About three years ago I picked up three collections of Harvey Pekar's work at a yard sale and finally got around to starting "American Splendor". I'm enjoying the various artists' takes on his very mundane, collecting-centric life.
Anybody have any updates on the Dark Horse EC Archive series? Have they stopped? I bought all the Gemstone editions, then continued when Dark Horse picked it up... But I don't think I have seen any new volumes for quite awhile. I sure wish they would finish the Archives for the "New Trend" period at least.
I read My Favourite Thing is Monsters, thanks for the recommendation. I thought it was brilliant. Great story, incredible illustrations. I'm looking forward to Vol. 2, due Feb' I think.
I highly recommend Maus, it's incredibly moving and deserves its reputation as a classic of the genre. Same goes for Joe Sacco's books. Unflinching reportage from war devastated areas. I'm currently reading his Safe Area Gorazde: Thanks to your mention of it, I also read Berlin by Jason Lutes, and that is also terrific.
The Blackest Night Trade Paperback. One of the darkest events DC Comics has ever done, one where the Dead rise and seek out those they have an emotional connection to. Among the things this series explains is why a number heroes (Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and The Flash among them) have returned from the dead.
I'm reading Marvel comics from the Tom DeFalco as Editor-In-Chief period circa 1988-1992, stuff I missed out on when I dropped reading 'mainstream' superheroes around 1986-87. I'm liking DeFalco and Ron Frenz' Thor, Mark Gruenwald's Captain America with various artists, John Byrne's West Coast Avengers (writing and art) and Iron Man (writing only) with Paul Ryan art. There are also some David Micheline and Mark Bagley Spider-Man, and some Walt Simonson Fantastic Four, Fabian Nicieza & Bagley New Warriors, plus some Solo Avengers with Hawkeye which have art partly by Don Heck which is a nice flashback! Most of these you can still pick up for cover price which was around $1 each.
OMIGOD, Larry Marder! The only worthwhile talent at Image at its' beginning...and he was too busy being their business guy to create!
By the way, once I finished it, all I could think of was, "You don't start a massive story with unlimited potential called "Five Years"...and then wrap it all up in ten skinny issues-! By the way, if I ever make it to another Christmas, I have one wish for Santa... And just to be clear...it ain't the hat-!
This was my "golden age" of reading comics as a teenager, though it wasn't all (or even mostly) gold. I was not a fan of the Rob Liefeld/Todd McFarlane/Jim Lee titles, or their influence on superhero titles industry-wide. Simonson's work on Fantastic Four was terrific, though, especially #352, the time-travel story that you could read two different ways. Peter David's work writing The Incredible Hulk in this era (working with Dale Keown and others on the art) was another highlight. If you start by reading David's run on the book from issue #332 right through to about #425 or so, you're getting, effectively, one great long form story that provides more character and depth to Bruce Banner than I honestly think he had ever been given by previous writers. Around the #420s, the quality starts to fall off, unfortunately (allegedly due to editorial interference, an age-old story). Sal Buscema's art on Spectacular Spider-Man around this time was a revelation. He was already in his 50s at this time, pushing 60, but far from declining, he hit an amazing high point on SSM, usually working with J.M. DeMatteis's scripts. I don't have the space, so I buy many of these back issues digitally through Comixology. Wait for a sale, and you can buy collections of these issues for pretty cheap.
The name reminds me of an independent comic I heard about called Ball & Chain. It's about a divorcing couple who gain superpowers...but the powers only work when they are together. It also bares a similarity to Hawk & Dove, where Hawk (the Avatar of Chaos) needs Dove (the Avatar of Order) to keep him in control. When the original Dove (Hawk's brother) died, Hawk went so out of control that he was banned in a number of countries around the world). Returning to topic, if it has been released I'd recommend a trade paperback of Hawk & Dove featuring the female Dove (Dawn Granger). It was a great read in single-issue format.
A Sailor's Story by Sam Glanzman is an interesting read if you prefer something more nonfiction, although I'm sure some of his storytelling is embellished here and there to make it readable. I picked up his U.S.S. Stevens book the other day, and it has fictional war stories in it, but again as far as I've read, worthwhile. https://www.amazon.com/kindle/dp/B01AX6P73A/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_eos_detail
The graphic novel version of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five is really well done. Good visual and structural choices and a nice cover to boot.
Picked up the first volume of the trade paperback of the series Y - The Last Man (the original comic ran 60 issues and this trade paperback contains the first 10 issues of the series). It's set in a world just like this one. One day in the Summer of 2002 every mammal on the planet with a Y chromosome dies. It's not long and drawn out, one minute everything is normal, the next minute every male mammal is coughing up blood, and the next minute they are dead. Only two males didn't die, one man and his helper monkey. It shows the real-world fallout of that kind of event happening (as an example, in an article at the end of Issue #1 that shows the fallout, 99% of the mechanics, electricians, and construction worker are deceased).
I just found out that Richard Corben passed away in December, I didn’t hear anything about it at the time, very sad, he is a true legend! I’ve been aware of him before I could even read as my Dad used to have some heavy metal magazines lying around that I would sneak a look at. I have to say my favourite work of his is the stuff he did on Hellboy. I want to reread some of his stuff, but most of my stuff is in boxes right now.
I’m an avid fan of DC Comics (but also Dark Horse and Image Comics) and here are some recent purchases:
