If it's the end of a decade, then it's time for multiple Best Of The Decade lists. This isn't exactly one of them, though, despite what it looks like; for one thing, even if it was, you'd all disagree with it and complain that we left off something essential - although anyone arguing for the inclusion of Ultimatum, we believe that can be disproven through the use of science and charts - and for another, we've not read every single thing published in the last decade, so for all we know, there's something really obvious that we'll have somehow overlooked through accident instead of malice. Instead of The Ten Best, then, these are Ten Of The Best (Click on the titles for our explanations why and, in some cases, runners-up to the list that we couldn't help but sneak in):

100% by Paul Pope (DC/Vertigo)
All Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (DC Comics)
Black Hole by Charles Burns (Pantheon)
Casanova by Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon (Image Comics)
Laika by Nick Abadzis (First Second Books)
Planetes by Makoto Yukimura (Tokyopop)
Pluto by Osamu Tazuka and Naoki Urasawa (Viz Media)
Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni Press)
We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (DC/Vertigo)
Y The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra and many more (DC/Vertigo)

(Thanks to Lauren, David Brothers, Jeff Lester and all who offered advice and good reasons why we were entirely wrong in some original choices.)

In a strange way, it reminds us of Brandon Graham's King City, which so almost made the list - It's still ongoing, so watch for it making Best Of Decade in 2019 - and also mixes international influences from inside and outside comics to come up with something fresh and vibrant. More openly comedic than Pope's work, King City is as much a story of life in a big city in the future, filled with romance, regrets and disreputable characters, even with magic cats who'll fit your every need with the right cocktail of drugs.

Next: All Star Superman

Announced late last month, Shakedown is what Pope calls "circus, striptease, and go-go, set to a rock and roll soundtrack," hosted by Sultry Siren of Burlesque Miss Harvest Moon and featuring performances from, amongst many others, Paul Pope.
As well as DJing for the entire night, Pope's main contribution to the burlesque bacchanal will be Psychenaut, the next step after this DJ experience: a movie that cuts up classic science fiction to create something that he's called "a 21st century update of the old gel light show bands like Velvet Underground and Pink Floyd used in the '60s." We asked Pope to explain more:

The idea of the film is to take some really great, mostly vintage sci-fi films and isolate key visual effects from certain scenes. These are all very short clips, like 5 or 6 seconds each. We slow them down to the point where they become essentially "slow life" images— not quite still images but pictures moving at a slow enough rate that we're able to really consider the pictures as ends in themselves.

I tried to isolate images which tend toward the abstract— light flares, wind and lightning, surfaces reflecting light, objects floating in deep space— images which suggest the macroverse of space contrasted with images suggesting the microverse of biology and the cell structure. Reframing these into a continuous, abstract film gives the images a new meaning, a new direction. This is my attempt at video mash-up using the rules and tools which guys like Eclectic Method do so well using pop imagery and topical media clips, rceombining these with music to create a sound/visual texture— but doing it in my own way. I'm trying to go more for the gel light effect or psychedelic light show of '60s rock concerts. Why? I dunno. Art for its own sake.

If that isn't enough Pope for you, Shakedown will also give you a chance to pick up his new "Homage To Crepax" screenprint and t-shirt, the proceeds of which go to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. But why a tribute to (Italian comic great and creator of some of the sexiest comic art ever) Guido Crepax?

Why Crepax? I love his work and want to expose him to more people in the US. I think he is largely underrated by contemporary comics fans, and I want to try to elevate him to the stature he deserves... He and Japanese pop artist Tadanori Yokoo are two of my biggest influences.

Doors open tomorrow for Shakedown at 11pm at the Brooklyn Bowl, tickets are $5. Everyone who's in the area, I'm very jealous.

To see Pope's article in its full-resolution glory, check out "It Will Come From Japan!" at GQ.

[via Forbidden Planet]

Pope explained what was behind the page:

I wanted to try applying the lessons learned from the Wednesday Comics experience to a different subject, here finding a source which would be difficult to illustrate as a page of comics, given that there is very little suggested action. I find that with the format of Wednesday Comics (which is really the traditional Sunday Comics page), one must condense the plot and action to the briefest yet most vivd bursts of information available— there is a lot of space on the page for the illustrations to really overwhelm the reader/viewer, but there isn't a lot of space for story development in the sense of how we'd develop a plot or work up dialogue for a typical comic book page. In a comic book, one page may be well drawn or well written, but it is still just a single facet of a larger whole. One page can be preceded or followed by another, but no one page carries the entire weight of the sustained narrative. The Wednesday Comics single page format forces the artist to create a story unit which may well be part of a larger storyline, however it still must be able to stand alone.

A one-off page (with colors by Lovern Kindzierski, who colored the last half of Pope's Wednesday Comics strip), we can't help but wish that a full-scale Dune adaptation makes an appearance on Pope's to-do list at some point in the future.

