Bonesys - Comics and Music

Gonna go a little faster today since I think I'm probably the only person who stops by here that reads comics and likes the kind of music that I like. Fewer categories, less rambling, more Bonesys!

First up comics, and the main reason why I'm not going as in depth this year as I normally would. I had to cut my list way down this year, because of my quitting my part time job at the comic store in Auburn. If you look over at my pull list in the sidebar, you'll note than almost half of it is devoted just to the Bat-titles, of which there are MANY. So anything I have to say about comics is pretty much going to be Batman related, which is fine by me, but not exactly what you want to base "comic book awards" around. Hard for me to say that Detective was the best ongoing book last year, when I only read a few ongoing books other than it. Anyway, here are my 2010 Comic Book Bonesys...

Best One Shot or Special

I may only read a handful of regular ongoings now, but that doesn't stop publishers from hitting me with specials and one-shots on a pretty regular basis. Thankfully I don't read much Marvel anymore, or I would've had to either get another job, or dropped my list even more. DC definitely had some good ones, always enjoy the Holiday specials, especially Halloween, and there was even a Xmas Special featuring Orange Lantern Larfleeze that I quite enjoyed this week, but it's the one-shot featuring a team-up of my most favorite paranormal investigators that wins the Bonesy....

Best Original Graphic Novel

Sam Keith's an acquired taste, and most either love him or hate him. I love him. and I loved Arkham Asylum: Madness.

Best Mini-Series

I have a very special place in my heart for Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis' old Justice League International run, in fact it's my favorite Justice League Run of all time. Apparently Judd Winick feels the same way I do, and he has been knocking this series out of the park. It is easily the best Justice League comic being published right now, much better than the atrocity that is the regular title by James Robinson and Mark Bagley.

Best New Creative Team

I suppose at this point if you're following me on Twitter that Scotty Snyder and Jock made quite an impression on my with their first issue of Detective Comics, #871. I already gave them the prestigious award for Best Batman Panel of the Year yanno? If the buzz on the internet is any indication, it looks like I'm not the only one excited about these guys taking on the Dark Knight. Looking forward to what I hope will be a lengthy run that we'll all still be talking about like we do the classic Englehart/Rogers run from the late 70's.

Best Writer

This one is the toughest call to make for me. I read a LOT of great comics this year. Sure, most of them were Batman comics, but I still read some other stuff. Robert Kirkman gave me another fantastic year of The Walking Dead, Mike Mignola continues to write things that make me happy with Hellboy, BPRD, and the rest of his little corner of Dark Horse, Scott Snyder came out of nowhere and kicked my ass with American Vampire and the year's best issue of Detective Comics, and Jeff Lemire introduced me to his fantastic writing with a new Vertigo favorite, Sweet Tooth and even managed to somehow get me to buy a comic with Conner "Superboy" Kent in it. But it takes a special talent to make me read about a character that I literally have no interest in whatsoever, that up until this year I assumed everything that could ever be done with him had already been done, and that is so overused that his very appearance literally makes me roll my eyes. I'm talking about Wolverine, and although I never wanted to give him the chance, somehow Jason Aaron made me care about him. He also took Punisher Max back to it's Garth Ennis-y roots, and wrote one hell of a good Ghost Rider mini this year. For his uncanny ability to make me buy Marvel comics, I award this year's Bonesy for Best Writer to fellow Alabama native, Jason Aaron.

Best Artist

Easy, Jock wins.

Best Ongoing Series

Hard to pick just one, but when I sat down and thought about it, there was only one book that I read immediately every Wednesday it came out, one book that I couldn't wait for the next issue every time I finished reading it, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead. I have a love affair with this comic like I have never had with any other. If only Kirkman could somehow find a way to put Batman in it, my life would be complete. This is how comics should be done, and it's been that way for going on 80 straight issues now. Side note, if I were doing a television category, Walking Dead would also win a Bonesy for best tv show. Shame on you if you're not reading this book.

There ya go, short and sweet as promised. Now on to the Bonesys for Music, which will be even shorter but probably not quite as sweet...

For me, it's pretty much all metal, all the time. I'm not going to waste your time by pretending to be some sort of a music critic. The fact of the matter is, I hate most of the shit that everybody else loves, and vice versa. Plus, I kinda already hit you guys over the head with music every week anyway with my Infinite Playlist. So the Bonesys for Music will only consist of a few short categories, almost all of which will be won by metal artists. Just some forewarning.

Best New Artist

I discovered Asking Alexandria on a flyer that was packed in with a I Wrestled a Bear Once t-shirt I ordered this summer, and I was absolutely floored. Their album, Stand Up and Scream is easily one of the best albums of the year.

Best Hip-Hop Album

Don't listen to a lot of the hip-hop anymore, it had just gotten to the point where 90% of what I listened to was garbage. Every now and then something will come along and catch my ear though, and Kid Cudi did just that with Day N Nite last year. I've become quite addicted to his newest record, Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager, and it wins the Bonesy for Best Hip-Hop Album by a landslide.

Best Metal Album

As pretty much the only other category I place music in, this one is particularly difficult to pick a favorite in. There are somewhere around 48 sub-genres of metal, but fuck if I know what fits where and why. So I just call it metal and go on about my business. I came across a ton of new stuff this year, thanks in part to my good buddy Mikey, and thanks in part to Youtube, but there were a handful of albums that I continually came back to. Miss May I followed up their debut album with the absolutely brutal "Monument", We Came as Romans kicked my ass with "To Plant a Seed", and who could forget The Devil Wears Prada's "Zombie" EP? Good stuff all around, but the one that I should be completely and totally sick of due to over play, but no matter how many times I hear it, I can't hear it enough, is "The Emptiness" by Alesana. The song Hymn for the Shameless does things to me that music shouldn't do to people. Your Bonesy for Best Metal Album....

Best Concert 

For the first time in years, this actually forced me to do a little thinking, as I went to not one, but TWO shows this year! In April I saw A Day to Remember, August Burns Red, Silverstein, and Enter Shikari in Atlanta, and it was a hell of a show, also bonus points awarded for my being able to always say I saw ADtR before they sucked. But we all know that for my money, nobody rocks the house like Twiztid, and they even went a step further and brought along Blaze ya Dead Homie, who I hadn't seen in WAY too long, and DJ Clay did two sets in between acts. Taking all the into consideration, it's impossible not to award the Bonesy to Twiztid and Blaze for the World of Webs Tour.

Biggest Disappointment

How does a band that I love as much as I love A Day to Remember make an album this bad? Easy, MTV airplay. I know, I was as shocked as you to find out that MTV still played music, but apparently they do, because ADtR's facebook page kept advertising the fact that their new video was on MTV. Fast forward to the new album, "What Separates Me from You", and there's a grand total of 2 songs on it that I don't hate. So sad, and such a huge disappointment. Here's hoping they make up for it on their next album, and don't follow in the footsteps of bands like Korn.

Best Album

When the greatest band in the universe of all time makes a new record, you bet your ass it's my favorite album of that year. I've been a Deftones fan since the very first time I heard "Bored" on Adrenaline. I have absolutely worshipped every single thing they've done since. The only band I've seen live more than Deftones is Twiztid. When they released "Diamond Eyes" this year, I was working at T-Mobile at the time and we were allowed to bring our mp3 players to listen to while we rebuilt handsets, and I literally listened to it for 8 hours straight. There's not a song on there that's anything short of musical perfection. Album of the year easily, and quite possibly of the decade as well.

Day two is in the books! There will be a brief intermission tomorrow, with an obligatory holiday post for all of you, before we get into the Movie Bonesys on Sunday. Stay tuned!