Freak Comics

Entertainment Weekly has published a review of the best comics of 2006 according to Ken Tucker. They are as follows:

Best Miniseries

Dr. Strange: The Oath

Best New Series

The All New Atom

Best Independent-Publisher Comic

Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness

Best Graphic Novel

The Left Bank Gang

Best Reissue, Part 1

Walt and Skeezix: Book Two 1923-1924

Best Reissue, Part 2

Popeye Vol. 1: “I Yam What I Yam”

I would really like to know how Tucker picked that list. Unfortunately I can’t agree or disagree with him as I haven’t read any of those comics (save for the Brave New World preview which had a lead in Atom story… which I wasn’t fond of), but it seems odd to me that an editor and DVD critic for Entertainment Weekly is also compiling the years best comics. I read a lot of comic books, but I don’t feel I’m in the position to pick the years greatest.

DC is already bragging about it. Unfortunately some people will see the announcement from DC and / or the article in EW and shell out the money to read the series based entirely on the fact that the review was endorsed by Entertainment Weekly.

This isn’t Tucker’s fault mind you. To berate him for writing his opinions would make me a hypocrite. The problem lies in uninformed consumers who like to be told what to think, and mass corporations that like to tell them what to think. The nice thing about blogs is that opinions are kept in perspective.
If I call something the Greatest Comic of 2006, it’s one person speaking a thought. When Entertainment Weekly calls something the Greatest Comic of 2006 it’s perceived as being the voice of the masses, even when it’s really one person speaking a thought.

So have any of you read the Atom? What did you think of it, best new comic or no?