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A review by saidtheraina
The Best American Comics 2016 by Bill Kartalopoulos, Roz Chast
3.0
I like to read this every year to take my temperature on the current comics scene. It's an imperfect method, but sometimes I discover new stuff I like, so at least that's a win.
As with the last couple of volumes of this, all of the things I was really into I'd either read already or were from zines or other things I might have a hard time getting ahold of.
The thing that's still ringing in my brain is from the very first page of the Foreward, by Series Editor, Bill Kartalopoulos:
It's an articulation of something I think we all already knew, but for me, it reframed things just enough for me to look at things in a new way.
Great choice for reading during short breaks at work.
As with the last couple of volumes of this, all of the things I was really into I'd either read already or were from zines or other things I might have a hard time getting ahold of.
The thing that's still ringing in my brain is from the very first page of the Foreward, by Series Editor, Bill Kartalopoulos:
There is no "mainstream" in comics. ...It's completely true that there are an extreme few books that truly reach a "mass" audience. That's why people need finding aids and tools and ::cough cough:: Librarians and booksellers who specialize in knowing the landscape of the publishing industry to help them find their next great read.
The larger book publishing industry still operates on a mass scale and can still be called a mass medium, but mainly by aggregating a large number of smaller audiences (including the audience for graphic novels). Relatively few individual books reach a truly mass audience.
Television and film remain mass media, though their delivery systems and platforms (and therefore their content) are rapidly changing in response to new digital networks and technology. Video games are certainly a highly inventive and lucrative mass medium. And the Internet is the biggest global mass medium ever invented by humans.
If there are any comics today that are mass media, and therefore "mainstream," they might be comics like these: [image of an Allie Brosh poop sequence]
It's an articulation of something I think we all already knew, but for me, it reframed things just enough for me to look at things in a new way.
Great choice for reading during short breaks at work.