The All New Comics Thread 2023 + Edition

[Small Man Big Horse]

Previously: https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=62980.0

Well it only took us six years to get to one hundred pages last time, but I reckon we'll do it much more quickly this time around. Or not? Does it matter? No, no it does not.

Anyhow, this is how the last thread ended:

They did. X-Statix Complete Collection volumes 1 & 2, 1 is like £2 on Amazon currently. Collects everything up to The Excellent including the Wolverine/Doop mini, but maybe not that Doop solo story from a Marvel Romance comic.

Blimey, I hadn't spotted that before, thanks for mentioning it, I've just ordered a copy of the first volume now.

no it isn't.

Was when I typed that. Womp womp.

i dont believe you.

That was before Small Man Big Horse took the £2 copy, obviously.

Yeah that's what's happened.

I got a copy of The Demon: Hell's Hitman for 20p the other week. That's like 40 quid on eBay. Amazon rules, keep your eyes peeled yousins

[madhair60]

fuck this. fuck both of you. i never get any comics bargains. never. not even a single time. and you always are just like "ooh i found the amazing spider-man by lee and ditko omnibus in a skip just now", i'm sick of it. i'm sick of this life. paying for comics. i want the demon: hell's hitman. i want x-statix. instead i get my own demons and x-tremely depressed. sorry for saying "fuck both of you" it's not your fault.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Sorry Madhair, the only reason I quoted all of the above was because it reminded me that it is worth checking Amazon fairly often if you're looking for something out of print - for a good while I was after the tenth volume of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl but it was out of print and going for stupid amounts on Ebay, but then one day I happened to check and there was one on Amazon for £13, and a similar thing happened with the third volume of Shade The Changing Man.

i'm sick of this life. paying for comics.

Okay, because it's you (and the five or six other people who read this thread), the best place to get cheap graphic novels in London are the Oxfam bookshops in Crouch End, Kentish Town and Angel. Sometimes they'll price something ridiculously high (Angel are the worst on that front) but it's rare that I visit them (at least on a week day) and don't come away with a good few titles. The Oxfams in Balham and Bloomsbury Street are fairly good too, but these are much more erratic when it comes to pricing graphic novels.

[bgmnts]

*Looks on Amazon; praying for bargain*

Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol.4.

Hardcover: £102.79

Fucksake.

[Mister Six]

If any of you cunts blag a copy of Grant Morrison's Lovely Biscuits for sub $500, I'll shank the lot of you.

Anyway, can you sticky this, pretty please @Barry Admin?

[Small Man Big Horse]

If any of you cunts blag a copy of Grant Morrison's Lovely Biscuits for sub $500, I'll shank the lot of you.

Blimey, I never even knew about its existence until now, but will keep an eye out for it.

[bgmnts]

I typed it into google and the first few suggestions were custard creams, bourbons and rich teas etc from Morrisons, so that's an obvious issue!

[Magnum Valentino]

Stick the stuff you want into a wishlist and check the third party sellers every single day. I've got so many OOP books for bargain prices that way over the years.

Not an exaggeration, 20p!!!

[madhair60]

I typed it into google and the first few suggestions were custard creams, bourbons and rich teas etc from Morrisons, so that's an obvious issue!

yeah? which issue?

:D

[bgmnts]

Waheyyyyy.

Seriously though I would read a comic book about a man that could move or alter biscuits with his mind but that's it. Bisketenesis or something.

[Mister Six]

My cunning plan, should I ever get a copy of Lovely Biscuits, is to turn it into an ebook, stick it up on Libgen and destroy the market. You have been warned!

[Small Man Big Horse]

Stick the stuff you want into a wishlist and check the third party sellers every single day. I've got so many OOP books for bargain prices that way over the years.

Not an exaggeration, 20p!!!

I didn't realise that the X-Statix price was an anomaly when I bought it, so thank you so much for that, it is enormously appreciated. And cheers for the Amazon wish list tip, I shall definitely do that.

Also, I've found that by going on Ebay around 11am-ish on a week day and choosing to view Auctions and Ending Soonest it's surprising how many people have items ending at strange times, and I've picked up a few bargains that way. Two of which I never received as they were mysteriously damaged just as the auction ended, but eh, Ebayers are twatty like that occasionally.

[13 schoolyards]

If any of you cunts blag a copy of Grant Morrison's Lovely Biscuits for sub $500, I'll shank the lot of you.

Anyway, can you sticky this, pretty please @Barry Admin?

