The best graphic novels and art comics of 2012

The best graphic novels and art comics of 2012





The lines separating various comics niches have gotten fuzzier every year, as genre comics become more literary, literary comics incorporate more reportage and autobiography, and the highest-profile projects of any given season include the archiving and annotating of material that used to disappear into flea markets and quarter boxes. So the artier side of The A.V. Club’s 2012 best-comics list will be reducing to three the tangle of categories from years past: one category for fiction (original graphic novels, collections of formerly serialized material, short-story anthologies, and substantial chapters of ongoing stories), one for non-fiction (memoirs, histories, travelogues, journalism, and criticism), and one for archival collections (focusing on archival series that launched this year, rather than such essential ongoing series as Little Orphan Annie, Pogo, Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse newspaper strip, and The Carl Barks Library).

Top 10 Fiction

1. Chris Ware, Building Stories (Pantheon)

Packaged in ...

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Books: Best of: The best superhero and mainstream comics of 2012

The best superhero and mainstream comics of 2012





This past year, DC and Marvel underwent significant line-wide changes; Image Comics rose as the primary publisher for diverse, creator-owned content; superhero films continued to dominate the box office; and the industry saw a huge push for digital comics. The result was an incredibly eventful 2012, featuring new works by some of the most inspiring creators in the medium. Here are The A.V. Club’s picks for the top superhero and mainstream comic books of an extraordinary year.

10. All-Star Western (DC)


Relocating Jonah Hex to Gotham City gave All-Star Western a considerable sales boost, but two inspired partnerships have made this book one of DC’s best. Teaming artist Moritat with the Jonah Hex writing team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray was a genius move, as Moritat creates a dirty urban environment that is somehow even nastier than present-day Gotham. The second pairing is that of Jonah ...

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The Lost History and Unintended Consequences of the Chicken Nugget

The Lost History and Unintended Consequences of the Chicken Nugget

The chicken nugget appears to have been invented -- or at least, originally proposed -- by a Cornell professor 17 years before McDonald's had essentially the same idea.

Movie facial hair: 2012 in review

Movie facial hair: 2012 in review

Beards and 'staches that grew on us from ''Hunger Games'' to ''Django Unchained'' to ''The Dictator''

Lightning Strikes Plane Landing At LAX

Lightning Strikes Plane Landing At LAX



It sounds scary: a lightning struck a plane just as it was about to land at LAX this morning. But the phenomenon is pretty common and on average every airliner will be struck by lightning once a year.

In this case, the Delta Airlines flight from Narita, Japan landed at 8:10 am just as it was hit by lightning.

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Crime Down in L.A. for 10th Consecutive Year

Since I got here!


Crime Down in L.A. for 10th Consecutive Year



Crime has decreased in Los Angeles for the 10th consecutive year, reports KTLA.

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#SantaMonicaPier a 2012 Instagram Favorite

#SantaMonicaPier a 2012 Instagram Favorite

The Santa Monica Pier ranks with the Eiffel Tower, Disneyland Park and Times Square as the most popular instagrammed places in the world in 2012.
Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport "surprised" the online photo sharing website by topping the list with more than 100,000 photos, according to the company's blog.
But it's no surprise to us the historic pier, with its colorful amusement park, retro sign and sunny weather, also made the list. We even think it looks good without a filter.
Here's the full list:

• Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) ท่าอากาศยานสุวรรณภูมิ in Bangkok, Thailand
• Siam Paragon (สยามพารากอน) shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand
• Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California
• Times Square in New York City
• AT&T Park in San Francisco
• Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
• Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles
• Eiffel Tower in Paris
• Staples Center in Los Angeles
• Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles

Readers, upload your photos of the Santa Monica Pier directly to this article!
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The Worst Cads of 2012

The Worst Cads of 2012

2012 was a banner year for scumbags and skanks, making our task of curating the most deplorable for our annual round-up of bad behavior a breeze. So come all ye readers, and delight in our slideshow of meticulously selected cads.

Geeks of All Sorts Pay Tribute to 'Thunderbirds' Creator Gerry Anderson

Geeks of All Sorts Pay Tribute to 'Thunderbirds' Creator Gerry Anderson

Neil Gaiman and Edgar Wright were among those remembering the British TV icon, who died Wednesday at 83.

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The Best Los Angeles Street Art of 2012

The Best Los Angeles Street Art of 2012

                    

Here are the top 21 pieces, as selected by our resident graffiti enthusiast Jake Dobkin, and as shot by him and Lord Jim, the great L.A. street art photographer.

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The Enduring (and Unexpected) Legacy of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'

The Enduring (and Unexpected) Legacy of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'

In a guest post, the author of the just-released book "The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of 'Hallelujah'" sheds light on the song's any occasion, multipurpose timelessness.

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Video: Adorable Roly-Poly Panda Is Having A Ball

Video: Adorable Roly-Poly Panda Is Having A Ball

Panda cub Xiao Liwu is enjoying his new present: a rubbery green ball. The veterinarians at the San Diego Zoo took out the ball as a way to test his burgeoning panda bear skills. He played with it as the vets tried to take measurements to make sure he's on track. It wasn't easy, but it was adorable. 

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NRA Gun Control Arguments Predicted by 'All in the Family'

NRA Gun Control Arguments Predicted by 'All in the Family' (Video)

TV icon Norman Lear sent along the four-decade-old Archie Bunker clip to THR.

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I Love Being a Christmas Baby

I Love Being a Christmas Baby

I've come to expect a certain kind of response when I tell someone my birthday: a sympathetic frown, a pat on the shoulder, a few lighthearted words of support. That's because I was born on Dec. 24, and everyone knows—or thinks they know—what a bummer having a birthday on or near Christmas must be. This view was articulated emphatically on this week's episode of the ABC comedy Happy Endings, in which we learned that Jane's real birthday is on Christmas Day. Jane (Eliza Coupe) has been pretending her birthday is on Jul. 16 for decades—she even carries around a fake ID bearing the summer date—because "when your birthday is on Christmas, you get completely forgotten about."

Walking Dead to Westeros: The Best TV of 2012

<em>Walking Dead</em> to Westeros: The Best TV of 2012

Here they are: the best geeky shows of 2012.

Remembering Joe Woodland, the Man Who Invented the Bar Code

Remembering Joe Woodland, the Man Who Invented the Bar Code

Joe Woodland -- who died last week at the age of 91 -- is the man who dreamt up what became the Universal Product Code, the ubiquitous bar code used to ring up your groceries every time you visit the supermarket.

Does Home Alone stand the test of time?

Does the kid-vs.-adults sadism of the Home Alone movies stand the test of time?



The Internet is choked with nostalgia for the youth-oriented entertainments of the not-too-distant past: Tumblr blogs regurgitating images of half-forgotten toys. YouTube compilations of long-lost TV-show intros. Countless blogs playing “Remember when?” with movies and videogames whose rose-colored recollections aren’t always properly earned. With Memory Wipe, The A.V. Club takes a look back at some of our formative favorites with clearer eyes and asks that all-important question: Were they really that great to begin with?

The Home Alone house is real. It’s not an elaborate example of set design sitting somewhere on the 20th Century Fox backlot—it’s an actual 1920s Georgian, located at 671 Lincoln Ave. in the tiny Chicago suburb of Winnetka. You can check it out on Google Street View (that white van next door looks awfully suspicious), and up until this past March, you could also purchase the place, as someone recently ...

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