Ongoing Comic Books Thread

[Finger Cookin]

Anyone with even a passing interest in X-Men comics will want to pay attention to what comes out of SDCC today. With Jonathan Hickman's turn at shaping the X-Men line beginning next week with the alternating House of X / Powers of X 3 month story, the books that will make up the X-Men line in October are going to be revealed today.

Also, the 2019 Eisner Awards were given out at SDCC last night. I was personally extremely pleased to see Giant Days win in both categories it was nominated in. Canadians Jeff Lemire and Chip Zdarksy also won Eisners last night.

[Finger Cookin]

The new X-books that I alluded to were announced. (Cover images behind spoiler tags)

Spoiler!

[Cecil Terwilliger]

After spending an astounding amount on comics in the last year I’ve finally started to read some of them.

Read the entire run of Superior Spider-Man. I’ll be honest I thought it was gonna be dumb. Seemed like a silly premise. It had good reviews so I gave it a chance. Glad I did. It was highly enjoyable. Slott is a good Spidey writer. Plots a little silly at times but that’s to be expected.

Then moved on to SpiderVerse. I have the full version with all the side stories. It does wander a bit at times and the villains are a bit hokey but overall I really enjoyed it. Other than featuring a few similar characters it has nothing to do with the animated SpiderVerse movie. It seems they’ve found a way to incorporate some of Spidey’s convoluted history with clones and it turned out quite well. Unlike many crossovers that are muddled with continuity problems where it seems like the writers and artists didn’t coordinate at all, this one was very well done. There were panels in some issues that were then exactly referenced in other issues. Did a great job of keeping the timeline and simultaneous events in tact.

Would recommend both for any Spidey fans. Both were much, much better than my last Spidey outing, which was the Back in Black storyline. Ugh. It sucked.

My backlog is still massive. MK Spidey, MK Black Widow, MK Black Panther (the ones from the original Quesada imprint like 20 years ago), Age of Ultron, Superman for Tomorrow, Superman Last Son, several volumes of Batman by Snyder and Capullo, tons of Xmen and Wolverine, Harley and Ivy, Gotham Central, Catwoman, Wonder Woman by Rucka. Plus all the digital comics I’ll never read because I prefer physical copies. Except Xmen Lifedeath. That was really good. Windsor Smith’s art is flawless.

[Luder]

I think I'm starting my mid-life crisis. One of my biggest regrets in life is trading my collection of X-Men/X-Factor/New Mutants (including 1st appearance of Dead Pool) for a binder full of baseball cards. It was the early 90's, the cards looked like a steal of a deal (Canseco/Griffey Jr/ Sosa/ McGwire rookie cards, among others) and although neither the comics or cards are worth much today, I miss my comics.

I ended up buying black and white omnibus type books to try and recreate my X-Men collection, I think I started around issue 206 and ended in the early 300's. But it just isn't the same. I took the plunge a couple of weeks ago and subscribed to the X-Men/X-Force/Fallen Angels.

I credit this thread and Finger Cookin's post on how the New X-Men universe is shaping up. Unfortunately, I was late to the party on Powers of X and House of X, apparently issues 1 and 2 are already difficult to find, so I'm hoping an omnibus shows up for those in the near future. I'll probably have to hold off on reading my new subscription until I get caught up on House/Powers. I guess there is another series called Dawn of X, which will also kickstart a new Wolverine series. I may be in over my head already lol.

Anywho, that's my cool starry bra.

edit: I failed to mention that I ordered this as well back in August, but I still haven't received it, currently fighting with them and PayPal for a refund =(

https://fanexpostore.com/comic-books...per-order.html

[Finger Cookin]

X-Men is a whole lot, so I get the over your head feeling.

The entirety of House of X and Powers of X will be collected and released in a hardcover volume (in stores Dec 11!), and surely a normal softcover trade paperback down the line. The final issue of the 12 week HoXPoX story just came out today - it has set a great foundation for all kinds of stories to come.

Dawn of X is kind of the banner heading Marvel is using to frame the relaunch of the entire line of X-Men titles, including the Wolverine series you mentioned. The other titles in the relaunch are mentioned in my post above, which highlights the covers for the #1 issue of each series.

Sorry the FanExpo store experience has been a bad one.

[Luder]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

X-Men is a whole lot, so I get the over your head feeling.

The entirety of House of X and Powers of X will be collected and released in a hardcover volume (in stores Dec 11!), and surely a normal softcover trade paperback down the line. The final issue of the 12 week HoXPoX story just came out today - it has set a great foundation for all kinds of stories to come.

