Rolling comic book thread 2018

I guess Shin-Chan is perhaps the most popular comic that is least likely to get a live action version. I find it amazing how successful around the world the cartoons are considering all the bare ass antics.

Loving the new Arsenal kit, as exclusively revealed in Doctor Strange: Damnation #2.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4793/25873598927_b1a439732a_m.jpg

That’s funny... were they afraid of a lawsuit?

Checked out a bunch of the Dark Horse titles from Karen Berger's new line: Inconegro: Renaissance seems the best of the bunch so far, the issue I read was very invested in showing different white attitudes towards race, not in a way that's meant to excuse anybody but to show that even in the early 20th century there was a variety of stances (white communists recruiting amongst the black community; white liberal writer being condescending and useless but also fancying himself an ally). Often in stories set in the past you just get cartoonish racism across the board, which is an easy way to distance it all from the present and pretend the Bad Old Days are over.

Apart from that, the Anthony Bourdain thing is an entertaining trifle which uses the same decapitated head monsters from Japanese folklore that Hellboy did a story about; Mata Hari has so many chronological jumps back and forth that I sadly found it almost unreadable.

thanks for the update!

Yes, thank you. Berger's line is one of the neo-quasi-Vertigo imprints (see also: Young Animal and Shelley Bond's new Black Crown line at IDW) that I haven't checked out yet.

FYI if you weren't aware, Incognegro is a continuation of a Vertigo graphic novel.

prequel, set the decade before

Just finished the second volume of The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf. I thought I was really finished with autobiographical comics, but these are masterfully done - telling the story through the eyes of a child is a brilliant way of introducing the reader to different cultures and ways of living, sometimes hilarious, sometimes grimly terrifying. Love the cartooning too, and the use of limited colour. Highest possible recommendation!

I was aware of Inconegro's status but have not read the original graphic novel.

Young Animal had me semi-interested (I prefer the DC universe to Marvel and would love if there was something worth reading in there), but from what I know it's kind've a Young Adult thing? I read Lumberjanes for a while and even though it's well made and certainly a Force for Good I came to the conclusion that even though I love tons of stuff that's supposedly "for children" Young adult is kinda outta my demographic.

No, it's not YA. 'Fuck's galore. I'm not in love with it on the whole but I would recommend Shade, the Changing Girl/Woman at the very least (which is written by someone who's also a YA author, maybe that's where you got the notion?). The only one I'd recommend against, surprisingly, is Allred's Bug! miniseries.

Yeah, I'm not keen either. I don't really like how Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol - which was basically a story about PTSD! - has been turned into a celebration of surreal, inconsequential violence.

There's a sort of Ready Player One effect, too - it's all nostalgic signifiers, divorced from meaning and context

Doom Patrol is the only book of the line I haven't read yet (aside from the first issue). Mother Panic is basically a solid second-tier Bat-book with some extra swearing. Don't really understand why it's part of a sub-imprint. Cave Carson isn't nearly as crazy or cosmic as you might think based on the premise. It's kinda just a boilerplate lite sci-fi action epic. Bug is Allred's usual pop zaniness that feels like the comics equivalent of eating a can of frosting (fun at first, followed by profuse sweating and nausea). Shade the Changing Girl is properly surreal and odd and a fairly worthy successor of Milligan's tenure without being at all similar.

Also haven't read the Milk Wars crossover. I'm a little afraid.

FYI on a similar tip: I still occasionally pick up DC stuff that has a whiff of old-school Vertigo, and there was a Swamp Thing one-off released a month or so ago that seems to have gone completely under the radar but it's written by Tom King, so heads up.

Milk Wars had some sort of grimdark Manga Khan reboot. I couldn't follow the story at all.

I like Doom Patrol, shows promise. I don't know if it'll go anywhere, but you could've said the same thing about the Morrison one from the first volume

Really hate buying serialized comics, just wish everything was big book versions now. I used to yearn for more anthologies but now it's difficult for me to imagine there realistically being many satisfying anthologies.

Cant remember the artist but I remember someone arguing that anthologies push comics forward more but now I just want people to get their own spaces to do what they want and however much freedom an anthology offers, you have to at least conform to the same page size/shape as the other contributors.

I only buy floppies to support my local store once a month - most of my reading is still TPBs or digital collections via the library

I usually wait for the collection but the serialization is a couple of years and I don't know how reliable Heavy Metal are for collected editions. Paying 7 pounds for the 8 pages of content I want stings though.

When I want to support the shop (I try to buy something each time) I usually bought prose books but they seem to be gradually getting rid of that section. The shop has changed so much in 15 years. Now there's an aisle of that Pop figure bullshit.

Lots of reduced books, including a lot of David B and Burne Hogarth's Tarzan.

I only buy floppies to support my local store

This. I get a delivery once a month or so which go straight to file because I've already read the digital versions.

