Ian McGillis has submitted a special report in today’s Montreal Gazette entitled Comics and graphics Novels: The State of the Art.

It’s basically a run down of books recently published by Montreal’s Drawn & Quarterly – including the latest from Kate Beaton, Seth, Marc Bell and more. McGillis addresses the fact that 10 of his 13 selections are D+Q publications in his introduction:

Graphic literature went from strength to strength in 2011, edging ever closer to the day when it will be spoken of as literature, period. Any form that can embrace subjects and styles ranging from academic studies to visual novels to social history to uproarious parody has a vitality that speaks for itself, and the books below represent the state of the art. The preponderance of titles from Drawn & Quarterly, it should be emphasized, is not hometown boosterism; the Montreal publisher is a world leader in the field, and this year might have been its best.

I’m not convinced it isn’t boosterism, but Drawn & Quarterly DID publish some great books this fall, no doubt about that!