2026 sequential art (comics, manga, bande dessinée, graphic novels, funnybooks, etc.)

Picked a poncey title to indicate all of it is welcome.

As usual, posting my reads from last year:

Ninja Saratobi Sasuke, Sugiura Shigeru
Les Petits Hommes - L'Integral, Vol.1, Seron
Justice Warriors, Bors, Clarkson, et al
A História do Tesouro Perdido, Nuno Artur Silva, António Jorge Gonçalves
Neijishiki, Yoshiharu Tsuge *
Dawnrunner, Ram V, Cagle et al
The N Word Of God, Mark Doox
DC Archives: Sugar & Spike, Sheldon Mayer
Tokyo These Days, Vol.1, Taiyo Matsumoto *
O Mangusto, Joana Mosi *
Black Phoenix #13, Rich Tommaso
Question Ominbus, Vol.1, O'Neill, Cowar, et al
Boody: The Bizarre Comics Of Boody Rogers **
Suzanne, Tom Humblestone
Boy Wonder, Juni Ba *
Time Waits, Zdarsky, Brothers et al *
Godzilla: The Marvel Years, Moench, Thimpe et al
Ashita No Joe, Vol.1, Tetsuya Chiba, Asao Tokamore
DJ Cat Gothic World Tour, Harukichi
Last Chance To Find Duke, Shang Zhang
It's Lonely At The Centre Of The World, Zoe Thorgood *
Asterix In Lusitania, Fabcarro, Conrad
Absolute Martian Manhunter, Camp, Rodriguez *
Bowling With Corpses, Mike Mignola
Oh Josephine, Jason
DC X Sonic, Flynn, Thomas, et al
DC Archives: Shazam, Vol.1, C.C. Beck
Reel Politik, Nathan Gielgud

* loved this one a lot
** reread

I got the Francisco V Coching bio/gallery book by Andrea Peterson, it's print on demand, only about 90 pages, in a series called Fifty Shades Of Philippine Art which has all kinds of artists

I read lots more floppies last year than GNs. It was great to have a new R Crumb comic after all this time, and I'm still buying most of the facsimile editions that Marvel and DC are putting out. The Golden Age DC ones are especially fascinating, they often give off an eerie, slightly unwholesome vibe that's somewhat at odds with DC's wholesome brand image. Also addicted to collecting Marvel's 70s horror reprint titles, full of great Atlas-era strips with strong new covers by ppl like John Romita and Ron Wilson.

Latest Rabbi's Cat is up to Sfar's usual quality. Love to hear that cheeky feline comment on the torah.

I seen someone (I think he was a comic shop owner) say there is a looming apocalyptic crisis with serialized comics selling so poorly and collected editions selling so well. I'm guessing this would just cause a shift to more original graphic novels, the transition might be difficult but I don't see why mass casualties would be inevitable. Anyone else hear anything about this?

Maybe he's just wrong

What's your Joe Kubert opinions? I think I favor his work from 1945-1970s but he never really lost it in a bad way. A shame that Kubert Archives series from Fantagraphics didn't get past one volume. His work around that period has wonderful textures at times. I love how rough and worn everything looks.

My Joe Kubert opinion is that he's one of the all-time great top ten American comic book artists - such an utterly distinctive ink style. His Hawkman strips have to be among the most elegant and sublimely drawn superhero comics ever, even if the stories are fairly ho-hum. Love this character sketch by Kubert, so much suggested with just a few brush strokes:

https://external-preview.redd.it/179mnI1y4qmokMcuzNDh4xsr439w4NzgXmFoIQKGVMg.jpg?auto=webp&s=d32fdd374e8482610e372aab841f0f2418eb1658

Slightly late, I read Kate Beaton's Ducks, and thought it was amazing.

Didn't read many comics last year, except for the Brink series (fabulous), whatever Ed Brubaker points out (I... think he's losing it), and I read all the Hilda books with my daughter, which are a total delight.

This year I'm planning to catch up on some of the big classics I've never read, like From Hell, Moore's Swamp Thing, Miller's Daredevil run, Airtight Garage...

I see that DC has been reprinting Kubert's war comics recently

Yeah Ducks is a truly major work.

I seen someone (I think he was a comic shop owner) say there is a looming apocalyptic crisis with serialized comics selling so poorly and collected editions selling so well. I'm guessing this would just cause a shift to more original graphic novels, the transition might be difficult but I don't see why mass casualties would be inevitable. Anyone else hear anything about this?

Kinda weird theory imo. As far as I know superhero comics sales have been in decline for ages (if I am wrong about this I am sure to be corrected), collected editions "sell well" compared to floppies maybe but they ain't doing manga or YA graphic novel numbers.

The comics retailer Brian Hibbs often posts interesting things about the state of the American comic book market, at The Beat and elsewhere:

https://www.comicsbeat.com/tag/brian-hibbs/

Thirded on Ducks. I thought I was p much done with autobiographical comics, but I was wrong.

https://www.retrofabrik.de/alfredo-p-alcala-voltar/
I got this very large (as in tall/wide) German collection of Voltar. Might be the best thing Alfredo Alcala did. I think this has more pages than the other Voltar collections I've seen but I don't know if it's complete.

Seeing the pages of the recent Snafu reprint, some of the most lavish art I've seen from 50s Marvel artists

RAG, you were interested in Trimpe I believe? Some mention here:

https://www.tcj.com/lost-marvels-volume-3-savage-tales-old-fashioned-machismo-in-the-ec-tradition/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lost-marvels-volume-3-savage-tales-old-fashioned-machismo-in-the-ec-tradition

Thanks. I think I'm overdue a bigger dive into John Severin's work too.

Unrelated to this book: it breaks my heart to see artists drawing generically cartoonier faces when they used to have a far more distinctive approach, it's like seeing a model you liked using awful face filters.

Juliette by Camille Jourdy - Lovely watercolour based work about a woman returning to her hometown and dealing with her dysfunctional family. Kind and warm in the manner of a Kaurismaki film. I read in French but an English language version is available.

