Rolling Comic Books 2019

I’ve been reading some of the current Sonic the Hedgehog IDW series with my son... it’s surprisingly dark for a kids’ book. The plot beats will be very familiar to anyone over the age of six (a ragtag band of heroes tries to save a populace from a spreading zombie infection; as the heroes themselves succumb and are transformed, one by one...) — but it’s done well, with solid dialogue and brisk plotting. The art is strong, too. There’s something compelling about these cute mutant-animal characters being placed in a straightforward action narrative, without irony or condescension. I guess there are whole genres like that, but I don’t usually encounter them.

I'd say that's most Sonic games since Adventure; I hate what they did with those but ymmv.

https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/russo-brothers-marvel-vs-dc-docuseries-quibi-1203402642/

RIP, Tom Spurgeon.

:-(

RIP

A great writer, a long-time force for good in comics, and a lovely person.

^^^

btw Jon I read your ^^^ last night, then went to bed and you turned up as a "character" in the comic I read

https://www.instagram.com/p/B40uSVDFAFO/

Spurgeon was a nice refreshing voice amid the rest.

Xpost sic was this a comic you read while dreaming or are you referring to the issue of Fatale where Tom H and I get iced?

gonna need an issue number here

was this a comic you read while dreaming or are you referring to the issue of Fatale where Tom H and I get iced?

neither! Rookie Moves by N0vember G4rcia


Spurgeon was a nice refreshing voice amid the rest.

gonna disagree with the implication I'm reading here: a major project of Tom's in his life and his work was to highlight and enhance the wide variety of interested, caring, and worthwhile voices that are talking about comics everywhere, all the time.

Perhaps I'm just remembering a specific time when I was mostly around Comics Journal associated circles but I got the impression that he was a lot mellower and less deep into feuds than everyone else. Not to say there weren't a lot of good people, because there was and that community was important to me but that's just how I remember his place in it.

Top of the head, if I try and think of writers that Tom brought into the Journal, it's mild-mannered Chris Mautner, Bart Beaty writing about untranslated European albums, Ray Mescallado getting a monthly superhero column, gentleman Gil Roth... (while the feud-free Spurge himself was adding a Melody-Maker-style two-page spread of opening snark to every issue, and writing things like Shit List! and The Butt-Eye Address by "David Peters")

Agree that he didn't hold or build personal feuds in public, but this was more a function of him seeing disagreement and argument as valuable in discussion of art and labour.

this gave me the inspiration to read Julia Wertz's memoir Drinking at the Movies, which was... sigh.

[...] there are several funny jokes in this, but Christ, the quality of artwork is just so bad.

I’ve never looked at old artwork and been like, this is fine. But luckily I’m also aware that it doesn’t actually matter at all. pic.twitter.com/TEQQTPuRsg

— Julia Wertz (@Julia_Wertz) November 15, 2019

that... is... some regression

You’re gonna plotz if you ever find out about James Thurber

TCJ's Spurgeon obit is up

how mad Dean must have been to work in the same office as a fat person 20 years ago

Borrowed/read the three deluxe Wayward collections. As they advertise, mix of Buffy & Scooby gang with Japanese (and later Irish) mythology / monsters. Took some angles I wasn't expecting, which was cool. Liked the artwork a lot.

Don't know if I'll listen to these episodes but I love this podcast
http://www.scottedelman.com/2019/07/19/mark-evanier/

http://www.scottedelman.com/2019/11/15/paul-kirchner/
http://www.scottedelman.com/2019/11/29/larry-lieber/

Had no idea Lieber was still around.

http://www.scottedelman.com/2019/07/05/lunch-in-l-a-with-comics-legend-gerry-conway-on-episode-99-of-eating-the-fantastic/
Forgotten this one.

I never really got grip on the X-Men so I found this article fun, surprised how many of the basic concepts were unfamiliar to me despite knowing who all the characters are.

https://www.tor.com/2019/12/11/the-future-of-days-past-10-things-disney-could-learn-from-claremonts-run-on-x-men/

I appreciate that she noted the importance of the colours. In my continual assessment of why the characters/worlds appealed, I now think that the colour combinations were often stronger than the other design elements of the costumes.

Still would like to see more discerning reinventions of the stories. Couldn't Claremont do his own X-Men retelling from the beginning?

