Poll question: COTM: Should We Have a May COTM poll?

Poll result (6 votes) Yes. FOR EVERY MONTH A POLL (4 votes) Vote No, let's just keep April's COTM rolling (0 votes) Vote This poll is, like, pushing me into a very meta decision, man. (c) Blue Guy from Manhattan Projects (1 votes) Vote FCBD was great! BShellz missed out (0 votes) Vote The nu X Men movie looks terrible and I'm going to see it (1 votes) Vote Jonathan Hickman (0 votes) Vote

new COTM poll the month after a COTM goes plat... so if it doesn't go plat, keep it rolling another month.

Anyhow. Comics rock. Just loaned a German friend a few... 3d Story, the first Parker book.... I'd already talked them into getting BONE for their son.

I'm so tired I can't even remember what I read last night to review it here! Still working my way through the pile of great stuff from the past 2 weeks, almost done the FCBD material (which was generally not very good save Rocket Racoon).

(Although I have to say the creator note at the end of the issues was a little odd, actually kinda brought me down to earth a little bit with its wonkiness)

The issue itself, though? Sheeeeeit. Felt like masterful southern pulp, revealed tons about the setting and its main character while leaving you dying to find out more. Felt a bit like early Scalped in all the right ways.

Well related might not be the word. That dude's a hell of a lot more southern than I ever was. But I recognized some glimmer of truth in there. Latour's maybe a little bit less, it seemed kinda salty. I dunno. I didn't think too hard on it but I thought it was interesting.

The comic though, man. I keep going back to that tree-chopping sequence. Just great comicin' right there

I think that's what got me about it, there's nothing particularly new about the South when it comes to Love/Hate as a theme. Shit, Spike made a whole movie about it and it's a New York masterpiece.

But yeah -- it's so funny with San Jose, because I feel defensive when people talk shit about it, but then again whenever I meet someone my same age who grew up there when I did, all we can do is nod grimly and agree the best thing we did in our lives was get the hell out of there. So I feel like even though it's in the South, I "get" the theme. I guess that's just why it kinda bugged me that Aaron made it somehow intrinsic to the South, when the truth is it's relatable.

And that tree-chopping scene? Sheeeeeeit. Nailed it. No reason to go and tell everyone about exactly how you played your hand. Just let the magic speak for itself, don't' go explaining your tricks.

>And that tree-chopping scene? Sheeeeeeit. Nailed it. No
>reason to go and tell everyone about exactly how you played
>your hand. Just let the magic speak for itself, don't' go
>explaining your tricks.


I actually have no recollection of them doing this in the "back matter" but just out of curiosity who here enjoys that sort of trick-explaining?

In general I do not, especially when it's unsolicited and by the person who performed the trick. I understand the temptation. But if your shit wasn't *that* tight to begin with it can have a serious tightness-dampening effect.

It could be a timing issue, too. I don't necessarily want you breaking down the shit I just read 3 pages ago. Let me digest it first, you know? We can meet back here in 6 months if you wanna still talk about it.

I do enjoy in-depth analysis by a third party though. The cartoon editor for the New Yorker has a book out now where he gets realllllllly in-depth about NYer cartoons. It's really interesting on one level, but there's a self-congratulatory aspect to it that hurts the cartoons for me. If the cartoon was a 10, the commentary won't hurt it. If it was a 6 and you're making it out to be a 10, it becomes a 3. Maybe I'm a hater?

>I actually have no recollection of them doing this in the
>"back matter" but just out of curiosity who here enjoys that
>sort of trick-explaining?

They have one page, a note from Aaron and the artist, and they both HAMMER the "Love/Hate" theme. And yeah, it comes right after the breathless tree-chopping pages, it was like yanking the e-brake while going top speed...

>It could be a timing issue, too. I don't necessarily want you
>breaking down the shit I just read 3 pages ago. Let me digest
>it first, you know? We can meet back here in 6 months if you
>wanna still talk about it.

One of the best parts of the Bloom County Complete Collections were the notes left by Berkeley Breathed. It seemed that he got to read through the whole set of comics, as proofing, and could leave editorial notes alongside them as he saw fit. And perhaps this ties perfectly into your note, because he was writing these editorial notes with the perspective of 20 years or so, but he was funny as hell in them -- he would blast himself for writing nonsensical stuff, he would just subtly point out on some "I'm still laughing at this one, even if no one else is", he would sometimes add, "I got a strange note / reaction to this from the person it mentioned." So yeah, I guess the beauty is that it was rarely about the strip itself, more about something outside the strip you wouldn't see for yourself.

