The All New Comics Thread 2017+ Edition

[Sex Festival Organizer]

yeah it's good

Good to hear. I ended up buying the lot, so I now have almost 50 volumes in my Unread list, which should last me well into 2021. Hopefully most of them are good, as I've been buying some clunkers lately, which went straight into the archive after having read them, and some long before I came even close to the end. (I wish Comixology had an option to just delete books from my account outright, not just archiving them, that's how bad some of them were.)

[Mister Six]

Blazed through Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man, which I haven't read for about 25 years and had forgotten most of. What a corker! The first couple of volumes feel a little fractured and meandering, but then it all ties together beautifully at the end. I'm always impressed when comic writers are able to turn a couple of years of superhero comics into a cohesive whole rather than just a string of adventures, and this is one of the best examples.

For the handful of people who don't know what it's about, I'd suggest not looking up any details. Just understand that there was this big line-wide crossover beforehand called Crisis on Infinite Earths in which everyone's backstories were rewritten and lots of characters removed from continuity entirely. Then crack on with the three volumes - Animal Man, Origin of the Species and Deus ex Machina.

(Oh, and the alien invasion and gene bomb mentioned in the first volume occurred in some other crossover outside of the comic. Just roll with it.)

[Magnum Valentino]

Unless you're getting them digitally, you won't find those three volumes easily. They've been out of print for years, and recently collected into two slightly larger volumes titled the Deluxe Edition or something like that. Both available in hardcover (usually, with DC, with poor binding) and the first also out in paperback. I bet it doesn't have that lovely smelly newsprint like the volumes Mister Six mentioned, though.

[Mister Six]

Joys of second-hand bookstores.

[Pink Gregory]

Looking for a new comic series (preferably that's either a graphic novel or has got to a couple of trades in length) for Ms. Gregory.

She likes - all the John Allison stuff (Giant Days, Wicked Things, Steeple), Chris Ware (she's reading Rusty Brown), Daniel Clowes, Bryan Lee O'Malley, she's read and enjoyed all of Chew and most of Saga.

Any idea where to start?

[samadriel]

I'm thinking Black Hole by Charles Burns. Grim but pleasing.

[Pink Gregory]

I've read Simon Hanselmann mention Charles Burns, but I've never seen his stuff.  Worth a look then.

[Mister Six]

Black Hole is fucking incredible. Quite bleak, though. Like Daniel Clowes and David Lynch had a really depressed, introverted baby.

If she likes Chew, there's a thing by the same person that's similarly OTT, but with more of a human core, called Farmhand. It's about a guy trying to reconnect with his father, who runs a farm where human body parts are grown like plants for transplantation. I hate the art (didn't like Chew either) but the story is very intriguing.

Not sure if it's quite right, but The Wicked + The Divine is very good and quite epic/expansive in a way that might scratch the long-form itch. It's also quite centred on relationships, which would fit the overall vibe, I think.

[Magnum Valentino]

Joys of second-hand bookstores.

I'd love to find something like that, I love all the older DC prints with that rough paper man, like the earlier Swamp Thing books when they still had titles (Love and Death, A Murder of Crows etc.). Reminds me of the earlier days of my comic collecting.

[Artie Fufkin]

I'm thinking Black Hole by Charles Burns. Grim but pleasing.

Just looked for this on ComiXology. It's in French?

[samadriel]

That's weird. Not even Kindle has the original English. Might have to buy the book, which is expensive. Thanks a ton, Fantagraphics! Maybe Burns has something against digital comics?

[holyzombiejesus]

Looking for a new comic series (preferably that's either a graphic novel or has got to a couple of trades in length) for Ms. Gregory.

She likes - all the John Allison stuff (Giant Days, Wicked Things, Steeple), Chris Ware (she's reading Rusty Brown), Daniel Clowes, Bryan Lee O'Malley, she's read and enjoyed all of Chew and most of Saga.

Any idea where to start?

Clyde Fans by Seth is good and has just been compiled in a really nice but possibly unwieldy brick-sized hardback. Oh, and digitally.

[Pink Gregory]

Thanks chaps.

I tried The Wicked and Divine and she wasn't that into it, hasn't really said much else about it.

[chveik]

Looking for a new comic series (preferably that's either a graphic novel or has got to a couple of trades in length) for Ms. Gregory.