I got one for cover price! But you'll need a time machine to shank me over it, as I got it when it was released. Not entirely sure how come to think of it, as it must have been pre-(or very early) internet and finding overseas sellers willing to ship to Australia wasn't that easy.

I think just about everything in it but the plays you can find elsewhere (probably for much cheaper), but the plays are what makes it worth it. Red King Rising from what I remember was really good, but the second one (Depravity?) was less impressive. Sadly I don't have access to a scanner, but if I can find my copy I might see if I can take photos of at least some of the pages.

I never seem to find any online bargains as far as graphic novels go, but I have found a lot of out of print stuff by going around and checking out-of-the-way comic shops - they seem to be one of the last bricks & mortar retail outlets that actually have a range of stock on the shelves, so often when something's gone from the publishers warehouse you can still find a copy in one of them if you're willing to trudge around to a bunch of holes in the wall staffed by seedy types in faded t-shirts. And I'm still paying cover price, so again, not a bargain (unless you compare it to the online prices)

[bgmnts]

My mother got back from Cardiff Comic-Con and ended up listening in to the guy who runs the Jack Kirby Museum, where they digitally scan all Jack Kirby art (a lot of it stolen from him). She ended up coming away with her mind blown about how much he did, and she picked up Michael Hill's Kirby at Marvel not the official version Volume 1: 1956 - 1963 which I'm excited to read.

He also sold her Uncanny X-Men #257 for £8 which apparently contains the first appearance of Jubilee in costume (although Internet says first appearance of Psylocke as Lady Mandarin?). Mid range value is seemingly around that price but who cares I love old single issues that date the comics enormously!

Jack Kirby is ace as fuck though, let's be fair.

[Dayraven]

He also sold her Uncanny X-Men #257 for £8 which apparently contains the first appearance of Jubilee in costume (although Internet says first appearance of Psylocke as Lady Mandarin?).

Looks like it's both. Lady Mandarin was only about a three-issue thing, except that it's also where Psylocke goes Japanese.

[bgmnts]

Nice! Quite a seismic issue then!

The guy's name is Russel Payne btw and he has written some stuff I don't know. This is the site for the org:

https://kirbymuseum.org/

[Mister Six]

Sadly I don't have access to a scanner, but if I can find my copy I might see if I can take photos of at least some of the pages.

How many pages long is it? If you could snap all the pages on your phone, I could rip the text out and put it into an ebook... Might be a massive pain in the arse though.

[13 schoolyards]

How many pages long is it? If you could snap all the pages on your phone, I could rip the text out and put it into an ebook... Might be a massive pain in the arse though.

It's a proper book-length book, so maybe 250 pages or more? If I can find it easily I'll try taking a few photos and see how I go, might make it a long-term project if the photos work ok.

[Mister Six]

It's a proper book-length book, so maybe 250 pages or more? If I can find it easily I'll try taking a few photos and see how I go, might make it a long-term project if the photos work ok.

That would be amazing! If you have the time/inclination, of course. I'll be happy to do the faff of making it an ebook.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Batman - The Long Halloween by Joseph Loeb and Tim Sale - Thirteen issue series that makes Batman in to a mix of Gothic oddness and film noir, or that was my take on it at least. I really liked Sale's art, he's great at making people look big and bulky but also realistic, and there's some really strong splash pages. The script is largely good too, it occasionally wanders in to cliched territory (Bats commenting on Catwoman having nine lives, some of the gangsters' dialogue) but it certainly kept me gripped, and I failed to predict who the killer was but felt very satisfied with the ending. 4.25/5

[13 schoolyards]

I liked The Long Halloween at the time - especially Sale's art - but it seemed to me to be the high point of Loeb's writing career*. Nah, just kidding: the real high point was when he co-wrote the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Commando. But Hush was a real shocker script-wise, and I never went near anything with his name on it after that.

*

Spoiler alert

I might be remembering it wrong, but doesn't someone "die" halfway through and their body is never found - or a body is found, but it's mangled beyond recognition - and then they turn out to be the killer?

[close]

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Is The Long Halloween the one where, in one panel, they didn't bother giving someone feet?

[letsgobrian]

I'm of the opinion that Archie Goodwin's editing was a major factor on Loeb's critically acclaimed comics work. The same goes for James Robinson (even Starman goes off the rails with Goodwin's death and the ensuing interminable "Stars my Destination" arc).

