The All New Comics Thread 2017+ Edition

[Sex Festival Organizer]

Aw man that's genuinely gutting. Got a lot of my independent one offs and Dark Horse stuff from comixology.

Yeah, it's just utterly baffling. The previous reader, and really the whole site, was basically perfect for what it was, and now this? And I mean, even just finding my comics is a pain in the ass now.

And I love how, out of the first 12 «Top picks for you», I already have 9 out of 12. Some great AI you've got going there, you gnomish space-faring fuck!

[Small Man Big Horse]

Batman R.I.P. by Grant Morrison - Big mad romp where thanks to the evil Black Glove group

Spoiler alert

Bruce loses his mind and quite possibly everything he ever loved. It's an amusing read and I enjoyed most of it, but at the same time it's hard to take seriously as Batman was never ever going to die for good. It's weird, I don't mind the fact that certain decade old characters are tortured and killed and brought back to life time and again, but with Bats it just seems a bit silly, possibly because he's supposed to be human and more real than other superheroic types.

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Despite this I do rate it 4/5, yet I have no interest in reading the follow up issues, which probably doesn't make any sense, but what can you do.

[madhair60]

Despite this I do rate it 4/5, yet I have no interest in reading the follow up issues, which probably doesn't make any sense, but what can you do.

That's a shame because they're exceptional

[Small Man Big Horse]

That's a shame because they're exceptional

I think the problem with Batman is that there's just so much of it, I find it overwhelming, I have dipped in and out

Spoiler alert

(I read Morrison's mini-series that saw Bruce travel through time to return to life and didn't get on with it), and a good chunk of Tom King's run (which I liked quite a lot but ultimately felt frustrated by). I think as well as the quantity is that nothing feels permanent, any major changes will be undone by another writer (I mean they even brought back Jason Todd from the dead, and there was no reason for that, he was an annoying little twat who should have stayed dead). I know Alfred was killed off recently too but I'm sure he'll be back soon (if he isn't already) and it makes it difficult to really care.

[close]

It's an issue with all superhero comics I guess, but again, I think because Batman is supposed to be human it makes it all the more disappointing when someone comes along and completely changes things.

[Mister Six]

Batman R.I.P. by Grant Morrison - Big mad romp where thanks to the evil Black Glove group

Spoiler alert

Bruce loses his mind and quite possibly everything he ever loved. It's an amusing read and I enjoyed most of it, but at the same time it's hard to take seriously as Batman was never ever going to die for good. It's weird, I don't mind the fact that certain decade old characters are tortured and killed and brought back to life time and again, but with Bats it just seems a bit silly, possibly because he's supposed to be human and more real than other superheroic types.

[close]

Despite this I do rate it 4/5, yet I have no interest in reading the follow up issues, which probably doesn't make any sense, but what can you do.

I just finished all three omnibus volumes of Morrison's Batman (with Final Crisis, which comes after RIP) and I can't recommend them enough.

[Magnum Valentino]

Thirded, get the rest, it's all class and the last volume's the best, easily.

[Dayraven]

It's been a long while since last I logged on to Comixology, so imagine my surprise when I found out it's now been subsumed entirely into Amazon's shit-tier ecosystem.

DC now has a subscription service like Marvel Unlimited, called DC Universe Infinite, if that helps any. Obviously that's no answer for books from smaller publishers, though.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I just finished all three omnibus volumes of Morrison's Batman (with Final Crisis, which comes after RIP) and I can't recommend them enough.

Thirded, get the rest, it's all class and the last volume's the best, easily.

Gah, okay, I do respect both of your opinions an awful so I've added it to my Amazon Wish List, and will get it at some point.

