More Talk of Comics

[Babar]

ok, greg, i have recently read this whole thread and you have quite a few posts in it, but they are all about Scott Pilgrim. Do you read any other comics? This is not a jab at you or anything, just curious.

[Greg Nog]

I read other things, sure!  But Scott Pilgrim is my favorite one of the past few years.

Let's see... lately, I've read:

The Curse of The Umbrella, by Lewis Trondheim.  A bunch of single-page autobio stories that are quite excellent.  The dude's good at capturing amusing yet unimportant moments, telling small stories succinctly.

Re-read Leviathan, by Peter Blegvad.  Fucking incredible, endlessly inventive, frequently hilarious, strips about a baby with no face.  Incredibly playful with language in a way that you usually don't see in comics, and subtlely-terrifying drawing that makes Edward Gorey look like the one-note hack he is.

I read a bunch of the Perry Bible Fellowship comics, though I think I'd already read all those online; I just bought the book The Trial Of Colonel Sweeto, was all.

I'm currently reading 52, but there's not a whole lot to say about it.  It's entertaining enough, but nothing too groundbreaking or thrilling.  Maybe it gets better.  Along the same lines, I've read a few individual issues of superhero stuff here and there, lately, and it's been all right, but nothing I'm jazzed about picking up on a regular basis. 

I dunno, are there a lot of great things coming out these days that I'm just totally unaware of?  It seems like comics are at a particularly infertile time right now.  Even brilliant old standbys like Chris Ware just seem to be treading water rather than doing anything really super (picture Jimmy Corrigan, but FEMALE!  And with only ONE LEG!), and a lot of the stuff that various hip news outlets are giving a lot of acclaim (like, say, the incredibly overhyped amateur-hour that was Persepolis) don't really strike me as well-done so much as Socially Relevant And Hey Let's Do A News Story On This So Our Bourgeois Readers Can Feel Like They're Paying Attention.

These days, it seems like I'm looking more into older stuff (I was recently totally impressed with all the Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge comics, and I just picked up some Tintin and Asterix books, though I haven't gotten around to reading them yet (sorry alex)).  I don't know.  I wasn't planning on going to MOCCA this weekend, mainly 'cause I haven't had anyone telling me about anything really exciting happening in comics recently.

If I bring up Scott Pilgrim more than anything else, it's only 'cause it's a currently-published comic that I'm particularly impressed with.  It's obnoxiously common to see a young man making comics about being a young man, talking about playing in a rock band, dating girls, hanging out with friends, etc.  It's rare to see it done in such a consistently-charming fashion that isn't just Main Character Standing In For Author In Belabored Wish-Fulfillment Fantasy.

what up, Adrian Tomine, yes wish fulfillment also includes the romanticization of depressed dude alone at night in a diner

[Andrew_TSKS]

personally i'm thinking david lapham's "young liars" is looking very promising, and of course i'm stoked on almost everything warren ellis is currently doing ("anna mercury" hasn't impressed me, but i've only read one issue), particularly his current weekly internet comic freakangels, and uh, doktor sleepless (which a lot of other people aren't as interested in because it's "just transmetropolitan all over again", except that it's SO not and those people are crazy). i'm waiting for bendis's "secret invasion" comic to blow me away, and although it hasn't yet, i've liked the tie-in issues of "mighty avengers" A LOT. those issues are a good bit better than the actual "secret invasion" comic, if you ask me. at least, so far they are. dc are screwing grant morrison by forcing him to write tiny micro-sections of multi-title batman crossovers, and i'm not happy about that at all (fuck you dc, i'm not gonna buy issues of nightwing and robin, and you can't make me!), and the 3-times-a-month "amazing spider-man" scheduling is every bit the inconsistent frustration-a-thon that i predicted it would be. joe hill's "locke and key" is awesome so far, and i can only imagine that it's gonna get better. joss whedon needs to stop dragging his feet on his current arc of "runaways". it's amazing, but one issue every three months ain't cutting it. "dmz" and "scalped" have been awesome month in and month out since they started. this hasn't changed.

there, those are some recommendations (and some non-recommendations) for currently-running comics.

[Greg Nog]

Hm.  I'll look into some of those.  Warren Ellis kind of lost me with Gritty Detective In The City comic number 475, I forget what the title was.

[DCDave]

Fell (Dublin is awesome, but Dalkey is nicer guys.)

[Robert]

Dude, I've got both volumes of the DC Comics Showcase collections of The Legion of Super-Heroes, and I pretty much cannot stop reading them.

I am a total mark for Silver-Age Superman / Superboy related titles, admittedly, but these stories are great, and they get even stronger when Superboy starts appearing less.

[elpollodiablo]

personally i'm thinking david lapham's "young liars" is looking very promising, and of course i'm stoked on almost everything warren ellis is currently doing ("anna mercury" hasn't impressed me, but i've only read one issue), particularly his current weekly internet comic freakangels, and uh, doktor sleepless (which a lot of other people aren't as interested in because it's "just transmetropolitan all over again", except that it's SO not and those people are crazy). i'm waiting for bendis's "secret invasion" comic to blow me away, and although it hasn't yet, i've liked the tie-in issues of "mighty avengers" A LOT. those issues are a good bit better than the actual "secret invasion" comic, if you ask me. at least, so far they are. dc are screwing grant morrison by forcing him to write tiny micro-sections of multi-title batman crossovers, and i'm not happy about that at all (fuck you dc, i'm not gonna buy issues of nightwing and robin, and you can't make me!), and the 3-times-a-month "amazing spider-man" scheduling is every bit the inconsistent frustration-a-thon that i predicted it would be. joe hill's "locke and key" is awesome so far, and i can only imagine that it's gonna get better. joss whedon needs to stop dragging his feet on his current arc of "runaways". it's amazing, but one issue every three months ain't cutting it. "dmz" and "scalped" have been awesome month in and month out since they started. this hasn't changed.

there, those are some recommendations (and some non-recommendations) for currently-running comics.