[madhair60]

pleased to see criticism of Hush - when I finally got around to that I was excited, given the acclaim, and I thought it was fucking bollocks.

[Dayraven]

Think Loeb's most popular work has the benefit of good artists, plus either going for big blockbuster style or sentimentality.

Then there's his attempts to out-Millar Millar...

[Small Man Big Horse]

I liked The Long Halloween at the time - especially Sale's art - but it seemed to me to be the high point of Loeb's writing career*. Nah, just kidding: the real high point was when he co-wrote the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Commando. But Hush was a real shocker script-wise, and I never went near anything with his name on it after that.

I've got the first part of Hush but not the second so haven't read it yet, Loeb's one of those names who I've been aware of for a long time but looking at his wikipedia page I think the only other thing I've read of his is an 8 page short story in Elephantman: Fatal Diseases which I remember nothing about.

*

Spoiler alert

I might be remembering it wrong, but doesn't someone "die" halfway through and their body is never found - or a body is found, but it's mangled beyond recognition - and then they turn out to be the killer?

[close]

That's sort of but not quite what happens in Long Halloween,

Spoiler alert

the killer is shot and we see him looking as if he were dead, but it turns out that he somehow survived. Except then the there are a couple of twists, and it turns out there was a second killer, and even a third right at the end.

[close]

Is The Long Halloween the one where, in one panel, they didn't bother giving someone feet?

I didn't notice that, but I might have missed it.

One thing which did annoy me about The Long Halloween is the introduction by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, it's a transcribed interview where they praise the book to the high heavens, but they also keep on saying things like "It was the first ever Batman comic to do... (something amazing about the characters or Gotham)" and I kept on thinking that was nonsense.

For example at one point Goyer says about Jim Gordon "The Long Halloween really ran with what Year One started, giving us an entirely different depiction of Gordon. Previously in the comic books, in the movies, and in the tv show, Gordon was this kind of a bumbling, avuncular character, whereas in these stories he is depicted as this beleaguered mid level sergeant in this rampantly corrupt police force, which is the Gordon we meet in Batman Begins".

Now I might be completely wrong, but I'm sure that's not right. It's been a long time since I've read Batman from the mid to late 80s and early 90s, but outside of the tv show I can't ever remember him being "bumbling" in the slightest.

[13 schoolyards]

I guess Gordon was often shown as being a bit crap (so Batman would have something to do), but I don't think he was "bumbling" in the 80s and 90s. And after Year One it was very much set in stone that Young Gordon was this tough nut cracking heads to take down the corrupt GCPD - The Long Halloween was really just presenting the standard take on Gordon before he became commissioner.

Hush was really just a collection of Jim Lee pin-ups with a few story pages shuffled in between - controversial take time, but I think the (unfinished, but actually kind of finished on a thematic level if you think about it) All-Star Batman and Robin is the superior Jim Lee-drawn Batman tale.

[Magnum Valentino]

Hush is shite aye.

My least favourite two things about Loeb's writing are that every one of his characters speaks with...ellipsis, which makes them sound identical, and the fact that an awful lot of of his Batman villains speak in rhymes like children.

I can't get over his success. The hackiest of the big hack successes in modern American comics.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I guess Gordon was often shown as being a bit crap (so Batman would have something to do), but I don't think he was "bumbling" in the 80s and 90s. And after Year One it was very much set in stone that Young Gordon was this tough nut cracking heads to take down the corrupt GCPD - The Long Halloween was really just presenting the standard take on Gordon before he became commissioner.

The bit in bold was what I thought, and Year One was published in 1987, whereas The Long Halloween was in '96, so to try and suggest no one else had portrayed Gordon in that way in the nine years between seemed inaccurate to me. I have to confess to quite disliking Goyer though, he seems to have spent a lot of his career creating tv or films using pre-existing characters / stories, and only very rarely is the finished product any good (and I'm not a fan of Blade or Nolan's Batman films like many people that I like and respect are).

[Magnum Valentino]

I love Blade and the first 2 Batman films he was involved with but dislike him intensely. I remember reading that introduction to TLH in the Crewe WH Smiths and it really winding me up for the exact same reason you mention. Tim Burton says similar things in some of his Batman interviews - I don't understand the compulsion to take the risk and lie and let on you know more than you do, it seems like such a stupid human behaviour.

Joel Schumacher on the other hand sounds reasonably well informed on his Batman commentaries, both of which are excellent talk tracks regardless of what you think of his films.