An illustration on a bright pink background reads “Review Of The Year 2013: Wildcards”. Below the text, two white cards are tilted, one featuring a question mark and the other an exclamation mark.

Review of the year: Get inside James Cartwright's mind with his wildcards!

Words: James Cartwright
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Date: 29 December 2013; Review of the Year 2013
Work

While Rob will use his wildcard post to turn the year into a witty personal creative narrative and Liv will undoubtedly dazzle you with her eclectic tastes, I just want to use this opportunity to bore you all to death with a bunch of comics that have made my year. Half of you probably think comics are a load of old toss, but I’ve got carte blanche to do what I want in this post, and what I want to do is force a hard-line agenda of graphic novels on the lot of you, like a Kim Jong-Un of comic art. Don’t forget to smile and clap in all the appropriate places…

A pop art illustration of a neon-lit city street inspired by ancient Rome. Bright signs advertise “Vestal’s Strip”, “Pagan Plastic Poses” and “Circus Maximus”, while people in colourful attire sit in cars below. A speech bubble in the top right contains a dialogue about a “select committee” and the fate of “our heathen civilization”. — Above
Guy Peellaert: The Adventures of Jedelle

This year Fantagraphics translated and reprinted Guy Peelaert’s seminal sexploitation comic The Adventures of Jodelle, a topless romp through a roman-styled Las Vegas, all anachronistic costumes and characters with a classic spy-themed narrative. The hilarious story, Pop Art palette and incredible draughtsmanship made this one of the year’s standout happenings in comics.
www.itsnicethat.com/articles/the-adventures-of-jodelle

A black and white comic book spread. On the left, a small figure in a geometric suit faces a giant, textured monster who shouts “AHHHHH”. The right page shows a sequence of panels where the monster holds a crystal, with text including “GLOXX” and “CUT THE JIBBER JABBER AND GIVE ME THAT SHIT.” — Above
Johnny Ryan: Prison Pit Five

“Prison Pit is like someone making a comic strip out of Mayhem’s Live in Leipzig, played at half speed and double the volume your speakers can safely process. If you’ve never heard that album, then I’ll spell it out for you: this is a brutal fucking comic.” – Patrick Tobin, Multiversity Comics. Pretty much says it all as far as I’m concerned.
www.itsnicethat.com/articles/johnny-ryan-prison-pit

A comic book illustration of a small, spherical white spacecraft drifting through a surreal, swirling landscape. The environment is composed of organic, flowing shapes in shades of blue, pink and green, contrasted with heavy black ink. A text box in the top right reads, “Stan Bowman sits, rigid and transfixed... an unanswerable question?” — Above
Jack Kirby: Double Page Spreads

This year I found a Tumblr of nearly all of Jack Kirby’s double page spreads from his illustrious career and nearly lost my shit. Then I wasted nearly all of the rest of that day looking at them, apart from the half hour I spent writing about them on the site. They are eye-wateringly brilliant and demonstrate why Kirby will always be considered a master of his game.
www.itsnicethat.com/articles/jack-kirby-double-page-spreads

A comic-style illustration of two people against a red radiating background. The person on the right wears a wide-brimmed hat and smiles, while a speech bubble above them reads “FLYER!”. — Above
Ed Piskor: Hip Hop Family Tree

If my life was at least ten times more interesting than it actually is and for some bizarre reason somebody decided to illustrate it as a gift for me in my octogenarian years, I’d want Ed Piskor to be the guy that drew the pictures (in this strange fantasy I’m art directing the whole thing and getting Ed to draw me as a ruggedly handsome gent – like Renaissance man James Franco).

This fantasy came out of reading The Hip Hop Family Tree and realising that Ed was capable of turning subjects that many would have little interest in (I really couldn’t have cared less about the history of hip hop before) and making them completely accessible and supremely entertaining for a massive audience. Kudos Mr Piskor.
www.itsnicethat.com/articles/hip-hop-family-tree

An illustration of a wide-eyed grey cat with pink pupils against a vibrant, psychedelic background of zig-zags and circles. A speech bubble above the cat reads “PARTY!!”. — Above
Simon Hanselmann: Life Zone

The best comic I’ve read this year bar none. It had me crying with laughter on so many inappropriate occasions that I had to limit myself to reading it in private. It includes reckless drug abuse with a gang of deranged animals, a wandering butt-plug, the destruction of a camping store and a surprising incident of mild bestiality. If that doesn’t sound like your scene then read it anyway as Life Zone is arguably the funniest thing I’ve ever held in my hands.
www.itsnicethat.com/articles/simon-hanselmann-life-zone