye (147)
Three Paradoxes (147)
Popeye was the highest charting vintage comic strip collection, almost doubling the point total of the next highest entry (Sundays With Walt and Skeezix, #44 below). The PBF collection came in one spot ahead, making it the highest charting comic strip collection overall on this list.

21. Chance in Hell (132)
22. Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (131)
The highest charting manga on this list. It's also probably the closest manga to an Exit Wounds/Fun Home type book to come out in 2007 (with the possible exception of With the Light). This might not be a coincidence.
23. White Rapids (128)
24. Aya (127)
25. The Salon (121)
26. Apollo's Song (119)
27. AD: New Orleans After the Flood (110)
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (110)
29. MW (103)
Once again, Vertical's Tezuka collections finish very close to each other.
30. Silverfish (101)

31. Achewood (100)
Good As Lily (100)
33. Shooting War (97)
I expected this to place higher here than on the comics-focused list. This was not the case--it's #19 on the other list.
34. The Other Side (96)
35. Fell (90)
The Goon: Chinatown (90)
37. Alice In Sunderland (86)
38. Girls (83)
39. Sentences (81)
40. Marvel Zombies 2 (80)

41. Crossing Midnight (78)
42. The Escapists (77)
Principles of Uncertainty (77)
44. Sundays With Walt and Skeezix (75)
Pretty good placement for such a high priced book. I know I said that before, but it seems doubly true here.
45. Casanova (73)
46. Dogs and Water (70)
Incredible Change Bots (70)
Maxwell Strangewell (70)
48. The Blot (66)
The Complete Terry and the Pirates (66)
Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus (66)

51. Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil (63)
52. Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus (62)
53. Army@Love (61)
Beyond! (61)
55. Empowered (60)
Jack of Fables (60)
As others have pointed out, it's strange that Jack of Fables did better than its parent book. All it takes is one vote (in this case, it's Time's Lev Grossman's vote).
57. Laika (58)
A Treasury of Victorian Murder: The Saga of the Bloody Benders (58)
It's good to see a Treasury of Victorian Murder book doing well on this list. That seems like the perfect series for bookstore shoppers.
59. Captain America (50)
Erfworld (50)
Sugar Sugar Rune (50)

62. American Elf volume 2 (48)
63. Bookhunter (46)
French Milk (46)
MPD Psycho (46)
Tekkon Kinkreet (46)
Two-Fisted Tales Archives (46)
Anybody know what's up with French Milk? Amazon has it listed as coming out later this year here, but as a 2000 release here. (UPDATE: I've been informed that French Milk was self-published in 2000 and will be re-released later this year. I'm not sure why it ended up on a best of 2007 list, given these circumstances, but I'll definitely be interested in reading it later this year. I've been further informed that Amazon is incorrect, invalidating the previous update. Except the part about my being eager to read it. French Milk was, in fact, originally published in 2007.)
68. Paris (45)
69. The Homeless Channel (43)
70. Phonogram (42)
Will and Abe's Guide to the Universe (42)
There were a lot more contemporary comic strip collections on this list compared to the comics-oriented one. Here's something to make me feel old: I bet Matt Groening's kids are out of high school by now.

72. Green Arrow Year One (40)
Irredeemable Ant-Man (40)
Planet Hulk (40)
The Sinestro Corps War (40)
I don't remember exactly, but these surely all came from the same list.
76. All the Rage: The Boondocks Past and Present (37)
Best American Comics 2007 (37)
The Black Diamond Detective Agency (37)
The Completely Mad Don Martin (37)
DMZ (37)
Fox Bunny Funny (37)
Kimmie 66 (37)
Moomin (37)
Scalped (37)
Sock Monkey: The Inches Incident (37)
The Minx and Vertigo titles keep rolling in.

