The Comic Book Thread

[lhb412]

Yesterday I picked up a couple more FCBD issues at my fav shop (Scooby-Doo Team Up and Secret Wars). Today I visited this used bookstore that I like that's been building up its comic section over the past few years - and they had the FCBD Avengers issue I'd been angling for!

... then I saw that they apparently got in a lot of new used titles, overstock, and even some new new stuff in their comic section and, uh, the petty cash reserve is now wiped out for the next few weeks. But I now have a bunch of collections of Eisner's The Spirit (including all of Darwyn Cooke's reboot from a few years ago), old album collections of the Steve Canyon comic strip, a metric ton of EC Comics single issues reprints (Haunt of Fear, Two-Fisted Tales, Weird Science), and the new omnibus of the Darkwing Duck comic from a few years ago (which apparently will lead into a new DD title later this year).

It was a good weekend.

[lhb412]

Some thoughts on this year's FCBD offerings:

Doctor Who - Kudos to giving us three complete stories in this offering, not simply teasers. None of them seem that comfortable in their briefness, but they all do their job of giving a feel for the three Doctors' respective titles. Interesting that the 10th and 11th comics are set during 'hidden years' skipped by their TV counterparts and have original companions while the 12th Doctor is set concurrent with the present TV series with Clara.
Supermutant Magic Academy was good for some slightly-older skewing Peanuts-style ennui, but Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant strips (a preview of the next collection) steal the show.
Divergence - I think Jim Gordon as Batman has the possibility to be a lot of fun. The serious, dark interpretation of Batman that is common today is (in my opinion) the most boring superhero of all, so I always think it's a good idea to either a) have someone fun to bounce off him, or b) be replaced as Batman by someone else.
Fight Club/The Goon - Fight Club was just a prologue for the new comic, but The Goon was very fun and well drawn, much better than the actual comic has been recently.
Bob's Burgers was a big winner. This comic, made by the folks who do the show, unsurprisingly captures the feel Also: several complete stories!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the comic equivalent of those episodes of long running anime where the characters sit down and recap the entire series up to that point before the new arc kicks in. For fans following it it's superfluous, but as a lifelong TMNT fan who hasn't dipped into the IDW series this big, nicely-drawn recap was really cool.
BOOM Ten Year Celeberation was a bunch of little previews of a bunch of their titles, and included a complete Mouse Guard story. Lot of bag for your buck in this thick offering. Interesting thing about BOOM is that they've gone from just doing series based on shows like Adventure Time and Regular Show into doing original series rooted in the same indie-comic, all-ages aesthetic (essentially pulling from the same talent pool that shows like that pull from).
Scooby-Doo Team Up is secretly one of the best comics being published today.
Secret Wars was an epically slight tease at the mega event. The Future Foundation kids were cool. Are they getting their own series?
The All-New, All-Different Avengers hit the right balance between teasing a future story and giving the audience a complete, enjoyable taste. This series looks like a lot of fun. I like Waid. I think he does good stuff and make superhero comics accessible. Too bad it doesn't come out 'till Fall and even longer for trade. I think I may try Ms. Marvel before then.

Anyway, reading through all my newly acquired collections of Eisner's The Spirit just reaffirms the fact that I really like The Spirit. Man, Eisner just understood how comics work.

... and speaking of random stuff I like: the cover for the very first issue of the revived Walt Disney Comics and Stories looks positively badass!



Apparently, this is the English language debut of a massive European storyline which is the Disney equivalent of a Marvel or DC event that involves all the heroes and villains and time travel and ect. ect. ect. This is too crazy to not look forward to. Donald! Mickey! Goofy! Scrooge! The Phantom Blot!

Funny thing is, in American comics the Mouse and Duck stories are usually kept separate, but in Europe they apparently meet each other all the time.

[Dr Kain]

So I just read the first Flash and Speed Force Convergence issues and they were really good. I loved seeing a Pre-Crisis Bruce Wayne and Barry again and the story was interesting. Speed Force was quite good too.

Also read The Question and Swamp Thing. Not sure what I think about The Question since it didn't really seem to be about anything but Swamp Thing was quite good. I'm really enjoying these Pre-Crisis stories though. All I have left to read are Harley Quinn, The New Teen Titans, and Crime Syndicate. Of course, I'm also starting to think I should have grabbed a few others but too late now.

[lhb412]

Amazon is listing an upcoming Shigeru Mizuki volume from Drawn and Quarterly called "The Birth of Kitaro." Judging by the title and the much lower page count than their Kitaro vol. 1 I'm guessing this will collect the earliest comics Mizuku did where he developed the character before the Kitaro series proper began. Something like a vol. 0.

I'm pumped.

[klen7]

Thanks for the tip!

A new "Age of Reptiles" series is starting next week for the dinosaur fans out there

[lhb412]

^I forgot about that! Luckily, I told my shop to hold it for me months ago. Age of Reptiles is amazing.

[MekaGojira3k]

Picked these up

Probably wouldn't have cared half a year ago, but these go nicely with the new ongoing.

[Dr Kain]

So I just finished Convergence and here are my thoughts. First, there will be spoilers, so don't read if you haven't finished it.

For the stand alone titles, I read most of the Pre-Crisis ones. All of them were really good, especially the New Teen Titans, Batman and the Outsiders, and Flash books. It was also nice to see the old Abby and Swamp Thing again and the Legion and Superman/Supergirl stories were awesome too. Crime Syndicate was good too, but it contradicts things that happen in the main title. Oh yeah, and the JLA one was great because it had characters that aren't always focused on.

