The Media Arts Hights of this 21st Century's First Decade

The first Decade of the 21st Century was SO 21st Century.  While this dismal decade stood in stark contrast to the roaring '90's it improved in one small area.  The Aesthetics, Form, and Function of arts and popular culture.  The cyclical point of art brought us a less ambiguous next step after Post-Modernism.  While no broad term has stuck, I would define it as a nostalgic collage of juxtaposed and mashed pieces that serve a narrative.  Which reflect post-modernist sentiment with a reduction in resurrection and experimentation; so what comics have been doing all along. This increase in quality is as much a reflection on the 90's, as being perpetuated by dogged corporate and political misreading, the narcissism generation, and a culmination of unprecedented events almost entirely to blame on poor planning and slow policy change.

Without consuming everything and with my own beaten path, the following are what I would call the highlights of Media Arts of this the first decade of the 21st Century.  There are a number of easy explanations for art not seen here...I did not see it.  Nevertheless, there is plenty scrutinizing opportunities available.  So, let the fun begin.

Note: the bold items are from 2009 (some include other years).

1.    Big Book of Frank, Jim Woodring (comic)
2.    The Acme Novelty Library, Chris Ware (comic)
3.    Queens Of The Stone Age-Rated R (album)
4.    Love & Rockets, Los Hernandez Bro. (comic)
5.    The Venture Bros. (tv)
6.    Eightball: The Death Ray, Ice Haven, and David Boring by Daniel Clowes (comic)
7.    Lost in Translation (film)
8.    Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art by Kerry Freedman (text)
9.    Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli (comic)
10.    Eagles Of Death Metal-Peace Love Death Metal (album)
11.    The Royal Tenenbaums (film)
12.    iPod/iPhone (tec)
13.    Takashi Murakami ("fine art")
14.    Jason’s Hey Wait!, Why are you Doing This?, I Killed Adolf Hitler (comic)
15.    Pixar (films)
16.    Shag ("fine art")
17.    Freaks and Geeks (tv)
18.    The Daily Show with John Stewart (tv)
19.    Mad Men (tv)
20.    The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (novel)
21.    Mario Galaxy (video game)
22.    The Complete Calvin and Hobbs-Bill Watterson (comic)
23.    From the Lower East Side to Hollywood: Jews in American Popular Culture by Paul Buhle (text)
24.    The Comics Journal (magazine)
25.    White with Foam, Mad Love (album)
26.    Optic Nerve, Adrian Tomine (comic)
27.    The Cheese Monkey-Chip Kidd (novel)
28.    Krazy & Ignatz, George Herriman (comic)
29.    Interpol-Our Love to Admire (album)
30.    Facebook (tec)
31.    Pixies (Live Music)
32.    Humbug, Harvey Kurtzman et al. (comic)
33.    Juno (film)
34.    DC: The New Frontier, Darwyn Cooke (comic)
35.    America’s Best Comics-Edited by Matt Madden and Jessica Able (comic)
36.    An Inconvenient Truth (film)
37.    Ghost World (film)
38.    Carnival (tv)
39.    Sabra Fields ("fine art")
40.    McSweeny’s Quarterly No. 13 –Edited by Chris Ware (comic)
41.    Blackalicious-Blazing Arrow (album)
42.    Elf (film)
43.    Justice League Unlimited (tv)
44.    Cirque De Sole (live performance)
45.    Wii (tec)
46.    Robert C. Jackson ("fine art")
47.    Tom Strong, Alan Moore & Chris Sprouse (comic)
48.    It's Blitz!, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (album)
49.    Weeds (tv)
50.    Fantômas-The Director's Cut (album)
51.    System Of A Down-Toxicity (album)
52.    NPR (radio)
53.    Tomahawk-Tomahawk (album)
54.    Lord of the Rings (films)
55.    MSNBC (tv)
56.    Dan in Real Life (film)
57.    Whip It! (film)
58.    Judd Apatow’s Films (films)
59.    The Complete Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz (comic)
60.    Spider-Man II (films)
61.    Jack Cole and Plastic Man –Art Spiegleman and Chipp Kidd (text)
62.    Dillinger Escape Plan-Irony Is A Dead Scene (album)
63.    O’Brother, Where Art Thou? (film)
64.    Simpsons (tv/film)
65.    Orbital-The Altogether (album)
66.    Lost (tv)
67.    Iron Man(film)
68.    Promethea, Alan Moore & J. H. Williams III (comic)
69.    Thursday Comedy Primetime on NBC (tv)
70.    X-Men II (film)
71.    Battlestar Galactica (tv)
72.    Everything is Illuminated (film)
73.    The Family Stone (film)
74.    The Great Women Cartoonists-Trina Robbins (text)
75.    Shepherd Farley ("fine art")
76.    Fair Weather, Joe Matt (comic)
77.    Gorillaz-Demon Days (album)
78.    Star Trek (film)
79.    George Sprott, 1894-1975, Seth (comic)
80.    Sponge Bob Square Pants (tv)
81.    Secret Chiefs 3-Book Of Horizons (album)
82.    Big Love (tv)
83.    Little Miss Sunshine (film)
84.    The Fog of War (film)
85.    Hellboy (film)
86.    Fantomas-Melvin’s Big Band(Patton), Kid 606, Lucky Stars (live performance)
87.    Doubt (film)
88.    The Authority, Warren Ellis & Bryan Hitch (comic)
89.    Milk (film)
90.    The Powerpuff Girls (tv)
91.    Avengers Forever, Kurt Busiek, Roger Sternand & Carlos Pacheco (comic)
92.    V for Vendetta (film)
93.    The Golem’s Mighty Swing, James Sturm (comic)
94.    Stranger then Fiction (film)
95.    Firecraker (film)
96.    Bjork, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s (live performance)
97.    Roketo (comic)
98.    SNL (tv)
99.    That ‘70’s Show (tv)
100.   Munich (film)

