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New Comic Book Day Megathread

Started by The Adventurer, 08 March, 2012, 09:36:36 AM

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Proudhuff

DDT did a job on me

Colin YNWA

Have we really neglected this thread of threads so long. You folks not reading comics?

Anyway I'm back with a bit of a mixed bag of stuff... which means there was some bum steers I guess this haul. Lets look at that shall we.

Kamandi Challenge 8 is showing this series is indeed becoming a challenge to read alas. I love the concept of getting loads of creators to construct a tale one after the other BUT much like the orginal DC Challenge it doesn't quite work.Which is a shame as often its lovely to look at, as this time with some astonishing Steve Rude art. Still I'll see it out and judge it on re-read some day.

Judge Dredd - Blessed Earth 5... hmmm I've been enjoying this series but this issue didn't quite work, it felt too loose and unexplained. How is Dredd functioning, who is the skeleton? what the the heck happened to Mean. Often that kinda thing is good. I mean you shouldn't know it all and a story should have mystery to pull you long. Just felt too much here.

Doctor Who 11th 3rd 9 as fun almost enough. Just felt a little DW by the numbers. The INJ Culbard art was a delight mind.

Rocket Girl 9 we've waited a long time for this and I'm just not invested any more. I've struggled with this series before and on re-read its really worked and think I need to do that again when this arc is over (will that be the end of the series I wonder?)

Elsewhere 2 was a lot less gripping than the first issue, which isn't really a surprise. Our heroes escape, if all is as it seems, felt completely lame. As if the villain had to be introduced to the heroes Ming style but once achieved the escape was very fiunctionally hacked out to move the story on. Still that aside it builds well enough and now a little internet research has told me who D.P. Cooper is (I'd never heard of him before) its all the more interesting.

Lucky the last 4 are all gems. Lazarus X+66 2 continues to show the value in this 'break' mini's vignette's really nice. As is Paklis 4 really its Amnia Cycle + other stuff, but the other stuff is really interesting - I adored the 2 page intro this month and Amnia Cycle is fascinating so all good. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 22 continues this joyous arc and the great news is however badly from the data we have available this comic is doing its starting a new arc in issue 25! Wayhey.

Pick of the haul though is Black Hammer 12. You might think that the constant side steps this series takes from the main story would kill its momentum, but far from it. The serve to add to the world building and they work really, really well. This one is no exception and this series continues to delight.

Colin YNWA

A mini Though Bubble haul before I finish my pull list haul and the only question is which will be better as they are both shaping up to be stella.

The Thought Bubble stuff I bought in 'floppie' and hence bypass the read list (see you new Cinebook, see you in a couple of years...) was formed of just two titles, but both of them were pretty incredible.

Firstly I bought the last three issues of Helena Crash from the lovely Warwick Johnson Cadwell... so that the either mini less issue 1. I ended up struggling to find the remaining issues but was so glad I picked them up at TB as its a really fun story. Its just great, high octane fun elevated by Mr Cadwell's quite exceptional art. I imagine its not to everyone's tastes but I just think he's an immense talent and would love to see him get a crack at the Prog. His art has such zest, energy and style that it fair leaps of the page. So yeah I guess this will get a trade soonish and you should all flick through it. If you dig the art pick it up its a real treat.

So while those comics were very, very good they can't top the frankly exceptional Cowboys and Insects by David Hine and  Shaky Kane. Oh made this 50's paranoia masterpiece is just sublime. From Mr Kane's exquisite to Mr Hine's frightful story. Its an absolute masterpiece. From transfixed kid eatting his fried wings while giant stag beetles clash, to the horrific insect lynching and feeding at the end. Its a stunning reflection on conformity overcoming love and hope. Its just superb and I heartly recommend anyone picking it up.

This comic as a story even topped the beautiful newsheet The Spirit special from Sean Phillips and others. As an object there are few things as great as this but as a comic its a little choppy. It has some real highlights, Michael Cho, Seth and Brubaker and Phillips but some duff notes, Ross and Hitch is pretty weak. Still its a thing of glory and I wouldn't swop it for anything.

Colin YNWA

Just me then... well never let it be said that'd stop me...

So my Thought Bubble haul was good, my poor regular haul will pale in comparison. Hell no my regular comics stand tall to the task. bangs its chest and screams

"If those fools aren't buying us (that being the comics that constitue Colin's haul) they are fools, I SAY FOOLS to a man (or woman, or none defined gender) and they don't deserve the 9th Art"

So listen well, less you be fools (christ that fuckin' annoying advert seems to have sunk in) these comics are good, no GREAT...

... well except Doctor Who 11th - 3.10 - Lost Dimension 4 - fuck me this pissed me off. I mean this series is barely hangin' then it throws in a cross over I couldn't give two fucks about. Be look to see out this season this comic will.

Still to better things and Si Spurrier's latest Angelic 1 is a complete trimuph of a first issues. Flying monkeys trying to make a young female conform as they battle flying killer Dolphins.... yep so much packed in, so much fun, such a nice use of future speak that doesn't throw you out the story and bad joke reveal at the end works a treat. In many a haul this would be book of the haul, alas magnificent as this is its got stiff competition.

We get to some endings after our beginning Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 23 ends this arc and ends with a VERY sad seperation. Christ this was such tear jerking fun. Black Hammer 13 ends this current run (I think - this is returning as a new series I seem to of heard?) anyway ends on a right ol' reveal and this remains one of the best comics on the stands now or any other time. Paklis 5 ends this run of this book but annoyingly without ending anything and infact opening a wonderful new story 1949. Still I forgive it cos its so good and its just being honest about the fact we got a bloody long wait until the next issue.