>I do enjoy in-depth analysis by a third party though. The
>cartoon editor for the New Yorker has a book out now where he
>gets realllllllly in-depth about NYer cartoons. It's really
>interesting on one level, but there's a self-congratulatory
>aspect to it that hurts the cartoons for me. If the cartoon
>was a 10, the commentary won't hurt it. If it was a 6 and
>you're making it out to be a 10, it becomes a 3. Maybe I'm a
>hater?

I think I'm with you overall. I'm never quite sure how to feel about the back-matter -- on one hand, it's a totally awesome part of comics where you get to interact with the creators; on the other hand, it can be a total drag that does little besides say how great the totally lame character is that you never read the book for in the first place. For the most part, I don't read Letters Sections, because they get too weird and self-congratulatory. Or they're just big promo sections for other shit the author / writer wants you to buy. But it's hard to ignore them all, because some authors put so much work and love into them (Greg Rucka's Lazarus back-matter standup! Brubaker's Fatale etc. pulp essays take a bow!), but overall they get a skim at best, because I really just want to enjoy the comic without too much commentary hanging over it.

none of the strips really stood out to me at all. Doubt I'll be spending another $7.99 on the next installment.

Top 3, imo, possibly GOAT

to not buy this

Just so I can be the first

Mitt Romney #1?
Regional Manager of Target Sales #1?

I dunno -- I think I'd still rather read the Target Guy book.

with a big red line through it, just to make sure

Like a restraining order for comics?

Is CYCLOPS #1 the comic that changes everything??

so when it's worth $.03 next week, I can make a profit?

if so, does anyone know how "faithful" it was to the comic? I haven't read a Wolverine story in so long, I guess I didn't realize how weird they'd made his whole schtick at this point. I wonder if I'd like the comic more if it didn't have Hugh Jackman, I dunno...

Deadly Class #1: Dug the art and layouts but was surprised at how typical this was. It was predictable to the point where I was actually surprised at how predictable it was. I assume Remender is playing a long game here but I don't feel compelled to see what it is. C

Manifest Destiny #1: Actually kinda dug this, felt like a fresh spin on a familiar premise. Lewis & Clark is not something that I've spent a lot of time thinking about since Louisiana Historyback in junior high so that angle was kinda cool. B+

>Deadly Class #1: Dug the art and layouts but was surprised at
>how typical this was. It was predictable to the point where I
>was actually surprised at how predictable it was. I assume
>Remender is playing a long game here but I don't feel
>compelled to see what it is. C

I got the first 2 or 3 and just couldn't get very excited about it.

>Manifest Destiny #1: Actually kinda dug this, felt like a
>fresh spin on a familiar premise. Lewis & Clark is not
>something that I've spent a lot of time thinking about since
>Louisiana Historyback in junior high so that angle was kinda
>cool. B+

I thought #1 was pretty cool but it bogged down quickly for me. Folks are still going nuts over it; justin scott reported copies going in the $40 and up range a while back.

>Deadly Class #1: Dug the art and layouts but was surprised at
>how typical this was. It was predictable to the point where I
>was actually surprised at how predictable it was. I assume
>Remender is playing a long game here but I don't feel
>compelled to see what it is. C

First issue really only interested me in the art style. The second issue got much more interesting. Yeah, sure, it can be boiled down to something like "Breakfast Club at a school for assassins" but that sounds like a cool premise to me anyway. Either way, the feel of the book doesn't take flesh until the main character starts meeting his classmates. It's just like a twisted high school teen drama, set specifically in the era that Remender grew up in. So yeah, take whatever you want away from #1, stupidly the series doesn't really reveal itself until #2.

>Manifest Destiny #1: Actually kinda dug this, felt like a
>fresh spin on a familiar premise. Lewis & Clark is not
>something that I've spent a lot of time thinking about since
>Louisiana Historyback in junior high so that angle was kinda
>cool. B+

Yeah, frontier setting = cool as hell. It keeps up with being interesting and Lewis + Clark are great protagonists, but I'm worried it's walking a fine line with over-mining some horror tropes.

