What COMIC BOOKS have you been reading?

Treated myself and my Manga-obsessed kids to the 35th Anniversary box set of Akira which I had been promising to get since I sold my collection of the Epic/Marvel release a few months ago. It's an incredible production, nicely bound hardbacks with thick paper and really clean printing. Great to have it in the traditional R-L format, black and white with a decent (and more accurate) translation than the 90's English language run. Reading through it reminds me of what an important comics landmark this is, and my daughters mind was suitably blown after all the seismic event of the mid-point.

I still have my Epic collection of Akira issues and was recently thinking about how I spent years collecting them, finding issues out of order at comic shops or conventions. No internet shopping then, just time spent talking to dealers and searching boxes.

I purchased most of them as they came out but was missing the final three books which were in short supply (my FLCBS didn't even get any copies). Over time I picked up two of those but was always missing #38. When I saw how much they were worth, and read about the poor quality of the translation, I figured it was time to ditch them. The box set ended up costing me less than fifteen percent of what I got for the incomplete Epic run. I'm not sure how I feel about the colourisation, it was done really well but Otomo's neat and detailed work in simple line and ink is incredibly absorbing. The presentation values are off the chart as well, it's an excellent collection all round and a pleasure to read it this way.

Oh, also, the pages are larger than the Epic books which is also great. A while back I picked up Watchmen Noir which does a similar thing, Gibbons artwork is just fantastic and deserves to be on a larger page, and there is so much detail that the colour work hides. In that particular case however, the colour palette is an integral part of the presentation so I still think the standard version is better.

I finished reading Black Science, by Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera. Great writing and very stylized artwork combine to tell a frantic story of cross-dimensional travel. Every time I thought I had the story figured out and tried to anticipate the next plot twist, I got blindsided by an even wilder plot twist. The story falters at the end, because endings are often difficult, but is still well worth reading.

jason10mm wrote: The seemingly random bolding of words] without any real pattern. Is it to emphasize those words, add some type of inflection or what? Maybe letterers just get bored after a while?

I think it reflects which words are stressed.

Also "Where's my money, honey". My sides

I’m reading Nocterra at the moment, because the character is so well rounded.

After getting by Thanos in Marvel Champions recently, I decided to re-read the classic early Thanos stories. First, the Captain Marvel special edition reprints, which include Iron Man #55, the first appearance of Thanos. After that, I will re-read the Warlock special edition reprints that begin with Strange Tales #178, continue in Warlock, Marvel Team-Up, Avengers Annual #7, and conclude in Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2. After that, the two-part Thanos Quest, followed by Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity War. I don't have all the issues for Infinity Crusade, as it seemed like an inferior sequel to the previous Infinity stories.

The early Thanos stuff is rough around the edges. Though still somewhat impressive in appearance, Thanos has a more restrained physique at first. He initially come across as a relatively typical evil mastermind, oddly focused on Earth despite his alien origin. He avoids the action completely until he is about to get the Cosmic Cube, relying heavily on minions like Controller, the Blood Brothers, and Super-Skrull to battle the heroes. But he gets darker and scarier during that Captain Marvel storyline. Death starts hanging around him, though she hasn't been identified as such yet. And Thanos himself is already revealing an unhealthy obsession with death.

I picked up battered library surplus copies of Logan (what a ridiculous and fun comic) and Infinity War, which I haven't read yet.

I check out Absolute All-Star Superman from our campus library. I own a battered library surplus copy. What a fun story, but one that, on a third reading, is a bit campy and ridiculous. Such beautiful art in places, and then flat and computer-ish in others.

I wish more boardgames had art like this, or at least like my favorite panels.

I have mixed feelings about Absolute All-Star Superman. The artwork is sometimes great but often not. Superman and his supporting cast have never been my favorites, but Morrison is writing them properly. Morrison also seems to tightly rein in his usual wild creativity to tell a solid set of Superman stories for this run.

The problem isn’t Frank Quitely’s art. It’s the coloring. There are way too many digital gradients that give skin, hair and fabric this same, hideous plastic sheen. I can understand not being on the same wave length as Quitely’s lumpy image of humanity, but his body language is so good.

Otherwise I will brook no criticism of All Star Superman. It’s the standard for all characterization of Led Luther. It’s the standard for all characterization of Superman. At the same time it’s the full Grant Morrison respecting the entirety of the character’s history and dense storytelling and a restrained Morrison that doesn’t allow his own ideas to overwhelm the narrative and characters. It’s great.

I stopped buying and reading most comics a few years ago, but about two months ago I suddenly got a wild hair to read some Hellboy. But of course I didn't want to just read the stories, I decided to read them in chronological order.

