The Best American Comics 2015

October 19, 2015
Lethem and Kartalopoulos assemble many of today’s most innovative comic
creators in this impressive collection. With remarkable balance, this volume encompasses heartfelt memoir, historical fiction, experiments in nonlinear storytelling, and beyond—few corners of the independent comics world are left unexplored. Excerpts from Alabaster’s “Mimi and the Wolves,” Julia Gfrorer’s Palm Ash, and A. Degen’s Crime Chime Noir are particularly strong and act as mediators between the most
conventional and experimental extremes of the collection. Not every entry is a standout, however, and the volume is curiously lacking in comics published online. This oversight might have been acceptable a few years ago, but it’s odd in 2015. Still, this is a strong assemblage of work, showcasing a variety of voices. Anyone interested in the far-ranging possibilities of the comics medium would do well to pick up a copy. Agent: Eric Simonoff.

October 15, 2015
The primary joy of this series has always been seeing comics' state of the art filtered through a prestigious and discerning guest editor's sensibility. Coeditor Lethem proclaims himself an outsider in his charmingly self-cartooned introduction, but like nearly all previous judges, his taste runs to comics that nibbled around the mainstream's edges. And like last year's editor, Scott McCloud, he divides the pieces into themed sections that say as much about his taste as the individual choices: works primarily concerned with visuals or with language, cultural commentary, biography, and postmodern superhero commentary, to name but a few. There are the requisite examples and excerpts from established greats (Chast, Feiffer); indie greats (Bagge, Woodring); and unknown greats (Gina Wynbrandt contributes a doozy about self-esteem and self-manipulation, and Erik Nebel a metaphorical beauty of fluid transformation); and there's always at least one in there that elegantly obliterates preconceptions (perhaps Anders Nilsen's skewering and humanist version of Prometheus). Readers are once again treated to a vital, inimitable tour of the form's (if not the industry's) present and future.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)