NCBD August 30, 2017 aka my Comics Pull List

Ah, a five Wednesday month so it's kind of a slow week or should be at least one when I'll keep to my twenty dollar budget. But again too many temptations to add to my pile as DC is celebrating the King's 100th birthday.

 

Kim&Kim Love is a Battlefield 2 $3.99

The fist issue of the new story proved that the team of Magdalene Visaggio, Eva Cabrera and Claudia Aguirre are a solid team as they delivered on the high promise of the first series. The new story has the Kims again financially just about to make it all come together when their hopes are again disrupted. This tine around its from a past romantic conquest who vanished from Kim Q's life and turns up to be a thorn in their side. The art is again a joy to look at and the story was smoothly told I fell right back into their crazy gonzo bounty hunting world.

The Blaack Racer 1 $4.99

This was the Jack Kirby celebration issue I knew for a fact I would pick up based solely on the creators mentioned. Reginald Hudlin Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz working on any Kirby creation was a big draw and the Black Racer is one of the more enigmatic figures in the pantheon of the king. Add to the promise of that story a number of original Kirby Pages and a page of tribute I'm full on in with this five dollar comic.

Justice League of America 13 $2.99

Last time I mentioned this Justice League team I waxed on about my memories of the old Gil Kane Sword of the Atom series and looking at the preview pages of this issue Steve Orlando looks to be obliquely referencing it. I love this group of characters as much as I used to dig Batman's team the Outsiders. Orlando is hitting that Mike Barr fan in me with these heroes. The amazing Ivan Reis continueing as artist dies not hurt either.

Black Magick 7 $3.99

Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott back on their creator owned book makes me pretty happy. I have not read issue six from last month yet but their mixture of police procedural and urban occult I have every faith in so I'll be supporting this and getting a double dose of the story soon. Nicola Scott is an amazing artist to turn out such beautiful art in such a short period of time.

 

Darkseid 1 $4.99

Monday the 28th would have been Jack Kirby's 100th so with his biographer and Evanier writing the lead story in this special it has to be in my buy stack. I have missed the weird that is the fourth would in my comics reading and even if these specials is all we get for a while I'll be happy with that. I'll leave it at that as so many others have said so much about the king recently.

Michael Avon Oeming is n acquired taste and I'll gladly break my budget this week even more to pick up this collection of his artwork. Oeming has been the artistic force being many of the books I've enjoyed for his Powers collaboration with Bendis through his Norse myth retellings, his crime stories, his Victories to his most recent work with Young Animal doing Cave Carson has a Cybernetic Eye. The book is $39.99 but it's oversized and hardcover and might look really good next to the Kirby King of Comics book I bought for my birthday just this Monday.

 

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Happy Birthday to "the King".

Jack "the King" Kirby would have been 100 today and though I will be a voice among many I feel I have to celebrate him on my blog too.

I was a fan of Jack Kirby before I really knew his name or paid attention to the names of the people who created the stories and images I enjoyed. Thundarr the Barbarian, one of the Saturday Morning animated shows I loved, was partially a creation of the mind and hands of Jack Kirby who came in to design on the show after Alex Toth left. I also did t know that Jack Kirby was heavily involved in the early animated Fantastic Four series that avoided the Human Torch and introduced Herbie, who was so obviously a Kirby creation looking back.

On the comic stands and spin racks I was drawn to the artwork of the King. I may not have known a thing about the book but they outshone the big names like Batman, Superman and Spider-Man for me. They were dynamic, there was a life and a passion to what was in the King' work. It was weird and funny and disturbing all at the same time. Jack Kirby's books were packed full of ideas, wild ideas pushed to their limits. He was an influence on the development of the sequential story telling art form and so many of my modern favorites were inspired by him.

I fondly remember books like Kamandi 21 that I know had at one time. It was a book I looked at again and again. Mine was battered after years of being flipped through and I loved it all the same...wish I still had it actually. Happy Birthday Jack Kirby.

 

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NCBD August 23, 2017aka my Comics Pull List

Hello, welcome to me weekly look at the books that will be in my buying pile come Friday. I try to keep this list to between twenty and twenty five dollars but well sometimes there are just too many books worthy of buying to keep to the budget.

 

Mother Panic 10 $3.99

Violet Page's story has made me interested in Gotham City again. She wears a costume but in many ways isn't a superhero in an American comics sense. Jody Houser, Tommy Lee Edwards, Shawn Crystal, John Paul Leon and Jean Francois Beaulieu's vision of this angry vengeance driven woman, mad at the world puts me more in mind of Japanese superheroes. Her fight is personal, her story has a real sense of tragedy loss and pain. She's closed off, alone and every so often shows a human need to connect. There may be all kinds of weird in this book like the other Young Animal books and yet somehow this book feels very grounded and real.