She likes - all the John Allison stuff (Giant Days, Wicked Things, Steeple), Chris Ware (she's reading Rusty Brown), Daniel Clowes, Bryan Lee O'Malley, she's read and enjoyed all of Chew and most of Saga.

Any idea where to start?

Jeff Lemire, Sweet Tooth

[Magnum Valentino]

Thanks chaps.

I tried The Wicked and Divine and she wasn't that into it, hasn't really said much else about it.

Jeff Lemire is really good when he's drawing his own stories PG, and tends to do GNs and the occasional ongoing. Roughneck is a good start for a one off and if she likes that, Sweet Tooth's the ongoing to go for.

[samadriel]

Crash! Bang! Wallop! What a comic! I just finished the second-last trade of The Boys, where

Spoiler alert

Homelander's big plan comes undone. I don't know if i like Black Noir going insane because he hasn't been ordered to kill Homelander, that seems a bit flimsy, as did the notion that Homelander only organised the coup and did all that psycho stuff because he saw proof of things he didn't remember -- that's even flimsier. Still, the story still works enough that it's satisfying... And I REALLY liked that it flashed back to Black Noir in the fetal position in the 7's bathroom, back when you thought it was actually Homelander.

[close]

I still have the final trade to go, and unfortunately a wiki article I glanced at while researching something else has given me a massive spoiler regarding Butcher, so that'll scar my whole experience of the ending, but I'm going in blind enough that I'll be able to enjoy it as long as Ennis sticks the landing.

[BeardFaceMan]

Don't forget to read Dear Becky afterwards too, the recently finished Boys mini-series.

[Custard]

Are there any really good Wonder Woman comics?

I've been reading some of the highest recommended ones, like The Circle and Greg Rucka's run, but it seems a bit, well, shit!

I did really like Rucka's The Hiketeia, which was her versus Batman, but apart from that it all leaves me a bit cold. She's really stupid and annoying throughout Injustice too

Any stories anyone can recommend? As I like the character, I like the idea behind the character and her origin, but I'm yet to like the comics!

[Gulftastic]

The George Perez post Crisis run remains the high point for me. His portrayal pretty much defined the character ever since.

I liked the Rucka run but it was mistake to switch the narrative fortnightly.

[Custard]

Thanks, will seek that out!

I quite liked Rucka's run really, but I kept expecting it to get really good and it never did. Things like the chef with a bull's head put me off a bit too. I know she exists in a fantastical world with all manner of silliness, but something about that really pulled me out of it!

I guess I'm just looking for fairly straightforward stories with her going up against evil forces an that. All the side characters in Rucka's run put me off somewhat, as I didn't care about any of them

I'm currently reading Brian Azzarello's run, and he's doing the same thing, giving her some kind of gang to knock about with. The character on her own is enough!

[Custard]

Nice sale for TKO Studios on Comixology at the moment.

I especially enjoyed The 7 Deadly Sins, which is a bleak and highly entertaining western

Though I loved Pound For Pound. It's about a female MMA fighter trying to hunt down her missing little sister, and the art is gorgeous. Great little story, and the violence properly packs a wallop. Excellent stuff

[Sex Festival Organizer]

Some stuff I have read / am reading, the first in an ongoing series:

The Sandman Universe – Hellblazer Vol. 1: Marks of Woe by Simon Spurrier & various artists

Bought this after getting it recommended on here, and I was not disappointed. Granted, it took a while to get going, but after it had shed the Cosmic Magic War and Tim Hunter stuff in the first two(?) issues and gotten down to Constantine's regular street-level sorcery, it got a whole lot better. I especially liked his team-up with the hipster magician, and would have loved to see more of that. So too bad it got cancelled :(

Note 1: I liked how angry and political the book was, with several digs at the Tories in general and Boris Johnson in particular, and generally fighting the good fight. That's something I remember from Jamie Delano's first run, especially issue number 3, but which seemed to peter out as the years went by.

Note 2: The swearing. I read Hellblazer from the beginning, and I can't remember JC ever saying anything stronger than «bloody hell» back in those days, but here it's «fuck that», «fuck this» and even some «cuntflaps» thrown in for good measure. Now, I'm not complaining, just marvelling at how times have changed. I remember it was a big deal when Neil Gaiman put in a «fucking» towards the end of the Sandman run. Kids today!

Gullivera & The Golden Ass by Milo Manara

The guy can draw, I'll give him that, especially a lovingly rendered scene of hot donkey fuckin' in the latter tome, but he can't write for shit, not even when he draws (ho ho) on literary classics. Bought these for a song on Comixology, and it was still a waste of money.