86. Dark Tower (36)
I'm a little surprised at how poorly this did, given all the publicity and Stephen King's name value. It didn't make a single comics-oriented list, and it didn't place on too many general interest lists, either.
87. Simon Dark (35)
One of the bigger WTF entries on this particular list.
88. Damned (30)
Local (30)
Wasteland (30)
Zuda (the "second wave" specified) (30)

92. Strangers in Paradise (25)
93. Astronaut Dad (23)
First In Space (23)
Nothing Better (23)
I'm classifying Nothing Better as a graphic novel, since that's what the original list-maker specified.
96. Garage Band (22)
97. Cartoon History of the Modern World (21)
The End (21)
Rodolphe Topffer: The Complete Comic Strips (21)
Tiny Tyrant (21)
I would have expected Cartoon History of the Modern World to do better. Those were pretty popular books 10 years ago.

COMBINED META-LIST:

1. Exit Wounds (1085)
2. Shortcomings (941)
3. All Star Superman (908)
4. I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets (850)
5. Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (660)
6. Criminal (640)
7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 (541)
8. Alias the Cat (452)
9. Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto (444)
10. Powr Mastrs (439)

11. Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus (409)
12. Chance in Hell (386)
Superspy (386)
14. The Arrival (383)
15. The Blot (361)
16. Immortal Iron Fist (357)
17. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (343)
18. The Professor's Daughter (339)
19. Shooting War (323)
20. Essex County series (313)*

21. Apollo's Song (293)
22. Achewood (290)
23. Y the Last Man on Earth (275)
24. King City (274)
25. Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil (269)
26. The Complete Terry and the Pirates (267)
27. Crecy (256)
28. Aya (251)
29. EC Segar's Popeye (248)
MW (248)

31. Maggots (241)
32. The Killer (237)
33. Alice in Sunderland (236)
34. Tekkon Kinkreet (229)
35. Casanova (228)
36. The Umbrella Academy (227)
37. Fell (225)
38. Notes For a War Story (224)
39. Dr. 13: Architecture and Morality (219)
40. Complete Persepolis (216)

41. Fluffy (214)
42. Captain America (212)
43. Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (211)
44. Sundays With Walt and Skeezix (209)
45. The Complete Peanuts (208)
46. The Salon (206)
47. Nat Turner volume 2 (204)
48. Bookhunter (193)
49. I Killed Adolf Hitler (190)
50. Love and Rockets digest series (189)**
Micrographica (189)

52. Acme Novelty Library #18 (186)
53. Good As Lily (180)
54. Empowered (175)
55. Plain Janes (173)
56. House (169)
57. Laika (167)
58. Silverfish (161)
59. Moomin (159)
60. Army@Love (156)
Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice (156)
Elvis Road (156)

63. Spent (149)
64. Three Paradoxes (147)
65. Sentences (144)
66. King Cat Classix (142)
A Treasury of Victorian Murder: The Saga of the Bloody Benders (142)
68. New Engineering (137)
69. The Other Side (135)
Red Eye, Black Eye (135)
71. Rodolphe Topffer: The Complete Comic Strips (133)

70. Mister Wonderful (129)
Uptight (129)
72. White Rapids (128)
73. The End (126)
74. The Spirit (124)
75. Marvel Zombies 2 (122)
76. Scalped (120)
Drifting Classroom (120)
78. Monster (118)
79. Complete Dick Tracy (116)
80. Dogs and Water (114)

81. Phonogram (112)
82. Walt and Skeezix (111)
85. AD: New Orleans After the Flood (110)
Hack/Slash (110)
How to Be Everywhere (110)
Last Call (110)
Love and Rockets: Maggie the Mechanic (110)
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (110)
91. The Escapists (109)
92. American Elf volume 2 (106)

93. Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus (105)
94. Storeyville (103)
95. Don't Go Where I Can't Follow (100)
Dragon Head (100)
The Punisher (100)
98. Emma (98)
Nana (98)
100. Garage Band (96)



..And that probably does it for this year, barring any corrections. I had promised a few more entries on this subject, but I forgot that I'm going out of town this week. I think I've said everything I really had to say here, though, so now I leave it to you to decide what to make of these lists.