Dawn of X is kind of the banner heading Marvel is using to frame the relaunch of the entire line of X-Men titles, including the Wolverine series you mentioned. The other titles in the relaunch are mentioned in my post above, which highlights the covers for the #1 issue of each series.

Sorry the FanExpo store experience has been a bad one.

I'll definitely be in for the hardcover, it will go well with my Age of Apocalypse and Inferno (still my all time favorite Marvel/X-Men crossover series) omnibus.

I was hoping I could have just picked up the House X/Powers X in one shot, silly me lol, I've been out of the game for a long time. I found a shop a few minutes from work that I'll be checking out more and more (Saddle City Comics) the Dude there was super helpful and very friendly.

It was tough picking out what to subscribe to from your covers post, I eventually whittled it down to three although I wanted to go with all of them, my wife got pretty eyerolley with me haha. But it was your covers post that really got me interested in the X-Men universe again, so thanks for that!

[Finger Cookin]

Along with the covers, you can find descriptions (solicits) for each issue of the new series that might give you more of a sense of them. Which ones did you decide on? I'm all in, but the titles I'm most excited for are Marauders, Fallen Angels, and X-Force

[Matata]

I few months ago I read the "The Incal", which has a reputation as one of the all time best graphic novels. It's one of the premier works by artist Moebius and its kind of a mash up of Heavy Metal and Dune. Apparently it started as storyboards for a Dune movie that ended up being scrapped, so the artist/writer decided to make their own story based on those storyboards.


The story itself is bat#### crazy, it's filled with aliens, mutants, rebellions, techno-popes, buddhist meditation, male&female Siamese-twin space-emperor, it's got it all. The whole thing feels like a ramshackle mess that could fall apart at any time, but ends up being a really unique story that lives up to it's status as one of the all time best graphic novels. I think it's a must-read for anyone who's a fan of the medium, but might be too weird for the casual crowd.

img spoilered for size.

Spoiler!

[Luder]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Along with the covers, you can find descriptions (solicits) for each issue of the new series that might give you more of a sense of them. Which ones did you decide on? I'm all in, but the titles I'm most excited for are Marauders, Fallen Angels, and X-Force

I went with X-Men, X-Force and Fallen Angels. Mauraders looks cool with the whole "pirate" aspect and Apocalypse hanging around X-Calibur looks very interesting as well, but I've always found Jubilee annoying.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Continued my comic binging.

Read some digital Batman. Finally coming around to reading on my iPad. Had a ton of digital single issues, both Detective Comics and Batman, from the RIP, Black Mirror era. Lots of weird Grant Morrison stuff, Black Glove, Bat-Mite (!), Batman’s hidden reboot personality. Also had Greg Rucka’s Detective Comics stories on Batwoman, which I later found out was the inspiration for the 1st season of the new tv show. Also Heart of Hush by Paul Dini.

I’m not a huge Morrison fan but I enjoyed it for the most part. Batman is just such a solid character, with great supporting cast and rogues gallery.

I even enjoyed the Dick Grayson as Batman stuff, even though I thought I wouldn’t, even if I still think the whole Batman Inc thing seemed weird (didn’t read any of that title tho).

Also read a physical copy of Ed Brubaker’s Batman run. Vol 1. Actually read that first since I read everything chronologically. It introduced Zeiss. Also solid.

Threw in vol 1 of Gotham Central in there. More Rucka and Brubaker. These guys just don’t write bad comics. Cool to see stuff from the cops’ perspective.

Joker by Brian Azzarello one shot. It was ok. Nothing groundbreaking.

Batman Earth One by Geoff Johns. New twist on Batman’s origin. At first I didn’t like the changes but ended up enjoying it and almost bought book 2.


I really meant to work on my massive backlog of trades sitting on my bookshelves but inspired by my new enjoyment of digital comics, instead I dropped $60 buying Alan Moore’s entire run on Swamp Thing and 6 of the 11 books of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Couldn’t help myself. Felt like I needed to educate myself on the masters of the genre.

Also because I own way, way more Marvel than DC (even if I include my Vertigo stuff).

Oh and I read my Carnage Classic trade. Collects a bunch of Carnage stories from his origin thru most of the 90s, excluding Maximum Carnage. Run of the mill generic superhero stuff. Though I did enjoy the messed up Warren Ellis one shot and some of the clone era stuff (I know, I know).