I mean, fIREHOSE's 'Ragin' Full On' album is one of my favorites, but Remender seems to go out of his way both in the book and the afterwords to emphasize the bad-assedness of HIS '80s experience. *shrug*

Killers #3's got that thing. That thing being: a guy who pulls of other people's fingers for a living.

Really enjoying the new series.

Other books picked up today:

U.S. of Murder Inc. #1. I'll be disappointed if there's not at least one Ja Rule joke in it.

Return of ZITA THE M*********KIN' SPACE GIRL! Loved the first two books, kids will be very excited to read this.

Bee and Puppycat #1 - will read with the idea the kids may like it. Premise sounded fun, artist from Adventure Time. Or something.

Sonic U. # whatever. My boy will be happy.

Starlight #3. Looking forward to this; first two were a great mix of classic pulp and contemporary vibe. Would be better if Allred were illustrating, but that could be said of most comics.\

Zero #7 - missed this one a while back so scooped it from the racks (they were out last week, when I picked up #6 again by mistake - dammn multiple covers and small/hidden issue numbers). REad it. Realized that, like Mind MGMT and maybe a few others, I don't really care about the entire story arc because each issue is so good it can stand on its own beautifully. This one screwed with my perception of the timeline, unless that wasn't Zero. I dunno.


Annd previous week REVIEWZ:

Also: FATALE! Dammit. I've had this for a while but didn't read it until last week. An entire issue on the Bishop... damn, man. Doesn't exactly give us his life history but fills in some stuff that's only been hinted at, and gives us a decent recap of others. Can't believe there are only two issues left, that's a bummer since this has been so consistently amazing, but I'm really excited to see how it plays out.

Mind MGMT #21, I think - silent issue, cool stuff, fight in Rome not playing out at all like I thought it would. Feels like this is much further along than the halfway point in the series, especially if the shit goes down like it looks like it's going to go down. Crazy ole Kindt.

Rat Queens #6 - didn't recognize the title so assumed (wrongly) it was a #1. Not bad, not great. Reminded me of, I dunno, Brian Wood imitating Bendis writing Fables. B+

The Woods #1 - Not sure why I know then name James Tynion V but I picked this up to check it out. Not really impressed. The Beyonder meets that latest Predator movie with the hot chick on the strange planet/alien hunting grounds. C

Dead Letters #2 - another quasi-fantasy/noir mashup. It's not awesome, probably won't continue. Way BOOM talks though it's a massive hit. Guess that's just by their standards...

THink I had a few other out-of-the-way titles in last week's stack that I read, will doublecheck and see if we can't get COTW poppin'

Did that jump ahead quite a bit?

I'm interested in where this is going?

http://youtu.be/Yj0l7iGKh8g
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I mean it looks pretty mediocre but did you see all that FAST RUNNING?!?!?!

As I said. HYPED

I was just disappointed my 9 y.o. didn't know who Weather Wizard is

There is murder and love triangles and sexy leather-clad assassins, but it's all very safely PG-13. I know that's probably still the wrong age, but "adult" isn't quite the right lable...

sooooooo

I'm pretty excited for this.

I've watched 2 half episodes of Arrow (pilot and the season 2 finale just because I was home on a wednesday with nothing else on) but I can see adding this to the DVR.


"I halfway hope people put "btw, rappers lie and shit" on CD covers, like a parental advisory sticker." - OKP Villain

www.twitter.com/lexlamont

both Avengers books were fillerific.

A friend mostly talked me into leaving the idea of monthlies behind and waiting for the trade, mostly because of the extras (sketches, etc.) that often are included. Also, they just seems easier to store and I don't always have time to get down to the shop. Anybody else doing this/ thinking about it?

I've been getting caught up in the hype and not wanting to wait for cool shit like Silver Surfer, Ms. Marvel, etc. Also, some books I wanted to buy in a show of support so they don't immediately get cancelled (Pretty Deadly, Trillium). I've bought every issue of DD since Samnee came on and now that the new series started I've sorta felt like I would have rathered have it all in book form without ads.

May look into selling purchases from the last few years and switching to the trades - don't know how good shops are about that. Don't want to end up in a Comic Book Men type segment!

