Rolling SERIOUS GRAPHIC LITERATURE Thread for Comics in 2016

Aja was awesome w/Brubaker & Fraction on the Iron Fist stuff

Wooooo! Looks like I'm gonna get to read Transformers vs. GI Joe.

I have the first 10 issues but couldn't afford to keep up much to my dismay. It is my favorite comic of recent years, no contest. looking forward to finally finishing the whole thing, the last issue looked insane.

My friend (whose Transformers hobby I've mentioned before) is heading to a convention again this month. I tagged along once and it was entertaining but definitely not my thing (although negotiating deals when he was away from his booth for hundreds of dollars worth of toys was something), but it looks like Bob Budiansky is a guest at the con this year. Kind of tempted to show up to see if I could get some Sleepwalker comics signed or something similarly silly.

Read the first Ariel Schrag collections, Awkward and Definition. The first book, done when she was 15, was honestly pretty hard to get through - like crudely drawn diary entries you'd expect from a teenage girl (I feel like a dick saying that). The second one was a massive improvement and it's awesome to see her storytelling and drawing skills improve in something like real-time, and I'm very interested to see how she progressed.

Knocked out King/Bagenda's The Omega Men. Never read anything by King, this was really good. Ostensibly a Green Lantern story, but Rayner had a small part - instead it was an well-crafted, interesting, extremely violent and morally grim Star Wars.

I haven't read Omega Men yet, but King's The Vision is just devastating.

Awkward and Definition. The first book, done when she was 15, was honestly pretty hard to get through ... very interested to see how she progressed.

Awkward does indeed look exactly like a 15-year old girl drew it - I'm sure it was perfectly suited as a folded-page minicomic, but it made sense for Slave Labor to do the reprint at magazine size so it could be racked with Definition.

Potential continues to show the same progress in her ability, only even more so - there are parts where she's having to tell the story in a style she's moved past, just for consistency; and there are sequences done in a far more accomplished style. I only read it in collection, and wondered if she'd actually completed the entire book before the first issue came out, so she could go back and work the fancier segements into the whole once her skill had developed.

Likewise I found frustrating, though - felt like she was trying to level up again, in a way which the content and her experience didn't warrant, and her skill now didn't meet.

hard to get through

that said, it's only, what, 40pp? 48?

just bought the first volume of shiga's DEMON, kinda excited to have a go at it

Recent roundup:
the gendy CAGE! is pretty lame in the final analysis but maybe a bit less racist than the promo art suggested
James Bond continues to be a fun read and easy to enter for anyone who'd like to jump in
the art for He-Man vs Thundercats is just spectacular; in a different (euro)style but the same auteuristic bent as GI Joe vs Transformers
Spidey is good fun in the Ultimate Bendis style; this Nathan Stockman guy looks like what happens when art adams meets manga
Paper Girls appears to have spun out of control at issue 8; I'm at a loss as to what the hell's going on
Langridge's Betty Boop (from Dynamite, natch) is excellent... reminds me of Neil the Horse

Based on the first issue, it looks like Gerard Way might actually do Doom Patrol justice. Suitably weird as fuck. I also have the second issue and the first issue of Shade the Changing Girl (featuring a backup strip by Beto Hernandez and his daughter!) awaiting me at home so I'll keep y'all abreast on how this Young Animal thing is going.

I had no idea Langridge was doing Betty Boop now! Have to check that out.

Paper Girls appears to have spun out of control at issue 8; I'm at a loss as to what the hell's going on

I've only read through the first trade; I can respect BKV's attempt to keep shifting the apparent stakes of the plot, but the characterization so far feels too sketchy to make me care about what is happening or why.

just bought the first volume of shiga's DEMON, kinda excited to have a go at it

Demon is amazing, you're going to be tortured knowing you have to wait for First Second's whim to get the next chunk

sic otm, Demon is spectacular. Everybody go buy it right now.

and here, if you don't trust me; read the first 36 pages:
http://www.shigabooks.com/demon_chapter01.pdf

Demon is amazing, you're going to be tortured knowing you have to wait for First Second's whim to get the next chunk

The next book is up for pre-order on Amazon, with the publication date of 7 Feb, 2017?

now i regret not buying the chapbooks/slipcase when he was selling them online
and ultimately i will regret not waiting for the single volume edition
anyways i wannit NOW

the single issues are one of the greatest feats of serialisation in comics history

if i ever see him at a convention, i'm buying the slipcase for sure.

i wonder if he'll be at CAB

well he's moved to France for an angouleme grant, right? i would love to let him know how exciting it is watching him develop into one of the great voices of his generation.

oh i didn't know that

yeah no shiga on CAB list

Steve Weissmann though! I haven't talked to him in ages

will be nice to say 'Hej'

just checking the list now; there's lots of solid creators there but nobody really breaking my brain to meet in person... seems a bit light on big names, no?

what i thought too but i am not very well informed about who might be new and amazing these days

you should definitely check out andrea tsurumi's stuff, she is super super talented

oh yeah, i bought stuff from her a year or two ago; she's very good!

this in particular:
http://andreatsurumi.com/filter/Comics/Andrew-Jackson-Throws-a-Punch

k that Demon preview 100% sold me, will buy

RIP Steve Dillon.

WTF?

whoa, that's abrupt isn't it? RIP.

as reported on the ILX obit thread, Jack Chick apparently died yesterday.

I'm less taken aback about Jack Chick's death than I am by my sudden discovery that Jack Chick is an actual person.

My being surprised by the existence of such extreme people is becoming increasingly common.

https://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

and lest we forget the man was an explicit bigot
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1052/1052_01.asp

Here's a PDF of The Imp #2, Dan Raeburn's tract-format biography of Chick.

sic, that was a phenomenal bio. thanks!

http://www.tcj.com/reviews/my-favorite-thing-is-monsters/

A review/preview of the aforementioned Emil Ferris book.

that looks really really good.

For those of you not reading Strong Female Protagonist, i STRONGLY recommend it. Likely my fave webcomic.
You could start at the start but if you wanna jump in when Ostertag's art hits stride, I'd recommend here: http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-5/chapter-5-cover/

roll call on Brooklyn Comics Festival attendees this weekend?

is that the same as CAB? Cause I'll be at CAB

That's CAB, yes. See you there! You selling anything new Jon?

Nothing new from me until the hardback collecting the 2000-2001 true swamps, for spring 2017 publishing season. Which is not new work anyway. I'm still limited to prose and music bc of my nerve injury unfort

ulysses - wow halfway through the chapter is EXACTLY where i stopped reading it years ago (for reasons unrelated). thanks for reminding me about this comic

it's great! it was great! it got better though i think.

Mickey's Inferno is available in early December; I found an online scan and it's AWESOME
https://www.amazon.com/Disney-Graphic-Novels-Parodies-Mickeys/dp/1629915920

what is that?

it is a for real retelling of dante's inferno starring mickey and goofy as dante and virgil that's been translated from Italian and you can buy it!
http://67.media.tumblr.com/ba01a6cb5365d5edfa1aa60d9b66e26b/tumblr_nd6hqqd8X21sp3y55o1_500.jpg

wow! must find.