M'Uad Dib [PulpHope]

The print will be available only to the first 300 people to arrive at the party, sponsored by Coke Zero, at Onyx/Thin (852 5th Avenue) in San Diego on Saturday night. Starting at 9pm, the night will feature Paul's SDCC DJ debut, along with performances from DJs Eclectic Method and DJ Intel, hip-hop artists Murs, Hollywood Holt and Rob Roy, and live art performances all night by Jim Mahfood, Dumperfoo, Mike Huddleston and Scott Morse. Entrance is just a $5 donation to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Be there early, and hope you're not guest #301 or higher.

If anyone else in comics was doing a DJ set, I'd be much more cynical and think that's just something they're doing to show off. But for you, it makes sense; you've always ignored boundaries and been more of a "communicator" than "comic artist" or "cartoonist" or whatever.

Yeah, especially since falling in with these guys, Eclectic Method. I mean, they're really pro and we're all friends, so there's a chance there to start doing parties, like my friends at Dark Igloo, they're sort of a creative design group... Long story short, over the years I've met a lot of people who do proper event planning, for places like MoMA, you know, big parties for liquor sponsors and film releases and stuff like that, so I've been able to move into that world and do public events with those guys, things for audiences. It seems like a natural fit.

So is this a different way of expression for you? Are you using different muscles, is it less personal expression and more just getting people dancing? Or is this the same thing for you as drawing, writing, creating a comic strip?

For me, it's just sharing music that I'm into, you know? The Eclectic Method guys, they really bring a party - They've done some really big shows. We've done some big ones here in New York, like 250, 500 people. They always say that my sets are like festival set at five in the morning. Someone else described it as like a
shot in the nuts from a lazer beam in the Cantina bar. I like rock, stuff like that.

So what sort of music are people going to hear, when you play?

I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. I've got a few mash-ups I've done. I just play stuff I'm really into... I always like opening a night, because it's early enough, people are just getting to the party...

There's less pressure...

Yeah, it's a chance for people to meet and greet. It's a great thrill to hear music you love, loud. It's a lot of fun.

Yeah, it's great to see people respond to it, especially if they've never heard it before. When you can see them get into it, you see them get it.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm really into, everybody now loves 80s punk bands like the Clash or Joy Division, but I'm into early Nick Cave...

Like The Birthday Party?

Yeah, and there's a lot of splinter groups that came out of the Birthday Party that never quite got bigger. I'm into more obscure things, like '80s Berlin... I play off a laptop because you can store, like, four days worth of music on there. I do want to say that the guys I'm playing with, they do a lot of... It's one of those things that has to be seen to be experienced. They do what they call "video mash-up," everything they do is run through a video mixing board, so they do this crazy, hyper-media-conscious mash-up music, using everything from images from Sesame Street to Jay-Z to The Colbert Report. They do crazy stuff, but they make it work, so people love it. They've done some big things for people like the Bob Marley estate and for Motown, so if there's anybody I could be doing stuff with... I feel really comfortable with these guys. They're British, so they know a lot of the music I'm into, but they turn it into something different. There's a visual tie-in with comics, so it makes sense I'd be involved with something like this.

This thing has gone all over the place. I did this print for Coke Zero, it's going to press in the morning. That's what I'm working on today, we're doing the (color) separations, I'm working with the guys at the press. So primarily, I'm in comics and comic storytelling, but I do like to work in other media.

I think from reading PulpHope, you can see that the language of comics informs your "fine art," for want of a better way of putting it, your screenprints and everything else, but then the processes in doing those feeds back into your comic work. Is it the same for music?

Oh yeah, definitely. I'm a real champion of breaking down this distinction between "high" and "low" (art), that's a conceit that benefits galleries and dealers.

Have you read Bill Drummond? He's a big believer in the idea that "low art" is what people want to see and read and listen to, and so it's more important than "high art"...

It's an interesting thought, that's cool.

Is that kind of thinking what led you to do the clothing last year with DKNY Jeans?

Yeah, I think so. And anytime I get a chance to push the medium in new directions, push the... I don't know, the cause of comics, you could say, then I go for that. I hadn't done something like that before, so I thought it was interesting.

Does it all come back to comics for you? Are things like that experiences that you grab to help make your comics better?

I hope so. When I was growing up, there was such a strong division. There was a choice to be like a mainstream, Jim Lee, John Byrne type cartoonist, or you'd have to be an indie cartoonist...

It's such a weird distinction now, and with things like DC's Wednesday Comics, you're working in the same book as Brian Azzarello, Dave Gibbons... You look at something like that and you just see such a celebration of comics, not just a particular "kind" of comics.