[Mister Six]

Note 1: I liked how angry and political the book was, with several digs at the Tories in general and Boris Johnson in particular, and generally fighting the good fight. That's something I remember from Jamie Delano's first run, especially issue number 3, but which seemed to peter out as the years went by.

There's a bit of that in the Ennis years, but as he was a bit of a Legend Gary average working class bloke in his personality (rather than a Delano-style engaged lefty counter-culture sort) it's more of a diffuse hatred of authority, wealth and power than a focused dismantling of contemporary politics, and that bleeds away more and more as the comic heads into the liberal beigeness the Blair years (save for the odd Delano special like Bad Blood or Pandemonium).

Note 2: The swearing. I read Hellblazer from the beginning, and I can't remember JC ever saying anything stronger than «bloody hell» back in those days, but here it's «fuck that», «fuck this» and even some «cuntflaps» thrown in for good measure. Now, I'm not complaining, just marvelling at how times have changed. I remember it was a big deal when Neil Gaiman put in a «fucking» towards the end of the Sandman run. Kids today!

All right, I'm enough of a total fucking nerd to know this - in Delano's run (1988-91) the swearing is definitely tamped down: "shit" is as bad as it got, although that might not even have been deployed until Ennis's run ('91-'93). Fuck definitely doesn't come until after Ennis's run, I believe in Paul Jenkins's run ('95-'98) although it might have been in one of the five intermediary issues (one by Delano, one by Eddie Campbell). Ennis then one-ups that in his brief return with the "Son of Man" arc in 1998, in which he drops the series' first "cunt".

After that Warren Ellis takes over, and it's cunts all the way, peaking somewhere in Mike Carey's run (2002-06) with the awkward phrase "cuntbubble".

I kissed a girl, you know.

Just the once.

[Sex Festival Organizer]

There's a bit of that in the Ennis years, but as he was a bit of a Legend Gary average working class bloke in his personality (rather than a Delano-style engaged lefty counter-culture sort) it's more of a diffuse hatred of authority, wealth and power than a focused dismantling of contemporary politics, and that bleeds away more and more as the comic heads into the liberal beigeness the Blair years (save for the odd Delano special like Bad Blood or Pandemonium).

I've never liked Ennis's work, but his stint on HB is what I dislike the least. I think he did the not bad arc where JC was living on the streets and, among other things, had to handle the ghost of a Spitfire pilot. I don't remember the details, but probably by sharing a pint of Guinness with the restless spectre, because Ennis seems obsessed with the stuff (and boozing in general). If I'm not misremembering, he did an issue, or maybe even a multi-part story, that basically revolved around the concept of «the perfect Guinness». I mean, I like the stuff too, but come on.

Swearing...

That's some impressive nerdery you've got going there :) I could have sworn that Hellblazer stayed pretty clean language-wise throughout its entire run, but it's probably because to me, HB more or less is the first 40, non-sweary issues, which I read over and over as an impressionable teen back when they were first published (and going back to Ennis again, his first issue was the last I bought). I've since read the remaining 260 issues of the original run in digital form, but only once so far, so they're more of a blur to me.

[Artie Fufkin]

Nice sale for TKO Studios on Comixology at the moment.

I especially enjoyed The 7 Deadly Sins, which is a bleak and highly entertaining western

Oooh. I keep looking at that. Ta for heads up.

[Sex Festival Organizer]

Right, today's reviews:

Gideon Falls Vol. 5: Wicked Worlds by Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino

The art is as good as ever, and while this volume isn't bad per se, I'm quickly losing interest in the main story, and this book is basically all wheel-spinning with little to no progress. If they don't wrap it up in the next trade, this'll be the last volume I buy, but based on this it seems to be turning into a drawn-out game of cat and mouse with no end in sight. Which would be sad, because the first four volumes are great.

The Sandman Universe – The House of Whispers Vol. 1 to 3 by Nalo Hopkinson & various artists

After almost 600 pages of this, the best I can say is that I'm glad it's finally done with. It's an effort to incorporate Voodoo loas into the Sandman universe, and it just doesn't work. At all. A case in point is the first volume, which is basically 200 pages of exposition, where these loas suddenly end up in the Dreaming for some reason, where they jabber away about things I don't care about.

