The All New Comics Thread 2017+ Edition

[Mister Six]

Never heard of any of these characters! What sort of comics are they in? They looked pretty funny but then I read Archer's backstory and it's something about his parents molesting kids.

[samadriel]

Never heard of any of these characters! What sort of comics are they in? They looked pretty funny but then I read Archer's backstory and it's something about his parents molesting kids.

They don't molest kids, but they do brainwash them with a combination of American born-again Christianity and a mysterious cult they're part of. All Archer's  life he's been told to kill an enemy of the cult, but said enemy, an immortal party animal known as Armstrong, convinces Archer to make friends, and they start hunting down the various sub-sects of the cult. Archer & Armstrong is pretty damn funny, mostly because of the absurd sects they encounter (my favourite is The One Percent, a cabal of bull-masked weirdos who run Wall Street), and it's pretty action-packed, lots of globe trotting and arse-kicking.

Quantum & Woody are more flat-out comedic than A&A, and more superheroic, kind of a cross between Deadpool and Heroes for Hire. When written well, the more hedonistic of the two, Woody, is Homer Simpson-like in his rampaging id, and causes the straight man, Quantum, lots of grief -- basically, the plot is that they're adoptive brothers who can't stand one another, but who are tethered together by a pair of wristbands they have to knock together every 24 hours or they'll dissolve into atoms (said wristbands also give them superpowers). I really like that premise, and they have a good archenemy, too -- an artificially immortal version of Thomas Edison who's been busy stealing better inventors' creations, and wants to study our heroes' corpses. Q&W is a good chuckle, not quite as good a comic as A&A, but still worthwhile. Both series are available in four-issue trades, and alternatively in "deluxe editions", which collect about twelve issues each, which is handy. The Delinquents is included in the second Q&W deluxe edition.

Valiant's publishing habits are different to DC and Marvel, they generally focus on producing about 12- or 24-issue runs, then they put the character/s to bed for awhile before bringing them back with a new title awhile later. This spotty output actually gives one a bit more time to catch up with certain characters... I've pretty much bought the entirety of Valiant's output post- their 2012 comeback, and I'm gradually devouring the whole lot.

I'll post later about Ivar, Timewalker, who's a bit of a Doctor Who expy -- I'm really enjoying his series so far.

[Artie Fufkin]

Parasyte (sic), a manga novel, bought in a recent ComiXology sale. It's started off really well. A nice idea.

I've just noticed there's a TV adaptation of this.

[Artie Fufkin]

I'll post later about Ivar, Timewalker, who's a bit of a Doctor Who expy -- I'm really enjoying his series so far.

I've had issue 1 for ages, but never gotten around to reading it. Looks cool, though.

[Mister Six]

EDIT: never mind, wrong thread!

[Small Man Big Horse]

Just heard that Denny O'Neil has died - https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/legendary-batman-writer-denny-oneil-dies-at-age-81/?region-switch=1591979590&fbclid=IwAR1gMEeavG8ciUsfrd_WMrnmZnUyMuxhLBOgnGYv-ewHgVN4zioTm-R3FJ0 - I really loved his eighties take on The Question, I haven't revisited it so I don't know how it stands up but it impressed back then, and his work elsewhere tended to be pretty strong at the very least, so this is very sad news.

[Mister Six]

Quantum & Woody are more flat-out comedic than A&A, and more superheroic, kind of a cross between Deadpool and Heroes for Hire.
...  basically, the plot is that they're adoptive brothers who can't stand one another, but who are tethered together by a pair of wristbands they have to knock together every 24 hours or they'll dissolve into atoms

That's pretty much exactly the set up for (I think) Fabian Nicenza's Deadpool and Cable series! But if it works, it works I guess. Certainly sounds like a laugh - I'll give these comics a crack when the libraries reopen.

[Custard]

Been reading that Harley Quinn origin comic, Harleen, that's just come out, and it's actually very good.

