Well since the first “ask the comic guy” thread seems to be pretty dead I thought I would start a new one to keep things going and hopefully to provide a fresh start. Anyway if your a big comic buff like I’am you usually go and get your comics Wednesday so let’s hear what you got.
Here’s the list of comics I picked up:
*Ultimate Spider-Man #43- This comic was really good. The scenes with Spider-Man interacting with the women of the X-Men was hysterical. This comic also proves that Bendis hasn’t run out of good cliffhanger endings.
*Alias #24- My current favorite comic book being published. The beginning of the “Purple” arc is very good so far and actually makes The Purple Man creepy.
*Detective Comics #784- Nice buildup to a promising storyline and seeing the Golden Age Green Lantern is always a treat.
*Formerly Known as the Justice League #1-Excellent read. Funny as hell.
*Superman: Birthright #1- A touching and thought provoking retelling of Superman’s origin by the excellent scribe Mark Waid.
Well that’s all I got this week. Anyone else get anything this week or just has something to say about comics feel free to post.
I enjoyed Detective 784 a lot as well. Alan Scott has always been one of my absolute favorite heroes, so I hope the rest of the arc is this good. However, I did notice that the artist portrayed Alan as wearing a ring, which he doesn’t anymore. Odd.
I was somewhat underwhelmed by Birthright #1, but I’ll stick with it.
Since my local comic store sucks the proverbial balls, I didn’t get FKat Justice League, so I ordered it online and am waiting for it to come. I must have it, the Giffen League is my absolute favorite incarnation of the team. Can’t wait.
I also picked up Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #1 (which, suprise suprise, had a J. Scott Campbell cover). It wasn’t really that good, but hopefully it’ll get better.
Where will they draw the line on eighties cartoon properties becoming comics? It’s gotten outta hand.
Of course, I would like to see a Silverhawk’s comic. But absolutely no Ghostbusters, Smurfs, or JEM comics for me.
Well maybe not.
Who am I kidding, I’m a consumer whore.
But absolutely no CareBears. Maybe.
I’ve heard the phrase “4-color comics” used to describe the old pulp/golden-age comic books. Is it true that they only used 4 colors to color the old comic books, with no mixing or pixellation? I.e. that they had red and yellow, but no orange, for example? And that the reason superhero costumes were all in bright primary colors was because no other colors were available?
photopat, Superman: Birthright is supposed to be in continuity. It is not an Elseworlds.
tracer, I’ve heard that they only used 4 colors but I’m not sure about that I’m sure someone else that knows more about this can chime in.
Here’s some news tibits that I found on comicbookresources.com and the latest issue of Wizard.
-Green Lantern is supposed to get a creative relaunch in 2004. In the same vein as Loeb/Lee’s Batman. I for one am excited about this since Green Lantern has been unreadable for about 5 years.
-Andy Diggle (The Losers) looks like he’s going to relaunch Swamp Thing for the Veritgo line. I loved the old Swamp Things by Alan Moore and Rick Veitch hopefully he can return the title to its former glory.
-Steven T. Seagle is leaving Superman in about six months. The only thing I can cay is thank god. His run has been directionless so far.
-Mark Millar (Ultimates) will make a big announcement on his next project July 11th. It will be a creative owned title so far code named “The Chosen”. More information will be available July 11th.
-Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) will work on Batman for six issues starting in October in Batman #620. After that Loeb/Lee will come back for another six issue run and than after they leave for good and the new creative team who will stay on for more than six issues looks like it will be David Lapham and Bill Seinkiewicz.
I was just reading some of my issues of Fables and I have got to say this is the best comic series currently being published today. I think it’s a perfect blend of fairy tales mixed into the modern world with engaging storylines.
So that begs the question. What is your favorite comic series currently being published? And to up the ante a little, how about of all time?
