This is the story not of the human race but of creaturely existence. Hines crafts an expansive story with immense value against a tremendous ethical background on broad canvas. Once it becomes clear that this is the kind of world that Hines is populating with his characters, a reader still has a hundred or so pages before the books’ protagonists are firmly establish and a plot finally rears its head. If you ask a whining dog what’s the matter, she can simply tell you. In Duncan the animals speak as plainly as you or I do. And not just talk in that Watership Down sort of way, where animals have voices and can communicate amongst themselves but never to man. At first it’s not even clear that in this world animals can talk. It’s a world with frayed edges, coming undone even as it seeks to forge itself into something worthwhile.ĭuncan's structure is a slow-burn. ORAPOST is one such group and it is helmed (for the moment at least) by a golden macaque named Pompeii whose attitude and methodology are as explosive as her name. Animals (with a few humans) have formed activist groups, some of which have become full-blown terrorist cells. The difference is that now the cows spread rumours about why none of them ever return after leaving for the slaughterhouse while the humans who are slaughtering them lie to them, explaining that the very idea of such murder houses is just silly. Cattle and pigs are still herded into pens and raised for the slaughter. This doesn’t change much about the world order. The world presented in Duncan is one that mirrors ours almost exactly-save for the fact that animals can express themselves in the language of humans. But it's rich, thick, heartfelt and demands contemplation. (This is so when you run across this list in 2025 and wonder why it doesn't include the best book of 2019, now you know it's because I've been lazy and haven't updated the list.) So then:ġ01-200 201-300 301-500 Afterword My Best 500 Comics Of All Time*ĭuncan The Wonder Dog is available in print (it's a huge book) and, kind of amazingly, Hines also makes it available for free-amazing because this is my pick for best graphic novel of all time. By the way, to ground this list in time, it was published on 19 November 2018. I've broken it into 5 pages: 1-100, 101-200, 201-300, 301-500 (for the last 200, I'm merely providing the titles, authors, etc and no or little commentary), and a final page of end notes and explanations to wrap it up. That's really my intention here, to sing the news of a bunch of great comics for you to check out maybe if they sound like they might be your bag.Īnd with that, here's the list. Probably the best way for you to approach this list is not as a justification for your own tastes, but instead as a way discover new books that may be just your bag. I also highly recommend you put together a ranked list of your top 500 comics. Your list, obviously, would look very different. At the end of the day this is a very personal list and reflects my tastes, knowledge, interests, and experience.But I felt it was better to get these recs out there so people could start finding their next favourite comic. I could edit this list over and over again for years and still not get at something I find completely satisfactory. In a week, I'll already regret some of my ordering here.There's probably plenty of books I would add but I've just plain forgotten. Until two days ago, I had forgotten Twin Spica (a personal favourite). So if you read this list and are pissed off that there's no One! Hundred! Demons! or no Berserk or no Tom King Batman-just know that this is because I haven't read those books. While I have read a lot of graphic novels (I read 400+ volumes per year), I haven't even read all of the canon choices (note: there is no canon, not really).I'm ranking on an amorphous mix of quality in story, quality in writing, quality in art, ideological value, how much I actually like the book, and then some ephemerals like Does this book propel the form in any meaningful way?.So Book 50 might only be a smidgeon better than Book 125. But for the most part, there's not going to be much quality difference between books that are 75 places apart. Maybe highly educated guesses, but guesses all the same. Or to put it more positively, you're making educated guesses. But ranking? That's on the micro and when you're ranking The Best of a category that boasts ten thousand options, you're kind of just making it up. In the macro, we can with some confidence say things like Jack Kirby was a better artist than Stan Lee or Moby Dick is a better novel than Twilight. There's little objective in art appreciation. By this point we're all aware that these things are subjective and susceptible to biases, personal histories, tastes, and a slight flux in the barometer. I mean, if you're going to take it very seriously, it is. Ranking things is an inherently stupid idea.
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