Rolling SERIOUS GRAPHIC LITERATURE Thread for Comics in 2016

Has female Thor and black Captain America stuck?

I wonder if any kids read Venus/Measles or if it's just Love And Rockets fans.

I haven't read it yet but Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur looks like another new Marvel title that would appeal to the younger girl set.

i had a letter published in the Gladstone Mickey Mouse when i was thirteen. The bigfoot disney stuff is very much at the core of who i am.

i bought my comics at a local drugstore off the spinner. still have quite a few of those!

I have one, Invaders #21. It is the most tattered thing

I never ever saw a duck comic before the Gladstone license took effect. I had heard barks name but had no clue what the stuff looked like

i think my first exposure to those were old dells culled from my dad's underground comic collection. i started buying disney in those polybagged, three to a purchase gold key grab bags at dollar stores where they were 99 cents. Barks stuff was so obviously a cut above everything else, even at seven i could tell there was something special there.

I think I checked out some of the older stuff at the library, but the first Gladstone publishing period started up in '86 when I was five, so most everything was through them.

Not to bring this conversation down even further, but I'm really enjoying BMB's current run on Iron Man - lovely glossy-but-cartoony art, and Bendis doing his Bendis thing but with more charm than usual. It'll probably be a terrible mess of unresolved plots and bad fill-in art this time next year, but right now it's pretty breezy.

Outside of Thor (always good) and Al E's New Avengers (his best of three titles right now) not much in the ANAD Marvel has really grabbed me - too much New 52 "talent" hogging the good titles.

I did get the first Corto Maltese for Christmas though - worried it wouldn't live up to the hype, but it's fucking great (he stated obviously)

well this is certainly a list
http://loser-city.com/features/the-100-best-comics-of-the-first-half-of-the-2010s-part-1-100-80

I was considering getting Jaybird by the Ahonens, it looked really fresh.

I probably need to take a better look at the comic shops soon. I'm at least glancingly familiar with most on that list but there's got to be some stuff emerged recently that I'd like.

Seems to always be old reprinted stuff that catches my interest, like those non-Pogo Walt Kelly comics and Garrett Price’s White Boy (too expensive for me though).

Seems like western English language comics are going in a great direction and getting back to the variety they used to have a long time ago. I was reading about the comics code recently and there is speculation that it reduced the variety of subjects drastically but I think censorship was pretty much inevitable and television is often mentioned in reducing the readership for certain genres.
I always like to imagine the different ways comics history could have went (we clearly live in a shitstained alternate universe) and I'm curious why more people didn't jump of the magazine bandwagon to get away from the comics code.

I hear DC Comics are doing really badly right now. Really interested to see how much more the industry changes in even 5 years.

White Boy looks grrrrrreeat but i can't really get more coffee table books before i get a coffee table.
specialty forums and torrents and marvel unlimited and small press cons and the complete mainstreaming of comics as both junk food and academic text have opened up the modern comics world to me enough that i feel like we must be in the middle of a golden age of sorts but it's so sprawling and all at once it's hard to quantify it properly.
DC has gone through several years of death throes it feels like; if the movies don't work out, who knows what's gonna happen. maybe time/warner sells all the intellectual rights to disney for ten billion dollars? it's weird that the future of cable monopolies may influence whether we see a JLA/Avengers xover film in ten years.

I've heard that in the early 80s, there was talks of DC merging with Marvel because they were doing so poorly. Their behaviour since the 60s has been due in large part to rivalry. I wonder what they'd do without that competition?
If they did merge, I'm sure fans (who'd be cumming gallons) would want a shared universe, and since their histories aren't compatible, they'd have to reboot everything again and probably not be able to split again, regardless of how many universe reboots they do.

is wildstorm or w/e still merged in, how is that going?

Don't know but I don't think the characters were ever that popular, it was probably more the artists. The Charlton, Quality and Fawcett characters worked out quite well for DC.

Fantastic list upthread, thanks for posting. I'm exclusively reading female-authored GNs at the moment after I realised my shelf was disappointingly lacking. Recently bought Through The Woods, so I'm excited to see it placing so high!

I've just finished reading (amongst others) The House That Groaned by Karrie Fransman, Marbles (Ellen Forney), and One Hundred Demons (Lynda Barry), all of which I unreservedly recommend. Incidentally, if anyone has any unusual graphic pathographies to recommend (doesn't have to be female actually), I'd love to hear about them. It seems to me that the utility of internal/external, symbolic, parallel worlds in GNs in relation to experiences with various sicknesses is nonpareil in its access to meaningful and relatable expression. Would love to write something on it at some point if I can get enough material together.

