The Year of Comic Books in Review - Part Four (July and August)

The Best Comic Book of 2004 according to Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog gathers more nominees.

Here are the nominees for July and August. A whopping six books get in automatically: Bone Volume Three: Eyes of the Storm, The Golem's Mighty Swing, Safe Area Gorazde, Ursula, PS238: With Liberty and Recess For All, and Age of Bronze: Sacrifice. Other books of note were the Bone saga, which I got my first taste of in those months; Daisy Kutter, a nice change of pace from the standard fare; Bloodhound, a powerful and different side of the DCU; and a couple of mini comics Family Reunion and Me and Edith Head. I think I'll stick with the first six, but there were a lot of good books in those months.

Bone Volume Three: Eyes of the Storm was another book I checked out from the library to read, and I didn't regret it at all. The excitement in this issue was pumped up, and the story continued to be fascinating. This is probably my favorite installment of the entire Bone saga.

The Golem's Mighty Swing was a book I read due to Lieber's Eleven, so I was relatively sure I would enjoy it even before I opened the first page. And I did. My own love of baseball no doubt helped me to understand the characters, and the environment they lived in was foreign to me, yet all too familiar. A very good book.

Safe Area Gorazde ("Go-RAJH-duh") was another Lieber's Eleven. This book was much more painful than just about any I've enjoyed, and had a slight fault, but it is a story that we really don't hear about, and it needs to be told. Definitely one that should be read.

Ursula is an instant classic... a fairytale, a love story, and a philosophical text all wrapped up in one. This was a great one. I need to dig it out and read it again.

PS238: With Liberty and Recess For All is just a collection of the first five books and the intro issue. Nothing really new in it, but definitely something to get for anyone who is curious about the book. And it helps that these stories are very rereadable, so there is no problem sitting down and enjoying the whole series again and again.

Age of Bronze: Sacrifice is a great version of a very readable retelling of the Trojan War. This hardcover was a must-get for us, if only to match the hardcover of the first book. And it's every bit as gorgeous.