Even though this week’s Trade Pile isn’t quite as robust as others, I still wanted to get a few thoughts down on three books that I read this week that I thought were pretty darn spiffy. One set an established character out on his own in a way that really worked for me while the other two featured brand new characters, one set in an equally new world an one rooted in a far more familiar one!
Continue reading Trade Post: Nightwing, Kill Or Be Killed & Mother Panic
I call together this first meeting of The Midnight Comic Club in 2018 to order! This time around, I assembled a Frightful Five of gateway horror comics that are good for kids of various ages. As always, I recommend you read the books first before passing them to the young reader in your life, but I think there’s some solid options in here!
Here are the Amazon links for the first four which have both digital and analog versions to chose from: Scooby-Doo Team-Up Volume 1, The Creeps Volume One: Night Of The Frankenfrogs, Ghosts and Ghostopolis. And then here’s a link to the MyComicShop.com page for Leave It To Chance!
Welcome to the ninth meeting of the Midnight Comic Club! In the third and final look at Frankenstein-related comic books we plunge into the waters of Dick Briefer, EC Comics, Warren, Image, Dark Horse and a variety of other companies. In this episode we see writers and artists experiment with all kinds of variations on the theme ranging from setting and sex to superheroics!
As always, I mention a lot of titles in the episode. I’ll link to them here and also show off some images below to help create a fuller experience. Frankenstein: The Mad Science Of Dick Briefer, The Monster Of Frankenstein By Dick Briefer, the Jack Davis-drawn “Mirror, Mirror On the Wall ” can be found in glorious black and white in Fantagraphics’ ‘Taint The Meat…It’s The Humanity, Creepy Archives Volumes 1 and 2, Eerie Archives Volume 1, Top Cow Monster War, Doc Frankenstein, Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son Volume 1, Madame Frankenstein and Frankenstein Underground!
Alright, so going through the top half of this pile was pretty fun on the previous post. I had a great time with Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy, Batman ’66 Meets The Man From U.N.C.L.E. AND the first volume of Mockingbird so there’s no reason to expect I didn’t also enjoy the bottom half (mostly because I tend to follow the old “if you don’t have anything nice to say” adage). Want to hear about Shutter, Aquaman, Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City and the first volume of Gerard Way’s Doom Patrol? Then you know what to do! Continue reading Trade Pile Part 2: Shutter, Aquaman, Batman & Doom Patrol
I’ve had a lot of good luck when it comes to entertainment choices lately and wanted to talk about them all in one place! First, let’s talk about comics. In addition to reading a ton of Guardians of the Galaxy and monster comics for Marvel.com I’ve also been going back through the 90s Aquaman series (which will get a post of its own soon) and also the first two volumes of Paper Girls from Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang and Image Comics. Continue reading My New Favorite Things: Paper Girls, Greydon Clark & Box 13
I’ve been doing some cleaning in the garage and want to whittle down my To Read boxes so I dove in and came out with this batch. Here’s what I thought!
Back when I worked at Wizard, I found a batch of Black Bull trades that were up for grabs. If you’re unfamiliar, that was the short-lived comic company created by the higher ups at Wizard. I haven’t read anything but the two Just A Pilgrim books, so I can’t speak to the overall quality of the line, but I liked these Garth Ennis and Carlos Ezquerra stories! Continue reading Trade Post: Just A Pilgrim, Criminal & Martian Manhunter
So many trades, so little time so let’s jump right in! A friend of mine suggested I check out Tokyo Ghost, which didn’t take too much pushing because I love Sean Murphy’s artwork in books like The Wake, Punk Rock Jesus and Joe the Barbarian and I’ve always thought that Rick Remender’s stories work better in worlds that he fully creates and that’s exactly what you get with Ghost. Continue reading Trade Pile: Tokyo Ghost, Sonic/Mega Man & Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Back when I started working for CBR, I covered Image Comics. It was a wild time when new creators were rolling in and producing these great creator-owned books. A lot of them have gone on to work at Marvel where I now interview them for that company’s website. I’ve since switched beats and now cover BOOM! Studios and IDW so I’ve lost touch with some of the books that everyone’s talking about and digging like Wayward and Descender. Continue reading Image Trade Post: Wayward & Descender
Brian K. Vaughan’s one of those comic writers who might not hit a grand slam every time, but he sure seems to swing for the fences. Saga, Runaways and Y: The Last Man are amazing pieces of long-form comic book storytelling. I’m not the biggest fan of how Ex Machina came to a close and Pride of Baghdad isn’t my thing, but the way this guy attacks his ideas and collaborates with his artists just blows me away every time even if the story isn’t fully up my alley.
