Rolling comic book thread 2018

Can't remember if I posted this before but it's an interesting style
https://whitefoxcub.deviantart.com/gallery/?catpath=/

basically yoshitaka amano?
https://www.wired.com/2013/03/the-sky-final-fantasy/

great start to the thread where we discuss comics we are reading for the year

I thought that the link let you see everything but it resets the folder being viewed. If you go to Folders then All, there are lots of comic pages.

Definitely Amano inspired but also quite original.

I read Junji Ito’s Gyo and Uzumaki. The latter is all-time great IMO. Who knew you could have so many horror stories about spirals, and even combine them in such a pleasant final act? Anyways, to make this post relevant to 2018 I guess Junji Ito Collection is an anime series coming out.

Xp The Final Fantasy 3 (6) guidebook that came with my nintendo power subscription was one of my favorite things to look at. I never got to play the game.

Anyways, to make this post relevant to 2018 I guess Junji Ito Collection is an anime series coming out.

― Woon... Doopee Time (FlopsyDuck), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 12:59

Shiver has still only been out a couple of weeks. It's a shame that it often takes anime to get manga moving.

Reading Portugal by Cyril Pedrosa, which my gf thoughtfully gifted me for x-mas after seeing me browse it at Gosh. Subject matter means I'm drawn to this as only a diaspora type can be, but so far it's not doing it for me: protagonist is a confused, surly young man who's rude to everyone because he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, and the art style is this mix of cartoony characters and impressionist backgrounds. Maybe it'll kick into gear once he actually goes to Portugal, the drawings of Lisbon streets I saw were lush.

series adaptation of Fantagraphics book 'The End of the Fucking World' by Charles Forsman (which i liked on paper) is now on US netflix:
https://www.netflix.com/title/80175722

i'm hard pressed to think of someone less qualified to write a sequel to Watchmen than Geoff Johns. Doomsday Clock is unredeemable garbage.

Just read Ulli Lust's Voices in the Dark. Pretty good. Disturbing as the subject warrants, probably too long. Wish I had some more context on the characters involved, especially the central audio researcher.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/5643981/read-alan-moores-parody-of-frank-millers-daredevil-from-1983/

I can't find a whole lot of info on it but Jaime Hernandez has a forthcoming GN of Latin American folktales called The Dragon Slayer which is directed at the youth market. Blind preorder for me:

https://freshcomics.s3.amazonaws.com/issue_covers/JAN181981.jpg

that's a wild style for him

woah

I can't find a whole lot of info on it

Did you try the publisher? http://www.toon-books.com/the-dragon-slayer.html

Awesome -- will buy that for sure.

i wanna know what happens with the dragon

I’ve kind of slept on the whole Berger Books venture published by Dark Horse. Anything cool there I should be checking out?

yay box brown is doing a kaufman book
http://www.tcj.com/excerpt-is-this-guy-for-real/

siiik

I should really just subscribe to TCJ, shouldn't I?

three-issue subscriptions are US$90 and the latest issue is currently four years late

tbh the current format takes a couple of years to read

it looks like they might not even be offering subscriptions from the web, unless you count online access to the complete archives, but that seems like a good deal

http://www.fantagraphics.com/comics-journal-3-issue-subscription-canada/

note that the print version and the website have entirely different editors and content

very good to know!

that appears to be a canada-only one, I think? not very straightforward

I guess you can just plan to go to Canada every four years to pick it up

Fanta's websites have always been total shitshows tbh

Read The End of the Fucking World, after enjoying the TV show. I mean, it's not a *terrible* comic, but every single adaptation and addition for the TV show was an improvement.

But generally I think I'm done with indies written by male borderline sociopaths

I definitely don’t think Forsman is that, the merits of the work aside.

yeah, that's a really gross thing to say absent any context

Ok let’s downgrade it to “a bleak outlook that dwells on uncomfortable violence” if that helps. But, er, having read indies for twenty years or so I don’t think I’m diagnosing a hot new trend here

Welp, I did the math, make that closer to 30

But generally I think I'm done with indies written by male borderline sociopaths

― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, February 3, 2018 8:07 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM. I don't know what end of the fucking world is, but I decided a long time ago that if a comic features the male protaganist masturbating, ugly crying, or masturbating while ugly crying, I'm out.

This probably goes without saying, but entire comics devoted to mooning over ex-girlfriends are part of this category!

I've only read a few of his comics, so can't speak to the ugly crying, but here is everything I know about Chuck Forsman:

- a prolific creator with a strong work ethic
- started Oily in order to be able to expose other artists to the tiny platform he had
- moved to the middle of nowhere in order to be able to afford to publish others while also maintaining his and Mendes' own creative output
- admiring and supportive of Mendes as a fellow artist, a publisher, and a partner
- so appreciative of his CCS experience that he continues to give back to the school as a fellow, a guest lecturer, and providing internships to at least once student
- frequently uses any attention he is given to shine light on both artistic forebears and peers
- wilfully changes his approach, writing and drawing from project to project

There's uncomfortable violence in two of the Forsman works I've read, but not in others. I'll get some more from the library so I can see if the balance shifts, but him writing stories where young people are scared by the world around them isn't currently tipping me towards assuming all the facts above are a cover-up for his true personality.

Happy for you to make your case in the meantime, Dan!

Dan doesn't need to make a case for why he's not reading something.

He doesn't have to make a case for why it's cool to cheer on calling a real-life person a borderline sociopath, you mean.

