The All New Comics Thread 2017+ Edition

[Mister Six]

Ennis's Hellblazer run was Vertigo's second-biggest-selling title behind The Sandman in the early 90s. I'm super Preacher was similarly popular.

But those are Vertigo sales, and superhero stuff massively outstrips that. Authority and Planetary in particular were absolutely massive with superhero readers, and basically shaped superhero comic storytelling industry-wide.

Ennis has continued to grow as a writer, he's just mostly doing it outside the big two for the most part, because they have almost no series that aren't basically superhero books. A Walk Through Hell was fantastic, and that finished last year.

[Peter St. John]

Are we talking direct market sales here? Because Preacher looks like it outsold The Authority and Planetary pretty regularly:

https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/1999/1999-04.html (44k for Preacher / 33k each for Authority / Planetary)

https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2000/2000-01.html(39k Preacher / 31k Authority)

https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2000/2000-03.html (39k Preacher / 30k Authority / 31k Planetary)

Don't know about GN sales, but given the longer lifespan of Preacher, plus the TV show, I'd imagine they're higher too.

[Phil_A]

Anyone here reading 2000 AD currently? I'm toying with the idea of jumping on again (I seem to get this urge every 6 months). Is it golden at the moment? Or mweh.
I think I stopped about 6 years ago, just as it came out of a golden era. Having read Cabillistics Inc recently, it's spiked my urge.

One of the new strips, Diaboliks, is a direct sequel to Caballistics Inc, if that affects your decision at all!

Oh. Well. That's another disappointment today. But thanks for the review. I may wait another 6 months......

Now, I'm not necessarily saying SMBH has been paid off by the Dictators Of Zrag to disrupt the vital transmission of Thrillpower, but I feel we must consider that scenario as a possibility.

[samadriel]

Well, Harleen was great -- a much healthier (in the sense of being well-rounded and rewarding to the audience) vision of the character than Margo Robbie's take, which I enjoy, but which isn't nearly as good as this. Now I'd like to see Sejic do a non-origin Harley story, something handling the humour of Harley, but backed up by this fleshed-out origin. Maybe he could involve Poison Ivy -- I've read him do Ivy/Harley stories before, and I really enjoyed that.

  I don't think Sejic had really mastered the character of Harvey Dent, but he was a side-note, so it doesn't really matter.

Shit, I just remembered, Sejic recently said he doesn't want to do other people's characters anymore. Bit of a shame considering how well he did here, but I can understand the desire to focus on one's own property as the years slip away. I bought one of his books on comixology, I'll give it a go in the future.

[Artie Fufkin]

One of the new strips, Diaboliks, is a direct sequel to Caballistics Inc, if that affects your decision at all!

Oooh, really?? Hmmmm. May have to take a look at that then.

Now, I'm not necessarily saying SMBH has been paid off by the Dictators Of Zrag to disrupt the vital transmission of Thrillpower, but I feel we must consider that scenario as a possibility.

LOLZ - What a grexnix!

[Small Man Big Horse]

One of the new strips, Diaboliks, is a direct sequel to Caballistics Inc, if that affects your decision at all!

Now, I'm not necessarily saying SMBH has been paid off by the Dictators Of Zrag to disrupt the vital transmission of Thrillpower, but I feel we must consider that scenario as a possibility.

Nice try, but my hair is lustrous and beautiful so I clearly can't be one of those gorgeous bastards.

Ennis has continued to grow as a writer, he's just mostly doing it outside the big two for the most part, because they have almost no series that aren't basically superhero books. A Walk Through Hell was fantastic, and that finished last year.

I'd not heard of A Walk Through Hell but am three issues in so far and enjoying it a lot, so thanks for the recommendation.

[Mister Six]

Are we talking direct market sales here? Because Preacher looks like it outsold The Authority and Planetary pretty regularly:

https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/1999/1999-04.html (44k for Preacher / 33k each for Authority / Planetary)

https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2000/2000-01.html(39k Preacher / 31k Authority)

https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2000/2000-03.html (39k Preacher / 30k Authority / 31k Planetary)

Don't know about GN sales, but given the longer lifespan of Preacher, plus the TV show, I'd imagine they're higher too.

Ah, shit, I misremembered. Anyway, the point remains - Ellis was a top-selling comic book celebrity at the time, and he knew it.

I'd not heard of A Walk Through Hell but am three issues in so far and enjoying it a lot, so thanks for the recommendation.

Hooray, hope you like it! I did feel genuinely worried for Ennis's mental health after reading that one though.

[Peter St. John]

Ah, shit, I misremembered. Anyway, the point remains - Ellis was a top-selling comic book celebrity at the time, and he knew it.

Yes, definitely agree - I was on the WEF back in the day, and there's no absolutely no way that Ellis didn't think of himself in that manner. 'Stalin', the 'Filthy Assistants', various satellite fora surrounding his own - he absolutely knew.