Really perplexes me that Neal Adams worked with artists the way he did on Continuity Comics and further projects, sometimes his and other artists styles shine through but a lot of the time it looked like they were working towards a house style, like the way a lot of animators and manga artists work. I genuinely like some of this junk but it's hard to tell who is doing what. Michael Netzer/Nasser claimed that Adams stole some of his work and only credited him later but the feud about them co-creating the character (or not) never ended.

Ms Mystic was the character, originally intended as a DC Comics character and even made a cameo in a Superman story but nobody would know who it was because the Ms Mystic project was delayed for years

https://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/more-weight-a-salem-story/1134
This looks pretty impressive, there's even an animated trailer, anyone reading this?

RIP Yoshiharu Tsuge

https://www.tcj.com/rip-yoshiharu-tsuge/

Tsuge was such a real one, I gotta get the volumes of his stuff I haven't.

Japanese life expectancy is such that I often get blindsided by random manga-ka/actors/directors/musicians dying because I thought they'd passed ages ago.

The Legend Of Kamui, Shirato Sanpei - A period piece set in feudal Japan immersed in the white hot rage of 60's leftist politics on paper sounds like total Daniel_Rf catnip but while I did finish this it was a slog. A lot of courtly intrigue during which I frankly had a very hard time remembering who the characters were. Also Sanpei was really into drawing nature so there's prolonged passages just with animals killing and eating each other, as animals do - perhaps a parallel to the human cruelty present elsewhere but while I'm pretty hardened towards seeing man's inhumanity to man, the casual brutality of nature is not something I care to think about much, don't watch nature documentaries either (aware this is a personal limitation on my end and not Sanpei's fault). A strong pedagogical current in this as well - I found the discussion of the outsider underclass, who were below even the peasants in feudal Japan, the most enlightening - don't often see that represented in jidai-geki.

It could also be that, this being volume one, I just jumped on too early and the real good stuff is in subsequent volumes. Wouldn't be the first time I made that mistake.

I've got the first two volumes because yeah catnip, and it persists in being difficult to follow — that's not totally new for me with lengthy manga though and I don't mind the expectation that I will have to reread it. It has such a good rep I am committed to following through, and descriptions of later volumes suggest that it becomes a story of revolution...not whatever is going on in the first volume lol. Also I have the later sequel (?) and like it but was excited to get something with more of that pedagogical feel.

I see that Lone Wolf & Cub is being reissued. I've always been curious but never checked it out. How does it hold up?

It was my first manga and introduction to samurai stuff so I'm prob not the most ovjective but I'd say if you like pulp thrills it's well worth reading, art is gorgeous too.

Kazuo Koike was a pretty right wing Japanese nationalist and that does come through in a pretty unreconstructed macho narrative (though not in explicit nationalism, as there are no non-Japanese characters anyway iirc).

I reread LW&C pretty recently and thought it was still pretty fantastic, though yeah it requires some content warnings for sure

I too was disappointed by that first Legend Of Kamui volume, for much the same reasons. Disjoined storyline, shifts in tone etc.

they've re-reversed LW&C apparently, which would be interesting to see, but i probably don't need a third copy. (fourth? i have the first dozen viz floppies, the 28 books, and pdfs courtesy of a humble bundle)

the new set appears to be 10 editions at £35 each

kindle copies of the first of the 28 books are quite cheap if you want to sample, £1.50 for ~300 pages

https://www.retrofabrik.de/alfredo-p-alcala-voltar/
I got this very large (as in tall/wide) German collection of Voltar. Might be the best thing Alfredo Alcala did. I think this has more pages than the other Voltar collections I've seen but I don't know if it's complete.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 13 January 2026 19:24 (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

The artist Michael T Gilbert shared this Alacala DPS on his Facebook page the other day. I blow hot and cold on all these insane detail merchants, but this image does take things to a whole other level of ecstatic noodling obsession:

https://scontent-lhr6-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/669472371_10165245833604367_172024065891935042_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=13d280&_nc_ohc=6khgjRcBHRQQ7kNvwEtW2ub&_nc_oc=AdpFybGd94b-Go4cvxmfHnvx49NEwEr6zDeVEy-ReZY20dB02FCDuITP3sBJL-9KNCr2DrAb6eeSeFY-LBm9TYHC&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr6-2.xx&_nc_gid=_TM8DXi8vLR2kYt47wd9qA&_nc_ss=7a3a8&oh=00_Af3QGug7tm_r7JxmLaphJqd8pzpk7G9ZOCUgFuwILOspJQ&oe=69DD692B

Alcala’s run on Swamp Thing was really good. Art wise anyways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBxhdFUaAd0
There's a very specific style of Alberto Breccia that I love (in the second book) but his style varies a great deal. Not an easy artist to browse before you buy.

https://bookpalace.com/info_ghostwrath
was excited until I saw the price, looks very nice though

Eric Stanton & Steve Ditko - Sweeter Gwen

This print on demand edition by Fetish History chops apart the panels and spreads them over something like 70s pages, the Eros/Fantagraphics edition is much preferable.

This is surprisingly funny and it's almost like Wacky Races. Kinky Hook has a similar style, tone and very lovely Ditko inking that leaves Stanton's drawing just barely present. Confidential TV on the other hand is genuinely unsettling. Other Stanton/Ditko collaborations were in Tops & Bottoms 1-4 which I haven't seen yet (not easy to find) but Eros/Fantagraphics printed all these, a shame there isn't a big collection of them. I bet Gary Groth has it on a to do list.

Working my way through The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For and enjoying it quite a bit.

Tried out a Brubaker/phillips crime/noir thing and I'm not into it. I don't like Phillips art much.

Man if you don't like Phillips I wonder what you'd think of mainstream big two art these days, he's fucking Hergé within that context.

Meawhile I have finished the ACTION hardback, here's my take on the stories:

Dredger - A tough secret agent who doesn't play by the rules, accompanied by a fussy public school sidekick who keeps trying to reign him in. The enemies are, of course, the reds, but the real enemy is hierarchy, the class system...but also bureaucracy, human rights, anything that keeps Dredger from indulging in his bloodlust, which always turns out to be justified and Dredger the smarter guy. Dirty Harry transplanted into a spy story, but to its credit Dredger never tries to fake any patriotism or concern for human life; in a way he resembles Hookjaw, just a violent creature slaughtering his way through existence. Which is wot a real man should be, to the mag's tween readers.

