April Books 29) Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? by Neil Gaiman
Gaiman claims here that he is returning to his roots, by writing a piece about his first serious fandom (though he does not put it like that); it is a two-part story about Batman's funeral, but in Gaiman's hands it becomes much more than that, developing into an exploration of story and modern mythology and what they might mean to those who experience them. I thought it was very good; the deluxe edition comes with several other Gaiman-scripted stories in the Batman universe, of which the best are the first two, one featuring the Joker and Batman sitting around waiting for their turn to appear on the page, the other exploring the character of Poison Ivy, constrained in the Arkham Asylum. So that's two of this year's Best Graphic Story shortlist read; I will be surprised if any of the other three beats this one.