[13 schoolyards]

Yes, definitely agree - I was on the WEF back in the day, and there's no absolutely no way that Ellis didn't think of himself in that manner. 'Stalin', the 'Filthy Assistants', various satellite fora surrounding his own - he absolutely knew.

I'd previously thought his WEF antics (and the slightly toned down version on the Whitechapel forums) were a bit of an act - he'd said elsewhere that he (and every other UK comic book author) had seen how Neil Gaiman had become a star by relentless touring and promoting himself as a brand similar to his comic's main character, and that Ellis' online persona was the stay-at-home Transmetropolitian version of that.

But with the sheer number of women coming forward about Ellis' activities over the past week and the length of time involved - it seems to be behaviour stretching over 20 years - clearly he knew exactly what he was doing all the way down the line. So whatever his actual status, my earlier comments about it were wrong: he definitely saw himself as powerful enough to get away with this shit.

[Phil_A]

To be honest I was always a bit put off by the mildly weird and obsessive personality cult Ellis evidently allowed to flourish around himself. I've seen the kind of situation before when a creator is heavily involved with their own fandom and it usually doesn't end well.

To my eyes at least it was something of a mystery how he'd attained comics superstar status, based on the work of his I have read (although not as baffling as Mark Millar's continued success).

[13 schoolyards]

It seemed to sort of make sense at the time - his outsized status in the industry was in part thanks to his early online presence, and when things started to drop off in the mid-to-late-00s he could use his direct line to his adoring fans to present his fading mainstream position as a result of his shift to online and creator-owned work.

The publicity angle always seemed a little dubious, considering Ennis (in contrast) notoriously has nothing to do with the internet and seems to be doing just fine with his career, but now it really does just seem like it was a front for Ellis' sex club. And possibly as a way to do real-time damage control on a career that often looked a little erratic - lots of very short run series, artists quitting projects, announced projects never materialising, pulling out of a two book contract after the first book, and so on.

[Small Man Big Horse]

To my eyes at least it was something of a mystery how he'd attained comics superstar status, based on the work of his I have read (although not as baffling as Mark Millar's continued success).

I'm a really big fan of Ellis (or was, anyhow), as I moan about on a regular basis he has an annoyingly short attention span but some of his work (The Authority, Planetary, Trees, his six issue run on Moon Knight) are among my favourite comics, so it's bleak to discover that he's something of a cunt.

[Artie Fufkin]

I'm a really big fan of Ellis (or was, anyhow), as I moan about on a regular basis he has an annoyingly short attention span but some of his work (The Authority, Planetary, Trees, his six issue run on Moon Knight) are among my favourite comics, so it's bleak to discover that he's something of a cunt.

Yep. Very depressing. I had a lot of time for Ellis. Doctor Sleepless/Fell/Transmetropolitan/Planetary/Trees. I loved all of those. Also his book, Gun Machine. He always seemed like a decent guy when I read his mailouts. You just don't know, do you.

[Mister Six]

You can trace Ellis's burgeoning popularity and thinning attention span through Transmet. It starts off as a bunch of idea-packed one shots with strong emerging character and story arcs, but by the end (or last third, at least) he's turning in issues that are just 21 splash pages with no dialogue (I'm looking at you, Dirge arc). It's a wonder it was kept on schedule and actually concluded, but I get the impression Vertigo's editors were a cut above the folks at Wildstorm and Avatar.

[13 schoolyards]

He did seem to have figured out how to get around his lack of sustained interest over the last decade or so by coming up with over-arching series concepts that he could dip in and out of with shorter arcs. I wonder how much his troubles with artists affected his ability to keep his own interest up - with Nextwave he delivered 12 fairly consistent issues, and Doctor Sleepless seemed to be holding together reasonably well up until it fell apart (though I dimly remember reading what turned out to be the final issue thinking Ellis was trying to riff on The Wire of all things, so i could be wrong there).

[chveik]

Trees and Injection were great but he didn't seem very arsed to finish them

[13 schoolyards]

Trees and Injection were great but he didn't seem very arsed to finish them

Injection was meant to have one final arc but the artist had better things to do (supposedly). That last run of Trees was good as something stand-alone, but it seemed designed to get rid of whatever audience the first two series had built up

[Custard]

Just finished the recent Criminal revival by Brubaker and Phillips. 12 issues, and now it's gone on hiatus again

It was very good, and focuses on Teeg. Great writing and gorgeous artwork, as usual. What a team those two make

Finished Near Death, by Jay Faerber. It was alright. Seems like a bit of a homage to the works of Brubaker and Phillips, though not as good.