Hellman Of Hammer Force - Fascinating concept: after decades of WWII comics, creator Finley-Quaye thought it could be a novelty to have a German hero, or anti-hero anyway. An admirable idea on some level, considering the jingoistic tone of war comics in general, but it ends up a bit of a mess. The comic posits Hellman as a relic of WWI era noble German militarism - he fights for his country, but hates the nazis with a passion. This becomes quite preposterous very fast, as Hellman refuses to kill enemy soldiers unless absolutely necessary, leading to a vision of war that's mostly chivalrous dudes arresting each other...which, again, I could see as much like the war games its readers would be playing on the playground. Zero mentions of the holocaust, in case you were wondering.

Blackjack - This seems truly progressive for its era? Sure you can view it as a cash in on blaxploitation, but they did make the character Black British, and I struggle to think of any other protagonists from that time. Anyway it's a boxer who is losing his eyesight and needs to hit the big time before that, so he eventually travels to the US and gets involved with the mob. His trainer being Irish and manager Jewish adds to the underdog vibe, both portrayed as unambiguously good guys and loyal friends. It's not free of stereotypes in either art or writing, but still, impressive.

Play Till You Drop!- Soapy strip about a football player being blackmailed by a skeezy sports journalist claiming to have evidence that his father, also a player, took bribes. Fun little bit of cultural tourism for me but hardly memorable.

Hook Jaw - Probably the mag's biggest character, Hook Jaw is a giant shark who keeps messing up some greedy American's plans to build an oil platform. So it's a Jaws cash in with an ecological subtext. I'm not quite enough of a gorehound for this to hit my pleasure centres, but I can certainly see how mind blowingly cool it must have been for audiences at the time.

Sport's Not For Losers! - The kid protagonist in this has had an accident rendering him unable to continue his passion for hurdling (!). So he recruits his fuckup older brother. Again I am fascinated by how intelligently the writers play on their audience demographic's emotions - the big brother is often viewed in a judgmental way, as a younger brother might disapprove of his big bro's getting into booze, drugs, girls; but at the same time the world is also stacked entirely against the older brother, grownups constantly misinterpreting him, which is also true to a child's view of reality. Interesting stuff, this.

The Coffin Sub - WWII submarine commander loses entire crew, is haunted by guilt. Sadly the strip can't really decide what it wants to be, with said commander being either ultra protective of the crew (I already lost one crew!!!) or insanely reckless (now I will join my crew in the afterlife!!!) depending on what the story demands. Nice spooky atmosphere tho.

The Running Man - Oh, this is so so my shit! A Brit on vacation in the US gets abducted and forcibly given face surgery to resemble the psychotic son of a mob boss, said son being wanted by the authorities. So our hero starts on a road trip across the USA to confront his enemies, with the law hot on his heels. This allows writer Steve MacManus to play all the hits of contemporary American grindhouse cinema: Deliverance-style rednecks, crazy car stunts, satanists. Reminds me a lot of my beloved Italian crime films from the 70's, which also often drop in a native actor to a US based story.

Green's Grudge War - Only two episodes of this in the volume. I dunno, he's a soldier and he gets jealous of other soldiers? It was zzzz.

Look Out For Lefty - Another football strip. Only one episode in and I have a feeling it'll be Dullsville too but to its credit it does start with the protagonist confronting his grandfather for eating dog food and that's not nothing.

Phillips art reminds me of a certain style of 1970s illustration that I like as magazine covers but doesn't read well as a story. His art is stiff and strikes me as pulled from photographs.

I dislike Alex Ross for the same reason. Good covers but stiff and soul-free.

Certainly agree on Ross! Superheroes look preposterous in his photorealist style.

I recently finished Strange Adventures by King/Gerads/Shaner. It was pretty good although I probably would have liked it more if I hadn't read King's Miracle Man immediately before. I'm not an Adam Strange nerd so I can't say how King's take fits in with the history of the character but I enjoy how he looks at these characters and situations in a more realistic manner hat make me rethink how superhero stories are often presented.

Another art complaint that probably only bothers me but Gerads does it and I have to get it off my chest: I hate it when artists reuse the same artwork in multiple panels with only slight changes. Say if there are three panels of a character talking and the artist uses the exact same background and even parts of the character with just enough changes to make it different. This immediately pulls me out of the story and I start comparing little details in the panels to verify wether it's a straight copy or did they just redraw it very carefully. It feels like cheating, but again, I accept this as a personal issue.

I don't think Phillips has much in common with Alex Ross (thank god!) and if you were to ban cartoonist-illustrators who use photo reference you'd be left with Ernie Bushmiller (thank god!)

No no no, I don't have a problem with artists using photo references at all. But when the art LOOKS like it is straight from a photo it bugs me. Bechdel (and probably everyone) uses photo references and yet her art doesn't look like it. Phillips does.

I'm really nitpicky about art and it has kept me from trying a lot of comics that are supposed to be really good.

Finally got that Bill Everett collection in the Fantagraphics series of Atlas comics. A fulfilment of something I've wanted for a long time, I'm assuming it is a fairly complete collection of his late 40s to early 50s horror stories but I'm not certain. It's definitely my favorite era of Everett. The paper is glossy but they done a good job on the color.
https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/the-atlas-creator-collection-no-3-bill-everett-vol-1-one-head-too-many-and-other-weird-horror-stories

https://www.fantagraphics.com/collections/atlas-comics/products/the-atlas-creator-collection-no-4-bernard-krigstein-the-complete-atlas-stories
I probably won't get this but it should be good, some of Krigstein's later Atlas stories really stand out in the era because the sheer number of panels he packed in some pages

https://fourcolorshadows.blogspot.com/2011/06/desert-rat-bernard-krigstein-1957.html
what I've seen isn't his most refined work but it's interesting

Another art complaint that probably only bothers me but Gerads does it and I have to get it off my chest: I hate it when artists reuse the same artwork in multiple panels with only slight changes. Say if there are three panels of a character talking and the artist uses the exact same background and even parts of the character with just enough changes to make it different. This immediately pulls me out of the story and I start comparing little details in the panels to verify wether it's a straight copy or did they just redraw it very carefully. It feels like cheating, but again, I accept this as a personal issue.

