Rolling comic book thread 2018

Well, guys, we did it: https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/11/24/abrams-cancels-dave-mckean-suicide-bomber-comic/

Don't know if I'll listen to this particular episode but this is one of my favorite podcasts
http://www.scottedelman.com/2018/11/21/savor-a-steak-dinner-with-comics-legend-paul-levitz-in-episode-82-of-eating-the-fantastic/

One of Paul Levitz's just tossed in lines that caught my ear was the one "I got the first 30 years of Marvel Comics along with the DC ones sitting in a storage unit in New Jersey."

There's Berserk omnibuses coming out next year (3 volumes per omnibus) but since they are on larger paper, it's not going to be much cheaper!

Considered giving up on it but a recent volume had a huge dog dragging a coffin and they only come out once a year so it's not a huge commitment at this point.

Just a real shame there isn't a cheap way for people to get into it and Miura probably wont stop doing detours that are never as interesting as the main story.

Superhero stories with guest stars are extremely offputting. Back when I was huge into superheroes I couldn't imagine why people objected to a cool character having a guest spot but now I just want to immerse myself in a world unto itself.

Did anyone read Walter Simonson's Ragnarok series for IDW? Some said it was good.

I remember there being particular cynicism about titles that launched with a crossover and young me was thinking "why wouldn't you want Spiderman in your first issue?" but now it screams "we have no confidence in this new title finding an audience".

Literally my first issue when I took over scripting Robin from chuck d1x0n was a mandated from the top, totally idiotic crossover event with “young justice” which I could not get out of.

*well my first full issue - there was a hand-off issue where D1x0n wrote the first half and I wrote the second

Levitz interview was a lot better than the Marv Wolfman interview (haven't listened to the Don McGregor one), enjoyed his laying out the different models/phases of comics and him saying "is there a gorilla on the cover?"

Really impressed by this Nestor Redondo piece
http://creatfeatforever.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-inheritance-of-blood.html

Wish there were many more comics compilations like Art Out Of Time and Art In Time, or even just more artist focused collections. There really should be books focused on Heavy Metal shorts and similar magazines from around the world. There's probably tons of treasures waiting to be rediscovered, I always wondered what happened to John Zack, he did two eyepopping pieces for Epic Illustrated and I never was able to find anything more by or about him.

Two Don McGregor/Gene Colan collections recently: Nathaniel Dusk Complete and Black Panther: Panther's Quest.

Really liked the moodiness of the latter when I seen it serialized in Marvel Comics Presents but I'll need to see both of these in the shops to judge how well the art has been handled.

Nathaniel Dusk appears to be late.

So... Batman #60 then.

Penguin only really became Penguin because someone (Bane is assumed at this point but given the other contents of the issue is possible it's the BIG SPOILER GUY who's pulled an awful lot of strings for a long time) killed the penguin he was fucking and considered himself 'married' to.

Repeated for the hard of believing: THE PENGUIN HE WAS FUCKING

Jesus Christ Tom King, we thought you were better than this.

Lol - King's dialogue is so opaque, I didn't even notice the penguinsex.

I'm enjoying this Batman run way more than Snyder's (not hard) but it's really variable, huh? Even this issue had great and stupid things in it, sometimes on the same page.

Right now, he seems to have followed Bendis's example - (a) get praise for your idiosyncrasies then (b) double down on them until they become (c) cliches and (d) gibberish.

Enjoying it nontheless. Actually, Bendis's Superman is not-great-but-fun in a similar way.

https://i1.wp.com/www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Image-340.jpg

Feathers and beak isn't that opaque lol.

But yes to this and BendySupes, kind of enjoying both but quality is very variable - as you say, sometimes even on the same page.

Yeah, agreed on all points. I caught the "he's fucking the bird" bit at the start of the penguin arc and was less than amused.
King is starting to suffer this past year from the time-tested method of scuttling your favorite writers: overwork. Too many titles, too much churn.

This week I got the comics fever like I haven't had in months. I even bought Previews despite swearing never to buy it again several times, but I just wanted to get an impression of the direct market these days, promising not to get angry at the contents.

Went to a back issue shop and completely forgotten the pains of searching through comics when they're all tightly packed together and boarded. I remember I used to get the skin above my nails bleeding if I had spent long enough looking.