Ben's 25 (+) Favorite Comics Covers of All Time…to date.

No. 25.1: Marc Silvestri's

No. 25: Bob Mantana's (?)

No. 24: Katsuhiro Otom'sNo. 23: Bryan Hitch'sNo. 22:(unknown) No. 21: jason'sNo. 20: Jack ColeNo. 19: Bill Watterson'sNo. 18: Will Wlder and Adam Grano's No. 17: Dan Clowes'sNo. 16: Jack Kirby's

No. 15: Dave Gibbon's

No. 14: Neal Adam'sNo. 13: James Jean'sNo. 12: Jim Woodring'sNo. 11: Chris Sprouse'sNo. 10: Frank FrazettaNo. 9: Frank Miller's

No. 8: Paul Smith's

No. 7: Adrian Tomine'sNo. 6: Alan Davis's

No. 5: Chris Ware'sNo. 4: Darwyn Cooke'sNo. 3: Jamie Hernandez'sNo. 2: Bill SieniekwiczNo. 1: Herge'sThanks to fellow cartoonist and college friend Kelly Thompson's inspiring list I have made my own, less as a rebuttal (you will see some similarities), but more as another perspective. What's yours?

The COMICS LIST

First off the semantics of this is frustrating, TPB v Graphic Novel v. Comic Book Comic Strips v The Funnies v Cartoons v Manga v Comics v Seqential Art...ok ok...in portest I will try to stay in the rules of graphic noves...this leves out a hell of a lot of great comics made over the past 100 plus years....bat anyway...actually I don't get the rules so whatever...ZAK started it...

Jim Woodring (Best comic ever been and ever will be made)

• The Frank Book

Chris Ware (All around top of the game today...above statement aside)

• Acme Novelty Library

Chris Claremont, Alen Davis, Mark Silvestri, Dave Mazzucchelli, Bill Sienkiewicz, Frank Miller and friends (The Men who made mine Marvel)

• Uncanny X-Men


• Excalibur


• Captain Britain


• Wolverine


• Kitty Pride and Wolverine


• Electra Assassin


• Batman: The Dark Knight


• Dare Devil


• Sin City: Family Values


• The Dark Knight


• Batman: Year One

Los Hernandez Bro. (No one is closer to my aesthetic tastes...)

Love and Rockets

Penny Century

Dan Clowes (The one who gives Ware a run for his money)

• Daniel Boring


• Ice Heaven


• Ghost World

George Herriman (The one who made the best of comics first)

• Krazy Katz

Alen Moore (Still the best writer in the business)

• Watchman


• Promethea


• Tom Strong


• From Hell

Adrian Tomine (The one I am jealous of and feel the strongest bond to through his work)

• Optic Nerve

Gruenwald and Ryan (Pure simple strip down grounded superhero stories)

• D.P.7

Hergé (The international genius)

• Tin Tin

Bill Watterson (The best a strip has ever been)

• Calvin and Hobbs

Joe Matt (From out of no ware a wonderful book)

• Fair Weather

Wendy and Richard Pini (I thought I was part wolf and part elf for a time)

• Elf Quest

Sparky Shultz with Seth (Seth has reframed his genius so I can see what everyone else sees...pure comics)

• The Complete Penutes

Jack Kirby (My favorite of the King of comics)

• Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth

Harvey Kurtzman and friends (These were the real stars of comics in the 50's and 60's)

• Humbug

Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale (They are like the wonder twins...but amazingly good)

• Batman: Long Halloween

Jessica Abel (A good cartoonist, but even a better teacher...this book is a wonderful lesson)

• La Perdida

Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch (Visually stunning with a hint of guts)

• The Authority

Ann Nocenti and Art Adems (One of my favorite characters ever at his conception)

• Longshot

jason (Poetry...typically without words...thank goodness he is prolific)

• Tell Me Something


• Why Are You Doing This?


• The Left Bank Gang

Katsuhiro Otomo ( I am ashamed to say this is the best of what Japan has to offer in my opinion based on ignorance...even though I admire the Japanese comic industry so much)

• Akira

Darwyn Cooke's (This is how DC hero's should be...plain and simple...I want to read his stint on the Spirit...)

• The New Frontier