Yeah, that's a thrill. It's a chance to do something that's classically pulp. It's very influenced by something like Flash Gordon or some of the great European comics coming out of the '70s and '80s. I thought this was a chance to take something people kind of think of as a B-list character (Adam Strange, the archeologist-turned-science hero of Pope's Strange Adventures strip), even though he has a lot of potential and a lot of interesting things about him, and try to give him a sandblast, come up with something different.

What's it like working in that format, with the big page to go wild on?

The originals are huge. They take a long time to finish. There's an interesting puzzle putting a page like that together, it takes a little time to consider how to get as much information into one page as possible. I feel like everyone's really doing strong work... I couldn't turn it down, when they offered it. I feel like everyone is stepping out of their (comfort zone), like Ryan Sook is clearly doing a great tribute to Prince Valiant.

Yeah, and in your strip, I see callbacks to European comics. I don't know if it's intentional of not, but I see a lot of Heavy Metal in there.

No, there is, (European creators like Manara and Moebius) have laid the groundwork in the same way that you might say that (Frank) Miller has over here, or Jack Kirby. There's a lot to be learned from spending some time with those guys. So that's a good thing.

So, do you see yourself as part of that continuity?

(Understanding Comics) Scott McCloud thinks I'm an "Internationalist", in terms of where I fit in in the big picture. Coming from McCloud, I think that's a good thing.

That makes sense, you have a very individual sensibility, but it's one that's informed by so many different cultural influences.

Yeah, and it's a sincere (influence). I really do love all the different traditions of comics. I have my tastes, there are a lot of things I don't like, but... When I approach a page, it usually takes a lot longer than I expect, which I know irritates the hell out of my editors, but I'm really competitive with myself, I try to do the best I can so that when I finish a page, it stays finished, you know (Laughs)?

You asked earlier where I see myself... After finishing Batman (Year 100), I've really come to embrace fantasy and escapism and its value. I really feel like, in a large sense, the work I'm doing now is a big project that I've committed to, and Adam Strange is one of the first manifestations. It's a real embrace of classic pulp, sincere, no tongue in cheek: Adam Strange is the hero and the bad guys are bad, and I'm just trying to put as much imagination on the page as I can. And that's how I approached the early days of THB, my imagination was unbridled, I didn't have a lot of responsibilities in life, I didn't have a lot of contacts in the industry, I didn't have a lot of perspective of what other people think of my work. I just did work to please myself. It didn't cost a lot to live in Columbus, Ohio, at the time.

Do you think you became too aware of your audience at some point?

No, I think it's more that you want to try things because you think that they'll work. I think everybody in the freelance and creative world is concerned about what people think because you want to make the next paycheck, so you try to be strategic about the balance between personal and professional. Sometimes, getting involved in projects, like, for example, working in Japan was a wonderful experience. Not a lot of the work got published, but I walked away from it with a very interesting skill set, despite the fact that, after five years, very little of it saw print. So, it's a strange thing when you look back on it.

It's strange because, something like 100%, I think is one of the best, most interesting science fiction stories I'd read in years...

Thanks.

...So it's interesting to hear you say that Adam Strange is a return to a purer science fiction.

When I did that book, I was between 30 and 33, and I felt like I really wanted to tell an honest story, and I thought, what do I know about in life, what can I say that's true? At the time, I couldn't approach genre with confidence, I wanted to express something and do it through genre.

Also, at the time I had just read Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick, which is one of my favorite science fiction books, and it's such a subtle book. It was a really eye-opening read. It's not like later Dick, it's not like Valis, before he's working from a strictly-paranoid perspective.

I think early Dick works in the same way as 100%, in that it can work even if you don't like science fiction, because you can still empathize with the characters.

I really believe that, in a kind of philosophical sense. As long as we have five, maybe six, senses, as long as we live to be 80, maybe 100 years old, we can't pass on wisdom generation to generation. Everything has to be learned. That's why we keep having wars, that's why all the good, all the bad repeats. As much as we can share tradition, as much as we have the Magna Carta, exploration, conquests... These are things that we share as a culture. But on a deeper level, until people can transcend where memory is longer, or longevity is somehow expanded, we don't have the experience that a 200 year old man would have. But in 200 years, I have a pretty good feeling that there's still going to be boy meets girl, boy loses girl, there's still going to be sex, there's still going to be love.

Those are eternal experiences. There's always going to be someone who's 30, 33, 35, and going through the same things that you were at that time.

Yeah, I think about that a lot, because I'm sort of perplexed at how childhood seems so fresh and so new. It's easier to remember a vivid detail from something that happened when you were eight or nine years old rather than something that happened eight or nine weeks ago, you know? I think that, as you get older, you start to anticipate responses from experience, and I think when you're a kid, you don't have that. You've not even done anything. So everything's dreamlike, it's new. I think artists are able to hold onto that. For me, it's become a way to function in life, to not become overwhelmed by experience that will bring it down.

Is that one of the reasons you're doing your young adult book Battling Boy?

Yeah, I wanted to create a new superhero. I sort of thought, after working on Kavalier & Clay and spending so much time with Michael Chabon, really delving into the classics, the history of Superman and Batman, that superheroes really represent wish fulfillment in society, and (wondered) what superhero doesn't exist now, that people want. And I thought, a child protector.

I think children know that they're not safe in the world. They know there's abductions, they know there's war. There's this vague sense of things called bills, or taxes. There's a sense of things to figure out, so I wanted to come up with a kid who was a child defender.

It's really great to be in this position, working on this project with First Second. There's a lot of work to do, in the near future to finish the project and really get it going. And now there's a film in development, and that's another layer. It's been pretty amazing, it's really grown and developed. I can't wait to get it out there. There's a lot of cool characters in the book, good guys and bad guys. It has elements of superheroes, elements of horror, it's definitely got humor in it.

Are you working on the movie as well?

I'm working on the film as well. The writer who's currently working on the film is Alex Tse, who wrote Watchmen, we were up working til 1am on the script. I'm kind of a consultant.

Is there a date set?

No, there's a lot of stuff to do. It's not in development hell, we're moving along, but one thing I'm learning about this film stuff is that there's so many things that can happen, positively and negatively, outside your control. You could hand in a perfect script, and then the economy tanks, or the studio comes in and doesn't like what you're doing...

Does that make you appreciate the freedom in comics more?

Yeah, it definitely does, but I wouldn't want to choose one or the other. It does make me love comics, because you can have a really cool idea and just do it, you don't have to spend a lot of money to do it.

Paul will be DJing at the PopCult party at Onyx/Thin (852 5th Avenue) in San Diego on Saturday night, beginning at 9pm. Other performances include Eclectic Method, DJ Intel, Murs, Hollywood Holt and Rob Roy, with a live art performance throughout by Jim Mahfood, Dumperfoo, Mike Huddleston and Scott Morse. Entrance is a $5 donation to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and if you need more reason to attend, the limited edition Coke Zero print Paul talked about above is being given free to the first 300 people there.
Thanks to Jeff Newelt for setting this up.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is auctioning off this page of original Pope artwork from the short strip that appeared in March's JJ Abrams-edited issue of Wired magazine, featuring Spock's memories of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. Pope was happy about how this page turned out:

It was a fun page to draw... It's got Spock, of course, and J.J's take on him is what drew me into this story. But I got to draw Shatner too, Kirk, and he's surprisingly a lot harder to capture.

The original art measures 16" x 21.5". The art will be displayed at the CBLDF booth and auctioned on Saturday night, July 25 at 7:15 in Room 2 of the Convention Center, but remote bids will also be taken at info@cbldf.org.

CBLDF's Comic-Con Auction Preview! [CBLDF]

Here are a few panels from the gorgeous 6-page comic, drawn by comics legend Paul Pope. Basically we get a snapshot of how Spock grew up dealing with various puzzles - and a pretty scary lion-thing - during his adolescence. And then we see that as an adult, he continues to enjoy using the puzzle part of his brain on 3-D chess (which he plays with Kirk). There's also a mysterious hint that Spock has to make an enormous decision that will change the course of the Enterprise's history. Hmmm, could this be linked to the time travel plot in the new movie?

To see the full comic, grab the new issue of Wired at your local newsstand. Guest editor Abrams has helmed an intriguing issue, packed with stories on the theme of "mysteries and puzzles." Which makes sense coming from the guy who created Lost, the most puzzle-tacular show on TV.

Both 1999's Heavy Liquid and 2002's 100% saw Pope move out of the comfort zone of his ongoing THB series, and into shorter, more complete works that were as much Beat-influenced as SF. (Liquid in particular has a particular Burroughs-esque quality in the creation of the drug of the title.)

As a result, both books manage to feel both classic and contemporary at the same time, simultaneously dated and ahead of their time. Both books also feel almost impossibly stylish; it's not just that Pope's art is beautifully lush in both books (assisted in Liquid with two-tone colors from Lee Loughridge), all brushwork and cityscapes.,But the stories are rich as well. Even though Pope is writing about people who should be lowlifes and schmucks, everyone you meet seems infinitely cooler than you, more creative, more fulfilled even in their fucked-upness; Pope's work is amazingly glamorous no matter what his subject is, and his international mix of influences works very well making you wish that both of the worlds in these two books were real, and yours.

(Out of nowhere, I've just realized that Pope's future in both of these books also feels classic in another sense; it's curiously reminiscent of a 1980s view of future cities, a la Blade Runner and Max Headroom. Has there been another wave of future city culture-building since then that's been as successful, I wonder?)

Of the two books, 100% is the more successful. Heavy Liquid is enjoyable enough, a science fiction mystery about the origins and uses of a substance that can be either a drug or an art project, and is worth getting killed for. But it's also ultimately unfulfilling. The story stops just where it should be starting, and only the lead character feels anywhere close to being fleshed out, beyond what the plot requires.

100%, on the other hand, is probably the most complete thing Pope has done, an ideal merging of his more abstract interests (the nature of creativity, the distance between people, the effects of violence on the people around it) with a warm humanism that makes you care about all of the characters in the book. Unlike Liquid, this is a more character-led piece that uses the more SF-trappings as window-dressing (which isn't to say that they're throwaway; the world-building Pope does in the book is impressive yet familiar) and much better as a result; Pope mentions in the book's afterword that his editor suggested the Robert Altman-esque structure of the story, and it's a creative shove that pays off, bringing a coherence and complexity that Liquid lacks.

100% is, to my mind, the best thing Pope's ever done, or at least, the best fiction (I have a not-so-quiet love for his coffee table book of sketches and essays, Pulp Hope); it's science fiction that's messy, honest and at times beautiful, a story for grown-ups that ditches astronauts for strippers, heroes for artists and makes everything into a world of possibility all over again. Highly recommended.

100% and Heavy Liquid are both available now.

If you really want to ignore collections in favor of single issues, there're really only four new launches worth paying attention to this week, and they all have movie and/or TV connections.

Marvel's Rampaging Wolverine is an oddity; a pretend issue of an imaginary series that would, theoretically, have been published in the 1970s, but starring Marvel's most lucrative mutant.

You're on much safer ground with IDW's Terminator Salvation Movie Adaptation #0, a prologue to the comic version of the next chapter in Skynet's plan to take over the world of media.

TV, meanwhile, is well represented with Dynamite's Battlestar Galactica: The Final Five (Apparently about the history of our favorite five cylons) and Boom!'s latest Farscape series, Strange Detractors.

However, I'd be remiss if I didn't really point you in the direction of some of the great trade-paperback collections hitting stores tomorrow. J. Michael Stracynski's first attempt at Watchmen-influenced superheroics, Rising Stars gets a complete compendium from Image. Image is also releasing a collection of the "Hellboy but without the sense of foreboding" fun series Perhapanauts.

Marvel Comics, meanwhile, is putting out a hardcover of the surprisingly successful (and surprisingly fun) Marvel Apes, along with a new collection of the first year of the original Exiles series that crosses the X-Men and Sliders into one new reality-hopping idea.

Meanwhile, DC is doing its bit for the good of comics with 100%, a new hardcover edition of comic genius Paul Pope's most coherent and complete work to date; I'm going to be writing more about this tomorrow, but I've gone on about my love for this story already and can definitely say that, if you haven't read this before, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. It's easily the comic release of the week, if not the month.

(Runner-up for that title? Essential Dazzler Volume 2. It's nowhere near as good as 100% - or even that good at all, really - but the 1980s comics featuring Marvel's Disco Diva - who only got her own series after the disco fad had faded - has a weird charm all of its own. For those seeking camp romance comics with added angst and fights, this is definitely for you.)

All of these books and more can be found on the complete shipping list of what's making it to stores this week, and once you've worked your way through that, you'll want to head to the Comic Book Store Locator Service to find out where to find such fine pictorial entertainment. Just remember: Paul Pope and I both say that 100% is a must for your shopping list.

Sky Doll:
This French story about a sexbot who stows away with space truckers to find her true destiny reads like a more enjoyable The Fifth Element, mixing spirituality, sexuality and awkward humor to create a beautifully-illustrated not-so-guilty pleasure.
(Published by Marvel Comics, $24.99.)

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus:
This four-volume series of hardcovers collects all of the various comics that made up X-Men and Fantastic Four co-creator Kirby's 1970s magnum opus about godlike aliens bringing their war to Earth. Ignored and cancelled due to low sales at the time, these have since taken their place as some of the all-time best American SF comics.
(Published by DC Comics, each volume $49.99.)

The Babysitter Collection:
You probably won't have heard of Andy Ristaino's mind-bending story of Setsuko Kagaku, the Japanese schoolgirl who happens to be the world's greatest babysitter, but once you've seen this amazing, mind-bending book that gleefully rewrites the rulebook on how comics work and questions the nature of reality, you'll never be able to forget it.
(Published by SLG, $29.95.)

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer Season 8:
Surely you need no explanation why the official comic continuation of the TV series - overseen and written in part by Joss Whedon, with the other writers including Cloverfield's Drew Goddard - makes this list. If you have to pick just one of the four collections to date, we'd suggest the Brian K. Vaughan-written "No Future For You", which brings back Faith and Giles for some ass-kicking in good ol' Blighty that doesn't rely too heavily on the uber-arc for the season.
(Published by Dark Horse, each volume $15.95.)

Laika:
Nick Abadzis' semi-fictional biography of the First Dog In Space is subtle, beautiful and enough to break the heart of even the most cynical bastard. If you're an animal lover, then you'll probably be in tears by the end.
(Published by First Second, $17.95.)