Volumes 2 and 3 are a little better, but like the first suffer from dull characters, uninteresting storylines, groan-worthy attempts at wokeness and at times awful art. Some of the artwork is real amateur hour stuff, and I had a hard time believing people were actually paid good money for it (if it hadn't been for the colouring, which is pretty good in general, it would have been a total shitshow). Oh, and I almost forgot the worst take on The Corinthian ever written, who, to rub it all in, looks like an extra wimpy version of Julian Assange, which isn't exactly my idea of a scary nightmare.

Apparently the writer is pretty well known in her field, but this is her first and so far only comic, and it shows. I'll admit there's some cool Voodoo lore sprinkled here and there, but generally this is bad.

[Mister Six]

I've never liked Ennis's work, but his stint on HB is what I dislike the least. I think he did the not bad arc where JC was living on the streets and, among other things, had to handle the ghost of a Spitfire pilot. I don't remember the details, but probably by sharing a pint of Guinness with the restless spectre, because Ennis seems obsessed with the stuff (and boozing in general). If I'm not misremembering, he did an issue, or maybe even a multi-part story, that basically revolved around the concept of «the perfect Guinness». I mean, I like the stuff too, but come on.

Yeah you're misremembering, I think. The perfect Guinness thing was something one of his magician mates cooked up in one issue of the opening arc

Spoiler alert

basically as a get-out clause to stop his soul being damned - it turned back to holy water once the friend died, and John used that secret to fuck up the Devil

[close]

The Spitfire story had

Spoiler alert

John reliving the pilot's death after finding his body, with his ghost bound to it, out in some scrubland. John buries the guy's body and that releases his ghost. That also gives John the push he needs to get himself off the streets.

[close]

It's a decent little issue, I think.

The drinking thing is a bit one-note, but Ennis was only 21 or something at the time, and his run gets substantially better and less dependent on booze as a plot point (rather than something people do when they're chatting) as it goes along.

Apparently the writer is pretty well known in her field, but this is her first and so far only comic, and it shows. I'll admit there's some cool Voodoo lore sprinkled here and there, but generally this is bad.

Sorry to invoke Hellblazer again, but I'm reminded of Denise Mina's Hellblazer run, which was underwhelming and ended up being a 12-issue long shaggy dog story with a single incomprehensible issue in the middle. She's a fantastic novelist, so I can only assume she wasn't given the support she needed for her first comic. DC needs to realise that newcomers to the medium require proper editorial support.

[Sex Festival Organizer]

Interesting stuff...

Yah, you're right about the perfect Guinness stuff, it was a part of the denouement, rather than the main focus of the story. But in my defense it's from the issues I've only read once...

Sorry to invoke Hellblazer again, but I'm reminded of Denise Mina's Hellblazer run, which was underwhelming and ended up being a 12-issue long shaggy dog story with a single incomprehensible issue in the middle. She's a fantastic novelist, so I can only assume she wasn't given the support she needed for her first comic. DC needs to realise that newcomers to the medium require proper editorial support.

No need to be sorry, I love chatting about Hellblazer. Is that the one where a main plot point is the outcome of a football match between Scotland and England? I thought that was OK. I mean, not great, but not worthy of the scorn I know was heaped upon it. I also liked Brian Azzarello's run (especially the artwork), which also didn't go down too well as far as I can remember.

[Sex Festival Organizer]

I'm on a roll tonight, which means more reviews (and the crowd goes wild!):

The Sandman Universe – Books of Magic Vol. 1 & 2 by Kat Howard & various artists

I've never been a fan of the Books of Magic or Timothy Hunter, who I consider a slightly less annoying Harry Potter, and these tomes did nothing to make me change my mind. I mean, they're still going on about «will this fucking boy, who is destined to end up the greatest magician ever, ultimately be good or evil?», and I just don't care, because the character in itself is so uninteresting. He's an unlikable nerd who knows how to sling a few spells around, and that's it, and they never manage to do anything interesting with him in these two volumes. It says a lot when the best parts of these books are the ones who don't involve our hero at all, but instead focus on for example his wannabe girlfriend.

The best thing I can say about it is that it's a very, very quick read. Most pages consist of three to four big panels with maybe 15-30 words per page, and there are issues here I swear I read in less than ten minutes, maybe even five.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Speaking of Sandman

https://bloody-disgusting.com/tv/3650009/sandman-full-main-cast-announced-netflixs-live-action-neil-gaiman-adaptation/