I think there are contexts in which this works - mostly comedic - but generally yeah it does make me think someone's being lazy or in a hurry. But then as a non-artist I always cut a lot of slack for the "in a hurry" option - always frankly baffling the quality of work that people manage to churn out on a monthly or even weekly basis.

I'm really nitpicky about art and it has kept me from trying a lot of comics that are supposed to be really good.

Tbf this is no different from rejecting a comic for bad writing, i.e. totally valid!

I was extremely enamored with some of the work Scott Hampton did in his Spookhouse books and I ended up buying all his new work for a few years, on Simon Dark he digitally copied a lot of his drawings and it didn't work at all when it was character drawings (backgrounds were less of an issue) and I eventually decided I just didn't care for what he was doing in monthly comics. I don't know if he did anything creator owned again.

A friend of mine owns a Preacher page by Steve Dillon where most of the panels are photocopies, with perhaps just a minor figure added etc. And that's how Steve Dillon pencilled and inked at least one monthly comic book for years and years.

In the past, comic artists would have assistants to do the donkey work on the backgrounds and minor figures etc. The economies of scale aren't really there for that anymore, or the need for big studio/'shop' set-ups, but even pre-AI ubiquity there were plenty of computer tools to do that donkey work digitally.

The repetition of near-identical panels is a very old trick, but I think it's accelerated in the modern, decompressed era, which often seems to want to be cinematic and 'quick' - more akin to a flicker book, almost.

I've always been an art first writing second comic bk guy, which I think put me slightly at odds with the ILC 'community' back when there was such a thing. And I still get annoyed with comic reviews that scarcely mention the art. But of course the best comics are a perfect synthesis of word and picturezzzzzzzzzzz

So definitely hoping to acquire the Everett and Krigstein collections when funds allow. Loving this Fantagraphics series of Atlas reprints, definitely another shadow world/flipside to Marvel comics.

I think there are contexts in which this works - mostly comedic

I like original art where you can see how this kind of stuff was done, e.g. this John Byrne drawn strip that was in a mid-90s Batman annual I had as a kid, which I think is a good example of it working well as a comedic thing.

https://cafans.b-cdn.net/images/Category_3563/subcat_27167/EPSON007.JPG

also the repeated use of this panel in the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons 'Chronocops' strip in 2000ad is one of favourite things I've seen in a comic strip

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/592880808419c27d193683ef/1579433266613-VY191FRARXVL8VSW8ZJ6/Capture.JPG?format=2500w

I really regret letting those two Basil Wolverton collections slip past me. Really expensive now.

There was a Matt Fox collection that I was totally unaware of when it came out and that's going up in price too.

I realized there is some Everett horror stories in the Venus collection that aren't in the new book. I guess it might be the case with some of their other collections.

Really don't care for his 60s superhero stuff, Dr Strange is something that seemed like it could work better for him but I don't like it much. Even a lot of his Submariner work is perplexing (why did the shape of his head keep changing?)

It would be facile to suggest that Everett's alcoholism played a part in that perplexing inconsistency, but it's undeniable that his personal struggles played havoc with his career. I think in the 60s he was a bit lost with Marvel Method storytelling but managed to reinvent himself as an inker. He inked a run of late period Kirby Thor issues that are just gorgeous and show what we were missing with Colletta all those years; he was also one of Gene Colan's best inkers, a notoriously difficult penciller to ink and seemingly a much more 'modern' artist than Everett. The Black Widow strip in Amazing Adventures 5, 'And to all a good night', by Roy Thomas/Gene Colan/Bill Everett is one of my all-time favourite comic stories.

which I think put me slightly at odds with the ILC 'community' back when there was such a thing

I wouldn't say "at odds with", it's more that most of us, and most people writing about comics on the internet in general, are not able to converse intelligently about art but we are all writers so...I do try to mention art whenever I can (my Action breakdown above a bad example - I'll admit that I didn't think much beyond "hell yeah these inks"), and in my comic book discussion group try to listen most attentively when one of the artists pipes up, I tend to learn a lot more from them than from the writerly types.

I have been thinking of trying to get into some sort of drawing for total beginners class. Though maybe for the purposes of comix appreciation a art history class would actually be more useful? I dunno.

To be honest I don't find Everett that much more erratic than a lot of comic artists. Some really good artists have done a lot of junk. There wasn't a whole lot of biography in that Blake Bell biography of Everett. I'm guessing he just didn't care for the material, the job was taking it's toll and editors were probably trying to push him in directions he didn't want to go.
His Skywald work is quite impressive but I feel like something is missing.
I love the over the top facial expressions in his 50s work. He done a sizeable amount for Marvel in the late 50s, I wonder if Fantagraphics will go there? But I'm most hopeful for a Russ Heath book.

I'm pushing back on Alex Ross a bit. I don't buy or follow his work and his stuff does get very samey. But can do some really nice effects and he's a really good character designer at times (a bunch of his redesigns improve on the originals). I wish he hadn't tied himself to Marvel, DC and other franchises so much because I think he's got more to offer. Yeah a lot of those characters only look good in a cartoony style but there's a bunch that look worse realistic because they were already dumb looking.

I think people mostly complain about him being overrated, not his fault.

I think he’s extremely talented and a great designer and cover artist but his actual pages leave me cold. I thought I was a fan of his and got the Fantastic Four book he did and it did nothing for me. For painterly artists I prefer Dave Mckean’s Arkham Asylum or whoever did the Havoc/Wolverine Meltdown comic.

That’s just me though, I’m usually drawn to more expressive work.

H/W was Muth VS. Williams

My favorite Muth I've seen is the shorts he did for Epic Illustrated

Reading the Rachel Pollack run on Doom Patrol, available in a big fat omnibus.

It's quite a contrast how back in the 00's there was so much Big Two stuff unavailable (remember how excited we all got about the DC Showcase line on here?) and now it feels like everything's out there and the problem is more how many giant hardcovers you have space and money for.

What's the best Doom Patrol run? I like the characters but the only issues I've read are the really old ones and the Grant Morrison run, which was interesting in theory but the art was awful and it got too wacky for my taste, although it wrapped up nicely.