The meta-list

At long last, here it is: the final meta-list compiling critical reaction from across the internet and print publications. Once again I'll point out the rules I established for these entries. I'd like to thank Chad Nevett for providing me with a formula for quantifying these lists. Also great thanks to all those who spread the word about this project.

I have a few comments on select titles below. I had commented on several of these in two previous posts analyzing my preliminary meta-list. In the coming days, I'll break down the list by category, but these are probably more than enough numbers to digest for one day. So, with no further ado:

THE TOP 100 REVIEWED COMICS OF 2007

1. Exit Wounds (1085)
2. Shortcomings (941)
3. All Star Superman (908)
The highest-charting superhero book; also DC's highest charting book.
4. I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets (850)
5. Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (660)
6. Criminal (640)
7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 (541)
8. Alias the Cat (452)
Really picked up steam with TCJ voting. This is the highest charting title from a traditional book publisher.
9. Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto (444)
10. Powr Mastrs (439)
Another one which did really well with TCJ contributors.

11. Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus (409)
12. Chance in Hell (386)
Superspy (386)
14. The Arrival (383)
15. The Blot (361)
16. Immortal Iron Fist (357)
Quite a drop once TCJ was factored in. Still the highest charting book featuring a Marvel-owned intellectual property. By a whole lot, actually.
17. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (343)
Not what you would expect given online reaction (this will be a recurring theme). Did equally well with sites devoted to comics and general interest sites/publications.
18. The Professor's Daughter (339)
19. Shooting War (323)
20. Essex County series (313)*

21. Apollo's Song (293)
The highest charting manga. Seems to have split the vote with MW; if you combine their points, it would have ended up tied with Buffy the Vampire Slayer for seventh place. Of course, there's an illogical assumption in this speculation. In any event, it bodes well for the upcoming Black Jack volumes, which will probably attract a lot of attention from bloggers and the mainstream media alike.
22. Achewood (290)
Now that it's official that Dark Horse is publishing The Great Outdoor Fight, I expect to see that collection somewhere in the top 20 next year.
23. Y the Last Man on Earth (275)
The top rated Vertigo book; owes its placement mostly to non-comics sites.
24. King City (274)
This might have placed in the top 10 had it been better distributed.
25. Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil (269)
This is way, way lower than I expected. I'm not sure if that's a failure on DC's part to get this in the hands of mainstream reviewers, or if folks were just not as into it as you might have expected given all the internet hype when the first issue came out. Maybe critics were turned off by the later issues, which introduced some poorly-received political commentary.
26. The Complete Terry and the Pirates (267)
The highest charting vintage comic strip collection.
27. Crecy (256)
28. Aya (251)
29. EC Segar's Popeye (248)
MW (248)

31. Maggots (241)
32. The Killer (237)
33. Alice in Sunderland (236)
I'm as surprised as you are. Another case where internet hype at the time of release was not reflected in the final ranking.
34. Tekkon Kinkreet (229)
35. Casanova (228)
36. The Umbrella Academy (227)
I'll be curious if the collection charts well in the 2008 list.
37. Fell (225)
38. Notes For a War Story (224)
39. Dr. 13: Architecture and Morality (219)
Very popular with sites devoted to comics coverage; literally no votes from general interest sites and publications.
40. Complete Persepolis (216)

41. Fluffy (214)
Did very well on lists compiled by Brits. I think an American collection is either out or forthcoming.
42. Captain America (212)
43. Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (211)
44. Sundays With Walt and Skeezix (209)
Owes most of its support to TCJ. Pretty good showing for such a costly item (though I suspect that Absolute New Frontier would have made the top 20 last year).
45. The Complete Peanuts (208)
Not bad for a series which has been out long enough for people to take it for granted.
46. The Salon (206)
47. Nat Turner volume 2 (204)
48. Bookhunter (193)
49. I Killed Adolf Hitler (190)
50. Love and Rockets digest series (189)**
Micrographica (189)

