A Comics Thread

Apart from that, I have been re-reading a collected volume of Flaming Carrot (the one with the two part story about the cloned Hitler feet).

Otherwise, I've been getting deeply into FINDER, a really great, really original science fiction series self-published by Carla Speed McNeil. Also really liking GOTHAM CENTRAL (police procedural set in Gotham City...) and, of course, PROMETHEA. Loved the ending of the second LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN miniseries, too.

• Trying to keep up with Morrison's take on the "New X-Men"
  
• Got bored with "The Authority"
  
• Waiting with bated breath for "Planetary" to continue where it left off.
  
• Recently re-read "City of Silence"
  
• After reading this article I dusted off my copies of "Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe" and agreed (to a degree) with with the author was saying.

Right About Now, Avec Spandex: Alias, Powers, all Ultimate titles excepting the X-Men one (only because I'm showing tough love), New X-Men, Outsiders, Runaways, Sentinel, The Crew (RIP), Gotham Central (tho I hope the Batman ex machina endings are a thing of the past), SMAX (ABC / Alan Moore mini-series), Supreme Power, Superman: Birthright, Wonder Woman (& I will mention JLA / Avengers as well, but this might be an acquired taste / continuity freak type of thing)

Right About Now, Sans Spandex: The Goon, Berlin, Queen & Country, Y: The Last Man, Human Target, Love Fights (tho it doesn't qualify as spandex-free)

For more information, please check your local search engine.

Don't forget, my upcoming GN about Mt. Everest with Scott Morse!

Y: The Last Man is choice, so are Blade of the Immortal, X-Statix, Wolverine.

Yes. The art is what's great about it. Also search Barron Storey's "15 Portraits of Despair."

I worry that my excitement about Sienkiewicz dates me.

Still having fun with digging out 70s Marvel comics from the dollar bins and their Essentials collections, too. That and Kriby's Fourth World reprints (as well as the Newsboy Legion that just got collected.)

Well, if Matt's gonna go ahead and forecast (re: Darwyn Cooke & Grant M.):

- Brian Azzarello on Superman (w/ Jim Lee) & Luthor (w/ Lee Bermejo)
- Jeff Smith's SHAZAM!
- Kyle Baker's Plastic Man
- whatever the hell Christopher Priest is doing next
- Wanted (by Mark Millar & JG Jones)
- Sleeper: Season 2 (w/ Ed Brubaker & ???)
- Mike Carey on Wetworks (!?!?)

And...uhh...what's going on in the small press sector?

Just read the latest Alias today, and I'm curious where things are going. Spoilers, I guess, in whitetext: It's strange seeing Bendis in Morrison's territory; and is it coincidence that both the Purple Man and Psycho-Pirate (the fourth-wall-aware nutjob in Morrison's Animal Man run) have powers that manipulate emotions?

Fables and Lucifer, as always, are my first-reads every month.

*Joakim Pirinen has started to draw comics again, with mostly good results.

*Mézière's and Christin's "Valerian" has descended into utter mediocrity.

*Enki Bilal has released a new album which continues the story of "Monster's Sleep".

*The Norwegian Jason is the new Scandinavian star, and rightly so.

*Still waiting for new material from Ralf König, it's been five years since "Jago". Apparently there's been new "Konrad & Paul" collections published in Germany, can't wait until it's translated to Finnish (my Germany isn't good enough to read the originals).

I too would like to see it become more police procedural and less Batman shows up at end and sorting things out. I really like the way the cops all hate Batman in a way that real cops probably would.

does anyone know what's happening with 100 Bullets while Azzarello and Risso do Batman?

Manga, on the other hand, is all over the place.

Recommend some outstanding European creators ('cuz I'm just a dum 'murican) and I'll do what I can to to track them down.

And to Mr. Rucka: are you really basing Veronica Cale on Anne Coulter, or is that just synchronicity at work?

I thought Beware the Creeper had good art, great coloring and the story was bending over backwards to show how clever the author was. The twist was pretty obvious, as was the heavyhanded irony in things like Papa Joe saying that "Suicide was a coward's way out" and the like. It wasn't bad, but I didn't like it nearly as much as I wanted to. in the end.

DV, 100 Bullets is going bimonthly while the team works on Batman. And Azzarello is writing Superman and a Luthor miniseries at the same time. Guy works his guts out.

Ooh ooh, also looking forward to that Detective #27 book, but will probably wait for the softcover.

Y: The Last Man and Fables are probably my favorite things going.

The Planetary restart is going well.

I checked out the first couple issues of Human Target, intriguing.

1602 is oddly meh for all the hype and pretty pictures.

Props to Mr. Rucka, the Batman miniseries is better so far than the gimmicky Hush storyline (which did have some good fun and great art, though).

Is Runaways any good? I've been meaning to take a look.

Other than that I'm just finishing up on my girlfriend's Preacher collection, which of course is just fucking amazing. Speaking of, Ennis' Thor minseries is good for a larf. If you like Viking zombies. The real genius thing to do would be to leave Thor in the East River after the second issue and continue with the nihilistic violence for the next three issues, instead of the predictable comeback, but ah well.

Asterix and Tintin, obviously.

Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese stories - many sensible people regard them as the greatest comics ever. I wouldn't go that far, but they're contenders. His might be the best compositions you'll ever see.

Anything you can find by Alberto Brecchia, who I think might be as good an artist as Pratt, but there is hardly anything translated so I can hardly judge his writing.

Milo Manara draws the most beautiful women ever (especially their naked bottoms) but he isn't always tolerable in story terms, so you could try the book he did with Pratt writing, Indian Summer.

Guido Crepax is even pervier, which actually means his work is pretty available in English, often next to Taschen erotica in bookshops. His layouts are particularly extraordinary.

Ignore Moebius unless you like Westerns, as his Lieutenant Blueberry books are very good. Or unless you like Moorcockesque hippy SF drivel, of course.

Who else springs to mind as worth reading? Ooh, Lorenzo Mattotti's Fires is great; Matioli's Squeak The Mouse is fun; Didier Comes' Silence impressed me, as does most of Jacques Tardi. Franquin is funny. Bilal and Christin are worth trying. I'm sure there are lots of others if I could be bothered going upstairs to the library.

Well, there are of course the classic French and Belgian comics: Tintin by Hergé, Asterix by Coscinny and Uderzo, Spirou by Franquin plus numerous others. All these are definite classics, comparable to the works of Carl Barks, Winsor McCay etc. They should be easily available in English too.

Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt is probably the best non-children's comic ever, though it is of aquired taste. A highly poetic piece of work, and wonderfully drawn as well.

The short comics of Claire Bretécher (Mothers, The Frustrated, Agrippina etc.) are wonderful pieces of social satire, comparable to Jules Feiffer.

Ralf König from Germany is much influenced by Bretécher; he creates humorous yet humane stories about the everyday life of German gay men. Highly recommendable.

Enki Bilal is one of the greatest comic book artists ever, and a fine writer as well. His "Nikopol trilogy" (Gods in Chaos, The Woman Trap, Cold Equator) is probably the best sci-fi comic ever.

Another outstanding artist is the Italian Lorenzo Mattotti. His scripts are not always perfect, but his crayoned drawings are a feast for the eye. Fires and Murmur are available in English, I'm not sure about his other work.

I'll have to go now, but I'll be back later with more recommendations...