The Mignolaverse has a timeline it has pretty much held on to well, and I wanted to find out how well. I did some digging and found someone who had attempted to order the stories. I started with that and, with other resources, I put together The Mignolaverse Index , a list of all the Hellboy and adjacent stories, where they've been collected, publication order, and chronological order. It's complete (up to about October) as far as I know.. This includes Hellboy, BPRD, Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson, Sir Edward Grey, and other spinoffs and one-shots.

I started where the order starts, in Prehistory. I just finished 1956, and 1957 is currently being released, not collected yet, so I'll have to skip over it. It's a lot of fun and I'm impressed with how well it does hold together. I'm also making notes to improve the chronology as I can.

What's more, most of the books I have been reading through Hoopla, a digital library app with tons of graphic novels. (In the Index I indicate which books are available on Hoopla or Comixology Unlimited). I've bought very few, even though I got rid of most of my non-Hellboy Mignola books. A lot of the stuff I've read so far were things I had not read before, so that's also been cool.

I am currently reading Black Hammer, by writer Jeff Lemire, artist Dean Ormston, and publisher Dark Horse. The art looks similar to Mike Mignola's work on Hellboy. The writing seems unremarkable until it sneaks up and hits you in the feels. The main characters are superheroes who seem to be trapped in a small town in an alternate reality. The heroes are all somewhat familiar, with some clearly based on Captain America, Mary Marvel, the Martian Manhunter, and Adam Strange (not Dr. Strange). However, this is not a superhero comic, it's a soap opera because the characters are all trying to pass themselves off as normal people living on a farm in a small town. There is some interesting tension at work, because the characters are flawed and abnormal, while the town is more subtly wrong.

Legomancer wrote: I stopped buying and reading most comics a few years ago, but about two months ago I suddenly got a wild hair to read some Hellboy. But of course I didn't want to just read the stories, I decided to read them in chronological order.

The Mignolaverse has a timeline it has pretty much held on to well, and I wanted to find out how well. I did some digging and found someone who had attempted to order the stories. I started with that and, with other resources, I put together The Mignolaverse Index , a list of all the Hellboy and adjacent stories, where they've been collected, publication order, and chronological order. It's complete (up to about October) as far as I know.. This includes Hellboy, BPRD, Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson, Sir Edward Grey, and other spinoffs and one-shots.

I've read the library editions and BPRD, but it looks like I've got some catching up to do. The best kind of homework.

Shellhead wrote: ...writer Jeff Lemire... the characters are all trying to pass themselves off as normal people living on a farm in a small town.

This amuses me because I just re-read Essex County a couple of days ago. Write what you know, I guess. Definitely going to check out Black Hammer, thank you for mentioning it. I like the great characterisation and subtle evolution that Lemire is skilled at, and it’s been many years since I saw Ormston on art duty so looking forward to it.

As an aside, I managed to avoid any Black Friday deals on games but did end up splurging on a couple dozen books from Rebellion who have some really great discounts on both digital and dead tree graphic novels at the moment.

Thanks mostly to my kids, who have become absolute manga maniacs, I have read more manga in the past four or five months than I have in the past 20 years. I sort of lost interest in it back in the early 00’s, so I’ve been doing a lot of catch-up and also revisiting old favorites. It’s the absolute WORST possible time to be doing this too, because In These Unprecedented Times printing is screwed up and many books are either completely gone or there are holes in series and some clown on Ebay is looking for $250 for the one $12.99 volume you are missing.

Anyway, the highlights:

Fist of the North Star -Buronson and Hara’s masterpiece, one of the absolute best of the best. Ridiculous to the extreme, hilarious, and some of the best manga illustration ever. It’s only just now getting a prestige HC release in English, and they are lovely little volumes.

Berserk – As incredible as its reputation suggests. Best of the best. Brutal, violent, bleak, but also deeply human. I’m collecting the big black editions and they are treasures. I would argue that it is one of the most important pieces of fantasy literature of the past few decades.

Pluto – This is quite possibly up there with Akira, Berserk, and Fist of the North Star. It is Naoki Urasawa basically doing a more modern, expanded cover of Tezuka’s Astro Boy Story “The Greatest Robot on Earth”. It is absolutely stunning, and it is just crying out for an A24 style super pretentious Sci Fi film. Unfortunately, this is the source of the $250 anecdote up there. I have 1, 2, and 4…the rest I’ve read scans because I’m not a Saudi prince.

Dai Dark – I started reading this one before Dorohedoro, Q Hayashida’s more well known series. I love that one too (well at least the first one because #2 is $$$), but this one is really great as well. It’s a sci-fi thing about…uh…necromancy, bounty hunting, magic backpacks, a kind of space IKEA, school mischief, and meatball spaghetti sandwiches. Lots of zany gore but it’s not puerile. Q Hayashida’s artwork is very influenced by Pushead, which I think rules.

