As we approach the end of 2007 (just a few more hours, and counting), I asked the Blog@ team to share some of their favorite comics from the previous year. As Kevin says below, it was tough to narrow down the list to just a few stand-outs, but here are our favorites:

Tom Bondurant

I’m sure no one is surprised to see Architecture & Mortality as one of my Best of 2007 picks. I loved the heck out of Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang’s metatextual take down of DC’s periodic character overhauls. Whether it was setting up a groan-worthy pun or a sentimental moment, A&M was designed to make its readers question not only the manner of revamping and reusing obscure DC characters, but the roles of all involved, including the fans. It reminded this reader that every character has its own dignity.

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New York magazine’s Vulture blog has a 12-page excerpt from James Stokoe’s Wonton Soup, available now from Oni Press.

Warner Bros. has released two stills from Whiteout, the big-screen adaptation of the 1998 miniseries by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber. The movie, which stars Kate Beckinsale, is set for release in June.

Tokypop and DC Comics lead the final nominations for the Young Adult Library Services Association’s annual list of Great Graphic Novels For Teens with 23 nods each.

DC’s nominations include titles from its CMX, Minx and Vertigo imprints.

Tokyopop and DC are followed by Del Rey with 11 nominations, Viz Media with 10, Go! Comi with eight, and First Second and Marvel with seven each.

YALSA is part of the American Library Association.

The full list of nominees can be found here.

(Link via David Welsh)

It was, of course, a bad week for those who liked to get their comics from Z-CultFM, with the site removing all Marvel trackers, and later, DC and Top Cow trackers, after threats of legal action that softened as diplomacy proved as effective as promises of legal destruction. This was the Civil War of comic stories this year, splitting Newsarama readers into those who thought it may have been one of the biggest stories of 2007 and those who just didn’t get what the fuss was about. “Which Side Are You On?” indeed, but wait until the other shoe drops and every Newsarama poster discovers that their friends and family have been replaced by Marvel and DC employees in disguise, dropping subtle hints that maybe Countdown isn’t that bad after all. That’s the kind of Secret Invasion that’ll get complaints going in seconds…

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Via.

Author/comics writer Jamie S. Rich dropped us a note saying he’ll be signing and reading at Powell’s in Portland, Ore. tomorrow:

Acclaimed comics writer Jamie S. Rich, whose previous novels include Cut My Hair, returns to prose with Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? (Oni Press), an incisive look at interpersonal relationships in a world where entertainment and technology push us farther and farther apart. It’s been almost a decade since world-famous author Percival Mendelssohn vanished from the public eye and Julia Jimenez is determined to find him, even if it means traveling half-way around the world to do it. Can she draw him out of his life of isolation and loneliness? Or has he become so broken by the failure of his romantic ideals that he can never be at peace again?

When: Tuesday, November 20th @ 7:30 PM

Where: Powell’s City of Books on Burnside; 1005 W Burnside (800) 878-7323

There’s no getting around it. The big news of this week was Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited program launching, beginning a move of their back catalog online for subscribers to rent and read. Everyone was talking about it, everyone had an opinion about it, and the mothership went after creators for theirs. Keith Giffen, for example:

I guess, deep down where I live, I don’t care. Sound a bit harsh? Yeah, I guess it does. Something like this has been, pretty much, inevitable so it really comes as no surprise to me. Marvel wants to see if it can utilize the web? Good luck to them.

(To be fair to Marvel, Keith’s disinterest was a line item in his new, DC-exclusive, contract.)

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For anyone who didn’t buy it yesterday, New York Magazine has the first eight pages of Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together up on their site.

This image of the Queen & Country Definitive Editions was posted on the Oni Press blog over the weekend, but only now showed up on my Bloglines. I love the design; beautiful stuff.

The first volume is set for release on Dec. 12.

