Don't remember if I started this yet. Wednesday is permanatly etched in my mind as new comics day. I thought it'd be nice to have a place to talk about the new comics for a week, then have a fresh conversation the next week. Good place for up-to-date reviews.

My contribution for the week:
Detective Comics 779 - I don't care for the main story, but they've been having very good back up stories lately. Awhile back they had a great Judd Winick story, and they're currently doing a story by Gagne' (perhaps known for 'Insanely Twisted Rabbits') where Batman has mutated into a giant spikey monster. The back up is a fast read, but very enjoyable. His depictions of beasties is better than people though, as I find his Superman lacking

Exiles #22 - When did I start getting all these superhero titles? (When the good writers moved to superhero comics) Well, Exiles is Winick's Marvel title. I love Winick, but this is his weakest title. Not much depth (although, as always, when he focuses on what's happening beyond the good guys vs bad guys it has some nice moments), if you want to try his stuff, get one of his other books. This is just Quantum leap & elseworlds.

Comics Journal Special Edition v3 (Winter 2003) - I haven't had time to read it yet. Picked it up because it has a big story about Escape Magazine and the only other good history of the magazine I've seen was in Bacchus. They even got a bunch of the artists from the old Escape series to make new comics! Woo!

The Soap Lady by Renee French - An older graphic novel, but good. Her art always seems creepy to me. I need time to think about the story though (A lady made out of soap makes friends with a boy, but others think she's a freak). Nothing like the other stuff on the shelf

[This message was edited by GMZoe on February 05, 2003 at 03:48 PM.]

Thursday is comics day in England! (or at least my part of England)

I got Sandman Presents Bast #2 - I'm quite enjoying it, but not as much as Lady Constantine

Robotech ~3 - don't ask! I got it for someone else, but may end up reading it later

Young Justice 54 (Poor Peter David ) - this will tragically end soon, I've enjoyed every one (and can safely give them to my mam to read ) hope that Teen Titans keeps up Peter David's good work.

I'm interested in Rene French but have only seen a few of her drawings. Does anyone know anything more about her?

There was a real soap lady, a freak: her body produced a fatty, soap-like material. I think her body's in the Mutter Museum.

oh that's really creepy (the soap lady I mean).

Peter David seems to have many titles ending lately - I know Supergirl also is just about to end (or has, I dunno). And, in a recent But I Digress column, he said "if I say anything negative about Marvel in this column ever again, I'm fired." (I haven't gotten his comics for awhile, but I love his column - probably my favorite part of the paper)

Was busy last night. So...

Judd Winick had two comics come out. I haven't gotten to his Star Wars valentines comic yet (art by Paul Chadwick! How cool! Concrete & World Below were great series). This is part 2 of a 2 part story, about a nomadic race who have been mining a new world which they thought was uninhabited, but then rock monsters started attcking them. Pretty standard fare it seemed, but then we get this: "We will not be allow ourselves to be terrorized!" It suddenly became clear it was about current world events. Well done, remains on my suggested reading list

Lupin 3rd v.2: Ever see Castle of Cagliostro? The Miyazaki(mononoke, spirited away) movie? That was a Lupin movie. These are reprints of the original comics with those characters. Stories are short, and the art can be difficult to read at times, but enjoyable. Be warned that Tokyo pop (publisher) seems to print to orders, so if you want to hop on the story at volume, say, 5, the earlier volumes may be out of print

Dork Tower v1: Not deep, but very enjoyable. I had to try it because I'm a fan of Steve Jackson games and read the old Wild Life strips by Kovalic. If you're a geek, especially a gamer, try it. Only downside is it sometimes hits the same notes

Well, this week I picked up:

Lady Constantine #3, which was interesting enough.
Fables #10 which in some ways seemed a bit of a cop-out but it is about fairy tales so I'll let it off.
HERO #1, which has potential and I'll probably try for the next couple of months.

I'm not expecting to be able to get to my comic shop for a couple of weeks so I'll be late with anything that comes out until then, including Vertigo X.

