Ongoing Comic Books Thread

[Finger Cookin]

Sorry I haven't been keeping this thread very active. But it needs a bump to remind everyone that Free Comic Book Day is this coming Saturday, May 7.

Here are the books you can find at participating retailers this Saturday.

And here are the local participating retailers in Calgary.

Different stores have different policies in terms of how many free books you can get, so if you want to get them all you may have to visit a few shops. And some books run out quicker than others.

[KTrain]

It's Free Comic Book Day. Lots of good comics to be had this year.

[jeep991]

Went to Words and Pictures this morning and it was pretty full. The son (5) and daughter (8) each got their two books and both had a fun time checking out the store. After, we stopped in at Amandine bakery for a treat. It was a fun little morning outing.

[SportsJunky]

Yup took my boy (6) and daughter (4). They got their free books and had a ton of fun looking at all the great stuff.

[KTrain]

Darwyn Cooke passed away yesterday. I read a few stories that he was battling aggressive cancer but I didn't think it would happen so soon.

DC: The New Frontier was a fantastic series. Everything he worked on was pretty great. Throw in that he's also a Canadian comic creator and it hurts a little more.

[Poe969]

I'm surprised this thread has fallen so far back. DC has the new rebirth and there's the new captain America comic too...

Hail Hydra!!

[KTrain]

It's tough to get interested in either Marvel or DC. They seem to be relaunch every few years.

DC relaunched all their books 5 years ago. Asked their readers to invest in the new versions of the characters and now they're ditching it all again.

I find I'm more drawn to the mini-series these days.

Batman: Europa was great.

The only ongoing I'm reading from the big two are Daredevil and Dr. Strange.

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by Poe969

I'm surprised this thread has fallen so far back. DC has the new rebirth and there's the new captain America comic too...

Hail Hydra!!

troutman always posts his comics news in the movie thread.

I got Rebirth for free from Comixology. I know jack about DC and don't have any nostalgia for any of their characters - except for Watchmen and Sandman. So Rebirth might play out pretty weird in that regard.

The Cap story is embarrassing as a comics fan. Or rather, the reaction to it is. But for Marvel stuff, I'm still really digging All-New Wolverine and All-New X-men. Other stuff from Marvel that is good to OK that I follow includes Extraordinary X-Men, Old Man Logan, The Totally Awesome Hulk, and The Mighty Thor. Oh yeah, Ms. Marvel and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl are pretty great.

Lazarus starts back up this month, and it's the best ongoing book on the market IMO. Prepare to be culled. Other Image and non-big-2 stuff I read includes Saga, Paper Girls, Insexts, Ringside, and Invincible. I'm also re-reading Y: The Last Man in its entirety.

(Upcoming Lazarus cover art behind the spoiler tags)

Spoiler!

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Lazarus is a Greg rucka book isn't it? I have always liked his stuff.

[Finger Cookin]

It is. It's great speculative dystopian sci-fi.

[Finger Cookin]

Only a couple of new books for me this week. But it seems a ton of Rebirth titles have come out for DC. Anyone here reading any of them?

[KTrain]

I read Rebirth #1. It was interesting. Not interesting enough to start collecting DC again though. If DC ever gets a subscription service like Marvel Unlimited I'll subscribe but I don't think I can collect their ongoing series comics anymore.

[Finger Cookin]

Just back beating the drum for Lazarus again. The new story arc launches this Wednesday. And comiXology has a sale on all past Lazarus issues. $0.99 for single digital issues, or $0.99/issue in the trade collections - the first volume contains 1-4, second 5-9, third 10-15, and fourth 16-21. I'd recommend the single issues, as they contain all of the cool backmatter and letters while the collected editions do not. Sale runs until June 17.

https://www.comixology.com/Lazarus-S...mdlQ2Fyb3VzZWw

[Finger Cookin]

At the risk of introducing politics into this thread:



http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toront...over-1.3655625

Trudeau will grace the variant cover of issue No. 5 of Marvel's "Civil War II: Choosing Sides," due out Aug. 31.

Trudeau is depicted smiling, sitting relaxed in the boxing ring sporting a Maple Leaf-emblazoned tank, black shorts and red boxing gloves. Standing behind him are Puck, Sasquatch and Aurora, who are members of Canadian superhero squad Alpha Flight. In the left corner, Iron Man is seen with his arms crossed.

"I didn't want to do a stuffy cover — just like a suit and tie — put his likeness on the cover and call it a day," said award-winning Toronto-based cartoonist Ramon Perez.

[ComixZone]

Loving Rebirth so far.

