Comic Books Comic Book • Page 484

he was in the CIA??? lol

 

Yeah, lol.

But, my real problem with Tom King Archie is that he wrote a classic-style Archie one-shot last year, that I read during the peak of a classic Archie kick, that I think was overwritten, unfunny, flat dogshit. It somehow was the angriest I got last year at a new comic book issue that I bought & read, lol. I do not think someone with his specific strengths and weaknesses is in any way equipped to make Archie work.

 

wow, imagine getting to work with the gawd Dan Parent

 

And making that much of a dud, lol.

Though, potential hot take: I think Dan Parent is fine. There was a book he did I think called Life With Kevin that had a limited color pallet and inks by J. Bone that I think looks great. But, a lot of his stuff doesn’t hit as good for me as, say, the old legends Dan DeCarlo & Harry Lucey. A lot of the other modern artists in that classic style are just as good as Parent, imo; possibly even better?


Speaking of Archie artists, good excuse to shout out the comic Forgotten Five. It’s a series primarily inspired by Love & Rockets and Chris Claremont that started recently on Patreon, drawn by Pat Kennedy and cowritten by Alex Segura & Sara Century. Think the first chapter is available for free? I’ve been letting it build up, but what I’ve seen is pretty rad.

 

samm schwartz will always be my favorite

 

Gotta read more of his Jughead for sure.

I tend to focus the most on Betty & Veronica material, but Jughead is easily the best Archie guy.

 

Also I think I saw someone say Tom King almost got Bruce and Selina to get married but then backed out at the last second, and also he's the one who killed off Alfred?? Leaving other writers to explore the repercussions of those events

 

If I remember correctly he was told by editorial he couldn’t let them marry in the main book which is why the Batman/Catwoman book was kind of elseworlds/kind of not and he wanted to bring back Alfred (I think Clayface was going to be the one who was actually shot), but Didio the editor in chief said no leave him dead. Both of those events were at the end of his run which was already announced to be ending at the end of the arc so he didn’t get to finish it on his terms.

 

The Alfred death was gonna be a step in the march to “5G,” an aborted initiative that I maintain would’ve been much more interesting than “Infinite Frontier” lol.

Future State was largely built on ideas & material built from this “5G” concept. Morrison’s underrated Superman & the Authority was part of this, as was Ram V’s Swamp Thing (which I still need to get). That Green Lantern Dark or whatever Elseworlds mini is a concept that also would’ve been part of that initiative with a different team, I think written by Lemire?

As much as I dislike the fandom tendency to want things “fixed,” I do think Alfred is a core element to the Batman formula that should be returned eventually. Wish we were going into this Fraction relaunch with him in the picture.

 

I like Parent's work. I like when he plays with panel shapes a bit. Dan's Kevin Keller stuff is so good! I have the omnibus! The Life with Kevin stuff was absolutely my favorite, you're right about that. It had its own personality and I wish it were longer!

Idk how far back is classic, but while I love Lucey for his characters in motion, I also love the chubby faces of Stan Goldberg. It's tough to pick a favorite. Schwartz draws the best Jughead though!

I was stoked they got Fernando Ruiz back somehow to do Archie Meets Jay and Silent Bob, I had a lot of fun with that one as someone who got really into Kevin Smith after leaving a high demand religion a few years ago. Smith gets the characters. I honestly think he could write classic Archie if he wanted to.

As far as modern takes on Archie, I think Derek Charm or Gisele Lagace do it the best. The way Charm draws Reggie is my absolute favorite. There's been some really good fresh takes on the characters in recent years (as well as some bad ones).

One more thought (heaven knows when I'll be able to talk this much Archie again), several years ago, Dean Haspiel and Mark Waid did a series for Archie about an old character called the Fox. It got two TPBs and a one shot later. They wrote it in the Marvel method and Waid's dialogue was really fun. The art was a heavy Kirby tribute with maybe some Toth in there. I'll always be bummed that we didn't get more from this, although it did seem to inspire Haspiel's Red Hook series, so there's that.

 

I do like Ruiz a little more than Parent.

Gisèle Lagacé is one of my favorites of the modern Archie artists for sure. She’s got that very 00s anime-influenced style, which blends with classic Archie pretty well. Very charming work. Need to check out more of her indie stuff.

Also have a soft spot for Holly G!’s work. Very funny to me that she’s Jim Balent’s wife, and that in addition to drawing Archie & similar stuff, she also colors & letters Balent’s smutty ass Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose series (which somehow has well over 100 issues and is still going; shoutout to all the sickos who keep up with that).

 

Also. Shoutout to these sketches by Andrew Pepoy & Craig Boldman:

 

Triple post, but whatever:

Since there’s been so much recent Archie talk, I must say yet again, if you haven’t read the work of Jaime Hernandez before, you absolutely must. The best who has ever done it.

 

https://www.cbr.com/rick-and-morty-the-end-teaser/

 

DC Comics Cancels 'Red Hood' After One Issue Due To "Public Comments" "Promoting Hostility" | Comic Book Club

ppl weren't exactly excited for this run to begin with bc of something else the author said in the past, so now they're saying dc is doing the right thing for the wrong reason

i'm not a particularly big fan of Jason or Helena so i wasn't gonna pick this up anyway but ppl who are fans of them were saying the series was giving off bad vibes before it even began

she shouldn't have said that kinda stuff publicly, but at the same time, dc just fired a trans person for speaking about a transphobe's death, that's not really a good look either imo as a trans person myself. there are already so few trans people working with dc

 

Charlie Kirk is doing in death what he loved to do in life: harm trans people.