This Month in Comics: September 2008

[Ed Liu]

Welcome to This Month in Comics for September 2008!

This is the place to discuss the comics you've bought this week, whether it be a brand new title or old back-issues. We also welcome and encourage talk about comics in general - news you've read on comic news sites, the state of the industry in general, upcoming issues you're excited about, etc. All we ask is that you please use spoiler brackets in the event that your comments get too detailed concerning a particular storyline. This way the book won't be ruined for anyone who hasn't read it yet.

It's New Comic Book Day for the week of September 4, 2008 - September 9, 2008 !

For a list of the new items shipping this week, please consult Diamond Comics' Shipping List (http://www.comiclist.com/index.php/shipping/comiclist-for-09-04-2008).

To find a comic book store near you, check out the Comic Shop Locator Service (http://csls.diamondcomics.com/).


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Highlights of the Week!


Ed Liu's Picks:
http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/100/15/15462.jpg (http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/15-462/The-Kurosagi-Corpse-Delivery-Service-Vol-7)...................http://www.vertical-inc.com/image/book_Dororo3.jpg (http://www.vertical-inc.com/books/dororo.html)
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 7...............Dororo Vol. 3.....................



Xurk's Pick:
http://images.tfaw.com/covers_tfaw/200/JU/JUL082262D.jpg
Amazing Spider-Man #570


wonderfly's Pick:
http://images.tfaw.com/covers_tfaw/200/ju/jun083748f.jpg
Necronomicon #1 (of 4)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Ed Liu]

Highlights of the Week!

It's New Comic Book Day for the week of September 10, 2008 - September 16, 2008 !

For a list of the new items shipping this week, please consult Diamond Comics' Shipping List (http://www.comiclist.com/index.php/shipping/comiclist-for-09-10-2008).

To find a comic book store near you, check out the Comic Shop Locator Service (http://csls.diamondcomics.com/).


wonderfly's Pick:
http://www.dccomics.com/media/product/9/7/9784_180x270.jpg
Ex Machina #38


Ed Liu's Picks:
http://images.tfaw.com/covers_tfaw/100/ju/jun084182f.jpg (http://www.tfaw.com/Profile/Neozoic-6___325276)
Neozoic #6



Xurk's Picks:
http://images.tfaw.com/covers_tfaw/200/JU/JUL082269D.jpg ......http://images.tfaw.com/covers_tfaw/200/ju/jul082316d.jpg
Amazing Spider-Girl #24.............................Deadpool #1



-------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Ed Liu]

Three nifty comic book interview links posted recently:

- Tom Spurgeon interviews Scott McCloud (http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/cr_sunday_interview_scott_mccloud/). Someday, I wish I'll be as good of an interviewer as Spurge seems to be. The interview mostly focuses on McCloud's work on Zot! (just released as a giant B&W volume which is sitting on my "to read" pile), but the usual suspects (like Understanding/Reinventing/Making Comics and the Creator Bill of Rights) crop up as well.

- Richard Moore talks about Far West (http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=007466), his series that mashes up fantasy and the Old West to tell the tale of the faerie bounty hunter Meg and her talking bear sidekick Phil, and really, you shouldn't need much more than that to think this sounds cool and worth checking out :D. I have these comics in the oversized reprint that NBM published a while ago, and now it seems that the Antarctic reprint I pre-ordered is the same material in a much smaller trim size. I'm pretty sure I'm not happy about that, but I like it enough to not feel too bad about buying it again.

- Rob Vollmar talks up the Bluesman hardcover (http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=007465), which was a pick of the week a while ago. It's a terrific graphic novel and in desperate need of a soundtrack (or at least an accompanying iTunes playlist). It's a gritty and realistic story about a pair of itinerant musicians in the turn-of-the-century southern US, and the mess of trouble they trigger inadvertently after hitting the tiny town of Hope. Powerful stuff, and something that gets my highest recommendation.

While I'm on the subject of less-enlightened race relations in America, I also just got through Incognegro, the graphic novel about a black reporter who can pass for white, and uses this ability to report on lynchings in the deep South that were treated as holidays by the participants. It's based on real events, but I have to say that I appreciated it more as a concept than as a reality. The story is fine (and exciting and infuriating), but honestly, the artwork wasn't everything that I thought it could be. Still worth checking out from your local library, at least.

