Keenan Marshall Keller's Top 10 Comics Of 2011

This year, we asked a number of our friends who are also cartoonists and comics publishers and editors what their favorite comics of 2011 were. Over the next few weeks, we'll be posting those lists.

Keenan Marshall Keller is Co-Director Drippy Bone Books and creator of the comic series Galactic Breakdown.

10. Blobby Boys – Alex Shubert (self published)
Everyone buy this comic now. I want to see more comics from this guy. I love the humor, style and color palate of this guy. My favorite part is the aging hipster and the depictions of his music buttons. It is hysterical. There is something extremely satisfying about this comic. Visit Alex's blog.

9. Castle and Wood #1: Dark Matter – Darin Shuler (self published)
This comic is so dense with graphic detail I was amazed when I found it. Every inch of the page is used and used well. I just love looking at this comic. The storyline involves a mouse boy and his dog and his roommates and a demon-monster and satanic monks, stolen groceries, and a FrogIcorn… Wait, what?

I am a new/big fan of Darin Shuler.  #2 just came out so go buy both these rad comix. Visit Darin's blog.

8. Prison Pit #3 – Johnny Ryan (Fantagraphics)
Okay. So Johnny Ryan is a Master, right? He kills. That's it. All day. Every day.

All I can say about issue #3 is go look at the ripping through/out of the penis sequence again…. It's like he really knows what that would look/feel like.

A story that intrigues me more and more each issue with an ever-growing library of disgustingly awesome nightmare creations, drawn with the controlled hand of someone whom knows what the fuck he is doing. Prison Pit rulez. Visit Johnny Ryan.

7. The Wolf – Tom Neely (I Will Destroy You)
A slow burn that might fester and leak into your daydreams and nightmares…

I look at this book a lot. Coming back to it again and again, looking at different things each time, as if it has things to tell me… The ease at which the work takes you in is a direct compliment to how intune Tom Neely is with the mood and tone he has set out to create.  Love gained and lost. Passion burning feverish and dwindling slow...

A beautiful book.  I highly recommend you to buy one.

6. Gangsta Rap Posse  #2 – Benjamin Marra (Traditional Comics)
Dude, come on. Really? Do I have to tell you about this? Who the hell is not on board this epic train of bad-ass, rhyme spittin’, glock blastin, gangsta shit?! Fucking white women and killing klansmen ain’t never been sweeter! Something is perfect about this comic. A Classic.

I will show it to my kids one day and say, “This is a fucking comic book you assholes!” Visit Ben's blog.

5. Night Business #4 – Bejamin Marra (Traditional Comics)
Dude, come on. Really? Do I have to tell you about this? Who the hell is not on board this epic train of ass kicking, greasy giallo exploitative beauty? Think Abel Ferreara & Dario Argento taking turns shooting a script that John Carpenter wrote with a 16 year old version of himself… but drawn with a style that rips your eyes outta your head with love for its killer graphic perfection. Buy everything this guys does… It is all soooo good. Visit Ben's blog.

4. Bowman – Pat Aulisio (Retrofit Comics)
Man, Retrofit is putting out some amazing shit by rad artists and  Pat Aulisio is one of my favorite artists going. Bowman is a deep well of sex jokes, alien languages, bad basketball team memories, boner inducing bridges, and a never ending river of visually swirling patterns of movement and noise, Aulisio’s brush strokes create a dense, all encompassing radness.  Buy this now.
Visit Paul Aulisio.

3. Raw Power – Josh Bayer (Retrofit Comics)
Fuck me… Really? Is this as good as it seems? Is this the kind of comic you will carry around in your bag and steal secret looks at it, coveting it in some weird way no one else will understand... Yes. Yes it is.

Jimmy Carter, Cat Man, the systematic attack on punk rock by covert U.S. Ops headed by the infamous G. Gordon Liddy… This comic is tight while loose, structured in plot but told with the freedom of a musician's drug fueled solo… Josh Bayer is it, man.


Visit Josh Bayer.

2. Cosmic Bummer Funnies by Shalo P. (ZFA Works)
Shalo P is one of those artists I am supremely jealous of. He is an open conduit spilling madness unfiltered from his id. This comic is a collection of little gems of humor and poetry created through an inversion of comic devices/language and a love for anamorphic ducks, Bart Simpson, Batman - all effortlessly drawn in a “never picked my hand up” type of fluid inspiration. This book makes me laugh out loud as well and ponder the pure weirdness formed in its pages… Epic work. If you don’t know, now ya know…

1. 3D-C by various artists (Le Dernier Cri)
A collection of some of the worlds most savage and beautifully mad artists brought to you in graphic, large print 3-D!!! Possibly the best art book I have ever seen. Absolutely the best thing my work has ever been in. Some of the works in this are mind melting… Overflowing with great images that use 3D to its fullest potential. Track down a copy if you can, this bitch is sold out.

I fucking love Le Dernier Cri.  Best publisher in the world.

also great:
Rub the Blood by various artists (Yeah Dude Comics)
The Unforgiving Blade Of Conon by Pat Aulisio / Josh Bayer (Yeah Dude Comics / Retrofit Comics)
Lose #3 by Michael Deforge (Koyama Press)
The Land Unknown / The Wrong Box by Gary Panter (Picturebox Press)

Visit Drippy Bone Books.