In further Scott Pilgrim-related news, The Onion’s A.V. Club has a longish Q&A with creator Bryan Lee O’Malley about the fourth volume, the film adaptation, music, and the evolution of his art:

AVC: The art has taken a big leap forward on Gets It Together.

BLM: Definitely. There was a long break before finishing the third book and starting the fourth one; there was about six months when I was absorbing other stuff and not drawing very much. After a long period of not drawing, you have to, like, relearn how to draw. It’s not very fun. But yeah, there are a lot of different influences on this book. [Manga and anime legend] Osama Tezuka was probably the biggest. I was going for all this really clean figure-work.

AVC: With the increasing success and visibility of Scott Pilgrim—especially with the movie in the works—did you feel the need to step things up, art-wise?

BLM: I feel like I should be doing that, but sometimes I get the sense that people would rather I keep drawing exactly the same. [Laughs.] I wasn’t really the greatest artist at the beginning of this, but I’m trying to improve. But I do get the sense sometimes that if I draw things too nice, maybe I won’t be indie-rock enough anymore. [Laughs.]

Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together is due in stores this week.

Bryan Lee O’Malley polls his readers as to just which Scott Pilgrim characters they’d like to see immortalized in figure form:

If we were to make cute little vinyl figures of the Scott Pilgrim characters, we would only be able to make a few at first – maybe 6, tops. So which character would you MOST want to own as a small, cute vinyl figure that comes in a cute little box?

If this is not a cheap tease, then I am incredibly excited at the prospect of having a Kim Pine figure.

Today’s Rama Rampage is brought to you by the Concerned Mothers of America – soon to be seen suing retailer Gordon Lee – as well as Geoff Johns’ incredible power of self-belief:

You’ve got to overcome your fears. I was just talking to another writer about this the other night. We were talking about assignments and stuff. And I’m not afraid to take a risk to tell a story I believe in. If I’m really excited about telling a story about Kingdom Come Superman coming to the JSA, and if I think it will be a cool story and worth telling and it’s important to the characters, I’m going to tell that story. If I think Hal Jordan and the Corps coming back to the DC Universe is important to the DC Universe and Green Lantern mythology, I’m going to tell that story. Same thing with Teen Titans. And even Infinite Crisis. As much as I wish the art was uniform, there’s still a lot I love about that series. Hell, Prime is one of my favorite characters ever now.

I’ve heard it all my career that I’ve made the wrong choice. “You’re going to follow Mark Waid on The Flash? That’s stupid. That’s career suicide.” “You’re going to do 52? That’s going to bomb.” “You’re going to relaunch JSA? You already did it!” And “Why are you wasting your time on Booster Gold? Why would you ever do that?” But I believe in going for it and I’d rather fall on my face than not try.

It’s kind of inspiring, isn’t it? Geoff is so unafraid, he even took on the life-threatening task of interviewing Greg Rucka this week when lesser men and women were screaming in terror at the prospect.

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In a post entitled “Countdown, Week 1” on his blog, Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley starts the countdown to a truly anticipated comic event:

Not sure how many weeks I’m counting down, so I guess I’m counting up.

Anyway: the book [Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together] will most likely be out on November 7th… In honour of that, there’s a silly new wallpaper for your computer desktop on scottpilgrim.com!

Ever the pessimist, he’s already thinking about contingency plans:

If the book doesn’t ship on November 7th, I’ll come up with something super-special for the semi-anticipated Third Week of the Countdown!

See, DC? I’m excited already, and no New Gods were killed to make that happen.

The Washington Post Express has posted more videos from this weekend’s SPX, including interviews with Fantagraphics’ Gary Groth, Top Shelf’s Chris Staros, Laika creator Nick Abadzis, and Oni’s Randal Jarrell:

Related: Reports from Liz Baillie, The Daily Cross Hatch, Jeff Lemire, Dave Kellett

Like the subject line says, the Scott Pilgrim site had gone through a complete redesign, complete with new wallpapers, previews, avatars and more.