So, of course I was interested in checking out The Private Eye, a pay-what-you-want, digital-first series he created with Doctor Strange: The Oath artist Marcos Martin for Panel Syndicate, the company they also started. I actually ready the first issue or two a few y ears back when I had the pleasure of interviewing BKV for CBR, but fell off a bit. When the collection, printed by Image, appeared on the library website, it was an easy request. Continue reading Trade Post: The Private Eye
Batman Vol. 5: Zero Year – Dark City
Written by Scott Snyder, drawn by Greg Capullo
Collects Batman #25-27, 29-33
I continue to fully enjoy Scott Snyder’s run on Batman for DC’s New 52 initiative. A while back I briefly talked about reading the first entry in the Zero Year story. I get that diehard Batfans don’t like how much he and artist Greg Capullo are straying from the origins laid down by Frank Miller in Year One, but I heard an interview with him somewhere where he said that he was equally freaked out by the idea, but was encouraged by editorial to blaze a bold new trail for a new universe. Thus was born Batman’s earliest adventures in a flooded Gotham City run completely by the Riddler.
While the previous volume felt a little more straightforward, I really enjoyed how Snyder played out the mystery of who Dr. Death is (and why he does what he does) while also laying down Riddler’s plans for keeping Gothamites docile. I appreciated that this story felt somewhat familiar — like No Man’s Land or Dark Knight Rises — but also blazed its own trail, kind of like a jazz solo in the middle of a standard (or maybe a familiar tune in the middle of a crazy jazz composition).
I also appreciate how Snyder disseminated the information throughout these issues, though I fully admit that they would have been lost on me had I read this book in monthly issues. All those little bits and pieces about how Dr. Death ties back to Bruce Wayne were super neat and compelling, but I doubt I’d be able to remember them over the span of eight months or so. This is why I love trades.
You also can’t talk about Batman without talking about Greg Capullo. I never read his Spawn stuff, but he just seems so perfect for Batman. I’m glad he and Snyder have been able to keep this run going together because it lends such a specific visual to this new take on Batman. They remind me of one another and pair so well that it feels like a complete thing made by two creators at the top of their game. The colors by FCO Plascencia are also off the wall in the best way possible. So bright and crazy at times and so subdued at others.
Batman Vol. 6: Graveyard Shift
Written & drawn by a lot of folks including Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
Collects Batman #0, 18-20, 28, 34, Annual #2
While the previous five volumes of this collection all tell an increasingly c0mplex and cohesive story, Graveyard Shift brings together a variety of tales told in that time and during Batman Eternal, a weekly comic that was set in the present while “Zero Year” took us back to Batman’s earlier days. So, as you might expect, this book doesn’t have the feel of the previous one (especially because Snyder’s joined by a series of other writers and different pencilers plying their craft).
Even so, it’s impressive that this all still feels like part of the larger Gotham City Snyder and Capullo have been working on so far. In that way, it feels a bit like an anthology whereas the others are part of a sequential story. Oh, also, many of these stories take place after the much publicized death of Damian Wayne, which I haven’t read yet, but obviously knew about.
Personal highlights include Bruce Wayne testing his Batarangs in a flashback on the roof before Gordon pops up to ask him some questions, more Harper Row, Clayface drawn by Capullo, the nod to the Batman Beyond armor, Superman’s appearance, Mateo Scalera’s art and Batman’s new accomplice inside Arkham.
My only complaint about this collection comes from my weird need to know where every story actually comes from. They’re all credited as they begin, but they skip over which issues they first appeared in. That’s a pet peeve of mine (as is a trade filled with non-consecutive stories/skipping stories as they were originally published) but I still enjoyed the experience of looking at Gotham from a different angle, something I’m also experiencing in my re-through of Batman Eternal.
unitedmonkee.com 