It’s Travis, acting crazy by trying to get a jump on things, starting to talk about August stuff before we even publish our post on July. Will it help us get our acts together for this month? I guess we’ll find out when this one actually publishes!
I’m Travis Pelkie, in stern black, and this is Greg Burgas, in dreamy blue, discussing Previews #395 and DC Connect #15. Here we go!
DC: (since I’m looking at their stuff already!)
Batman: The Impostor is actually a good idea, with a relatively new Batman getting framed for murder by a doppelgänger who keeps getting filmed committing his crimes, said doppelgänger being funded by the dirty cops and businessmen in town that the real Batman is taking down. This would have fit in nicely in Legends of the Dark Knight, and should look cool with the Andrea Sorrentino art. If DC is going to be all in on grim and gritty for their main line, at least the stories should be well done, and fingers crossed that this one is.
I was with you until you said “should look cool with the Andrea Sorrentino art.” If this is any good, it will be almost certainly despite the Sorrentino art. I don’t hate Sorrentino’s art, but it’s not great, and on a book like Batman, it could really hurt.
I’m probably misremembering his stuff, then!
Dan Watters and Dani, who brought us the weird Coffin Bound, are teaming up to bring us the weird-sounding Arkham City: The Order of the World, which is about escapees from Arkham and the doctor who’s trying to round them up. Sounds broody.
Yeah, the obvious riff on the logo of GMozz and McKean’s Arkham Asylum turned me off.
Hopefully David Lapham is saving up some cash to do more Stray Bullets down the road, because he’s doing the art on the Detective 1044 back up story.
Does The Long Halloween Special explain why such an empty story was so popular? Spoiler: it was because Tim Sale did amazing art despite the crap story. Oh yeah.
I mean, duh. And yes, I will be getting this solely for the Tim Sale art. I mean, duh.
Because Cliff Chiang is so good, I’ll have to give Catwoman: Lonely City the benefit of the doubt, but from the description and preview pages, it sounds like a different take on DKR, but with Selina as the take charge character at the core. But it should look awesome.
Four extra-sized issues of Chiang drawing Catwoman? Yeah, I’ll take that, despite the story sounding kind of boilerplate.
I do like the Human Target, and Tom King can be good at times, and this new series sounds like it’s not trying to make a grand statement on any and every theme that occurs in the book, so this might be a fun ride.
I like that he has 12 days to find out who hated Luthor enough to kill him. Um, you might need a few years to make that list, buddy.
Now that I read the solicit again, I realize that most likely it’s Luthor that took a hit out on himself and the 10 issues in between will dawdle until finally it’s revealed in the last issue and people will act all surprised, like it’s not a typical twist in these sorts of books.
I thought Ollie was wearing a fake Aquaman suit on the cover of Deep Target, until I saw that he’s in his own suit. Ollie and Arthur shouldn’t look too much alike, dammit!
Yeah, it shouldn’t be that hard. It’s not like me, whom people are always mistaking for Brad Pitt. I mean, we’re like twins!
The movie Twins, amirite?!
They based Arnold on me and DeVito on Pitt!
The topic of too many Wonder Woman origin stories came up “recently” (as of this typing) in your review of WW: Earth One, and the reason is probably because she doesn’t have any good stories that can be redone in some way like Batman or Superman have, but her origin is killer. Everyone seems to feel the need to fill in all the blanks on how she got to be the way she is before they just let her do her thing, so they get mired in the same old same old origin crap. It’s like how Ennis apparently said that every time Ultron appears, we’d get his entire history instead of just “evil robot that hates the Avengers”. Move on! Anyway, Wonder Woman Historia: the Amazons looks amazing, and Phil Jimenez’s art looks fantastic, of course. With Gene Ha and Nicola Scott coming in the subsequent issues, this should look amazing, anyway!
What’s Phil Jimenez been doing? I guess he’s been living life, but I would love to see more of his artwork, so this is a good start. I’ll get this in trade, despite not loving DeConnick and, yes, being sick of Wonder Woman origin stories. I suspect you’re right, but you know what? How about not “redoing” any classic stories and just writing new ones? What a concept!