[samadriel]

I don't think I've mentioned Sunstone, Stjepan Sejic's BDSM comic about a lesbian  dom/sub couple and their friends and fellow scenesters. It's slow paced but charming,  and though the characters are all good looking and frequently in bondage gear, sex manifests more as something that leads to awkward/funny situations than as titillation. There's nudity, but it's not a porno. What surprises me is it's published by Top Cow, who are best known for big-titted superheroine cheesecake - it couldn't be an odder fit, even if Sunstone does have pretty girls in crazy outfits. I recommend it as a light (if long) read,  the art is great and the characters quite endearing.

[Mister Six]

Gah, okay, I do respect both of your opinions an awful so I've added it to my Amazon Wish List, and will get it at some point.

Aww you. I got 'em from the library because they're massive and not cheap. Final Crisis is an essential part of it, and should be read between vol. 1 and vol. 2.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Aww you. I got 'em from the library because they're massive and not cheap. Final Crisis is an essential part of it, and should be read between vol. 1 and vol. 2.

I went in to the recently reopened Walthamstow Library (which was used as a vaccine centre for the past two years) and half the books they previously had have yet to be unpacked and currently their graphic novel collection is pretty small, about sixty books at a guess. It's also  very odd selection, there were things you'd expect (fair amount of Batman, The Avengers, etc) but also oddities like Ace Trucking Co. and volume two of Sex Criminals. I did ask the very friendly assistant if they planned to get in more and she said hopefully, one day, but if I wanted to go online I should be able to order anything from other Waltham Forest libraries, the only problem being is that system isn't back online yet!

Edit: Still, it is my birthday next month and I've asked both my mother and sister to get a combined Amazon giftcard, so that means I'll have about £60 to splurge on various collections.

[Mister Six]

I went in to the recently reopened Walthamstow Library (which was used as a vaccine centre for the past two years) and half the books they previously had have yet to be unpacked and currently their graphic novel collection is pretty small, about sixty books at a guess. It's also  very odd selection, there were things you'd expect (fair amount of Batman, The Avengers, etc) but also oddities like Ace Trucking Co. and volume two of Sex Criminals. I did ask the very friendly assistant if they planned to get in more and she said hopefully, one day, but if I wanted to go online I should be able to order anything from other Waltham Forest libraries, the only problem being is that system isn't back online yet!

Edit: Still, it is my birthday next month and I've asked both my mother and sister to get a combined Amazon giftcard, so that means I'll have about £60 to splurge on various collections.

Can't you ask them to ship it in from another library on the UK? Do libraries not do that any more? Is it the fucking Tories again?

It's the fucking Tories again, isn't it?

[Small Man Big Horse]

It seems they've changed it to other libraries in the same county, rather than country. I found the search engine they use but it's pretty poor, and while they do have Final Crisis it's only in pdf format.

[Mister Six]

Ah, that's a huge shame. Especially if your county isn't very well equipped or large.

[madhair60]

Aww you. I got 'em from the library because they're massive and not cheap. Final Crisis is an essential part of it, and should be read between vol. 1 and vol. 2.

At the risk of inviting ire - while I love Final Crisis, I think it's wonderful - it is skippable. You can look it up on Wikipedia and just go right to The Return of Bruce Wayne. The amount of Final Crisis that ultimately pertains to the Batman run is negligible, and you can skip it if you want. Final Crisis is a lot.

[Mister Six]

Not negligible - there's a fair bit tying back in volumes 2 and 3, but I don't want to go into detail about it for obvious reasons.

You could probably muddle your way through, but I imagine the callbacks will become increasingly annoying.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Ah, that's a huge shame. Especially if your county isn't very well equipped or large.

Yeah, it doesn't seem to be sadly. Still, Final Crisis doesn't seem too pricey, and there's a couple of ebay auctions where I'll hopefully swoop in during the final seconds and get it for a decent price.

