Best of 2016? 
 For me, a good deal of reading and accumulating went on, and not enough reviewing. But I still enjoyed reading many excellent and entertaining and terrible GR reviews in 2016. 
 In the Contemporary Art & Art History Monograph category: 
 This... 
 - for which I wrote a long, embarrassingly enthusiastic review. 
 & 
 - which is kind of the final word... for a day or so... on the technical attributes of a truly Bosch-y painting. This ambitious project was initiated on behalf of the town in the Flanders region where Jheronimus was born, lived, painted and took his now infamous surname... then known by the catchy appellation of S'Hertogenbosch. 
 You want as many details as possible when it comes to Bosch, and this book has plenty. Even a relatively simple work like 'St. Christopher' (see the 1st painting below), which depicts the saint using his giant frame to carry Jesus safely across a river, is full of details: i.e. a hunter, hoisting a bear with one of his crossbow bolts still lodged in its chest, over a high branch; across the river, a dragon emerges from a ruined castle, surprising a bather. 
 So... the hometown mission, dubbed the B.R.C.P. (the Bosch Research & Conservation Project), wanted to create the definitive Hieronymus Bosch: Catalogue Raisonne for the 500th anniversary of his death. The BRCP were granted access to some of the most precious artwork on the planet after assembling a world-class team of academic heavyweights and procuring the best in cutting-edge, hi-res, multi-spectrum photography. Selling the project as the Bosch study to end all Bosch studies, they gave these museums a chance to learn more about their Bosch acquisitions, AND to have their paintings verified as true works of the master, AND get a bit of publicity when the book went to press. 
 When art geeks show up with cutting-edge photographic technology that captures imagery using ultraviolet, infrared and x-rays -- and they start comparing the curves and folds of St. Anthony's ears, and indicating how a Bosch ear compares to a Mantegna ear to a Giovanni Bellini ear (he's the best Bellini, if you're into Bellinis) -- you'd better take these fucking geeks seriously. At least until they put away their deadly ray-guns... then you can laugh all you like, and flip beercaps and pennies at them until they run away weeping. 
 I'm still not sure if it's a 'better' Bosch catalogue raisonne than the massive Taschen XL edition, by Stefan Fischer, which remains the most visually stunning of the several Bosch monographs I own, making great use of the 12" x 16" format, including a center gatefold of 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' that assaults your art-balls with terrible beauty. 
 It even replicates the painted outer cabinet doors, with a grisaille rendered sphere depicting the world as a fishbowl planetoid. These wings fold open to reveal the triptych, and they unfold top and bottom as well, expanding to a flawless double-sided reproduction that is 44" wide x 23" tall when the cabinet doors are open, and 22" wide x 23" tall when closed. But as an imposing slab of academic art-book, the Hertogenbosch home team have created something of lasting importance with their art-guns and jargonizing. If you're just in it for the pictures, go big. This Taschen book comes with it's own carrying case... 
 The Taschen XL version: the carrying case; the 12" wide x 16" tall book itself; the stunning 44" wide x 23" tall 2-sided gatefold of 'The Garden of Earthly Delights'; 
 I picked up another couple Catalogue Raisonne's that were released in the last few months. Both were more expensive than either of the Bosch C.R.'s, but they focused on artists that began their respective careers in the last years of the 19th century. One belongs on the 'Best of 2016 List', and the other is my first pick for 'Worst of 2016 List'. 
 The first was a surprisingly rich 2-volume, 1100-page collection of everything Aubrey Beardsley scribbled before dying at just 25: 
 This is a perfect example of Catalogue Raisonne's done right. University Presses, even Ivy League schools, are pretty inconsistent in terms of quality, design, etc., but Yale University is killing it; they co-published the 'Hieronymus Bosch: C.R.' with Fonds Mercator, and published the 'Aubrey Beardsley: C.R.' themselves. Both releases are critically unassailable, which means that any criticism will be countered with ear-buds and 'Mastodon' or 'Baroness' cranked to deafening levels. I'm not hearing that shit. Literally. 
