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Underground > Comic Books >

Comics Read This Month (October 2003)

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04:01 / 17.10.03

X-force Vol 1 & 2

I owned the original issues but lost them when I moved to the states a while back. Bought these, never checked out X-Statix but have been meaning to. Rereading these in trade after a whole year, I'd say this is still very riveting stuff even with all the surprises gone. I hate trades without introductions/forewords etc and I wish they weren't so many of them.

Will buy the Xstatix trades soon hopefully.

New X-Men 148: Already talked about this in it's own thread.

Bizarro Comics: Read this free from the library and it's not worth a purchase. Seeing a Tony Millionaire drawn Batman was terrific but none of the stories really any good.

Reread Twentieth Century Eightball for the second time in the past ten days. Am aching to buy Caricature and the out of print stuff now but am skint.

uncle retrospective

06:19 / 17.10.03

New X men #148. Too many spoilers wondering about in it own thread so here's my two cent.
Wow! I have never seen a character suck the life out of a book the way Magneto does. Jean and Logan on Asteroid M is great if stupid stuff, but all the clapped out drug fiend stuff is for want of a better word, bollox. As for the secondary mutation "joke" about always coming back. Oy! Hopefully Beak will hand Eric his head next issue and end this dull, dull arc.

Smax #3 God this is so much fun. Read this book folks, god knows how it's going to pan out.

Human Target #3. Need to re read this, it kinda left me cold.

06:54 / 17.10.03

Wolverine issue, Wolvie and Nightcrawler spend the entire story drinking and talking in a bar. They pour a glass in memory of Colossus.

08:51 / 17.10.03

Just a suggestion, Can we do these new comic threads on a monthly basis, that way there is no danger in being flooded with this week's comics threads

10:15 / 17.10.03

"Bizarro Comics: Read this free from the library and it's not worth a purchase. Seeing a Tony Millionaire drawn Batman was terrific but none of the stories really any good."

Totally agree. There's some nice art and it's beautifully produced, but 95 percent of it is utterly forgettable.

ADD

10:46 / 17.10.03

new x men 148: don't care what anyone else says: i'm enjoying this arc. does remind me of his last major doom patrol story, though.

two-step 1: classic ellis stuff. very funny, very fast sets the stage well for what looks like the best of these minis so far. plenty of classic insults, "stoat felcher" being my favourite. in a way, its a shame that ellis' trademark of OTT sci fi black humour is what he does best and that some of his excursions into other genres haven't been quite as successful.

human target 3: currently, my favourite ongoing comic. saved best 'til last. consequently, was too drunk to read it last night, so will comment later when i've actually read it. nice cover though.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

11:12 / 17.10.03

Gotham Central #12. VICIOUS. The villain, the one who you find out is behind this craziness, possibly, is the most sadistic and calculating you've ever seen them. This book is just one of the best on the racks. Ach. Stay away from the windows.

Smax #3. Oh thank you thank you thank you for not showing that horrifying dragon again.

Wolverine #6. Really well drawn. Um, I mean the art too, but the characterization...well drawn.

Hulk: Gray #1. I just love these Loeb/Sale things visually. The stories always tend to be paper thin, but the artwork is just, as usual, gorgeous.

Hellboy: Weird Tales #5. Yeah Cameron! Cameron gets to draw HELLBOY! Lucky rassafrassin...

Well, you all know I got NXM 138.

13:01 / 17.10.03

Agree Sleaze, let's get the thread title changed, mods.

So then, a new week, some new comics.

1) Ultimate Spiderman: It's out. AGAIN! Good ol' Spidey's plagued by a stubborn, but increasingly beleaguered Jameson, and, get this, the Kingpin's behind it all. Huzzah.
An oldy but still a goody.

2) NXM: Hmm, nice dramatic ending, but doesn't it all feel a little predictable? Again, too slight, imo.

3) Alan Moore's Yuggoth Cultures: What utter shit. Yes, I know it's Moore, but you see... it isn't. It's a collection of crumbs from beneath his mighty oak table. Strictly for your serious geek completist, or it would be had it included dates for ANY of the work!
So what do you get for your money? Well, first some rather clunky poetry, probably retrieved from Alan's bin-it file, augmented by some substandard Brian Talbot art. Then... ah fuck it, I can't be arsed to continue. Needless to say, don't bother.