Jimenez seems to pop up here and there with some special things, but he hasn’t been doing any regular runs for ages.
I like how DC is desperate to avoid using “Vertigo” these days, so we have more “Hill House” with Refrigerator Full of Heads (a sequel to Basketful of Heads) and “DC Horror,” where we find John McCrea drawing Soul Plumber, about a dude who builds his own exorcism machine but finds out it’s not exactly calibrated correctly. I don’t know the writers (a bunch of podcasters), but I can watch McCrea draw weird shit all the live-long day!
Yeah, that Mythic book he did with Phil Hester was so damn good.
Indeed it was!
I wondered if the Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries would get collected in 2 volumes, and apparently so, as the first 6 issues are collected in a trade for just 13 bucks. I’ve been waiting for this!
Yeah, that should be fun.
I might have to get THE Swamp Thing volume 1 (the definite article is important!), because it’s Ram V and Mike Perkins, and that’s not a bad team.
The Truth and Justice mini that was digital first is collected in one volume. I’m not sure if it was quite worth it, but maybe other people will think otherwise!
Image:
Friday is collected on page 40, which I think was offered on some pay what you want site whose name escapes me, but this is Brubaker’s take on one of those “former child detective grows up” stories. I don’t know why they write the solicit as if this is some brand new genre or something, but there it is. Our pal [Fraser, I think] wrote about Meddling Kids by [name], and I’ve read other stuff of the same type. Still, it’s Bru, so it should be excellent.
I always love when you put a placeholder in your posts, as if it’s difficult to go to the blog, do a search, and find what you’re looking for. In this case, it’s even easier, as what you’re writing about is the most recent post Pol Rua wrote for us!
Well, thank you for grabbing the link for me, as well as ascribing it to the right person. I think I thought of the review but was about done with what I was writing for the nonce, so I didn’t fill in the blanks yet. Or something. I don’t know, but I’m leaving my placeholder in just to show everyone how I work!
YOU SKIPPED HELLCOP. HOW DARE YOU?!?!?!?
Does anyone really need me to write about Hellcop? It’s on page 48, and its name is HELLCOP!!!!! That is the best name for a comic since the immortal SHARK-MAN!!!!
The weird thing is that this is a reboot of a comic from the late ‘90s that Holguin somehow got Joe Casey to write for him. Weird!
That is strange. Comics Publishing R Bizarre, man!
On page 58 is Nate Piekos’s Essential Guide to Comic Book Lettering, which presumably is just what it says.
That’s cool and all, but why would you buy this? All this information has to be available for free on yonder interwebs, right?
Stjepan Sejic (with apologies to Edo Bosnar for not writing it with accents and whatnot) has Fine Print on page 60, which is about a woman who makes a deal with a god to mend her broken heart. Literally nothing goes wrong with that. Sejic has been killing it lately with these weird romances he’s doing, so I’m on board with this.
I got all the trades, and I liked it, but I have to read it all at once because I got a little lost as it got more convoluted. But yes, it was the best thing Vaughan was writing at the time it was coming out!!!!
On page 67 is the first trade of Time Before Time, a time travel story that sounds a little too much like Looper to me, which was a movie I mostly liked but isn’t my favorite.
Dark Horse:
Page 98 has a new trade edition of The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects, which is one I’ve always heard is good, so maybe I should get this edition. Finally.
You know, they reprint that a lot. You should really get on it!
Madman Library Edition volume 2 is on page 106, and includes the Superman and Powers crossovers (the latter of which I didn’t even know existed). I’m not sure what else there is in this volume, but apparently this is the 2nd of 6 volumes. Madman is awesome, though.
On page 114 is the EC Archives Crime Illustrated, collecting the post-Code attempt by EC to survive on something other than just MAD.
It’s “Picto-Fiction”!
IDW:
On page 128, Animal Stories by Peter and Maria Hoey sounds interesting. Weird tales of human interactions with animals, drawn in the Hoeys’ clean, Chris Ware-ish style.