All the A1 Comics shops in Glasgow turned into toy shops and renamed itself A1 Toys (they still do a bit of comics but it's no use unless you're just buying the biggest titles). Have to wonder if eventually other stores will change into toy and merchandise shops.

I'm regularly buying floppies for the first time in my life - took a loong time to get used to the exploitative flimsy issue model when you grow up with French albums and Disney and superhero comics being compiled in paperbacks for the European market. I enjoy the feeling of checking in and, being as I feel like I never have enough time for all my cultural pursuits, it's less time demanding than having a trade or graphic novel waiting for me.

that's honestly a reason for me that new #1s are appealing, i say guiltily

Most of the best material in English-language comics is still published only in single-issue-type format, or is presented in an inferior form if it later appears in a book, whether due to production or content.

which comics? i ask

top of my head...

Lose. Ganges. Blood Of The Virgin and Crickets. Pope Hats. Libby's Dad. Horse Girl Dog Mom. I Want You. Study Group. Twilight Of The Bat. Uptight. Werewolf Jones & Sons. Spex. Upgrade Soul. Your Black Friend. Copra. Shaolin Cowboy. Frontier. Perfect Hair. Number. Chubby Chasers. Beasts of Burden. Sir Alfred. Epoxy. Thin Lips. Habit. Wuvable Oaf. Coin-Op. Shame. Pleasure. Clit Comics.

Wow, I've never heard of most of these. Chubby Chasers?

Meanwhile, not to un-class this conversation, I just binged all of Fatale and *really* enjoyed it in a cheap trashy paperback way.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/5afba127e66c0488f44a6e350178e3a0/tumblr_ml04vvZH2R1qlps06o1_540.jpg

i haven't heard of most of those either!

uh that last one i don't know if i'll seek that one out

it's sold out

the only online example of an interior seems to be this original page for sale though

http://dpegb9ebondhq.cloudfront.net/product_photos/3776323/IMG_4548_original.JPG

i love box brown but i am gonna have some feelings about buying a book called Chubby Chasers lol

Steven Weissmann had a comic called that way back in the day iirc

I'm guessing your memory is rolling the Yikes! collection Chocolate Cheeks up with this one-pager I've never seen before:

http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/ribs5.jpg

I don't "get it"...

Yep that’s the one!

being as I feel like I never have enough time for all my cultural pursuits, it's less time demanding than having a trade or graphic novel waiting for me.

― Daniel_Rf, Monday, March 19, 2018 10:37 AM

Wont buying individual issues ultimately take more time from you? (not to mention money)

Ultimately yes I guess but reading a buncha issues of different stuff gives me a feeling closer to going through my RSS and it's a good Wednesday ritual. It's all very shallow I admit.

I kind of thought that I was inured to a lot of things by this point in 2018, but "(Frank) Miller will write his first YA graphic novel" got by me there.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/76386-dc-inks-frank-miller-to-exclusive-deal-aimed-at-book-market.html

Also notable: "In a phone interview, DC copublishers Dan Didio and Jim Lee (who is also one of DC’s most popular artists), emphasized that the new deal with Miller is one part of several ongoing initiatives (which include several new imprints) to focus its publishing on the book trade and to better position DC Entertainment in an evolving North American comics marketplace. Long dominated by sales of monthly superhero periodicals via comics shops, the American comics industry is beginning to acknowledge a future that will be defined by new readers looking for book format graphic novels."

Hahahaha yeah I read that and shook my head sadly.

Guess the current climate means there's more of an audience for Miller's fascism than the last time he tried to peddle it, tho. :(

The kids aren’t asking the right questions!

I recorded and finally watched 'Thunderbolt and Lightfoot' for the first time since I was a kid. I was really surprised how much the opening sequence really reminded me of Preacher. If you squint enough you could imagine a 70s take with Clint Eastwood as Jesse Custer.

I probably should've posted this on ILC to begin with, but the new Nancy artist is great. Not a strip I've paid much attention to, beyond browsing the Fantagraphics Bushmiller collection and thinking "...this is much, much better than I would've expected."

Anyway: http://www.gocomics.com/nancy/2018/04/17

I wasn't that familiar with the Nancy comic because my local paper didn't carry it when I was a kid, religiously scanning the comics page every day. I wish they'd had it.

At least Rex Morgan, MD was there to console you.

Nancy newbies will find this v. useful:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/howtoreadnancy/

they did carry rex morgan! and whyyyy

it'll be interesting to see what Olivia Jaimes does with Nancy's aunt because the Gilchrists seemed a little too into doing a cheesecake thing

AGES ago Blount posted a Gilchrist-era Nancy strip to ILM where it was Nancy confused because her cheesecake had taken her to a Rock concert but there was an orchestra and turns out it's because it's THE MOODY BLUES.

Also really into respecting our troops/hating the kids these days.

Oh man, now I really want to create a comic strip about kids from the perspective of someone who makes almost no effort to hide their obvious disdain for children.