52. Acme Novelty Library #18 (186)
Probably would be higher if it had come out earlier in the year.
53. Good As Lily (180)
Highest charting Minx book.
54. Empowered (175)
This seemed to have a lot more buzz earlier in the year. I get the idea that a lot of people were disappointed in the second volume.
55. Plain Janes (173)
Similar to LOEG: Black Dossier, except that it got almost all its support from general interest lists.
56. House (169)
57. Laika (167)
58. Silverfish (161)
I swear I never read a single review of this book.
59. Moomin (159)
60. Army@Love (156)
Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice (156)
Elvis Road (156)
Army@Love did very well for a book with an unclear future. Those who are reading it obviously like it a great deal.

63. Spent (149)
64. Three Paradoxes (147)
65. Sentences (144)
66. King Cat Classix (142)
A Treasury of Victorian Murder: The Saga of the Bloody Benders (142)
68. New Engineering (137)
69. The Other Side (135)
Red Eye, Black Eye (135)
71. Rodolphe Topffer: The Complete Comic Strips (133)

70. Mister Wonderful (129)
Uptight (129)
I have to think Mister Wonderful would have done better if its last installment had come out in 2007. I doubt we'll see it on many 2008 lists, since only a handful of strips came out this year. I have a copy of Uptight #2 I still haven't read; obviously I need to do so.
72. White Rapids (128)
73. The End (126)
First of three Anders Nilsen books to make the top 100. His prodigious output in 2007 (including Big Questions, which did not make the top 100) may have split his vote. But that's a pretty impressive accomplishment, surpassed only by Ed Brubaker (whose Captain America, Criminal, and Immortal Iron Fist all made the top 50).
74. The Spirit (124)
This seems like it would have been higher. Maybe Darwyn Cooke's announcement that he was leaving the title sapped list-makers' enthusiasm for this comic.
75. Marvel Zombies 2 (122)
Some people will be irritated to see this so high.
76. Scalped (120)
Drifting Classroom (120)
78. Monster (118)
79. Complete Dick Tracy (116)
I wonder if this series will chart higher once it gets into the strip's classic era.
80. Dogs and Water (114)

81. Phonogram (112)
I'm guessing people might have forgotten about this series by the time they got around to making lists; also might have split votes with Suburban Glamor (which would chart just outside the top 100)
82. Walt and Skeezix (111)
Not to be confused with Sundays with Walt and Skeezix.
85. AD: New Orleans After the Flood (110)
Hack and Slash (110)
How to Be Everywhere (110)
Last Call (110)
Love and Rockets: Maggie the Mechanic (110)
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (110)
Somewhere in this bunch is the first WTF book. I'll leave it to the reader to guess which one I'm referring to.
91. The Escapists (109)
92. American Elf volume 2 (106)

93. Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus (105)
94. Storeyville (103)
95. Don't Go Where I Can't Follow (100)
Dragon Head (100)
The Punisher (100)
98. Emma (98)
Nana (98)
I think Nana is the highest charting shojo manga. Emma is published in a shonen magazine in Japan, isn't it?
100. Garage Band (96)


*This encompasses results for both volumes--Tales From the Farm and Ghost Stories.
**This is only for those who specified the digest series, rather than the pamphlet series or any specific volume of the digest series.

More ultimate meta meta meta

Sorry about not posting for a few days--I was sick. And not the usual "I don't feel so great so I think I'll take a nap instead of posting" type of sick, but a more advanced type of sick. The kind where you just go ahead and move all your medicine into the living room so that you won't have to stumble back to the bathroom; the kind where you dread every sneeze or cough because you're fairly sure that their violence has bruised one of your ribs; the kind where your desire to bundle up to prevent chills does battle with your desire to keep your temperature under 102 degrees. But, mysteriously enough, my illness seems to have suffered a mortal wound yesterday, even after waking up with the worst fever yet (but not the worst fever of my adult life--I actually got up to a brain-threatening 105 a few years ago, necessitating an emergency room visit; that's another case where the virus just suddenly vanished). And so I feel well enough to return to the computer and blog, newly dedicated to the principle of not complaining about being sick unless I'm really sick.

