Rolling SERIOUS GRAPHIC LITERATURE Thread for Comics in 2016

i also just, er, ACQUIRED full publishing libraries for First and Milestone. Lots to explore!

I liked that Wendy thing from Hazlitt & Hairpin

http://wendycore.tumblr.com/

Just finished Brian K Vaughan's -collected _Private Eye_ series, which includes his original pitch emails to artist Marcos Martin. There's a weird tone in the pitch document where he's describing the future, non-Internet world he wants the book to inhabit. He's describing his problems with current society, as it were, being all digital and smartphoney and tablety, and tips his hand a little _too_ much in such a way that reads to me like "these are the complaints of a really privileged white dude in LA who's been balls-deep in too much media for too long".

The book itself is pretty good; the philosophy behind its world-building kinda off.

Weird, considering (iirc) that series was supposed to be an experiment in digital comics

Perhaps it's a requirement of his job to be into all this stuff and he feels trapped.

Anyone still reading the BPRD/Hellboy stuff in 2016? I feel like the really long game they're playing with dark forces taking over the planet is kind of dragging, but there are hints it's starting to move toward an end. The Abe Sapien title seems to be starting to loop back toward the center and I enjoyed the most recent issue

new chester is great, love that dude though maybe wouldn't want to hang out w him

Or shake his hand

lol

I haven't really been able to enjoy hellboy stuff not drawn by mignola. He is 10x more alive as a cartoonist than a writer to me.

i agree

I wanted to get a recent issue of Abe Sapien because it has Santiago Caruso, his first comic work. I think he's genuinely one of the greatest illustrators of all time.
I like Corben's Hellboy work too but I wish he didn't Mignolize the faces of Hellboy in the later stuff.

so, my completely non-serious graphic literature question

I've never been to a larger traveling fan exhibition thing. The... *cough* wizard world *cough* one is coming through my city. Is it.. bad? Kind of tempted to drop in to say hi to Colleen Doran and Peter David

hellboy stuff with normal-style mainstream comics art is the worst. there's one BRPD story written by GEOFF JOHNS and illustrated by SOME SCRUB that just lays bare the entire enterprise

please don't tell me that *sobs*

Yeah, a lot of the fill in artists on Hellboy don't work that well. That's probably why you never see most of them again. I wish Gene Colan did more for Hellboy.

If Wizard magazine from some years back is representative of the current convention, then it's probably not good. It epitomized a lot of what was wrong with mainstream comics. But it was funny on occasion.

Did not know Colan did some hellboy! Would read that!

It was only something like 7 pages though.

Wizard World hits Portland about once a year and always strikes me as being more a really expensive vendortainment sale and chance to pay celebrities a lot of money for a photo. You have plenty of this for any con nowadays, but this aspect seems the primary objective for the event.

Truth be told, I did consider going a few years back when they brought James Hong to town just for the chance to meet James Hong.

I should dress as the Maestro if I go meet Peter David, right

yes.

Those BPRD Plague of Frogs omnibuses are a great read. Guy Davis did most of the art on that mega arc. It is one of the best 'superhero' doomsday stories.

It is getting near the end of the next chapter, however there are other series fitting in other eras of the BPRD and Hellboy.

In general, I think the whole Mignolaverse is pretty high quality. I particularly like the Baltimore series myself.

You have plenty of this for any con nowadays

You're saying this in the city where Linework NW happens and a couple of hours from where Short Run happens (not to mention Jet City and ECCC)

Is there a good place to start for Mignola? Or, like, what's a career peak moment if I'm lazy and only want to read a six-issue story to get the idea?

I would say the first arc he did without Byrne's help but I can't remember the title rn someone help me out.

The Amazing Screw-On Head is a wonderful standalone piece, too.

but it only had one print run, smaller than his Hellboy books of the time

I've still never seen a copy

the hellboy arc or screw-on head?

screw-on

so he never collected it in an odds and sods? Wow.

*clutches copy of amazing screw-on head to breast*

http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/16-870/The-Amazing-Screw-On-Head-and-Other-Curious-Objects-hardcover-collection

I was going to say, I've seen that collection and got the digital version during a sale. It's in stock on amazon.

expensive for what it is though.

didn't think much to ASOH tbh unless i'm mis-remembering it.

i think any of the dozen or so hellboy trades would suit. get the one with the nazis and the zombies in it (jokes!)

I just wanted to go to the shop and buy a comic book

not wait eight years and then pay $40 to have a hardcover with some extra crap mailed from America

the trades should be widely available. i've even seen them in libraries.

that still doesn't help the eight year gap at first*, nor the interest in going and buying a single self-contained comic that received such glowing reaction. and Dark Horse's site doesn't seen to indicate there has been a trade, six years after the HC that you note as being poor value anyway

*seven years after it won the Eisner. Four years after the TV adaptation!

dark horse making suspect release decisions? well, I never!

Oh, the trade recommendation was for chuck, who wanted 6 issues mobile fix. That got confused with your screw on head comment somewhere along the way.

Mignola, not mobile

Thanks! Can you recommend a Hellboy/BRPD too? Have tried the first vol a few times bit find it a bit boring.

Plague of Frogs is a decent place to jump in -- it's where they started a main storyline rather than just the monster of the week stories. There are still the one-offs, but it's where some of the doomsday predictions that were whispered in other stories start to play out

conqueror worm is very good. i prefer the fragmented semicontinuity of the early miniseries to the later more traditional approach. plague of frogs is still awesome though

Yeah, the more cohesive Hellboy stories before the BPRD title launched are the best

Eventually the characterization of the different BPRD members starts to gel and I really like a few of them. I think they're finally getting around to really pulling back the covers on Abe Sapien's early relationship with the team, which should be good.

it's really for the Hellboy die-hards, but the stuff about his lineage and origin is super-nerdy and pretty wild

Thanks!

I'd just start with first Hellboy trade up to when he leaves the BPRD then read the war on frogs omnibus trades.

this looks incredible

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/04/paul-kirchner-on-murder-by-remote-control-the-lost.html

Annie Mok interviews Julie Doucet on her recent collage work: http://www.tcj.com/the-starting-point-an-interview-with-julie-doucet/

damn Murder by Remote Control looks awesome!

Yeah, the only thing I remember by Kirchner is The Bus. This looks great.

Trondheim meets Mickey Mouse!

Mickey Craziest Adventures Hc

Published by IDW PUBLISHING

(W) Lewis Trondheim & Various (A/CA) Nicolas Keramidas It's a 'lost' 1965 Disney epic, deemed too wild for publication and saved only in tantalizing fragments... or is it? When Pegleg Pete and the Beagle Boys shrink and steal Scrooge's Money Bin, Mickey and Donald must track them down-in what is really a brand-new album-length thriller by comics masters Lewis Trondheim and Nicolas Keramidas: told in an amazing indy style and presented like a treasure suspended in time! Bullet points: ' Advance solicited for September release! ' By popular demand IDW brings an outrageous new Disney graphic novel to America-featuring the work of Lewis Trondheim (A.L.I.E.E.E.N, Little Nothings), Inkpot Award winner and two-time Eisner Award nominee! ' Trondheim and Nicolas Keramidas match a cutting-edge psychedelic look with the traditions of their beloved Disney inspirations-Floyd Gottfredson and Carl Barks!