Scott Pilgrim:
Bryan Lee O'Malley's enjoyable series of graphic novels - Probably my favorite current series, not that that really matters to you - blends twenty-something ennui, surreal humor (Wait until you meet the vegan in the third volume), video game references, and some wonderful artwork to create something that's both timeless and effortless contemporary. Plus, where else do you get to read about a boy who has to fight his girlfriend's Seven Evil Ex-Boyfriends in order to win her heart?
(Published by Oni Press, each volume $11.95.)

All-Star Superman, Vol. 1:
Superhero comics may not get much better than this recently-completed series by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely; pulling the genre away from angst-ridden punchfests, ASS - yes, I know - instead offers a more contemplative and imaginative Superman who falls victim to Lex Luthor's ultimate masterplan and still tries to save the day, every day. This volume collects the first half of the series; a second is due next year, so you can give it to someone this time in 2009.
(Published by DC Comics, $12.99.)

100%:
Yes, I'm stretching the "recent" thing for this 2005 collection of Paul Pope's series about life in a future New York, full of love stories and artists and people in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it'll always be an amazing book, the closest we'll ever get to Robert Altman directing a science fiction Bukowski. Or something.
(Published by DC Comics/Vertigo, $24.99.)

The Doctor Who Storybook 2009:
Is this too non-comic-booky? Possibly, but each year in the UK, a Doctor Who Storybook is released for kids, featuring brand new stories written by the TV show's writers (The 2006 edition featured the first version of "Blink," by Steven Moffat; this year, Mark Gatiss, Gareth Roberts and James Moran are all contributing), as well as a "Letter from the Doctor" written by the showrunner (This year is Moffat's first; Russell T Davies has done the last couple). If it helps, there's a comic strip in there too, but I don't think you'll need much more convincing.
(Published by Panini Books, price depending on whatever you pay on import; £7.99 in the UK.)

Any Showcase or Essential Collection:
Help a friend or family member relive their misspent childhood with these black and white phonebook collections of comics from the 1960s and '70s. DC's brand is "DC Showcase Presents", Marvel's is "Marvel Essential," but both offer over 500 pages of reprinted goodness for $16.99; you can find a list of each line here (Showcase) and here (Essentials).
(Published by DC Comics and Marvel Comics, $16.99.)

Two Additional Stocking Stuffers That Aren't Really Comics, But Still:
Fables: Covers by James Jean:
All eleven volumes to date of Bill Willingham's wonderful Fables would make ideal stocking stuffers as well, but the pride of place has to go to this stunningly beautiful collection of illustrator James Jean's covers to the first 75 issues (and ten collections) of the series. Breathtakingly illustrated in paint, pencil and digitally, the work contained in this book is awe-inspiring.
(Published by DC Comics/Vertigo, $39.99.)

Thrill Power Overload:
Another import that's well worth tracking down, David Bishop's history of the first thirty years of British comic 2000AD is both salacious and educational, filled with gossip and stories about the creation of characters like Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper and the early careers of creators like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and even Neil Gaiman. Enjoyable even if you've never read an issue of the comic itself.
(Published by Rebellion Books, price depending on whatever you pay on import; £34.99 in the UK.)

Creator Pope explained the plot of Battling Boy - to be released as a graphic novel in 2010 - like this:

Battling Boy is the son of a god or a super hero—it is left unspecified—who comes down from the top of a mountain (or rather, from inside a cloud/UFO contraption/contrivance from above a mountain top) at this father's behest, in order to rid a giant city from it's plague of monsters. Hercules had his labors, Batman has his Gotham, Battling Boy has his Monstropolis.

Monstropolis is a city the size of an entire continent—and it is absolutely overrun with monsters. These are horrible, Grimm's fairytale, Beowulf-ish monsters, awful things. Child-stealers. Plus some of the vampires and mummies and wolfmen we remember from the old black and white Hollywood horror films. Which—if you remember—aren't very funny. And they don't all like each other, either. Even a monster can't stand another monster, this has been proven time and time again.

While the movie version has move past this initial option (No writers, directors or stars have been linked to the project yet, and no release date has been announced), we're ready to get in line right now, just to see this kind of thing on the big screen:

Paramount gets behind 'Battling Boy' [Variety]

The line was announced back in March, with DKNY Jeans president Kevin Monogue enthusing about the collaboration in perfect PR speak:

Working with an exciting artist like Paul on something so unique to the market keeps DKNY Jeans connected to our consumer's interests and also allows us to offer him innovative products and ideas. Identifying two mediums that have similar aesthetics and developing ways to meld them is part of the DNA of the DKNY Jeans brand. We are really excited about 2089.

