Frank

Jim Woodring has been to another spiritual plane, vibrant and frightening, familiar yet totally alien, a place that lives deep inside all our consciousnesses - and he makes a living drawing it for you. This image was taken from a collection of illustrations, but if you can dig colorful hallucinatory vistas providing the backdrop for the most primal tales of doing and undoing, then I would run out and buy any of the many collections of Woodring's work. Don't be scared, but come prepared...

www.jimwoodring.com

Bloodsong

Profound and simple, woven with haunting imagery that builds towards a message of hope, even when the destructive aspect of humanity's selfish concerns encroach on the small ambitions of simple folk. A wordless comic, lyrical in the telling, Erik Drooker has created a sublime tale of spiritual triumph in our limited yet oppressive physical world. This one is easy to read, easy to like, should move the coldest heart, should impress the fiercest critic.

www.drooker.com

The Last Lonely Saturday

Jordan Crane plays in different styles, but always manages to express a world of emotion employing an economy of lines. This simple story about a man visiting his late wife's grave - and the big surprise he finds there - harkens late Romantic period literature and the funny books of the 50's alike. Don't be fooled by the children's book style employed here: this is a very adult story, easily digested by even the youngest of readers, and wholesome to boot.

www.fantagraphics.com

The Building

For those of you new to comics, Will Eisner was one of the great elder statesmen of the medium (and if you're not new to comics and don't know his work, shame on you!). His traditional approach to comic expressiveness is a smokescreen to the rich emotional tapestry he explores in the lives of ordinary people. In these pages, Eisner masterfully tells the tales of four separate lives ending in four very different ways for four very different reasons - all in the same place, an ordinary building in the city. And yet something survives the grave in this common place, pushing towards one day when those who have passed on return to give the gift of life.

www.willeisner.com

Planetary

John Cassaday is among the best photorealistic artists working in comics today. And this very weird title is wonderfully realized by the seemingly ubiquitous writer Warren Ellis, who happens to be one of the top sci-fi/futuristic scribes out there. Secret conspiracies for world domination, 100-year old super-heroes, a guy who can talk to machines by drumming - and from there it gets weird. I only wish that this book would come out more often. But hey, you can always buy the trade paperbacks…

www.dccomics.com/wildstorm

Fantastic Four

The uninitiated may say, oh , yeah, I saw the movie, I know those characters. But this here is included to feature the work of the great Jack Kirby, creator of the FF and much of the Marvel Universe. It may look like just another superhero comic to the untrained eye, but Kirby created a body of work of forms and perspectives that were too fantastic to fully absorb at first, yet entirely pedestrian in its humanity. There are great collections of his work widely available, faithfully reproduced to feature his signature style. Discover this and other early titles from the beginning, all through the eye of the King of Comics!

www.marvel.com

Rabbi's Cat

France has a thriving comics community that treats its creators like rock stars. Joann Sfar is one of the greats to come out of that scene and this book is among his greatest creations. Set in early 20th century Algeria, it begins with a cat who starts to talk to his master - a rabbi - and moves on from there to explore all manner of moral and spiritual questions. Chock full of Jewish wisdom, laden with a worldly knowledge, yet light and whimsical, the drawings instantly charmed me, and the stories within moved me to both tears and laughter. A hopeful book, an honest book, it makes me wish I could have met all of the main characters for tea.

www.randomhouse.com/pantheon

The Black Diamond Detective Agency

I've never been one much for Westerns, but I've been an Eddie Campbell fan for years. His "scratchy" pen & ink style has always lent a peculiar expressive force to his work and made his storytelling feel like a transmission from a bygone era. In this tale adapted from a screenplay, a yarn of intrigue is spun that begins with the bombing of a train and results in a cross-country chase leading to the culprits. But don't expect a typical shoot-em-up. Campbell makes his characters quite human - perhaps more than we care to recognize - and the central plot leads to social commentary on the true nature of power and big business, seen through the lens of the late 19th century, yet painfully modern.

www.firstsecondbooks.com

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!

You gotta love Scott Shaw! When you consider his career - everything from 70's underground comics to Flintstone cartoons - you'll see he is truly a comics renaissance man. His seminal creation, Captain Carrot is a great funny animal book for all ages. Here, Scott uses his appealing characters to send up comic conventions, fanboys, and comics in general, all whipped up in an unceasing parade of puns, sight gags, and in-jokes. You can give this one to your kids without fear, but any adult will be tickled by the lighthearted humor, as well as the wonderful drawings.

www.dccomics.com
www.oddballcomics.com

Aya

One of my favorite moments when engaging in a work of art is that rare turn when I feel like I've really been taken to some time and place outside of my experience. Because of Marguerite Abouet's exquisite writing, I now can honestly say that I know what it was to be a teenage girl in the urban environment of 1970's Ivory Coast. Sure, all the basics are there - boys, parties, fights with girlfriends, sneaking out on dad - but I really felt the vibe of the town Aya lives in, sometimes even the smells. It's a simple teenage drama, beautifully told, lending the idiosyncrasies of this place in the author's memory. Humorous and sometimes quite jolting, Marguerite's storytelling is graced by the warm and evocative illustrations of her husband/collaborator, Clement Oubrerie.

www.drawnandquarterly.com