Daily OCD: 8/2/11

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: The Hooded Utilitarian, continuing to roll out the top 10 results in their International Best Comics Poll, reveals the Locas stories of Jaime Hernandez at #7, with an appreciation by Derik Badman

• Review: "I am seriously finding it difficult, if not impossible, to review [Love and Rockets: New Stories #4] without simply hitting the bullets-and-numbering button and whipping up a list of everything in it that amazed me. It would be a long list, too…. The fact of the matter is that while reading this book I discovered that I’m at least as attached to Ray Dominguez and Fritz Martinez, the protagonists of Jaime and Gilbert’s contributions respectively, as I am to a decent number of real people in my life. …[I]n the end, how it looks pales in insignificance next to what happens, because making it look that good is a means to the end of imparting just how much what happens matters. Ray’s shirt and Fritz’s legs, the shadow of the vampire and the structure of the montage — they’re just landmarks to remind you where you were when you found out if Ray and Fritz and Maggie were going to get happy endings, or not. It’s the easiest thing in the world to understand, and it’s the hardest thing in the world to do, and it’s magic, pure magic, to do it this well." – Sean T. Collins, Attentiondeficitdisorderly

• Review: "Maybe it seems as if I’ve told you the whole story [of Congress of the Animals] already. Not to worry, as I am only giving a basic outline of what Jim Woodring has rendered (without a single word!) in inspirationally meticulous ink drawings. You’ll really have no idea of this book’s content until you pick it up and view sights that are organically bizarre, beautifully horrific, cryptically disturbing, and genuinely heartwarming." – Chris Gray, San Mateo County Library blog

• Review: "Crumb’s subtle mastery of his art-form and obsessive need to reveal his most hidden depths and every perceived defect — in himself and the world around him — has always been a unquenchable wellspring of challenging comedy and riotous rumination. This superb series [The Complete Crumb Comics] charting the perplexing pen-and-ink pilgrim’s progress is the perfect vehicle to introduce any (definitively over 18) newcomers of your acquaintance to the world of grown up comics. And if you need a way in yourself, snatch up this book [Vol. 15] and the other sixteen as soon as conceivably possible." – Win Wiacek, Now Read This!