Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 352 pp, hardcover.

In his introduction to this fifth volume of The Best American Comics, guest editor Neil Gaiman admits that the book couldn't possibly live up to its title. "I didn't read every comic published in America over the time span of this book," he writes. "I wish I had: it would have been fun. [Series editors] Jessica Abel and Matt Madden did not read everything published in America either. Twenty years ago, it might have been barely possible: today, it's a pipe dream." As an alternative title, Gaiman suggests A Sampler: Some Really Good Comics, Including Extracts from Longer Stories We Thought Could Stand on Their Own, which is a mouthful, if somewhat more accurate.

Indeed, anytime you claim to be presenting the "best" of anything, you're going to face a chorus of contrary opinions. If, for instance, you favour superhero comics, you won't find much here of interest to you. (You will, however, find an excerpt of Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple's offbeat reboot of Omega the Unknown, a short-lived 1970s Marvel obscurity that was weird enough to begin with.)

Since matters of taste are inherently subjective, I can't tell you if you'll agree with Gaiman, Abel, and Madden that these 25 stories and extracts were among the most outstanding graphic-narrative works published in North America between September 1, 2008, and August 31, 2009. I will say that the editors couldn't go too far wrong including pieces by Chris Ware, Robert Crumb, Peter Bagge, and Ben Katchor.

You might also discover some new favourites, as I did with Toronto's Michael Cho. Cho's "Trinity", first published in Taddle Creek magazine, tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the birth of the atomic age, it's muted palette of cool black and blue broken only by the brilliant orange flash of the first nuclear detonation. (Cho also contributed the book's cover art.)

I also loved John Pham's clearly Ware-inspired "Deep Space" and the excerpt from The Alcoholic, Jonathan Ames's sobering graphic-novel debut (with art by Dean Haspiel).

Whether or not The Best American Comics fulfills its titular promise is a moot point, but Gaiman certainly got one thing right: this is a sampling of some really good stuff.