You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club- Jack London
Looking Forward into November 2009
Hey--! some great new comics a'comin'--
Looking forward, everything based on hope--!
The return of Richard Delgado’s “Age of Reptiles,” surely one of the most beautiful and occasionally provocative dinosaur books ever! Delgado’s two previous “Age” books have been wordless, yet clear in storytelling, and wonderfully drawn. Dark Horse Comics wins again.
“Groo” #2 I can’t expect anything less than cleverly drawn, thought-provoking hilarity (apparently Groo raises swords against big business & the stock market of his time) as they doubtless still haven’t paid Mark Evanier for writing, or translating Sergio Aragones’ artwork or needlessly defined ‘mulch’ more than fifty times.
“Batman/Doc Savage” is a whim-purchase, Azzarello’s writing is off and on for me, Noto’s preview art is drawn well, but unfamiliar to me as a story-teller. I think Doc Savage will dislike the Batman intensely, but Clark Savage will like Bruce Wayne immensely. That could be an interesting reveal. It’s a one-shot; by my personal, arcane pricing method, if there aren’t too many ‘sketch book pages’ it’s expensive ($5/56pages) but fair.
“Warlord” #8 Mike Grell writes and draws this issue, second of two for the character he created way back when. That in itself is reason for hope of high quality entertainment.
“King City” #3 Issue one is quirky to look at, quirky to read, and engaging, clearly a story with a depth of background and an incident-by-incident (‘will it ever all tie together?’) storytelling style. Writer/artist Brandon Graham has street scenes, and injured aliens, and a cat that becomes or produces any tool one happens to need, yet remains a cat throughout. Issue one is promising issue two will be good, too from Image Comics.
“Uncle Scrooge” 385: “New adventures that North American audiences have never seen…a bold new era,” Words and pictures by ‘Various’. Well, it’s worth a shot.
“Mickey Mouse & Friends” 298: Testing the waters, here; Mickey & Company in a Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter seeming setting. Mickey and Scrooge from Boom Comics.
“Queen Sonja” #2 The pace has slowed a good bit, or my interest has, in the initial Dynamite Red Sonja series, but loyalty to the character (ah, thank you, Frank Thorne), and to the best of this series has me taking a chance on the new approach.
“The Ghoul” #1 pairs Steve Niles with Bernie Wrightson. Even if they mess it up, it’ll still read weirdly and look beautiful. A mess-up is doubtful. LA Detective gets help from The Ghoul ‘a monstrous investigator with a reputation for solving the world’s weirdest crimes.” Caveat: “included is an illustrated prose story by Niles;” I hope it doesn’t dominate the comic book. Expensive ($4), but promising, from IDW Publishing.
“Jon Sable” #2 Another genuine, well developed character back in the hands of his writer/artist/colorist creator, Mr. Mike Grell.
“Stumptown” #2 is written by Greg Rucka whose mysteries I’ve liked a lot, going back to “White Out.” This’s tagged as “adventure/sci-fi” and then compared to “Rockford Files” and “Magnum P.I.” both of which I find occasionally entertaining, and “Gotham Central,” “Criminal” and “Stray Bullets,” all of which I find very entertaining… not adventure/sf…but dark detective, and I’m gambling it’s another worth the $4 (but 40 pages) cover-price.
“Action Philosophers” (the “More Than Complete Action Philosophers”) by Fred van Lente (w), and Ryan Dunlavey (a), compiles 320 often laugh-out-loud pages from the comic book series of the dreadfully same name (“Action Philosophers”) which dramatize, illustrate and discuss thoughts and pronouncements from the world’s most acknowledged philosophers…“the most complete comics history of ideas ever put down on paper.” From Evil Twin Comics, it comes with four all-new stories.
“Luke Cage Noir” 4 I’ve read the first issue now and of all the noir settings and characters, I’m glad this is the one I chose to read. It doesn’t seem like a gimmick; it seems like a historical novel. Pretty good for a funny book; for older teens and adults.
“Daredevil” 502 It might be time to take a respite from Daredevil-land; but it might not: Andy Diggle has to match and at least maintain the momentum DD has had for a long time. I’d like to see Matt Murdock flip out entirely and retreat to that happy-go-lucky Hornhead of yore: giggles at the head of the Hand, so to speak.
“Strange” #1 - I’m a Doctor Strange fan from the earliest Strange Tales; one of the first comics I ever read. So I’ve skipped a lot of what came out the past several years, but I’m hopeful, for Mark Waid writes well, and while Emma Rios is unknown to me, I’m willing to give this its chance; the preview art, either by Rios or cover artist Tomm Coker is nicely ‘moody’ and effective in colors and design.
“Spiderwoman” 3; I liked long-ago Jessica Drew as Spider-woman; I liked her in Bendis’ “Alias” appearances; I liked her somewhat radical replacement-history in Bendis’ sort-of-recent ‘origin story’; I’m hoping I’ll still like her in Brian Bendis’ on-going series, with art by Alex Maleev.
“Powers” #1 monthly. They say it’ll be monthly…given how long it’s been between last issue and this, I wonder why. Still, this is one of the most powerful superhero stories I know, given strong, complex characters, unexpected situations, terrific, natural dialogue and sharp, clear, evocative art. Used t’be, anyway. Here’s my vote of hope Brian Bendis (w) and Michael Avon Oeming actually pull it off, monthly, even ten months this year.
And of course, I’m for the next issues of Conan, Usagi, Hellboy, Doom Patrol, Gotham City Sirens, Jonah Hex, Madame Xanadu, Fables and Jack, Unwritten, Echo, Incredibles, Lone Ranger, the Good, the Bad & the Ugly, and--Hulk (the Crimson Crusher).
best wishes, good reading to all!
Looking forward, everything based on hope--!
The return of Richard Delgado’s “Age of Reptiles,” surely one of the most beautiful and occasionally provocative dinosaur books ever! Delgado’s two previous “Age” books have been wordless, yet clear in storytelling, and wonderfully drawn. Dark Horse Comics wins again.
“Groo” #2 I can’t expect anything less than cleverly drawn, thought-provoking hilarity (apparently Groo raises swords against big business & the stock market of his time) as they doubtless still haven’t paid Mark Evanier for writing, or translating Sergio Aragones’ artwork or needlessly defined ‘mulch’ more than fifty times.
“Batman/Doc Savage” is a whim-purchase, Azzarello’s writing is off and on for me, Noto’s preview art is drawn well, but unfamiliar to me as a story-teller. I think Doc Savage will dislike the Batman intensely, but Clark Savage will like Bruce Wayne immensely. That could be an interesting reveal. It’s a one-shot; by my personal, arcane pricing method, if there aren’t too many ‘sketch book pages’ it’s expensive ($5/56pages) but fair.
“Warlord” #8 Mike Grell writes and draws this issue, second of two for the character he created way back when. That in itself is reason for hope of high quality entertainment.
“King City” #3 Issue one is quirky to look at, quirky to read, and engaging, clearly a story with a depth of background and an incident-by-incident (‘will it ever all tie together?’) storytelling style. Writer/artist Brandon Graham has street scenes, and injured aliens, and a cat that becomes or produces any tool one happens to need, yet remains a cat throughout. Issue one is promising issue two will be good, too from Image Comics.
“Uncle Scrooge” 385: “New adventures that North American audiences have never seen…a bold new era,” Words and pictures by ‘Various’. Well, it’s worth a shot.
“Mickey Mouse & Friends” 298: Testing the waters, here; Mickey & Company in a Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter seeming setting. Mickey and Scrooge from Boom Comics.
“Queen Sonja” #2 The pace has slowed a good bit, or my interest has, in the initial Dynamite Red Sonja series, but loyalty to the character (ah, thank you, Frank Thorne), and to the best of this series has me taking a chance on the new approach.
“The Ghoul” #1 pairs Steve Niles with Bernie Wrightson. Even if they mess it up, it’ll still read weirdly and look beautiful. A mess-up is doubtful. LA Detective gets help from The Ghoul ‘a monstrous investigator with a reputation for solving the world’s weirdest crimes.” Caveat: “included is an illustrated prose story by Niles;” I hope it doesn’t dominate the comic book. Expensive ($4), but promising, from IDW Publishing.
“Jon Sable” #2 Another genuine, well developed character back in the hands of his writer/artist/colorist creator, Mr. Mike Grell.
“Stumptown” #2 is written by Greg Rucka whose mysteries I’ve liked a lot, going back to “White Out.” This’s tagged as “adventure/sci-fi” and then compared to “Rockford Files” and “Magnum P.I.” both of which I find occasionally entertaining, and “Gotham Central,” “Criminal” and “Stray Bullets,” all of which I find very entertaining… not adventure/sf…but dark detective, and I’m gambling it’s another worth the $4 (but 40 pages) cover-price.
“Action Philosophers” (the “More Than Complete Action Philosophers”) by Fred van Lente (w), and Ryan Dunlavey (a), compiles 320 often laugh-out-loud pages from the comic book series of the dreadfully same name (“Action Philosophers”) which dramatize, illustrate and discuss thoughts and pronouncements from the world’s most acknowledged philosophers…“the most complete comics history of ideas ever put down on paper.” From Evil Twin Comics, it comes with four all-new stories.
“Luke Cage Noir” 4 I’ve read the first issue now and of all the noir settings and characters, I’m glad this is the one I chose to read. It doesn’t seem like a gimmick; it seems like a historical novel. Pretty good for a funny book; for older teens and adults.
“Daredevil” 502 It might be time to take a respite from Daredevil-land; but it might not: Andy Diggle has to match and at least maintain the momentum DD has had for a long time. I’d like to see Matt Murdock flip out entirely and retreat to that happy-go-lucky Hornhead of yore: giggles at the head of the Hand, so to speak.
“Strange” #1 - I’m a Doctor Strange fan from the earliest Strange Tales; one of the first comics I ever read. So I’ve skipped a lot of what came out the past several years, but I’m hopeful, for Mark Waid writes well, and while Emma Rios is unknown to me, I’m willing to give this its chance; the preview art, either by Rios or cover artist Tomm Coker is nicely ‘moody’ and effective in colors and design.
“Spiderwoman” 3; I liked long-ago Jessica Drew as Spider-woman; I liked her in Bendis’ “Alias” appearances; I liked her somewhat radical replacement-history in Bendis’ sort-of-recent ‘origin story’; I’m hoping I’ll still like her in Brian Bendis’ on-going series, with art by Alex Maleev.
“Powers” #1 monthly. They say it’ll be monthly…given how long it’s been between last issue and this, I wonder why. Still, this is one of the most powerful superhero stories I know, given strong, complex characters, unexpected situations, terrific, natural dialogue and sharp, clear, evocative art. Used t’be, anyway. Here’s my vote of hope Brian Bendis (w) and Michael Avon Oeming actually pull it off, monthly, even ten months this year.
And of course, I’m for the next issues of Conan, Usagi, Hellboy, Doom Patrol, Gotham City Sirens, Jonah Hex, Madame Xanadu, Fables and Jack, Unwritten, Echo, Incredibles, Lone Ranger, the Good, the Bad & the Ugly, and--Hulk (the Crimson Crusher).
best wishes, good reading to all!
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