The artwork is lovely, and the writing is strong also. Having a really young and good looking Joker feels a bit weird, mind. It feels a bit Twilight in places

I've read two of the three books so far, through nefarious means, as DC charging 6.99 for a 60 page digital comic is criminal in itself. Comixology is/was giving away the first one for free, mind

[samadriel]

I'm a bit torn on Stjepan Sejic's writing, which I find a bit silly and sort of airhead-y at times (based on his original stuff he's posted on Deviant Art), but I love his art, I must have a read of Harleen after I'm done with Timewalker.

Edit:

That's pretty much exactly the set up for (I think) Fabian Nicenza's Deadpool and Cable series! But if it works, it works I guess. Certainly sounds like a laugh - I'll give these comics a crack when the libraries reopen.

Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure Nicenza was the editor of the original Q&W comics in the mid-90s. Plenty of room for more than one Odd Couple in the superhero genre though.

[Glitch King]

.

[Custard]

Blimey, Comixology giving away quite a lot of Black Panther collections for free at the moment

[samadriel]

Cool, I'll gives those a punt, maybe I'll read them after I've done Charles Soule's Daredevil run.

Well, Timewalker got a bit too convoluted, and I'm not sure I enjoyed the reappearance of The Null from Archer and Armstrong. It also tied up Ivar's timeline a little tightly by the end -- I would've preferred a bit more Doctor Who-like openness to his unseen adventures. There kind of is some room for that, but it depends how you interpret the way things worked out at the end. In conclusion, I didn't like the third volume as much as the first two, but those first two were quite good. Archer and Armstrong are pretty much required reading before the third volume of Timewalker, which is editorially unusual for Valiant, and would have put me off if A&A wasn't actually a really good comic that I had, in fact, read.

Now I've got a ton of the next Archer & Armstrong and Ninjak to read, but I might take a break from Valiant first and get stuck into DC's "Harleen" and Marvel's aforementioned Daredevil run -- I'm looking forward to Soule writing DD testifying to the Supreme Court.

[Mister Six]

Warren Ellis has been accused of shitty behaviour towards women and Cameron Stewart has been accused of grooming teens as young as 16. :(

Ellis doesn't surprise me, the way he used to surround himself with scene/goth girls in his Planetary days, but Stewart came as a shock. That's probably just because his art is so poppy and accessible, though, which I know is shallow.

[Custard]

Here's more info on Stewart
https://thewest.com.au/news/social/batgirl-writer-cameron-stewart-accused-of-grooming-model-aviva-mai-ng-b881580532z.amp

And more on Ellis
http://www.multiversitycomics.com/news/warren-ellis-allegations/

Maaaates

[kidsick5000]

Here's more info on Stewart
https://thewest.com.au/news/social/batgirl-writer-cameron-stewart-accused-of-grooming-model-aviva-mai-ng-b881580532z.amp

And more on Ellis
http://www.multiversitycomics.com/news/warren-ellis-allegations/

Maaaates

Stewart's more shocking because of the titles he's worked on and his efforts to de-objectify female characters, so that they're not just hot models in lycra.

[13 schoolyards]

I almost feel slightly sorry for Ellis, as it seems like he's been trying to get his act together over the last decade - dropping his fairly creepy online persona, increasingly working outside of comics and actually finishing (most of) the comic series he's started.

But yeah, there was a long stretch there where this kind of news wouldn't have been remotely surprising. That time his hard drive and back-ups all failed at exactly the same time so he couldn't properly finish any of the comics he was working on always seemed like there was more going on there.

[Artie Fufkin]

Warren Ellis has been accused of shitty behaviour towards women and Cameron Stewart has been accused of grooming teens as young as 16. :(

Ellis doesn't surprise me, the way he used to surround himself with scene/goth girls in his Planetary days, but Stewart came as a shock. That's probably just because his art is so poppy and accessible, though, which I know is shallow.

That's all rather depressing. Ellis is the 2nd big reason I got back into comics in my 'adult' life. Sigh.