Oh wow, also Becoming Unbecoming by Una, about her experiences growing up at the time of the Yorkshire Ripper murders and how it fed into her understanding of female identity. Its use of space was explosively creative.

lol, the bolding is hopping threads!
I love Ellen Forney, Marbles is mannered but funny and sexy and well told and well cartooned imo. Lynda Barry is the Funk Lord of The USA and 100 Demons is as good as anything she does which is to say it will save your soul. If you're not reading her teaching blog, you should be:
http://thenearsightedmonkey.tumblr.com/

Other graphic pathologies that come to mind
Our Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner
http://www.momscancer.com/
Can't we Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
Special Exits by Joyce Farmer
With the Light by Keiko Tobe <-Autism manga

More here:
http://www.graphicmedicine.org

Lol I figured that because you were here I would demonstrate my seriousness about bold highlights. (Still managed to miss one...)

YES thank you so much for these! I've read and loved the Harvey Pekar and Joyce Farmer, but I'll definitely check out the others when my supply runs out. And that blog. Will forward my impressions as they arrive...

Other graphic pathologies that come to mind

Julia Wertz' "The Infinite Wait"

Oh and for anyone in London, I just found out about this taking place between February and May, which is very exciting: http://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/whats-on/current-future-events/comix-creatrix-100-women-making-comics

xp

This looks fantastic, thank you.

Wertz is great, I love her. and it's been awesome to see her grow from someone who barely draws stick figures into an artist with an accomplished, refined style.

Psychiatric Tales by Darryl Cunningham, "My Mother, The Schizophrenic" by Chester Brown.

tangentangent, you should read David B.'s Epileptic if you haven't already.

Psychiatric Tales was great, though I wanted it to be about 400 pages longer. I'll add the Chester Brown one to my list, for sure.

Epileptic is an absolute triumph of the form imo. Its unforgiving frankness brings to mind Bukowski at his most incisive. And all that abstracted visualisation of despair... Amazing.

http://i.imgur.com/2XfFC1C.jpg

There is just so much going on here... Felt it necessary to post.

For graphopathographies, see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stitches_%28book%29 about the author's childhood cancer and awful parents

Love Ellen Forney, especially Monkey Food.

Ellen Forney is the only famous person I've ever approached in "public" and asked if I can send a photo to a friend (back in Australia, who reads her)

Some other comic pathologies:

Raina Telgemeier - Smile (orthodontal issues, haven't read this one but it's gotten some good reviews)
Marian Churchland - Beast (depression, or at least I think it's about that, it's heavily symbolic)
Brian Fries - Mom's Cancer (the title says it all; this is done in a super simplistic style, but it's really moving)
Sophie Campbell (this published as Ross Campbell before she changed her name) - Water Baby (amputation)

Cosign the praise for Marbles, but I gotta admit I didn't quite get The House That Groaned, I think I'm just too dense for comics like that.

Also, that top 100 looks pretty comprehensive, but I thinks it's weird they completely ignored the comics of Julia Wertz (Drinking at the Movies, Infinite Wait) and Faith Erin Hicks (Superhero Girl, Friends with Boys, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong), I thought they were fairly acclaimed?

No Alex + Ada either, but maybe that's because it was finished in 2015, so it was partially outside the scope of the list?

John Porcellino - Hospital Suite

Almost too relatable for me to bear tbh but superb

Weird to realize how many of these I've read, guess I am attracted to these kinds of stories
Support the recs on Stiches, Porcellino, Epileptic

Our Cancer Year, Psychiatric Tales also good

hideo azuma's 'Disappearance Diary' is one of the best books that i never hear anyone talk about. it's about the author's alcoholism.
http://www.amazon.com/Disappearance-Diary-Hideo-Azuma/dp/8496427420
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/Disappearance_Diary_by_Hideo_Azuma.png

I am literally going to buy all of these tomorrow. If I can find them.

one more for you regarding PTSD and life and grandiosity
http://www.fantagraphics.com/soldiersheart/
highly highly recommended; carol tyler is one of the greats

http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/cr_holiday_interview_10_carol_tyler/
http://www.tcj.com/reviews/soldiers-heart-the-campaign-to-understand-my-wwii-veteran-father-a-daughters-memoir/

put in for You'll Never Know vol. 1 at my local library, i gather that book is the collected trilogy

btw love that cover for Disappearance Diary, sold

yes, 'soldier's heart' is the collected three volume set of Tyler's masterwork.

disappearance diary is an autobiographical story of a man who becomes a popular manga artist, cracks under the pressure of the work and alcoholism, then drops out entirely and opts into homelessness. Following an interim period of physical labor, he cleaned up and created a cartoony silly story of his deep depression. it's pretty special.

http://gwillowwilson.com/post/138315140383/art-and-money

Maybe should have gone in a marvel thread but I don't follow those, so here it sits.