Pope himself was looking further that just selling some clothes in his aims:

I see this line as a way of stealing Pop back from Warhol. We've seen comics endlessly pillaged in the high art world and adapted to film, for better or worse. We've seen comics images quoted in fashion and copied in street art. Comics has a cultural currency all its own. But this is maybe the first time an actual cartoonist has been given the chance to launch his own brand, to build it from concept on up, to do it within the bounds of an established label such as DKNY Jeans.

Pope's involvement went further than just designing the clothes themselves - he also designed individual window displays for Asian markets.
Between this and James Jean's work for Prada, comic book artist involvement may be the new thing for fashion houses. When Chris Ware starts doing work for Target, though, I'm declaring the fad over.

[Paul Pope's DKNY NYC 2089]

The meks are part of Pope's masterpiece, THB, which he's currently preparing for release through :01 First Second Books next year; but that's not the only place that you'll be able to find Pope in the future; DKNY is launching NYC 2089, a range of clothing he designed (including a "new form of camouflage" he created for the line), next month, and he's apparently considering wallpaper as his next canvas. But, really? He's all about the meks. And here, straight from his sketchbook, is the heirarchy of supermeks - just so that you know that being called a tool is still insulting, even if you're a robot.
Color images by Feroze, sketchbook image by Paul Pope.

A Supermek [Pulphope]

Paul Pope (writer/artist)
What he's famous for: His works range from the scifi title THB to the manga-esque Supertrouble to the future-Batman epic Batman: Year 100. He's also done comics for Toonami's website.
What we'd like to see: Pope's visual storytelling style is un-paralleled, but he's also a super-imaginative writer. His Batman is both more vulnerable, and more resourceful, than most of the super-lucky versions in comics or film. But we'd really like to see Pope do a movie version of a scifi epic like THB, the story of a teenage girl on Mars, and her superpowered bodyguard, who's a small rubber ball until you add water. (Then he turns into a huge super-guy.)

Mike Allred (writer/artist)
What he's famous for: Mostly, Allred is known for his series Madman, the story of Frank Einstein, a Frankenstein's monster-esque superhero, and his friends. Madmen is one of 100 projects that Robert Rodriguez is supposed to be turning into a movie. His earlier series, Graphik Musik, is well worth hunting down for storylines such as G-Men From Hell, now a cult indie movie. He also did a rock 'n' roll scifi story Red Rocket 7, and teamed up with Peter Milligan on the fantastic post-modern X-Men spinoff X-Statix.
What we'd like to see: Allred should wrest the Madman movie back from Robert Rodriguez, and do his own take on the brightly colored undead superhero storyline. After seeing Spy Kids, I'm sure Rodriguez could do a fun version, but I want to see Allred's own crazy vision on the big screen. And if Allred wanted to have Milligan help him with the script, after their incredible colllaboration on the X-Statix comics, that would be fine with us.

Chris Ware (writer/artist)
What he's famous for: He channels old-old-old-school comics masters like Winsor McKay (Little Nemo) in comics like Jimmy Corrigan or Quimby the Mouse. He also does a series of strips about a character called the Super-Man, who is like a messed up version of Superman with receding hair and a domino mask, who sometimes falls to his death and sometimes goes around killing people and wreaking havoc.
What we'd like to see: Give Allred a Michel Gondry-sized budget and let him make a weird off-beat movie with a bitter twist.

Darwyn Cooke (writer/artist)
What he's famous for: He helped super-writer Ed Brubaker revamp Catwoman in 2001, with a fresh look that combined the clean lines of Batman: The Animated Series (which Cooke worked on) with a gloomy noir sensibility. Then he went on to reinvent the origins of DC Comics' silver age characters with the miniseries DC: The New Frontier, which became a direct-to-DVD animated movie. Finally, he teamed up with Jeph Loeb to do a Batman/Spirit minseries, and then wrote and penciled a Spirit series for a year.
What we'd like to see: Scrap Miller's The Spirit and give us Cooke's on the big screen instead. I don't even care if Miller's done filming. Just include Miller's version as an extra on the DVD of Cooke's version. Cooke's series nailed what Miller's movie looks like it'll miss out on: the playfulness and vividness of Will Eisner's original comics. And Cooke found ways to bring the Spirit into the 21st century without losing what was cool about the character originally.

Grant Morrison (writer)
What he's famous for: God, where do we begin? Umm, okay. He's that rare comics writer who can dip our brains in acid with Vertigo series like The Invisibles or Seaguy, or take us on a wide-screen superhero adventure with JLA or New X-Men — and both stories are equally great. Superhero comics are lucky to have a number of great writers right now, including Brubaker, Brian Bendis, Mark Waid, Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek. But none of them have Morrison's versatility and range. His graphic novel We3, which is the greatest cute-animal comic and the greatest cyborg comic ever, is supposed to become a movie at some point.
What we'd like to see: I'm torn. Part of me wants to see Uncle Grant tackle a big zoomy superhero fight story along the lines of his JLA arcs like Rock Of Ages. Part of me wants to see him do a more quirky, weird indy project like his Bollywood epic Vimanarama. Ideally, I'd like both, or a fusion of the two: a big action movie with a weird odyssey into crazy-land halfway through. (Oh, and just in case someone is going to claim writers shouldn't direct movies, I'll just say two words: Joss Whedon.)

