Favorite New Series of the Last 5 Years

[Jim_Campbell]

In the hands of a creative team as comferable with one another as Edginton and D'Israeli, how can it be anything other than a modern classic?

D'israeli seems to have been out of the prog for an uncharacteristically long time... although his blog is largely abandoned, his Tumblr doesn't seem to have been updated with anything much since a process post on the first episode of Helium and his infrequent tweets haven't really been illuminating. I hope he's well, and just too busy with Helium/Low Life/Scarlet Traces/Stickleback to engage with social media...!

Cheers

Jim

[Fungus]

In the hands of a creative team as comferable with one another as Edginton and D'Israeli, how can it be anything other than a modern classic?

D'israeli seems to have been out of the prog for an uncharacteristically long time...  I hope he's well, and just too busy with Helium/Low Life/Scarlet Traces/Stickleback to engage with social media...!

My fave art droid.

Quite busy here (I glance here occasionally).

[AlexF]

I'm pretty much in for anything Tharg throws my way, often pushing beyond actual critical faculties, so it's not a huge surprise to find that I've enjoyed virtually all of the new series listed up at the top of the post.

I want to echo Greg M with this point:

And speaking of strips that need to appear much more frequently, Dandridge is the other one I really like, because it's probably the modern story that best carries on the spirit of Ace Trucking Co / Robohunter - daftness with an edge, and therefore exactly the sort of thing I want to read.

Dandridge, along with Ulysses Sweet and Survival Geeks (and maybe the Alienist?) are actively aiming for out and out comedy. It doesn't always work but these three have hit the mark better than most comedy series since RoboHunter/Ace Trucking (which hardly had a 100% comedy hit rate). I always welcome seeing these strips.

I'd pull out Ichabod Azrael as being a genuine masterpiece, one of the best complete tales ever printed in the comic (Book 2 was a bit of a dip, maybe, but Book 1 is just a joy to read, and book 3 is phenomenally clever).
Brass Sun I think counts as the new Nikolai Dante - you know it's going to be a very long running series, and you know it's actually going somewhere, with a coherent quest narrative, and I'm really hoping it has a satisfying conclusion one day! I agree though that it could do with a few more flights of fancy and a little less plot at times. See also Helium, which is shaping up to be just as good. And maybe Brink, too.

For a series that goes the other way, I loved the Order. I'm sure it has a plot somewhere but I'm damned if I could follow it. However, the setting(s) are so unusual, and the art so glorious, I love it anyway.

Oh, and if we're celebrating new things from the last 5 years, Michael Carroll on Dredd is worth shouting about!

[Colin YNWA]

D'israeli seems to have been out of the prog for an uncharacteristically long time... I hope he's well, and just too busy with Helium/Low Life/Scarlet Traces/Stickleback to engage with social media...!

Cheers

Jim

That list of stories just goes to show how much we need him back in the Prog asap! I'd guess he's working on Scarlet Traces as aren't we meant to be getting some new stuff from that. Personally I'd love to see more Helium to confirm its as strong as I think it is BUT also miss Low Life.... just get him back in the Prog will ya Tharg!

[I, Cosh]

In the hands of a creative team as comferable with one another as Edginton and D'Israeli, how can it be anything other than a modern classic?

D'israeli seems to have been out of the prog for an uncharacteristically long time

It's only a couple of months since all the eejits were complaining about that cracking Sensitive Klegg story.
Scarlet Traces starts right after the current run and I'm sure I remember Rob saying somewhere there's a Low Life story on the way this summer so hopefully he's just keeping busy.

[Dan Banks]

If I remember correctly, he was involved in recolouring the Marvel Miracleman reprints too. The delays involved there will surely have had an effect.

[Southstreeter]

Here's my take on the list.

Ichabod Azrael (2010)         Great stuff - inventive, with fabulous art, though I got a bit lost towards the end
Damnation Station (2010)    Was starting to enjoy this when it ended
Age of the Wolf (2010)       Strangely incoherent and disappointing
Dandridge (2009/2010)     Meh
Absolom (2011)                Best new strip on this list. Love the characters, dialogue and art
Angel Zero (2011)             I can't even remember what this is, so I don't think it made much of an impression
Aquila (2012)                 I want to like this more than I do. I don't mind it
Grey Area (2012)          After a slow start I really got into this and will be sad to see it go. Always good as a fill in when there's a 3 prog gap
The Zaucer of Zilk (2012)     Not really
Brass Sun (2012)            Liked this, but it's slowed down a bit too much recently
Survival Geeks (2013)    Didn't like at first, but it's really grown on me recently - good characters, jokes and art, and now I look forward to it
Ulysses Sweet (2014)    Good for a 3 parter, not for 10 or however long the first series was
Jaegir (2014)        Another excellent new series, good to get the other side of Rogue
Outlier (2014)      It came, it went
The Alienist (2014)      OK, didn't rock my world
Black Shuck (2014)     This is on probation. Good concept, but I thought the story telling was poor first time round
The Order (2015)       Love this. Totally bonkers. Great art. I want to see Isaac Newton in the next one
Orlock, Agent of East-Meg 1 (2015)       Pointless
Helium (2015)         OK, but does feel like Edgeraeli by numbers

So overall, I'd say only Absalom, Jaeger and The Order are the new classics, with Grey Area, Aquila, Ichabod and S Geeks being the runner up thrills. I don't think we've seen much to outclass the millennial wave (Dante, SinDex, Shakara, Kingdom, Savage, Defoe) or indeed the real old school thrills such as Dredd, SD and even ABCs, which go from strength to strength. Having said that, the prog on a bad run is still a decent read.