Golden Kamuy – Another one where #2 is all but unavailable. Awesome adventure story about a Japanese soldier looking for treasure in Hokkaido. He befriends an Ainu girl who teaches him how to survive. Lots of cool “Boys Life” style stuff about how to get by in the wilderness and a pretty gruesome concept about a tattooed map. Really want to read more of this one.

One Piece – This is absolutely my son’s jam. He’s up to like volume 40, he just rips through these. I’m halfway there and I really enjoy it. It’s charming, fun, and frequently heartwarming. There’s some really sweet stuff that you might not expect from this sort of manga take on Popeye. It is VERY much a shonen battle thing, so lots of big, multi-chapter fights and talking about fighting.

Tokyo Ghoul- Hey, I have more than just the first one! This is a cool book, but like Parasyte and like maybe three or four other things I’ve read recently, it is yet another manga where I read it and I’m like “OK, it’s Devilman again”. So many manga are basically the exact same concept as Devilman- mediocre teen boy becomes half something else, tries to cope, turns into a monster/badass/whatever.

Devilman – Speaking of Deviman…Go Nagai’s original book is still great, I had read it long ago and it has lost none of its power to shock. Reading it again after watching Crybaby for the second time just reinforced how much I love both. The ending still left me shook, it’s hard to believe that it was from 1972.

Space Battleship Yamato 2155 – A lovely manga adaptation of the recent remake. It captures all of the space opera sweep and awesome navy in space shit from the original. The art is not Matsumoto, but they do him proud.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – These books are expensive to begin with ($30 a volume) but it is a stunning retelling of the first three MSG series…I actually think it’s better than the shows. These were done about 15 years ago so they are more modern and you don’t have to trudge through a lot of filler to get to the good stuff. The artwork is so good.

Vagabond – The weird thing about this highly acclaimed series about Musashi Miyamoto is that I -never- want to sit down and read it. But when I do, I’m captivated. The artwork is incredible and the writing is exceptional. It’s pure samurai drama, but it has a modernity and accessibility that isn’t common to the genre. Great characters, compelling situations, awesome fights…but it’s always last on my reading pile.

Vinland Saga – Another historical, obviously about Vikings. This is a really cool series so far with good art and some excellent war scenes and great one on one battles. Lots of solid character development and attention to detail.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – I don’t even know where to start with it, but it’s brilliant. Weird, stupid, awkward, embarrassing, exhilarating, hilarious, etc. I’m almost done with Stardust Crusaders. I really love the warped Hammer Horror of Phantom Blood but Battle Tendency was my favorite so far. The only thing is that watching the show you get all of the pink and blue coloring and the classic rock (“Owner of a Lonely Heart”, “Walk Like an Egyptian”, and you don’t get that in the book.

Junji Ito – Read all the big stuff. Uzumaki is great, but I think Gyo and Remina are just as good. I especially love how surreal his horror is, and how he expects you to take some real bullshit at face value. I thought Remina was amazing. The short story stuff is really good, that one with the people squeezing through the holes in the mountain was nuts.

Stuff I didn’t like:

D. Gray Man- Another Devilman clone, but boring and completely dull. I was hoping for something gothy and with horror elements but it was another “teen boy joins organization” thing.

Detective Conan (Case Closed)- I know this is like wildly popular in Japan, but I just didn’t connect with it at all. I love that it’s totally kid appropriate until like 10 pages in where there is this insanely bloody decapitation in a roller coaster.

Drifting Classrom – Widely regarded as a J-horror classic, I thought this was interesting at first but then it just dragged on and on and on. Some ugly misogyny didn’t help.

Chainsaw Man- Started strong (basically a Devilman clone) but then it just got childish and stupid. The whole thing is that the main character wants to “touch boobs”. Dumb.

Dragon Ball- I think when I read this back in the 90s I must have been reading a censored translation or something, I don’t remember all the absolutely cringe stuff. It really put a damper on reading it…and it led to a conversation with my son about inappropriate touching. I mean, Goku takes off Bulma’s panties while she’s sleeping and touches her. Yikes.

Getter Robo Evolution – Other than Devilman and Cutey Honey, Go Nagai stuff in English is hard to come by. This is a newer book, not written or drawn by him. It’s absolutely incomprehensible. There’s a strange mix of super robot stuff, alternate world hijinks, and nonsensical Evangelion style metaphysics. It doesn’t really work, and the art is oddly confusing. Maybe it’s for super advanced Getter Robo fans who want more than super robot action…which is all I wanted TBH.