(One comics related aside: While ill, I was reading the Patrick Rosencranz' history of underground comix, Rebel Visions (which sounds like the title of a yearbook for a high school with a Confederate-themed mascot, and it looks like it too once you take off the cover). This inspired some weird fever dreams, but not based on the content of the comics Rosencranz discusses. Instead, my dreams were all about the possibility of traveling back in time to take certain proactive measures to ensure the continued health of the underground comix industry beyond 1973. After a restless night contemplating how best to eliminate the Nixon/Hoover problem, I decided to feed my brain the intellectual equivalent of applesauce and dry toast for the remainder of the cold.)

One more note before moving on to the second half of the preliminary top 10--I've been rather distracted by pressing, non-comics related obligations for the last month, but that seems to be drawing to a temporary close. It looks like we will be moving far, far away from here in the next few months. This is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying; I'm eager to escape the midwestern tundra, but the prospect of vacating this apartment fills me with fear. Not because of any great fondness for it (the kitchen sucks, frankly), but because there's just so much stuff here. The thought of cleaning out the basement is particularly depressing. And then there's the cross-country trek, complicated by our need to transport two cats (one of them elderly) over the course of several days. What this all means is that this spring/summer might be kind of a low-posting-volume kind of time around these parts. We'll see.

SECOND HALF OF THE LIST MUSINGS

For those new to this, I'm going through all the books which have appeared on the preliminary critical consensus meta-list. The first half of this analysis is here.

6. Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

I suspect Marvel would have expected the Dark Tower adaptation to be their best-reviewed comic of the year, but obviously the critics disagreed. The success of Criminal is pretty heartening, showing the advantages that can be reaped when a company with the pull of Marvel puts its muscle behind a non-superhero, creator-owned title. Icon initially looked like nothing more than the home for Powers and half-baked J. Michael Straczynski concepts, but Criminal seems to have changed popular perception of the imprint overnight. Now if only there were a few more titles coming out. I like Criminal quite a bit, putting it in my honorable mention-type section.

7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, George Jeanty, and Paul Lee

I've never watched more than five minutes of the Buffy television series (I did see the movie, mostly because it was one of the first post-arrest roles for Paul Reubens). It's kind of amazing how dedicated a following Whedon and his show have. Presumably this does a pretty good job at replicating the feel of the series, based on its placement. It's the kind of success which, a few years back, might have been interpreted as a potential savior for the comics industry. Some people might be spinning the success of Buffy Season 8 that way, but I haven't encountered that kind of rhetoric. That's kind of refreshing.

Having no interest in the series or the intellectual property in question, I don't really have any authority to comment on the appropriateness of its placement on this list. But I'd be very surprised if I would agree with its placement after reading it, even after a crash course in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 8 did about equally well with mainstream and comics-focused critics, so you can't attribute its high placement solely to lists made by non-experts*. I suspect part of this high ranking is due to a sense of exuberance that the series is back in some form or another. Maybe the TV version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was such a sublime work of art that its return in any form should trump all other concerns, but I worry that this high ranking makes comics look pretty lightweight to the outside observer. Surely our favored medium can aspire to loftier goals than providing a reasonable facsimile of a television series which has been off the air for years.

*A problematic term, but bear with me.

8. Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories by Nicholas Gurewitch

While some might view it as a victory for webcomics, I think it might be worth considering that PBF is, at heart, a comic strip. With all the (almost certainly unfounded) fears of the impending Chris Ware-ization of comics criticism in the mainstream press, this is an interesting development. PBF is a gag strip, lacking much in the way of the kind of semi-autobiographical self-pity that supposedly will doom comics to a relentlessly mopey future. Maybe Ted Rall should rail against Nicholas Gurewitch the next time he has a manifesto to write.