4) Smax #3: Now this is Moore (ho ho) like it. Funny as fuck, and full of ooh-look-at-that detail.
I can't believe I didn't buy this (I read it round Fraely's), instead I saw it on the shelf, decided I was going to purchase some comics this week, picked up the rest of the bunch and completely forgot Quest-Guy et-al. I am a cunt.

5) Human Target #3: Involving, dense, with some wonderfully creative artwork. There's a tv series here somewhere.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

13:45 / 17.10.03

That sequence, Spidey v. Kingpin's Window? Classic sequential art.

14:10 / 17.10.03

Hellboy Wierd Tales #5 - Good pulp. liked the first, uhh, romance story. Nice pin-up by Cameron at the back there (Those japanese flying head demons have to be some of my favorite Hellboy wierdos).

NXM 148 - Planet X is starting to feel stretched thin. Maybe they're just trying to use all the spiffy covers they've accumulated.

Tom Strong's Terrific Tales #8 -more good pulp. got it for Art Adams, which was a bit dissapointing, as his story was T&A. More Heavy Metal than Tom Strong (though, I've only ever read about 4 issues of Tom Strong stuff). Love the Jason Pearson art at the beginning, and the Alan Moore cartoon writing.

(more) Lone Wolf and Cub (volume 7) - You know, I really should have paid attention to comic threads that didn't have the words "X-Men", "geek", or "Invisibles" in the title. This comic has replaced my television.

18:51 / 17.10.03

okay, read human target 3 now. still my favourite ongoing, #3 perhaps best one yet. really involving, really engaging. milligan's prose is, as i guess we've come to expect, cracking stuff, littered with pithy observations on the human condition and all that.

best of all, there's a few nasty jokes about accountants.

Murray Hamhandler

21:54 / 17.10.03

I've snagged up the Human Target: Final Cut TPB and all three issues of the series, but I haven't had a chance to read them yet. But I liked the mini and I love Milligan, so I'm sure it'll be a treat when I get to them.

Thus far: NXM 148. Best issue to date, if only for the drama on Asteroid M. Makes me really wish that Wolvie were in this series more often.

I'm also in the midst of Secret Wars II (plus crossovers) at the moment. It's actually a pleasant surprise and nothing at all like the first Secret Wars. Very little in the way of superheroics thus far. It actually reads more like a Vertigo mini from the early 90's than an 80's Marvel mini. Slightly goofy tale of an all-powerful being masquerading as a human. Beyonder = Shade or somesuch. If you haven't read it, it's worth picking up from the quarter bin. Though the crossovers are pretty shit.

12:51 / 19.10.03

my most vivid memory of sw2 is that bit where the beyonder asks spidey about what that starnge feeling in his rear abdomen is.

seem to remember the art being a bit lame though. having said that, i was only about 7 years old when it came out, and if i recall correctly, i wasn't too into sienkiewicz at that age either, cos he was too scribbly.

14:17 / 19.10.03

Bobossboy: Human Target #3: Involving, dense, with some wonderfully creative artwork. There's a tv series here somewhere.

You'd think so, wouldn't you.

17:06 / 19.10.03

Smax #3: I love this comic. If you told me a few years ago that Alan Moore would make me laugh, I'd have, well, laughed. Best send up of the fantasy genre I've ever seen.

Two Step #1: I don't know why I picked this up. I guess I was hoping for something like Transmetropolitan. Kind of dissapointing.

Tokyo Storm Warning #3: Others may chide me for saying this, but I don't care. I liked this mini-series. A lot. And the ending was't half bad either.

Animal Man Tpb vol. 3: Deus Ex Machina: It has its own thread, so I'll be brief: Loved it. Go. Buy. It. Now.

1602 #3: I had higher expectations for this series, I really did. Hopefully it will get better as time goes on, but I'm having my doubts...

(But Planetary #17 comes out Wed. and then life will be happy and shiny once more. Me so happy me want to cry.)

The Photographer in Blowup

17:34 / 19.10.03

Slightly goofy tale of an all-powerful being masquerading as a human. Beyonder = Shade or somesuch

Was Shade published before or after Secret Wars II? I don't remember much of it, but it seemed a very unusual crossover for Marvel...