(it's true, he doesn't! but that's the context.)

imo the problem is what works get adapted and what work gets covered in non-comics media, both of which tend to concentrate disproportionately on the violent and misanthropic because the image of these loner male creators fits a narrative

either that or I’m subconsciously seeking out the work and coverage that tends toward those subjects, hard to say

haha wait does this comic that i haven't read actually involve masturbating, ugly crying, or mooning over ex girlfriends? Cause my complaint with indie comic dudes actually isn't about 'sociopathy' so much as whatever those scenarios intimate. Sad-bastardism?

xpost You're not wrong. I mean, I'm hard-pressed to think of a single comics creator (besides Kirby, pedants) whose work has been adapted to filmed entertainment more than Mark Millar.

if you go by number of filmed hours and we’re assuming non-superhero comics, The Walking Dead is probably the longest contemporary adaptation? or at least it’s up there

if you toss out superheroes, zombies, vampires, future cops, and spies you narrow the field a lot

I just meant the number of discrete works that had been adapted. People keep dipping into that Millar well for reasons that could probably be generalized as 'because edginess!!!'

and because maybe, people tend to like 'em? even Wanted

Presumably, but not really germane wrt the point I was trying to make. I mean, people like lots of comics by other creators which don't get turned into movies.

if you go by number of filmed hours and we’re assuming non-superhero comics, The Walking Dead is probably the longest contemporary adaptation? or at least it’s up there

One Piece has over 800 episodes and 13 feature films

I have been sufficiently chastised for having a myopic western outlook

On a completely different tact, going by the local shops around here, it seems that one thing that seems to be catching on is back issues. I think for the first time in a long time, some shops seem to be moving lots of stuff in dollar bins. They are the cheap way into comics, especially with the cover prices so high.

It was almost to the point the big store was phasing them out, but then the flipped it around and started doing more dollar boxes and they have kinda taken off. And it's all sorts of stuff that are selling out of them.

I mean, if something starts out at $3-$4 and is now a buck or you can buy a bundle of issues at or even below the TPB price, why not?

Just read Sexcastle - dumb fun, if you want a comic book version of Roadhouse/Escape from NY.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/02/05/comicspro-2018-shadowman-doughnut/
"Retailers at ComicsPRO 2018 to Receive Preview of Shadowman #1 in Doughnut Form"
http://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/dd-600x254.jpg

I swear that at some point I cancelled Comixology Unlimited but apparently not

Now this is appearing below new digital releases:
"Includes 15% Unlimited discount"

One Piece has over 800 episodes and 13 feature films
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Monday, February 5, 2018 5:25 AM

I have been sufficiently chastised for having a myopic western outlook
― mh, Monday, February 5, 2018 1:42 PM

I wouldn't count anime, a bewildering array of manga that people would never imagine being adapted into anything get an anime version.

do they all get 800 episodes, 13 feature films and nigh-annual TV specials though

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sazae-san#Anime_series

They might want to consider renaming it Greater Than One Piece.

You know what has nearly 500 episodes, five feature films (and one animated one) and had multiple live action tours that I didn't think of? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, of all things.

Probably just about the longest-running (WESTERN) non-Big Two title at this point, too, if you count its varied incarnations as a single run.

(checks watch, awaits hardsonning by sic)

Wasn't there a really long running anime of that kid who gets his ass out all the time?

Trying to think of other contemporaneous indie titles that are still being produced in one form or another... Love and Rockets, Groo, Usagi Yojimbo, Elfquest...what else?

for some reason Robert's post just struck me as the funniest thing in the world

robert, you gotta be thinking of shin chan?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyDAj9q9mkw

Yes, 940 episodes.

yeah, you can't count TMNT as a single run, if the metric is "currently longest running"

L&R tank that by the five or nine or w/e years they spent not being called L&R, but they'd beat Elfquest either way. Usagi just renumbered afaik? Would have to look at its breaks vs the Bros, but it's probably in with a chance

aragones, los bros and sakai are total monsters; we don't deserve creators this prolific

Groo also takes years and years between series, and still has the bulk of its run as Big Two

honestly when I said "contemporary" earlier I meant "comics adapted in the last 10 - 15 years" but we're old so I guess my entire life is contemporary

Oh man, the Aragones reference makes me think of MAD magazine. I wish I still had, and wonder where they went, a couple paperback collections of MAD comics that were sitting at my grandparents' house when I was a kid.

I kind of always figured they were from some later time and as a kid wondered how MAD, which I had gotten into, would have had paperbacks that my dad or uncle would have bought because I was a kid and didn't conceive as something still so relevant as long-running

"Son of MAD" apparently was published in 1959!

longest-running (WESTERN) non-Big Two title at this point, too

2000AD started in 1977 and has run uninterrupted.

The Australian edition of The Phantom started in 1948 and has published continuously, although is almost entirely US or Danish reprints.

The Beano started in 1938 and has run uninterrupted.

I think Mad is down to a bi-monthly book, but it is still going, no?

yep. it's actually got lots of good artists on board! also, DC owned these days.

these days

Mad was indie for less than ten years and has had the same owner as DC for five decades

The longetivity of TMNT as a “property” is kind of astounding to me; it’s one of those things that you never could have predicted or expected, or believed if someone had told you it would happen (back in the early Eastman & Laird days).

Yeah, I should've specified that I was thinking of 'properties' rather than titles per se. Like, even when there weren't technically TMNT or L+R titles being published, the characters never really went away.

But yeah, there are a number of 2000AD characters that count.

Not sure this is real
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz3m_7ozhNo

But yeah, there are a number of 2000AD characters that count.

Are there other characters in comics (indie or otherwise) who have aged in "real time" over the decades, like the L&R crew?

has had the same owner as DC for five decades

Savage Dragon happens in real time.

Just saw that recent covers have featured Trump and neo-nazis.

If you extend to newspaper strips — something like “Doonesbury” must be the longest-running continuous graphic narrative in which time passes normally...

Think Gasoline Alley beats it - started in 1918 (!), still running in a few newspapers today, and always w/ real-time continuity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_Alley

Wow, didn’t realize it was real time...

A century-long continuous narrative is a Big Freakin’ Deal(!)

Just read Satania by Vehlmann and Kerascoët, the same team who did Beautiful Darkness. Beautiful stuff, thankfully not quite as stomach churning but still quite horrific.

Discussing Beautiful Darkness w/ a comic reading group tomorrow. Not too sure what to say about art that is very effective at making me feel emotions I don't particularly want to feel.

One essence of horror, isn't it? Though I could see some of the criticism that they're taking the form typically used for children's stories in a thin subversion, it worked all too well for me.

Yeah, I don't like horror! Or rather, I don't like horror that actually succeeds in frightening me - though I think I was more grossed out by Beautiful Darkness than scared by it.