My favorite comic series of all time has to be Animal Man I know I’m probably in the minority but I really enjoyed this series (and I have read Watchmen, Maus, Sandman) Grant Morrison’s run was classic and made Buddy Baker a very likeable character and introduced his family who were also very likeable and excellent supporting characters. I also enjoyed Peter Milligan’s and Jamie Delano’s collective runs immensely. Jerry Prosser’s run wasn’t bad but he needed more time to expand on his ideas before the series got cancelled. As for Tom Veith’s run I agree with the majority that most of it was crap but it did have redeeming values in it. Anyway how about you guys, what’s the best comic series currently and of all time?
I thought Lantern under Winick was a great read. He had good interaction with Jade and the rest of his supporting cast, with some interesting villains, and they weren’t talking about Hal Jordan all the time. Unfortunately, I thought the recent crossover with Green Arrow was horrible and I dropped both books. However, I’m still against the relaunch simply because it’s completely unecessary. A new creative team? Fine. But all the hoopla surrounding a relaunch seems like they’re just trying to do Batman again, and it’s not going to happen.
Here is this week’s comics for those of you that are picking up your comics this Wednesday:
DC COMICS
21 DOWN #11
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #618
BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #169
BATMAN NINE LIVES SC
BLOOD AND WATER #5 (Of 5)
DOOM PATROL #22
FABLES #15
FALLEN ANGEL #1
GEN 13 #11
GREEN ARROW #28
GREEN ARROW THE SOUNDS OF VIOLENCE HC
HUNTER AGE OF MAGIC #25
IN THE SHADOW OF EDGAR ALLAN POE SC
JSA #50
LOBO UNBOUND #2 (Of 6)
NIGHTWING #83
POWER COMPANY #18
SCOOBY DOO #74
STORMWATCH TEAM ACHILLES #13
SUPERGIRL MANY HAPPY RETURNS TP
SUPERMAN AND BATMAN GENERATIONS III #7 (Of 12)
MARVEL
CAPTAIN AMERICA #15
DOMINO #3 (Of 4)
EMMA FROST #1
FANTASTIC FOUR #500 (#71)
INCREDIBLE HULK #57
IRON MAN #57
KINGPIN #2
MARVEL MUST HAVES INCREDIBLE HULK #34-36
MARVEL MUST HAVES ULTIMATE X-MEN #1-3
PUNISHER #29
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #1
THOR #66
TROUBLE #1 (Of 5)
ULTIMATE X-MEN #35
WOLVERINE #3
WOLVERINE LEGENDS VOL 4 XISLE TP
OTHER
AGENTS #3 (Of 6)
ALIEN NINE BOOK 2 GN
ANGELS WING #2
ARCHIE #538
ARCHIE MYSTERIES #29
BATTLE ANGEL ALITA LAST ORDER VOL 1 TP ANGEL REBORN
BETTY & VERONICA #190
BLACKBURNE COVENANT #4 (Of 4)
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL PETALS ON THE WIND #80
CBLDF SPX 2003 TRAVEL GN
CRIMINAL MACABRE A CAL MCDONALD MYSTERY #3 (Of 5)
DAWN THREE TIERS #1 (Of 6)
DEATHMASK #3
DRAGONBALL Z VOL 1 TP SHONEN J ED
FREEMIND #7
GI JOE TRANSFORMERS CAMPBELL CVR #1 (Of 6)
GLOOM COOKIE VOL 2 TP
I FEEL SICK #2
INVINCIBLE ED #3 LANCE LUNDGRIN UNLEASHES (Of 4)
JOHNNY THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC #1
JOHNNY THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC #4
JUGHEAD #152
JUGHEAD WITH ARCHIE DIGEST #185
LENORE #7
LIBERTY MEADOWS #32
LOVE FIGHTS #2
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE VOL 1 TP SHARD OF DARKNESS
METALLIX #6
MYSTIC #38
NORM 12 STEPS TO MARRIAGE
ODDBALLZ #8
ONE PIECE VOL 1 TP ROMANCE DAWN
PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #77
QUEEN & COUNTRY #17
SAVAGE DRAGON VOL 3 THE FALLEN TP
SEMANTIC LACE GN
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #125
SQUEE #1
SUPER MANGA BLAST #33
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ANIMATED #2 (Of 6)
TRANSFORMERS ARMADA #13
UZUMAKI VOL 1 TP
VAGABOND VOL 6 TP
VICTORIAN TP ACT 3 SELF ESTRANGEMENT
WAY OF THE RAT #15
WICKED VOL 1 OMNIBUS TP
X 1999 VOL 3 TP 2ND ED SONATA
X 1999 VOL 4 TP 2ND ED INTERMEZZO
I’ll post what I got and a little review for each of them on Wednesday when I pick them up. For right now it just looks like Fantastic Four, Trouble, Queen and County, Legends of the Dark Knight, and Fables. Anyone else have an idea what they’re going to get?
