The personal journal of Chris Brummel, who is currently evaluating his pizza-in-a-cup options.
For the past couple years, The New York Times Magazine has been running serialized comics by popular artists in their Funny Pages section. Last month, Daniel Clowes wrapped up his 20 pg. story on awkward mid-life romance, Mr. Wonderful.
The magazine has been releasing each page as an individual PDF, but I combined the 20 pages into a convenient single 18MB PDF. Grab it and have a read.
I’m a sucker for “Best of” lists, particularly if they come from my friends (hint, hint). Here’s mine:
Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan
Big time comic releases seem to be more sporadic these days in comparison to a couple of years ago, but this one fits the bill. Israelis with identity issues makes for good reading.
I Am America by Steven Colbert
Obvious one for me. I’m a sucker for anything that he does, as evidenced by viewing all 337 episodes of the Colbert Report (as of this writing).
Into Hot Air by Chris Elliott
It’s not as good as his last, but it’s still quite good. A cast of Chris Elliott, Kristen Dunst, Michael Moore, Martin Sheen, Tony Danza, and more set out to climb Everest.
Runners Up: Comedy By Numbers by Eric Hoffman and Gary Rudoren, Percy Gloom by Cathy Malkasian
Armchair Apocrypha by Andrew Bird
I probably spent more time with this album than any other this year. Even better than his near perfect And the Mysterious Production of Eggs.
Please Clap Your Hands by the Bird & the Bee
It’s just an EP with 5 songs, but each is pop perfect. The production is great.
Alright, Still by Lily Allen
My guilty pleasure. This is probably the popiest album that I’ve ever fallen for. I very much doubt a sophmore album that matches this.
Runners Up: Back to Black by Amy Winehouse, Snow Beast by Luke Temple, Version by Mark Ronson, Once by Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová, the Reminder by Feist
No Country for Old Men by the Coen Bros.
TENSE. It’s everything I liked about Terminator 2 but with more humans.
Hot Fuzz by Edgar Wright
I think this is a perfect comedy. Conceptual joes, low brow jokes, high brow jokes. They all hit.
There Will Be Blood by PT Anderson
Anybody who can make talking about milkshakes that dramatic deserves to be called the best actor in the world.
The Ten by David Wain
LOT’S of “A” jokes. Mostly “A-/B+” jokes.
Runners Up: King of Kong, This is England, Juno, Once, Michael Clayton
For those not familiar with Jim Woodring, he’s kinda like the Salvador Dali of comics. It’s because of work like his that I don’t have to do drugs to be able to relate to what fucked-up people see. Thank you for saving me, Jim Woodring. Somebody over in Japan did a little animation based on some of Jim’s characters from his Frank series.
