Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"If you have spent a long time resisting the status quo--whether it's in art, society, or the political world--what happens when that status quo at last gives way?
A universe of possibility opens up."
--Alison Bechdel, from the Introduction

Featuring: Gabrielle Bell, Joe Sacco, Dash Shaw, Sabrina Jones, Chris Ware, Jillian Tamaki, Jaime Hernandez, Jeff Smith, Paul Pope, Kevin Huizenga, and others

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Fun Home creator Bechdel selects 27 pieces for this year's Best American anthology, and though a reader can trace her sensibility in some of the entries--Eric Orner's funny and explicit "Weekends Abroad" might as well be called "Israeli Gays to Watch Out For"--it's a pleasure to see many odd, gritty selection. Michael DeForge's "Queen" and Angie Wang's "Flower Mecha" both temper dysmorphia with welcome silliness; John Pham's "St. Ambrose" and Noah Van Sciver's "Abby's Road" treat underexplored subcultures (Vietnamese-American Catholics and Juggalos) with thoughtfulness and care. No serious comics fan won't already have read the pieces from Chris Ware, Joe Sacco, or Jaime Hernandez chosen for this anthology; however, excerpts from masterful longer works rarely stand well on their own. And while Bechdel owns up in her witty introduction to the collection's poor representation of women and cartoonists of color, it's a little bizarre that the series' editors spend their intro bragging about Best American's first-ever inclusion of a webcomic (Kate Beaton's terrific "Hark! A Vagrant!") as if they're brave pioneers, rather than years behind the curve. Overall, though, this year's Best American is a handsome anthology with more than a few welcome surprises. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

This annual collection embraces the subjectivity that is bound to tint any best list by inviting a new guest editor each year to winnow down the final picks from a pool curated by the perennial helmsmen Jessica Abel and Matt Madden. This year's guest selector, Bechdel (Fun Home, 2006), opens with a terrific introduction that digs into the sense of awe felt by many underground vets on comicdom's recent hyperdevelopment, recalling the dark, disreputable place that drew her back in the day while also remaining confident that even the most smothering establishment embrace could not begin to squeeze the life out of this vital medium. The picks are a typical mix of heavy hitters in top form (Chris Ware, Joe Sacco, Jaime Hernandez, Jeff Smith), younger art-comics darlings (Dash Shaw, Kevin Huizenga), and a nice smattering of talented newcomers, including Kate Beaton of the webcomics sensation Hark! A Vagrant and Brendan Leach, who self-published The Pterodactyl Hunters in the Gilded City. As ever, the appended list of additional Notable Comics points the way to even more of the year's finest.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Another annual cornucopia of graphic narrative (and comic strips).Whether comics were ever striving for cultural legitimacy, they are now struggling with iteven resisting itthough this year's collection suggests that the range of subject, tone and technique continues to expand. Perhaps no other graphic memoirist has achieved greater acclaim than this year's guest editor Bechdel(Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, 2006, etc.), who not only contributes an illustrated introduction (which comments on the imbalance of men over women among the artists, in this as well as previous years, and the absence of African-Americans), and shows a feminist perspective in both the sequencing and selection. Among the developments highlighted by the anthology are "webcomics" (a natural extension of the indie and self-publishing of comics, and the punk-rock, DIY spirit the form shares) and "metacomics" (which use comics to comment on the making and essence of comics).Highlights include Gabrielle Bell's opening "Manifestation," where she imagines critical acclaim and world renown for her adaptation ofThe S.C.U.M. Manifesto,by Valerie Solanas (who attempted to kill Andy Warhol), and "Pet Cat" by Joey Alison Sayers, who follows a strip through the publishing industry's various permutations. While much of this work is at the cutting edge of contemporary culture, there is a historical perspective to some of the more ambitious pieces,as Joe Sacco's excerpts fromFootnotes in Gaza,the longest selection, explores the unreliability of human memory in recalling a mid-'50s Mideast massacre by Israeli soldiers, while "Little House in the Big City," by Sabrina Jones, frames a love letter to New York with the battle over urban renewal between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs.The extended, wordless visual epiphany in "Winter" is stunning (adapted by artist Danica Novgorodoff from a Benjamin Percy short story and its screenplay).David Lasky shows the greatest range, with both the most formally complex selection ("Soixante Neuf") and the most elemental (the single-page closer, "The Ultimate Graphic Novel"). As always, Chris Ware's inevitable selection is brilliant.The state of an art that has yet to reach stasis.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.