Mortison's is considered the best, but Pollack is the next one after that. Haven't read enough to deliver a judgement yet, but she is for sure an interesting writer - and a trans woman working in mainstream comics in the 90's!

One of my favorite things for a while has been the Best American Comics anthologies, several of which I've managed to pick up at used book shops. Nice hardcover books, each one curated by a different comic artist/writer. I've found a ton of good stuff that I never would have run across on my own through these, from extremely small press zines to excerpts from major works. Plus it's fun to see what the curators are into. The Lynda Barry one is great because she is the funk queen.

2006: Harvey Pekar
2007: Chris Ware
2008: Lynda Barry
2009: Charles Burns
2010: Neil Gaiman (you suck)
2011: Alison Bechdel
2012: Françoise Mouly
2013: Jeff Smith
2014: Scott McCloud
2015: Jonathan Lethem
2016: Roz Chast
2017: Ben Katchor
2018: Phoebe Gloeckner
2019: Jillian Tamaki

Those do seem cool, would love to read the Françoise Mouly one.

I've never liked anthologies that feature extracts from longer works and the Best American Comic series often suffered a bit from that.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/john-byrne-returns-to-x-men-1236624739/

I haven't kept up with Byrne's work at all, but the samples on that site are pretty rough.

I'm not into extreme bodybuilding but Ellie Xyr does some of the most bewildering detail I've seen in comic art. New to me. Very nsfw.

the samples on that site are pretty rough

I’ve never had any reason to think Byrne was good but the pencilled pages back in 2018 looked much better. The over-busy digital color might be the major factor, everything looks greasy (squinting at phone on train)

never liked anthologies that feature extracts from longer works and the Best American Comic series often suffered a bit from that

Their mission being partly/largely to point normies to some good books to buy that year made this unavoidable — but it did often seem to be inelegantly done, trying to pick a chunk that encapsulated the plot rather than eg representing the author’s cartooning, or standing as a discrete reading. Hard needle to thread.

Ah, it doesn't bother me. I was out of the comics game for so long that it's a great way for me to catch up on notable things that I missed out on. I've run across quite a few used comics that I recognized from these books and bought them based on that. And they sometimes feature extremely small press zines and whatnot that I would never run across.

Been enjoying these Criterion Closet style videos from a comic book shop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHV2QdiSqH4

can anyone recommend some kid-friendly fare from this year? i have a 9 and 11 year old and this is a completely blind avenue of mine.

I don’t know about from this year, but my 11 year old has a mess of YA comics. On the road, will try to remember to look through her stuff when I get home.

Has there been any more DC and Marvel collected editions since Villarrubia did Swamp Thing with proper remastered color? Aside from those very expensive Taschen editions.

DC are having big success with those small format paperback reprints of eg Watchmen, so I think the trend is away from super deluxe presentations/editions and more manga-like (sizewise) reprint books at a relatively cheap entry price. I really like those new series DC'S Finest paperbacks that give you a big old wedge of old old comics - the colouring/repro isn't always great, but livable with at the price.

TO more manga-like

Gave my first volume of Terry & The Pirates another go - didn't manage to get very far into it the first time because I just wasn't used to the adventure strip genre. Didn't get very far this time either, for a different reason - as someone who consumes a lot of old media I am used to a certain level of racism but God this thing is relentless. Horrible comedy accents, shitty jokes about exotic eating habits, every Asian character is a figure of fun except for Dragon Lady, who of course falls for the shitty white hero. When the villainess is talking about how the good guys are gonna get tortured to death the reader shouldn~t be thinking "hell yeah go get 'em" but that's how I felt.

Switched to The Art Of Milt Gross, Vol.1, which was much more enjoyable. I don't know that anyone has managed to evoke the rage you can feel when failing at mundane everyday tasks as well as he did.

https://unseen-japan.com/comiket-doujinshi-printers-closing/

Is this a general comics thread? Some pretty good deals for digital comics bundles on Humble right now.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/ec-comics-artists-library-fantagraphics-books
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/50-essential-fantagraphics-titles-fantagraphics-books
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/kurt-busieks-astro-city-30th-anniversary-image-comics-books

I got the EC artists' library bundle a couple of weeks ago, and just saw the 50 Essential bundle tonight, will probably get that one too.

a lot of stuff that’s OOP physically in that 50 Essential bundle

Ooh thank you for sharing! Got the 50 Essential bundle. Coincidentally I'm currently partway through the physical versions of "Palestine" and "My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book 1" but I might finish them using the digital versions. "Monsters" is such a heavy book that I lay it down to read, and looking downward is not a great position for my neck, I've found. And if I read the digital versions on my 32" monitor, I don't need to use reading glasses. Ahh, middle age.

Love those two Eleanor Davis books - I've given away at least 3 copies of "Why Art?".

Is there any comics anyone here got rid of thinking you'd no use for it anymore and then finding unexpected value in it and wanting to own it again?

No but I am currently trimming my collection and do not need that thought in my head tyvm.

Daniel, are you trimming for reasons of space? The glory of the internet - you can get everything again, for many more times [Stan Lee title] ...The Price and the Pain.

FWIW, I've found that I very rarely regret having sold something - once it's gone it's gone (although I try not to think about all the original art I flogged off way way before that market went through the roof).

In the last 20 years I've found assembling small, relatively inexpensive collections that are achievable - 70s Atlas comics, DC 100 pagers - to nicely satisfy the hunter-gatherer impulse that's definitely a part of being a comics 'fan'.

I've found that older art junkies tend to regret lots of stuff. I rebought Junji Ito and Gilbert Hernandez stuff and am wondering if I'll get rid of it again (and maybe buy them again years down the line?). There's some stuff I don't think is very good at all but it has some mysterious quality I need to study.

Space, yeah. Comics are such a tough medium to wrangle, even just in terms of all the damn formats. But yeah it is unlikely I'll regret getting rid of, say, Chew Vol.1-3.

I'm far past the point now of reasonable space, but I've been hoarding all sorts of media for a lifetime after some deep regrets offloading. But it's gotten really bad, especially as I've gone to so many library sales and still compulsively buy books for nigh four decades now.
(That said, I probably don't remember most of the sold stuff. Unless I like really hated it)

I donated my copy of Fumiyo Kouno's "Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms" but I've ended up thinking about it a lot. Seems to be out of print now. I did find a pdf copy although its quality is poor.