That's all on me tho, not the comic.

I think Mad is down to a bi-monthly book, but it is still going, no?

― earlnash, Friday, February 9, 2018 10:10 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Uh, just saw this on the newsstand:

https://i2.wp.com/www.tomrichmond.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/MAD550.png

(Apparently, it's being relaunched with a #1 issue.)

from the All-New Gang Of Idiots in Burbank

I don't mind if I do!
https://us.macmillan.com/series/devilmantheclassiccollection

It has been said that previous attempts to get Devilman (after the disastrous Verotik version) in English were stopped because the publisher would have to publish a chronological Nagai library with things like Shameless School long before Devilman comes. I guess the terms have changed.

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.

Got the X-Men: Grand Design trade by Ed Piskor. As much as I loved Hip-hop Family Tree, this one is a bit of a disappointment. The art and presentation are amazing, but the story is summarized to such an extreme degree that it is nearly incomprehensible.

Thesis: there is something wrong with Erik Larsen's head.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SavageDragon-233.jpg

going to have to agree with Moodles, there’s just some element of joy missing from it. the minor changes and summaries somehow make it less good, where much of the history of the x-men has been in retelling or reflecting anyway

not as fun as HHFT, but the history of X-Men itself is so crazy that I admire what he did with it in condensing it and making his own revisions

the art is a lot of fun, though!

agreed! but his art style clearly suits the material of HHFT better

The next volume is coming in July. I'd love to see him continue to plug through the entire increasingly-convoluted mess (a mess which I dearly love).

He’s got to improve on Onslaught

there are four more issues / two more volumes planned afaik

he said it takes him six months per issue, so hopefully by mid 2019 it'll all be out

Just read Green Lantern, Earth One, Vol. One. Pretty good! Co-written and drawn by the guy who does Invisible Republic (which I'm guessing I should also read now). Actually made me give a shit about HAROLD JORDAN for the first time in decades, though he's still kind of generic at his core.

As a Comics Journal article pointed out recently, Hal Jordan is the ultimate narc: a cop AND a soldier.

Wasn't that effectively the basis for GL's frenemy-style conflict with radical/revolutionary dude Green Arrow, back in the '70s?

So this Spider-Man podcast just described someone as “what’s his name, that crazy bald guy with the magic,” and I thought “Mysterio.”

And then he went, “Grant Morrison.”

Now I have a whole new take on Mysterio.

— Kurt Busiek Resists (@KurtBusiek) April 23, 2018

To tie that together, I believe there's a rumour that GM's the new ongoing writer for Green Lantern. Which could work! I've disliked most of his work since Batman ended, but he's never had a bad ongoing run, as far as I can remember. (Authority doesn't count.)

Is it just a rumor? I thought I saw a news item about it the other day. Which, if true, goddamn you for dragging me back into the DC books, Morrison.

The photo of Bendis in the back of this month's issues has been bugging me what it reminded me of and I've finally got it - it's Harry Shearer in For Your Consideration once he hits the publicity circuit before the Oscars.

I don't know how big a 'get' Bendis is for DC, really. Even if you generally dig the thing he does (which I mostly do, when he's on), he's been phoning it in for the past couple of years. I mean, maybe he's been bored with Marvel, I dunno.

I know that "angelpaws" in a Marvel comic was months ago but... the only piece of ILX lore I really want to see out in the world is "thassa noice Vageen".

For the first time in about 30 years, I have a pull list at my local comic book store. God help me.

thanks to FCBD and a lift, I learnt that a shop that's moved an hour and a half away is really good now

the one half an hour's walk basically sells Marvel & Image and roleplaying stuff, but is clean

This sounds good for any London ILC-ers

http://www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/asterix

I didn't know Goscinny was Jewish! Both my Asterix and my Jewish nerdery have failed me

TCJ to the rescue yet again! I learned like thirty things about Goscinny reading this, starting with his Jewish heritage:

http://www.tcj.com/french-and-frisky-the-man-behind-asterix/

Thanks for that, really good piece. Although arguably Asterix had already peaked at the time of Goscinny's death, his passing at just 51 still feels like one of comics' greatest losses.

Hoping to get to that Asterix exhibition when I'm down in London in July - have never been to the Jewish Museum either, so that will be interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asterix_volumes

In the UK, the back covers didn't list the books in the correct order, so I've never thought about Asterix books having a set running order like Tintin.

But still - Goscinny's run of ten books in six years (!) is a pretty spectacular imperial phase:

1965 Asterix and Cleopatra
1966 Asterix and the Big Fight
1966 Asterix in Britain
1966 Asterix and the Normans
1967 Asterix the Legionary
1968 Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield
1968 Asterix at the Olympic Games
1969 Asterix and the Cauldron
1969 Asterix in Spain
1970 Asterix and the Roman Agent

When I was a kid I fooled myself that Uderzo's later stuff is just as good as the Goscinny volumes, despite my father's grumblings. But looking at the stuff coming out now - admitidely more from a leafing through volumes pov than actually sitting down and reading - it does seem so inferior.

I watched a few eps of Goscinny's tv series. It's on YT, though w/o any English subtitles. Really enjoyed the one about a group of businessmen going to lunch to "discuss business" and just getting progressively more drunk and stuffing their faces in food.

Oh, I've never heard of that - you got a link?

Of the Uderzo stories, I think The Great Divide is on par with the Goscinny books (perhaps the English translation helps), Black Gold and Magic Carpet are fun but dumb, and the rest are disasters.

I've not read any of the new ones, but they seem to follow on from the Uderzo "more is more!" template, and the art seems grotesque in a way the classic books never did.

Yeah, don't they have aliens in them at some point? smh

First episode: http://youtu.be/pWarqUINgNk

I have read the new ones - agree that the art isn't quite 'right', but the scripts are generally better than the Uderzo-written ones, and the second one in particular - The Missing Scroll - actually quite effectively nudges the series out of its narrative comfort zone.

That list of Goscinny's 'imperial phase' really is remarkable - especially when you consider he was also writing some superb, and quite different, Lucky Luke volumes at the same time (I like Iznogoud too, but it's not in the same league as the other two series).

