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21:49 / 11.08.04

Inspired by the District X and Goon threads I figured I make a thread specifically designed for readers to enthuse about the comics they are loving at the moment and explain what it is you like about it.

For me, the comic of the moment, the one I'm reading on the way out of the shop and on my way to the pub, is Human Target.

Milligan is quaffing from his favourite thematic cocktail on this title - identity with a twist of exploring modern (post 9/11) America. It's an intoxicating brew.

Our main man, Chris Chance, is a counter assassin who can become anyone, which is just as well because it seems like he'd rather be anyone other than himself... until he actually does become them that is. Milligan, who works best in tight spaces, crafting the dialogue is so tight it bleeds, crafting casts of characters, month after month who are repellent, sympathetic and utterly compelling at the same time.

And that’s before we even talk about individual storylines…

So, anyone else got a comic they want to enthuse about?

00:16 / 12.08.04

yea. street angel. out through slave labour graphics. b&w. the story of an 11-yo skatepunk girl who beats the crap out of ninjas. very tongue in cheek,reminds me of early Love and Rockets plotlines, especially Gilbert's BEM - a nice balance of action and humour.

two issues out so far. Issue one she pounds on ninjas to rescue a snotty rich girl and loses a sneaker. issue two pirates are sent from the past by an incan god and she mainly ignores them while being rude to an irish astronaut.

for me it's just nice to see two guys put out a comic with female characters in it who aint' all hookeriffic. Even more than that, they've got a good bead on what a bratty young 11 yo girl would be like. If you check out the development sketches on the site, they've changed her dramatically from the more coozy prepubescent original sketches to something much more interesting.

fun!

site's here.

m.

01:27 / 12.08.04

Durn it, Sleaze, you stole mine. Human Target rules.

I've also been meaning to try out Scurvy Dogs and Street Angel, and numerous other small-press books I hear are great. But I've never actually seen any copies. Well, I can always order them sight-unseen off the 'net...

05:51 / 12.08.04

five-page preview of issue 3 on the street angel site. site unseen not necc.

m.

07:06 / 12.08.04

BillR - don't be discouraged - use this thread to tell the world why you are enjoying Human Target... I want to see more people picking up the comic because the more people buying it the more likely it is to continue publication...

09:27 / 12.08.04

I've been picking up "the Moth" by Steve Rude at Dark Horse. It's about a circus performer who acts as a kind of low level hero by night. It's got a kind of retro feel, but not too explicitly, the artwork is fantastic, and it has some lovely supporting characters.
Also the new BPRD books with Guy Davies are interesting, the art is good, and looking at the BPRD as a team rather than focusing on Hellboy is good as well.

Haus of Mystery

11:17 / 12.08.04

'Maakies' by Tony Millionaire has been rubbing me the rightest way recently - a cruder distillation of his Sock Monkey characters in a daily comic strip form. There are a couple of collections out from Fantagraphics, and I recommend them heartily.

Basically Uncle Gabby, a toothless monkey in a top hat, and Drinky Crow his eternal companion, progress through a series of surreal, violent and often alcoholic sea-faring adventures. It's set peripherally on the good Ship Maakie, although they are polymorphous creations subject to the bored whimsy of their creator. Other characters include a Musical Band of ear-mites, a bizarre mechanical bird-vampire (D'archangelo) and a group of French Crocodiles. All in all very funny, relentlessly pessimistic, and beautifully drawn.

Buy.

13:14 / 12.08.04

i recently had the good fortune to pick up a copy of a Sonambulo comic. Sonambulo is a luchador turned hard-boiled detective who fights crime and can see people's dreams or something. he wears the luchador mask under his fedora. it's epic.

14:01 / 12.08.04

Those Sonambulo comics look pretty cool. Do you reckon they're available in the UK? Or am I going to have to put my trust in the 'net to obtain a copy?

14:55 / 12.08.04

Sky Ape is a very hilarious comic.

The Nevermen, a very underappreaciated comic and the The Maquis is even better if you like Guy Davis's artwork.

15:12 / 12.08.04

You damn right, the Nevermen is great fun.

Just got the last three issues of Cla$$war, although it felt a bit rushed (perhaps due to the big gap between issues 3 and 4 and then me getting 4,5 and 6 and reading them all in one sitting) it's been a great series. Just felt like it had more to say, like it should have run a little more than 6 issues, but would recommend this to y'all.

15:27 / 12.08.04

Jack Rackem - listing a load of comics is never going to convince anyone to buy them - can you tell us what it is about the comics that you love?

15:34 / 12.08.04

likewise Benny the Ball - what was it about Cla$$ War that really got you wanting to come back for more?