Rat Queens Vol.5 and 6 - The final two books by original Kurtis Wiebe see the four leads in all sorts of trouble in this fantasy spoof / parody / homage which as it went on became a genuinely lovable series about a group of characters who really cared for each other, Vol.5 gets a bit complicated with various timeline fuckery, but overall this was something that just got better and better as it went on and was enormous fun to read. 4.75/5

Rat Queens Vol.7 and Vol.8 - Until it wasn't, at least, as letterer Ryan Ferrier takes over writing duties and it's mostly okay, readable, but lacking in the charm of the original series, the art is quite poor with one character looking completely different, and then the very last issue has a really shit ending (

Spoiler alert

suggesting that when two versions of the same character fought, and fought off screen at that, that the evil one tricked everyone in to thinking the good version won and oh fuck off with that stupid idea you cunt

[close]

). 3/5 for the 9 okayish issues, but 0.1/1 for the last one. After it ends there's a two page advert claiming that original writer Kurtis J. Wiebe and original artist Roc Upchurch are going to reunite and bring out one more final trade paperback, but given the reasons Upchurch left the series it's not something I want to see.

[Magnum Valentino]

Just weighing in on the Final Crisis thing - I've read Morrison's Batman run about four (maybe five) times, and I've never read Final Crisis. I don't mean to diminish it, or the experience of those who've read it, but at least in line with that caveat I too consider it skippable.

[Wentworth Smith]

Final Crisis is great, for my money the best big DC event since the first Crisis... although admittedly that's a low bar.

With regards how it fits in with Morrisons Batman doesn't it

Spoiler alert

show how Batman gets zapped back in time and why everyone thinks he's dead?

[close]

[Mister Six]

Final Crisis is great, for my money the best big DC event since the first Crisis... although admittedly that's a low bar.

With regards how it fits in with Morrisons Batman doesn't it

Spoiler alert

show how Batman gets zapped back in time and why everyone thinks he's dead?

[close]

Plus, in the Batman run itself,

Spoiler alert

one of Darkseid's dead Batman clones is mistaken for Batman's body and resurrected in a Lazarus pit, Dr Hurt is revealed to have been infected by the creature chasing Bruce Wayne through time, Hurt is also suggested to be another manifestation point for Darkseid, and some other stuff I've forgotten.

[close]

This stuff is explained with varying amounts of detail in the Batman Omnibus books (which also include the two FC-related Batman issues), but it's more fun, I reckon, to take it all in as part of one big story.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Isola Volumes One and Two - A girl protects a tiger on a mysterious planet, though there's of course much more to it than that in this fantasy effort from Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl. The art is just beautiful, and one of those times where the colouring adds so, so much to it, and the story unfurls nicely too as we learn more and more about the unusual circumstances the main characters find themselves in. A third volume was delayed due to the writer getting a vicious case of covid and I don't know if it ever will return now, but I obviously really do hope it does. 4.5/5

Superman Birthright - A 12 issue mini-series where after a brief sprint on Krypton this jumps to the point where Clark makes his decision to become Superman in his mid-twenties, it's well worn territory but huge amounts of kudos must go to Mark Waid who makes good old Clark relevant and thrilling again, and fleshes out the supporting characters really effectively as well. 5/5

[Small Man Big Horse]

Had a bit of a find in the local charity shop today including Punk Rock Jesus by Sean Murphy, Once & Future by Kieron Gillen, The Autumnlands by Kurt Bisiek, Rex Mundi by Eric J Arvid and The Massive by Brian Wood. I've no idea if they're any good but I've been fond of work by the writers before (well bar Eric J Arvid who I'd not heard of), and price wise it's not a disaster if I don't like them.

[13 schoolyards]

Once and Future is a fun romp with excellent art, though it's mostly just an excuse for various monsters based on olde English myth and legend. Which is fine by me.

I'll be interested to hear what you think of The Massive, I gave it a go when it first came out as I wanted to give Brian Wood another chance (after being less than impressed with DMZ as it went along), but it ended up being more of the same wheel-spinning from what I remember. But maybe I jumped off before it got good?