Basically a hitman nearly dies, and feels like he visits Hell briefly. Though he is revived, and upon awaking decides he never wants to go back there. Que twelve issues of him trying to be a better person, and only being violent towards people who deserve it. Why he couldn't go off and work for an abandoned puppy charity or something, I don't know

The writing is a bit clunky, but it's entertaining enough for a short run

[ads82]

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[samadriel]

Wrath of the Eternal Warrior introduced a damn good villain in The Dying One, and towards the end it manages to somehow make previously-trod territory exciting, but, if you'll pardon the spoiler, it ends on a happy ending note for Gilad, in a way that doesn't really work because this is serial superhero fiction, and we know Gilad's got to return somehow in the future. It's a nice ending, but blunted by that fact. Still, looking forward to reading Ninjak vs the Dying One eventually.

"A&A: Archer and Armstrong", the second series of the eponymous heroes' adventures, doesn't start well. As the first issue goes by, I was hating the angular art, and found the dialogue cliche and stupid. However, the first volume has really grown on me; I came to like the quite European art style, forgiving it the odd stubby nose or excessively stocky Armstrong, and for the first time in an Archer & Armstrong book, I started to really like Mary-Maria and her coterie of nuns. The idea behind the main villain and the massive showdown with him were good fun, and it ends on a minor revelation/cliffhanger that has me looking forward to the next few volumes of A&A. Especially with Faith being on the cover of part 2. Good timez.

[kidsick5000]

Does anyone know if there are any collections or online source of Deadline?

[Old Gold Tooth]

Issue 8 of Warren Ellis' The Batman's Grave has been released, slightly surprisingly. Although I think from his newsletter this was the last issue he had completed, so I can understand why DC would want to put it out there if it was ready to publish. But I think the chances of this run being completed are basically zero.

Also just noticed his writer's bio on the DC site has not aged well:
"Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway."

[Phil_A]

Does anyone know if there are any collections or online source of Deadline?

I've got some odd issues that are pretty much the only ones that have turned up online that I know of. It goes something like 1-6, then 10, 11, 16, 17, 21, 24. Not much I know, but I can share them if you want?

[13 schoolyards]

Issue 8 of Warren Ellis' The Batman's Grave has been released, slightly surprisingly. Although I think from his newsletter this was the last issue he had completed, so I can understand why DC would want to put it out there if it was ready to publish. But I think the chances of this run being completed are basically zero.

I suspect the opposite - while DC is unlikely to be offering him any work in the near future, a half-finished project (with an artist who's done nothing wrong) seems like pretty much the only way Ellis will get any new comic work out there for a while to come. Not that he'll be promoting it or anything, but it'll keep turning up in stores for those who want it unless Hitch walks away - and according to his twitter account, he's still drawing new pages.

A twitter controversy that didn't involve criminal charges and has already faded into the general #cancelled scrum of comics dirtbags for many is not going to stop DC from completing a fairly major Batman book that you'd assume will sell reasonably well for years in collected form. After all, reportedly it was Ellis that pulled his upcoming story from that Death Metal special rather than DC cancelling it - being so firmly online, Ellis is probably a lot more in tune with the optics of such things than DC.

[Old Gold Tooth]

After all, reportedly it was Ellis that pulled his upcoming story from that Death Metal special rather than DC cancelling it - being so firmly online, Ellis is probably a lot more in tune with the optics of such things than DC.

Ah I didn't know this, I did assume the opposite and thought that DC was pulling all Ellis content to try and keep themselves away from the potential backlash.

It will certainly be interesting to see the impact this has on his already slow workrate. Don't imagine Injection Vol. 4 will be appearing any time soon (I bloody love Injection).

[kidsick5000]

I've got some odd issues that are pretty much the only ones that have turned up online that I know of. It goes something like 1-6, then 10, 11, 16, 17, 21, 24. Not much I know, but I can share them if you want?

Yes please. That would be excellent

[13 schoolyards]

It will certainly be interesting to see the impact this has on his already slow workrate. Don't imagine Injection Vol. 4 will be appearing any time soon (I bloody love Injection).

Yeah, Injection will be the one I'll miss - It really seemed like it was holding his interest, even if (I think) he said Vol 4 was going to wrap it all up.

I suspect his Image work will all be quietly shelved and whatever he does in future will be in television where he can lay low. Re-reading some of Transmetropolitan recently, even that has moments where (now) it seems like he's covering his tracks - there's a couple of examples of Spider treating women disposably for his own ends that are seen as A Bad Thing, and in the foreword to the last Absolute edition Ellis says he wouldn't want to revisit the character as he doesn't think he was in a good place writing him. If it hadn't come out that he was still up to no good extremely recently, he probably could have replied to it all with "I've changed" and gotten away with it.

[Mister Six]

Seconding the call for those Deadline issues. I'd love to read them!

[Phil_A]

Yes please. That would be excellent

Seconding the call for those Deadline issues. I'd love to read them!

Check your PMs, gents!

[Mister Six]

Thanks Phil, you're a star!