New Comic Book Day Megathread

[Recrewt]

Ha! Maybe the trick will be waiting for it all to be done then buying the whole series form £1 bins when its finished!

I genuinely could have saved myself 150 Euro with Before Watchmen using that tactic!

HaHa 

Yeah, this time next year they will be using them as chip-paper!

[Colin YNWA]

Well for the second time on the bounce another great haul. Okay pound for pound not quite as good as last time but still pretty damned fine. Okay the let down is once again Batman (27). Year Zero is just plain dragging - do we need to see Bats put throught the ringer yet again, do we need over long scenes revealing character points we've guess already and had confirmed about two panels into the 'reveal' Christ that Gordon bit was not profound, not interesting and about 90% too long, do we need more 'telling' 'character driven' chats between Bruce and Alfred? No, no, no. The worst of it is this comic is making me fall into bad habits. I'm so far into the run I can't see myself letting the series go as I kinda hope it'll pick up to were it was before. Seven issues into this story, five to go... am I really going to stick this out in the hope its picks up at the other end? Will it work better read as one. Will it work better when the series is read as a whole. The trouble is I have a horrible feeling I'll be around to find out!

Animal Man 27 may have similar problems but with only 2 more issues to go sticking around ain't a biggie and I suspect the pay-off will be worth it and to be honest while the last 2 or 3 issues haven't been stella they've been far from bad. Just not as good as this series has been at times.

Rocket Girl 3 was at the tipping point, everything gets three issues before I decide to stick or twist and I was reading this thinking its not doing enough BUT got to the end and thought... well actually I kinda really really want to know more about whats going on. Good sign. Might give the first three issues a quick re-read to make sure but I think I'm sticking with this.

Elsewhere we have winners all round, well art in X-Men Legacy 22 aside, this book deserves a bloody brilliant artist, instead we get the lukewarm bland, mush that is Khoi Pham. Everything looks like its in soft focus, not a fan, which is a shame as as I've said before Si Spurrier is on blindin' form of late and love this book. FF 16 does that trickiest of tricks and give us a stella ending, just great and I'm really looking forward to giving this series a re-read now its done. Wonder Woman 27 and Sex 10 both have great episodes, really enjoyed both. I think I'd give The Massive 19 comic of the haul normally with one of the best parts of whats been a very enjoyable series BUT I think we'll give that honour to The Maxx 3, no re-read needed for this one to get past the three issue barrier, but it might get one anyway as this book has so much too it that I suspect a re-read would give me a completely new slant on whats actually going on, a subsequent one another etc etc. Not cos it loses you, it does that great and incredibly hard, trick of giving you a coherent story while at the same time making you pretty certain you aren't really getting it and there's things in there to explore further that will help. Loving this and can safely see why some think of it as a bit of an overlooked classic.

Happy times in Taylor's Titles Turf.

[The Adventurer]

My Digital Pulls for 1/29/14

2000 AD 1866 - Dredd's twist last week was so obvious I missed it. I can't wait to see where that goes. Strontium Dog continues to be excellent, going to some potentially dark places. I'm liking this evolution of Johnny Alpha a lot.
EAST OF WEST 9 - This series is strange. Not just because of how gonzo weird it is (and it is). But I often forget why I enjoy it, and then I pick up the latest issue and its just sublime. Ultimately I feel it doesn't move very fast, and throws a lot of characters and motivations at us. And not a lot of payoff yet. But. It stays fresh. So I stick with it.
FABLES 137 - Things seem to be going well for Rose Red and the revival of Camelot. I wonder how its all going tits up.
INVINCIBLE 108 - The delay between issues is really starting to get annoying. The preview I read made the relationship breakdown between Mark and Eve a bit hamfisted. Recent solicitations suggest a big break-up in the future. I hope not.
SAGA 18 - You know your series is good when the PREVIEW ends on a cliffhanger and you can't wait to see what happens next.
TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION-ONE 98 - I feel like things are heading to a wrap a little quickly. But its still solid.
WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP 9 - Great line-up this week. Only Toriko missing, but it'll be back next week. Also sees the release of the winner of the Create a Manga contest from last year. I have to admit, I forgot to read the entries and vote. So this is a new story for me.

Pound for Pound one of the more stacked comic weeks in a while.

[Link Prime]

Miracleman 2; Still haven't got round to reading the first issue of this re-release yet. This one has more Moore, Alan Davis, and is two quid cheaper- result.
Saga 18; I'm a few issues behind on the read pile, but sticking with this stellar comic.
Transformers Regeneration One 98; Hurtling towards its climax, maybe at a bit too close to breakneck speed, as The Adventurer mentions. I'm slightly puzzled as to why Furman introduced Jhiaxus as a major player so late in the game- there were more than enough (literally decades long) plot threads to carry this to its conclusion.
Superior Spider-Man 26; Also heading to a conclusion- I'll enjoy Otto's last few issues at the helm.