I'm fighting the horrible impulse to start contributing to the Hellboy comics wiki

Chuck OTM re the Uderzo volumes

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/nyregion/the-sistine-chapel-of-comic-strip-art.html

my mind is kind of blown

Mr. Jaffee, who couldn’t precisely recall what he drew in ’76, addressed the wall’s value wryly. “The scribblings on the caves in France also became more important in recent times than they were in their own times,” he said.

Al is still insanely in character at a ripe old age

Been quiet lately. Aside from Superman: The Final Last Stand, Power Pack: Retribution and Squirrel Girl: The Requiemening, anything interesting lately?

i think i know what the first one is, but what the other two

They're all fake. I was just trying to imagine the daftest titles I could. Angel And The Ape: Revelations, Paste Pot Pete: Evolution, Woozy Winks: Redemption, Snapper Carr: Exodus, Gay Ghost: Dark Awakening, Bouncing Boy: Rising, Devil Dinosaur: Defiance, Willie Lumpkin: Devastation, Newsboy Legion: Absolution etc...

but who doesn't want to see the Dark Awakening of a Gay Ghost?

They renamed him Grim Ghost. No joke.

Been quiet lately. Aside from Superman: The Final Last Stand, Power Pack: Retribution and Squirrel Girl: The Requiemening, anything interesting lately?

oh fuck yeah, Non is storming, Hanselmann has a new mini, I went to FCBD for the second time ever* and picked up several giveaways were actually fun & interesting, plus (in sales) a MariNaomi on Retrofit that I didn't know, and a Bob Levin prose novel. No Better Words by Carolyn Nowak on Silver Sprocket is the best new single issue I've seen this year. Found it in a comic shop, but Blocked is the first kickstarter-funded themed anthology I've read that isn't 72% trash (and unlike, say Spike's, doesn't consistently suffer gutter loss). The new Daygloayhole #1 turned out to be mostly a reprint of the old Daygloayhole #1, but Passmore's profile has risen a lot since then and what the heck, my copies are on another continent. I haven't even re-read Pope Hats #5 since I picked it up last year, but the Young Frances collection is out there and is unlikely to have turned shit by getting between hardcovers. Jen Wang's The Prince And The Dressmaker is a surprising delight for :01 YA. The material in Mudbite is slight (appearing to be two dream comics), but FFS the first Dave Cooper comics in...fifteen years? can't be sneezed at. I wish there was more drawing-qua-drawing in Bizarre Romance, but it's worth checking the range of approaches used. Picked up the first offset trade and two riso minis of Band Vs Band at VanCAF on the weekend, and the story is... not there yet, but the design and colour pallettes are g--o-r-g-e-o-u-s. Was also thrilling to see that Colin Upton is still out there doing real actual $1 minis (lotsa ppl's minis were $5-10) - picked up three 2018 newies.

*the other time was to get the issue of Langridge's Thor romance that hadn't been printed in the cancelled run.

ooh and there's a new L&R out this week, and the new Karl Stevens GN

http://www.comicsreporter.com/images/uploads/lnr05bottom_thumb.jpg

I might get Mudbite. Could swear I seen Cooper say he didn't think he could still do lengthy comics anymore, but that was maybe 5 years ago.

Last thing I got was one of those Bastien Vives adult comics which will probably never get translated to English.

https://www.blackgate.com/2018/06/13/two-count-em-two-nazi-robot-t-rexes/

More funny golden age silliness.

Some poor bastard bought $18k wholesale in Batman #50 (~10k copies) because of the promised wedding that's not happening.

is there anything in the world that could happen that could make a single store move that many copies of a single comic? that seems incredibly weird

If they do a lot of conventions, maybe and most of the time it's multi-store chains. Those numbers usually mean they got a custom cover for their shop(s), which is a minimum of 5k copies give or take.

I'd go bankrupt.

it'd be much funnier if it was that X-Men wedding issue that I doubt anyone cared about

"this is going to be huge! I'm betting it all on... whoever the heck gets married in this issue"

This is old but i only just found it: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/how-one-mash-up-artist-got-legal-permission-to-pair-calvin-hobbes-with-dune/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2016/02/c1.png

really dug the first two issues of Ewing's IMMORTAL HULK. the Hulk itself is one of the best depictions I've seen in years

Yes! Super glad that Al has found a better niche at Marvel than his last few titles.

I'm just about to go on a lazy holiday for two weeks, which means I like to DL a long Marvel (or whatever) run from the 70s or 80s and read it on my iPad.

Any suggestions? I've got the Simonson Thor run (which I've never read) booked for another time. But something similar in quality/scope (if not length) - maybe like 20 issues?

Or - something hacky but readable like Squadron Supreme (but not that)

http://comicsbulletin.com/top-10-1970s-marvels/

This is a pretty good list of longish 70s Marvel runs. Their number one choice would be mine too, especially the Headmen saga issues (Defenders 31-40)

oh, been meaning to read that defenders run forever. thanks!

would anyone recommend the brubaker run on captain america? i seem to remember from yester-ILC that it started well and tapered off before the end

it kinda did but i still rememeber it generally fondly. the bucky-cap stuff did downslide a bit, but still readable

9. Doctor Strange (Steve Englehart / Frank Brunner / Gene Colan)

I got the Essentials edition of this recently and was blown away by how good it was, had never seen any of Brunner's work before.

I think the solution might be to just pony up for MU while I'm away

Ok guys here’s my new weekly thing (alongside new weekly things by Tom Hart, Karen Sneider, Megan Kelso and Steve Weismann!). We comprise the Sunday funnies section of this new web mag Popula that just launched this week. My thing is kind of a fantasia on the notion of people and their phones.

https://popula.com/2018/07/15/sunday-funnies-july-15-2018/

Digging the style of yr comic Jon!

that's great

Read Kerascoet’s Beautiful Darkness and Satania in one sitting and... don’t do that.

I much preferred the first - it’s a self-consciously horrific riff on The Borrowers-type children’s stories, and impressively nasty.

