Well, our best at any rate. We'll see you back here on January 3rd, but in the meantime here's a helpful list of some TCJ 2012 highlights. For those of you looking for some other kind of "Best of" list, Dan's best overlooked comic of 2012 is Yves Chaland's Young Albert, the perfect surfaces of which are a great match for the enormous size of the book.
Now on to the list, presented more or less in chronological order. Believe it or not, this is the tip of the iceberg. We missed plenty. Se you in 2013!
Features:
Gary Groth wrote about his experiences with the late Christopher Hitchens.
Matthias Wivel reported from Angoulême in three parts: one, two, three.
Jim Rugg interviewed Jason Karns.
Bob Levin wrote about Yiddishkeit.
Rob Clough interviewed Matthew Thurber.
Eric Buckler interviewed Wilfred Santiago.
Gary Panter sent questions to Bill Griffith.
Michael Dean reported on the state of affairs for the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art on their 10th anniversary in March, filed a followup report after the museum announces closure in July, and then wrote about their move to the Society of Illustrators in August.
Tim Hodler interviewed comics writer Chris Roberson after he announced that he would no longer be working with DC Comics because of the way the company treated creators.
Our Jack Kirby roundtable was somewhat controversial.
Nicole Rudick conducted a fantastic, revealing interview with the great Diane Noomin.
Hayley Campbell interviewed Tom Gauld.
Michel Fiffe's article on the "dying" genre of one-artist anthology comics started an ongoing debate.
Chris Mautner interviewed Eddie Campbell.
Ryan Standfest reported on the pivotal University of Chicago symposium, Comics: Philosophy & Practice.
Joe McCulloch interviewed Richard Corben about adapting Edgar Allan Poe.
Bob Levin wrote about Chester Brown's reissued Ed the Happy Clown.
Chris Mautner talked to Jessica Abel and Matt Madden.
Sean Rogers on Flex Mentallo brought in all kinds of neurotics.
Joshua Glenn wrote about Gary Panter's long-awaited Dal Tokyo, the book which also prompted the return of Comics Journal legend Carter Scholz.
Dave Sim tried to open up public negotiations with Kim Thompson regarding Fantagraphics and a potential reprint of Cerebus. No one post on the site has ever spawned so much discussion.
Matt Seneca spoke to Benjamin Marra.
We ran a series of essays on Chris Ware's Building Stories.
The remarkable R.O. Blechman wrote about his friend, the enigmatic Ed Sorel.
Marc Sobel talked with Theo Ellsworth.
Michael Dean reported on legal moves from the Harvey Kurtzman and Al Feldstein estates to reclaim copyrights from EC.
Patrick Rosenkranz brought us a couple of insightful, affectionate profiles of legendary underground figures: S. Clay Wilson and the late Span Rodriguez.
Sean Michael Robinson conducted a massive interview with Carter Family co-creator David Lasky.
Dan Nadel, Tim Hodler, and Frank Santoro spoke for several hours with Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, and recorded it all.
Tim Hodler spoke to cartoonist and publisher Tom Kaczynski.
Columns:
We published lots of Cartoonist's Diary features this year, including work from Leslie Stein, Tom Scioli, Emily Flake, Dylan Horrocks, Ryan Cecil Smith, Sara Varon, Noah Van Sciver, MariNaomi, John Porcellino, and Mark Siegel.
Parenthood and book obligations kept Jeet Heer from maintaining his normal super-human levels of production, but he did contribute a few doozies this year, including a column on some recently rediscovered and published stories from a very young Robert Crumb.
Tucker Stone brought his super-popular Comics of the Weak column to our site (not to mention frequent collaborators Nate Bulmer and Abhay Khosla). It's hard to pick just one, so let's just highlight his debut.
Matthias Wivel brought back his Eurocomics column under a new name, Common Currency. His first piece took on Fabrice Neaud's uncharacteristic move into superhero comics.
To our knowledge, R. Fiore has never written a boring paragraph. His Funnybook Roulette column continued to be great—his piece on The Dark Knight Returns was enjoyable, if you don't know where to start.
Ken Parille's close-reading-based "Grid" column was on fire this year. His piece on musclebound homoeroticism in superhero comics spawned a million comments-thread arguments.
R.C. Harvey's work is must-read. His latest column, on the ever-underrated V.T. Hamlin is no exception.
Rob Clough delved into the world of international small-press comics.
Richard Gehr profiled New Yorker cartoonist Arnie Levin.
Craig Fischer wrote about Jonah Hex.
Shaenon Garrity put out the word that she would review any webcomic submitted to her—and then followed through.
Ron Goulart launched a new comics history column with a tale of his correspondence with Howard Sherman.
Frank Santoro charted the new talents all around him and went on tour.
In his "Say Hello" column, Sean T. Collins brought us several notable interviews, but his big scoop with Uno Moralez is a particular favorite.
We had to say goodbye to Mike Dawson's TCJ Talkies podcast — a particularly good episode this year featured Dylan Horrocks.
In his ever-popular, ever-stellar This Week in Comics! column, Joe McCulloch tackled Chris Ware, Alan Moore, Christy Marx, and fifty more.
Ryan Holmberg continued exploring forgotten byways of manga lore, made the case for Shit-Grin Manga and blew open comics history.
Reviews:
Grace Krilanovich wrote about Charles Burns' The Hive.
Frank Santoro wrote about Motorbooty.
Kim O'Connor wrote about Gabrielle Bell's The Voyeurs.
Nicole Rudick reviewed Kevin Huizenga's Gloriana and Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother?
Jeet Heer reviewed Otto Soglow and The Little King.
Dash Shaw reviewed Jeffrey Brown's cat comics.
Rob Clough reviewed Nelson.
Matthias Wivel reviewed Carl Barks.
Sean T. Collins reviewed Jillian Tamaki's SuperMutant Magic Academy.
The novelist Rudy Rucker reviewed two books related to William S. Burroughs's attempt to create a graphic novel.
Notable Comics Figures Who Passed Away This Year:
Jean "Moebius" Giraud — plus tributes.
Josep Maria Berenguer
Maurice Sendak — plus tributes
Tony DeZuniga
Joe Kubert
Spain Rodriguez — plus tributes
Keiji Nakazawa