 WORST of 2016, Art-Books: The second was a disappointing single volume C.R. that focused solely on the paintings of the great Frantisek Kupka, an artist I love who is long overdue for a comprehensive C.R., but went ignored because his transition from Hodler/Segantini-style Symbolist to founding pioneer of Abstraction clearly contradicted Modernist dogshit dogma: 
 Frantisek Kupka deserves so much better. First of all, they made it tri-lingual. That's fine for a 50$ Taschen book. For a 300-400$ C.R.? Fuck no. Do multiple editions, or fucking pick a language and go with it. It was well-bound, but not overly impressive; a 600-page book full of dry facts concerning provenance, with little or no biographical insights. The paper was a thin, cheap, uncoated stock, but it didn't really matter, because the reproductions were fucking awful, about 3.5" square. The resolution made it clear they were haphazardly culled from Google searches, and a significant percentage were in Black & White. This would have seemed dated in the 80's. 
 At the back of this bound atrocity, where European books print the indicia page, I found a single sentence, all by itself in bold: "The editors apologize for the poor quality of the photographic reproductions, as they were unable to procure better images before going to press." 
 WHAT. THE. FUCK. I wonder why they didn't include that in their Amazon ad-copy?... Hmm. 
 A Catalogue Raisonne, like every art-book, is all about the fucking ART... 80%, at least. You do NOT go to press until you've represented the original art as faithfully as possible, on the best paper possible. It's like a knife without a blade. It's like selling a car without a fucking engine. It's like rushing to move into a house before the shingles are on the roof and the windows and doors are installed. Especially when the publisher has the temerity to slap a $325.00 CAD price-tag on it. 
 In the Deluxe Over-sized SeqArt Hardcovers: Part 1 - 'Artist's Editions' category: 
 This is in the No. 1 Spot... 
 Not only is it a true 2016 release, it's one of the best Original Art facsimiles released to date. Frank Miller put everything he had as an artist into the first and best 'Sin City' narrative, and his art is a chiaroscuro nightmare of perfect, vicious beauty. This wasn't actually an IDW 'Artist's Edition'; there's a couple different companies who started their own version of the line; DC and Graphitti Designs have their 'Gallery Editions', and just to confuse things, Dark Horse released their own 'Gallery Editions'. 'Frank Miller's Sin City: The Hard Goodbye' is actually the first entry in the 'Curator's Collection' line from Dark Horse and Kitchen Sink, which bodes well for fans of these books. Even more exciting is the 'Studio Edition' line from Fantagraphics Books. The first book will be the largest and most impressive yet, reprinting 200 glorious fucking pages from Hal Foster's 'Prince Valiant', and the second will be devoted to Jaime Hernandez' work on 'Love & Rockets'. Jeebus. IDW has given us some great mainstream and classic fare, but the prospect of seeing books of original art from Charles Burns, Jim Woodring, Al Columbia, Jesse Jacobs, Paul Pope, Dave Cooper, Geof Darrow, Ladronn, Farel Dalrymple, David B., Joe Daly... hell yeah. 
 Bigger & Blacker & Messier Than Ever - full-scale Sin City: 
 The 2nd Best 'Artist's Edition': 
 Another 2016 release from IDW, this book follows the first Mignola Artist's Edition from a year or two before, reprinting Mignola's stunning original art from the first 5 issues of 'Hellboy in Hell'. I love that book, but some fans complained about the lack of dialogue and captions... since most comics add the word balloons and lettering digitally, and leave the art-boards untouched. For that book, I liked seeing the work unobscured by white bubbles. But for the follow-up, 'Mike Mignola's The Amazing Screw-On Head(...) Artist's Edition', most of the stories come lettered. The stories represent almost every period of his artistic evolution, and every panel is chiaroscuro perfection. Best of all, it includes a 60-page cover gallery that triggers a full on art-gasm everytime I look at it; it's the covers he's done since 2007 or so, mostly for Mignolaverse titles, picking up where 'The Art of Hellboy' left off. If you're a Mignola fan, and you're contemplating which 'Artist's Edition' to buy, 'Amazing Screw-On Head' is the one... though you can't go wrong buying both. 
 Mike Mignola at his finest: 
 Other 'Artist's Edition' Bests of 2016: 
 The Best Comics and Comic-Related Books of 2016: