New Comic Book Day Megathread

[Hawkmumbler]

OK, lets cut to the chase. Johnny Red #1 is the mutts nuts and you should go and buy it right now! Ennis crafts a terrific introduction to Johnny for those who haven't read his previous adventures (raises hand guiltily). Splended art work from Page and is a superb fit for the dog fight scene. More, I say!

Rob Williams is a man to keep our eye on, he might be a good fit for Dredd if his new series Unfollow is anything to go by. #1 sets up the world nicely and add's a layer of mystery on top, as well as feeling all too close to reality. Excellent, compelling stuff. Spurrier and Fraser knck it out of the park again with Doctor Who 11th #2. And, once again ABSALOM DAAK IS BACK HELLLLLL YEEEEAAAHHHHH. Ahem. Yea, it was good fun.

Weekly Shonen Jump #49.  Look, I know your sick of me only talking about My Hero Academia, but i'll talk about something else next week, but good lord how much character development does Kohai pack into one chapter? Wonderful comic, one of my favourite in my pull list right now.

Jojos Bizarre Adventure Battle Tendency vol.1 is pure Jojo madness and utterly delightful. Vampires, martial arts, excessive posing and buckets of gore. Love this series to death.

[Hawkmumbler]

And besides my usual haul I also nabbed a number of graphic novels (pft! Comics!) this last week. Firstly a title I bought in the digital monthlies but love  so much double dipped as soon as a trade was avilable, Tarantino and Wagners Django/Zorro. A high noon, dust kicking, hirse riding jow of a western with splendid art and a perfectly complememntary title duo both in character and writing team. Highly recomended on my part, still available for pre-order bow but some of us got lucky and recieved it early it would seem.

Continuing my Jack Staff reading with Echos of Tomorrow and Rocky Realities, Grist's unconventional superheroics make for just my cul of tea and it's probably become my favourite superhero comic of all. So much clicks with me, from the brilliance that is Tom-Tom the Robot (Wo)Man to Comander Fawkes incredibly lame Womble type shuttle, the excellent juxtoposition between serious actions and reprocusions and the silly nature of Jack himself as a completely lame hero ("If all else fails, just hit it with a big stick!") and the fact their isn't a single weak link in the entire supporting cast (though Charlie Raven kind of just....vanished and I would have murdered for more of The Spider) truely make's for an engaging read. Such a wonderful series, highly recommended on my part.

Legends of the Dark Knight by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle is something quite, quite special. It's a delightful period in the Batman pantheons and mixes all the best aspects of the Burton movies with Grants own skill with the pen and grafts what is, for me at least, the perfect vision of Gotham only rivald by Bruce Timms magnum opus. Calling in many superb aspects of the DC universe at large and, rather than making the narrative tone change in their presence they are grimmed up for their time in Batmans domain. I know making superhero's grim and dark is a notion thats been utilised to the breaking point but Grant never seem's to stray too far from the nest and always maintaines a joyful lashing of humour to undercut the more dark sequenses. I'm very much looking forward to the second volume, and my love for the Batman has been rekindled once more.

Savage Dragon Archives 4 continues delight, after the events if the previous volume I'm beggining to see how current issues tie into these early one's. This period also introduces Mr. Glum, which came as something of a surprise as I would have thought a villain still active to this day would have had his debut more recently. Larsen appears to just have a complete blast at writing this most comic booky of comic books with outrageous characters (particularly loved the Aussie Crocodile goons) and action set pieces, and being reproduced from the original art work in B/W makes these incredibly affordable and make for a, in my opinion anyway, superior reading experience than in colour.

[TordelBack]

I bought nothing except 2000AD this week, but the Boy got a collection of Kanan: the Last Padawan Nos. 1-6.  It was the first Star Wars comic I've enjoyed in some considerable time, loads of reading for the money too. 

Actually, this brings me to a tangential question.  Do any of the wiseheads on this thread know a source of cheap old Beano annuals, or better yet collections?  The Boy and his friend-who's-a-girl devour them whole, but I can never seem to find old ones in charity shops, sales etc., and postage on hardbacks on eBay is a killer.

[Jim_Campbell]

I really don't get time to read many comics, with only The Spire and Tokyo Ghost occupying my precious non-2000AD reading time, both of which are great.

However, I've had the distinct pleasure of actually enjoying just about every book I've worked on this year, and I've been reading them as much as I've been lettering them. Skimming this thread, it's amazing that I've lettered somewhere north of 5,000 pages this year and none of you fuckers have read any of them, so I'm going to plug a few!

Giant Days (John Allison; Lissa Treiman) — I've mentioned before, but a comp of the rather lovely TPB collecting #1-4 arrived a few days ago and I can't recommend it highly enough. Three English girls go to university. That's it. Except that it's both charming and very, very funny. Buy it.

We Can Never Go Home (Matthew Rosenberg; Josh Hood) — #1-5 are currently being collected as a TPB due to come out very soon. Given that #1 currently goes on eBay for substantially more than I got paid for lettering it, I'm assuming the original issues are in short supply! Imagine Malick's Badlands, set in the 1980s, and the protagonists had superpowers.

Burning Fields (Michael Moreci & Tim Seeley; Colin Lorimer) — 8-issue mini that wrapped recently so I suspect the TPB will be along shortly. The description 'Zero Dark Thirty meets the Thing' doesn't accurately represent the plot, in the same way that 'Dirty Harry meets District 9' doesn't summarise Dredd, but does capture the tone perfectly. Take the murky, post-military world of Iraq under the private security companies, then drop in a really nasty supernatural threat.

Rowans Ruin (Mike Carey; Mike Perkins) — #2 (of 4) is out now. Neat take on the haunted house genre. I've just finished #3 and I can't wait for #4.

Dept of Monsterology Book 2 (Gordon Rennie; PJ Holden) — I shouldn't have to tell you what this is like! If you liked Book 1, Book 2 is like that only more so. It's being serialised as digital only on Comixology with a TPB due out 25th November.

...That'll do for now. More pluggage soon. :-)

Cheers!

Jim

[Colin YNWA]

Continuing my Jack Staff reading with Echos of Tomorrow and Rocky Realities, Grist's unconventional superheroics make for just my cul of tea and it's probably become my favourite superhero comic of all.

Legends of the Dark Knight by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle is something quite, quite special.

That is some pretty fanned fine reading right there. I mean two of my absolute favourites. Just classic comics.

I'll be buying Django Zorro very soon. Wagner's (the other one) Zorro was a glorious thing which I'll be re-reading soonish so intend to throw this in the mix.

Sorry Mr Campbell but I do intend to get Dept of Monster thingies in collection... is the first in the wild yet?

[Colin YNWA]

I bought nothing except 2000AD this week, but the Boy got a collection of Kanan: the Last Padawan Nos. 1-6.  It was the first Star Wars comic I've enjoyed in some considerable time, loads of reading for the money too. 

Actually, this brings me to a tangential question.  Do any of the wiseheads on this thread know a source of cheap old Beano annuals, or better yet collections?  The Boy and his friend-who's-a-girl devour them whole, but I can never seem to find old ones in charity shops, sales etc., and postage on hardbacks on eBay is a killer.

I'm no expert and it depends what you mean by old but Amazon has loads for bobbins though this might fall into the postage trap?

[Fungus]

The coming glut of good stuff led to me trying a few #1's the other day. Too dangerous to leave new series on the pile, what if you end up with a run of Crossed +100 and hate it? 

With that in mind, from memory:

Karnak #1
I've no real interest in the SHIELD associations, but everything else clicked for me. Witty too, which I didn't expect, and nicely realistic art. Didn't recognise the cover as Aja, but it's clear when you look again.

Doctor Strange #1
A revelation, and wildly entertaining. Art you simply have to pore over, and a great intro to the character (including found art on page one to show the lineage). My first Aaron comic too. Bachalo I can see is a much more accomplished artist than I remember from Shade, The Changing Man days (I've been 'away'...). Beautiful stuff. Reminded me a lot of Elektra, and I loved Elektra.

Art Ops #1
Had high hopes for this and it fell flat, for me, anyway. Events just felt horribly contrived, and didn't like any characters. Tried far too hard to be cool, and that's a turn-off. No #2 on this one.

Tokyo Ghost #1
Big fan of Remender so this was a sure bet, really. Murphy's style is dynamic but so sketchy at times that I'm not a huge fan. Lots of fine detail to find but when the story is as fast-paced as this (as in much of Black Science) I think intricate art works against the story itself. Got to admire the imagination that goes into this though. Very solid, and the back matter says it'll shift around focus each issue which should help build this into something special.

[Hawkmumbler]

Art Ops #1
Had high hopes for this and it fell flat, for me, anyway. Events just felt horribly contrived, and didn't like any characters. Tried far too hard to be cool, and that's a turn-off. No #2 on this one.

Well...well....your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

But seriously, I get what your saying and Art Ops #1 wasn't without fault. But I still really liked it anyway.

[Colin YNWA]

I was thinking about picking up Art Ops BUT too many other new things starting (also see James Bond) and what not meant I gave it a miss.

This split opinion makes me want to try it to find out as I do love me a bit of Allred.

[Hawkmumbler]

Oh! Theirs also the new Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata serial, Platinums End from Viz. I'm...indiferrant to Bakuman and find Death Note an embarasing smear on my comic book collecting life. All in all I find Tsugumi Ohba a vastly over rated writer.

But sadly,mi'm in the same boat as the Viz crew. Takeshi Obata is a master, and iho's work has languished in popular canon for a decade now and even despite the recent failure of Gakkyu Hotai (RIP you had so much to offer) he keeps bouncing back and to his credit, the illustrations in #1 are of his usual high calibur. Such a shame then that the script ticks all the typical Ohba cliches. Not one i'll be continuing to peruse.

[Link Prime]

Bachalo I can see is a much more accomplished artist than I remember from Shade, The Changing Man days (I've been 'away'...). Beautiful stuff.

Strangely, for me Bachalo peaked in the early to mid 90's (around the time of the Death mini-series' and his initial stint on Generation X / Generation Next).
Having Mark Buckingham as his regular inker at the time probably helped mind you...

[Tjm86]

Bachalo I can see is a much more accomplished artist than I remember from Shade, The Changing Man days (I've been 'away'...). Beautiful stuff.

Strangely, for me Bachalo peaked in the early to mid 90's (around the time of the Death mini-series' and his initial stint on Generation X / Generation Next).
Having Mark Buckingham as his regular inker at the time probably helped mind you...

I've always felt the same.  I tried his Steampunk series but I found it too heavy on the eye.  A bit like Clint Langley.  It is gorgeous to look at but a sod to read.  The colouring doesn't always help either.

[Hawkmumbler]

'Insert imaginative opening sentence because i'm too lazy to think of one'

Kicked off the week with Weekly Shonen Jump #50 (well fuck only two more issues in the year) and all is as per. One Piece lets the mystery of the living island continue to trickle through, Toriko has a very exposition heavy chapter (get to the Wolf King already!), and Bleach drops a bomb shell I saw coming a mile off. Oh and Nisekoi is apparently going to end soon. Sweet.

The Maxx #25 is just sublime. How on earth we got to a comic where the protagonist is now a horse, hiding pink fairies with a sexually conffused teenager I have no idea but by golly gosh if it isn't just the damndest most enteaining comic on the stands i'll eat my hat. Must get atound to buying ose hard covers, the series desserves a place on my (real life) shelf.

War Stories #14 is the last straw. I'm not finding this current tale engaging enough to sustain myself from month to month. I might be inclined to trade buy the run at a later point, or jump back on once a new artist has taken over but frankly it's been trying my patientce for a while now and something needs to budge. Such a shame.

Limbo #1 is a title I wasn't aware of until our resident Jim Campbell pimoed it up on social media. I enjoy a good amnesiac smystery (see Jojolion) with a good dolop of noir (but not entirely sure this fits the noir stereotype but I got vibes) so i'll be sticking with this for another issue or two at least. Gorgeous art as well so a big thumbs up.

[Jim_Campbell]

Sorry Mr Campbell but I do intend to get Dept of Monster thingies in collection... is the first in the wild yet

The ethically sound Hive are sold out, but Amazon has a few copies left.

Cheers!

Jim

[Proudhuff]

War Stories #14  or jump back on once a new artist has taken over but frankly it's been trying my patientce for a while now and something needs to budge. Such a shame.

I have too agree here, I'm all for supporting new artist and allowing them to develop, but I have become fascinated by the man's drawings of trousers! Once you notice there is no going back, its like when King Charles elongated arm is pointed out to you, you can't ever see it 'normal' again.