BTW GMZoe, do you actually like Judd Winick? I've hear a few bad reviews about him, but I think he's writing Graduation Day (The YJ/Titans crossover) and the Outsiders - the new Nightwing led outcome of Graduation Day. I was going to try the new Teen Titans, is it worth giving Outsiders a try - in your opinion?

FINALLY got Eddie Campbell's Egomania #2 with that huge Alan Moore interview in it. Nice!

- Michael

quote:

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Originally posted by Smaug:
BTW GMZoe, do you actually like Judd Winick? ...I was going to try the new Teen Titans, is it worth giving Outsiders a try - in your opinion?

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Not familiar with the Outsiders, can't say about that. (Just looked around the net. Damn - all news is from November. It's hard to follow a writer who works at so many different companies). I'm going to look into this and when I find out what's what I'll let you know

From what I can make out the current teen titans & young justic are both finishing with a crossover of graduation day in which at least one will be killed off.

The end result will be two new books teen titans with some of YJ (including Robin, inpulse, superboy and wonder girl) & some of the current teen titans (beast boy and others) and the outsiders - remake of the team batman was once involved in - with Nightwing and others - there's more info here:

http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/pulse.cgi?http%3A//www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi%3Fubb%3Dget_topic%26f%3D36%26t%3D000411

and here

http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/pulse.cgi?http%3A//www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi%3Fubb%3Dget_topic%26f%3D36%26t%3D000413

yes, but the news is still from November. I keep wondering if it's out and I missed it or if it's still coming and no one has talked about it for 3 months

doesn't seem to be out yet. But, yes, I like most of Winick's works. Pedro & me was great, Barry Ween is funny, and I loved how Green Lantern had something boiling in the background most of the time (I much prefer reading interactions with people than fights with super villains).

This week: 2 measly comics.
Liberty Meadows - it's a guilty pleasure. A fast read with jokes mostly recycled from Looney Toons.
Grant Morrison's X-Men - good story arc about rebelious students at the school. I could do without the drug part of the plot, but otherwise I like how Grant has opened the series up. I really hate Marvel's standards for operating though. Fill-in artists are frequent (I almost dropped the series because of it) and almost every time I buy it, the cover is bent because they use poor paper

Yep, it's coming out:

http://comics.toonzone.net/solicitations/2003-05/

I'm not getting through to my comic shop this week, but when I've looked at the weekly list there's nothing put away for me, and probably nothing I would pick up - unless there were some interesting back issues - I'm trying to look out for the GRIMM storyline of legends of Batman. (And I need 3 more Impulses to complete my collection).

Oh hum, vertigo X next week (Which I will probably mean I pick it up the week after)

I picked up the 1st TP of Morrisons X-Men and enjoyed it, but don't think I'll be getting any more in a while -too many other things I want to try, like some of the Sandman collections that I haven't got get, and pos. some JMS's spiderman and some Hellboy and some.....

[This message was edited by Smaug on February 19, 2003 at 11:29 PM.]

Been a few weeks. Monthly comics leave little to say with each new issue. Anyway

Good stuff recently...
New Kochalka book: Magic Boy and the Robotic Elf. I love Kochalka's book - smooth art, snappy story. Somehow both childish and adult at the same time. Good stuff. Worth the $10 to me
that came out last week
This week, got Climbing out by Brian Ralph (guy who did Cave In) Also simple art, also has time machine, also $10, just like the Kochalka book. But y'know, there didn't seem to be as much there. Very fast read, didn't make me think... I might buy another book by him for $5.95, but $10 seems a bit much to me for what's there.

Also in, Panel Two, the second collection of scripts by Nat Gertler! I'm looking forward to reading the Me & Edith Head script! (One of my favorite comics ever now - I recently loaned it to an english teacher to show a kid how to write a comic. If only Panel 2 had come out last month...)

Does anyone know anything about Sky Between Branches? I have issue 0, but haven't heard anything about the actual series starting...

And has anyone been reading Mek? Is it any good after the first two issues? (I need my post-Transmet fix...)

