Continuing our “coming attractions” list, here are our picks for the top ten “art/indie/whatever term butters your bacon” comix we’re excited to see hit stores this year:

1. Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*! by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon). You could probably argue that this book belongs on the “reprints” list, since at least half of this material was originally published back in 1977. But I figure the inclusion of the title story, with Spiegelman revisiting his youth and early influences, allows me to fudge things a little bit. — Chris Mautner

2. Cold Heat by Ben Jones and Frank Santoro (PictureBox). The reality of the marketplace prevented Jones and Santoro from serializing their surreal conspiracy story involving aliens, drug companies and Kurt Cobain lookalikes, but thankfully we’ll be able to dive into the story in one fell swoop this summer. — Chris Mautner

3. What it Is by Lynda Barry. I hereby declare 2008 to be the year of Madame Barry. Her “Activity Book” that D&Q released for last year’s FCBD knocked my socks off. It was so assured and insightful that if I had any sense I would have included it in my best of 07 round-up. Since that was just a sampler for this new book, I doubt I’ll make the same omission two years in a row. — Chris Mautner

4. Gary Panter/Dal Tokyo (PictureBox/Fantagraphics). Panter fans have some big reasons to celebrate this year with the arrival of not just one but two massive collections of the seminal artist’s work. The first is a huge, $95, slipcased retrospective of Panter’s career. The second compiles his extremely odd, futuristic comic strip. — Chris Mautner

5. The Rabbi’s Cat Vol. 2 by Joan Sfar (Pantheon). Sfar is the only cartoonist I know of who is able to deal with such issues as religion, mortality, family strife and handle it with such grace and good humor, often in a fantastical setting. The Rabbi’s Cat is my favorite of his works so far and I look forward to reading more adventures about these fabulous characters. — Chris Mautner

6. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. III: Century by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neil (Top Shelf). Top Shelf’s Web site says this book is slated for 2009, but in a recent interview Brent Warnock hinted that the first volume might come out at the end of this year. Even though I was disappointed with Black Dossier, I’m crossing my fingers that Warnock’s supposition comes true. — Chris Mautner

7. The Complete Jack Survives by Jerry Moriarty (Buenaventura Press). Moriarty’s enigmatic, painterly “Jack” strips were one of the cornerstones of Raw magazine back in the day. I’m excited at the possibility of having them all collected in one book (and on my shelf). — Chris Mautner

8. Billy Hazelnuts and the Crazy Bird by Tony Millionaire (Fantagraphics). A sequel to Millionaire’s sweet-and-sour children’s fable about a boisterous, vociferous golem-like creature and his girl genius caretaker. Ideally I’d love to see a whole series of Billy adventures. — Chris Mautner

9. Comics As Art: We Told You So by Tom Spurgeon (Fantagraphics). The book that re-ignited the Groth/Ellison flame-war and started one of the nastiest civil lawsuits in comics history finally sees print. I hope. — Chris Mautner

10. Too Cool to Be Forgotten by Alex Robinson (Top Shelf) — A 40-something tries using hypnosis to quit smoking and upon waking up, finds himself as a teenager again in 1985. A fun premise combined with Robinson’s strengths — his characters and their relationship dramas — could make this one of the best OGN’s of the year. — JK Parkin

And, of course, that’s far from all. There’s Dash Shaw’s Bottomless Belly Button, Modern Swarte, the Apocalypse Nerd collection and so much more. What are you looking forward to?

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Books, Comic Books, Fantagraphics, Graphic Novels, Independent, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.