2008 is almost at its end, so there is no better time to look back at some of the comics I've read, making a shortlist of five titles that I'd consider my own personal Best of 2008, in no particular order:

I Kill Giants
Story by Joe Kelly
Art by JM Ken Niimura

I Kill Giants is a particularly strange & interesting story written by Joe Kelley who would probably be more familiar to audiences familiar with his work for Marvel, DC or the Cartoon Network series Ben 10. But it was the unusual artwork of JM Ken Niimura that first drew me to the story of Barbara Thorson a normal teenager with a penchant for Role Play, although when she nonchalantly announces in the middle of career day: "I find Giants. I Hunt Giants. I Kill Giants." You could be mistaken for thinking that she has an over developed Fantasy World that she retreats into to escape traumatic events from real life.

The way in which Barbara interacts with other people is particularly amusing, when confronted by her Schools Principal after announcing that she was a Giant killer, she replies with: "until you've actually fought a giant ... until you've looked into its eyes and seen the horrors that crawl behind them ... until you've plunged your broadsword into their arteries and felt the hot wet spray of victory wash over you, intoxicated by the steaming perfume of spilled entrails ... you have no right to judge me." Niimura's artwork is particularly striking, standing somewhere between the popular misconceptions of the manga & indie comix aesthetics, but being something fresh & not a pastiche of something we can already buy elsewhere. The real highlight is the single page stories that shed light onto the creative process that occurred during the creation of I Kill Giants in a particularly amusing manner.


Svetlana Chmakova's Nightschool (serialised in Yen+ Magazine)
Story & Art by Svetlana Chmakova

While most people would be aware of Svetlana Chmakova's work from her series Dramacon, it wasn't until the first issue of Yen+ that I was able to experience her work. Nightschool is a supernatural fantasy story featuring Vampires, Demons, Hunters & a school that teaches ordinary Students by day & teaches Witches by night.

As the story commences we are introduced to the concept of the Nightschool, Sarah & her Sister Alex as well as the Hunter known as Daemon. If the ending of the first chapter is any indication, then Alex would be the centre of events that do not bode well for her on anyone around her. The pacing of each chapter is quite sedate, while there are indications of a conflict somewhere down the road, there is no real rush to get there. Each chapter is paced adequately, introducing characters & concepts such as Rippers & leading onto a cliffhanger ending that is compelling enough to read each succesive chapter. While it is being serialised in Yen+, it will eventually see print as a Graphic Novel in April 2009 which will lead to an entirerly different reading experience, like watcing a season of 24 on DVD instead of serialised each week on TV, it's a different reading experience entirely & I'm somewhat curious as to what, if any, additional material will be added. While a cliffhanger at the end of each monthly chapter is okay for magazine syndication, it could be slightly disruptive reading six chapters in one go, but to see how the story fares when raeding in this manner when the sixth chapter appears in the January 2009 issue of Yen+


Dan Dare
Written by Garth Ennis
Art by Gary Erskine

Nostalgia is a powerful motivator. My earliest comic memories as a child are of Dan Dare, the quintessentially English space adventurer from the (then) futuristice year of 1997. It wasn't the Gung Ho version of Dan Dare that appeared in the first issue of 2000AD back in 1977, nor was it the version that appeared in the relaunched Eagle back in 1982 but the Original Dan Dare that appeared in the original 1950s Eagle that my father had collected when he was a boy.

This version of Dan Dare happens to be the first title I've bought that carries the Virgin Comics logo & also the last as the compony was sold & renamed Liquid Comics Shortly after this series was completed. This story that once again pits Col. Dare against his long running nemesis, the Mekon is written by Garth Ennis, who is perhaps better known for writing Preacher for DC Vertigo & The Punisher for Marvel, the story continues from the original strips, Due to a Nuclear war between China & the USA, Britain has once again become a world super power, with the Royal Navy patrolling the solar system with fighter craft that seem strangely reminiscent of Supermarine Spitfire

To round up this shortlist, I've chosen two slightly obscure titles: Amaranth from ITCH Publishing & Origins from IndieManga both of which are UK Small Press Publications. Amaranth is a fantasy romance written & illustrated by Willie Hewes that was collects the complete story in one volume which has been produced over a long period of time, so you can see the development of Hewes' style. Origins is a perfectbound anthology GN from the IndieManga collective featuring Fell by Kate Holden, Alice Fogarty Hates Small Towns by Sally Jane Thompson, The King’s Silver a prose story by Rebecca McCarthy, Rake: Drink & Driving by Kate Holden & Rebecca McCarthy and Valley of the Shadow by Anna Fitzpatrick.

There are probably a few titles that could also have been placed in this shortlist, but it took me long enough coming up with this short list, writing about everything that didn't make my shortlist could take a while.