[The Adventurer]

I'm slightly puzzled as to why Furman introduced Jhiaxus as a major player so late in the game.

Indeed, [spoiler]Primus barely had time to shove the information into Rodimus's head before the guy just showed up on Cybertron's doorstep. I mean, fate and all that, but it had almost no build up. And there's all this other stuff still going on.[/spoiler]

[Hawkmumbler]

Did a cheecky and got Judge Dredd Mega-City 2 despite my restrictions. Enjoyed it but that has it's own thread to disscuss. Also, all IDW Dredd series are currently on sale on Comixology atm.

In the Jump we got the winner of the International Manga Competition, El Viento Del Norte. A kinda sorta cowboy whatsy me call it. I liked it. Great talent from the young contributer and hope they go onto bigger than better tings.

All You Need is Kill still has flabbergastingly good art, as does One-Punch Man and Bleach. Fujitora openly declaring war on the Donquixote pirates behind the fleet admirals back is a great occurrence in One Piece as well. Once again it's only YuGiOh, Nisokoi and Naruto that let the side down but I'm glancing over em by this point. Still, 170 pages for 50p is the best value comic on the market when everything else is gold.

[sheldipez]

May be a dumb idea but would WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP 1 a good point to jump on to this ? How new reader friendly is the current line up, some of these have long history so was cautious to jump on but if we're only 9 issues in of current line up then I may check it out.

[Hawkmumbler]

Weekly Shonen Jump has a free starter pack containing chapters one of Jaco, One-Punch Man, Seraph of the End, World Trigger and All You Need is Kill. Thats probably the best place to start. This weeks issue has chapter two of AYNIS but everything else is surprisingly easy to get into. Well, maybe not Naruto but i'm over that by this point.

[The Adventurer]

Its my experience that Manga in general doesn't follow any kind of 'Jumping On Point' design philosophy. Like at all. Stories go and go and go. And if you want to get on board, either you pick up the latest issue and just wing-it. Or you collect the collected material until you're caught up and can follow it weekly. This is a bit problematic for series like One-Piece that are 700+ episodes at this point.

Its a bit annoying actually, but its just not in the comic culture apparently.

My advice? Jump is so cheap it can't hurt to just jump in. 'Issue 1' (which is just issue 1 of this year's volume) is as good a place as any. Each series does have a recap blub, which can help. But expect to spend a few weeks confused as certain story arcs finish, and new ones pick up.

Some series are more episodic then others. One Punch Man is pretty straight forward, All You Need is Kill is new, Seraph of the End is pretty new, World Trigger isn't hard to get into and new from last year, Toriko is starting a brand new arc... its a crap shoot to where your tastes are going to land you. But there's a lot of variety to be found.

You might want to give the Starter Pack a go, to get a little taste of what you're in for. It presents some of the more accessible recent installments from recent months. Might help you.


My only advice is this. I started reading 2000 AD with Prog 1400. I started reading Savage Dragon with issue 90. I started reading Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with the first issue of the 4th volume of the Mirage Studios run. I started reading Usagi Yojimbo with issue 120-something. I started reading Sonic the Hedgehog with 221. I've never been afraid of jumping into something midstream. And I'm almost always rewarded for it. Your mileage may vary.

[sheldipez]

Checking that site out there's now an android weekly app, which there wasn't the last time I looked into this, so that sure makes it an easy decision.

That's tonight reading sorted when I get the little shits kids to bed, big cheers both!

[sheldipez]

Or maybe not... aparently the android app doesn't support 10 inch tablets.

Nevermind then.

[Ancient Otter]

I started reading Usagi Yojimbo with issue 120-something.

I picked an really late issue of that as well and that's how I got hooked too.

[Hawkmumbler]

Or maybe not... aparently the android app doesn't support 10 inch tablets.

Nevermind then.

Well thats rubbish. It works on my tiny Galaxy Ace so their is nor reason why it shouldn't work on a tablet.

[sheldipez]

Or maybe not... aparently the android app doesn't support 10 inch tablets.

Nevermind then.

Well thats rubbish. It works on my tiny Galaxy Ace so their is nor reason why it shouldn't work on a tablet.

The response from the developer was you can get the app through the amazon android app but that only if you're in the us (the Shonen app simply doesnt show on the uk amazon app or if you're logged in with uk account).

Crazy that they would block it standard google android app. But there you go.

[sheldipez]

Jumped through some stupid hoops to get this onto the tablet. The shonen app can be installed to my galaxy 4 so I did that then downloaded an apk extractor which extracts the actual installer and mailed that across to the tablet and installed it from there. Insane. Dont they want money?!