Kind of surprised that the variant cover trend just keeps getting heavier, not so much in terms of fancy materials but just the sheer quantity. 7 variant covers isn't even a special occasion now, it's just business as usual.

Do the massive omnibuses by DC and Marvel sell well? Will this trend last or will they fill up the shelves and keep getting reduced by shops until they get rid of them? I have to say I'm more impressed by the things DC has chosen to make an omnibus.

Looked at some Young Allies Masterworks and totally forgot about the awful depiction of Whitewash. Not surprised Marvel did a recent revising of the character.

Been getting a bunch of Leiji Matsumoto books. Galaxy Express seems to be the favorite so I don't know why they aren't translating that yet, maybe they're building up to it?

Erik Larsen must have given up entirely on Savage Dragon being suitable for children as there's more sex than ever and Malcolm is having threesomes with his sister (it seems they both share a girlfriend?)

Had a look at that Black Panther book and no, I still cant abide by the color of these reprints. Why do so many comics people have no sense of good color?
Since DC and Marvel might continue their reprint color regime forever and I'm not a torrenting guy, I'm going to get more Essential/Showcase books.

Annoyingly a few of the Showcase books had errors, I just noticed that in the Showcase Ghosts collection, the final page of this story is missing
http://creatfeatforever.blogspot.com/2018/11/death-held-lantern-high.html

First one I'm going to read is the original Doom Patrol.

Been getting a bunch of Leiji Matsumoto books. Galaxy Express seems to be the favorite so I don't know why they aren't translating that yet, maybe they're building up to it?

This is where speaking French helps you out - the French have translated way more manga than the Anglo market. Anyway I read the first volume of Galaxy Express, felt like it could get quite formulaic but there was a weird, melancholic Leone feel to it and of course the spaceship designs are lush.

I do regret not trying harder at school French. Amazon manga searches always turn up a lot of French editions.

https://acomicbooksite.com/2018/09/18/the-crazy-dick-sprang-detective-comics-covers-from-1990/

Had no awareness of this.

I bought those when they came out

me too!

#metoo

#old

I'd love to have seen Dick Sprang take on Scarface and the Ventriloquist. Of all of the modern villains, I think that Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle really came up with a bad guy that seemed like it came from the golden age of Dick Sprang and Jerry Robinson Batman.

Somewhere on one of the comic art sites I saw a really amazing piece that was done in Sprang's style with Scarface and the Ventriloquist along with some of the later villains like Poison Ivy, Black Mask etc.

I've been bored of comics lately - or current Marvel/DC comics, at least - so I've decided to get my **FIRST EVER** standing order to give me an excuse to visit the store more often. I'm getting:

Al Ewing standing order (i.e. anything he does)
The Green Lantern
Love & Rockets
Saga (whenever that starts again)
DIE
Wicdiv, just for the ending

Any suggestions?

Oh, and Sex Criminals (if that still exists)

I gained access to my longboxes for the first time in years last weekend and discovered that I have both Mat Brinkman’s Teratoid Heights collection and some of the ridiculously rare fort thunder minicomics it collects (Oaf, Flapstack). Despite still feeling shame about selling off my complete run of the original Dirty Plotte minis to make rent in the late 90s I think I’ll sell off the Brinkman minis. No IDEA how to price these for eBay though. There is no evidence online of anyone ever selling one. Judging by the price Teratoid Heights and Fort Thunder posters go for, these should be worth $$. Long story short if there are any Fort Thunder completists ITT who are interested shoot me an email through the ilx robot.

*also gonna sell a couple of Leif Goldberg fort thunders from the same era (Old Burg, Eating Bears) which though just as gorgeous as Brinkman I’m suspect are not as collectible

Sorry for spammin

This is my pull list right now.

Stray Bullets
Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips
Curse Words
East of West
Black Science
Descender - ended a few months back

I am going to check out Jason Aaron's Conan book.

this seems like the place to ask folks what their fave comix of 2018 were, both self contained and series.

NO. BETTER. WORDS.