It's just the ritual and sort of nostalgic fun of weeklies that make them worthwhile. But yeah, increasingly when I see a #1 I think to myself, "I'll wait to hear on some buzz, see how later issues look, and then I'll check out the trade." And I never know when trades are coming out, so that can be a bit disorienting. Then again, I barely know with the weeklies, I just hit the shop every Wednesday so I catch the titles I'm looking for.

But yeah ... to be my one buddy, who just waits to hear from me on whatever's hot and then gets the trade. I was thinking I'd prolly check for the Ghost Rider one whenever that ships, because that might be a stupid fun book in the end...

Which is to say random and indefinite

I keep up with single issues digitally for the most part. No ads, no clutter. They're not mine to hold or store in a box somewhere, which in most cases leads to me never reading them again anyway.

Trades are cool, but for long-running series you're still left having to buy a lot of those fuckers and I feel some type of way about dropping $15+ on some shit that ends with "To Be Continued"

Every once in a while I just miss that "ritual" Cel is talking about and go cop some comic book-comic books. So like, I'll have every 6th issue of Daredevil in floppy format and a handful on my phone/ipad at any given time. It's a mess. I've made my peace with it. But that's not to say I recommend it.

good Lord am I glad I didn't pay for that shit.

Almost entirely written by Tony Daniels, mostly penciled by him.

To be fair, he got hit with some Owls tie-ins that screwed with the rhythm, but man, overall I thought it was just bad even without that scheduling difficulty.

Shame, just about anything I read from New 52 DCU seems to cement my decision to abandon Big 2 books. At least the Marvel trades I get are more likely to be entertaining, even if I still don't want to own them.

Jesus is THAT bad too. Soooo glad I learned my lesson from Countdump to Infinite Crap and jumped ship after, what BD #1. Anybody stick with that thing past the first few? I know it had at least a couple early-on defenders here.

On the other hand, Library had Hip Hop Family Tree....

No snark -- I like colorful, pulpy nonsense. Bums me out when comics start getting too serious. The whole point of comics is color, shape, and soap opera style plots -- afternoon soapies for teenage boys.

So yeah, I was cool with Brightest Day. If you want "serious" books, I'm not aware of a single title by EITHER Marvel or DC that would fit the bill.

it's a bit of a saving grace, definitely better than I expected and 'fun' in a lot of the right ways. I know you were big big on JSA back in the day and have championed JL through the new 52, so I can dig all of the fun stuff as long as it's pretty well written, which this was.

I thought Brightest Day wasn't soapy, it was just nonsense and not the good kind.

Clear away all the clutter, let the characters exist solely as their central themes. It's like a Saturday morning cartoon, with better art and a bigger pallette to draw from.

So far I've tried JL proper -- good, JL: America -- good, and I've been wondering if I should dip my toes into JL: International but part of me is afraid of doing too much of a good thing (especially when it seems like winning the lottery pulling such a good thing in a DC book right now).

Brightest Day was old continuity pulp for me -- totally bizarre, really outlandish, but just hammering away on steady plot notes regardless. Soapy stuff more than pulpy stuff, but that's fine by me, too.

>No snark -- I like colorful, pulpy nonsense. Bums me out
>when comics start getting too serious. The whole point of
>comics is color, shape, and soap opera style plots --
>afternoon soapies for teenage boys.

(I mean, I think your phrasing here is bullshit in all fairness but I think I get your meaning!)

And I'm reading a lot of manga too. The "Jump" stuff might be up your alley if you can get past the "color" thing. I read a volume of One Piece the other night that was almost *too much* fun. Like, I didn't entirely know how to handle what I was reading. Craziest looking characters I've ever seen, all fighting and joking on the high seas. With very little concern for conveying anything else whatsoever.

my kids are reading Zelda, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh books with some frequency, so we're at the manga stacks whenever we go to the library.

I tried Trigun. I did NOT get it.

Currently halfway through vol 2 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, surprised how much I'm enjoying it.

Also got something-or-other Blade of the Immortal. Haven't started it yet.

All in all though I'm not jumping into anything with 34 volumes, which is the sort of stuff the library seems to carry the most of (there's a reason the manga books, with a few exceptions, are in the YA section). We'll see what else I get.

I check in with One Piece time to time just to absorb the character designs and action sequences. I don't know that it's all that filling of a meal, but it's fun. And has some artistic qualities I'd like to see more of in my work. Selling 2 million copies per volume is an "artistic quality" right?