[Small Man Big Horse]

That's all rather depressing. Ellis is the 2nd big reason I got back into comics in my 'adult' life. Sigh.

I'm a big fan of Ellis's too, but what's come out so far won't put me off reading him - perhaps I've missed something, but the youngest person involved was 19, and it appears he basically became friendly, wanted to have sex with them, and then ignored them if they weren't interested, which might be shitty behaviour giving his stature in the industry, but I don't think it should be of the career destroying variety.

I do want to stress I've only read that one article though, and don't know the ins and outs of the story.

[Mister Six]

The impression I'm getting is that he basically used his comic book superstar status to set himself up as a mentor/friend figure to young women who were aspiring creators, then started needling them to have six with him or send him nudes. Then once he got bored of them (or if they mentioned having other male mentors) he'd cut off all contact.

It's nowhere near as bad as Cameron Stewart's alleged grooming of a 16-year-old, and it's unfortunate that it's displaced that story in the public eye - for a start he was in his twenties or early thirties at the time and the women were in their twenties too - but it is shitty behaviour. More importantly, the power difference between one of the biggest comic book authors (as he was then) and some young rando on a webforum is massive, and he was (allegedly) cynically exploiting that.

I don't think it's so bad his career will never recover - in fact it looks like he might have given up that alleged behaviour a while back - but I think if it's true, it's worth saying because it identifies a real problem of toxic behaviour endemic to the comics industry.

[Mister Six]

Ellis has done one of those boilerplate "I will now step back and listen" not-apology apologies: https://twitter.com/warrenellis/status/1273785757338083328?s=19

His claims of not knowing that he held a position of power would be more convincing if he hadn't spent a decent chunk of the '00s giving Los powers to women on his forums and calling them his "filthy assistants" or whatever it was.

[13 schoolyards]

That apology is pretty boilerplate, though it's always hard to know how a creative type perceives their own success (or lack thereof). Compared to most of the UK comic writers of his generation, he probably was (and is) at the rear of the pack - Garth Ennis is younger than him and was a bigger star in the 90s thanks to Preacher, Grant Morrison was a bigger name as well, Neil Gaiman was only a few years older and Alan Moore was a few years older still.

Even in comics now, someone like Kieron Gillen is probably a bigger name as far as sales goes. So it's at least possible that he might see himself as a bit of an also-ran, considering his old Marvel stablemate Mark Millar has had a bunch of big name movies, Ennis has had his creator-owned work adapted into two high-profile live-action TV series and all Ellis has got is a Netflix cartoon based on a video game.

Mind you, he clearly still had a lot of industry clout and his own forums were wildly influential. So yeah, not completely convincing there.

[Artie Fufkin]

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.

[Small Man Big Horse]

The impression I'm getting is that he basically used his comic book superstar status to set himself up as a mentor/friend figure to young women who were aspiring creators, then started needling them to have six with him or send him nudes. Then once he got bored of them (or if they mentioned having other male mentors) he'd cut off all contact.

It's nowhere near as bad as Cameron Stewart's alleged grooming of a 16-year-old, and it's unfortunate that it's displaced that story in the public eye - for a start he was in his twenties or early thirties at the time and the women were in their twenties too - but it is shitty behaviour. More importantly, the power difference between one of the biggest comic book authors (as he was then) and some young rando on a webforum is massive, and he was (allegedly) cynically exploiting that.

I don't think it's so bad his career will never recover - in fact it looks like he might have given up that alleged behaviour a while back - but I think if it's true, it's worth saying because it identifies a real problem of toxic behaviour endemic to the comics industry.

Ellis has done one of those boilerplate "I will now step back and listen" not-apology apologies: https://twitter.com/warrenellis/status/1273785757338083328?s=19

His claims of not knowing that he held a position of power would be more convincing if he hadn't spent a decent chunk of the '00s giving Los powers to women on his forums and calling them his "filthy assistants" or whatever it was.

