Max Clotfelter's 10 Favorite Mini-Comics Of 2013

As is our annual tradition, we invited a number of our friends who are also cartoonists, comics publishers and editors to tell us what their favorite comics of 2013 were. This is the last of those lists.

Max Clotfelter's books include Alligator Milk and Andros. Visit his website.

Crawdads #3 by Karissa Sakumoto
Favorite comic I read all year. Ketchup the dawg slams a 40 and goes on an alley adventure involving arm-wrestling, torture wheels, and…JAH?!?!

Skull Vomit Comix #4 by Royce Icon
Another great collection of one-page comics by Royce. Each page is a peek into some grim memory or dream. Every drawing vibrates with anxiety and urgency.

Snakebomb Comix III by Jack Hayden (ed.)
This is like a Jet Magazine for scumbag comix freaks. A perfect mix of styles ranging from barbarian sci-fi to nightmarish muppet sex.

Real Madness Comics #5 by Bobby Madness
This zine is one-half fascinating auto-bio comics about drugs and jobs and one-half killer sci-fi war comix about Hitlerbot 2015. Hopefully this isn’t really the “last issue”!

Lakeshore by Al Frank
Brutally honest auto-bio. A self-aware love story about harsh racial dynamics and insecurities. Couldn’t put it down.

The Reach of the Mind: Book One by Sam Bell
A hurricane of grotesque dream-like imagery. Amazingly detailed black and white drawings.

Castle And Wood #7 by Darin Shuler
Intense jungle odyssey beautifully executed by the hand of D.S. A true egg-cracking, bird-snacking, brain-melter. (Includes a sweet poster by Jason T. Miles!)

Ugly Men #1 by John Trubee
Obsessively-inked, blistery-faced creatures contemplating  truths about our insignificant reality. The artist himself says it best, “Don’t Sell Out to the Assholes Who Run the World.”

All Night Long by Fernando Enciso
Anger, dirt, spaghetti westerns, fisting and Lionel Ritchie. Really far out southern-fried sketchbook/art zine by one of my all-time favorites.

Saga of Kurls #1 by Kelly Sorbel
My favorite of all the zines I got from Kelly this year. Hallucinogenic skateboard monster comix. Three-staple notepad style!

Favorite comic book of 2013 (tie)
Poor Things #1 by Drew Miller
It Will All Hurt by Farel Darymple
I like both of these comics for all the same reasons. They feel casual and completely uninhibited. The art is loose, weird and totally “in the zone.” I’ll bet both of these guys keep amazing sketchbooks, and these comics feel like they’ve captured that sketchbook energy. Also, both publishers (Neoglyphic Media and Studygroup) have designed books that work perfectly with the content.



Favorite graphic novel of 2013 (tie)
Fran by Jim Woodring
Songs of the Abyss by Eamon Espey
Two books I couldn’t stop staring at and re-reading. I’m pretty sure both of these books are delivering messages from a distant place far beyond words. Jim and Eamon should carve these books into the wall of a cave somewhere before shit goes down. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Atomic Reading Club 2023 - Outer Limits

Atomic Reading Club 2024: The End

Baltimore Record Shops - 40 Years Ago