The current paperback editions of Creepy and Eerie are pretty good because they have 8 issues instead of just 5 like the hardcovers

I’ve been trying to keep up with those and the EC collections. Geez it’s a lot.

I wish they'd do more of the Creepy Presents artist editions

I don't follow Savage Dragon anymore but pleased it's getting a boost (I think it's the anti-ICE stuff?), just saw that there's an even bigger omnibus coming, collects THE DRAGON #1-5 and SAVAGE DRAGON #1-44, 1136 pages! Seems to be a paperback too.

Yup, a compendium (glad in general that Image seems to be embracing the Omnibus-style collections), so gigantic paperback. Not sure how good the physical binding will ever be on these - usually kinda iffy - but can't beat the price point. Plus it's in full color, I think, so maybe it's a good jumping on point for me.

https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/karman-blade-1-of-4-cvr-a-ian-bertram-matt-hollingsworth-wraparound-mr
looks interesting

Little Bird was dope, gotta remember this one

How about Precious Metal?

I know I'm in a procrastinating mood, so I can't trust myself. There's a stronger temptation to look back to things that used to bring me joy and see if I can squeeze more juice from them. It makes shopping for comics just a little bit more difficult. I made a rare visit to Forbidden Planet and I'm kind of lost now because of the confusing new layout (same at Waterstones) and I just barely know what's going on now.

It's been about 27 years since I read all the Erik Larsen and Todd McFarlane issues of Spider-Man. I got rid of all of it maybe 15 years ago without any conflicted feelings and now I'm very tempted to get the collections despite the huge prices and my problems with the recoloring. They're not Great artists but they had a lot of personality and I prefer the way early Larsen looked because there's a lot of interesting details that were possibly sacrificed for a more speedy style.
So many of my favorite comic artists could have made a great leap into illustration or fine art but it's harder to imagine Larsen as anything other than a comic artist.

I listened to some Larsen interviews last night and he said he wants Dragon's grandchildren to take over the Savage Dragon in several years time. He uses a lot of public domain characters and he was talking about the potential risks of using them when they're still mostly owned by Disney or Warner Bros or whoever.

My delving into 90s Herb Trimpe was not as fruitful as I hoped, but I'm keeping the Guardians Of The Galaxy issues because that's the most funky looking stuff.

On Precious Metal: Never read it, no idea. I didn't even realize it existed until yesterday!

You don't need to justify your love of books to anything to anyone (...if you can afford to purchase them responsibly). I'll always have nostalgic fondness for those artists from the era even if I know there's lots of people more talented. It's ok to look back with fondness on things you may see differently now

Hell, for me, I feel like half the stuff I want buy are new editions of books I read for the last 20-30 years from the library or online, and want to have my own copy and actually support the artists that I couldn't back then. But I have a kind of (we're trapped in hopeless capitalism) kind of feeling that any money that goes into the bucket (for comics, movies, etc.) is better spent supporting art I love over a million possible other things in life

That said, I think you'll always keep your heart open to new stuff as it comes by, sometimes you just get into dry spells

It's partly a space/money issue and partly feeling like I maybe don't need these books that much. There's so many things from the past that easily hijack my attention but are probably not worth it. It's like there's this huge table of priorities, new things keep falling onto the center, old favorites are pushed and falling off the edges and I have to keep grabbing and scrutinizing them to see if I still have time for them.
Having a look at the back issue section last week, so much I had the impulse to grab but I know I'd regret it.

I actually don't mind if I can't find many comics that I'm highly enthusiastic about. I feel like it's a particularly hard medium to do well and there's so many other things. I was hoping Forbidden Planet would still have some of their Baen novels left (Will McCarthy, James Cambias, Gregory Frost and David Drake) but there was nothing of that left.

I didn't expect to see Dino Battaglia's Inspector Coke boxed set but it's just a tad expensive.

Being an adult who appreciates comics is dope as hell.

Slowly making my way through the first FB volume of Pogo, which I bought ages ago and never got into. It's still not in my pantheon of top newspaper strips (Thimble Theater, Krazy Kat, Far Side) but the art is gorgeous and a clear influence on Calvin & Hobbes.

I've wanted to try Pogo for a long time but I assume there would be a lot of wayback political references that I wouldn't get.

My reading stack was already overwhelming when a local bookstore had a used sale to benefit an abused children organization. There was so much stuff, paperbacks $2, hardcovers $3. I got a massive box, half of it things I've never heard of which is exciting. Other things that I'm curious about but wouldn't pay full price, like the Kick-Ass books. I'm turning into the guy from "Time Enough At Last."

I'm nerdy enough to have done the math: $600+ worth of books for $76.

https://i.postimg.cc/zXLCKLk7/5DB7582F-B070-48BF-83BD-50435F928D7D-1-105-c.jpg

Plus some other books to give as gifts!

Nice haul!

The first volume of Pogo is relatively easy on the political references, the comedy's more about malapropisms and woodland critters being pompous.

Bloom County was a huge part of my youthful development and I know the early years had a lot of Pogo DNA.

I was the only kid at summer camp making Jimmy Hoffa jokes.

I'm turning into the guy from "Time Enough At Last."

Given the amount of stuff in comics shops that have little or nothing to do with comics, I'm wondering if there's a lot of art books which would do better in comics shops than anywhere else. I've been hunting for books of my favorite artists and often they're rare and cost hundreds.

Any thoughts on the various comic adaptations of Moorcock?

Is there any magazines or sites that keeps you up with new releases or do you just browse around the shops?

I try to get used stuff most of the time, so it’s whatever I stumble across. In general I don’t stress much about keeping up with the latest things in any media anymore.

Fantagraphics Comics Journal is really good but I guess they might favor their own publications.

I was just looking through their reviews yesterday.
I read Previews for something like a decade and really grew to hate it.

There's like 4 different collection series of Savage Dragon.
(1) Regular collections that have several issues.
(2) Black and white Archives series that have 25 issues.
(3) Ultimate hardcover series with heaps of bonus materials, earlier volumes have over 10 issues and lots of bonus material and later volumes have a few more issues and less bonus material.
(4) The new Compendium series seems to be in color and has 50 issues per book.