The other part of this story demanding attention is the ink-and-paper nature of this collection. I recorded only one vote for the web version of PBF; the rest were all for The Trial of Colonel Sweeto. It's not that Perry Bible Fellowship was obscure before being collected; it's one of the most popular webcomics* around. Clearly, though, Dark Horse's handsome collection has a great deal to do with its placement. It will be interesting to see if the upcoming publication of the Great Outdoor Fight sequence from Achewood will achieve similar success.

*Again, a problematic term for a comic printed in such a large number of alt-weeklies and college newspapers, but please bear with me again.

9. Immortal Iron Fist by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, David Aja, and others

I neglected to point this out before, but it really bears mention: Ed Brubaker is the only creator with multiple entries on this preliminary list. That's a pretty significant accomplishment, especially in light of the diversity of this list. The other lesson to take away from Iron Fist's high ranking might be the critical success of the bubble world model. The only other superhero title on this list, All-Star Superman, is similarly shielded from the demands of continuity, giving the creators greater latitude.

Iron Fist is also interesting because it seems like one of Marvel's best chances to attract some of the manga readership which has been ignoring its comics for the last few years. The second storyline, in which Iron Fist participates in a plot-advancing tournament, shares a number of structural similarities to popular boys' manga. I'm not sure what exactly Marvel could do to make these readers aware of Iron Fist. Does Shonen Jump run outside advertisements?

10. The Arrival by Shaun Tan

For those wondering, the Angoulême Festival award did not factor into these rankings for various reasons.* Despite its high placement, I think The Arrival was the victim of poor timing--the real tidal wave of critical attention didn't seem to hit until Angoulême. If most of these lists were being remade today, I strongly think that Tan's book would have placed higher. Consider: The Arrival got almost all its support from mainstream sources--only 78 of its 353 points came from comics-focused sources. This book didn't seem to be on a lot of people's radars until recently. I don't expect that Tan's next project will escape notice so easily.

As to the quality of The Arrival--I still haven't read it, so I can't say. But there does seem to be a very lively debate over the quality of the book going on right now, with Matthias Wivel taking it to task for reasons that seem pretty valid to a dude who hasn't actually read the book. Tim Hodler reminds us that Tan wrote and drew the Arrival for children, a fact which I had either never heard or had completely forgotten. There are other all ages-appropriate books in the preliminary top ten, but this is apparently the only book specifically intended for a younger audience.

*Juried awards just don't seem to fit into the model of this project, at least not in my mind. It might be worth making an Awards Show Consensus list, but all the conflicting categorization makes me a little reluctant to try it. If anyone else wants to give it a shot, by all means....

I was thinking about going through all the titles which I was surprised not to see on this list, but I think I'm going to hold off on any further extended commentary until the master list is complete. Don't want you folks getting sick of this subject just yet.

Ultimate meta-meta commentary

MarkAndrew at CSBG is the first person to really take up the initial meta-list, and he made some interesting points. I'd been meaning to say a bit more about the list, so I'll chime in with a few comments of my own. But just the top 5 for today; I'll get to 6-10 tomorrow, hopefully.

1. Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan

I still haven't read it, but I haven't really been actively seeking out a copy (for the record, I'd been trying to catch up with all the 2006 books I hadn't managed to read yet, like Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators; I'm currently working on Rebel Visions, which I've owned for years but had only flipped through up until recently). MarkAndrew and others have suggested that it's not quite the best comic of the year. I expect that I'll agree after reading it--as my best of 2007 list probably indicates, I place a high value on works with a distinctive visual flair, particularly those which combine high-level cartooning, atmosphere, and symbolic content. I'm not sure that Exit Wounds fits my personal aesthetic preferences, but I'm reminded that Fun Home, a book similarly lacking in visual pyrotechnics, was my favorite release from 2006. Modan hasn't received the same kind of acclaim Alison Bechdel did, however. I'm not sure what to attribute that to--better timing, better publicity, a story which was of greater interest to an American audience, or simply overall quality. I would be shocked if I ended up liking Exit Wounds as much as Fun Home, but that's more about how much I enjoyed the latter than any misgivings about the former.

