That Gum You Like (Weekend Pattering for January 13th, 2017)

Previously on Panel Patter

Review: 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank #3 (James K.)
James' 2016 Favorites Part 1: Favorite Books and Writers (James K.)
Sacrificing Story for Nostalgia in Howard Chaykin's Midnight of the Soul (Scott C.)
James' 2016 Favorites Part 2: Favorite Artists (James K.)
Love and Archie and Rockets-- a look at Archie Volume Two (Scott C.)
2016 Comics that Scott Will Still Be Thinking About in 2017 (Scott C.)
Best Shots: Tomie (Scott C. @ Newsarama)
Best Shots: DC Rebirth Suicide Squad (Scott C. @ Newsarama)
Honor Roll: Superman #14 (James K. @ Comicosity)

Cover of the Next Week

** It's 2017 and DC is reviving the DC Challenge with a "story" focused around Jack Kirby's Kamandi. And to commemorate the upcoming new series, DC is reprinting Kamandi #32 by the King. Welcome to 2017 where everything old is new again.

And in this case, I welcome Kamandi to our future!

This and That

** The Best Comics of 2016 (According to Some) (The Comics Journal)-- Panel Patter alum Rob Kirby and Whit Taylor contribute to TCJ's roundup of their writer's favorite comics of 2016.

** Rob’s 6th Annual Top 20 Comics List: The 2016 Edition (Rob Kirby)-- Rob goes deeper into his best comics of 2016.

At times like these it's easy to wonder: "Why bother with stuff like a Best Of Year list?" But moving forward and celebrating art and creative expression, even in the midst of calamitous world events, can never be a bad thing. Right? Plus this is my 6th annual Fave Comics list and old OCD-ish habits do die hard...so I'm forging ahead, shining a light through the surrounding fog of dread & fear onto some real good stuff–the stuff I liked best in what turned to be a pretty good year for comics after all. This time around I broke it down into my ten favorite books and ten favorite minicomics/floppies–with the strict ground rule that everything had to have been published during this terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad-but-still-with-some-bright-spots year. Enjoy, and let's all stay strong and fight back against what’s coming, just around the corner. And good riddance to you, 2016: the very mention of your name should now & forever carry a fucking Trigger Warning.