Daily OCD: 1/26/11

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: The number ten original graphic novel on Greg Burgas's "Best Ten of 'Ten" at Comic Book Resources is Cathy Malkasian's Temperance: "Malkasian’s odd fable is a haunting book about hiding your true self, coming to grips with deceit, and the necessity of striking out from the safety of home to discover new and possibly dangerous things. […] Temperance is an amazing comic, always a bit oblique but never impenetrable… It’s a weird book that feels like a dream, which allows Malkasian to use metaphor to reveal fundamental truths. Malkasian is a superb creator, and this is a good example of what she’s capable of."

• Review: "Most of the content [in Unexplored Worlds] is in the Sci-Fi genre that features unexplored worlds, alien attacks…standard stuff of the era but in Ditko’s talented hands nothing is ever standard. When Ditko steps away from the science fiction material he comes up with some truly unusual stories… Besides the stories there are over a dozen Ditko covers reprinted and a fascinating introduction by Blake Bell. Bell provides an outstanding overview of this period of Ditko’s career." – Tim Janson, Newsarama

• Review: "This isn't a book of men achieving medals and glory, rather it is a book of men trying to live to see the next sunrise. With a book so realistically downbeat full marks must go to Fantagraphics for translating and publishing it in an American market that it so fixated on the generally upbeat fantasy of superheroes. For all its depressing tone It Was the War of the Trenches leaves you with a sense of accomplishment of getting to the end and of having read something worthwhile, and that perhaps is what sets it apart from so many other war stories." – Jeremy Briggs, downthetubes.net

• Tribute/History: Tom Spurgeon's excellent obituary of Craig Maynard at The Comics Reporter is a must-read