The middles are almost to a stapled wonder as good as the beginning and the ends

Lazarus X+66 3 if only all fill-in mini's while the artist gets ahead of the main series were this good. These done in one side stories are made to feel so essential. Glorious. Kill of be Killed 12 is really cranking things up. Man this is getting scary tense. Is Dylan really going to do that, well we know he is but Jez think on it will ya son. Francavilla, The Spirit Corpse-Makers 4, nuff said.

This time even Mage 2 can't snatch the haul, even being sublime as it is.

No that honour goes to Tom King's and Kevin Eastman's Kamandi Challenge 9 this series has suffered from its chaotic creative process but shit me sideways this issue is just absolutely brilliant. Could all this fuss about Mr King to true. Well if this self contained yet open ended, black and White (yes a black and white mainstream DC Comic) about a boy and some animal folk trapped in a single cave / room for 237 days then maybe it is. In this comic we foiund the Awesome. Get it.

In fact (Doc Who aside) get all my comics (and by my I of course mean just the comics I buy) cos these comics are fuckin' good!

Know you lot tell me about your will ya!

Fungus

I'm out the loop. No pull-list these days and prog & meg & Hachette's excessive offerings are taking their toll.

Which is to say... I promise myself I'll get back to Black Hammer, Kill or be Killed, and several others. Must mention Tom King. No surprise he's wowed you on Kamandi (not a title I can see me picking up). Did you catch up with The Vision - or Sheriff of Babylon? Glorious stuff.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Fungus on 01 October, 2017, 02:21:50 AM
Must mention Tom King. No surprise he's wowed you on Kamandi (not a title I can see me picking up). Did you catch up with The Vision - or Sheriff of Babylon? Glorious stuff.

I heard such good things, consistenty I've picked up The Visions digitally. I always get a little nervous when folks rave about writer x or y as I often pick them up (there stuff I mean, I don't hang on street corner with a Transit Van, masking tape and a cellar in wait) and find them, good, often very good, but not special. I'd rather absolutely love um or hate um! The 'Saga Effect' I call it.

But yeah looking forward to that one getting to the top of the pile to find out.

CalHab

The Vision was extremely good. King did a great job of building tension and a sense of impending disaster. Well worth a read.

The Adventurer

King's Omega Men maxiseries is a favorite of mine.

THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

Proudhuff


So that crappy Grass Dredd is annoying me, for not being Dredd..

TWD 172, promises a lot, but I 'm disliking the cosplaying Princess,

Collected Here's Negan, does a good job of his back stoy but no surprises there, very workaday

The William Gibson GN Archangel is in the bag too, I missed the start so looking forward to a complete re-read.




DDT did a job on me

Smith

Dan Dare #1 was okay.Also,Mekon is now Donald Trump.Because ofc he is.

TordelBack

Quote from: Smith on 18 October, 2017, 12:13:32 PM
Dan Dare #1 was okay.Also,Mekon is now Donald Trump.Because ofc he is.

Yeah, 'okay' is absolutely as far as I'd go too.  Always nice to see the old gang, but the redesigns are dull and the dialogue flat.  It's probably not ideal that I had to check more than once to see whether the character talking was Dan or Digby.

I wasn't a fan of the Ennis version, but at least it had a bit of energy.  This is just... okay.

Still, it's Milligan: you can never rule out imminent brilliance from the man who wrote the line "Damn your necrotic eyes!".

Smith

#2261
Yeah,IDK,Milligan ALWAYS deals with themes of identity an sexuality.First 2 or 3 times its brilliant.30th time its not.He tends to repeat himself too much for my taste.

I actually liked Ennis' version a lot.This one didn't have much of a start,but lets see how it goes.

Hawkmumbler

Yeah, Ennis run was white hot brilliant. Not read the new ongoing yet but with Milligan at the helm i'm in for a few issues at least.

Greg M.

Today's visit to the LCS caused me to contemplate the two sides of Pete Milligan's writing. There's the side he reserves for work on existing franchises - competent, gets the job done, his usual post-modern eccentricities reined in and reserved for absurd little dialogue exchanges and central characters questioning their own motivation. That's the Milligan we've got on Dan Dare #1 - a similar Milligan to the one we got on X-Men years ago - but I'll confess, I rather enjoyed it. The Mekon-as-Trump parallel is undoubtedly laid-on too thick, but with dialogue like "What are marrows, lord, compared with your ultimate victory?", the tale has a certain charm. Not at all sure Foche's art is the best fit though - in a parallel universe, Chris Weston didn't just draw the cover.

The Other Pete Milligan - the version that emerges when he gets to write about whatever he likes - surfaces with Kid Lobotomy #1, which is basically a grab-bag of everything you associate with a Milligan comic - insanity, questions of identity, literary allusions and a soupcon of  sexual perversity. The hotel setting is oddly reminiscent of a certain era of Shade, the Changing Man, and the tortured protagonist - if he's to remain the protagonist, that is - is very much in classic Milligan mould. Job done to get me back for issue #2 then.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 18 October, 2017, 02:43:14 PM
Yeah, Ennis run was white hot brilliant.

Yep and while this will have a way to go to get to that standard for me it makes a smacking start. I did wonder how well Pete Milligan would fit into Dan Dare, but he seems to have set an entirely appropriate tone, while leaving some wonderful traces of Milligan there for all to see.

What could have been a trite what is Dare without Mekon came across really well when quietly tidied into Milligan long experience playing with identity. The Mekon as Trump that I'd heard tell about weren't as cliche as one might have expected and worked really well. Over all I found this a plesently light comic, building a sense of forbodding well. Until the exciting finale. All delievered with perfectly servicable if uninspiring art.

For me this was an almost unqualified success and I hope the series keeps this up, we'll see but damned decent start... now to the rest of the haul...