Best Comics and Books of 2009 – Spiff SixShot

I was going to do this at the end of last year like normal people but simply ran out of time, as BSC Expansion has kept the First Sword a bit busy. The ongoing BSC Book Tournament has opened a door revealing precedence to allow me to throw mine out there now, albeit with no bells and whistles (thus posted with brief descriptions over at s6s).

Here is what I came up with:

• Driven By Lemons by Joshua Cotter
• Stuff of Legend written by Mike Raicht & Brian Smith with pencils by Charles Paul Wilson III
• The Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe: 1982-1994 (v2) by Mark Bellomo
• Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson
• Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
• Joe Pitt Case Books by Charlie Huston
• Brush with Passion edited by Arnie & Cathy Fenner
• G.I. Joe from IDW w/ special props to Mike Costa
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Eric Shanower & Skottie Young
• The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll
• Wednesday Comics from DC Comics

You can get all of my off the cuff – not so much – reasonings over at s6s. I had quite a few “props’ outside of this 11 to hand out over there as well.

I did want to add some brief thoughts here that I didn’t over there about what came across my mind as I was putting this together. In bullet point fashion.

1. I was less patient with novels this year. I put down more books over the last 16 months than I have my entire life, and just a brief scan of the shelves reveals several dozen books that I gave a go for 40-60 pages and just didn’t care anymore.  I’m tired of back-loaded novels. If you don’t have enough awesome for a full book, starting at the beginning, then write a damn novella or short story. Certain authors have developed and earned more or my trust than others, but Mark Danielewski didn’t write a new book this year. Steven Erikson does this in some fashion as well, and there are some parts of Dust of Dreams that I  find completely disinteresting, or at least overextended (Barghast and the Shake) but you can get away with a lot when with me when you bring back Draconus and have the Bonehunters in your books.
2. No collection blew me away. I’m starting to have this thought that if you have an awesome short story, just put that thing online (perhaps even at BSC where people will see it!).  I found that I just didn’t want to sit down and thumb through a collection or anthology for that one amazing story, I’d much rather people smarter than me identify the great ones and direct me to it some spot I can read it online. Not many bringing close to complete collections like an Ian R. Macleod or a Ted Chiang ;  a Vermilion Sands by Ballard, or  Secret Life by VanderMeer (which I think is rather underappreciated). In the back of my mind, along with her other obvious accomplishments, Le Guin may arguably be the best we have in this form.
3. I love my Star Wars. All of you writers, either writing for the younger Clone War audience or the “adult” (who wants to be that?) fans, I appreciate continuing the legacy, yet I still don’t see an Imperial Executor Tomio, and I probably read 10 of your books a year.
4. Perhaps the biggest thought related to books and the completely boring topic of book reviewing is the idea of price. After years of operating this site you kind of get use to not paying for books and there is this profound difference between liking /recommending a  read  and recommending someone to go out and actually drop $20 bills on it. In the internet age it’s even a bigger question because realistically nobody has to pay for any book published if they don’t really want to. I see all this talk about e-book prices, and while there are people who know better than me production costs, I’m here to tell you that matching the price of the print copy is asking a lot out out of readers who are two clicks away from this word I like to call free. You can coax someone into being honorable at a cost of 5 bucks- but 12-20? For a reader who may buy dozens of books a year?  Never get high off your own supply. I’m not saying E-books are cheaper to produce and market. I’m saying they should be considering the money I have to throw down on a damn Ipad off jump.
5. I want a new Matthew Stover book.
6. Orbit had some sweet covers this year didn’t they?
7. What’s the deal with publishers not entering the modern age? Make your damn galley and arcs available digitally to people you do BUSINESS with. This of course would make publisher decide and differentiate who they are in actual  business with from who they are wasting time on creating low-traffic (not so) super-fans.
8. There is only one Neal Stephenson and we only really need one. Quit wasting my time, you are not the Neal,  or even Neil. Only Neal can waste my time with 400 page books lounging in 1200 pages.
9. We’ve just begun dealing with tv/film/gaming/toy publicity and it seems clear that  there is a lot that can be learned by publishing in how to utilize the net as a publicity tool. I think going to have a series of posts on this at Spiff Six Shot. I started typing it out here, but felt it got off topic–this is a celebration!

About Jay Tomio

...Jay Tomio is the co-owner of BSCreview and BSCkids. You should probably become his disciple through twitter @JayTomio. More fun awaits at Gestalt Mash, Vogue Immunity, and The Malazan Ascendancy.