I haven't got far yet but I'm enjoying Liana FInck's "Passing for Human"

Aside from that, I think this was the first year that a superhero movie (Black Panther) was better than any single superhero comic I read

Earl, is East of West still worth the effort? I bailed early on but I want a Hickman-type-thing to read

I think East of West is my favorite thing Hickman has done. The series has a big cast and it takes a good long while until you really get to see all the players on the board. It's all going down now.

There is something about the whole series and the style of the artwork that reminds me of Matt Wagner and Grendel.

I like the series and kind of hope they do a follow up prequel outlining how the world came to be in the series filling in the back story.

https://johnleescomics.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/eastofwestchamberlain1.png?w=700

Best comics I read this year, though not all published this year:
https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1418025278l/23709597.jpg Sens by Marc-Antoine Mathieu (theoretically only published in French, but the comic itself is wordless)

https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1448319993l/26240578.jpg Irmina by Barbara Yelin

https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1506458072l/36309646.jpg House of Women by Sophie Goldstein

https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1518197437l/38469986.jpg Girl Town by Carolyn Nowak

https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1513309376l/37533587.jpg Sabrina by Nick Drnaso

This panel makes me want to read Woman World

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/z67l1v252RD6SbuWAra8ETT6t0U=/0x0:928x865/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:928x865):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13621892/woman_world.jpg

i read it, it's goofy and a light read for the most part

well, the whole part lol

"Is there a gorilla on the cover?"

https://www.comics.org/issue/19893/cover/4/

https://www.comics.org/issue/13212/cover/4/

okay, this is very very much a work in progress and i'd still love to hear other suggestions and I'm sure I'm missing a few obvious things that are just not yet on my mind but here's an early preliminary list of what i liked in 2018 that sic will correct me about:

Graphic Novels
The Prince and the Dressmaker (Jen Wang / First Second)
The Pervert (Remy Boydell, Michelle Perez / Image)
Sabrina (Nick Drnaso / Drawn and Quarterly)
Why Art? (Eleanor Davis / Fantagraphics)
The Lie and How We Told It (Tommi Parris / Fantagraphics)
Tenements Towers and Trash (Julia Wertz / Black Dog)
The Temple of Silence (Herbert Crowley - Beehive Books)
Is This Guy for Real? (Box Brown - First Second)
Flayed Corpse (Josh Simmons - Fantagraphics)
Total Jazz (Blutch - Fantagraphics)
Poochytown (Jim Woodring - Fantagraphics)
The Whistling Factory (Jesse McManus - Uncivilized)
Demenita 21 (Shintaro Kago - Fantagaphics)
Ogre Gods (Hubert - Lion Forge)
Epic of Gilgamesh (Kent Dixon - Seven Stories)

Series
Superman / Action (Brian Michael Bendis - DC)
Batman (Tom King - DC
Marvel Two-In-One (Chip Zdarsky - Marvel)
Immortal Hulk (Al Ewing - Marvel)
Black Bolt (Saladin Ahmed - Marvel)
Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles (Mark Russell - DC)
Kill or Be Killed (Ed Brubaker - Image)
X-Men: Grand Design (Ed Piskor - Marvel)
Multiple Man (Matthew Rosenberg - Marvel
Peter Parker Spectacular Spider Man (Chip Zdarsky - Marvel)
Maestros (Steve Skroce - Image)
Green Lantern (Grant Morrison - DC)
Love and Rockets - (Los Bros Hernandez - Fantagraphics)
Head Lopper (Andrew MacLean - Image)
Inside Moebius (Moebius - Dark Horse)
Aliens: Dead Orbit (James Stokoe - Dark Horse)
My Brother’s Husband (Gengoroh Tagame - Pantheon)
NOW (Fantagraphics)
Darth Vader (Charles Soule - Marvel)
Barbarella (Mike Carey - Dynamite)
Dick Tracy: Dead or Alive (Mike Allred - IDW)
Giant Spider and Me (Kikori Morino - Seven Seas)
Go-Bots (Tom Scioli - IDW)
Rick and Morty (Lots of folks - Oni)
Doctor Aphra (Simon Spurrier - Marvel)
Cosmic Ghost Rider (Donny Cates/Dylan Burnett - Marvel)
Shanghai Red (Christopher Sebela, Joshua Hixson - Image)
Lone Ranger (Mark Russell - Dynamite)
American Gods (Neil Gaiman/P Craig Russell/Scott Hampton - Dark Horse)
Centaurus (Leo - Delcourt)
A Walk Through Hell (Garth Ennis - Aftershock)
Prison Pit (Johnny Ryan - Fantagraphics)
Kill 6 Billion Demons (Tom Parkinson-Morgan - Image)
Highest House (Mike Carey - IDW)
The Mercenary (Vicente Segrelles - NBM)
Usagi Yojimbo: The Hidden (Stan Sakai - Dark Horse)
She Could Fly (Christopher Cantwell / Martin Morazzo - Dark Horse)
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (Ryan North - Marvel)
Kill or Be Killed (Ed Brubaker/Sean Phillips - Image)

