So many people seem to be getting more and more fed up with mainstream comics published by Marvel and DC. Big crazy crossovers are putting off more people than they attract, your favorite character may even be a Skrull, DC has too many various worlds to keep track off and Spider-man isn't what he was, literally. But don't give up hope. If your feeling let down by the old favorites don't despair, there a plenty of totally awesome new comics to feast on.
Resurrection Written by Marc Guggenheim (from Wolverine and Battlestar Galactica), Resurrection is a quiet black and white comic, very much in the same vein as Walking Dead. It's set the day after earth destroying aliens have left and follows the lives of a few survivors as they emerge from bunkers to restart their lives.
Pax Romana Smashing new series by Jonathan Hickman, the guy who did Nightly News last year. It could have been called 'Lets go back in time and kill muslims'. Hickman's got a pretty unique style, his visuals are influenced by mainstream graphic design as much as comics, and this time he applies his skills to a centuries spanning time travel story of the Vatican protecting the Roman Empire by sending a battalion of soldiers back in time.
Infinite Horizon Apparently it's a modern retelling of Homers Odyssey. The reference was lost on me but I enjoyed it anyway. It's about a group of soldiers left behind after pulling out of the middle east, and the start of their journey home. It's also the story of the main characters wife back at home in the US of A.
Northlanders I think this is the first time Brian Wood's done a historical comic, and it's pretty good. It's been said that he's spent ages researching the subject, not sure why the characters are speaking in a modern way then. That said, it doesn't really detract from the story. It's about Sven, a Norseman who's returned home to crack skulls after being told that his dad's died and their land has been claimed by somebody else.
The Twelve J Michael Straczinski does Watchmen for Marvel. Apparently. It's about 12 long forgotten Superheroes who went missing in WWII and how they're woken up in the modern Marvel universe just in time to help an America that needs superheroes with old fashioned values. The teaser image at the end of the first issue kind of makes me think that things aren't going to go too well.
End League. All powerful superhero (a bit like Superman) has accidentally destroyed half the world and reduced us to a MadMaxian existence, and he hasn't told any of the survivors it was his fault. Now he's got a superteam helping survivors and stuff. Really nice artwork.
Suburban Glamour Written and Drawn in full colour by Jamie McKelvie (the guy who drew Phonogram). A small group of teenagers just have a regular teenage time in a rural English town, until one of them starts having crazy dreams and when a new cooler girl moves into town the whole tale takes a weird twist.
In the final issue of The Twelve will one of them cut a deal with Mephisto so that it turns out that, in fact, they all stayed missing after WWII and the series, in fact, never happened?
That's not true! Oh, hang on, does Vertigo count as DC? It does? Wildstorm too? Shit! He's right.
Alas, Mike, I am now about to cut a deal with Mephisto to undo the last few years of continuity and leave you in a dreadful band and Nick and John jobless and at their mums' in Kellington...
(Apologies for making jokes that nobody except Mike and I will understand)
Back on topic..... Infinite Horizon #1 was pretty good, I'm just a bit concerned that this re-telling of The Odyssey has taken one issue to introduce the whole story and now has only 5 issues left!
My favourite comics at the moment, and that I think are consistently delivering every issue, are Punisher (I can't believe Ennis is leaving - tragedy!), Daredevil, Powers and Criminal. And two of those are sort of not Marvel. Kinda.
i just bought infinite horizon, suburban glamour and resurrection today. I'm really liking suburban glamour, especially the ending of issue one, infinite horizon (issue 1) was a really good read and am looking forward to the next issue.
And don't forget the less shiny and new comics that need help at this time of year. Books like Scalped (Vertigo Comics by Jason Aaron & R.M. Guera), which shifts about 8,000 copies an issue despite being one of the most beautifully illustrated and tightly scripted paper artifacts out there.
What's it about? Crime, Native Americans , gambling, yadda, yadda...that stuffs all just tinsel and fairylights, really it's about all kinds of things, but mostly it's about people and is well executed fine as wine entertainment that can have the power, if you let it, to surprise and move you.