One last thing. I've only got the data for 2007, but I think it's a reasonable assumption that Fun Home would have been last year's consensus best comic/graphic novel and that Persepolis would have won in 2003. That's three out of eight for this decade so far. Would it be too much to ask for mainstream articles on women in comics to focus on this achievement rather than Wonder Woman?

2. Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine

Another one I haven't read, but intend to do so at some point in the future. I think I've been pretty open with my disdain for Tomine's work, a feeling I've had since I first encountered his work in the mid-90s. I've tried reading Tomine off and on in the ensuing years, but I'm always underwhelmed. Maybe it's a weakness on my part. I like thematically similar work by Jaime Hernandez or Dan Clowes, but their comics are somewhat tempered by more appealing art; any bleakness is offset by overwhelming visual beauty. Tomine really never offers that. His line is much less fluid, his lettering more mechanical. He seems to eschew cartooning in favor of a more realistic style, but there's not sufficient detail to lose oneself in. He forces you to concentrate on his incredibly unsympathetic characters.

I guess it's fair to say that I don't get Tomine. But it's been a few years since I last read anything by him (I'm guessing that my most recent exposure to his work came c. 2004 when I read his contribution to one of the Best American Unrequired Reading volumes). I'm generally pretty open to revisiting things I didn't enjoy the first time around. I didn't get Kim Deitch when first read his comics about 10 years ago, but I now consider him one of the greatest living cartoonists. And I like the work of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, one of Tomine's primary influences. I'm eager to give Tomine another shot, but I'd prefer to read Shortcomings before buying it.

3. All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

As MarkAndrew noted, I did declare this the "token superhero choice," but I also noted that it's the only viable Grant Morrison work from 2007. I think its high placement relative to other prestige superhero projects (most notably Jeff Smith's Shazam) is largely due to critics' eagerness to include something by Morrison on their lists. Morrison might be the most critically acclaimed writer (as opposed to cartoonist) working in comics today, but A-SS has been his only real bright spot since 52 ended.* With the exception of the rejuvenated Geoff Johns, all of the writers on 52 have kind of struggled with writing comics in DC's shared universe. Many of us were hoping that Morrison would thrive at Wildstorm, but that's been an unmitigated disaster. Batman has been surprisingly dull, hampered by sub-par artists. That pretty much leaves All-Star Superman, well-illustrated, unfettered by continuity, unquestionably the most Morrisonian of all Morrison's 2007 work. But still....

Surely I'm not alone in thinking the quality of A-SS declined in 2007. In its first year, Morrison was doing some incredible work, culminating in Clark Kent's interview with Lex Luthor in prison--probably my favorite Superman story of all time. This year kicked off with a good, if somewhat sappy, story about Superman's relationship with his adopted father. From there, however, we got two comics full of Bizarro Supermen. I have a pretty low tolerance for the whole Bizarro concept to begin with, and if anything Morrison's take on it was less interesting than, say, Jeph Loeb's. I found the latest issue, in which rogue Kryptonians chide Superman for protecting humans rather than dominating them, pretty dull stuff. I guess I'm more interested in this comic when it doesn't take my interest in Superman for granted. Cause I think Superman is pretty boring, really.

Having said all that, at least some of the votes for All-Star Superman (and probably the great majority of those coming from non-comics-oriented sources) were for the recent hardcover collection, which reprinted the earlier, better issues of the series. I'm reasonably confident that mainstream reviewers are going to be less taken with the subsequent volumes.

*I would say that it's his only bright spot since Seven Soldiers ended, but a lot of people out there liked 52. I thought 52 had many bright moments, most of which were apparently the work of Morrison; on the whole, however, I found it more tedious than wondrous. A lot of smart people loved it, but I think their love for superheroes as a genre comes with fewer conditions than mine.