I was originally planning to get the first few years of the book (I read up to 150 or somewhere around that). Now I'm seriously considering re-reading everything and catching up to the present. Got a lot of mixed feelings about this but I'm really curious about what She-Dragon and Alex wind up doing, and what is the world merging all about, is Mickey Mouse a billionaire sex criminal here?

Dung was based on a real person that Larsen knows, I think he was a DJ and he had a very eccentric way of talking ("you-eye", "b'daw!"). Would love to see if there's clips of him on youtube but I can't find his name.

I forgotten how quickly collected editions can vanish and it might actually take a couple of years if I'm serious about getting it all.

Anyone read Phil Jimenez books like Otherworld or Wonder Woman Historia? His large scale images and designs are incredible but the colors clash terribly.

Thank goodness for the amazing search engine on comics.org if I want to see that someone inked their own pencils or how many pages they did.

Historia's story is fine, but the main appeal - the art - is wonderful, and it got well-deserved praise at the time

Our comics threads are shorter in recent years. Are we drifting away from comics or is it just social media eating up time for anything else?

I'm disappointed that homage images are still as prevalent as ever. Why?

Still want a Rudy Palais horror collection. I think all that stuff has been public domain for some time?

I don't think Jack Kirby's Manhunter has ever had a collection before, let's have that too.

Our comics threads are shorter in recent years. Are we drifting away from comics or is it just social media eating up time for anything else?

Nah ILX is just shrinking in general, ILComics was always a small community and some of the top contributors have left the boards ages ago.

I do try to keep these threads up but as always with fragmentation it's difficult to find something everyone wants to talk about; I'll admit I often don't reply to your posts because I don't know the titles listed or do not have strong feelings, do appreciate your contributions to keeping the thread going tho!

Kirby's Manhunter
https://13thdimension.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/simon-cred.jpg
https://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/simonandkirby/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2007/09/Adventure75Manhunter.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZB5FC8D2K02Zs0NL1uUH1Or2Wtl-bW5hhBkWe6HaXAdNEKpizWWArbqEPQp_0Cb9F9QjQgG-jJAE5Go0v7pJ8Zs0yr8dmd65QX-7MnwocKMx7dD2wOxO-0HGOAF6UBOMILwZFqb3WPk/s1600/1st-Issue-Special-Manhunter-05-0203.jpg

Rudy Palais did the sweatiest goopiest comics
http://www.scaryterrysworld.com/2010/09/formula-for-death-by-rudy-palais.html

https://www.absoluteomni.com/titles/swamp-thing-by-alan-moore-omnibus

remastered to original colors, age-appropriate paper

the surviving pages from Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson’s Swamp Thing: Déjà Vu

Age-Appropriate Paper is a fun new term

Beginning with the iconic “Anatomy Lesson,” this landmark run remains one of the most influential and celebrated achievements in graphic fiction of all time. Collects The Saga of the Swamp Thing #16-30…

I didn't realize there was smaller £24 editions of the Taschen Marvel collections, that's really great

These are not only smaller than the other Taschen editions, I think they're supposed to be a bit smaller than the average american comic? The other problem is if you're collecting these series, Taschen goes at a snails pace, only their Spiderman and Avengers series has gotten to volume 2 and they've been doing these for a few years. I have no idea how far they intend to go. I fancy getting the Fantastic Four book but when will the next ones be?

Why so many versions of each book?
https://www.taschen.com/search/?searchPhrase=marvel%20library

The color looks right to me, is the important thing with the Taschen editions

i don't get why they bother making them digest-sized, especially comics of that era, the text will be so tiny

Why would the Swamp Thing set start with the Anatomy Lessons instead of the issue before which was also Moore? Loose Ends I think?

I would love to have a properly colored set but I can't buy this fucker again. Maybe if I find it on sale. How many more times am I really going to read it?

starts with 16 according to that blurb and loose ends was 20

starts with 21 but includes 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 according to that blurb

Ah, got it.

I read something that said Moore's favorite issue of his run was the Pogo tribute which baffles me completely.

Getting some of my Savage Dragon stuff in the mail and I'm quite curious about how the Dragon of the 80s (the one he done before he started working for DC and Marvel) is integrated, amazing that he's been working towards doing things like this for such a long time.
Have to say I'm not keen on having so many versions and iterations of a character concept but I think Larsen is really into that whole Captain Marvel family, Batfamily and Superfamily kind of thing.

Is DC and Marvel doing more and more separate universes now, like the Elseworlds kind of thing? Do they still do "events"?

DC is having a lot of success with the Absolute universe right now, there's been talk of a crossover between those titles for a while now but fans are very aprehensive, the standalone nature of the Absolute titles is a big part of the appeal.

Spotted in Lille
https://i.postimg.cc/brtNHhxp/IMG-2650.jpg

DC is having a lot of success with the Absolute universe right now, there's been talk of a crossover between those titles for a while now but fans are very aprehensive, the standalone nature of the Absolute titles is a big part of the appeal.

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Saturday, October 17, 2026 8:09 AM (twelve hours ago)

I'm of the opinion that writers working together on a shared continuity is a bad idea that never really pays off and definitely ruins a lot of stories. But people speak highly of Warhammer books where they do that and I'm probably going try a few more things like that to see what the fuss is over.

I, ahem, share your opinion on shared continuity, most people online seem to, and yet I cannot deny that the existence of a vast world with every title tying into each other was what attracted me to cape comics in the first place, and even before that I would try to impose this on the stuff I loved (I remember drawing a map as a kid to highlight where every settlement Lucky Luke visits is located).

