Seeing lots of online comic strips posted here, not a lot of discussion about actual comic BOOKS.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
I put up a link to the comics list for last Wednesday, 6/28. If there’s interest I can do it again for next Wednesday, 7/3…
Picked up:
Action #1056 - Never thought I’d bee buying Superman stuff again, but everything since the “Dawn of DC” launch has been really good.
Batman: Brave and the Bold #2 - Oversized anthology book, Joker story from Tom King and Mitch Gerads has been really good.
Cerebus In Hell 6/2023 - Really just a pity buy at this point. It’s not particularly good, but Sim has some major health challenges and if buying it helps him keep the lights on, fine.
Cityboy #2 - Really liking the “We Are Legends” books. This, Spirit World, and The Vigil. Maybe more this and Spirit World than the Vigil.
Green Arrow #3 - See “Dawn of DC” message for Action. All of it has been solid so far.
The Oddly Pedestrial Life of Christopher Chaos #1 - Written and illustrated by people I’ve never heard of, it’s a solid read. Not sure I fully understand it yet. I guess the best way to describe it is Christopher is a Mathemagician. He does stuff with formulas you shouldn’t be able to do. Like a cross between Jenny Quick saying a super speed formula out loud crossed with Doctor Strange.
I can’t say Iiked it enough to put it on my pull list, but I’ll give it a few issues.
I just bought a bunch of german editions of Lewis Trondheim books (Donjon, Lapinot) and i’m nearing the end of the 50 volumes of the Donald Duck part of the Carl Barks collection. But that’s probably all foreign to you.
One of the last Image books i read was Black Cloak by Kelly Thompson and Meredith McLaren and i love it. It is an odd mix of a crime thriller with a bit of fairy magic and cyberpunk, drawn in a reduced “american manga” style. And it just works. The characters are interesting, the lore is deep and the plot is taking some turns.
Barks is a freaking legend, more people should be reading that. At the end of his life, he was just down the road apiece from me:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Barks
And, yeah, Black Cloak has been a good read… TBH I’m a little thrown by the art, every time a new issue comes out I’m like “I don’t remember the art being this bad before…” then I go look and, yeah, it’s consistently in the same style.
Good read though!
Yeah, the art reminds me of several books i didn’t like - but that was due to the type of story that came along (the kind where the characters have an existential crisis over just about everything). I like art that follows an inner ruleset and Meredith McLaren’s art has a lot of expression and moves from reduced lines to detailed surroundings and water colour backgrounds, but always stays in the boundaries of the style. It’s not “bad” as you put it, it’s different and it enhances the story. I somewhat expected to not like it, but i wouldn’t want it any other way.
I think what threw me was I picked it up based on the strength of this variant cover:
https://cdn.imagecomics.com/assets/i/releases/922279/_5b6936c3e5.jpg
And really none of it has hit that realistic tone. That cover reminded me a bunch of the old Frank Ciracco stuff.
https://cdn.marvel.com/u/prod/marvel/i/mg/9/20/5ced485b1c801/clean.jpg
Those are nice covers. But the countless times i’ve seen a Neal Adams cover sell some mediocre story inside, made me detest this kind of bait and switch. With variant covers i like to make a point of buying the interior artist’s cover if possible. And in this case they really hurt themselves by having variant covers for issue one, when customers don’t know yet what to expect.
I found a bunch of issues of “This Magazine Is Haunted!” on the Internet Archive this week. Having a good time considering horror comics outside of EC and Warren traditions. Some clunky stuff but also foundational. Glad it’s still available to read :)
Eerie/Creepy Warren era was such fun!
I’m burnt out on heroes. I’ve been enjoying comics that turn them on their head. I’ve been rereading/ reading: “The Watchman”, “Omniman”, “The Boys”, etc…
I’m thinking of checking out spider punk.
Also, not a “comic” but I’ve been reading Junji Ito like a mad man.
I am finally working my way through Sandman, i’m on book 6 now. I do find myself enjoying this one a little less than the others.
Is that “Fables and Reflections”? One of the collections of all the single issue stories?
Yeah, I could see reading them all at once being a little disjointed. I bought all of Sandman as it came out, one issue at a time, one month at a time, so it was a different experience. :)
I’d also suggest picking up “Sandman: The Dream Hunters”, but the trick to that is there are two editions… The original is a text piece with illustrations by a Japanese artist named Yoshitaka Amano.
After that, they turned it into a proper comic book style story with art by P. Craig Russell.
it is! I am only about 20 or so pages in so far but I am feeling a bit lost. It just seems completely disjointed from what I have read so far. For a few pages I was wondering if I had somehow got the books out of order.
I mean, technically, yeah, Fables and Reflections is out of order. :)
Here’s how the collections relate to the individual issues:
Preludes and Nocturnes = Sandman #1–8
The Doll’s House = 9-16
Dream Country = 17-20
Season of Mists = 21–28
A Game of You = 32–37So it’s all pretty straight forward until the jump between Season of Mists and Game of You.
Where you’re at now:
Fables and Reflections - #29–31, 38–40, 50; The Sandman Special #1; and Vertigo Preview No. 1I kind of hate it when they do stuff like this. #29-31 should have been added to the end of Season of Mists. Then put 38-40 at the end of A Game of You.
Next is Brief Lives, which is 41–49, so #50 could have been easily added there.
The GOOD news is, after that, it’s a straight shot to the end:
Worlds’ End - 51–56
The Kindly Ones - 57–69 +Vertigo Jam No. 1
The Wake - 70–75
Sandman: Overture - 1-6.this is incredibly helpful! thank you.
Black Bolt by Saladin Ahmed and Christian Ward - Story is nothing special but the art is amazing. Haven’t been reading superhero-style comics for a long while, just getting back into it. Recently discovered Christian Ward and would love recommendations of similar comic artists.
All I want is more Lockjaw in my life. :)
Back in the 70s, Lockjaw and Ben Grimm teamed up all the time! Can we go back to that?
Yes please. I’ve always felt that the Inhuman royal family and Black Bolt in particular were underappreciated and underutilized by Marvel. I guess after that horrible TV series there’s little hope for them in the near future though.
Immortal Hulk (again)
Not a bad choice… I missed out on the month by month.