4. I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets by Fletcher Hanks; edited (w/ afterword) by Paul Karasik

I guess I disagree with MarkAndrew (and Johnny Bacardi, for that matter) in seeing this as a "so bad it's good" type of project. To me, Hanks' works represent the true wonder of Golden Age comics--these are stories from an era when the rules and standards (both moral and aesthetic) which would later restrict comics had not yet come into being. Hanks takes the illogical idea of superpowered crime fighting to twisted-yet-logical extremes, making much of Mark Millar and Warren Ellis' oeuvre seem rather limp in comparison. There is tremendous value in these stories beyond camp. Of course, I suspect that many of the people who included I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets on their lists value it primarily for reasons of irony. But that's their problem, not mine.

5. Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley

When I first started reading comics again in the summer of 2004, it was largely as a way to comfort myself, a back-to-the-womb kind of thing. So I was mostly reading superhero books, even though I hadn't done so for years. Scott Pilgrim was one of the first non-superhero comics I read after returning to comics. It was kind of a jolt to the system at the time, a reminder of the many, many great books that have nothing to do with skintight costumes or crime fighting. I've enjoyed the series since then, but not as much. I'm increasingly conflicted by the popularity of Scott Pilgrim: it's very good for what it tries to do, but is that enough to justify its massive critical acclaim?

This kind of gets to the other side of the "fun" issue. Many of us (myself included) mock the relentlessly dour superhero comics which the big two produce, mostly because, as a genre, superheroes work best when they're fun. But the idea that "fun" is all that comics can aspire to is far more troubling than anything Marvel or DC publishes. Unlike Jim Blanchard, I'm not opposed to fun*, but my favorite "fun" comics have something else going for them: incredible craft, an underlying darkness, or a subtle commentary on human nature. O'Malley has grown by leaps and bounds in the course of making Scott Pilgrim, but the fourth volume doesn't change the fact that this is still a pretty slight series. It's a little more grating this time around, because the issues Scott deals with (commitment, poverty, adulthood) are perfect for some kind of deeper commentary. It's kind of funny--Scott's going through some of the things I was going through when I started reading comics again four years ago, but ultimately he has nothing to escape from (and thus no reason to start reading the comics of Geoff Johns). There are moments of doubt, but you always feel like nothing bad will ever happen to Scott Pilgrim. And so the fourth volume of the series feels more like (well-crafted) escapism than ever. I don't really like the implications of it being the fifth-highest charting graphic novel/comic in 2007.

Reading some of O'Malley's recent interviews, I almost wonder if he feels somewhat constrained by the need to maintain a tone he established years ago, when he was (presumably) a different person and a less skilled artist. I think O'Malley's first post-Scott Pilgrim project will be pretty interesting, but we've got two more crowd-pleasing volumes to go.

*OBSCURE JOKE OF THE DAY; for the record, I've never met Blanchard and know little about him outside of his (apparently fictional) depictions in the last issue of Hate.

The preliminary meta-list

Okay, here it is: the top 10 comics/graphic novels, based on every best of 2007 list I could come across. Bear in mind the rules I laid out earlier; also bear in mind that I excluded any list which drew only from a narrow slice of the comics industry (eg, manga, the big four publishers, etc.). Each critic was given 550 points; these points were attributed by weight for lists with rankings (the points were evenly split on unranked lists). These are the raw point totals--it's just a coincidence that Exit Wounds got such a nice, round number.

I'll update these lists once the new issue of the Comics Journal is out. I'll also expand the list to, I don't know, the top 100 or so (there were over 400 titles getting votes, FWIW). I'll also break down the lists a little further as well. But for now, here's the top 10:

1. Exit Wounds (1000)
2. Shortcomings (922)
3. All-Star Superman (802)
4. I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets (668)
5. Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (659)
6. Criminal (640)
7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 (541)
8. Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories (426)
9. The Immortal Iron Fist (357)
10. The Arrival (353)

HUGE year for Drawn & Quarterly, eh? Marvel and Dark Horse are the only other publishers with multiple titles in the top 10. I'll leave the analysis for later, but I would like to point out that my predictions weren't totally laughable. At least for the top 10.