Is their work as boring as Ware can be? Oh shit, I went there!
On page 131 is Snake Eyes Deadgame Declassified, which features art from the recent Rob Liefeld drawn book. I’m perversely intrigued to see the inkers mentioned here, like seeing what Neal Adams or Kevin Eastman do with Rob’s pencils. Maybe I’ll get this?
Considering most people regard Liefeld’s best work is Hawk and Dove, when Kesel inked him (and did a wonderful job), this is very intriguing!
Boom! Studios:
On page 221 is a trade of Maria Llovet’s Luna, about a woman finding out what’s going on with a hippie cult. Should be spooky!
Oh, those wacky hippies, always trying to fuck and kill people!
Speaking of cults, Basilisk by Cullen Bunn and Jonas Scharf gets a trade on page 222. It’s about five teens with powers who destroy shit, but one of them breaks free and the others come after her. Could be neat.
Marvel:
Pages 6-11 have Amazing Spider-Man 75-77, with the new status quo of Ben Reilly returning, because why not bring back your shittiest characters? (I’d make a Thunderstrike or Ravage 2099 joke but I know Bill Reed reads this!) T’will be thrice monthly, and ‘pon one of those issues each month shall be writ by Kelly Thompson, so congrats to her for getting to write pretty much every big Marvel character by now.
This sounds … wow, this sounds like a clusterfuck. Why does Marvel do shit like this?
And why 3 weeks a month, instead of just weekly?
To be fair, they have done this before, and I guess it worked for them, but it just smells like “CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT” desperation.
Well, the Superman books during the “Triangle Era” were weekly, essentially, and it seemed to work fairly well overall, I think, so I wonder why it doesn’t quite seem like this has or will work the same way.
Immortal Hulk 50 wraps that series up on page 12, so now I’m just waiting for a big ol’ Omnibus of the whole thing. The first 20 issues or so that I’ve read have been pretty much friggin’ awesome.
Yeah, it’s very excellent.
This Darkhold crossover seems dumb, especially coming at the same time as the Death of Dr. Strange, but on page 24 is a Darkhold Blade book with Juan Ferreyra on art, so it should look awesome.
Ferreyra, sadly, is just the cover artist. The interior art is handled by that greatest of all chameleons, TBA.
Ah, I missed that!
Are Kang and Doom going to make out on the cover of Kang the Conqueror #3 on page 30? That would be a cool twist!
That’s how they’ll introduce the FF and Doom into the MCU. Kang will have Doom sitting next to him on a throne. “We’re ruling all of time and space together!”
Deadpool: Black White and Blood 3 on page 36 has Stan Sakai doing a story!
There’s a Knights of Pendragon Omnibus on page 79 and I don’t know if I’m strong enough to resist it!!!!
When I was recently at a local comic shop, I think they had a bunch of these issues in the 50 cent bin. Which is probably giving them too much credit!
How dare you suggest these aren’t worthy to exist in Omnibus form!
On page 81 is an Omnibus of the Invaders series, which is pretty cool. The Frank Robbins art is an acquired taste, and undoubtedly the Roy Thomas stories will be deep continuity dives, but the characters and setting are cool. Is this a new printing, or have they not actually collected this in Omni form before?
I’m pretty sure this is the first time it’s been collected.
On the next page is the first Moon Knight Omnibus, and I wanted this plenty before, but even more after you wrote about this early stuff recently.
They keep adding new stuff to these printings, which kind of pisses me off. This also has that fun Defenders arc with Scorpio, so there’s that.
The Marvels is collected on page 98, and I’ve been waiting for this one. Busiek and weird nooks of the Marvel Universe? Hell yeah!
Well, duh, of course I’m getting this.
I’m not entirely positive you can get more mid-1990s with the artistic line-up on Avengers Epic Collection: Taking A.I.M. on page 106: Stewart Johnson, Mike Deodato Jr., Mike Gustovich, Angel Medina, Jeff Moore, Manny Clark, Dave Hoover. There’s a bit of scraping the bottom of the barrel there!