Personally I feel really sorry for the series writer Rob Williams who has had to wait 5 years to see is comic come out and lost the fine art of Trev Hairsine, but what I read of the comic (the first three issues) felt derrivative and decidedly underwhelming. This wasa real shame because I so *wanted* its publisher, Com X, to do well...

16:38 / 12.08.04

Gotham Central's pretty darn solid for cop/noir stories tingled with Batman superheroness. Recently won an Eisner for a Rucka-written story arc (Rucka and Brubaker write it together).

While I'm on Rucka, QUEEN & COUNTRY!!! QUEEN & COUNTRY!!! It's a seriously great book.

17:22 / 12.08.04

What I like about Nevermen is the monkey's and clockwork approach, seriously. The stories sometimes leave me confused, but the clutter of the art keeps you scanning through the book until you get what is happening.

As for Cla$$war, well, it always felt that it was starting something grand, which I liked, with the first 3 issues, like it was building up a universe which was, yes, a little contrived and conspiracy rich, but it was somethine which implied that it was going somewhere, not just a No Logo, big corporations are bad sounding off. As I said, the last three issues felt rushed. A longer run, and more space to build the characters would, I think, really helped Rob's writting.

Haus of Mystery

18:14 / 12.08.04

What I love abot Nevermen, is its compact punchy storytelling - you're dropped in to the middle of things with nary an explanation, hitting the floor running. The hard boiled dialogue, and mish mash of retro-futurism adds to the fun, and Davis' artwork is off the scale. He's one of the most seriously underrated artists working today. I too, thoroughly reccommend this for a fresh, lively read.

07:27 / 13.08.04

Gotham Central is a damn good read, though I feel due to the nature of the beast it works better in TPB format as you get the entire story arc in one go. I got bitten by the bug and went back and picked up the back issues arc by arc and enjoyed it more than reading the current story issue by issue. Still whatever way you read it it is a quality piece of work. In fact in my opinion Rucka is always worth checking out.

17:19 / 15.08.04

Gotta say I picked up the first Gotham Central trade recently as was very impressed. Its a top quality police procedural book that firmly integrates the well-observed everyday mundanities of law enforcement with many of the more overtly fantastic elements of Gotham city and its criminal element.

Larks artwork combined with some well-thought out colours are impressive in their ability to capture the neon-lit Gotham gloom. The writing is everything you could hope for and the added bonus is that the collection is actually cheaper than the issues... If you are looking for a solid engaging read, this comic can oblige, (after you have read Human Target that is

).

17:30 / 15.08.04

Yes, Gotham Central is another favorite of mine... I kept hearing how good it was, and always meant to try it out, and finally started picking up the singles. It's excellent cop stuff, and yes, reads much better as a whole than in separate pieces. I picked up the trade too, and it was excellent. Especially for the cheap ten-dollar price tag. I await the next one... In the meantime, I have the current issues to satisfy me.

15:23 / 16.08.04

I say again, Queen and Country is brilliant. It's so good that I often find myself reading it out loud to myself cause it reads like such a great play/movie/tv show (and I mean an intelligent, well-constructed, taut play/movie/tv show). Amazing characters, real world espionage plots (and I'm not even a huge spy fan), always solid artwork by the rotating art teams.

19:38 / 16.08.04

Invincible - Mark is your all-American average teenager. Girls. Sports. Comics. Superpowers. That's right, Mark's dad is the world's greatest superhero and a visitor from another planet, and his son's just started developing his powers. We follow Mark as he invents his new crime-fighting identity, tackles his first villain and teams-up with the other teen heroes in his city.

Kirkman's dialogue is incredibly smooth and realistic. Mark comes off as a regular teenager, but he's actually polite to his parents. He's not an angst-basket like Spider-man. He's a superhero, something that is, obviously, fucking AMAZING. And the book is full of nods to this, from Mark's discovery of flight to his first battle. This is a joycore comic that is actually fairly realistic, without the 'grim and gritty'.

In the most recent issues, Nolan/Omniman, Mark's dad, has turned out to have been hiding an ulterior motive all along and we see the consequences of Mark's discovery through issues 11-13. Pick up Issue 14 now.

19:48 / 16.08.04

Invincible is indeed great - there's a thread on it somewhere in here. Recommended.

17:43 / 20.08.04

Marve's SHE-HULK has grown into a damn funny, damn good old-school series, combined with new 'modern' twists. Sort of like Kyle Baker's Plastic Man.

The last two issues (with art by the reliable Paul Pelletier) got me to lay down cash for the book (the first four issues just made me read it in the store and go "hmm, decent, with some nice comedy moments, but not exciting me"). Check 'em out!

