billy hazelnuts and the crazy bird (tony millionaire)

i can't describe this with another word apart from 'crazy'. totally mental. an angry creature pulled out together by rats out of scraps from a garbage pail. i don't think i need to say much more. everchanging dreamy and nightmarish landscapes, random violence and a kind heart underlying it all. and an exciting adventure full of fun, too. it even includes a reference to don quijote!! i'm absolutely lost for words. just read it.
"wasp larvae eating the living guts of carterpillars! abominable cheeses and repugnant sausages! pasty-faced mushrooms thriving on the rotten flesh of decaying stumps!! it is a loathsome system of eating and being eaten!"

i love you, billy hazelnuts.

Rating: 8.5/10

asterios polyp (david mazzuchelli)

i'm still in awe. what an amazing piece of art. i loved everything, every little detail of the design and the story. it's so visually stunning. mazzuchelli has always been one of my favourite artists (ever since his adaptation of auster's 'city of glass'), i love how he follows the will eisner school of breaking the frame and letting the pictures tell the story by themselves. if to this you add the genius changes in typography, to match each character's personality, the result is quite simply magnificent. the story is also wonderful, i especially liked all the mythology references, from the duality of apollo and dioniysus to the wonderful orpheic trip to the underwold. basically, if you don't like it, you are quite simply the biggest fool on earth.

Rating: 10/10

top ten (alan moore & gene ha)

i really enjoyed reading this. it's like x-men does hill street blues. i liked all the characters, even the ones who are dicks. such a brilliant idea. i found i liked the first and last numbers better, wasn't so keen on the ones dedicated to the murder in the god's bar, and some other bits, but i liked the whole series as a whole. i love how it deals with really serious issues like racism, illness, parenthood, friendship, homosexuality, grief... all really sensibly! so, on top of being fun, it's educational! this should be compulsory reading in highschools. it'd inspire very interesting debates, i tells ya! my only concern is the actual way it deals with all this issues, it seems a little bit too rushed, i would have liked them to explore those feelings a bit more. i know, i know, i shouldn't forget the target audience, i know, but still... i wanted it to be perfect!

Rating: 8/10