Here’s a cou­ple of nice links to ring in the new.

MTV Geek names “The Mar­vel” as a top 10 col­lected edi­tion of 2010, in such esteemed com­pany as Sweet Tooth and the All Star Super­man collection:

MTV Geek

This well-designed col­lected edi­tion of Car­bon­neau and Ng’s web­comic about the life of occultist Jack Par­sons looks like a mag­i­cal gri­moire the book’s sub­ject would have been proud of. An over­looked gem that deserves more attention.

I AGREE!

And Steven Sur­man, friend of “The Mar­vel,” has added my graphic novel to his list of top 5 inde­pen­dents for 2010, saying

It’s a small mir­a­cle a book like this was ever con­ceived, let alone writ­ten, illus­trated, and printed by Cel­lar Door Pub­lish­ing. The mar­velous tal­ent of writer Richard Car­bon­neau saw poten­tial not in some fan­tasy he dreamed up in his head, but rather in the fac­tual adven­tures of a real-life sci­en­tist and sor­cerer, John “Jack” Mar­vel White­side Par­sons. With­out the genius of Par­sons, we wouldn’t have dis­cov­ered solid rocket fuel, which would have changed the his­tory of NASA.

But Par­sons was also a man steeped in the occult, so much so that he oper­ated the Amer­i­can sect of his Ordo Tem­pli Ori­en­tis (O.T.O.) orga­ni­za­tion and was so close to Aleis­ter Crow­ley that he called him “father.” Writer Car­bon­neau plun­dered as much sec­ondary research as pos­si­ble, and when he didn’t find enough, he inves­ti­gated him­self. The result­ing book is an amaz­ing feat of graphic sto­ry­telling, cap­tur­ing both Parson’s fac­tual accom­plish­ments and the hazy spec­u­la­tions about his occult knowl­edge. Carbonneau’s artist, Robin Simon Ng, uses a stark chiaroscuro style that is heav­ily lined with fine detail. This is one of the most orig­i­nal and coura­geous graphic nov­els I’ve read in a very long time.

Steven-Surmans-five-independent-favorites-of-2010