New Comic Book Day Megathread

[Hawkmumbler]

Well, that was all a bit good now!

Well I say that, lets get the negatives out of the way first. Batman/TMNT #3 see's the series shuffle off my pull list, as the fun and whimsicle attitude of the first issue gets replaced with a dreary almost ASBAR level stupidity. Oh, yeah, it's a comic about a man dressed as a bat teaming up with 4 genetically mutated turtles but for the love of god at least make it entertaining somewhat!

Right, with that nastiness out of the way lets get onto the good stuff shall we? And it's probably good to start as I finished, because Tuki #4 is utterly delightful and wonderful and charming in all the ways you come to expect Jeff Smith's body of work to be. Utterly delightful, singular and wonderfully illustrated it's just perfect all age's comics and just good comics full stop. The same can be said for Ennis's double bill of aironaitical splender in Johnny Red #4 and Dreaming Eagles #2. It's just bloody good fun, with corcking art and excellent story telling and fun from cover to cover. Special note must be given to how Ennis handles Johnny Red has a pre-existing IP. All too often these kinds of reboots miss the mark but Garth has really done a good number here.

A couple of number one's here and starting with the genre bending Kennel Block Blue's #1 and I really have to thank Colin for brining this to my attention as it's very, very MAXX'y. Like, the whole alternative perseptions angle and escapism to cure trauma and such is very much a MAXX thing, and thats a good thing. Excellent art as wel, deffinetly coming back for a #2. As I will be for Badger #1, still on my Nexus high i'm very happy to see this get a digital run because it's a brilliant set up, and absolutely correlates with what I expect this character to be like in his own environment and not kicking about the galaxy. It's just funny capes comics and somewhat metatextual to boot, so yes. More please!

Unfollow #4 is quite superb also, as it continues to intruige, entice and aloud my expectations. And i'm sure someone will be along soon to do a better some up of the title than I can do, but i'm absolutely loving the 'soft' Battle Royale approach. Theirs no extremism involved, people do horrible things if their own accord or find the selves up against a wall and fall into the game at hand and it's all handled quite wonderfully. Rob Williams is on to a winner. I also got The Goon Library vol.2 and it's another superb package and a hefty one too boot. Saving it and it's kin for a huge re-read of the title but I can assure you all it's througly desserving of it's Eisner award winning pedigree, indeed i'd go as far to say Eric Powell is THE Eisner of my generation and a man I hold is high regard, and anyone who'se read The Good will no doub't agree. Just the best of comics.

It was also a big week for manga, and I love's my manga. Weekly Shonen Jump #9 is pretty much as per. One Piece, great. Toriko, great. Food Wars, great. World Trigger, pretty neat. My Hero Academia, bloody fantastic (nabbed vol.3 as well this week). Blue Exorcist and Seraph of the End also had some excellent chapters this week. Viz also gave up Assassination Classroom vol.8 this week, so on the reading pile that goes but i'll probably get to it this weekend. Ultraman vol.3 which I intend to devour along with it's previous volumes ASAP because it looks chuffing phenomenal. Jojos Bizarre Adventure Battle Tendency vol.2 has to have the longest title this week,  but big brands for big products and Jojo is once again pick of the bunch. Utterly flawless and one of the most fun comics on the stands. Read it people!

[Colin YNWA]

Well Hawkmonger covers a bunch of what I was going to say about many of the comics in my latest haul. Wil that stop me repeating it anyway... have you ever bothered to read my posts, if you have waded past the typos and appalling spelling and grammar you'll well know that pointless repetition is not at all beyond me. I just do it in a less snarly manner than some in these parts (not this thread I should say). So lets get to it... or should that be back to it.

Lets get the less than stella stuff out the way. Klaus 3 entirely lacks the typical dense and intriguing tight comic writing I associate with GMozz at his best. This is fairly standard fare, just that isn't standard for this best of writers. Ninth Wave 3 also lacked the depth this series (and its predecessor) had and was trite and shallow for all its earnst intent. Black Canary 8 retains a little of what made this series so interesting at the start BUT in doing so makes things feel a little forced. Shame stripped of its difference and reimmersed into DC mainline its in real danger of losing what made it so good. Finally War Stories 16. Well it would appear the appeal of Garth Ennis' war stories trumps the barrier of the art. Just.