Is £1.80 a month to much to ask to help see this comic grow to adulthood without cancellation cruelly cutting it short.
Me, I'll be trying Northlanders and Infinite Horizon. I've yet to receive them but hopes are high. I might try Resurrection (by the writer of BLADE! (Battlestar Galactica! Wolverine! feh!)). Maybe. Jest have to see.
Foundation. Another new series from BOOM studios, the guy's who brought us Talent and Potters Field. It's about a secret society that deciphers Nostradamus' predictions and makes sure they happen. The first issue has a team of 'operatives' acting to prevent a man getting on a plane that's destined to crash. I wonder if it's the same plane from the first issue of Talent...
I picked up The Hood trade on saturday by Brian K Vaughn & Kyle Hotz. Its well good! Its a morally ambiguous tale about a thief who rips off some weird dudes magic boots and cape and er, well doesn't exactly put his new found talents to good use.A suprisingly fresh tale for Marvel ("the House of Ideas" - or lately, House of long winded crossovers with poor endings - I was really enjoying X-Men's messiah complex but the ending is just a massive let down and plumps for another 'shock' ending. Which will probably involve Skrulls.) and generally not the sort of thing they tend to bother with. Terror Inc, when it surfaces is still bloody good. Suburban Glamour is excellent. Much more straight forward and direct with a strong premise, and dammit, the art is amazing. DC's minx imprint has also churned out some interesting stuff. The Plain Janes and Clubbing are well worth a look.
Terror Inc is in deliciously bad taste, f'sure. As is Crawl Space: XXXombies. Guilty pleasures they may be, but pleasures nontheless.
("poor endings"! Why, what about Avengers Disassembled - standing around gabfest with unexplained magic!topping, House of M - small child with The Power appears from nowhere cue unexplained magic!resolution, Civil War - Cappy realises he can't repeal an act of Congress (or whatever it was) by punching his friends in the face - and cries like a girl!..er..wait, I gave up at that point but World War Hulk was supposed to be good, wasn't it? ...)
Anyway, without longwinded badly written continuityfests with billions of tie-ins (that generally don't) the comics industry would die. Fact. And then there would be no Scalped. And CHAYKIN! would have to go back to being a ballroom dancer. No one wants that.
Terror Inc? Is it the same premise as the 90's series only amped up to warrant a "Max" tag?
World War Hulk ended with a whimper.
I'd still recommend The Engineer, and I'm still waiting for the second issue of Deadlander from Dark Horse. And the second issue of Teen Titans Year One should be on the shelves this week.
It is the same Terror Inc concept but a "MAX" approach as you surmised, sir. Very good it is too.
Deadlander is due out February 2008 according to Dark Horse's webbysite. Ish one was awesome with a wealth of beautiful artwork that gave off a vibe redolent of '70s filipino work to my aged eyes. A comedy horror Western, neaty keen-o. Whoever recommended it was spot on. Well played, Sir.
Also, Northlanders #3 is out this week. 'Tis good. Aye, 'tis so.
Awesome! Aaron is of course writing Hairy Stabhands and Firehead Bikeman as part of his Exclusive deal with Marvel. Aaron now writes Exclusivley for Marvel. It's part of his Exclusive contract. Yup, only Exclusive work for Marvel now.
But he had me at: "“Right now, Blaze basically doesn’t give a damn who is or isn’t a Skrull or if Captain America is really dead. He’s got his own problems to worry about and everybody else can go to hell.”" CHAYKIN! may own my heart but you, Sir, with an attitude like that can have my left nut. Jason Aaron: a good writer. Fact! (Don't forget: Scalped & The Other Side by Jason Aaron, RM Guera and Cameron Stewart are right good and all).
And there was always Abe Sapien The Drowning out this week. Did anyone else pick up the Dynamic Forces Project Superpowers thing that OK had on the shelf on Thursday?
Hickman said that Pax Romana would be monthly, he said that six weeks ago. I just read both the Jason Aaron Wolverine and Ghost Rider. Both are pretty good, not up to Scalped standard, but well worth a read anyhow. Not sure where Ghost Rider's going, it seems totally crazy, but Wolverine looks like it's going to be a great, if short, run. The CHAYKIN! issue of Punisher War Journal is pretty good too.
