Best of 2008: How Early Is Too Early?

Today I saw both Amazon’s Best of 2008 for Comics and Graphic Novels and Publishers Weekly’s (links no longer available).

It’s barely November! Putting out a “best of” list ignores two months’ worth of publications, or 16% of the year. Maybe the publishing world is just getting ready for the holidays early.

Although some are cheating, a little. The PW list includes the much-discussed Kramer’s Ergot 7, which has only just debuted at a convention and has yet to widely ship. Alan’s War came out last week in bookstores and is due out tomorrow through Diamond.

Titles on both lists are Lynda Barry’s What It Is and Dash Shaw’s Bottomless Belly Button.

My tastes differ. I’m still strongly looking forward to these comics and graphic novels, due out before the end of the year:

• The Love & Capes collection
• Token, the last Minx book, which I just received
• Larry Marder’s Beanworld Holiday Special, the first new Beanworld in years
• And most of all, Sam’s Strip.