Pop of the Tops

After four months of intensive and boring contemplation on the nature of graphic novels and how they pertain to ‘top 10’ lists, along with a painful amount of thought on the matter of comparing wildly different books based purely on the medium, the Tearoom of Despair is proud and a little bit ashamed to present its top 10 comics list of 2008.

#1 One mini-comic I found and read in a toilet out the back of a redneck pub, but had to use the paper for a wipe. I can’t remember its name and the artist was doing that weird thing amateur dudes do with the bridge of the nose, but it did the job.

#2 Token superhero comic. Oh, you know. The Morrison one.

#3 That one that was wrenching and moving and strange, the one that made us all laugh and think, and whenever we try to tell anybody how good it is, we can’t string together a single coherent sentence to describe that love and sound like complete morons.

#4 Biting back against the hate with that comic that everybody else sneered at or ignored, but you read it when you were a bit wasted and found it oddly moving. Tastes can be funny like that.

#5 Whatever issue of Acme Novelty Library that came out. Or if there was an Eightball, that one.

#6 Token superhero comic number two. The Marvel one that three people read and rave about. They do their best, with long essays going into severe detail on why nobody else isn’t reading it, but nobody still cares.

#7 Oh yeah, a reprint. Reprints are always good and there was that Essential or Showcase book that reprinted a bunch of comics that you read the fuck out of when you were eight and you thought you’d forgotten about it. But you were wrong, professor! Dead wrong! Because then you cracked open this puppy and it all came back, didn’t it? Every panel still resonates, every character is an old friend and you remember everything. Nostalgia can be bullshit sometimes, but it’s not too harmful.

#8 That one by the guy who I met online. I think his name is Shane.

#9 The biggest, most expensive comic that came out all year. That shit has to be worth it.

#10 Love and Rockets