No, you are not. CHAYKIN! is largely derided by the current comics' audience and most of his old fans feel he is now past his prime. So, best of both worlds for The Jew From The Future, then! In fact on one message board someone called CHAYKIN! "a Liefeld for the new Millennium". Which made me laugh heartily. Me, I like CHAYKIN!, always seem to have, always will.
And for his contribution to the comics (primarily developing a whole new word/pictures grammary type affair in the '80s and '90s - it's not his fault everyone ignored it) his name will always be pronounced CHAYKIN! at Cranston Towers.
However, if you have read Black Kiss, American Flagg!,Time2, Blackhawk, The Shadow and Midnight Men and still remain "unimpressed" your mind is an alien thing to me.
Weirdly Pax Romana "feels" very much to me like CHAYKIN!'s '70s experiments in illustrated novels (see Stars My Destination TPB).
Good New Comics: Jack Staff Special #1 by Paul Grist is the hog's udders. Buy ten copies and tell your friends!
The Return Of Scud: The Disposable Assassin! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (Thats me very excited that is) Hey, I've been hanging on for ten looong years for this! Rob Schrab has been tempted out of his self imposed exile to finish his wonderfully imaginative title. basically, its all about the adventures of a robotic disposable assassin who realises that if he kills his primary target, he will self distruct. His primary target is Jeff. A plug headed monster who talks in pop culture soundbites culled from films and tv. Jeff is also female and one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Along the way, Scud meets his faithful friend Drywall. Drywall is a short blue sack cloth covered in zips with buttons for eyes. He is also a prototype stuff collector learning to be a man so he can rescue his mother and brother from storage inside System ( a more advanced stuff collector).After run ins with the mob, Voo-doo Ben, a werewolf that tried to consume the earth by de-evolving into a sentient black hole, the 2020 mr.tuff-guy contest, a Zoo War and spending a short time travelling through time on a wooden horse with his girlfriend, Sussudio, Scud wound up in heaven where angels had imprisoned God. The angels killed scud's girlfriend and have now forced him to return to earth and bring about the apocalypse... check it out, its the nuts!
I picked up issue 3 of northlanders and it's full of blood blood and abit more, it's good stuff and would advise people to buy it. Also got the first trade of the punisher max series for a fiver(well chuffed with that! nice one OK Comics!) and it's the shiznay, the artists must have been lookin at some recent clint eastwood pictures because the close ups of the punisher look alot like him...
Incognegro (Graphic Novel) For people who don't know, Incognegro is a term used for black people who are able, and choose to, 'pass' for white. This graphic novel, set in the 1930's, is about ones such guy, a New York news reporter, who uses his ability (for want of a better word) to infiltrate Klan lynchings and expose the people responsible. In this story the person about to be lynched is the reporters brother, so he travels south to try to free him. What follows is a race against time murder mystery with more twists and turns than Lombard Street (wikipedia it). The story is filled with tragedy, touches on other aspects of 'passing' and highlights much of the bigotry and contradiction of the era. Good stuff, well worth a look.
Sword I haven't been a big fan of the Luna Brothers in the past, both Girls and Ultra left me a bit cold. But Sword is totally different. Issue 1 is about a paraplegic girl living with her parents. One night their home is invaded by people who think her dad's some guy called Demitris, they keep asking him about the sword, but he doesn't seem to know what they're on about. So the guys kill the family, except for the main character, but as the house is burning down and she's in a wheelchair barely able to move they think the fire'll finish her off anyway. But as the floor underneath her collapses she finds herself in the basement. Crawling away to safety she grabs hold of something. The sword. The next few issues follow her as she deals with the powers that the sword gives here, as she learns the truth about her dad and goes on the run from the police and organization that killed her family. It gets a bit blood thirsty. Issue 5 is out on Thursday 14th, as I type this we've still got the first 4 issues in stock.