Gail Simone (writer)
What she's famous for: Simone went from being one of the comics industry's staunchest critics (with the "Women In Refrigerators" website) to one of its rising star writers, with comics like Birds Of Prey and Wonder Woman. Her original series, like retired-superhero saga Welcome To Tranquility, are also well worth checking out for their quirky characters like the Emoticon, a supervillain with a mask that reveals his emotions. But her crowning achievement may well be Villains United/Secret Six, the saga of a group of supervillains who are just trying to get ahead and avoid getting smushed by other supervillains.
What we'd like to see: A Secret Six movie, no question. A PG-13 epic with gunplay, betrayals, twists, and supervillain-on-supervillain sex.

Evan Dorkin (writer/artist)
What he's famous for: He's probably most famous for creating Milk And Cheese, the "dairy products gone bad" who look so cool on a T-shirt (and are a tad boring on the comics page, sorry.) But his best work is elsewhere, including the Dork anthology and its "Eltingville Science Fiction Club" stories, which got made into a Cartoon Network pilot. Just watch this. We'll wait for you:

He also worked on the animated Superman series along with his longtime collaborator Sarah Dyer, produced a surprisingly brilliant comic about superhero Mad-Dog to tie in with Bob Newhart's short-lived Bob sitcom, and made a bunch of Bill And Ted comics that were better than the second movie and spinoff TV series.
What we'd like to see: Give Dorkin (and maybe Dyer) a huge budget and just let them go crazy. Given that he excels at little short gags in Dork, a big-screen Dorkin film would probably have lots and lots of weird little funny bits that barely connected to anything else, and then there would be moments of surprising pathos... followed by someone's eye getting stabbed out. Fun!

Carla Speed McNeil
What she's famous for: She writes and draws the ongoing science fiction adventure series Finder, which deals with issues of identity and authenticity in a far-future Earth. My favorite storyline is "Dream Sequence," about a weird semi-crazy guy whose mind forms the mainframe for a super-popular virtual reality environment, and all the people who want a piece of him.
What we'd like to see: A big-screen version of Finder, directed by McNeil.

Mike Baron and Steve Rude (writer and artist)
What they're famous for: Okay, I'm getting a bit old-school here, but this is a science fiction site, and it would be remiss to leave out Baron and the Dude. They co-created Nexus, a science fictional superhero comic about a guy who has nightmares about very bad people whom he must assassinate. Luckily (?) the weird creature that gave Nexus the nightmares also gave him the power to kill those bad people, and make the dreams stop. But the real stars of Nexus are the huge universe Baron and Rude created, including supporting characters like the stalwart Judah The Hammer and the slippery politician Vooper. The comic recently had its 100th issue.
What we'd like to see: The very first Nexus trade paperback would make a fantastic movie, introducing the main character Horatio Hellpop and his space-faring adventures, including his early relationship with Sundra Peale.

Mike Mignola (writer/artist)
What he's famous for: Mignola's most famous work, Hellboy, has already been turned into two movies directed by the superb Guillermo Del Toro, with Mignola's involvement. He's created a whole world of Hellboy spinoffs, including BPRD and Lobster Johnson. He's also done tons of work on other comics, and created the super-popular one shot The Amazing Screw-On Head.
What we'd like to see: Maybe Mignola could direct Hellboy 3 himself? That would get around his recent concerns that Del Toro will kill off his hero in ways that could make further comic-book adventures feel redundant. And even though we love Del Toro's visual style, we'd love to see how Mignola's own twisted eye would translate to movies. Also, Screw-On Head was made into an animated pilot by the Sci Fi Channel, but what about live-action version?

Pope compared these two images without commentary on his Flickr photostream:

Of course, even if the Bat-Pod is lifted wholesale from Pope's 2006 comic, it's not as if the moviemakers have necessarily done anything illegal; Warner Bros owns both the comic and the movie, after all. But would a little credit - or even notice - have been too much to ask for?

[Paul Pope's Flickr]

Talking to Comic Book Resources, Pope admitted a secret luddite tendency:

I think there is a huge shift of public consciousness which comes with the implementation of significant new tools. Technology changes people's perception of time and distance, and it is necessary to be aware of all this, to create and understand new conceptual frameworks in order to understand and navigate the unanticipated social changes which follow... I worry about the gradual coarsening of society.

It's just exciting to come up with all kinds of ideas for machines and robots and costumes and whatever, architecture or whatever, and then draw them out on a page.

Paul Pope 2089 [CBR.cc]