Taking A.I.M. at bad ‘90s comics! What I’ve read of these are total garbage.
Marvel inexplicably is collecting the post-#300 work of D.G. Chichester on Daredevil with an Epic Collection on page 107. For some reason, Chichester went insane after issue #300 and couldn’t write a good story if Alan Moore dictated it to him in a dream, and these are terrible comics. Avoid this book like the plague!!!!
Yeah, that arc leading up to #300 was pretty decent, from what I remember. And then Fall From Grace, which I figure was editorially mandated garbage, came after these. I thought I read a few issues from this run and don’t remember it being that bad, but maybe it was trauma-induced amnesia?
Back of the book!
The new Aardvark-Vanaheim stuff is on page 237, with the new Cerebus in Hell? special being the Super-Cerebus vs Covid-19 book with the homage cover to Superman vs Muhammad Ali.
On page 242 is new (?) publisher Advent Comics, who has Buddy McGill, a new book from Mike Baron, where Spuds McKenzie is a TSA agent. Huh.
That’s certainly a concept.
I may buy Party & Prey on page 244 from AfterShock, because it sounds good, but I very much doubt it’s a “taboo-breaking queer thriller.” I mean, what taboos? Ooh, will there be felching? WE NEED MORE FELCHING IN OUR COMICS!!!!!
I really hope that people who don’t know felching look it up now. I could also turn it around on you and say “stop trying to make felch happen”, but I’m above such antics.
That is pretty funny, though. If I were cleverer I’d make a gif of Rachel McAdams saying that. AND I WILL NEVER STOP!!!!!!
AfterShock also has the trade of Maniac of New York, which is about a maniac … in New York. I know, shocking! It sounds pretty keen.
‘Namwolf gets a trade on page 257 from Albatross Funnybooks, and I’ll probably get it. It’s exactly what you think – an American soldier is a werewolf during the Vietnam War. That has to suck. Or maybe not? Maybe it’s awesome.
Just to be pedantic, this is a backlist item. I think it originally came out a few years ago.
I knew it had come out, but I thought this was the first time we’d seen the collected edition. I BEG OUR READERS’ FORGIVENESS!!!!!
On 268 and 269, Archie brings back The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina with issue 9 and a hardcover collection of what they claim is everything so far. Damn, that’s been gone a long time. Didn’t the new TV show run like, 4 seasons, and it all came out after the last issue of this series was released?
I don’t know. That seems implausible, but it’s possible, certainly.
Casual Fling is in trade on page 287 from AWA/Upshot. This sounds pretty keen – a woman has a one-night stand, but the dude is somehow evil. SHE IS JUSTLY PUNISHED FOR HER ACTIONS!!!!! ONLY MEN CAN HAVE ONE-NIGHT STANDS WITH NO CONSEQUENCES!!!!!
On page 288 Bdang Publishing has The Shiatsung Project, where a woman is living in a small house and life seems pretty ordinary, but she doesn’t know how she got there, and the entity controlling the television won’t answer her questions.
I hate when my television does that.
Behemoth Comics has, on page 291, Pop Star Assassin, about an Elvis impersonator in 1977 caught up in mob action and government conspiracies and stuff. Might be fun.
On 305, Clover Press has Electric Frankenstein Illustrated Lyrics, with short comics illustrating the cool punk band’s lyrics. This sounds like decent fun, if a little spendy.
Dead Reckoning has The Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers (page 309), which is about a naval battle in 1944. It’s by Doug Murray and Steven Sanders, and what the heck have those two dudes been up to recently?
Adapting this novel, apparently! Wokka wokka wokka!
A new Ruta Modan book is always cause for celebration, so it’s nice that Tunnels is on page 310 from Drawn & Quarterly. It’s about the search for the Ark of the Covenant, a story which has never been done in fiction ever before!!!!
On page 316, we find Intertwined from Fairsquare Comics, which is described as Kung Fu Noir, but it also has a “secret LGBTQ+ love story.” Oh good – I was afraid they weren’t tackling quite enough with the Kung Fu Noir!!!! This sounds neat, so I will get it!
