My last name is spelled with a lowercase “d,” by the way. No one seems to get that, even thought that’s always how it appears when I type it.

It seemed to me that the controversy is sparked more by a vague dissatisfaction than anything else, the weird kind of unease you get when you see a lot of people (or a “best of” book) championing work that personally you don’t like, and that to counter it they’re having to cast around for examples of stuff that SHOULD have been included. And I like Sergio Aragones, but what has he done in 2007 that’s head and shoulders above his previous body of work? What has Jeff Smith done in 2007? Is Stan Sakai’s recent work somehow different from what has gone before? The book isn’t a lifetime achievement feel-good Irving Thalberg award for Outstanding Achievements In The Field of Excellence, it’s what Chris Ware feels is the best of the latest. Got a beef about how there aren’t enough dragons, take it up with Chris.

And sure, I’m biased, I find it hard to take criticism of this kind seriously when it comes from a culture obsessed with Power Girls’ breasts or who Green Lantern is this week or what dinner theater Bruce Campbell is appearing at next month. Don’t get me wrong, I love crap popular culture, but I don’t pretend my personal obsessions reflect anything other than my personal obsessions.

I’m not suggesting All Star Superman needs more sales or promotion.

But if THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2008 feature All Star Superman, Brubaker’s Iron Fist & Captain America, Green Lantern, The Spirit, Shazam (Jeff Smith version), etc… I’m sure there would be a lot of screaming over the lack of diversity even if it was a really good book.

I fully understand that Marvel & DC probably wouldn’t let their characters be included in such a volume. But what of Walking Dead or Casanova? I think almost everybody agrees that there are a whole lot of great comics in a variety of genres and it’s a bit disappointing that only a narrow selection gets presented to the public as the best comics.

Anyways, here’s hoping that a more wider view of ‘best’ comics gets selected next year.

To name but one example- calling Fort Thunder a dead end by saying that it’s not better than Sergio Aragones, but might be as good? How is that a dead end?

Also, judging by my flip-through, the collection didn’t go from nonfiction to fiction, but rather had an arc with a pace where the most fantastic stuff was in the middle, and then it keeps going on to the other side. The Zettwoch joke is pretty intellectually dishonest.

Also- is that postscript list actually by Anne Moore? I thought that was Ware again, naming still more work he couldn’t include.

I did like Tom Spurgeon’s comments, and his mention of Kazimir Strzepek’s The Mourning Star, which although it wasn’t in your best-of list, should probably make the honorable mentions.

Would the people who are upset about this book even give it a second thought if its title was something other than “The Best American Comics?”

I’m not a big fan of navel gazing comics, which are written from a very white experience, but they have their place and I’m cool with that. I don’t think they are stifling stuff like Flight or that PopGun Comics anthology which is up to my speed. I can read that stuff cause the market is starting to get diverse enough to support different things.

The kind of target audience that is gonna go pick up something in a book store like Best American Comics or Sweeney’s is the literate audience that already wants books like this. Trying to sell them stuff like per say Walking Dead or 52 is the same as trying to get the Batman guy at the store to go buy Mome.

I mean, does anyone seriously think that ALL STAR SUPERMAN isn’t going to sell well enough without being included in an anthology? As a side issue, does anyone seriously think that even if Ware wanted to include part of it in the book that DC would have cleared it? Ware’s choices not only expose people to some of the best works of the year, it also helps grant good works exposure that they normally wouldn’t have.

I guess it is a shame it wasn’t published by Fantagraphics or Drawn and Quarterly. Then it would have been brilliant, I’m sure.

“white people whining”…that’s the stupidest thing i’ve read in a long time.
up, up and away, pedro.

I think the unsaid, underlining thing that pissing some folks off is that The Best American Comics and Sweeney’s and other ‘creme-of-the-crop’ anthologies are being sold in bookstores to people who might be unfamiliar with comics.

Shouldn’t samples from The Walking Dead, Casanova or perhaps All Star Superman be in there as well? Or perhaps Dramacon? I understand where the frustration comes from as it appears we aren’t doing as good of a job as we could in promoting the diversity of comics to the bookstore crowd, and perhaps losing potential readers as a result.

I agreed with Heidi in her article listing the books and complaining of the slant. It’s the reason I put the book down on the flip through. An entire book dedicated to the eggers/mcsweeny. More white people whining for 200 odd pages. Something that when executed well in small doses is awesome, and a whole book of well executed but annoying subject matter is still annoying. I was kind of pissed for a second until I name checked the editor. Oh that’s why.

She loses me in the second half where she states that this illuminati is holding down the next stan sakai and jeff smiths. What?

Love
Chip

(*Tommy Gann, Best of Show 2006, Spirit of Steel Show
http://www.spiritofsteel.com/tommygannbowie.jpg )