Top Favorite Comics of 2009!!?!?!

I’m posting  a list of my favorite comic books I read this year like everybody else is doing.

1. The Shadow by Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkiewicz, Kyle Baker, Bob Lappan
   I got a stack of these and read them last weekend–really great comics. Baker and Sienkiewicz are great, but the backbone of The Shadow comics are provided by Helfer and Lappan. Lappan does the best panel borders of the last 30 years.
2. The Bloody Benders by Rick Geary
   I bought four of Geary’s victorian crime books, but The Bloody Benders was the best one. Geary’s such a great cartoonist.
3. Blazing Combat by Archie Goodwin and various
   I was surprised how much I liked the comics in this book.
4. Superwest by Massimo Mattioli
   I could read a million pages of comics by this guy. Who will produce them for me?
5. Villa of the Mysteries #2 by Mack White
   Every once in a while I get crazy about some comics; a few months ago it was stuff by Mack White. Everything he’s done is nutty and interesting and probably true.
6. Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank
   This was a fun book. I’ve read 90 years of Legion comics, but I have the feeling this one is as good as it’ll get for awhile. Unfortunately that’s not saying a lot. While this was fun to read it wasn’t exactly The Super-Stalag of Space.
7. Frank Robbins comics (The Shadow, The Man From Atlantis, The Invaders)
   I was crazy about Frank Robbins in ‘09. I need to get his Batman comics, for sure. The Shadow books were much better than Man From Atlantis and the Invaders.
8. Little Orphan Annie vol. 1 by Harold Gray
   It’s hard to put this book down, but I have to because it weighs 20 pounds.
9. Tatsumi books from D&Q
   I didn’t get A Drifting Life, but I got the other three reprint books and they’re all very wonderful, dog sex notwithstanding.
10. Introduction to Cartooning by R. Taylor
    My book of the year. I’ve learned a new respect for the mind of R. Taylor and learned lots about how to make comics. I think this is the best how-to book on cartooning that I’ve seen.

Did any of this stuff actually come out in 2009? I don’t know. I read other good stuff, too, I guess.