... Beyonder just pops in every comic making questions about satisfaction, and what's it like being human, and the quest for completeness, and changing everyone's lifes, and feeling pain and asking for death... the climax was boring though, returning to the usual 'team-up to fight cosmic evil' formula.

I've managed to find a few issues of Morrison's Doom Patrol, that left me wishing for his whole run collected in tpb:

Doom Patrol #28/49/55: the first is about Doom Patrol entering a painting that ate Paris, and fighting some wackos called The Brotherhood of Dada... the allusions to Borges, Dalí and the several styles of painting were an unexpected treat... #49 is, funnily enough, about The New Brotherhood of Dada... good ideas everywhere, but some stuff seemed weird for weird's sake: why does Mr Silence cease to exist after he sees his pimple on the nose reflected in the mirror? Why does Agent ! have an airplane in his chest? The last story, focusing on Crazy Jane, creeped me out: the rape scene was even heavy for Vertigo standards... and then the story ends in a cliffhanger

Also re-read Batman: Arkham Asylum, that always leaves me freaked out... thank God BAA didn't become a trend-starter for Batman writers... i couldn't stand hacks like Loeb trying to make deep psychological analyses of the dark knight and his foes in PG13-rated comics... love the poor Two-Face that uses the Tarot cards and can't even make it to the bathroom...

20:41 / 19.10.03

Man your talk of AA make me so horny I wanna read it all again. Me love AA long time.

Best bit.

"Sometimes I think the Asylum is a head.
We're inside a huge head that imagines us all into being.
Perhaps it's your head Batman.
Arkham is a looking glass...and we are you."

That book is a lot better written than it gets credit for. Arkham's narration never lets the art overshadow Grant's writing.

21:31 / 19.10.03

What I remember from Secret Wars 2 was that the Beyonder needed a human form, so he made himself to have Captain America's body, but wanted different hair, so he walks around the whole series with a jerry-curl.

00:24 / 20.10.03

Just read Summer Blonde.

This is the fiction I should've been writing.

Tomine cuts through the tape of conventional weirdo stories with blatantly effective minimalism. The best thing is that he doesn't make us cringe in all the shame of the characters. It just is that way.
Nothing ever ends and maybe the most heartbreaking thing about Summer Blonde, is exactly that.

No endings.

The wait for Sleepwalk and 32 Stories will be unbearable. If I only I could nick them.

How often does Optic Nerve come out anyway?

12:07 / 20.10.03

deus ex:

a lot of grant's mid-period doom patrol stuff caused readers at the the time to ask pretty much the same questions: why the fuck did that happen? who the fuck is that, why have they got a clock for a head etc, etc.

a lot of the time on dp, grant was working from his own dream diaries and employing automatic writing techniques in order to imbue a sense of the uncanny and the bizarre.

this wasn't always such a hit with readers and critics, so later on he reverted to a more traditional type of storytelling, as you'll see from the differences between #49 (dream diary period) and #55 (best try and sell some comics period).

13:02 / 20.10.03

skilly pig popped round saturday and gave us two lone wolf and cub books.

WOOOOOOO!

I'd never read any o that shit before, and it's fucking berilliant. I love it when the baddies are bleeding to death but still have time to compliment Ogami on the skill of his cut. yes, I love it when. very good, and much in keeping with my recent samurai jack obsession and the scenes from kill bill that keep flicking across the front of my head.

human target, vertigo milligan, feels like the early nineties again. not in a good way either, seedy underbelly of america, wow hey pete, it's been lying on its back for years now. nicely constructed little stories if you can force yourself to give a shit about what's going on. he needs a more splishsplashy artist, pulido looks like he's tiptoeing around the script and scared of being told off.

xmen was wicked, the sweaty bits with the jim and jean spaceshow was very sexy and tense and i'm gaping for more. shut up basilisk. the 'coming back's my secondary mutation' bit was ace also, important given the parallels discussed elsewhere between he and phoenix. and 'one of my old ideas, but still a good one' i liked a lot as well

smax, very sneaky of him to use a cartoony artist for this dark and brutal story, no no charmy dialogue and in-jokes! no no, prejudice rape incest and peadophile dragons with valley-size feet.

