From the NY Times’s Gift Guide for Graphic Books – 9 selections make the cut, including 3 by Canadians:

KILL SHAKESPEARE (IDW, $19.99) Volume 1 brings together the playwright’s heroes, including Hamlet and Juliet, and pits them against a pack of adversaries led by Richard III and Lady Macbeth, all of whom want to find a wizard named William Shakespeare. The story, written by Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col, with art by Andy Belanger, is gripping, violent and dark fun, even if you’re not fully versed in Shakespearean lore. If you are — as one of my colleagues, Steven McElroy, is — rejoice: “There is the allure of familiarity and the joy of being on the lookout for who might show up next — even Parolles (still a coward) makes an appearance,” he said.

If you enjoyed the criminally underappreciated film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, you’ll love the source series. SCOTT PILGRIM’S FINEST HOUR (Oni Press, $11.99), the last of six installments by Bryan Lee O’Malley, finds the title hero mourning his lost love, Ramona, and acting as immature as ever. He tells his other love interest, Knives, who has recently turned 18: “Do you want to have sex? I think we should have sex. Casual sex.” Despite his many flaws, Scott remains a character you want to see succeed. The final volume is filled with the video-game imagery and breaking-the-fourth-wall asides that were evident in the previous tales. During his confrontation with Gideon, his ultimate barrier in reuniting with Ramona, Scott says: “I don’t even want to fight you! The secondary characters made me do it!” The complete series is available in SCOTT PILGRIM’S PRECIOUS LITTLE BOXSET for $72.

Darwyn Cooke revisits Parker, the antihero created by the novelist Richard Stark, in THE OUTFIT (IDW, $24.99). This book has everything the first had: tough guys, capers and a 1960s vibe that feels like an underworld version of “Mad Men.” Among the high points of this installment — Mr. Cooke plans to adapt four Parker novels in all — are the heists arranged against the criminal syndicate Parker despises. The six-page sequence about a heroin operation wonderfully, and incongruously, juxtaposes tense Mamet-like verbal sparring grit with an almost whimsical visual style. The coda promises “Parker will return in 2012.” Let the countdown begin.