Rolling comic book thread 2018

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.

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