Matthew Fluxington

13:27 / 20.10.03

Hey & I Heart Dan Clowes -

Optic Nerve comes out whenever Adrian Tomine has a new issue done. I think a new issue will probably come out sometime in the next few months, but who knows. There is no news on the Drawn & Quarterly site about it. The last issue ("Bomb Scare") came out in 2001, so we're a little overdue for a new issue, probably. He usually is good for an issue every nine months to a year. This is the longest stretch between issues to date. My guess is that he's taking his time crafting the story and/or has been distracted by illustration gigs and promoting the Summer Blonde books. Summer Blonde sold pretty well, and he had "Bomb Scare" reprinted in the 2002 Best Non-Required Reading book, so I assume he's doing pretty well with royalties right now.

I should say that you should lower your expectations a bit for Sleepwalk and especially 32 Stories, mostly because Tomine tends to improve dramatically from one issue to the next, and the four stories in Summer Blonde are easily his best and most complex work. Sleepwalk has a lot of very strong material in it, but isn't quite as sophisticated and nuanced, and there's a few bits which are a little wanky. It's still a pretty great book. 32 Stories, however, is really crude and rough. It's the work of a teenager, and it shows. The art barely even looks like the Tomine you know now - it's not at all clean, and occasionally it's just amateurish. The book has its moments, but it is primarily of interest to those who are curious about his evolution as a writer/illustrator.

17:05 / 20.10.03

The thing I can't stand about Arkham Aslyum is how lots of the lettering is incredibly hard to read cause it's shit like red lettering on a sort of dark-colored background -- there are so many lettering problems in that book that made me cry out "Why!?! oh why did they not see that this was hard to fucking READ?!?!?"

Back to current comics: SMAX is so good it makes me jump for joy and extra-happy to be alive reading it. Seriously.

15:29 / 22.10.03

Thanks.

"Summer Blonde" was my favourite.

Which one was yours?

Haus of Mystery

16:54 / 22.10.03

i think Pulido's art on HT is understated but beeyootiful. Last ish had some really bold panel construction. i also like the lack of gore. Heads exploding is a bit 1999. I love it.

Smax is, for me, turning out as one of the best things to happen this year.

Bizarro comics was ace you fools. Made me feel like wee one again.

NXM = Yawn. Fuck Magneto.

17:00 / 22.10.03

Planetary #17: Good clean backstory pulp adventure fun. Ellis is finally getting his groove on.

17:33 / 22.10.03

Just got Frédéric Boilet's graphic nobel Yukiko's spinach which I find quite wonderful, despite the script, which is really just "comic book artist finds cute model, they start to date, he makes comic about this". Beautiful art. And a really special feeling to it. Recommended.

Also, got Jeffrey Brown's Clumsy which reminds me of James Kochalka's "Sketchbook Diaries", minus the elfs. Good stuff. Jeff and his girlfriend meet, share a bed, and make out.

On the more mainstream front, I got Nyx #1: good art, cliché story; New X-men #147: as everybody else I miss Xorn; and Tom Strong #22: a rather boring ending to what was a promising storyline.

20:13 / 22.10.03

Bought

New x-men 148
Disappointing. It is seeming increasingly likely that Morrison is making Magneto a one dimensional zealot. I thought i was reading a book about evolution and was hoping that Morrion was going to evolve the dialectic away from charles versus erik.

Human Target 3
Still fun and gripping read with some excellent lines.

True Porn - stories of true sexual experiences from a variety of indie comic creators. a fun variety of strips.

Borrowed
Wildcats Volume 3 issues 1-12
Very interesting. Superheros as a brand is a very interesting idea that can go in many more directions than would fit in a single comic. The odd thing is that while the brand building corporate side of the comic seems to be going a break neck sped the superhero stuff seems to be slowed down to a snail's pace - i just wish it was the other wa round... but then again i want to read translations of businessman manga...

FLCL
Very... strange - robots are climbing out of a growth on a boy's head while a girl at his school starts a series of fires - and the mayor of the town is having an affair. The vespa girl looks so much like jenny everywhere its untrue.

20:58 / 22.10.03

Dumped: My first Andi Watson and I quite liked it. Not a particularly great story and in any other medium would hardly be impressive but it was a charming read.

The Complete Geisha: Onipress' books are way overpriced (previously noted in Fortune & Glory which was great if expensive) and this is really a teen girly comic. Not my cup of tea.