Satania just drags on and on in a punishing way, though. I mean, it’s literally about a journey through hell, so fair enough I guess. But it’s boring.

but which is the one you'd recommend for a kid?

lol

Read the firs trade of that Sabrina The Teenage Witch reimagining. Surprisingly enjoyable: the pulp horror shit works and, surprisingly, the comic has a lot of heart. It does suffer from reference-itis though where characters are constantly telling each other what they're reading.

I totally missed the now old news that Chuck Dixon was working with Vox Day. Not sure I ever read any Dixon, but Jeezy Chreezy.

HAve you guys already discussed the x men grand design thing? Or is that not even worthy of discussion? I’m way out of the loop but I bought the book and it’s kind of enjoyable in an old school way. Was not expecting the retro graphic style

Ed Piskor has been doing History of Hip-Hop one-pagers for many years, collected in big Marvel Treasury-style editions and also, later, a monthly series from Fantagraphics. The pitch for Grand Design was basically "I'll do the same style on the X-Men."

Ah I see!

you should totally check out Hip Hop Family Tree if you're into his style. x-men grand design is pretty awesome - i feel like there's no way it can be flawless, but summarizing 40 years of x-men comics is a ambitious fun project to read

word

Rereading Asterios Polyp. It's true that much of the story is just the kind of middle aged dude clichés that would get plenty of backlash if this had been a novel or film, but at the same time what the book does with colour, lettering, the continuum between cartoonishness and realistic depiction, etc. still feels like a major acheivement.

That news about chuck dixon is not very surprising at all.

I have to wonder if even very right wing people are aware of his most extreme views (terrorist sympathizing, views on women's rights) when they get involved with him.

As a result of looking into that news, I've discovered the (apparently alt-right?) website B0unding into Comics, and all I need now is a match after having thoroughly doused myself with gasoline. Any help is appreciated!

Review of Mike Diana film
https://www.blackgate.com/2018/07/20/fantasia-2018-day-3-part-2-boiled-angels-the-trial-of-mike-diana/

I knew Dixon was a conservative, but I had no idea he was that bad. Apparently he recently broke the record for the most prolific comic writer.

Assholes shit out content every day.

Not so very conservative with his output, is he.

https://www.newsfromme.com/2017/12/23/vic-lockman-r-p/

RIP, Vic.

Posted as a likely outdoer of Chuck Dixon.

I have to wonder if even very right wing people are aware of his most extreme views (terrorist sympathizing, views on women's rights) when they get involved with him.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, August 3, 2018 9:06 PM

Should have clarified I meant Vox Day has these views. In the past numerous right wing authors have been asked to distance themselves from him because he stands for things which are reprehensible to the average person, but it seems they either want to benefit from his activities or they are too afraid of his followers if they renounce him. They say something like "I don't agree with him on everything but..."

So Chuck Dixon, Mike Baron (he was doing a Based Stickman comic) and Ethan Van Sciver are going in this direction? Anyone else?

Mike baron? Dang that’s sad.

Dixon wasn’t always this extreme. Circa the turn of the century he was just garden variety right.

Baron has always been quietly & publicly right-wing, in a way that's apparent in what I've read of his work. The individualism, might-makes-right / confers authority, and anti-government anti-regulation themes in Nexus are far more philosophically baked in than the standard yay-vigilantism of regular cape comics.

Yeah i love those nexus comics but his underlying politics are p obvious

to be clear, this is something that makes Nexus valuable & compelling and superior to standard cape comics, not tainted!

What's Badger like? Cant believe how many issues there was.

Badger was super dumb

Two more Junji Ito books from Viz
- Frankenstein (with Oshikiri story cycle included) - 18 Oct 2018
- Smashed (a collection) – 16 Apr 2019

I'm not that interested, but just in case some of you are, after the Go Nagai Devilman Classic Collections, Seven Seas are releasing Cutey Honey Classic Collection and a series of Captain Harlock Classic Collection by Leiji Matsumoto.

I had one Cutey Honey book and there was this guy with a bleeding anus and he kept getting judo chopped in the ass.

Some of these are out already

I kinda think Badger was a secret influence on the character Deadpool. I loved the The Bowl Shaped World arc in Nexus when it's Badger, Nexus and Judah on the road.

Badger is great in Nexus, p worthless in his own title

This afternoon I had a bad dream with the most obscure comics reference: I dreamt I was somehow inside the house of comics critic Ng Suat Tong and eating his son's chocolate bars when they were away from home and then worrying about how I would get myself out this situation. I don't know if he actually has a son.

Have ilxors ever made a comics compilation?

No.

It'd be great if one got made - would love to see what kind of things people came up with. Sort of along the lines of the ILX pre-covers compilations where willing participants are given a theme (ILX itself, idk?) and a deadline to produce a 6-panel strip. No real artistic aptitude necessary. Mention itt if interested at all and I could set it up.

Incidentally, I recently finished reading Kristen Radtke's 'Imagine Wanting Only This', which was pretty stunning. Isolated musings on death and space and dying towns etc. Would really recommend.

Compilation sounds fun!

Reading the first volume of Misty reprints. Have been curious about these for a long time. It's not blowing my mind so far but I do like how irredeemably eevil the bullies in the first story are.

Been really digging the Exiles series this year. Not incredibly original, but just plain fun. Also the artwork is good stuff.
https://i.imgur.com/pUP1lM3.jpg

Anyone know what the careers of aging manga artists are like?

A while ago I looked up Masami Fukushima's recent work and I don't know if he's updated his style or some assistant is having a large influence on his art but I don't like the new look.

Recently looked at the newest Captain Harlock and Devilman books that Matsumoto and Nagai only write; the new artists do a sort of update on the old style that just doesn't work that well.

It would be easy to imagine Matsumoto and Nagai not wanting to draw lots of pages anymore but sometimes I think the manga industry is more unwelcoming of old fashioned styles than the American mainstream of the 90s.

Oh dear at Bastien Vives - Petit Paul. This is the first time I've been too afraid to order a comic since Maruo's Mr Arashi's Amazing Freakshow.

I know packages with are rarely inspected these days and the seller would probably take an item out of stock if they had a problem with it but still, quite extreme content makes me worry about getting into trouble.