-- Ed

[Michael24]

On Friday I got my TPB copy of Freddy vs Jason vs Ash in the mail, and I really enjoyed it. Read it twice over the weekend, in fact. Man, I really wish Sam Raimi had let them use Ash for the sequel. I think he passed up a great opportunity. If this mini-series is an indication (I understand the sequel script was used as the basis), it would have been, in the words of Ash himself, "Groovy." :D

I posted a further review of it on my LJ (in my sig) if anybody's interested. Needless to say, I hope Wildstorm follows up with a sequel. :)

[Ed Liu]

Marvel kicks off another digital comics initiative (http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.4972), except this time it's digital-only and it's tied in to the summer movies. Iron Man: Fast Friends hits tomorrow, Sept 17, 2008 (just in time for New Comic Book Day), and The Incredible Hulk: The Fury Files hits Oct 8, 2008.

Also, Marvel's latest solicitations feature Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips on Incognito, about a super-villain in the Witness Protection Program. Check out the preview pages at Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter (http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/letters/15503/) and Brubaker's interview at Newsarama (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090816-Incognito.html). Brubaker's comment on where this came from:


Still, as the story developed, it was as influenced by what I was doing on Captain America as much as anything else. Thinking about all the big Hydra-sized organizations, and the bureaucracy of government agencies, and writing about genuinely evil bad guys like the Red Skull... I started thinking more and more, what could I do in Incognito that I could never do in Cap? Because I could do an issue of Cap that was about the Red Skull's daughter living in Witness Protection. But what couldn't I have her do? A lot. And that's where the fun stuff begins.

Sold!

-- Ed

[Ed Liu]

.
Highlights of the Week!

It's New Comic Book Day for the week of September 17, 2008 - September 23, 2008 !

For a list of the new items shipping this week, please consult Diamond Comics' Shipping List (http://www.comiclist.com/index.php/shipping/comiclist-for-09-17-2008).

To find a comic book store near you, check out the Comic Shop Locator Service (http://csls.diamondcomics.com/).


wonderfly's Pick:
http://www.mycomicshop.com/res/images_products/import_from_office/largepics/BANW4001A.JPG
The Age of the Sentry #1


Ed Liu's Picks:
http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/100/15/15505.jpg (http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/15-505/Astro-Boy-1-2-TPB)................http://www.red5comics.com/img/cover/2008/c00027_84.jpg (http://www.red5comics.com/img/cover/2008/c00027_400.jpg)...
Astro Boy TPB Vol. 1 & 2....Atomic Robo Vol. 2 #2 (of 5)



Xurk's Picks:
http://images.tfaw.com/covers_tfaw/200/ju/jun080209d.jpg......http://images.tfaw.com/covers_tfaw/200/JU/JUL082265D.jpg
All Star Superman #12.........................Amazing Spider-Man #572



-------------------------------------------------------------------------

[wonderfly]

Continuing with my gripe against comic book prices (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?p=2991208#post2991208), I yesterday passed over on buying the recent "X-Men: Manifest Destiny" Issue #1. I immediately noticed the price tag of $3.99. Now I'll consider buying a $3.99 comic, IF THERE'S extra story involved. But I checked, and there's only 24 pages of story inside the first issue. Standard number of pages in comic books these days is 22 pages. My new policy is that you need to AT LEAST get me 30 pages of story to get me interested in paying $3.99 for a Marvel comic book.

And just to clarify, I will buy a $3.99 or $4.99 comic from one of the smaller publishers, (like my beloved "Fall of Cthulhu" comics from Boom Studios). But Marvel can afford to put out comics for a lower price. I'm a man who loves buying the individual issues, but I'm sick and tired of Marvel jacking up the price on it's mini-series'!

...anyway, how about some mini-reviews?!? (and yes, I'm seriously behind on some of these)...