New 3-D Frank book is out (my copy is on the way, will report back). It sounds like the 3-D has been very meticulously finessed to suit Woodring's art. So psyched.

did everyone hear about the latest angouleme shitshow?
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2016/01/angouleme-organizers-criticized-for-presenting-fake-awards/

Saw the 3D Frank book screened as a "movie" at Short Run last year. Unsurprisingly, the Unifactor and Woodring's linework are both excellently suited to 3D.

Alvin Buenaventura has passed away. I'm shocked by this.

That's sad; he was a powerful voice and young.

Oh good, Chester Brown is doing ANOTHER graphic novel about how waaaaay cool prostitution is, this time all about how the Bible is actually all pro-prostitute and every woman in it was actually a prostitute if you just read it right

Bob Dylan, frustrated photographer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjPxlzjuLww
Great looking cast; Harrelson is absolutely perfect based on the clips and I would follow Laura Dern into a forest fire.

Seemed kinda off to me, honestly. But the original book didn't exactly have much of a plot, so I can see how they'd have to come up with more material for a film.

the original book is garbage but I am v favorably inclined to that cast

http://scroll.in/article/737262/graphic-novel-what-if-the-british-had-never-left-india

I'm a fan of Alcatena but I haven't read much of his comics.

In case that link does someday it's Empire of Blood, by Arjun Raj Gaind/Enrique Alcatena from Graphic India

interesting

http://www.tcj.com/kerascoet-interview-by-alex-dueben/

Includes the news that Kerascoet are doing a kids book with Malala Yousafzai

rad. highly underrated duo in us for my money.

Beautiful Darkness was kinda incredible but also so fucked up I kinda never want to read anything else they ever make

I don't think the other ones are as bad/nasty.

Their work on Miss Don't Touch Me, Beauty and Dungeon is just excellent

Benjamin Bin Zhang anyone? I've heard mixed things about his writing but his art can be impressively shoegazey though I'm not completely sold on his style. I only just found out his name but I'd seen his work when his earlier books were out.

Can't believe Kevin Smith still dresses like he does.

he'll be buried in skorts

Reading through those Comics Journal magazine history pieces on the site right now. I feel quite grateful they were raking people over coals for lousy comics and practices.

Ditto -- I want a copy of that book.

As many critics as there are online it's tough to find someone unforgiving and difficult to please without being too dismissive and reductive in their elitism.

http://www.solomonenos.com/work#/vii/

Very impressed by the art of Solomon Enos from Hawaii (although the lettering is a bit off). You can download his comic here.

dope

Just spotted the Harvey Horrors Best Of vol1 today and bought it. It's a pretty good selection, some of Rudy Palais' best work.
I'm still mulling over getting the new Ditko art book, it's really damn expensive and I've seen most of the stuff.

Saw Harvey Kurtzman's Trump. Wonder if they chosen a cover character that could glacingly be mistaken for a cartoon Donald.

Christmas swag:

Agony by Mark Beyer (from that interesting new New York Review Comics line) - sold my original copy in a previous purge, glad to have one of my fave ever comics back. It would be a good game to play find the bleakest/funniest dialogue balloon (flipping through, "There are worse things than being in prison. Just being alive is worse. Maybe if we're really lucky someone will strangle us in our sleep!" is def a strong contender)

Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics - really adore Joe Simon's inking over Kirby's pencils, he adds such a beautiful rough texture to things

The Arab of the Future 78-84 by Riad Sattouf - possibly an ILC recommendation, somewhere? Anyway, looks great on a quick (so far) skim - cute cartooning and I really like the limited palette colouring

Messages in a Bottle: Comic Book Stories by B. Krigstein - this passed me by at the time (it came out in 2013), but a v solid selection of B Krig's greatest hits and a few rare b-sides etc. Still not totally sold on the Marie Severin re-colouring on the EC stories (first used by Fantagraphics for their B.Krigstein Comics hardcover volume, also put together by Greg Sadowski, and which duplicates quite a lot but not all of the contents here), but it's not disastrous and prob works better in this slightly smaller paperback format. Sadowski's notes are excellent, and very sad in a way - so many missed opportunities.

Simon is my favourite Kirby inker for the reasons you mention.

Another thing I got was the Alexander Goudie illustrated Tam O' Shanter by Robert Burns. It's laid out just like a graphic novel, but some images are just sketches. The large paintings are really impressive.

Got Hip Hop Family Tree vol 4 and Charles Burns' Last Look for Christmas. Both excellent.

Are there any good Philippe Caza art books? Seems like he's been left behind his peers a bit.

http://ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=57&threadid=10509

Rolling Comic Book thread 2017