Little Nothings French comic book artist Lewis Trondheim is often referred to as a genius. His latest book to be translated into English is a great example of why he's held in such high regard. Little Nothings: Curse of the Umbrella is a collection of his blog entries, painted in watercolour. At first it seems like they're just single page snapshots of life, but as the book progresses a larger narrative is revealed. Trondheim writes about himself, his family, his friends and the everyday things that amuse him. The book features a trip to Angouleme, guest starts Moebius and includes a good bit of CSI bashing.
Issues 2 of Pax Romana and End League, and issue 3 of Resurrection are all due this week. As well as Raven (by Damion Scott), Northlanders, Young Liars 1 (by David Lapham), Deadspace (new Ben Templesmith science fiction horror), Twelve, Brian Vaughan and Eduardo Risso's Logan, Streets of Glory, Omega Unknown and of course, the best comic on the shelves... Scalped. What a great week to be into comics!
And this week there is also CHAYKIN! (Punisher War Journal), you all love him. I'll have a copy of Eduardo Risso's Logan. What's it about? Is it a totally original creator owned property? Does Risso never sleep? I can hardly wait. Oh, and Lapham should be interesting. Scalped! Wheee!
Hopefully he'll also be a bit absent minded but manage to be quite good at what it is that he does do. Oh, and have sideburns like great black crows wings. He needs a better name than "Logan". I'll have a think...
"Logan is about a mutant wolfman with claws for hands and super fast healing wounds. He has a Japanese girlfriend, with adventurous consequences" ~ what like he takes a job in a sushi bar or something? Or takes up topiary like Edward Scissorhands?
Could I also point out that Joe Hill's Locke & Key hit the shelves last week and it wasn't bad. And for those of you who picked up on my earlier recommendation OKO tells me that second issue of The Engineer is due in this week.
It's not a joke, apparently The Azz said he had "failed" us. That's right, sir, you failed us. You loon, no one wants an intelligent and challenging experiment in mature genre storytelling. We want........Marvel Apes. (chr1st.) Sort yourself out man, go on. What were you thinking?!
Calm down, man! They only just announced it at SomethingCon. It'll be here soon. Then Marvel Zombie Apes. Then Marvel Zombie Skrull Apes. Then Marvel Zombie Skrull Muppets Apes With Big Chest Jellies. Getcha pre-orders in now! Ooooh, if I thought you were serious...why I oughta....
Buy Scalped.
Excellent. I love Outland ,it's better than Alien. "That's a Marshall joke." Really I know it's High Noon in space and makes little sense, but the awesome sets and this Conneryism: "My men? My men are sh1t." save it. Goona SkyPlus it right about.....now.
Oh you were kidding. I've just been going through my indispensable pile..... of Previews back issues looking in vain for it. It would have gone well with my collection of Another Brainless Marvel Comic That Ends With Magic crossovers. Sorry I meant Secret Invasion. Think I'm going to have to stick to reading Groo. At least you know everything is intentionally dumb.
Keep an eye open for some of the foreign horror on BBC4 over the next week.(Sorry Sir, but I have to sign off).
(Hopefully it's another wacky HA! HA! like that Marvelboy blog.)
r.e. Secret Invasion: In response to your (days) earlier post I forgot to say, "Ho! "Cash-cow" and "Skrulls"! I geddit." But I forgot. I did geddit though!
I was kidding about Outland being better than Alien.
I bought Scalped, and d'you know, I like it. I feel absolutely no empathy for the main character, but I love all the intrigue in the premise. What's Outland? The only Outland I know about was a really bizarre newspaper strip that used to run in the Funday Times supplement of the late 1980s in the Sunday Times (can you see what they did there?!). the strip was dropped when one episode had an old lady pulling a guy out of a pink car and beating him over the head with a handbag whilst screaming "You Horrible Lesbian Man!!"
Outland ~ if I remember rightly Berke Breathed's spin off from the excellent Bloom County with Opus and Bill The Cat. The Outland showing tonight is as good a cracking piece of science fiction film. And there's no penguins in it.
Aww. I like penguins. i saw loads of them flying on the news a week or three ago. It was ace. I will try and remember to do the watching of the film.yes yes yes
