The Best American Comics 2013

Here is my history with comics: as a young child, I read a lot of Harvey Comics, such as Richie Rich and Baby Huey. Then I graduated to Archie, and finally to superheroes (I was a Marvel guy), and I collected those until I was in my '30s. But the world of comics is much larger than the mass commercialism of those lines.

Therefore it was nice to check The Best American Comics 2013, where there is no Archie nor anyone in spandex or a cape. Edited by Jeff Smith, the book is a cornucopia of different styles, with something for almost anybody.

However, there is an inherent problem. Many of the comics selected are excerpts, which means we only get a few pages of a much larger work. Either the excerpt is too short to grab much context, or one is left wanting more. Also, as with any collection with this many selections, some of them left me scratching my head.

I suppose my favorites were those that were most traditional; Craig Thompson's Habibi, which is kind of an Arabian Nights story; Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson's Story Time, which is in the form of a fable told by and to dogs; Tony Puryear's Concrete Park, a gritty urban crime tale; and Terry Moore's Rachel Rising, the one that I would most likely check out in its entirety.

There are also some terrific history-based comics in here, such as Colleen Doran, Derek McCullough, and Jose Villarrubia's tale of an Irish pirate queen in Gone to Amerikay; Derf Backderf's My Friend Dahmer, about the serial killer's youth; Joseph Lambert's Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller; and Paul Pope's vigorously researched 1969, about the Apollo 12 moon landing.

There are also some cute and quirky comics that are like daily funnies. The best of these is Evan Dorkin's Fun Strips. My favorite is the "Rejected Make-a-Wish Applicants": "I'd like to take as many with me as possible;" "I want Katy Perry and instructions on how to do love to her;" and "I wish to taste human flesh." Gabrielle's Cody is a great comic short story that has the look of Robert Crumb.

There are some in here that I just didn't get at all, such as Michael DeForge's Manananggal and Kate Beaton's Velocipedes. Some had good stories but shaky art, such as Leela Corman's Unterzakhn and Eleanor Davis' Nita Goes Home.

By far the best selection in the book is the very first one, Alison Bechdel's excerpt from Are You My Mother? Bechdel writes and draws memoir comics, and this one is about her relationship with her mother, incorporating the psychoanalytical theories of Donald Winnicott, A Little Night Music, and Middle English poetry. I just might have to get the entire book, as Bechdel may be the best comic book writer working today.