As the Jewish year 5770 draws to a close, it’s time to take a look back at the year that was. First up is your top ten comics for the year.
From barfing on the bimah to having a blast at fatcamp to playing hangman during High Holiday services, Make Me A Woman collects Vanessa Davis’s autobiographical strips lovingly rendered in gorgeous watercolor as well as addictively adorable black and white diary comics. “Funny first, Jew-y second” is how we like it at Heeb, and Vanessa follows that dictum to a tee, depicting herself pondering such highlarious notions as “which is a grosser purchase: condoms and tofu or toilet paper and an OhHenry bar?” Vanessa recently collaborated with the late Harvey Pekar on a story called “Jewish Chops” for The Pekar Project in which Harvey gets in trouble for saying “Good Yontiff” on Shabbos. Like Harvey before her, Vanessa mines the mundane for magic with wisdom, humor and pizazz.
1. Make Me A Woman by Vanessa Davis
(Drawn & Quarterly)
2. ALEC: The Years Have Pants by Eddie Campbell
(Top Shelf Comix)
3. Mesmo Delivery by Rafael Grampa
(Dark Horse Comics)
4. The Playwright by Eddie Campbell and Daren White
(Top Shelf Comix)
5. The ACT-I-VATE Primer by webcomix collective ACT-I-VATE.com
(IDW)
6. Red Light Properties by Dan Goldman
(TOR.com)
7. CUBA, My Revolution by Inverna Lockbez & Dean Haspiel
(Vertigo/DC Comics)
8. Afrodisiac by Jim Rugg
(AdHouse Books)
9. GODLAND: Celestial Edition Vol.2 by Joe Casey and Tom Scioli
(IMAGE Comics)
10. Power Out by Nathan Schreiber
(ACT-I-VATE.com)
JEEZ HEEB! how could u not include Royal Flush’s HISPANIC BATMAN!!; or Bob Fingerman’s FROM THE ASHES!!; or Dave Gallaher/Steve Ellis’ HIGH MOON; or Michel Fiffe’s ZEGAS! or Grant Morrison’s Batman & Robin! or Kim Deitch’s SEARCH FOR SMILIN’ED!! or SCOTT PILGRIM VOL 6 or Gabrielle Bell’s CECIL AND JORDAN IN NEW YORK; or TRIBES: The Dog Years; or THE PEKAR PROJECT…. couldnt you have made it a top20? its a shonde!! [Note: Jewish guilt for having to leave so many great books off the top 10 has led to HEEB’s comics editor, me, to extrude the manifestation of a split personality that comments harsly on my own posts]
[…] Comics | Heeb counts down the best comics of the Jewish year 5770 — among them, Rafael Grampa’s Mesmo Delivery, Jim Rugg’s Afrodisiac, and Vanessa Davis’ Make Me a Woman. [Heeb.com] […]
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