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/agathachristie/images/4/4a/Miss_Marple_meets_Monsieur_Poirot.jpg

Fun shared continuities:

* Poirot and Marple meet for a photoshoot
* Minnie the Minx appears in a Dennis the Menace comic
* Peter Parker bumps into the Human Torch
* Thompson Twins turn up in Asterix in Belgium
* We realise some space weirdo we've been following in another comic strip is actually in the same world as Judge Dredd, or *IS* Judge Dredd
* That Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield
* Seven Soldiers
* A guy in a Roland Rat costume comes to school and rubs your headmaster's head

Less fun:

* That Doctor Strange movie
* DC Countdown Arena Convergence whatnot
* Krakoa (too many comics, got boring, stopped making sense)

given that dredd vs batman exists and dredd vs alien also exists then batman exists in the same world as alien

can’t spell Weyland-Yutani without Wayne

I, ahem, share your opinion on shared continuity, most people online seem to, and yet I cannot deny that the existence of a vast world with every title tying into each other was what attracted me to cape comics in the first place

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Monday, October 19, 2026 1:17 PM (seven hours ago)

It taken me too long to come around. When DC: New Frontier came out in 2004, I wasn't interested because it was it's own thing.

It isn't so much crossovers (though they can be annoyingly persistent interruptions) as it is about writers being forced to work together and not allowed to do too many things.

I thought that if there was a new policy of writers getting free reign, DC and Marvel editors would be showered with death threats for breaking precious continuity, but maybe it's different now. I think people might come around because you could go back to older stories and continue them differently.

DC has several outlets for giving writers free reign - the aforementioned Absolute titles and also the Black Label stuff, which despite the terrible name has provided quite a few bangers. It's not the "main line" sure but tbh whether it's changes in zeitgeist or just in the places I check online I actually hear a lot less about that these days.

I'm actually looking forward to this! Hope this is a series that continues
https://www.darkhorse.com/books/3017-031/marvel-universe-gallery-1990-1994-trading-card-collection-hc/

Oh man, I had a binder full of those. Found them again when I was in college and felt like a dorkus malorkus. I think I threw them in with all of my x-men comics that I sold too early. Who could have known that anything by Lefield would be worth money?

https://www.tcdb.com/Gallery.cfm/sid/75178/1992-Eclipse-Famous-Comic-Book-Creators

I got the huge Larsen Spiderman collection and the 2nd McFarlane one, they're incredibly heavy, so much that my collecting habits make me fear for the floorboards breaking more than any space concerns.

The big Love and Rockets set makes me look at my bookshelves nervously.

Something I find kind of interesting in crossovers between different companies is that occasionally they act as if these characters have always lived in the same world. You get that in a bunch of the DC-Marvel crossovers. Or maybe that's actually the normal way they do things?

Does anyone have opinions about when Romita Junior was best?

I love his work on the Nocenti run of Daredevil.

I spent over 4 hours in the comic shop today and after seeing all the new stuff and collections, I only got about 10% into the back issues and I just gave up, it's like looking for needles in haystacks.
My head was spinning since my last visit and I was itching to go back, not especially excited about any particular book, I think it's the part of my brain that dreams about shopping for things that don't exist and visiting long defunct websites. I have recurring dreams about shops that I can't remember if I've really been to.

I was quite attracted to the PS Artbooks Black Condor & Ray collections but some of the scans in them are appalling. I didn't get them but I'm still kind of tempted.
https://www.psartbooks.com/search?q=condor

I'm saddened to see more very capable artists drawing over 3d models, I really don't like the look of it.

Was Polaris from X-Men only muscular for a short time?

Savage Dragon was always violent but I'm still quite startled to see some of the children characters having limbs torn off or their heads exploding.

There was big deluxe boxed sets of Simpsons comics for something like £100, is that really viable?

Never knew there was this many facsimile comics. More than makes any sense to me.

https://comicvine.gamespot.com/a/uploads/original/1/10812/1768970-daredevil_18_39.jpg

that’s awesome

Opinions on Madman, Megaton Man and Flaming Carrot?

There's something about Allred's art that seems just a tad cold to me but I really admire his designs, Madman looks cool. I read a bit of Megaton Man in backups of other comics, I've never read Flaming Carrot at all, I don't think. All of these are in huge collections now.

I own one big Madman collection, remember it being good fun. Also enjoyed Allred's run on Silver Surfer.

Steer clear of Red Rocket 7, which is his boomer "man wasn't 60's rock great" statement.

Madman’ switch to colour ended a progression of tone across his work to that point — a Blue Velvet etc influenced disjunctiveness that gave his prior works a distinct, unsettling tone within their varied genres and plots codified into non-sequitur “random” goofy panel transitions and dialogue. As a writer, it felt like he gave up on breaking into independent film and settled for the whatever-goes make-it-up-as-you-go tone of the superhero comics of his youth.

Eating the eyeball in the first (issue of?) the Tundra mini was an “oh we’re going HERE now?!” moment for the pre-Madman iteration of the character; I imagine it feels horrifyingly out of place at the start of an omnibus that gets sillier and sillier over its remaining years.

Even once the tone is set, a 700-page collection feels exhausting just to think about. A random issue picked up every couple of years is probably its ideal form.

The last sentence almost applies to Flaming Carrot, except that every issue is worth reading. You just don’t ever need to read any of them back to back.

Interesting that for the new Bernard Krigstein collection, they've chosen to make it all black and white (all the other books in the Atlas series are color).

The specific reason for doing so speaks for itself in comparison to all the others, no?

What’s the specific reason?

Fanta site says that this collection contains 78 (!) stories, "the vast majority restored from original photostats". I think these stats came from Krigstein's own archives. So the repro will be much cleaner than anything shot from the comics, and you need that clarity on the many stories where BK was putting insane numbers of tiny panels on a single panel. I'm glad they're not having them recoloured.

For British readers, there's also the nostalgic echo of these stories being reprinted in black and white by Alan Class in the 60s, 70s and 80s. I have a nice bootleg edition that someone (in Glasgow!) photocopied about twenty years ago, collecting some of the best Atlas strips that AC reprinted.

I got that Marvel trading card book, it's strictly the Marvel Universe cards and doesn't have any of their painted card series of the era, like Marvel Masterpieces or their Spider-Man and X-Men card series. So I hope Dark Horse will do more of this sort of thing. Would like to see the same for DC cards. Surprised that they don't even bother crediting the artists unless they were already credited on the cards.

Been buying more Continuity Comics and the house style actually makes the comics more confusing because they have constant adverts for their own comics which look much like the story pages, which are just as messy.
Would love to see collected editions but it seems really unlikely.

Someone who worked with Neal Adams told me he was surprisingly dismissive of his own work and anything done with commercial influence.