Breccia's Mort Cinder came out a few months ago from Fantagraphics, anybody got it?

I had a blind spot to him, but a quick Google suggests all his previous work has been the same?

I don't think the Breccia has been published yet? I've waited a very long time for Mort Cinder to be translated, so will def be buying when it does appear.

Aldo- Same in what way? Breccia's work is quite varied.

Aldo appears to be responding to your concern about ordering M. Vives' work through the Royal Mail.

Yes. From a glimpse at Les Melons de la Colere it seems to be just as 'interesting' in terms of mail worries.

Fantagraphics site has the Breccia coming out at the end of October btw

Ward - thanks.

Aldo - Vives does a big variety. He does mainstream action like Last Man, he did Polina which got a Juliette Binoche film based on it, a comic about swimming, some science fiction, humor and probably a lot else.

He's about as varied as anyone going right now.

Re: Breccia, might go for a foreign edition of his Lovecraft work. His work has been getting reprints recently in French and german so maybe he's gathering interest again.

Had not heard that East of West had gotten optioned. It's almost an American Anime type comic, so I think it would work well as that style of animation.

5. East Of West

What is it? Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta’s Image Comics series follows Death—of the Four Horseman Of The Apocalypse—and his attempt at stopping the world from ending. The book is a sci-fi/Western set in an alternate reality-version of the United States, and both Hickman and Dragotta are on board as producers.
How far along is it? Amazon picked up the project in April, but that’s all we’ve heard. That means it’s probably still very early.
Will it win or die? The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman is also on board as an executive producer, and he knows a thing or two about making comic books into hit TV shows, so that’s a good sign. Plus, the original comic is great, so East Of West could have a good shot if development starts to pick up speed. [Sam Barsanti]

https://tv.avclub.com/game-of-game-of-thrones-thrones-43-big-upcoming-fantas-1828746565

I was eyeing Urotsukidoji in the shops recently, seemed a bit too expensive but a few days later I couldn't resist. Surprised it wasn't the whole thing but only the first of 4 volumes.

Artwork by Toshio Maeda is so much better than I remembered. Pleasantly surprised by this because I didn't see myself wanting to delve into this. Have some good memories of the first animated film (guy cutting off his own penis then attaching a demon penis and some other intense things) and was curious if reading these books would explain what the hell was going on in the later films which was tedious and incomprehensible for me at the time but also intriguing (because how the hell does the story progress into space opera?) but I'm finding out the manga is a very very different story. I hope it goes into the space stuff. Don't make me watch all that anime. Interestingly, Maeda remade the manga a few years later to incorporate elements of the anime.

Maeda might be one of those manga artists whose international success did a lot more for him than his success in japan. Regularly doing American and European conventions and makes good money off his fans, semi-retired. He claims he got his English speaking skills just from watching films and television.
There's quite a few video and audio interviews around, including one from Bourdain's tv show.

There's a blog called Tentacle Lounge that gives in-depth coverage of his work. Some of the art is admirably moody. I don't like some of the coloring techniques he uses these days but he seems to have recovered from his hand injury very well.

From a short dip into Urotsukidoji, the contrast between the general nasty aura and the jokiness is very odd.

Fakku released these recent 4 volumes but somehow a new publisher Denpa (founded by ex-Vertical staff) acquired it and Fakku's Shintaro Kago book (meaning they taken maybe the only two really interesting things Fakku had). I would be very interested to see more Maeda stuff.

Here's a bit about Denpa that may interest.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurenorsini/2018/08/31/a-qa-with-the-founder-of-denpa-fandoms-newest-manga-publisher/#4948f4a1794c

Were people talking about the upcoming Thimble Theater collection on this thread? Whatevs, here's one of the strips - Segar paying tribute to Herriman!

https://scontent.fman1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41394292_2142035325809701_7239858106933444608_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=96c4fb4f8e458231d0fade11860ac287&oe=5C239951

My most recent purchase has been the first of two new volumes collecting the work that British comics genius Ken Reid did for the publisher Odhams in the 1960s. I couldn't resist book one because it contains my personal favourite Reid strip, Jasper the Grasper, naturally enough about a miser. It's easy enough to say Reid was the British Basil Wolverton, but the level of manic, grotesque detail in his work also feels adjacent to some of the underground artists (who were publishing their first comics at the same time that Reid was enjoying a small measure of freedom at Odhams, along with a similarly energised Leo Baxendale). This strip made a DEEP impression on me when I read it as little boy in a comics annual in the 1970s:

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bx_MLiftV_c/WEt8kB89IhI/AAAAAAAA6PM/iBHxd34IG9YhpbEqqewvIZXQhbmoGzxNgCLcB/s1600/Jasper%2BThe%2BGrasper%2B%25289%2529.jpg

I got that giant Drawn and Quarterly 25 Yr Anniversary book out of the library in the hopes that I would find out about some cool folks of theirs I was unfamiliar with. Unfortunately turns out I'm not interested in most of their stable :( Huizenga looked kinda interesting, maybe I will read Curses.

Huizenga's Ganges was the best ongoing series of the last decade.

That Segar / Herriman strip was in this book, my childhood exposure to Thimble Theatre:

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/08/a3/a3/08a3a378081a86fb0d4d0d34b5b2304c--bud-printing.jpg

one of only two times I've ever borrowed a comic from someone and not given it back, and I still feel guilty 34 years later

Carlos Ezquerra passes.

https://i2.wp.com/www.starkafterdarkonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-06-15-2.png

lol "judge Minty"

Pretty sure that page is by McMahon rather than Ezquerra, fwiw

yep that's mcmahon.

first 2000ad i bought
https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/893977.jpg

finally finished reading Al Ewing's Loki: Agent of Asgard run. outstanding. what an excellent, worthy follow-up to Gillen's run. unbelievable how great a character Loki has become over the past decade.

I’m enjoying his go at The Hulk just now also.

Really digging the Nocenti/Aja miniseries The Seeds. I'm not sure about the actual story, per se, but it's incredibly weird and evocative, and invites multiple visits.

Yeah, I'm enjoying. Ales Kot's Days Of Hate has a similar vibe.

