Comic Books Comic Book • Page 318

God Hates Astronauts is fucking incredible. Holy shit I love this book.

 

Is this the start of that run?

 

Yes.

 

@Henry, what’s the status of your Further Reading blurb? Reminder that it can be super short if you don’t have much time!

 

Comix are good.

 

A little late, but wanted to add my inclusions to the “best books I’ve read in the last 3 months conversation” (in no particular order):

Dept. H
Royal City
Black Hammer
Lazarus
The Old Guard
Exit Stage Left: The Snaglepuss Chronicles

 

New Cap is good and Cosmic Ghost Rider was interesting. Cates seems to be on a roll lately.

 

I was up north and didn’t have signal, so I missed this.
Books that are at least 3 months recent, or just what we’ve read in the past 3 months?

 

I say "read in" ...

 

Royal City - It’s ending soon. It’s a great slice-of-life book written and drawn by Lemire, one of the best in the business now.

Deadly Class - Marcus is an orphan who goes to a school for assassins. The pilot for the SyFy channel is being made. It has lots of twists and good character development. The 7th trade comes out soon.

Start with those. I read more Image than Marvel and DC. They have the best original series. I’m not sure what you’ve read and what you haven’t, but I think you’ll like at least one of those two.

 

Going to just spoil my thoughts on Batman 50 since if you've seen my previous posts my reaction will probably give away what happened I'm pretty goddamn devastated. happy to hear there's still a long time for King to do a master plan, I certainly have faith in him. But for the moment this has put me in a really shitty mood.

 

yep

 

@Jason Tate didn't know you were specifically asking for recs, I shoulda been more specific. Southern Bastards is maybe the one series I'd choose if you had to pick one, and the good news is you won't have to wait forever for the issues like everyone else because four trades are out (and the fourth might be the last, I'm not sure)

Also @scottlechowicz mentioned Black Hammer and I double that rec. Lemire's created a fully realized world like DC and Marvel but obviously without millions of issues. He's been doing some mini series in the world too and one of the recent ones, Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows (sort of Green Lantern/Nova Corpsish), was one of the most emotionally draining comics I've read in a long time.

 

Co-creator of Spider-Man and much of his supporting cast and rogues gallery, as well as Doctor Strange, Squirrel Girl, and The Question. RIP.

 

https://io9.gizmodo.com/ta-nehisi-coates-captain-america-is-a-timely-story-abou-1827366981

 

RIP Steve Ditko .That sucks.

 

Did some comic reading this morning. Read the Superman Special from Walmart, which I picked up 'cause I wanted to see what the deal was w/ these, and it was easily the most appealing one of the batch.

The original material from Jimmy Palmiotti was a fine crash course in who Superman is. The special also reprints Jeph Loeb's Batman/Superman (which I don't own), Jeff Lemire's Terrifics (which I don't own), and Geoff Johns' Green Lantern (which I own but never read). Enjoyed the whole experience. Felt like comic books being comic books. The couple mid-00s stories and the type of paper used reminded me of my younger days.

Dunno that I'll pick up more of these. Would rather give my comics money to not Walmart. Hope they successfully get more people into comics, though. Some good, accessible material in this one, at least.

 

Damn RIP
Here's an obit: Steve Ditko, Spider-Man Co-Creator and Legendary Comics Artist, Dies at 90

 

I ended up picking up the Superman and Batman ones. Have yet to read them but it’s on my list to do this weekend.

 

I've seen people praising Ditko's philosophy, which...

He idolized Ayn Rand for decades, which is most clear in his two favorite creations, Mr A and The Question. That philosophy even made its way into his ASM work, like in one issue where Peter gets mad at college protesters. I saw a recent letter shared online where he makes passing mention to speakers at universities being driven away.

It's easy to romanticize him because he was a brilliant artist who was never properly compensated for his work and who became a recluse for much of his life. But, his worldview was the kind that's rightly railed against in our current climate. If he weren't a recluse, he'd be viewed in the same way as a Frank Miller or a Kanye West.

I'm not gonna attempt to work out my full, nuanced take on how to deal with artists with bad ideology, in where I think someone can be appreciated in spite of their shortcomings and where I think an artist needs rejected. I personally won't reject any classic Spider-Man work for all its ideological warts, that's for sure. But, it frustrates me to see people wearing rose colored glasses instead of wrestling with the nuances of reality.

Anyways, Steve Ditko was a brilliant artist who was very wrong about a lot of stuff and was very wronged by the industry. RIP.

 

It's weird how much artists changing can ruin stories for me. I read the latest Rumble and Flash today and both just lost me completely.

 

I've said this before, but I'm fine with a series having multiple artists as long as it's done right. Have the different artists make sense for the story. Maintain consistent quality, and don't have a major shift in style unless it's temporary and fits the narrative (say, in flashbacks, or in subplot pages, or a short fill in story).

Bendis is great at making different artists add to the story instead of distract. And, King's Batman has likewise done a good job of handling this. Tomasi & Gleason's Superman, on the other hand, really struggled with that.

Also, obligatory reminder that moving away from the strict monthly format sucks.

 

I think Batman has flourished with style changes. The Jones run was gorgeous. King has a knack for just knocking everything out of the park.

The problem I had with Flash was that there were four different artists on a single arc. That should NEVER happen unless it is ultimately the goal of the book, like Scarlet Witch. It's difficult to maintain a time when someone has a serious style and then looks like a cartoon in the next issue.

 

Four? Dang. That's rough. Which, some stories could make that work, like with subplots or vignetted storytelling... but, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that wasn't the case here, lol. Why can't they just let Flash go monthly?

 

Have you read the Scarlet Witch series that had a different artist on each issue?