The Year of Comic Books in Review - Part Two (March and April)

Time for more nominees for the Best Comic Book of 2004 according to Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog.

Just an extra note. These aren't always books published in 2004... the only guarantee I make is that I first read them in 2004. So there might be a few books in here that make you scratch your head and say, "huh? I thought that was published a long time ago!" Yeah, possibly. For instance, I read Persepolis in the first few days of the new year, then read the second book as soon as it arrived at the local library. Both of them have the potential to be nominees.

Moving on to March and April, another three books get four and a half starfish: Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden: Borrowed Magic, PS238 #6, and Aquaman #17. I continued to enjoy Abadazad for the remaining issues that came out, but I won't put those on the nomination list. I was also introduced to a number of excellent books like Demo, Noble Causes, Electric Girl, and Whiteout, and continued to enjoy Amazing Spider-Man. However, despite all the excellent books from these months, I think I'll just stick with the initial three.

Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden: Borrowed Magic is an amazing start to an epic featuring a strong, if a bit flawed, woman. The story moves around into different dimensions and isn't entirely linear, but it's an excellent book that made me want to immediately read more. This one became an instant treasure.

PS238 #6 was the first issue that wasn't better than the previous one. That's really an amazing run. This issue featured two competing heroes, and was hilarious. Hey, I said it wasn't better than the previous one... but it was still amazingly good. Reading PS238 is kind of like eating comfort food. It's just perfect. And it reads well on rereads, too.

Aquaman #17 shows Will Pfeifer hitting his full stride on the book, with Gleason's artwork in perfect unison with the story. I wrote a ton about the book when I rapid reviewed it, and it holds up under rereads later. I tend to really like books that allow readers to go back and reread and get more out of it.

Ok, enough for today. I'm going to be around family the rest of the day. Happy Christmas.