From hearing some talk up supposedly great unofficial fanfiction, do any of you know of particularly good DC and Marvel stuff online?

twenty minutes about dazzler. i never knew JR JR was such a jersey guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvzCbPmj1AY

Video not available in UK? Sometimes it seems like there's no rhyme or reason to these youtube restrictions.

suprisingly deep coverage, good video!

i got a copy of Eleanor Davis' The Hard Tomorrow for the holidaze from my mom; it's breathtaking. What a talent.

SyFyWire have published a list of "the best indie comics of the decade" that consists of nine Image comics, one tumblr, one iOS app, and a DC book.

Finishing the last LOEG volume- the points being made are very much not new to those who follow Moore's work, but its stylistic playfulness still is enough to keep me gripped. That bing said, really can' be bothered with those 3D glasses for more than a couple of pages.

I loved the earlier volumes of LOEG but haven't yet got to this one. Partly because I don't give much of a shit about the comic characters he's making use of in the same way I do C19th literary characters. Is it still doing the "lots of unpleasant sex is really hilarious" thing?

It's still horny, yeah. All the other valid criticisms of the series also still apply (fucking Gollywog STILL IN IT ffs, I know Moore means well but god does he refuse to read a room). Did you read The Black Dossier? That's still my favourite, and probably the best summation of the serie's thematic concerns. This one has a lot of super hero stuff but also a lot of characters from spy stuff and weird animal characters that don't come from comics.

I think this is the only volume I haven't read. Black Dossier is great--my one claim to fame is getting a credit for explaining references in Jess Nevins's book of annotations.

controversial opinion: Moore does backmatter/prose breaks better than others and may be the best at it, but I keep getting more bored by these conceptual bits where he bounces between media and just wish he’d write a comic book

Just read the Fantagraphics-published BEST OF WITZEND, which collects some of the worst-written comics I've ever had the bad luck to come across. Luckily it was from the library.

Yeah, that was very much a regretful purchase.

Great art tho!

Oh aye, lovely to look at but it's a big bit of shelf (and cost) that could otherwise have been filled.

I mean, this splash page alone is worth 80 quid of anyone's money:

https://schulzlibrary.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/witzendmra.jpg?w=584

Also think it's interesting that Ditko was heavily involved with the editorial side on the early issues of WITZEND - he was obviously v sympathetic to Wood's desire to retain copyright/editorial independence, as well as being an admirer of Wood's incredible drawing skills.

It's not always about the writing.

I don't think a splash page with two ridiculously long speech bubbles is worth 80 quids, even if the layout is otherwise fine.

he really went full Ditko, there

that splash is amazing - is it all Ditko?

Yep - he had a real golden period after he was newly liberated from Marvel - see also those amazing black and white strips for Warren he was doing at about the same time

Man. Wonder if he'd kept up a style like that through the '80s, his overtly ideological work might have caught on better under direct market distribution?

(I love the fact that his drawing and techniques changed so often, and that switching to doing his own lettering eventually let him integrate it so much better in the polemic work - Tuomas is right that even on paper those rant-balloons would be foreboding - but the inking and especially shading there show how drastically undermined as an artist he was at Marvel.)

Right at the end of the 60s Ditko got very ill and he when he came back - mainly at Charlton - his style had notably deteriorated, even on the creator-owned material, sadly.

This site has 'Collector's Edition', his best-known strip for Warren - again decent page rates, and the opportunity to stick it to Stan Lee, brought out the best in him

http://steveditkostuff.blogspot.com/2019/02/collector-edition-creepy-presents-steve.html

very good!

The Mr A stuff is terrible. Huge slabs of libertarian bullshit text taking up half the page.

Right at the end of the 60s Ditko got very ill and he when he came back - mainly at Charlton - his style had notably deteriorated, even on the creator-owned material, sadly.

Ah / aw. if I'd ever read that I'd forgotten it, but certainly tracks with what I've seen of his '70s and '80s WFH (though I think Shade was good? I bought the first few back when the Milligan series started. Notably created and head-written by Ditko, which no doubt makes a difference.).

Thanks for the Collectors Edition link. Goodwin's adherence to both 1970s prolix standards and Feldstein homage shows how well-planned the lettering placement really is on that Mr A splash, by contrast! Do you mean "stick it to Stan Lee" by putting in more careful work for better money, or that Danforth, with his mustache and grasping insensitivity about art, is intended as a Lee dis?

I thought Gray Morrow's Witzend work was pretty good but there wasnt quite enough to be enticed to buy that. Not enough of the artists raised their game that much.

Is Silver Surfer: Black any good?