This could be a cursed question, but can anyone recommend any “how to draw comics” books? Not the McCloud, but old school “this is how you do a head and perspective” type books.

I bought a WACOM during a late-night Amazon sadbinge and thought it might be fun to try making a comic journal for a course I’m doing. Nothing for public consumption, just fun farting around at home.

My advice, avoid anything like How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way and just get yourself anatomy books (I like the Anatomy For The Artist by Sarah Simblet), drawing perspective books and take a good look at the storytelling techniques of comic artists you like.

http://dw-wp.com/book-guides/drawing-words-writing-pictures-volume-1/

Chip Zdarsky should make a compendium of all his 'How to draw' bits
https://i.imgur.com/aoolwhA.jpg

Basic facial proportions and positioning (all rough estimates, natch, which vary from face to face) that will blow u mind:
-U face is roughly 3.5 noses high. The .5 at the top is roughly congruent with u hairline (if you have one, which I do not)
-U horizontal eye area is roughly as wide as u nose is long
-The corners of u mouth roughly align with the outsides of u irises
-U ears roughly start at the top of u eye and extend to the bottom of u nose

Etc, etc. First lesson is free, we can work something out for subsequent lessons.

http://arnoldzwicky.s3.amazonaws.com/WallyWood.jpg

https://i.redd.it/vrlebpuk21hx.jpg

Thanks! That’s super helpful. It came in the post today and I crowned it by drawing a picture of a bee at the level of a Photoshop-unfriendly 4-year-old

And unexpected byproduct is that, for the first time in my life, I’m *really* looking at the art when I’m reading comics. Comic art has always been a bit like music lyrics for me – as long as it isn’t noticeably amazing or horrendously getting in the way, I kind of ignore it

Anyone else here read The Nib? I'm actually backing their subscription service, which I practically never do anymore. Their daily output is consistently great stuff, especially in this political climate - the stories and writing also seem to be generally well researched as well.

Comic art has always been a bit like music lyrics for me – as long as it isn’t noticeably amazing or horrendously getting in the way, I kind of ignore it

I've always thought there was a paralell between music critics who spend 99% of their time talking about lyrics and comics critics who do the same for story - in both cases it's because writing about writing is easier.

Nick Drnaso's SABRINA was quite good. I'm a little let down by how it just "ends" like an indie film but i that's sorta par for the course these days i guess

Really liked Sabrina, and his earlier collection of interlinked shorts, Beverly.

Also just read and enjoyed Girl Town by Carolyn Nowak, a collection of minicomics and new stuff.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/512oVdavRdL._SY445_QL70_.jpg

Tried but was defeated by My Favorite Thing is Monsters. I was impressed by and deeply admired the skill of its execution, but am not in a good place for reading a book like that at the moment. When I found myself reading an extended section where the friendless, self-loathing child main character is sitting with a sobbing widower and listening to the tape recordings of his suicide wife talking about her own experiences having been raped as a child in Nazi Germany, i realised I was not enjoying the book enough to keep subjecting myself to it. But as I say, I could see it was VERY GOOD, but just not for me.

Nowak's No Love Lost is my #1 comic of the year

Gonna look for nowak stuff at CAB this Sunday, thx for tips

Hey sic I can't find any reference to No Love Lost with a desultory google - is it part of a collection with another name or am I being stupid?

sorry, it’s called No Better Words!

Ah, thanks, I'll look out for it.

xps I can totally understand that reaction to MONSTERS, it's pretty overwhelming.
GIRL TOWN just showed up in my local library, so I'll check it out.

Gonna look for nowak stuff at CAB this Sunday, thx for tips

No Better Words is on Silver Sprocket, who are exhibiting - I bought it at VanCAF, but they didn't seem to be carrying it at Short Run last weekend.

(though I think it was just one bloke from Portland who'd driven up, not anyone coming from HQ in SF)

Just borrowed Sabrina by Nick Drnaso from the library. Can't tell if it's good or bad timing for a non-genre graphic novel to be called this in the same year that Netflix have a new Sabrina series out (not that you would confuse the two, visually). Anyway, looks interesting - a kind of blank, templatety art style that seems almost sinister:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/02/sabrina-nick-drnaso-review-graphic-novel

it's very sinister!

my Short Run #haul btw:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrMlf3BVYAAO2OI.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrMlgNoVsAAvyx_.jpg

ah well

WHY ART? by Eleanor Davis was a sweet, short read. Tiny profundity.

Saw her read it at a thing in manhattan
She is tremendous

I can see the photos, sic, and I am very envious

yeah what is fuck off squad, lol

as far as I can tell, it's a collection of the second and third volumes of Fuck Off Squad, but without any of the back-up features by other people

(a comic about teen skaters hanging out and band members trying to band and how sex with various people can impact on other people)

(I'd never bought any of the issues of FOS before bcz they were $15 each, so I'm not sure how much is left out; the collection is $15.)

jon are you at CAB tomorrow?

Yes
My signing slots are 11 to 12 and... I think 1 to 3? Maybe 2 to 4. I’m definitely going to the Julie panel at noon.

I have sighted No Better Words at the silver sprocket table. If I sell a copy of true swamp the proceeds will funnel to my acquisition of it.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/stan-lee-marvel-comics-legend-721450

Obligatory "Excelsior!"

Stan Lee, Marvel Comics' Real-Life Superhero

go fuck yourselves

That took 17 minutes longer than I expected.

RIP, Stan. Long may our legitimate criticism of you devolve into sputtering rage.

hey, I'm legitimately criticising the subeditors of THR

'Nuff said!

xp to farrell, me too!

turns out the Fuck Off Squad has all three issues in it, the TOC just says PART ONE and PART TWO in black and white, and PART THREE in white-on-very-soft-pink.