Astro City: Beautie Special: I didn't expect to get worked up over a one-shot story featuring a superhero based on a Barbie doll...but Kurt Busiek proves he is the master of superheroes once again! This made for a heartbreaking story, the type I wish Busiek would focus on more often, but he's too wrapped up in the grim "Dark Age" storyline, (but that's not a bad thing, I'm enjoying that storyline as well). This just makes me wish for more Astro City to come out on a regular basis...:sad: Grade: A

Captain America: The Chosen #6: I finally, FINALLY, finish this painfully slow mini-series, only to find myself wishing I'd never started reading it in the first place. Did we really need over half of this mini-series dedicated to the young Marine trying to dig his way out of a cave, with Captain America psychically harping at him the entire time? This was basically the equivalent of a "The End" storyline for Captain America, but not a very good one at that. I know that the "The End" tales are supposed to allow the creators a chance to deliver a much more "final" type of story, but I feel better about the way Captain America died in the regular ongoing series, as compared to this waste. Grade: D

Conan the Cimmerian #2: I was left a little skeptical upon reading the 1st issue, but the 2nd issue reassured me that Truman knows what he's doing. The problem came in that the 1st issue had only 7 pages devoted to storyline in the present day. The majority of the issue was flashback to Conan's grandfather. Granted, the flashback's were beautifully illustrated by legendary artist Richard Corben, but c'mon, I don't want the flashback's stealing time away from Conan. But the 2nd issue gives a better perspective on how writer Truman plans on weaving the flashbacks into the narrative. The 2nd issue also had a satisfying conclusion. Grade: A-

Fall of Cthulhu #14: This was the last issue before the reboot turning this series into a "series of mini-series". A worthy conclusion to the story arc, and there's something that seperates it from the other Cthulhu storylines that Boom Studios has published: (mild spoilers) This had an actual happy ending!!! C'mon, how often does that happen in a Cthulhu storyline? The forces of Cthulhu don't often lose, but as our hero Lucifer points out, all that they've done is merely delayed the horrors that await poor mankind... Grade: A

Potter's Field #3: This was the 3rd and final issue to Mark Waid's noir storyline from last year, (this was before Waid took over as Editor in Chief for Boom Studios). It's a mini-series devoted to a mysterious "John Doe" who works on missing person cases for New York City's infamous "Potter's Field" (where people with no identity are buried). I'm not sure there's enough here for an ongoing series, or even a series of mini-series, but I think there's room for a sequel. Beyond that, Mark Waid proves he can write something besides "super-heroes"!! Grade: B

Scalped #20: A depressing two-part story exploring why Chief Red Crow's daughter is such a drug addict. There's such a dark tone to life on the Reservation in this series, it's one of Jason Aaron's strengths as a writer that you can't turn your eyes away from the tragedy unfolding. Still, I have to take issue with the ending, (mild spoilers): Instead of helping Carol overcome her addiction, our hero Bad Horse turns to drug experimentation himself! Hopefully this was a brief lapse in judgement, and we won't have to spend several storylines devoted to him overcoming dependancy.

The tension in this book is so thick, they need to have some sort of resolution to some of it soon. Time for some bad guys to die, I hope...I'd give this a higher grade if not for the ambigious ending. Grade: B

X-Men: Legacy #214: Along with Christos Gage over on Thunderbolts, I dub Mike Carey to be an official "Master of Continuity!" for Marvel. Skillfully weaving together bad X-men storylines from the 90's, Carey creates a story about Mr. Sinister that's...well...sinister!!! I'm really enjoying the exploration of Professor X's history with this title, and look forward to the crossover with "Wolverine: Origins"! Grade: A

[Ed Liu]

Astro City: Beautie Special: I didn't expect to get worked up over a one-shot story featuring a superhero based on a Barbie doll...but Kurt Busiek proves he is the master of superheroes once again! This made for a heartbreaking story, the type I wish Busiek would focus on more often, but he's too wrapped up in the grim "Dark Age" storyline, (but that's not a bad thing, I'm enjoying that storyline as well). This just makes me wish for more Astro City to come out on a regular basis...:sad: Grade: A

In addition to everything you just said, this one-shot also made me want an Astro City: Sledgehamsters mini-series very badly, but I'm strange that way :p. I'm still a bit bowled over that Busiek managed to take a background character and give her some real substance in this story, even though so much of it has been done before. Then again, most of what AC does has been done before -- Busiek's real gift is, I think, the ability to mix in just enough new stuff to keep a trope from becoming a cliche. In some cases, it's a bigger sense of social relevance (the way Beautie is adopted by the homosexual community in the same way that Barbie dolls have been), and in other cases, it's just in presenting us with characters who are Characters and not just Archetypes. Yeah, Beautie has some Pinocchio in her and some Cmdr. Data and some of the little kid in A.I., but in the end she is clearly and definitively herself.