It's not a great apology but it's better than many that I've read, and after what you've said above while it definitely seems like he's acted shittily I hope it doesn't fuck up his career. That said, reading ten great issues of a comic and then seeing the creator get bored of it wouldn't exactly be a huge loss in my life.

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.

I dip in from time to time, normally still enjoy Dredd and find one of the other strips to be fun enough, but then struggle with the rest of it. Just going to check out issue 2185 now to see if that still applies and shall report back...

Edit:

Dredd - A nicely grim story where things look pretty fucked up for Dredd and co and a cowboy who claims he's 300 years old and has fought his way through the afterlife to return to Earth might be the world's only hope.

Sinister Dexter - Alas I've never got on with this though I know it's a fan favourite, but I've just never clicked with it.

Full Tilt Boogie - Written by Alex De Campi, who I've never heard of before, it's a weird old thing about a futuristic assassin, it's a little too early to judge and I liked elements, but others didn't quite work (for me at least).

The Order - Set in 1794, some folks and robots have travelled back in time to kidnap Benjamin Franklin. The art's annoyingly sometimes great and sometimes weak, but the story's amusing enough and I quite enjoyed this.

The Diaboliks - Really confused by this, the story's okay but the art is often appalling, I kept on wondering if it was just me but re-reading it some panels work but others look like they're half finished, as if the artist couldn't be arsed to spend more than two minutes on them.

Overall: Can't say it's worth the money (er, if I'd paid for it) and I won't be dipping back in again for a while now.

[Artie Fufkin]

I dip in from time to time, normally still enjoy Dredd and find one of the other strips to be fun enough, but then struggle with the rest of it. Just going to check out issue 2185 now to see if that still applies and shall report back...

Edit:

Dredd - A nicely grim story where things look pretty fucked up for Dredd and co and a cowboy who claims he's 300 years old and has fought his way through the afterlife to return to Earth might be the world's only hope.

Sinister Dexter - Alas I've never got on with this though I know it's a fan favourite, but I've just never clicked with it.

Full Tilt Boogie - Written by Alex De Campi, who I've never heard of before, it's a weird old thing about a futuristic assassin, it's a little too early to judge and I liked elements, but others didn't quite work (for me at least).

The Order - Set in 1794, some folks and robots have travelled back in time to kidnap Benjamin Franklin. The art's annoyingly sometimes great and sometimes weak, but the story's amusing enough and I quite enjoyed this.

The Diaboliks - Really confused by this, the story's okay but the art is often appalling, I kept on wondering if it was just me but re-reading it some panels work but others look like they're half finished, as if the artist couldn't be arsed to spend more than two minutes on them.

Overall: Can't say it's worth the money (er, if I'd paid for it) and I won't be dipping back in again for a while now.

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

[Artie Fufkin]

Dredd - A nicely grim story where things look pretty fucked up for Dredd and co and a cowboy who claims he's 300 years old and has fought his way through the afterlife to return to Earth might be the world's only hope.

I do like the sound of this, however.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I do like the sound of this, however.

Well some people I know still really like it, so maybe I'm being overly harsh. And I just read the following issue and though I largely feel the same way, now I'm really enjoying The Order, and will pick it up in graphic novel form when it's eventually released.

[Mister Six]

That apology is pretty boilerplate, though it's always hard to know how a creative type perceives their own success (or lack thereof). Compared to most of the UK comic writers of his generation, he probably was (and is) at the rear of the pack - Garth Ennis is younger than him and was a bigger star in the 90s thanks to Preacher, Grant Morrison was a bigger name as well, Neil Gaiman was only a few years older and Alan Moore was a few years older still.

Even in comics now, someone like Kieron Gillen is probably a bigger name as far as sales goes. So it's at least possible that he might see himself as a bit of an also-ran, considering his old Marvel stablemate Mark Millar has had a bunch of big name movies, Ennis has had his creator-owned work adapted into two high-profile live-action TV series and all Ellis has got is a Netflix cartoon based on a video game.