Bakuman I am legitimately in love with, despite its flaws. Possibly *because* of its flaws. It was a slow crawl getting through the middle 3 volumes, but at the same time the characters were dealing with their own manga story reaching its middle, and all the difficulties that lie therein. So were the creators just spinning their wheels, or was it all one big meta commentary? No telling. But it's picking up again. I've got about 5 volumes left on this one. Can't quit now.

These things dominate pretty much every library I frequent so I'm glad I'm finding things I like.

The more you sell it, the more I realize the perverse joy of SLABS OF VENGEANCE. Depending on trade returns, may jump in on the weekly...

Or wait! The good shop is doing the 50% off back issues sale this weekend, hrrrmmmmm...

not sure the story is the heat, but the art shore is.

The plot seems to be there just to serve that purpose – I believe the writer has an art background himself, maybe that's got something to do with it.

Too much fun

First page: NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Last page: NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

for completely different reasons

and you definitely weren't lying.

I was worried that this was gonna be another asshole superhero book.

It was actually a likable criminal book!

Then Millar basically puts him through the wringer to the point where there's no telling what kinda guy he's gonna be come issue #2. Which is pretty damn clever come to think of it.

Look, I'm a sucker for super speed. It's basically the coolest super power, in my book. And it's rendered in a really cool way in this issue, once the character discovers the thing that gives him powers (those origin story discovery moments: another thing I'm a sucker for)

There's also a scene with a guy playing chess in a strip club which is a pretty good metaphor for Mark Millar comics in general I think.

"I halfway hope people put "btw, rappers lie and shit" on CD covers, like a parental advisory sticker." - OKP Villain

www.twitter.com/lexlamont

Geez, a guy leaves for a couple of years and everything changes. Go figure.

pick up some milk on the way home.

kind of odd since X-Statix was the first thing I went nuts for in the MU. I didn't even check the credits but it looks like Allred only did some of the inks on it, which doesn't help that much.

In fact I'm not even sure I read #1 of the current series... I know I got that one-shot a while back that was decent, but I don't have any memory of Doop learning to speak English or falling in love with Kitty or whatever.

Hope that's not a serious SPOILER for anyone.

C

I don't really need him on a regular basis like that

(Full disclosure: One of them is mine)

But even if it wasn't I'd be passing this link along. The few of these I've read, I can definitely recommend. And the ones I haven't, I'm excited to check out soon.

http://storybundle.com/

Available on all formats, devices, etc. You name your price! (Minimum $3)

myself included

anyhoo

been reading some comics.

An old JLA 'Worlds Greatest Stories' compilation of key JLA stories. Man, reading some of that old Silver/Bronze stuff - right up into the '80s - can be a real drag. The dramatic narration is awful. I know 'decompression' is sort of a bad word in modern comics but man the show-don't-tell movement was really a boon.

Tiny Titans back in action! Johnny DC might be gearing up for big things... Teen Titans GO is a-ok; Tiny Titans will be greatness (my 3 year old telling me the day after reading it: "Daddy, Brainiac 5 is *awesome*."? priceless); and I'm actually pretty excited about the Scooby-Doo/DCU heros teamup book. Time will tell.
At any rate, I guess DC got tired of Baltazar/Franco pimping out the Tiny Titans model to Dynamite and Dark Horse (Itty Bitty Hellboy wrapped a while ago. but Dynamite is doing Captain Action Cat, which my kids loved.)

Mind MGMT may be starting to lose me... this Magician arc is too complex, much too complex... still try to focus on enjoying the single issues and not sweating the details too badly.

Sovereign is a nice little fantasy read from Roberson. Not bad.

Dead Body Road... didn't really understand the ending that much. Weird. Kind of went from crime to action and while that line is a fine one I definitely enjoy 'crime' more. Much more, I think. Still not a bad mini.

Saw Superman Returns last night. Not very good. I think the 'Superman goes to confession' scene is Daredevil-level bad. The romantic dialogue was also awful even though Amy Adams is a delight. Lots of explosions throughout, but explosions do not a particularly good movie make. Also, the scene where he's first learning to fly? Really cheesy, especially the clip where he's flying over some African savannah. the special effects looked a lot (and a few other times) like the old Donner films. I couldn't figure out if that was a tribute or just bad effects.

Went to my township's smaller library and all their comics were filed either as YA or juniors :-(.