(no subject)

[nonelvis]

This is probably the last of the Hugo Award entries, since incredibly, I have finished reading all the nominees for the novel, novella, novelette, and short story awards, as well as several of the graphic story nominees. Well, technically I haven't finished everything, since there were a few cases where I hated what I was reading so much I couldn't finish, but that's close enough.

Sadly, only one of the graphic story nominees, a collection of Schlock Mercenary strips, was available as a free download, and I can't say I thought it was all that great. The artwork was average, the jokes not punchy enough, and Phil Foglio covered this same ground much better in his Buck Godot books. I've read two of the other nominees before (Serenity: Better Days and the final volume of Y: the Last Man), and while the Serenity book was better than I remembered it being (the dialogue in particular is excellent, though I don't care for the way Will Conrad draws Mal and Wash), it's Y: the Last Man that sticks in my head. After the way volume 9 ended, I was starting to think Vaughan had lost his touch, but I don't think there's any other comic book I've read that made me cry at the death of a character.

iainpj, I know you were waiting to hear what I thought about these nominees, and I can go into more detail if you want. But what I'd really like to know is if you've read the other three I haven't, and what you think of those.

Comments

[iainpj.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I thought the graphic story group was a very peculiar list of nominees. The only ones that came close to making the SH list were the Fables and Y: The Last Man books (both of which just missed). I like Schock Mercenary, and I really like Girl Genius a lot, but I wouldn't have put them on a best of the year list. Serenity was OK, but ... well, given Whedon's fanbase, the nomination didn't surprise me, but I thought it was just OK. Schlock Mercenary and the Dresden Files nominations were the two that just baffled me.

I'm kind of astonished that Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite didn't make their list, but then, it may have had date eligibility issues, or they don't consider superheroish titles to be eligible.