Got my copy of Mort Cinder, very nice but sometimes modern scanning technology shows a level of detail that wasn't originally intended, I prefer the slightly flatter black and white look. I was right in guessing there is a big Breccia reprint project across a few languages, at the back of the book it notes that there will be a series of his major works from Fantagraphics.

daaaaaave nooooooo

Oh, did you know Dave McKean and Jack Gantos (2 white dudes) have a comic out next year about an illiterate brown Muslim boy who goes into a library with a suicide bomb only to start having second thoughts because people seem so into the world of books and if only he could read

— Zainab Akhtar (@comicsandcola) November 19, 2018

https://www.abramsandchronicle.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/9781419728563.jpg

“People stop thinking when they cease to read.” When a young boy enters a library wearing an explosive vest hidden underneath his lovely new red jacket, he only has one plan on his mind. But as he observes those around him becoming completely captivated by all of the wonderful books they are reading—books he has no ability to read—the boy can’t help but question his reasoning for being there. With Dave McKean’s unique mixed-media illustrations, bestselling author Jack Gantos brings to life the story of a young suicide bomber, his unquestionable duty to his beliefs, and the unexpected power of books to change lives.

he's also not a god, a wizard or a superhero, but that doesn't stop him

ffs

Liiiiiiiike...there's probably a way that that basic plot could be handled in a thoughtful, respectful, and delicate way, but that particular path is so incredibly narrow and precarious that, yeah, if you're a white non-Muslim dude it's probably best to maybe do a story that isn't that story.

As a general thing, I would say, 'Hey, white non-Muslim people: don't ever write another story about a Muslim suicide bomber. Like ever, in any context.'

an illiterate muslim suicide bomber, pls

TBH, my first thought was 'can't wait to see how Kyle reacts after he reads Cartman's press release'.

i blame the writer. mckean can't be expected to sort these things out, he just wants to blow, man

an illiterate muslim suicide bomber, pls

yeah this makes um no sense

how does he read the Koran

with great difficulty, one assumes

Wow, this is practically Frank Millerian in its conceptual awfulness!

i'm curious if this is in fact Millerian or a misguided liberal fool

No mention of our heroic librarygoers clubbing the illiterate Muslim to death with copies of the New Testament so I'd assume the latter by default.

It's apparently adapted from a short story he did for amnesty international. Goodreads reviews are a mix of 1s from people who probably haven't read it and 4s from people who all got sent free copies. My mind is still boggling a bit about the writer even thinking this was a good idea. (McKean has done a bunch of charity work over the years so I guess the amnesty connection is why he is involved)

http://www.comicsbeat.com/abrams-comicarts-announces-spring-2019-titles-with-fies-selznick-griffith-and-mckean/

Scroll down

Obit of an accomplished artist with a comics connection — he did some illustration work for Atlas and had an association w/Stan Lee: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/obituaries/pablo-ferro-dead.html

This interview goes into more depth on the comics angle: http://www.artofthetitle.com/feature/pablo-ferro-a-career-retrospective-part-1/

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!

*scribbles furiously*

I have the 'nervous and vaguely out of sorts' part down but it could be that I'm putting the cart before the horse.

I've bought a ton of 2018 comics but (as is my slowpokey wont with respect to most media) I'm not sure if I have yet to read a single comic that was published in 2018.

oh man, i've got PILES of backlog to read myself! it's a never ending backlog for sure.

At the begining of this year I decided not to buy any new comics and to rearead my entire collection instead.

I'm still at the As -_-

It's the same conundrum I face every year: I've read a ton of stuff, watched a ton of movies, heard a ton of music, etc. but it's all pretty much exclusively from years prior to this one, so I can never participate in any of the fun year-end discussions.

xpost oh man Tommasso is an old friend and I am super psyched to learn about that gig w/Allred! Fuck yeah!

(you can see how good I am at keeping in touch with old friends)

the Snagglepuss book was great, like the Flintstones he did the year before

Russell is writing a few other things now, including a good looking Lone Ranger book

So here's an interesting thing I noticed about this week's new Marvel comics (and I say this with the caveat that I'm looking at these digitally and not in the store, though i'm inclined to believe this holds true for the physical books as well): all of the superhero series releases - though, notably, not the Star Wars books, kiddie books or the presumably earlier cover-finalized miniseries - have been redesigned in honor of Stan Lee's death so that the top of the cover is dominated by a simple, horizontal black band with Lee's years of birth and death. The book's title and issue number have been shunted to the lower left corner with (of course) the Marvel logo. Here's two sample covers so you can get a clear idea what I'm talking about:

http://i.imgur.com/w97POF3.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Jq563d7.jpg

Two things jumped immediately to mind when I saw these:

1) - It's amazing how much cleaner and more effective this looks from a graphic design perspective. It also unifies and brands the books in a comprehensive and recognizable way that almost certainly will appeal to OCD weekly comic buyers (are there any other kind?) and people who want to see and clearly display the cover art. Modern comic covers are an unnecessary riot of clutter and extraneous detail; minimizing word balloons, indica, titles and blurbs greatly improves and modernizes them visually.

That said:

2) - For several years now, Marvel has pretty consistently put the names of a book's creative team on the cover, often (as Image generally does, but DC generally does not) including both the first and last names of the creators. I assume the rationale for making the call as to when full names or just last names are used is likely due to space considerations, contractual obligations, name recognition if it helps sell the book (so weird to me that DC just lists "MORRISON" on the front of the new Green Lantern, as if his name isn't the main reason many if not most new readers will buy it), or even (GASP! CHOKE!) editors recognizing that anyone who writes and draws a book deserves to have their complete names on the work they made. I don't really know for sure.

However, with the Death of Stan commemorative redesign, for the first time in a long time there are _no_ creator names on the covers. Just Stan's band, the cover image, the name and issue number, the indelible MARVEL logo and that's it. So there's the most immediate public way that Marvel chose to celebrate Lee's passing: by pulling the names of the people that write and draw their books off the cover.

Excelsior?

It stinks.

Seems especially sucky to have that band at the top of characters/titles that Stan did not co-create.

^ they're doing this again this week as well btw

Rereading Gail Simone's Atom, which I first got into due to this very forum. Representation in comics having come a long way since it was released (on the page at least) some parts now feel very clunky and outside-looking-in; a bigger problem for me this time around is John Byrne's art is absolutley garish, and the colours do it no favours. But I'm getting to the part where tiny aliens fight Cthulhu worshipping pilgrims, and that's still jolly good fun.

there's a 2019 thread