I think this is an updated version of a comic that was out a while ago. But yes, Kung Fu Noir just isn’t enough to tackle, the love story, particularly an LGBTQ+ one, must be added!
Fantagraphics has, on page 319, a trade of Ed Piskor’s Red Room, which is a pretty neat comic. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart (it’s about internet murder rooms, and Piskor really leans into the gore), but it’s a good, weird comic.
I wish they were specific about what issues are included in this trade, but I’ll probably get this. I’ve been waiting for this!
I imagine it’s issues #1-4, as those are the only ones that have been solicited so far!
I forgot if they had gotten any further!
On 321 is Floating World’s trade of Night Hunters, about Venezuela 100 years in the future, and it’s got art by Alexis Ziritt, who I believe did Space Riders (or whatever it was called) from Black Mask.
Yes, he did. He’s a good artist, and I’ll probably get this.
On 327 is Some Strange Disturbances: Cold Winter’s Eve, from the charmingly named Headless Shakespeare Press, sounds like it’s part of some series, but it’s got art from Peter Gross, Vince Locke, and others, so it should look pretty.
I agree – that solicit text is a bit weird.
Also on 327 is Heavy Metal 311, which I note only because I see that one creator is named Alaska Thunderfuck 5000, and that’s an awesome name.
I mean, that seems a bit tryhard, if you ask me.
On page 329 is Hogan’s Alley 23, which features Frazetta’s time on L’il Abner, the legal battle that led to two versions of the Katzenjammer Kids, and an attempt at a live action Nancy sitcom. Cool stuff!
Swine on page 330 from Humanoids has some good pull quotes by Gerry Duggan and Gail Simone, and it sounds pretty good. Killer pigs possessed by demons, it seems. Fun stuff!
It’s Biblical!
On 341 from Kids Can Press (press what, wokka wokka wokka!), we have Stealing Home, historical fiction from J. Torres, who I don’t think we’ve seen in a while. It’s about the internment of Japanese-Canadians in WWII, something I hadn’t really considered must have also happened in addition to what the US did.
Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock have done some good comics together, and they have a new one, Salt Magic, on page 346 from Margaret Ferguson Books. It’s about a dude who returns from World War I and the mysterious woman who follows him and puts a curse on him and his entire town. Well, that’s just not very nice.
Yeah, but it’s probably the dude’s fault.
Also on 346 but from NBM is the fourth volume of The Silent Invasion, which I believe was supposed to be brand new stuff. The other volumes are also available. The original series is one that I read early on in my comics reading and I thought it was one of the coolest things. It’s been ages since I read it though.
On 348 has Oni’s Dirtbag Rapture, about a selfish stoner that can move the dead around and who’s the key in a demonic plan to end the world. Uh-oh! It’s written by Christopher Sebela, who’s pretty good, with art by Kendall Goode, whose name sounds familiar to me but I can’t recall where I know it from.
I saw that and thought it sounded cool. I don’t think I know the artist, however.
Papercutz has a cute sounding one on page 360, with The Queen’s Favorite Witch, about a young girl who wants to be the replacement witch for Queen Elizabeth I, and might get to that position with John Dee’s help.
Tara O’Connor is a pretty good creator, so I’ll probably check out Fly By Night on page 363 from Random House Graphic. It’s an “environmental-thriller graphic novel with a supernatural twist,” because heaven forfend we get something without a supernatural twist!
I couldn’t resist in this last look at the column I’m doing before this publishes to make a Rush reference!
I am intrigued by Sleepover from Razorbill (page 366), in which a kid whose nanny died recently goes to a sleepover with some friends, but the new nanny is freaking him out. Sounds interesting.
I’m intrigued by the idea that a single mother has the money to hire a “nanny” and not just a babysitter!
It’s “realism,” man!
