I’ve gotten so far behind on my comics reading. I gotta find a few days to Daze soon, man. But at least I got some comics read the past couple weeks.
The new book from Tommi Parrish is a collection of bits and bobs from the past couple decades or something.
Some of them have been published before, but most have not, apparently.
And there’s also pictures and snapshots of notebooks and stuff.
And it works — it’s a really appealing book. It flows well, and by putting these pieces in this context, it feels very immediate and honest. It’s put together very well. And of course, the individual pieces are pretty compelling, too.
What the… No, I didn’t go insane and suddenly become a Marvel zombie — but the web interface on g-mart.com is so confusing. I think I tried to order one of these Age of Revelation books — I remember doing so (but not which one, exactly), but instead I somehow ended up ordering an entire month’s worth of them? *sigh*
But I thought that since I had them, I might as well give them a go…
And as expected, some of them are total snore-fests with the most pug-ugly artwork you can imagine. (See above.)
But! I kinda liked most of them? Not enough to buy the two remaining issues in each series (I think these are all three issue mini series? it doesn’t say so anywhere, but that’s the theory on Reddit, according to Google).
But I’ll be buying the rest of the above; Longshots by Hickman/Duggan/Robinson. It shouldn’t work, but it kinda does?
And Omega Kids by Fleecs/Genolet was both original and surprising. I wanna know what happens next.
And The Last Wolverine (which isn’t about Wolverine) by Ahmed/Salazar was kinda sweet, so ditto. So that’s three out of… er… ten? It probably helped that my expectations were so low, but for an Super-Hero Event Comic Thing, these comics are really good.
Oh, and there’s also an anthologyish thing which didn’t really work, but I liked this Scott Hamptonish artwork by Agustin Alessio.
Sophie was originally published in the 70s…
… and it’s Muñoz and Sampaya at their most strident…
… and their most absurd. I’m learning French, but this was just too advanced for me — there’s tons of slang, lots of oblique and bizarre dialogue, and a very 70s, absurd storyline.
But man, look at this thing. It’s awesome.
However, for my next French comic, I’m going to read something that has a more straightforward narrative. Makes my pauvre branes hurt less.
I’ve been a fan of Carol Tyler for yonks — I love her artwork, and I thing her storytelling chops are amazing.
The Ephemerata is about grief, and the first section was unexpectedly… er… abstract. That is, it reads more like an essay than anything else.
But! The main part of the book is fantastic. It’s gripping and moving and the artwork is great.
It’s quite dense, though — it does sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. But on the other hand, what she’s talking about is pretty overwhelming, too, so I guess that’s just fair.
Who would have expected Robert Crumb to drop a new 40 page ($6) comic book in 2025?
I was afraid that the entire book was just going to be like the above — Crumb spouting not-very-interesting conspiracy theories…
… but it’s not. Above he finishes one of the duo strips co-written with Aline Kominsky (before she died), and it’s great. And he sure can draw still.
So this is all a pleasant surprise — it’s a solid (and solidly entertaining) book.
I mistakenly thought that the Barks series from Fantagraphics was over, but there’s two more to go? I mean, one after this one. I think. So that’s another pleasant surprise.
This is from 1961, which isn’t “prime” Carl Barks. Which means that some of these stories haven’t been heavily reprinted over the years. Half of them I couldn’t remember at all, like the above.
And while I can see why — these stories are perhaps too over-stuffed; Barks is seemingly just putting in random things that occur to him (a pink-eyed rhino with monkey bodyguards? ok), but they are still really entertaining.
There are some really familiar ones, though, like this Master Wrecker story, that I’ve read oodles of times before. But they’re still fun to re-read.
Fantagraphics pads out the book with some Woodchucks stories that were finished by Daan Jippes. I’ve only read these in sketch for before, I think? I’ve got the old Gladstone volumes that were printed in the 80s…
And these are much better than I remember them being.
It’s been four months since I read any of the floppies I subscribe to. They were mostly pretty bad, but a couple were OK.
Like the Krypto books (North/Norton), but unfortunately it’s a mini-series. I like the artwork, and the stories were cute.
These Venom books illustrate the problems with trying to read super-hero books these days.
I started reading All-New Venom with #1 because I like Al Ewing’s writing, and it started off pretty well, but it’s cancelled with #10, and then the next issue is #250, and then it’s er Knull #1? I dunno.
But as the series winds down, it disappears into its own orifices — the last two issues are just about the characters standing around being angsty with each other, and recounting Venom lore from the preceding decades towards each other. I’ve never read Venom before All-New Venom #1, so all if this has zero interest for me.
This is typical — a series will start with great enthusiasm, and then get cancelled within a year, and the last half of the series will be Fan Continuity Service. It’s no wonder nobody reads these things any more.
One World Under Doom written by Ryan North also seems to be heading towards a disappointing ending, but it’s OK, I guess.
And that’s it.