And that went on a lot longer than I thought it would...

Beau Smith talks about Lost and Found (http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=007478), his one-shot comic coming from IDW. I think the high-concept pitch is "the Bermuda Triangle and all the other places where things get lost are chutes to a common universe, and an A-bomb just showed up amongst the dinosaurs, knights, pirates, cowboys, Nazis, and aliens." He does a better job explaining it, That would be enough to hook me anyway, but it's a done-in-one $3 comic and it also looks like he finds a way to get his female astronaut protagonist into a crop top (http://www.comicon.com/pulse/images_07a/07beausmith3.jpg). Sign me up.

I'm waiting for IDW's Farscape comics to show up in a trade, but Rockne O'Bannon talks about 'em with CBR (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18121). Not many details about what to expect, but he does drop a hint that Rygel will return to Hyneria to try and reclaim his throne.

Last note is Alan Moore chatting with the LA Times about the Watchmen movie (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/09/alan-moore-on-w.html). I'm not going to quote the usual line out of context that everyone else is, also because I find this bit far more interesting:


Moore said he is now working on new installments in his marvelous comics series "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," which is far more nuanced and daring than the forgettable film of the same title. The new stories take the narrative to the moon where there is a war underway between the giant insects (inspired by the H.G. Wells (http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/) 1901 book "The First Men in the Moon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Men_in_the_Moon)") and nude lunar amazons. "The idea, it pretty much sells itself, doesn't it?"I think I found the high-concept element that bests "hot female astronaut in a crop top chasing an A-bomb." :D

-- Ed

[wonderfly]

Huh, looks like Jimmy Palmiotti is the new scripter for the upcoming Vampire Hunter D comic book. (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18135) I've got mixed feelings on that. His work on Jonah Hex was rather "hit or miss" for my taste, (but when it was "hit" it was a damn good read). However, the Jonah Hex book is a good match for the type of stories they should be emulating: Vampire Hunter D is in many ways a mixture of Fantasy and Western genres. They have to walk a very balanced line here: they need to honor the original material, but Vampire Hunter D is a story that lends itself well to an Americanized style adaptation.

Wait and see, I guess...

[Ed Liu]

It started with a one-panel joke involving odd Lego pieces (http://www.the-isb.com/?p=596), with the caption "The Batman! And his nunchuks made of sharks."

Then someone made a drawing of this (http://www.the-isb.com/?p=601).

Then, with two more (http://www.the-isb.com/?p=611) (nunchucks made of alligators and nunchucks made of car batteries, in tribute to this comic (http://www.the-isb.com/?p=368)) came news of a contest: draw Batman with nunchucks made of things that nunchucks are not normally made of.

The results are in now (http://www.the-isb.com/?p=633). And the fact that the winner of the contest was NOT nunchucks made of Batman's dead parents, nunchucks made of teen sidekicks, nunchucks made of the Punisher, Batman, OR MODOK, nunchucks made of monkeys that are on fire, or nunchucks made of Grant Morrison should tell you how unspeakably rad and hilarious these things are. The "inexplicable and hilarious" one is also exactly that, and it didn't win either.

But the whole thing just makes me laugh and laugh and laugh. It will make you laugh too, unless you're weird or something ;).

(NOTE: Yes, I know I misspelled "nunchaku" everywhere in this post, and even spelled it differently in different places. That's because they're DIFFERENT when they're made of sharks or teen sidekicks, see? Oh, never mind...)

-- Ed

[Jin Kazama]

And just to clarify, I will buy a $3.99 or $4.99 comic from one of the smaller publishers, (like my beloved "Fall of Cthulhu" comics from Boom Studios). But Marvel can afford to put out comics for a lower price. I'm a man who loves buying the individual issues, but I'm sick and tired of Marvel jacking up the price on it's mini-series'!