For Pre-Flashpoint I only read Speed Force, The Question, and Harley Quinn. I enjoyed Speed Force, but Harley was a mixed bag. In fact, that one is my least favorite of the stand alone stories. The Question was pretty good, but I have no idea what the purpose was.

The main story was a mess though. It made very little sense at times and the writing was inconsistent. Owlman is killed in the CSA comic, but he is somehow alive again in the main series. WTF? Then we have straight up heroes like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel that side with Deimos, and that goes against their character.

I just don't understand what the point of this whole event was. It didn't fix any of the N52 issues and all it did was show how bad the current incarnations of the characters are. I wish we could just have Pre-Crisis comics for characters all of the time because they were by far the best comics I have read from DC since the Retroactive line in 2011.

Overall, Convergence itself was a joke and pointless, so I give it a 5/10. The stand alone titles I read all get a range from 7-10/10.

[lhb412]

^My takeaway from Covergence: come on DC, after this and Multiversity you should just make a Golden Age-inspired Shazam book a regular series!

[Specium Ray]

[klen7]

has anyone here ever read the british James Bond comics? They are being re-released in collections and i was wondering if they were worth the cost

[lhb412]

[klen7]

Will this overlap their existing Kitaro collection or is this new?

[lhb412]

[lhb412]

I am so jazzed about D&Q's Kitaro announcement that I'm thinking about ordering some of Mizuki's various Yokai art books. I mean, I can't read Japanese, but I don't think I need to to appreciate this:



Today I received Fanatgraphics' latest Carl Barks volume, The Pixilated Parrot, which includes some of his best stories. Vacation Time might be his single greatest story, and it definitely has comics' greatest opening splash page!



It also contains a really great early Uncle Scrooge story, which completely goes against later established facts about him making his money via hard work. Turns out he's only rich because he has a magic hourglass! Man, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck would've been a much more boring affair if Don Rosa had went with that version of the backstory!

[mr.negativity]

CA:

On this day in 1990, Todd McFarlane‘s Spider-Man #1 was released, and comic books would never be the same again.

[lhb412]

My letter is printed in the latest issue of Usagi Yojimbo (#146).

Pretty happy about it.

[Garasharp K7]

I've been reading the Usagi Yojimbo Saga collections. I'm almost done with the second book, and the third one's sitting in the pile ready to go. Oh, and I finished Senso recently too.
I've also been on a bit of a Ninja Turtles binge as well, (probably as a result of reading the Usagi books) since I've picked up a good few reprints of the old Mirage books, plus the recent collection of the IDW comics. It's been a bit of a nostalgia trip, really - I used to have a nice collection once upon a time, but then got shut of the lot of 'em a few years back. I'm enjoying reading these old stories again, especially the more experimental guest artist stuff. Really enjoyed those back in the day.
And I'm reading some Milk and Cheese stuff too. For those who don't know, these are mainly short one or two-page strips consisting of a pair of rather irate dairy products who engage in biting satire and witty social commentary in the guise of senseless over-the-top violence. It's fun! (one strip has them performing scenes from 'War of the Gargantuas')

[mr.negativity]

[The Real McCoy]

Well, Dark Horse finally put a bunch of their stuff on Comixology, so I'm reading the Hellboy and B.P.R.D series again. They're pretty fairly priced too.

[mr.negativity]

[mr.negativity]

[klen7]

For my money, the best horror comics on the market right now are coming out of Archie. The big delays between issues are painful, but the content is solid, no pulled punches horror. I know i've said good things about Afterlife with Archie in the past, but i just finished the first 3 issues of Sabrina and it might be even better.

[lhb412]

[lhb412]

So, today I walk into the comic shop to pick up my usual stuff (which included new issues of Abe Sapien and Uncle Scrooge) and this terrifying creature was looking at me from the racks:



It's Kelly Jones' frightening cover for Spongebob Squarepants #49! I'm no Spongebob fan, but I had to pick this thing up and I see this Halloween issue has a story drawn by Tony Millionaire! I had to get it. That made me think of how big a convert to Millionaire's work I've become in the last few months via the wonderful Sock Monkey Treasury, a collection of (most of) the Sock Monkey comics and stories that Millionaire has done in the last two decades.



Sock Monkey is heavily based and inspired by classic children's literature. The subject matter (which follows the adventures of stuffed animals), the visual and writing style strongly evokes something that's a hundred years old. If you've read the classic Winnie the Pooh, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Velveteen Rabbit, and the original illustrations for Alice and Wonderland you have an idea of what Sock Monkey is... but Sock Monkey is almost like finding one of those books in your grandparents attic and then discovering the book is possessed. Some of the stories are expressly for kids, but a lot of the time there's something deeply unsettling going on underneath the classical veneer. Perhaps the most haunting was one where Uncle Gabby (the eponymous Sock Monkey) accidentally kills a baby bird. Horrified, he becomes suicidal and starts self-mutilating, only to discover a toy like him is essentially immortal... it's really, really... uh, something.

Millionaire also varies his style in each project. He has a really distinct drawing style, but in the Sock Monkey stories he seems to vary the size of his drawing board (a big change, as those who draw know), goes from pen-and-ink to charcoal, black and white to color, and scribbly adult stories to super clean art for kid acceptable stories.

These are incredible comics, is what I'm saying.