Let's see... a bunch of stuff I've talked about this week... X-Statix, Exiles and Green Lantern (Marvel and DC should stagger the Winick material!), Lupin III, Dork Tower v2...

ok... Usagi Yojimbo still rocks.
Paradise Too, from Terry 'Strangers In Paradise' Moore. It's always a mixed bag. There's usually something I smile at, something I really dislike, and other things which feel like fluff. Not really something I'd recommend to people - get the eraly SIP TPBs instead

Pubo - last issue of a 3 issue series. I was very disappointed by the series. Story was blah, it was expensive (3.50 for a b&w comic), it read fast. I got it because I liked the cover to the first issue when I saw it in previews, but the interior art didn't work for me.

sorry that was a rushed review of the week, have something to do soon

I'm not much of a comic man, but I bought the first issue of Blood and Water the other day. Does anyone happen to know when us Brits can expect to see numbero duo?

JK

quote:

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Originally posted by GMZoe:
Detective Comics 779 - I don't care for the main story, but they've been having very good back up stories lately. Awhile back they had a great Judd Winick story...

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Do you know which issues had the Judd Winick story? I didn't know about that, and like Judd a lot. Also, aside from his work that you've listed, have you read Frumpy the Clown?

quote:

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Originally posted by Xith:
Do you know which issues had the Judd Winick story? I didn't know about that, and like Judd a lot. Also, aside from his work that you've listed, have you read Frumpy the Clown?

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Detective Comic 664-770 I believe.
Yep, have read Frumpy. What else hasn't been mentioned yet... Terminal Madness (the collection of computer cartoons)... Road Trip... the Harlequin special... it's still early in his career, so there's not much else

ok, been a few weeks since I posted here, let's see
This week is free comic day (on Saturday). For the past long while I've been listening to my retailer complain about this jive thing, here's why...
First, the comics aren't free. He still has to pay for a bunch of merchaindise to give away, which hurts for a guy just trying to get his store off the ground. (Not just the cost of the comics, but extra shipping fees too) so Diamond distributors are making money by exploiting the retailers
Second, he has to order a bunch of stuff he doesn't want (I don't remember specifics, but you have to order a certain # of specific books to be a part of other stuff). This includes having to order from a company which had never been listed before free comic day (force stores to buy their untested product) and companies he doesn't really want to support or sell well in his store
Third, the actual content has much to be desired. One is 'Frank Miller's Robocop' which isn't written or drawn by Miller, some are things which have been available free on the net, so aren't done-in-one stories, so he 'feels like a drug dealer' - the first one's free...

After weeks of listening to this (he doesn't talk about it to all his customers, I've known him for more than a decade), I felt I should share the view - makes interesting conversations and all. I find it another example of a good idea with bad politics. I've also heard discouraging things about Friends Of Lulu (from different sources btw), the organisation which promotes women in comics, and it makes me sad.

Anyhoo, if your local retailer has free comic book day stuff, try the "Alternative Comics" or "Slave Labor" selections. the AC one has James Kochalka, and the SL has a Milk & Cheese 2 pager 'Free Comic Book Day Of Reckoning' which is worth checking out (and a lenore strip)

I've often mentioned I'm a Winick fan because, well, right now he's fairly prolific. Right now there's a Green Lantern/Green Arrow cross over going on. Judd's doing the GL side (though after this he'll be doing GA). 6 part story 4 parts out so far... not worth picking up in my opinion. Pretty standard fare so far. One page made my ears perk (um, eyes perk?) in part 4, which may lead to something, but not worth buy a 6 issue story for that. If you want to try out his stuff, wait a lil bit.

I had no idea that the stores have to pay for the stuff they're giving away, and that they're forced to buy specific products. It's pretty upsetting. The shop that I went to last year was giving away a bunch of books that they picked out of their collection instead of the official FCBD comics, which was pretty interesting (more selection).
The Milk & Cheese thing sounds like it should be really good. I like SLG quite a bit.

And belately thanks for the info on Detective Comics. I still have to find those issues.