MadInkBeard by DerikBadman

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Best Online Comics Criticism 2010: Derik’s List

This year I was one of the “judges” for the Best Online Comics Criticism of 2010, organized by Suat Tong Ng at The Hooded Utilitarian. He posted yesterday about the process and some of the runners-up. You can visit his post on the final aggregate list, and take a trip around to the other judge’s sites to see what they chose.

Here’s my final list of 10 favorite articles. I’d like to say there was some coherent criteria I was working from, but mostly these are pieces that held my interest. Some of them increased my interest in a work I’ve already read, some of them made me want to read a work I haven’t read, and some of them just increased my enjoyment/knowledge of comics in general. I veered very much to the critical review type of article, as opposed to some of the historical-type articles that were nominated. I hope you’ll read all of these, I think they are worth the time.

In alphabetical (author last name) order:

Rob Clough on Kevin Huizenga’s Ganges #3

Katherine Dacey on Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako

Craig Fischer on David Mazzucchelli

Ryan Holmberg on the works of Yokoyama Yuichi

Joe McCulloch: “The Problem with American Vampires Is That They Just Don’t Think” (essay on thought balloons)

Ken Parille on Charles Bursn’ X’ed Out

Matt Seneca on Roy Crane’s Captain Easy

Jason Thompson on Morality in Action Manga

Matthias Wivel on Herge’s Tintin

Valentina Zanca on Dino Buzzatti’s Poem Strip

Sorry there’s no commentary on each, I didn’t have the time this week.