I never hated the New 52 (Capullo and Snyder's work on Batman was beyond amazing), but Rebirth feels refreshing. Really enjoying it.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

So DC beat Marvel in $ sales and unit sales this month. I don't follow sales very closely at all anymore but this is interesting because Marvel has been dominating both categories for the last 5 years or so. Maybe longer.

The article reinforced comixzone opinion that rebirth has been excellent. Also said Marvel has been garbage for a few years now. Anyone else care to comment? I read absolutely nothing current and only pick up trades when they are a few years old.

When I was growing up reading comics DC was coke and Marvel was pepsi. As in DC owned the market every month of every year I ever read comics. Even when Marvel owned the top selling books with Xmen/Wolverine in the mid 90s, DC still seemed to have more market share.

[KTrain]

Relaunching almost your entire line at #1 again will give you a boost in sales. The next few months and years will tell the real story.

When DC launched the New 52 they saw a big sales bump. After a few years they cancelled an additional 52 series and most books went back to their normal sales numbers.

I can't keep up with Marvel's changes any more. I read Daredevil and Dr Strange. That's it. I used to love X-Men and enjoyed The All New X-Men series (old X-Men in current timeline) but I wouldn't know where to start reading that again and the crossovers would piss me off as much as they used to.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Yeah I'm getting a bit tired of the constant relaunches. Same article, sorry can't find it, also said Marvel will likely relaunch all their titles yet again soon.

I hate crossovers too.

And if I was in control of either Marvel or DC I'd quit the BS relaunches every 2 years. Or at least I'd change the way they are done.

Treat each storyline like a new season of a TV show. Clearly mark each new volume or series/season as such. Or do like some books have done and do dual numbering so that the classic numbering schemes aren't lost. They only seem to bring those back when they hit major milestones anyway.

Take Wolverine. They ended his original series at 189 then restarted, then they restarted again, but then they kept the numbering but switched the title to Dark Wolverine (which was actually about his son, not him) but then they launched a new wolverine title that was actually the real wolverine title, since his had been taken over by Daken. Then they went back to the old numbering when they hit issue #300. Then they restarted again. Then they killed him. Then they restarted again. But they don't clearly mark which Vol 1 belongs to which series when you are buying the collected editions so how the hell can you tell which vol 1 you are buying? Is this vol 1 of his 4th series? Or vol 1 of his 5th series? Who knows!

Do I have all that right? And his has been one of the easier ones to follow because they've largely kept him to one title. X-Men have like 4 ongoing series and are constantly changing names and ####. It is impossible to follow.

[KTrain]

I think I mentioned the use of "Volumes" in this thread earlier. I still think it's a good idea.

Let a series run for 12 issues (1 year). Keep the same writer and artist on it. Let them tell a full story and the start again at volume 2. Another 12 issues. Same creative team or a new one for 12 issues. Works for 2 trades a year as well.

It gives readers a clear jumping on point. Let's the creative team tell a full story.

If they want to keep the original numbering to go along with the volumes for those completionists that's cool.

The problem for Marvel and DC is this format would limit the number of crossovers/events they're able to do.

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

When I was growing up reading comics DC was coke and Marvel was pepsi. As in DC owned the market every month of every year I ever read comics.

Confirmed: Cecil is a 65+ year old boomer looking into reverse mortgages.







DC periodically pulls ahead of Marvel for a few months every couple of years. Then it declines. Marvel has 2-3 line wide crossovers per year. Plus individual lines (Inhumans, X-Men, Spider-Man) might have their own event or crossover once or twice a year. It's definitely overkill.

Originally Posted by KTrain

I can't keep up with Marvel's changes any more. I read Daredevil and Dr Strange. That's it. I used to love X-Men and enjoyed The All New X-Men series (old X-Men in current timeline) but I wouldn't know where to start reading that again and the crossovers would piss me off as much as they used to.

Most of the characters from All-New X-Men v1 can now be found in All-New X-Men v2. Teen Jean moved to Extraordinary X-Men v1. Teen Cyclops is moving to the new Champions series later this year , with other teen/young Marvel heroes but ones who aren't mutants (ex. Hulk (Amadeus Cho), Nova (Sam Alexander), Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Viv (Vision's daughter).

Originally Posted by KTrain

The problem for Marvel and DC is this format would limit the number of crossovers/events they're able to do.

I think the bigger problem is that it's way too limiting to try and schedule 70+ titles to follow the same 12 month schedule and re-start during the same month every year. Marvel mostly schedules new series and creative teams as new volumes with #1s and jumping on points exactly as you describe - they just do it throughout the year, with new arcs, stories, and titles starting a dozen or more times every month.