[Small Man Big Horse]

Thanks for the above, it's interesting to hear and has definitely increased my interest in Once And Future, as even though I like Keiron Gillen there's already been an awful lot stories concerning the Arthurian myth. And I'll definitely let you know about The Massive, but last night I started off with The Autumnlands and was really impressed, I mean I'm a sucker for anthropomorphic animals but the magical element, and then everything going disastrously wrong, has made me love it an awful lot, while the art's fantastic as well. I heard it only ran for 14 issues, but is coming back later this year, which hopefully means it'll either run and run for a while yet, or at least get a proper ending.

[madhair60]

This has been haunting me since I was a kid but I really, really want to identify a comic that scared me many many years ago. It was some sort of horror thing, it was full colour. I can't recall if it was a paperback or a single issue, but the story was of a young couple going home where they make love in front of the woman's wheelchair-bound, apparently catatonic elderly father/grandfather. There's a part where they're having sex and it shows a close up of the old man's eye while the woman gasps "Yes! Oh yes!!" or something like that.

Anyway the old man kills them, he kills the boy first, I think just by stabbing him, I can't remember. It's all painted looking art, like... old Slaine, sort of thing? Must have been a horror anthology of some sort. The cover I remember being brown, brown-red, with a figure on it. It's all very vague. I just wondered if it rang a bell at all. I don't know if it was british, american, or what.

[Mister Six]

Ooh that's awakened memories of a horror anthology thing (maybe the same one?) with painted art I picked up as a kid in the UK. IIRC there was a bit with a girl looking in the bathroom mirror as she turned into a werewolf, I think saying something about her mother, in what I now realise is probably a hamfisted reference to periods, and a story where a dog knocks over a barbecue that falls on a kid and burns half his face off.

The latter made me feel a bit sick, so I put it down.

Anyone know what it was?

[Small Man Big Horse]

Ooh that's awakened memories of a horror anthology thing (maybe the same one?) with painted art I picked up as a kid in the UK. IIRC there was a bit with a girl looking in the bathroom mirror as she turned into a werewolf, I think saying something about her mother, in what I now realise is probably a hamfisted reference to periods, and a story where a dog knocks over a barbecue that falls on a kid and burns half his face off.

The latter made me feel a bit sick, so I put it down.

Anyone know what it was?

Could that possibly be the Revolver horror special?

Edit: I'm pretty sure it is (this is the aforementioned dog / bbq image, so NSFW, https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Revolver-Horror-Special/TPB?id=173015#26 and there's a story about a girl's first period just prior to that.

[Mister Six]

Ooh nice one @Small Man Big Horse ! I'll be exorcising some childhood demons tonight.

EDIT: Ha! Just took a look at the credits and it's by Garth Ennis! And that first page looks a lot like Warren Pleece (though it's not), which may be why I hate his art as an adult (or it just looks shite). Funny how my memory rendered all this stuff in a painterly style...

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm genuinely astonished I remember something from that long ago, my memory is normally awful! I was very, very fond of Revolver though and wish it had succeeded instead of Crisis, I always found Third World War extremely preachy and often dull, and only continued with it as the other strip was sometimes okay, and as it was produced by those behind 2000AD I presumed that surely at some point it would get good.

The Autumnlands by Kurt Bisiek - A bunch of animals live in floating cities casting magic spells, but worry that the supply of magic is about to run out, and when an ambitious spell goes horribly wrong all of their lives are in danger. I really loved this, I mean, the main characters a young dog so I probably always was going to, but the oddball mixture really works and the art is often lovely too. 4.5/5

[13 schoolyards]

I was also a big fan of Revolver and they had some really interesting strips lined up (I think Garth Ennis was going to write a western set in the UK called Six Gun), but that whole late 80s idea that the literary mainstream was keen on comics was well and truly over by the time it started hitting the shelves.

I think they had the strongest possible line-up they could have had at the time (even if I never read the Hendrix strip), but looking back at it now it's like "how was this ever going to work?" Supposedly around that period even Deadline was a massive money sinkhole and that had Tank Girl going for it.