The 2008 Best-Of lists are rolling in fast and furious:
• Bookmunch goes Fanta-crazy this week with reviews of Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw ("graphic novel of the year"), Funeral of the Heart by Leah Hayes ("dazzling") and Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane ("spirited")
• The Independent counts the Love and Rockets reprints Perla La Loca, Beyond Palomar and Amor Y Cohetes among the best comics of the year
• Critic and commentator Alan David Doane names The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez his Graphic Novel of the Year; Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane is his Debut of the Year; Ghost World: Special Edition by Daniel Clowes is his Reissue of the Year; Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell is tied for Comic Art Book of the Year; and 4 more of our titles are Other 2008 Titles of Note
• New York Magazine names Bottomless Belly Button the #2 Graphic Novel of 2008, saying "Shaw's dysfunctional-family epic is so funny and engrossing we'd expect Oprah to pick it, but for all the graphic frog sex"
• The Globe and Mail recommends Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko for holiday gift-giving
• From Steven Stwalley, here's photos of the "Hot Ink: Comic Art" show at the Minnesota Museum of American Art (mmaa.org) that includes Zak Sally and Tom Kaczynski among others
• In this video from Comicology.tv, Mort Walker talks about the history of the International Museum of Cartoon Art (look for our collection of Walker's Sam's Strip early next year)
• Publishers Weekly talks to Lilli Carré about The Lagoon
• PW also presents a 10-page excerpt from Anders Nilsen's soon-to-arrive Monologues for Calculating the Density of Black Holes
• Wall Street Journal book critic and Laura Warholic novelist Alexander Theroux weighs in on The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. III
• The Beat goes digging through back issues of The Comics Journal, finds gold