DC's been a culprit of this as well. All of the issues of Final Crisis, as well as all of it's associated minis have all had $3.99 cover prices. I've tried to justify it in my head with the paper/cover quality on them all being very good, but it better paper quality doesn't take away from the missing paper in my wallet.

The sad thing is, is that it's a growing trend for both companies. Not just on minis or anything, but some monthlies as well. I wouldn't put it past either of them to have a regular $3.99 cover price on all their comics by mid-next year.

[wonderfly]

DC's been a culprit of this as well. All of the issues of Final Crisis, as well as all of it's associated minis have all had $3.99 cover prices. I've tried to justify it in my head with the paper/cover quality on them all being very good, but it better paper quality doesn't take away from the missing paper in my wallet.


Well, I admit I'm buying the main "Secret Invasion" mini-series from Marvel, which is $3.99, (Marvel has done that for all of it's "event" comics these last few years). But I think all of the tie-in's are just $2.99, (I'm talking about the stuff like "SI: Inhumans" and "SI: Fantastic Four"). If those tie-in's weren't $2.99, I wouldn't be buying them.

I'm also buying the main "Final Crisis" mini-series, (just to see what all the hype is about), but the only tie-in I'm getting from DC is "Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds", (which I gush lovingly about here (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=215460)).

Again, it's the mini-series that Marvel is most notorious about with the price tag, (for DC, it appears to be the tie-in's), and I'll be swearing off of buying more and more of them, if they keep it up...

[Ed Liu]

.
Highlights of the Week!

It's New Comic Book Day for the week of September 24, 2008 - September 30, 2008 !

For a list of the new items shipping this week, please consult Diamond Comics' Shipping List (http://www.comiclist.com/index.php/shipping/comiclist-for-09-24-2008).

To find a comic book store near you, check out the Comic Shop Locator Service (http://csls.diamondcomics.com/).


wonderfly's Pick:
http://images.comicbookresources.com/cons/nycc2008/scottallie/solomonkane_cover_sm.jpg
Solomon Kane #1, (of 5)


Ed Liu's Pick:
http://images.tfaw.com/covers/200/15/15547.jpg (http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/15-547/Conan-Volume-6-The-Hand-of-Nergal-HC)
Conan Vol. 6: The Hand of Nergal HC/TPB



-------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Ed Liu]

The Awesomed By Comics weblog has a nice long interview up with Greg Rucka about Queen & Country (http://awesomedbycomics.blogspot.com/2008/09/full-q-with-greg-rucka-on-queen-country.html), which I'm reading in comics form thanks to the nice, thick Oni Press Definitive Editions. It's an awesome series, digging into the dirty world of international espionage, and Rucka talks about a bunch of cool stuff like how much stuff is real, what kind of research he does for the book (answer: a lot...and it shows), and lots more. Neat stuff.

In a completely unrelated note, I found this comment from Tom Spurgeon (http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/random_comics_news_story_round_up092408/) neatly summed up the reason why I tend to get upset when people say things like the Jerry Siegel estate is a bunch of whiners for wanting a larger piece of the extremely lucrative Superman pie:


I probably shouldn't be as amazed as I am, but I find it sublimely odd that there's still so much passion by nerds (http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/63710/chow-time/) that movie and television shows not make fun of their favorite comics/tv/radio characters, or do them "properly," and yet there's so little sympathy (http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/09/19/moore-spitting-venom-on-watchmen-film/#comments) for the upset feelings of the actual creators who have legitimate claims to feelings of ownership over those characters.

Spurgeon is referring to Alan Moore's feelings towards Hollywood adaptations of his comics, and I do think that someone really ought to ask him why he feels that way about his work when he's essentially appropriated other people's characters (from the Charlton heroes to Dorothy, Alice, and Peter Pan's Wendy) to tell stories radically different from what the creators originally intended. That's not necessarily a criticism against Moore's work, of course, Watchmen requires no knowledge at all of the Charlton superheroes, but a lot of his other work (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, certainly) piggybacks on pre-existing emotional connections to older fictional characters. You look at the work differently knowing that the brutal cad in the dark suit in LoEG: Black Dossier is James Bond.

-- Ed