I like Dumped but I haven't bought the "ANDI WATSON IS INDIE COMIXGENIUS!" sell artbomb and the like seem to sell.

Hopeless Savages: I didn't buy this and only read this because it was free. Waste of time. Might've liked it if it came out when I was reading Archie.

21:01 / 22.10.03

Which reminds me...
Is there anyone in the audience who isn't a fan of Bryan Talbot? I bought Heart of Empire (I know it's the sequel) and read "Tale of One bad Rat" but found them both to be mediocre stories. I can imagine people would've considered him a genius in the 80s but does anyone else think that it's Warren Ellis' youth and his love for a countryman speaking when he raves about Talbot?

01:43 / 23.10.03

Sorry to come in late but I have to respectfully disagree about Bryan Talbot. I think THE TALE OF ONE BAD RAT is one of the best comic stories produced in the 90s. The lush palette are a perfect metaphor and evocation of the Peter Rabbit style while the story of emotional turmoil is told in a subtly mature way. It doesn't pander. It's not mawkish or coy. Talbot creates a female protagonist who the audience sympathizes for and is annoyed by. At least I was annoyed by some of her stupid choices. I think Talbot performed a great service with this book and hit an artistic high point.

I'll admit to being slightly disappointed by HEART OF EMPIRE. It essentially mimics the structure of Luther Arkwright and it doesn't experiment with form and content nearly as much as its predecessor. Still, I wouldn't call it mediocre. John Dee and a syphlitic Einstein conversing about nature is hardly mediocre.

02:44 / 23.10.03

Hmmm...
Maybe I'm being a bit unfair to "the rat" but I'm the first one to rave about stories of emotional turmoil but it just didn't do a thing for me.

For me, "Heart of Empire" was just a long slow wank where you can't tell if you really came. Just shite.

Yuggoth Cultures: Is it really crap? I have to pick this one up but I've been lazy.

03:04 / 23.10.03

Sleaze - you must watch the FLCL anime series, which is absolutely bloody brilliant and the basis for the manga. I haven't read the manga, but I can't see it being as good as the anime because the wildly innovative animation is such an integral part...

06:56 / 23.10.03

I'll second through forty-fifth that recommendation on the anime - It's harder than hell to find on DVD, but it's only six episodes long and it's mindblowing.

The first volume of the Manga is really charming (the simple art style is interesting), but the cartoon itself is life-alteringly zany.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

13:01 / 23.10.03

Amazing Spider-Man #500. Scoff if you must, but anyone who's ever read in issue of Spider-Man, ever gelled for a second with its mission statement, this (and 499, just to get the background) is a must read. But, I'm a complete sap. I'm sure it could be seen as completely over-sentimental garbage, but it got me. And, Jesus, John Romita SENIOR draws the closing sequence. That's right. You heard.

X-Statix #13. If this was the story they were going for all along, then the lack of Diana really doesn't make much of a difference. Also, it's easily read the same way you'd read Garth Ennis' Hitman. Replace all instances of "Motherlovin'" with its more natural and vulgar counterpart as you read. Do the same thing with the resurrected Pop Superstar.

Cerebus #296. Ninety-Six. Goosebumps. We're back to the charming Bureaucratic Chamber Dramas of long long ago. And Dave goes head to head with Chet Brown re: Louis Riel in the back. There's even a hilarious fake Comics Revue back cover. Is it 1985?

Punisher #Whatever. Wow. Real suspense. Like, honestly. I have no idea what's coming next issue. It used to be all "Well, obviously, Frank's going to shoot several people. Now? I'm...not....so...sure...

Batman #620. Azzarello and Risso, if you didn't know. This is, basically, The Dark Knight Has A Usual Day Of His Before Miller's Apocolyptic/Silver Age Goody Goody Version Of The Future Comes To Pass. A Young Dark Knight Returns, if you will. It makes no attempt at honoring anything Loeb and Lee did, thank God. It's gorgeous, duh, with narration that's almost too much but, in the end, fits pretty well, in a comic where Batman pretty much admits he's sporting wood behind his cape to a woman in Risso-Brand (Read: Boobies) Lingerie.

Sleeper #10. OMFG. Holden! Genocide! Miss Misery! This isn't just the regular shit hitting the fan. This is full on, fat-man-coming-home-from-Checker's hershey squirts hitting the fan! Duck down!

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