17:46 / 20.08.04

Randy Ladner's excellent review, which nails dead-on a lot of things that make She-Hulk work:

here.

17:53 / 20.08.04

Plus, She-Hulk has got the Awesome Android working as a paralegal in She-Hulk's law firm (which deals with super-hero cases). It really works, trust me. It's priceless.

18:44 / 20.08.04

I've read the first five She-Hulks, but they're... not very funny. Mildly interesting, sure. But I'll certainly never pay for the title, mostly because of Dan Slott's Byrne-like conservatism when it comes to "Byrne-stealing." Irony of ironies, Mile High put up issue five for free. Hee hee.

10:42 / 23.08.04

I like She-Hulk, though I prefer Bobillo's artwork to the stand-in artist. It's kind of got a goofy feel to it and it is obviously not taking itself too seriously, which is always good in a superhero comic.
On a much more serious level, another book that I really enjoy at the moment is "Demo" written by Brian Wood with art by Becky Cloonan. It's basically a series of single episodes each with different characters developing some kind of preternatural power, though it's along way from the X-men. Each story has a real emotional impact despite the wildly varying nature of the powers. The art by Cloonan is good as well, she alters her style to fit the tone of the story perfectly but without losing her own distinctive look.

18:42 / 23.08.04

I don't really see where Slott is 'stealing' from Byrne, other than in the general tone of the book as mostly humorous. Slott seems to be taking a slightly more dramatic tone with respect to the main character in that it's a bit more about the Jen Walters/She-Hulk personality dynamic than Byrne's two She-Hulk runs, which were 95% comedy-oriented.

Demo is good stuff.

19:38 / 23.08.04

Oh, right, Byrne worked on She-Hulk too! But that's not want I meant. "Byrne-stealing" refers to reading a comic in the shop and not paying for it. Byrne hates when people do that: "Every book should be in plastic!" Slott's close to the same, but much more vague. "You can flip through it, but if you read it, you're stealing from me!" Then Mile High puts up #5 on the internet, in full, for all to see. Hah, hah. *ahem* Anyway, that's just my evil nature at play. I still wouldn't pay for the book, although it's kinda fun. For those that *do* enjoy it, more power to them, certainly, and I'm happy they're out there pushing the books they love.

Alas, this is starting to derail into a thread about She-Hulk. So, er... Carry on.

16:27 / 27.08.04

My friend Chris Mills, the pulpmaster behind Supernatural Crime and Atomic Pulp has a new title coming out on paper.

It's called Gravedigger, and it's hard boiled. I've read the first story, and it's the best stuff by him I've read. Instead of riffing on (and ripping off) Dick Tracy & adventure strips from the 30s and 40s like he does on the Supernatural Crime stories, for this he's playing with the bare-knuckle, double-crossing conventions of Mike Hammer novels & crime films from the 1960s. Like, I'd love to see Digger take on Jack Carter from Get Carter... they both seem to operate in the same world.

Anyway, it's well worth checking out. Click on the link if you don't believe me.

20:37 / 27.08.04

I'm hoping you are talking the one true Get Carter there grant rather than the abomination that was the Stallone movie.

18:35 / 30.08.04

"Hello, Eric. It's been a long time. Hasn't it, Eric."

05:24 / 31.08.04

Demo 9 made me cry for five minutes straight.

The book fluctuates between toss and terrific.

05:35 / 31.08.04

Barry Ween, Boy Genius Dexter's Lab meets South Park, except better. Much, much better. Judd Winick needs to hurry up and make with the next mini-series.
"Here, I've reprogrammed Tickle-Me Elmo. He burps. Farts. Swears in Italian. Try it."

Arsenic Lullaby As much as I love this book, if they're going to label it a bi-monthly, perhaps they should actually try to put it out bi-monthly instead of bi-yearly.
Invader Zim Yeah, so it doesn't actually exist. And so what if it failed as a cartoon series. That just makes it even more of a good idea. Get to your drawing board, Jhonen.

20:55 / 05.09.04

Saying that Invader Zim failed as a cartoon on Nickelodeon is kind of like saying that Captain Marvel failed as a comic. It was great, but it just wasn't accepted. Maybe some day we'll all get our heads out of our collective American ass when it comes to accepting certain forms of media as viable adult entertainment, but it doesn't look good.

A good comic to suggest? Definitely Crayon Shinchan. The adventures of a five-year-old Japanese boy at home and school. Tends to enjoy using his mother's makeup to turn his crotch into an elephant's face, hitting on older women by asking their favorite foods, and accusing his principal of being a gangster. Most comic shops should have it if they carry a decent amount of manga (and these days, who doesn't?).

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