The Best Graphic Novels Of The Year

A very welcome list -- this time a poll by Publishers Weekly of critics and writers naming their favorite graphic novels of the year. In first place, Alison Bechdel's Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. That's on my to-read list, though the runner-up "Castle Waiting" didn't interest me. As for reissues, the "Gasoline Alley" reprints "Walt & Skeezix" are top-notch. But my favorites -- not strictly graphic novels but cartoons -- are the marvelous Jean-Jacques Sempe collections reissued by Phaidon.