A nice David Mack interview at comicon.com (click on the PULSE banner to read it).
He talks about his upcoming five issue storyline in Daredevil, his Kabuki work, and a secret Marvel project he’s working on. It’s very interesting for a David Mack fan (like myself). I actually wish he would replace Bendis on Daredevil (don’t get me wrong I like Bendis) because Bendis’ stories on Daredevil lately have been broing and predictable and I think Mack would make the title fresh again.
The four colours used in a four colour process are: yellow, cyan, magenta, and black.
There was mixing of the four elements to create other colours, but because of the very cheap paper and ther printing processes being used up to the 1970s, it was not able to be as rich.
In the 1980s there were better papers being used, better printing processes(flexigraphic) and thus they were able to print in more rich colours with a deeper subtlety.
Mockingbird, I apoligize for the error. I did mean that it was unreadable for me but there’s nothing wrong with you if you enjoyed the book.
As for me being a former member of HEAT? I loved it when I heard they were going to turn Hal Jordan evil, kill him off, than replace him with a new Green Lantern. I thought it was finally going to shake up the old status quo of the book. But the entire execution was lacking and it caused all this continuity mess. I would also like to add I like Kyle Rayner as a character and perfer him over Hal Jordan it’s just that a writer hasn’t gotten to the true potential of the character, IMO.
As for the whole killing off Donna Troy. I agree the death served only one purpose, and that was to make sure their whole horrible mess that was “Graduation Day” was remembered by the fans and to hopefully boost sales. Hopefully they bring her back soon.
It looks like Death: The High Cost Of Living has gotten the greenlight from Warner Brothers and will start filming sometime this year, Neil Gaiman is slated to direct. Thanks to comicbookresources.com for the information.
I for one am excited as hell for this movie. I have read and immensely enjoyed all of Gaiman’s Sandman series and consider it to be in the top 5 best comic series ever written. As for Death: The High Cost of Living it is personally my favorite mini-series of all time and holds up well to multiple readings.
Usually I’m a little nervous about comic to film adaptations but wehn I found out Neil Gaiman was directing the film, it put my mind at ease. Hopefully it comes out at least by 2005 becasue this is a film I really want to see (unlike other comic-film projects).
In addition to Mockingbird’s answer about the printing, I will note thatt here are plenty of early comics characters with non-primary colors (GL’s purple cape, Hawkman’s orange mask, Starman’s green costume, etc.). When people refer to early comics using “primary” colors, they’re typically using the word in a loose (even inaccurate) sense to mean a handful of basic shades which could be printed brightly given the printing technology of the time; this was necessary as the poor paper quality tended to muddy colors. Although improving technology expanded the palette steadily over time, up 'til the 80’s digital printing revolution which Mockingbird mentions most comics couldn’t do highlighting or shadowing effects (although a handful of the best colorists could).
*Trouble #1- I didn’t really like this issue. I thought most of the dialouge seemed too fake and the plot didn’t seem to go anywhere untill the end. I’m going to give Millar one more issue to win me over.
*Fantastic Four #500- This issue was awesome. This whole Unthinkable storyline really payed off big. Too bad Mark Waid is leaving in a couple months.
*Fables #15- This comic has been great since the first issue and this one was no different.
*Ulitmate X-Men #35- Bendis is starting to heat things up with this storyline with Wolverine. I’m also enjoying the conversations between Spider-Man and Wolverine, they’re hysterical.