Everything else is FANTASTIC

So much so I pulled out at least 4 comics assuming they should all be book of the haul before accepting what it had to be. Johnny Red 4, Paper Girls 5, Hip Hop Family Tree 7, They are not like us 11, and all sublime, but didn't quite make that standard, which given how good they are is pretty surprising. The return of Tuki 4, however charming also doesn't quite make it. Warren Ellis' masterful work with Masters on a very real and viseral James Bond 4 also somehow managers to miss out.

Autumnlands 9 was the first I thought ... maybe... but no, not quite it is certainly as good an issue as this series has had to date, quite brilliant.

Every fucker should be buying the shit out of Unfollow 4 if Rob Williams and Mike Dowling don't get to tell their tale completely without sales having them curtail what they are doing, while Star Wars comics and Batman stuff and whatever else sell in their 100,000 plus numbers then the comic industry is pretty broken. Everyone should feel obliged to buy this just to make us realise that this isn't the case. Its bloody genius stuff absolutely perfectly executed. Still not book of the haul mind.

Two books this month tell of people thrust into extreme circumstance escaping into fractured realities. One does it in a quite straight way and is incredibly effective for it and Badger 1 is to be applauded for this BUT Kennel Block Blues 1 beats all comers with its far more creative take on such themes. Its quite the most imaginative, inventive and completely engaging, fun and chilling comic I've read in a while. I fully understand why Boom! have made such an brave attempt to get this comic noticed. Cos it deserves it and really needs to be read. This will be seen as a classic before we know it. And despite all the glories that surround it this is the little comic that can and is easily book of a fantastic haul.

Buy it. That is all... not really just buy this comic.

[Hawkmumbler]

Every fucker should be buying the shit out of Unfollow 4 if Rob Williams and Mike Dowling don't get to tell their tale completely without sales having them curtail what they are doing, while Star Wars comics and Batman stuff and whatever else sell in their 100,000 plus numbers then the comic industry is pretty broken. Everyone should feel obliged to buy this just to make us realise that this isn't the case. Its bloody genius stuff absolutely perfectly executed. Still not book of the haul mind.

Damn feckin' straight! As 2000AD readers we should all be all over this, written and illustrated by two of the progs might alumni*, if it had been in the prog itself people would be hailing it as the new Button Man. I believe the first trade is out in May for any of you waiters, so make sure you pay up!

Oh and, just so you guys know, Ultraman is pretty unbelievable. A fresh, reenergised, kinetic and vibrant reboot of a seemingly saturated franchise with some utterly phenomenal art. Once again I conceed the point that no one writes sci-fi like the Japanese.

*Michal Dowling is a tooth alumni in my eyes, even off the back of Ichabod Azrael book 3 alone!

[Link Prime]

Every fucker should be buying the shit out of Unfollow 4 if Rob Williams and Mike Dowling don't get to tell their tale completely without sales having them curtail what they are doing, while Star Wars comics and Batman stuff and whatever else sell in their 100,000 plus numbers then the comic industry is pretty broken. Everyone should feel obliged to buy this just to make us realise that this isn't the case. Its bloody genius stuff absolutely perfectly executed. Still not book of the haul mind.

Damn feckin' straight! As 2000AD readers we should all be all over this, written and illustrated by two of the progs might alumni*, if it had been in the prog itself people would be hailing it as the new Button Man. I believe the first trade is out in May for any of you waiters, so make sure you pay up!

I'm with ye lads, loving this new series.

[Colin YNWA]

I know this is very good news for some folk around here.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/archie-announces-return-afterlife-with-archie-chilling-adventures-sabrina

As I trade wait the brilliant Afterlife With Archie I'm still not getting too excited!

[Hawkmumbler]

Well I'll be damned, I briefly talked about Afterlife with Archie (specifically using it to mock Nisekoi) and how much I missed it on the most recent Weekly Comics Monthly. Glad to see it return yet not unlike yourself Colin I'm a trade waiter.

One would have hopped Franesco Francavella would have taken this chance to do more Black Beetle but nooooo!!!

[Hawkmumbler]

Well seeing as I have absolutely nothing else coming my way this week (well, except for Usagi Yojimbo and the Prog but I wont get a chance to read it until next week) so I might as well go over the Weekly Shounen Jump #10 in a bit of detail this week.

Well, saying that it's mostly just about the new series Kimetsu No Yaiba by a plucky newcomer called Koyoharu Gotouge. It's romanised name is 'Blade of Demon Destruction' which make's it sound so much more naff than it actually is, indeed it's a rather refereshing feudal tale with minimalist super natural elements and a pleasently morbid tone that isn't entirely unwelcome. Straight out of the gate it solidifies itself as a title to keep my eye on and is a rather good debut for a new creater

Black Clover in contrast is covering everything I expected it to do for better or worse, being pretty much stock tropes dressed in above average art. It's not dreadful but not particularly engaging either, trudging from one fight to another with no real sense of urgency or fullfilment, but looks nice none the less. Fans of Hawk the Slayer and Beast Master would get a kick out of it.