Heathen 5

Natasha Alterici's viking lesbian bad ass Aydis returns in a new adventure that started as she finds herself alone again. Natasha's near singular vision is going beyond its initial four issue crowd funded story into new territory across the very dangerous Northsea. Again I expect that this will be a uniquely creative look at Norse mythology with he same heavily inked dynamic art. If you have missed this as of yet the first four issues are in a really nice collection already.

Moonstruck 2 $3.99

Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle, Caitlin Quirk, McCubby and Cowles first issue of Moonstruck made a real lovely impression on me. I think I must have read it three times thus far and I'm still finding new little details I missed and the small stories hidden in the background. There is a subtle continuity to the art that suggests the care with which this book is being put together with. I think this may be one of those books that I will read cover to cover and may have an active backmatter community, or at least I hope it will become that kind of book. She Beagle spends a lot of her energy showing in the art and it's worth really sitting and looking at.

 

Grrl Scouts Magic Socks 4 $3.99

Jim Mahfood returned to his three punk girls from the late ninties series a couple months back. The last couple issues have reintroduced the violent punk/hip-hop graffiti inflruenced world where Daphane, Gwen and Rita have been leading a life of drugs and adventure and told the story of the magical socks that Daphane has stolen and has decided to keep. Ok yeah I'm an ish behind but I'm sure issue three was crazy gonzo weird and like all of them packed with bonus illustrations and soundtrack notes. The art may be an acquired taste but it's one I for sure have a bent towards.

Jem and the Holograms Infinite 2 (or story part 3) $3.99

This is actually issue three of this story taking the Jem storyline into a more weird technology kind of space. Kelly Thompson is joined by Jen Hickman for the rest of this series and it's a good choice as her art fits the line of great artists that have drawn the girls. I'm waiting till I have all the issues if this crossover in hand so I can't comment on the series other then to say I trust the teams behind this to create something fabulous to be a swansong for this cast of wonderful characters. (There is going to be an anthology series to come but this is the last Kelly Thompson jam with the girls of both bands.)

 

Black Hammer 12 $3.99

This is the issue. This is finally the story focusing on the titular character the Black Hammer and his daughter. David Rubin is coming back for this issue too and that is ever a lovely treat. Will we get to see what happened ten years ago where the crisis took all these characters away from their superhero setting. Will we see the relationship between father and daughter. Who knows. All I can say is that Jeff Lemire knows how to tell a marvelous super hero tale that needs no exposition to explain its characters or past. Black Hammer has been a joy to read and it's looking like well be getting more of it in the very near future. (Sherlock Frankenstein)

Catalyst Prime Incidentals 1 $3.99

It's the adult super-team book from the inheritor of the Milestone spirit. Joe Casey, Larry Stroman and Rob Stull are bringing us this new book. Larry Stroman is an artist I have loved for years from way back when he did the art for Alien Legion. As with all the Catalyst books this all spiraling out of a single event that changed the world. They are making books to appeal to lots of different readers and I'm anxious to see how this one reads.

I'm also likely to grab Teen Titans 11, Lazarus X+66 2, and the Manhunter Special....oh damn oops I forgot Hi-Fi Fight Club that looking like a great new book from boom

 

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New Comics Day August 16, 2017 Comics Pull List.

Hello and welcome to my weekly look at the comics I'm intending to pick up and think are worth attention for various reasons. I try to keep my it's to around twenty dollars but as there are so many good books around I often go over that...oh and this week I will be right up honest that in addition to my choices here I'll be buying Dark Nights Metal 1.

 

Cave Carson has a Cybernetic Eye 11 $3.99

With all the other weird things happening in the Young Animal books it's nuts to say but this is the one to top in the world of weird. Gerald Way and Jon Rivera with the artistic help of Michael Avon Oeming and Nick Filardi have taken Cave Carson his Chloe and Mad Dog underground and across dimensions in a stolen drill machine and that is the sane part. As I'm an issue behind looking at the preview only leaves me confused because so damn much happened in each issue of this nutso book. I have to thank the crazy Tom Scoli backup story for convincing me to go for the first issue.

Sandman 1 $4.99

I have to pick up this extra-priced issue to celebrate the 100th birthday of Jack the King Kirby. Sandman is one of his creations I think I first saw in Infinity Inc if memory serves me. This special is co written by Jurgens and Orlando so it'll have a solid story and Bogdanove on art just makes me so damn happy as he's someone I have enjoyed for years. The fact it will have some Kirby pages too is just an added bonus for me. If the majority of it is as good as the preview pages we're in for a good time.

