Top Shelf Asks the Big Questions

    (Top Shelf, 2003)
™ and © Top Shelf

Comics anthologies normally have some kind of theme or linchpin, such as “comics by Hawaiian creators” or “the best comics of February.” Top Shelf Asks the Big Questions lacks any such unifier. Even the title is an enigma, although it is also the name of one of the pieces contained within.

There is no table of contents and no creator index. In short, the amenities that readers have come to expect from such collections are absent.

That’s not to say that the comics are not enjoyable. Among the best: Rob Goodin spins “The Monkey and the Crocodile,” Mack White shares “Bison Bill’s Weird West,” and Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie’s Cobweb appears as “La Toile.” On the other hand, Moore and Gebbie’s Lost Girls piece is essentially an ad for an upcoming collection. Similarly, Teresa Celsi and David Chelsea’s “The Mysterious Tabtab,” a Tintin parody, is well-executed but leaves the reader wondering, “So what?”

The closest this collection has to a theme is that there are a number of pieces in memory of the late Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. These are radically different in style, but all respectful of the influential artist.

In the end, Top Shelf Asks the Big Questions is a $25 sampler. It’s good but lacks direction.

— Jack Abramowitz
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