To Read Yet:
Coyote Doggirl - Lisa Hanawalt
A PerfectFailure - Noah Van Sciver
Passing for Human - Liana Finck
Land of the Suns - Gipi
Berlin - Jason Lutes
Upgrade Soul - Ezra Claytan Daniels
All the Answers - Michael Kupperman
On a Sunbeam - Tillie Walden
No Better Words - Carolyn Nowak
Berlin - Jason Lutes
All Summer Long - Hope Larsen
Be Prepared - Vera Brosgol
Woman World - Aminder Dhaliwal
Sleepless - Sarah Vaughan
Mister Miracle - Tom King
BRAT - Michael DeForge
Rock Steady - Ellen Forney
Fab4Mania - Carol Tyler
Prism Stalker - Sloane Leong
Petey Pussy: Puppy Love - John Kerschbaum
The Golden Age - Cyril Pedrosa
Girl Town - Carolyn Nowak
Proxima Centauri - Farel Dalyrmple

The Lie And How We Told It looks really interesting.

Forgot one I loved: Driving Short Distances by Joff Winterhart
https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1517572735l/36056299.jpg

The Lie And How We Told It looks really interesting

yes, Tommi Parish's earlier Perfect Hair was even better

*remembers to move their Perfect Discipline to top of to-be-read pile #1*

endorse most of forks' GN list

(endorse or have in my queue at library)

i am seen!

i somehow knew it was you posting that list long before hitting the bottom, forks
badge of honor!

i'm a media guy

Had no idea Mike Allred was working on a Dick Tracy thing! Was The Hidden the plot with the secret christians?

Really need to get on that Lisa Hanawalt, her podcast is always great.

The Dick Tracy book is with Rich Tommaso doing art and they're an excellent match for each other's styles:
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/exclusive-preview-artist-rich-tommaso-on-idws-new-dick-tracy-dead-or-alive

Yep, that's the story for Usagi Yojimbo: The Hidden. It's an interesting storyline with a dollop of little-known historical truth but the reason to get absolutely anything by Sakai is his utter mastery of the form. Even at this stage in his career and when his stories feel a bit overworked, he's one of the best pure comic creators in America.

Hanawalt is always a joy. While I'm glad she's found Hollywood success, I'm secretly stupidly selfishly annoyed she isn't able to devote all her time to comics anymore. It'll likely even out in that she has a good paycheck and the makings of a lifetime career.

Vader and Aphra but not Star Wars seems a little perverse :)

I like the solo Star Wars comic! It's just gotten a little byzantine and overly self referential within their own sub-universe. The spin-off comics felt more contained, story-based and interesting to me this year.

https://www.cbr.com/dc-border-town-cancel-abuse-allegation-writer/
Border Town had good art and a story that felt like it might be going somewhere so it's is a qualified bummer that it got blown up, but i appreciate the principles of the co-creators to get out if they have reason to believe they would otherwise be supporting an abuser.

Did you guys talk about the Snagglepuss book on here this year? It's noteworthy and great.
http://www.comicsbeat.com/review-exit-stage-left-the-snagglepuss-chronicles-offers-heartbreaking-tenderness-within-the-satire/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/dc-reviving-hanna-barberas-snagglepuss-as-gay-playwright-1048870

forks, u gonna have to hook me up with the fella from whom you buy your time in bulk. I don't know how you do it, my man.

i'm nervous and vaguely out of sorts all the time is the answer. but thanks! taking the past year off from ILX helped!