The American Way Those above Those Below 2 $3.99

Honest here, I was sold after reading a couple pages of issue one as Ridley is doing to a serious take on superheroing in a complex political reactive world. I'll repeat something I heard yesterday via a podcast (wish I recalled which) about science fiction working best when it's telling a story about now. The conflicts these heroes and this world are going through reflect the struggle with racist sexist and political BS we're still fighting with. Jeanty, Miki and Filardi's immersive pulp artwork work to bring us into the story that would possibly be too real if presented another way.

 

Bitch Planet Triple Feature 3 $3.99

So I'll just say I'm a fan of the main Bitch Planet book by Kelly Sue Deconnick, Valentine de Landro and Kelly Fitzpatrick and this anthology is expanding the worlds subversive stories beyond the realm of the ACO and the mechanizations of the power structure that runs things. Its an anthology and this one features a story illustrated by Vanessa Del Rey among the three.

 

Green Arrow 29 $2.99

I've been behind the times of what is a great Green Arrow run by Benjamin Percy, Otto Schmidt and the amazing Juan Ferreyra. Issue 28 I picked up on a whim and his meeting with Lex Luthor and Superman was clever in many ways and one of the best Superman stories I've read in a long while. This issue continues Ollie's solo Hard Traveling Hero tale and heads into Gotham in his quest to put an end to the ninth circle. I was a big Green Arrow fan back around the time of Long Bow Hunters and I really like him again now in Percy's run. I'm going to have to pick up some trades I think.

Misfit City 4 $3.99

This is a damn cool take on the teen mystery stories by a creative team that remembers fondly the Goonies, Nancy Drew, Veronica Mars and Scoobie Doo fondly. This is another success from Boom Box as it's writers and artists are delivering a book that is fun and creepy and with a cast that look and act like a real group of friends, all kinds of bodies and personalities. The art is just cartoonish enough to draw you into this story about pirates and maps and a costal Oregon tourist town that seems all to familiar.

 

 

I'm pretty sure I'll be picking up Genius Cartel 1 and Horizon 13 also....

 

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Comics Pull List August 9, 2017

Hello and wrlcome to another Wednesday list of the comics that I'm particularly looking forward to. I try to keep this thing to around twenty dollars and this week I think I cone pretty close.

 

Redlands 1 $3.99

I've listened to some interviews with Jordie Bellaire and known she's much more then just a brilliant colorist. Im exited to read something that she's written and is passionate about as much as I am to see Vanessa Del Rey got to do sequential work again as I think I've only ever seen her Constantine fill-ins and a few scandalous bits on instagram. This is a story of a Florida town called Redlands and the coven of witches that plan to take over for the the failures of local law enforcement. It's gotten high praise from some big comics names like Snyder, Thompson and Ellis but to me it's the names Bellaire and Del Rey that sold me on it long ago when I saw the original solicit.

Ray Palmer's Atom was in one of the first comics I recall loving when I was a kid which was a Brave and the Bold in which he was in a back up with Superman. I also have really fond memories of the Sword of the Atom series that Gil Kane illustrated so the name Ray Palmer would have gotten my attention here. I've enjoyed this Justice League of America incanation though so I was already on board even with out a mention of the microverse (even if it's not the one I recall). What has surprised me about this book is how well Lobo fits here and just how much I like him along side Vixen, Killer Frost and Black Canary, I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the relationship growing between Frost and Choi that I find pretty charming.

Mister Miracle 1 $3.99

This one I may not need to be signal boosting for as it's Tom King and Mitch Gerad's but as it's not a sequel to Sherif of Babylon and it is a Jack Kirby project I have to. In the kinda bleak and depressing world we are seeing outside the window we need the optimism of Mister Miracle Scott Free and Big Barda in the world. I have not a clue what they plan to do with this twelve issue series but I'd be happy to just pay for it all up front as I loved Tom King's Omega Men and the Grayson book he wrote with Steve Orlando (Not too into his Batman but I loved his creation Gotham Girl so....)

 

 

Sacred Creatures 2 $3.99

Sacred Creatures 1 was a 66 page monster of a gorgeous book. I have yet to get to do more then read the first few pages. The feeling I get from it is similar to the sparks I felt from the early Wicked and the Divine but if anything along a more serious tone. I listened to a marvelous interview with Klaus Janson the fully sold me on the book when I had kind of neutral about it prior. All the issues will apparently be oversized to some extant and if you look at the cover to the right it gives a very good impression of what the book really looks like.

Gotham Academy Second Semester 12

I'm putting this up because this book really deserved more attention in single issues the it did. I know it's gotten a lot of trade sales and might best have been marketed that way but I'm a month to month kind of buyer and am sad this is going away. Listening to Becky Cloonan talk about the book I know they did at least get to finish the story arc they pitched initially and that is why I'm boosting for this book. The art by Adam Archer has also been pretty animation influenced amazing in the issues I've gotten to read. Hope they get another chance to visit this side of Gotham again.