Mind you, he clearly still had a lot of industry clout and his own forums were wildly influential. So yeah, not completely convincing there.

Most of these cases seem to be from his golden period in the late 90s-mid 00s where he was pretty much the biggest comic book writer of his generation. Stormwatch, Planetary and The Authority shat all over Ennis's sales in just about anything, and Transmetropolitan was his big Vertigo critical success.

The WEF and his subsequent forums (only Mark Millar had anything comparable) were also full of sycophants, male and female, vying for his attention. He had his own mailing list and blog. Kevin Smith was doing parodies of his forums in Jay & Silent Bob comics (complete with American forum users pretending to be British by saying bollocks all the time). He was hot shit and ge fucking knew it.

[13 schoolyards]

Most of these cases seem to be from his golden period in the late 90s-mid 00s where he was pretty much the biggest comic book writer of his generation. Stormwatch, Planetary and The Authority shat all over Ennis's sales in just about anything, and Transmetropolitan was his big Vertigo critical success.

The WEF and his subsequent forums (only Mark Millar had anything comparable) were also full of sycophants, male and female, vying for his attention. He had his own mailing list and blog. Kevin Smith was doing parodies of his forums in Jay & Silent Bob comics (complete with American forum users pretending to be British by saying bollocks all the time). He was hot shit and ge fucking knew it.

He definitely had his moment in the sun, but IIRC it was relatively brief - Planetary took ages to finish up, and for a few years it looked like it never would. The Authority was pre-9/11 too - I remember Bryan Hitch was doing a one-off stand-alone story after Ellis had left that was cancelled outright because that whole "widescreen destruction" thing was extremely out of favour. I feel like almost all his writing peers had a real period of a couple of years where they were standing out - Ennis with Preacher, Morrison with JLA, then Millar with The Ultimates - in a way Ellis only briefly had.

Then again, supposedly (someone on twitter has set up a private server for people who want to come forward) there's well over 50 people who've come forward about Ellis' behaviour towards them, including someone who's said he approached her within the last year. So however he saw himself, this looks like something he was committed to doing. DC have dumped him from one (minor) project already as well.

[Mister Six]

He definitely had his moment in the sun, but IIRC it was relatively brief

It was from about 1997ish (Stormwatch) through to about 2007ish, when the number of unfinished titles became too large and too laughable to deny, and he was increasingly frittering his time away on minis and one-shots of minimal appeal and zero longevity. Whether or not that's a long time is irrelevant - he was huge, and he knew it. Certainly bigger than Ennis ever was, in terms of both impact on comics and individual issues sold.

[13 schoolyards]

It was from about 1997ish (Stormwatch) through to about 2007ish, when the number of unfinished titles became too large and too laughable to deny, and he was increasingly frittering his time away on minis and one-shots of minimal appeal and zero longevity. Whether or not that's a long time is irrelevant - he was huge, and he knew it. Certainly bigger than Ennis ever was, in terms of both impact on comics and individual issues sold.

I'd disagree about Ennis's impact - Preacher was absolutely huge in the mid 90s, and his Hellblazer run before that was no small potatoes either. But that's just my memories from the period. I read Transmetropolitian as it was coming out but never really considered it a big deal, but going by the number of people even today who cite it as a formative experience clearly it was much more influential than I thought. I was also surprised to find his computer failure was in 2009 - I thought it was much earlier than that.

The one thing I will say in Ellis' defense is that unlike his peers he seemed to be the only one of his generation who was / is still actively improving as a writer. I think Ennis can still deliver the goods on a good day, but most of his other 90s comrades have fallen off a bit whereas Ellis has (IMHO) improved as a comic writer over the last decade.

I can't imagine he'll be doing anything in comics from now on though - he can stay somewhat hidden with his TV work and that apology of his seemed drafted by the Netflix lawyers so I'd assume his best case scenario is that his name will be buried in the credits of various animation projects from here on in.