[Luder]

Well crap, checked my subscriptions and I’ve had 2 issues of X-Men and 1 issue of Fallen Angels ship, I haven’t received any of them (along with the Comic I ordered back in August) me thinks someone at Canada Post is pilfering my loot

[Finger Cookin]

What shop are you ordering from? Is it possible for the issues to be replaced? Sucks that this happening.

[Luder]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

What shop are you ordering from? Is it possible for the issues to be replaced? Sucks that this happening.

Right from Marvel, I’ll definitely try to have them delivered to my work address now, and send an email to see if I can get them replaced, but I won’t hold my breath. I don’t know if it will matter since we have one of those locked community mail boxes, it might be pilfered right at the main depot.

[Finger Cookin]

Well I hope they show up eventually and that the work delivery improves the experience. Better luck ahead hopefully!

The X-books have been pretty good to great lately.

[Luder]

Thanks FC! I ended up going to Comic-Kazi on McLeod to replace what I’ve lost and ended up getting the Powers of X series as well, except issue #3, in my excitement, I ended up with Excalibur #1 as well. I’m not sure what deal is with “variants” but some of the covers are pretty cool. My House of X #1 is a 3rd reprint and #2 is a 4th reprint. I wish I was on top of that in June/July, it looked like #1 was at $70 (1st print)

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Reread my Spawn collection. Or most of it. I have 1-120 or so but gave up at 80. The art is phenomenal, Greg Capullo is one of my favourite artists ever. But the story drags and drags. Nothing ever happens. Every issue is just Spawn brooding and Cog telling him he doesn’t understand the war between heaven and hell and that he needs to stop lashing out and start “asking the right questions”. But as a reader it’s infuriating because the story never progresses. But damn does it ever look pretty.

Next up was the graphic novel version of GRRM’s GoT prequel novellas. I only have the first two, of three, and only finished the first one. The Hedge Knight I think it was called. It was fantastic. I’m concurrently reading the prequel novel Fire and Blood so it was neat to see more of the Targaryen history but from a different perspective. That and it focuses more on Dunk and the Targs are more of a backdrop. So far anyways. Very interesting stuff if you’re a GoT fan or interested in the lore.

Re-read my full run of Danger Girl. J Scott Campbell is another fav artist. I absolutely love the premise of this book. The whole James Bond meets Indiana Jones meets Charlie’s Angels. The writing is a little weak but it’s so campy it works. Too bad it’s only like a dozen issues. Maybe less. I really wish it kept going. So much fun. Who knows. Maybe they’ll get around to making that movie. Could be fun.

Read some old school Wolverine. Marvel Comics Presents 1-10 and Wolverine 1-16. It’s fine. Not exactly high quality stuff, even for superheroes but whatever it’s Wolverine. Cool to get a little more backstory on Madripoor and his whole Patch alias I guess. But it’s so very 80s. And most often not in a good way.

I put Swamp Thing and Sandman on hold for a while but did read half a dozen or so issues of each. I need to sprinkle in some lighter stuff.

Currently on Knights of the Old Republic because it’s on sale on ComiXology and I was in the mood for something Star Wars. Great series so far. Never played the video game and not familiar with it at all so I’m sure I don’t get all the Easter eggs as it’s my understanding it intersects at times with that section of lore. Regardless, it’s a lot of fun, if not particularly deep, and after the first 6 issue arc I’m excited to keep reading. Glad too because I read Boba Fett Enemy of the Empire and it sucked. Bad.

But I’m all over the place right now. Few issues into an Avengers story, few issues into two separate Xmen titles from 10 years apart (as if Xmen isn’t confusing enough at the best of times), still have the Dunk and Egg GoT stuff to finish, plus Swamp Thing and Sandman. And now 50 or so issues of KOTOR. I really need to stop getting sidetracked and rereading old stuff. I also needs to stop buying new stuff but ComiXology has such good sales. Getting these massive digital collections for $5-10USD. These would be $25-30 or more in print.

Also bought volume 1 of Alan Moore’s Promethea. Always wanted to read this. Great so far but put it on hold. I’m reading so many different comics right now my heads spinning and this seems like a title that needs my attention.

Oh and how could I forget, I reread watchmen for the first time in about a decade when the tv show was premiering. Damn it’s good. Whole new appreciation for it. I’d always ranked it well below some of my all time favs like Batman Year One, The Long Halloween, Preacher, Spider-Man Blue etc. But I think I’m gonna have to reconsider. It’s hard though because it’s not easy to classify. It’s a superhero comic but unlike any other superhero title. And it’s hard to compare to non superhero stuff like Y the Last Man, Preacher (which I also recently reread when the tv show was ending), 100 Bullets etc. Even compared to other Moore titles like V for Vendetta it’s so different. Anyways, I’m sure I don’t need to explain how amazing Watchmen is in this thread.

