Eyeball Kicks: “The Best American Comics

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“ ‘Cul de Sac,’ by Richard Thompson, captured everything funny and charming and true about the best American comic strips, from Segar to Johnston to Schulz,” writes Scott McCloud, guest editor of “The Best American Comics 2014.” “It was alive, it made you laugh, it popped off the page like a ladybug. But, like Watterson did with Calvin and Hobbes, Thompson decided to call it quits, in 2012, and run his last strip. He didn’t do so in disgust or in protest or because the strip had run its course. He wasn’t out of ideas. He hadn’t lost interest. He just couldn’t hold a pen steady anymore because of Parkinson’s disease. It’s hard to imagine a shittier piece of luck befalling such a wonderful artist.”

“The Best American Comics 2014” is a yearly compilation of comics that have been published in graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, mini-comics, and on the Web. McCloud, a cartoonist himself as well the author of “Understanding Comics,” structured this year’s volume to indicate the important areas of expression within the comics landscape today. Here is McCloud on another selection from the book: “Sam Sharpe’s story about reconnecting with his mentally ill mother ran in his smartly designed small-press comic book, Viewotron. Sharpe, I’m guessing, is the youngest of our contributors, but he has a great ear for dialogue and a sharp eye for the small, repetitive dance steps of dysfunctional relationships.”

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