Scout has some new interesting sounding ones on pages 370-71. No Ghosts in Hiroshima is a trade about a dude trying to free a soul from hell that he thinks he placed there wrongly, and it’s written by Jim Krueger, although perhaps it’s just that Krueger is writing the translation, I’m not sure. Swamp Dogs is about Confederate soldiers brought back to life by voodoo, and how a young couple and their goofy stoner metal friends must face them in conflict. And Epic Tavern: Tales from the Fantastical Crimes Unit is apparently a video game spinoff, but the story’s got the delightful pun title of “Angel is a Centaur Foal”. And on page 374, the kid friendly imprint Scoot has Ninja Scouts 1, set in a world where all the things like magic and stuff that we think is fictional is real, and kids need to learn skills in after school programs. Might be fun!
Regarding that title:
Source Point Press has some interesting ones on pages 381-385. The Winchester Mystery House is about the very neat haunted house that has stairs that go nowhere and other neat stuff. Holliston: Goes to Hell is a continuation of a TV show, apparently, written by Gregory Wright, who wrote and colored some books for Marvel in the ‘90s, including writing the What If issue where he proposed to his girlfriend as well as having Peter Parker keep the Captain Universe powers but also getting kinky with MJ. No, literally, he talks about feeling kinkier and creates a Spider-suit for MJ for sexytime and off-panel banging, and I’m amazed it passed the Code! Anyway, the Dead Hand Book: Stories from Gravesend Cemetery is a collection of stories by Sara Richard, who I think did art for Jem and the Holograms. Cult of Dracula is a trade about a weird suicide cult and the people investigating the aftermath. Buried But Not Dead: Lost Tales volume 1 is a collection of stories written by Dirk Manning, who writes a lot of horror comics. At least one story has art by Riley Rossmo in this collection.
On 386 from St. Martin’s Press is Fan Fiction, by Brent “Data” Spiner, set in 1991 and featuring cameos from all his ST:TNG pals, and is about a fictional(ized?) story of receiving a mysterious package and all the shenanigans that go with that. I like ST:TNG enough that I’m intrigued by this.
Page 387 has Storyworlds Media, which I think might be new? (It might say in the book, but I’m working digitally!) Their three offerings sound interesting. Fab is about a world where people can suddenly 3D print anything, including clones of themselves, and a young woman joins an agency looking to stop the source of this new danger. Only Hope is about a worker on a remote Pacific island where she and her coworkers moderate the internet, and how she discovers a spooky scary secret about what she’s doing. Like you do at your job. United States of Magic is about a conspiracy threatening the world, and the data analyst who joins a team to help stop it.
Titan has, on 396, The Art of Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess’ Stardust, which not only includes work from all the different editions, but art from the rare portfolio A Fall of Stardust, with people like Mignola, Sakai, and Aragones doing artwork. If it includes the entirety of the portfolio, I want this. I probably want this anyway, because Vess is so good.
I’ll definitely want to read Charles Addams, a Cartoonist’s Life, by Linda H. Davis and from Turner on page 400, but I’ll probably just get it from a library. But I do want to know about the “cartoon that offended the Nazis”!
I mean, the Nazis seem easily offended, so it probably wouldn’t take much to do so.
Also on 400 is Back Issue 132 from TwoMorrows, all about ‘80s Marvel limited series. Lots of good stuff came out in that format, including of course the cover subject Wolverine.
I’ve been quite good at keeping up with my reading of comics, but I’m seriously Pelkieing my Back Issue issues. I don’t get them all, but the one I’m currently reading and have been for some time is #104, which is cover dated June 2018. Sheesh.
Damn, you’ve really gotten behind! At least you’re reading dozens if not hundreds of other comics in the meantime!
Uncivilized Books has Ex Libris on page 402, in which a character wakes up in a room full of comics, and as the character reads the comics, fiction and reality begin to blur. Sounds nifty.
You didn’t mention it’s by Matt Madden, who’s done some other meta type comics as well as how-to stuff with his significant other Jessica Abel, a well renowned comics creator herself.
You can’t tell me what to do!!!!
Digital Manga Distribution has, on page 426, Clockwork Apple, a miscellany by Osamu Tezuka, the God of Manga. The stories are all over the place genre-wise, but that just means there’s something for everybody!