Low 19 $3.99

This book started when I was kinda not into Rick Remender and it's sad I didn't just check it out because the writing on it is pretty damn awesome. Dave McCaig and Greg Tocchini's artwork on this book is really some of the most stunning sequential work that is around right now; for me it's right up there with Emma Rios in terms of graphic experimentalism and readability. I checked it out finally mainly because of the amazing art and the fact I picked up a couple of the charity covers recently and gave it an honest chance. Sure I'm pretty lost but the story makes sense in a way comics can it's a single issue is written well enough.

 

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Comics Pull List August 2, 2017

Hello, welcome to my weekly look at the books I'm looking forward to picking up this week. I will say I try most of the time to keep my list to around twenty dollars but with all the marvelous talented artists and writers out there I want to support I usually fail in that vain hope. Here we go...

 

Shade the Changing Girl 11 $3.99

Cecil Castellucci Marley Zarcone and Kelly Fitzpatrick have very brilliantly recaptured the feeling of the Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo Shade the Changing Man without being deriviative or retreading the same material. Loma Shade's trip outside her 'home' town to Gotham and beyond in search for her idol Honey who's hay day was decades ago and has a lot to teach our hero Loma. The last couple issues have brought the hunters from Meta a lot closer and her madness out more. It's a great book and is usually the You g Animal book I'd call my favorite.

Rocket Girl 8 $3.99

There are some books that you know are so good you don't mind waiting for; Amy Reeder and Brendon Montclare's Rocket Girl is one of those books. DaYoung, our time displaced teen cop stuck in the full color eighties, is back in the beautifully detailed dymanicly drawn book that has been missing for far too long. If you have yet to see the cool that is Rocket Girl there is a image cheap ($9.99) volume one out there and given how fun this book is it's a real comics bargain collection of the first five issues. In addition to being a good actiona adventure it's a good police procedural and has a kitch and deliciously twisted 2015 that DaYoung came from that we often revisit too.

Spiritus 1 $3.99

Spiritus is a disturbing twist on the prison happy state the USA lives in where mass incarceration is used for mass profit. In the world of Spiritus some crimes come with the sentence of being downloaded into a robotic form to work off your debt to society, tirelessly and conscious of all you have lost including your incinerated original body. That is a gruesome prospect and out hero she is given the option to be put in a robotic body without the programming that traps it in service. Having read it already it's compelling, beautifully illustrated and a great addition to the stable of science fiction and fantasy books coming from Vault comics.

Black Bolt 4 $3.99

With the creative team of Saladin Ahmed and Christian Ward I'd be getting this book no matter who the lead was but it's great that there is now actually a Inhumans title I actually like reading. Saladin writes complex, deep and conflicted characters and the cast nod crew of the black site prison along with Black Bolt qualify as all those things. Adding Ward with his unique cosmic artistic vision to this story only makes it all the more a must buy. They are using and adding character depth to Aborbing man and creating unique and interesting new characters to marvels cosmic stable of players.

Deathstroke 22 $3.99

Though the Lazarus Contract made everyone think of the Wolfman and Perez classic story The Judah's Contract, the first issue of the Defiance feels more a successor to that story. The complex conflicting relationships in the team Slade and his wife put together and the sly writing of Christopher Priest very effectively sold the story of the "reformed" assassin come hero. Deathstroke is the title that brought me back to DC given the k

Elsewhere 1 $3.99

Jay Faerber (Copperhead) and artist Sumeyye Kesgin created this portal fantasy story about what really happened to Amelia Earhart. The recent photo of he supposed appearance in Japan during their period of western exclusion is an intriguing truth well never know so this journey to a fantasy world and her life there as a freedom fighter will have to do. Jay in interviews has had nothing but good to say about the the designs and artwork of his partner on this book.

Ghost Station Zero 1 $3.99

Last years Codename Baboushka told a thrilling action adventure tale about what most spy stories use as a throwaway trope, the Russian femme fatale. The kinetic art by Shari Chankhamma might show its manga roots but she's made it something all her own as I can't say who it reminds me of. The first volume featured alternate covers by a host of cool comics artists who happen to all be women and backmatter essays about women in action adventure media. It also has a notable pedigree having been written by Anthony Johnston who was the creator behind the comic Atomic Blond which hits cinemas this year. It was the art of Shari that got my attention the first time round the soft lines of her art lent itself to fluid scenes of action and violence so damn well.

 

Catalyst Prime's Noble 4 also comes out this week and that really does put me well over the to of breaking my budget.

 

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