[Finger Cookin]

A newer book that really caught me by surprise has been Something is Killing the Children. Creative team is James Tynion IV, Werther Dell'Edera, Miquel Muerto, Andworld Design, Michelle Ankley, Gwen Waller, and Eric Harburn. It's a moody, atmospheric horror story, the kind of thing that is really not up my alley -- usually. It's really, really good. A teaser:

When the children of Archer’s Peak begin to go missing, everything seems hopeless. Most children never return, but the ones that do have terrible stories—impossible stories of terrifying creatures that live in the shadows.

Their only hope of finding and eliminating the threat is the arrival of a mysterious stranger, one who believes the children and claims to see what they can see.

Her name is Erica Slaughter. She kills monsters. That is all she does, and she bears the cost because it MUST be done.

Sample artwork behind the tags:

Spoiler!

And a link to a free preview PDF

[Cecil Terwilliger]

So I did something neat.

I’ve always had a tough time keeping my books in order. Like reading or chronological order. Not necessarily on my shelves but for reading purposes across titles. I don’t always have to read them in exact order, which would be largely impossible, but try to sometimes and helps me know where a book takes place within the world of constant reboots, deaths, character changes etc.

For Marvel I have a visual timeline online that works pretty well. But it wasn’t great for tracking read/unread or my ratings if I liked the book or not. Only when it was published and which issues are contained in which trades. For DC I own so few I could literally just make a list. Also my backlog is now huge and I needed a better way to track what I’ve read and start rating things so I can try to remember what I liked.

I wanted something like Letterboxd but for comics. After a couple tries I found one that’s way less awesome and sleek but still really good. It’s subscription based at $20 a year so it’s definitely not for everyone. Called CLZ comics.

But after 2 days, a ton of barcode scanning, searching and indexing, I’ve finally organized all 1232 single issue comics/trades/digital comics that I own. Their catalog is rather large but i still had to manually enter a fair amount of book details, a couple were missing altogether and I had to manually add or make due by using a different printing/edition/cover. All my digital stuff I had to manually code as such. That was a bit tedious.

But now I’m done. 375 digital issues/trades. 628 individual physical comic issues. 194 softcover trades, 26 hardcovers, 8 square bound. Overwhelmingly marvel at 881. 1028 read, 204 unread. Xmen lead the way at 328 issues/trades/digital. Followed by Wolverine at 226. Then Batman at 120 or so.

Unfortunately it doesn’t let me track or code how many issues are in each trade so it’s still impossible to find out how many issues I own in total individually and within trades.

Many are even grouped by event/crossover which is neat if I’m inclined to sort by that.

Many, many of the sort categories had to be manually entered/changed which was a tedious pain. But now that I’m done it’s awesome. Every issue has a cover, creative team automatically in their database. Many (most?) have the plot, publish date, cover price, issues/titles contained (for trades). The stuff I had to manually enter was the “series group” and digital “format”. I can even rate their condition but I’m not that kind of collector. I did add notes on which are signed by the writer/artist (hint not many).

One thing it doesn’t do well is track read order (that’s ok I track that other ways) and book families. So unlike the Marvel app, for example, there’s no link for an issue or a trade with its parent title. Marvel/ComiXology apps do that well so you can track which issues are from which crossover/title and which trades belong to which title. And they all have clickable links that bring you to the parent/child page. This app needs that. Even if I have to manually link them.

It also doesn’t let you do multi edits. Every title must be individually edited. That was lame.

Still, highly recommended for collectors and should help with reading, expanding, cataloging my collection and future purchases. Although I’ll probably need to keep my Marvel timeline updated concurrently. That’s ok I like both.

[KTrain]

CLZ is great. I indexed 13 long boxes and a couple shelves of trades a couple years back and it helped me keep track of books I was looking for. I let my subscription lapse as I don't really collect back issues like I used to.

A goal for the new year is to build a more permanent display/storage unit for my comics. They're sitting in long boxes in my basement storage and are a pain to access. I want something that's easy to access so my kids can start digging into the issues and reading the comics. They're meant to be read and feel like a waste just sitting in the dark.

[Finger Cookin]

Perhaps someday I will get something solid and easy to access to store my books instead of the traditional long and short boxes.