I have no idea where you can get this book at online, so I just linked it to the Top Shelf website. Hey, they publish the best comics around, they must know where you can get a copy of this book. Previous years of this anthology have had a pretty random assortment of the best the small press world has to offer. This year was a little different, as the contributors were asked to do a biography for their piece, which gave the whole thing kind of a “Big Book” (you know, the great books from Paradox Press) feel. I should warn you that I did read a thread about this on the Comic’s Journal message board, so I’m more informed than I should be going into this blind. The editor reportedly said that he wanted contributors to “do their homework”, which seems like an absolutely horrible idea to me. Look, this book is supposed to be the best new talents in comics doing their best work for the world to see. It’s had some crappy stories in it over the years, granted, but there have also been some great ones. This one won me over a little as I was reading it, I have to admit. I hate the idea, but the execution was wonderful in some of the stories, like the one about Davey Crockett and the one about Edward Gorey, among others. The problem is that there’s nothing here that sticks in my mind. In previous years I would read the book and then check around the internet to learn more about some of the people that I had just discovered. I didn’t even bother to check who did the pieces in this one in most cases because they had all, with some individual touches left intact, granted, been stamped into a mold. In all, this is a good book that should have been allowed to be either crappy or wonderful, or both.
