Shooflypie

I started out the year buying single issues of comics but stopped after a couple months. In July, I bought an iPad and started reading single issue digitally, which I liked more than I thought I would. I also continued to read collections and original graphic novels like I usually do. Between all those ways of consuming comics, a few series were clearly my favorites... 1. Saga - Brian K. Vaughan is already responsible for one of my all-time favorite comics, Y: The Last Man , and with this series it looks like he is on his way again. He teams with Fiona Staples to build a SF universe full of magic and bounty hunters and sex planets and ghost babysitters and more that is completely grounded in the relationship between Marko and Alana, who are new parents and should not be together. The comic is gorgeously-drawn and wonderfully-written and I recommend it to everyone. 2. Hawkeye - This Matt Fraction comic with art by David Aja and Javier Pulido began this fall and has quickly become ...

Time for another patented (not really) catch-up post... OLD FAVORITES While I'm always excited when one of my favorite creators puts out something new, I do admit to an undercurrent of trepidation. Why? I wonder what I will think of them if the new isn't as good as the old that I love. Like I said, it's only an undercurrent and I mostly can't wait to digest the new. Here are some recent examples... Crackpot Palace by Jeffrey Ford - This is Ford's fourth story collection and I had only read three of the stories prior to its release (all from anthologies; no stories here were published in F&SF, which is where I first discovered his work), so I was ready to dive in. I was not disappointed. There's love and optimism in the face of a repetitive day in "Polka Dots and Moobeams"; the knotty issue of faith in "Relic"; the classic fantasy gone awry of "The Coral Heart"; the brilliant strangeness of "The Double of My Double Is...