I don't know much of Lapham's work, but I do know Stray Bullets which is an excellent, excellent book. It was the only run of single books I ever collected, though I only ever got up through like issue #20. I should start buying the trades; those were great fucking stories.

[Andrew_TSKS]

i hate to tell you, but there are only trades for the first 14 issues. i think there were 40 issues, total.

[elpollodiablo]

Really?! Fuck, why?

[Andrew_TSKS]

shit, i was wrong anyway. i guess only the first two volumes were out when i ordered "stray bullets" trades for my store, and i haven't kept up. it's actually compiled in some form up to issue 32. there were three of the bigger trade paperbacks, collecting up to issue 21, and then there are 8 smaller trades collecting 4 issues each. so if you get the three big ones, you can get the last three of the small ones and get up to issue 32. titles and isbn and such are on the stray bullets wikipedia page.

but yeah, el capitan, the publisher, is basically david lapham's self-publishing company, so availability of these books is spotty at best.

[Almanzo]

Kevin Huizenga's Ganges #2 is pretty great, and #1 is worth picking up if you can find it. I wasn't really sold on the Curses collection, but the Ganges stuff has gotten way better.

I think that Anna Mercury, though by-the-numbers, is really promising based on issue 1.

I've liked Ellis' Black Summer a lot, though that should be wrapping up soon.

[Andrew_TSKS]

hah, maybe. the final issue is 3 months late.

[Anne the Man]

I just started Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore. It's pretty good, quite sweet. But goddamn I just want more of The Sandman, but it's rarely in the library and reserves cost fuckin' two bucks each, so fuck that. Whyyy are libraries expensive??! Gah...

[Good Intentions]

Strangers in Paradise stops being sweet and becomes embroiled in fantasist bullshit all too quickly.

[Anne the Man]

 

[Almanzo]

hah, maybe. the final issue is 3 months late.

My favorite thing is that the new Ellis/Ryp book IS THE SAME DAMN THING LITERALLY

I mean seriously, how lazy is that

[Andrew_TSKS]

oh, "no hero"? it's supposed to be different. i'll wait and see. everyone who said "doktor sleepless" was "transmet" part two were proven wrong with the quickness, so this could be the same sort of thing.

[Almanzo]

oh, "no hero"? it's supposed to be different. i'll wait and see. everyone who said "doktor sleepless" was "transmet" part two were proven wrong with the quickness, so this could be the same sort of thing.

I just mean mostly that the character designs are identical.

Ryp is probably my favorite current artist out there. Everything he draws is just wormy with detail!

[JamesSchneider]

So recently I liked:

Whiteout and Whiteout Melt

End of Astonishing X-men

Challengers of the Unknown Showcases

The Invisibles (again)

All Star Superman. Holy shit All Star Superman (I go thru all of them every time a new issue comes out.)

Starman vols 1 Omnibus

Uncanny X-Men vols 1 Omnibus

Crecy

Planetary (for the 100th time, buying orig. art soon)

Etc.

[rockmeamadeus]

Wooooo Y: THE LAST MAN is out!!! My local sold out but he is getting more next week and I love the guy so I will wait for him but it's like on of those virgin wedding situations, wherein if he sells out again before I get there then he will be a dirty cheating tramp.

[citrus]

oh yeah dogg just let me at the bar i'm gonna tinker with myself until i say only promises

[Anne the Man]

Oh man Y:The Last Man is so bloody great, I went to the library and someone had returned volumes 2-7, so I took them all home and speed-read them over the rest of the day. I NEED MORE. I'm going to have to go live in the library for awhile. How many more volumes are there??

[Andrew_TSKS]

three more. volume 10 just came out, and in fact my store hasn't even gotten our copies yet, so you might have trouble finding it.

[elpollodiablo]

Hey, what's this "Molly and Beef's real time wedding" deal all about? The Achewood Premium updates thing is intriguing, especially for only three bones a month, but what's it all about, exactly? I had no knowledge of any of this prior to today's comic. Is it just a service you add on to the premium Achewood business? Cuz damn, Onstad, I respect you making a living off of this silliness, but... damn! Going at it from every angle.

[citrus]

Hey, what's this "Molly and Beef's real time wedding" deal all about? The Achewood Premium updates thing is intriguing, especially for only three bones a month, but what's it all about, exactly? I had no knowledge of any of this prior to today's comic. Is it just a service you add on to the premium Achewood business? Cuz damn, Onstad, I respect you making a living off of this silliness, but... damn! Going at it from every angle.

Wow, I hadn't seen that before. I do like the idea of getting updates about the lives of  webcomic characters at work, but...wow. The word "fanflow" made me wince involuntarily.