I've reviewed the TV shows and such I saw at Comic Con, but never mentioned the comics I bought. So, here they are:

1. Owly: Flying Lessons; Owly: Just a Little Blue; and Owly: The Way Home/The Bittersweet Summer (To Shelf Productions). All 3 by Andy Runton. This look pretty good. They have no words, just sequential art. I've had luck with the no-word graphic novels in the past, like Cave-In by Brian Ralph (a really great book, see: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0966536339/104-9929259-7556742?v=glance&n=283155 ). Owly won an Eisner this year, though I bought them before they won. They are appropriate for kids and adults, and I get the impression that the content scales well for all ages (stuff that only adults would see as significant as a social message, but which kids would see as simply storytelling).

2. Will Eisner: The Contract with God Trilogy (Norton Publications). Contract with God was the very first official graphic novel. In the final months of his life, Will Eisner (Comic Diety in his own right) put together these three graphic novels with all take place on the same block in New York into one large, beautiful graphic novel. I'm really looking forward to reading this one.

3. Wimbledon Green, by Seth (Drawn and Quarterly Publications). This book was nominated for three Eisners: Graphic Album-New, Writer/Artist-Humor, and Publication Design, but didn't win any. It's comedy about "The Greatest Comic Book Collector In The World" which satrizes the comics industry a bit while also paying homage to the comic books of yesteryear. I've heard good things.

4. It's a Good Life, if you Don't Weaken, by Seth (D&Q). This is a bit of a controversial book. I believe it has some Eisner nominations last year. I bought it mostly because it had been on my short list of stuff I had missed from the prior year, and it was on discount when I bought Seth's Wimbledon Green with it. In this graphic novel, "Seth pays homage to the wit and sophistication of the old-fashioned magazine cartoon. While trying to understand his dissatisfaction with the present, Seth discovers the life and work of Kalo, a forgotten New Yorker cartoonist from the 1940s. But his obsession blinds him to the needs of his lover and the quiet desperation of his family. Wry self-reflection and moody colours characterize Seth’s style in this tale about learning lessons from nostalgia. His playful and sophisticated experiment with memoir provoked a furious debate among cartoon historians and archivists about the existence of Kalo, and prompted a Details feature about Seth's "hoax"."

5. Finder: Five Crazy Women; Finder: Mystery Date, and Finder: The Rescuers, all three by Carla Speed McNeil (Lightspeed Press). The Finder series is a odd tale. These are books 6, 7, and 8 I believe, and I have 1-5 already. Previous books, or sections of the books, got Eisner awards. This one line from an Amazon review sums up my recollections from prior books "...complex and fascinating world it takes place in -- museums of pain, animal-headed people, tribes of people who all look creepily alike, dinosaur pack animals...is these weird little moments of humor and ingenuity it has." Its a fantasy world with hundreds of mini-worlds in it, with each chapter taking place in a different mini-world. Hard to explain, but I've found it fairly compelling stuff (at least long enough to stick with 8 graphic novels).

6. Promethia, Books 2, 3, and 4, by Alan Moore (America's Best Comics). Promethea has won Eisners (like best writer). I bought book one last year and had not gotten around to reading it yet, and the buzz this year was consistently "these are really good". So, I picked up the rest. From Amazon review: ""Promethea" is Wonder Woman as seen through a realistic lens. The daughter of a sorceror rescued by mythological gods when her father was murdered, she is immortal, but lives only through possessing the bodies of mortals. Naturally, she has some supernatural foes to take on and some rather exotic powers, yet the world she inhabits is quite similar to our own in all its ragged glory." Should be good.

7. The Sandman Endless Nights, by Neil Gainman (Vertigo/DC). This is Gaiman's return to the world of Sandman, after a long absence working on many other projects (mostly novels). It's one of the few "mainstream" graphic novels I was really looking forward to, and word is that it's just as good as the other Sandman books.

I think that's it. If I remember, I will post reviews of various books after I read them. I still have a ton of un-read stuff from last year (and even some from the year before). So, time to get on it!