In another excellent example of how detailed My Hero Academia treats it's continuity one of the villeins of the current arc is in fact a call back to an earlier chapter, an escaped convict and death row inmate curtailed in vol.2 as highly dangerous and Kohai Horikoshi cut's no corners in making him as grotesque as possible. I'm still amazed at how much Kohai packs into each chapter even if this week is mostly set up with one massive and ultimatly unsettling reveal at the end. Cracking capes comics.

Nisekoi is once again dross but at keast has a pleasant colour splash panel. Bleach enfuriates and entertains equally and Kubo's ADHD bounces the reader from fight to fight with no rhym, reason or consistancy. Also, thanks for keeping the positioning of the chaoter title classy Kubo. A literal load of ass! Food Wars! is remarkably entertaining in contrast, it knows just what it is and has fun with a truely hyperbolic premise and I can't say it's not worth the price of entry! World Trigger just does it's own thing and is harmless enough but not particularly engaging.

One Piece seem's to have mostly wrapped up the current story arc....already, after Dressrosa that felt like next to no time at all! Oda continues to ramp up the intruige and whimsy and it's utterly delightful to just relax and have a laid back chapter after all the Doflamingo faff, as great as it was, did grind a little at times. Toriko seem's to be trying to scare the shit out of me every week right now, with some utterly disgusting monster designs akin to a Cronenberg movie (NEO is positivly nightmare fodder) and gore that seem's less over the too and more mean spirited. People put off my Realm of the Damned should stand well clear!

[Link Prime]

I know this is very good news for some folk around here.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/archie-announces-return-afterlife-with-archie-chilling-adventures-sabrina

As I trade wait the brilliant Afterlife With Archie I'm still not getting too excited!

I was almost giving up on these its been so long- great news.

[Hawkmumbler]

OK, seeing as Prophet js back to much critical acclaim and it's probably about time I stopped procrastinating and started buying the damn thing I do have a single question, and it's a rather portentious one at that.

Whats Prophets relationship with the rest of the 'Image multiverse". I wouldn't normaly ask this, as I thought it was in line with Saga and Copperhead and etcetc as a none '-verse' title. But when I looked at buying a few volumes in Travelling Man yesterday, I noticed Youngblood and Superpatriot on the back covers. So....whats the deal there then?!

[The Adventurer]

Prophet was originally created as part of the Image Super-Hero Universe. He rubbed elbows with Youngblood and WildCATS, etc... It was early 90s Image and was pretty generally bad.

The new Prophet series accepts that those events happened, but its so far in the future as to be mostly irrelevant. That said, there are a handful of callbacks to early Image Rob Liefeld characters that are surprisingly pretty neat.

The short answer is, it doesn't matter, if you don't catch a reference it doesn't affect enjoyment of the series.

[CalHab]

The short answer is, it doesn't matter, if you don't catch a reference it doesn't affect enjoyment of the series.

One of the great things about Prophet is that it doesn't lead you by the nose. The reader is presented with a totally alien universe populated by characters whose motivation seems obscure. It's up to the reader to figure out what's going on. It's well worth the effort.

[Link Prime]

The short answer is, it doesn't matter, if you don't catch a reference it doesn't affect enjoyment of the series.

Quite right.
I never read much of the original runs of Youngblood / Prophet all those years ago, but have to say I do find it interesting that it features some of the same characters (Diehard and Prophet- assuming that 'Old Man Prophet' is the original John Prophet) that are still around millennia later.

[Hawkmumbler]

Well this is what happens when a person has a day off work and three weeks worth of comics to catch up on, sheer pandemonium!

Right, lets get the vaguely negative out of the way because their where no 'bad' comics in the haul, but damned if I didn't have higher expectations of Predator Life and Death #1. Our man Dan on a Yautja story, yes please. Sadly it's all a bit pedestrian, #1 being a very samey colonial marines set up with some admitedly pretty great action scenes. Having not long since read our man GRennies's take on the Pred's I had hoped for something as brilliant as that, but not to be. Hopefully issue two can taise the bar a little bit. Also i'm a little sad to say Art Ops #5 has the series losing me a little but it's still pretty great, i'm just a little conffused as to what's supposed to be going on and why I should care, it seem's a little too soon to be throwing big quota changing events at us when I barely have a grasp of who everyone is and don't have much investment. Not enough to put the series in the red zone, but it's pacing could do with a bit of work.

