While the holiday season provides an endless bounty for Sinbad fans the world over, action movie nerds such as myself loathe the winter solstice and its attendant festivities. Despite the perfect Christmas-themed taglines for a Dolph Lundgren vehicle (“This Christmas, Earth has no time for peace…”), December usually means a dry spell for protracted car chases, overwrought explosions, and cheesy one-liners delivered with Central European accents.
Thankfully, there is one historical exception to this holiday action drought. Alongside George Bailey’s exuberant dash through Bedford Falls and Ralphie’s ill-fated target practice, nothing evokes the yule-tide spirit more than the sight of Alan Rickman’s flailing arms as he falls to his death off Nakatomi Towers. With due apologies to Lethal Weapon loyalists, the first Die Hard is the best Christmas movie to ever incorporate cocaine, automatic gunfire and lots of dead East Germans.
“She really was a manifestation of my inner thoughts”
– Jen Wang
Jen Wang first surfaced crafting short comics that appeared online and in the Flight anthologies, but her debut graphic novel Koko Be Good is the first work of hers that most people will have encountered. It’s a beautifully illustrated book that centers around three characters, each of whom is tackling, in their own way, what it means to be “good.”
With the end of 2010 rapidly approaching it’s time to take stock of the year in the comic book world. From epic events like Blackest Night/Brightest Day, to indie comics that everyone raved about, to the superheroes that died and were born again, a lot of action went down over the last 12 months.
Here are a handful of selections that sum up what I believe are the best comics of 2010 along with a few honorable mentions that I hope everyone gets a chance to check out!
1. Snoop Dogg pimps out the Night Before Christmas
Cordozar Calvin Broadus a.k.a. Snoop Dogg puts his own spin on the Christmas classic. According to him, Santa would rather drink Pepsi Max from his cup than have milk with his cookies. He also alleges the white-bearded wonder has quite the potty mouth.
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2. Very Bad Santa
Casting further doubt on Santa’s character, this security video catches him in a drunk and disorderly state. Let’s hope this was a post-present delivery celebration, since we’d hate to think he was driving his sleigh under the influence.
