The First Post

Having departed DC Comics for the indie environs of Top Shelf Comix, Alan Moore returns with his most fun work, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And in this latest instalment, Century, the series is in rude health, with the meta-fictional concept as vigorous and compelling as ever.

Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button is, at 720 pages, a daunting proposition, but the end result is surely one of this year's best graphic novels. The vigorously talented 25-year-old has produced a complex family drama that is at once sweeping, terrifically nuanced and utterly captivating. After 40-plus years of marriage, Maggie and David Loony shock their three children with news of their planned divorce.

At a time when America is grappling with its identity, there's something very penetrating about Tim Lane's Abandoned Cars - a collection of noir-ish narratives which explore the underbelly of the American Dream. Populated with characters who exist on society's margins, Lane's tales are pulpy (and oddly romantic) creations about hope and redemption - best exemplified in 'The Drive Home', the affecting story of a man adrift, striving to regain the family he has lost.