I always look forward to my war comics double bill at the moment, as both Johnny Red #5 and Dreaming Eagles #3 are the radist things around. They feel like Commando strips but far more adult in nature, but never take themselves too seriously, at the end of the day they're all about the gloriously illustrated dog fights (Keith Burns and Simon Coleby are both absolute legends of the medium) and our man (phrase of day day) Ennis is knocking it co tinuously out of the park. Two of the highlights of my monthly pull list.

Two of the longer running titles on my pull list are contenders for comic of the week-nay-month but get nipped in the bud, not that that negates their brilliance. Usagi Yojimbo #152 is an absolute masterstrock, a brilliant homage to the Hanzo the Razor series and a beautifully illustrated too boot. I often find Usagi the hardest book to sum up, because it's just so profoundly it's own thing and perfect in almost every way, and I can't recomend the series enough to you all. Meanwhile The Maxx #28 see's the series enter the final stretch as we return to the outback and the series returns to it's more flippent side, much needed after several issues of morbid (albeit it genius) grim realism. Once again a perfect comic in almost ever respect, and i'm very much excited to see the set up for end game. I shall miss it terribly.

I'll finish up this post in usual for with Weekly Shonen Jump #12 and #13 and return to the rest after work, so it's with much joy that I heavily endorse the new series Kimetsu No Yaiba. With it's starck depiction of feudal Japan and minamalist approach to the supernatural it's a breath if fresh air after the battle orientated series it shares it's pages with. A very promising new title and I hope to see it stick around a little longer. The preview chapter for Bye-Bye Humanity was also incredibly entertaining, resembling a Junji Ito horror title (evocking Uzomaki specifically) and also being visually brilliant for a first time creator, it's a shame due to technical reasons it looks like we wont be seeing anymore. The Jump is often as bewildering as it is brilliant.

[Hawkmumbler]

A little later than expected but then I don't think anyone of you actually misses my pointless wittering, do you?!

Anyhow lets get the bumper bunch if Image titles iff the bandwagon first as they can all be summed up in equally superb and quite, quite brilliant levels of excellence.....sorry, to many superlatives. But basically Cry Havoc #2 is typically genius Spurrier. The man can write good sci-fi, can he and this is one of the best titles i've seen him work on that WASN'T for the house of Tharg. It's looking rosey right now, and utterly brilliant stuff is to come i'm sure. Nowhere Men #8 is also bloody ingenius, one of the freshest takes on the superhero genre in...well, forever. It's quite, quite excellent. Saga #34 is also jolly nice, as ever, and Plutona #4 see's the series head towards it's conclusion in fine form. Image are serving up some real treats right now.

Doctor Who 11th v.2 #6 is once again a masterstroke of science fiction writting, and hands down the best licensed title in my pull list right now. Simon Fraser is a man to be reckoned with and his name will forever be engraved in my idea of ideal Who from now on. The Spirit #8 is also cuffing great and all, and i'm rather excited to see Wagner put his own stamp on the famous masked detective, and the art is once again absolutely stand out stuff. However, am I the i ly one who would like to see Eric Powell tackle interior art?

And as for book of the month? A three way tie, all for titles that us fellow squaxx should all be reading already! Our man Rufus Dayglo's ongoing punk history of the UK north west continues in  which is utterly, utterly delightful anarchic insanity. The man himself asked recently if people would like to see this extended to and ongoing series and I bloody well would, so get buying this peeps! Following on from that was Unfollow #5. Dear god, how can a comic about horrible people doing horrible things to each other be so damn entertaining? It's just fan-fucking-tastic and essential comics, utterly bloody entertaining. Horrifying that The Dark Knight III is pulling more copies than Unfollow. But finally comes the curtain fall, Wild End The Enemy Within #6. My. God. Can out man DAbnett write a finale. Can our man Culbard draw a War of the Worlds comic like no other. My god. Just, wow. I'm at a loss for words. No, actually, i'm not. You should all read Wild End, because it's my comic of the month. Maybe even of the year, it's just so. Damn. Fucking. FINE!

Bravo, Dan Abnett, bravo.

[Colin YNWA]

That's quite the haul Hawkmo...oh... anyway getting my bag after 3 weeks tomorrow with any luck and as we have quite a few titles in common be interesting to see how we compare...