The Best American Comics 2016

This should really be called Best American Indie Autobiographical Adult Comics That Are Not Graphic Novels or Ongoing Comics like Saga.

I was pretty disappointed; there was a very heavy weighting towards autobiographical zine-style web comics, many with just okay craft (in other words, ugly drawings :/). I find that whole sub-genre incredibly self-indulgent and boring. Like, dudes, we can aaalll draw shitty drawings about how we feel shitty sometimes - or (EVEN WORSE) felt shitty once when we were teens (OMG PLZ NO MORE ABOUT HOW EMO YOUR TEENAGE YEARS WERE). Aaghh. I feel like an asshole, since the autobio comix are often “pour your heart out about your gritty mental health issue”, and so it feels especially mean to dislike it. BUT I DO.

I think there's more to the craft of comix than just panel pacing and panel structure. The actual art inside, the dialogue, and A PLOT!

Even the relatively better-crafted stuff, like the comic by Adrian Tomine, was centered around an excruciatingly painful family dynamic (stuttering, deluded daughter trying her hand at amateur standup while cancer-ridden mom is super supportive and cynical dad is frustrated and NOT supportive). That was one of the better ones - there was a lot of skill in how Tomine unveiled the dynamic, and the drawings were great. But I was, by the end of the book and having read N more similar emo-gutter-porn, like, JEEZ IS THERE ONLY ONE SETTING ON THIS THING?