On page 441 from Yen Press is Never Open It: The Taboo Trilogy, by Ken Niimura, the artist on I Kill Giants, I believe. It’s folktales that deal with the idea of the taboo, and who determines what is taboo. Sounds interesting.
Yep, that’s him all right.
Flipside!
On M-54 is a Coke can Funko Pop with the “I’d Like to Give the World a Coke” tag line. Do I need to get this to match with my set of Mad Men Funkos?
No, no you don’t.
On M-57 are some new Office Funkos, and this series includes the really fun Dwight with a pumpkin on his head. It’s a great opening segment, and if you have the DVDs of The Office for that season (the last one, maybe?), the alternate version of that sequence might be even funnier.
All right, people that’s it for this month, and it’s not even halfway through August and we managed to get this done! Huzzah! Have fun trawling through Previews – there’s gold in them thar hills, but you might have to kill your neighbor and steal his panning equipment to find it!
On the typing of Sejic’s name, no need to apologize to me – half the time I still write out local names without the diacritical marks myself (because I’m still paranoid that if, say, I type out Šejić, you’ll see something like {eji; on your side – which always happened in the early days of the internets in the 1990s).
Love the topic of the latest Back Issue, because I agree that Marvel put out lots of good stuff in its limited series. Personally, though, I don’t think – and I know many will disagree with me – that the Wolverine mini was the best of the line. Back then, as a total X-zombie, I enthusiastically picked it up, but if I’m being honest, I was much more fond of Layton’s Hercules and Gruenwald’s Hawkeye, to say nothing of Squadron Supreme (also by Gruenwald).
Also wondering why the focus is solely on Marvel’s limited series, as DC was releasing some pretty good ones at that same time (Phantom Zone, Nathaniel Dusk, Sword of Atom…). Or will that be the topic of a future issue? Or has it already been done? I don’t follow Back Issue very consistently…
Hercules vs. Galactus was amazing. I agree about DC in that era having its share.
I thought there was a DC equivalent issue but I can’t seem to find it looking at the twomorrows site. But I’m not sure.
Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 is a drag queen who has been on RuPaul’s Drag Race and released a few albums with “colorful” names. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Thunderfuck
If the late Sam Glanzman was doing that Last Stand book, I’d be all over it. For one thing, he’d know the correct title is Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, not Soldiers. Soldiers are landlubbers, ground pounders, grunts….you know, scum! Sailors are Gods Upon the Waters, Heroes of the Ages, Adored by Ladies Everywhere!
🙂
I don’t trust a comic from someone who doesn’t know the difference between a door and a hatch, or what a scuttlebut is. Probably thinks “Turn to” has something to do with a Go-Gos song!
😉
If you think Chris Ware’s art style is boring, see if you can check out his sketchbook. He’s a really gifted illustrator and his hyper-clean style is a very conscious choice. I do wish he’d mix up his style for his “official” projects more, though.
I would agree that Ware is a masterful illustrator and designer, and in that regard I think my favorite works by him are the covers to the collected Krazy Kat Sunday strip volumes published by Fantagraphics. However, I’ve never liked any of the actual comics of his that I’ve read (individual pages from Acme Novelty Library posted online, and a few random web comics he’s done). The prospect of reading several hundred pages of, say, Jimmy Corrigan, sounds excruciating.
Yeah, I feel like I should read more Ware. I think I only read Jimmy Corrigan once when I was like 12 or 13 and it was fascinating but not exactly compelling, if that makes sense. I think I would get more out of it now. The sterility of the art definitely worked extremely well with the themes and the plot of the book, but those themes aren’t really that fun to revisit.
I meant the story more than the art re Ware. His art looks amazing but the story it’s in service of is snoozeville.
Well, at least you didn’t besmirch Sleepwalker.
Might have to get that weirdo Mike Baron dog comic.
If he had slagged on Sleepwalker, we would have had words!!!! 🙂
I love Sleepwalker with an unholy passion!