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New Comic Book Day Megathread

Started by The Adventurer, 08 March, 2012, 09:36:36 AM

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Hawkmumbler

Well I had a few titles on my pull list this week...

Stokoe's been kinda quiet lately, with his run of Godzilla over and Orc Stain struggling to gaintraction, the dude has turned his considerable talents to the Xenomorphs in Alien Dead Orbit #1 and its...just solid. Hard too feel a little underwhelmed despite my enthusiasm, as it'sreally just another Aliens story at this point. But i'm keeping my eye on it.

The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed #3 at first appears to be a spin-off too far, but with Mr.Grist at the helm of a Mignlaverse series, how can I resist? And it's good, damn good even, but it just leaves me longing for more Kane and Mudman, which hopefully we'll see more of soon.

Kill or Be Killed #8 continues to be nothing short of superb. Brubaker and Phillips really are the master piece duo of our time, and i'm throughly delighted in their current yarn. Just brilliant comics. Savage Dragon #223 does what Larsen does best, being utterly insane, and doing what corporate comics try and fail to do, have a massive pair of bollocks.

Weekly Shonen Jump is on fire right now, I might add, and by farthe best anthology on the market besides the tooth. New series Doctor Stone is the paleolithic post apocalyptic survival series I never knew I wanted, One Piece is pulling out all the stops to be as crazy as possible, Food Wars! continues to do it's thing, The Promised Neverland is jaw droppingly wonderful, and so out of the Jump comfert zone as to be enigmatic. Then theres My Hero Academia. Oh how I love it.

Hillbilly #7 is Eric Powell at hismad finest, utterly barmy and delightful, Hookjaw #5 wraps the series up in guro glory, and ULTRAMAN #8 continues to be mesmerisingly brilliant yet so familiar.

I have one final comic to read this week, the finale to Unfollow...which I am saving u til I have co pleted a reread of the entire dazzling saga. I shall miss it so very much.

Colin YNWA

Just finished Saga volume 7. It was pretty good. It looked superb but the story seemed to stall, rooted like a wooden spaceship refueling. It felt like it was treading such familiar ground. Hazel's narration leading you down the stories path, setting the scene and trying to embellism and enhance the experience but often just over playing it. The dialogue has calmed somewhat but the characters aren't really moving.

I do like Saga, I really do and I'm consiois I'm over critical at times as it is so lauded... but this voliume did feel static and the weakest yet.

positronic

Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 27 April, 2017, 08:05:42 PM
Stokoe's been kinda quiet lately, with his run of Godzilla over and Orc Stain struggling to gaintraction, the dude has turned his considerable talents to the Xenomorphs in Alien Dead Orbit #1 and its...just solid. Hard too feel a little underwhelmed despite my enthusiasm, as it's really just another Aliens story at this point. But i'm keeping my eye on it.

Thanks for the heads-up on that one, Hawkmumbler. Dark Horse releases SO many Aliens and Predator series that it becomes a little ho-hum, and I tend to just glance over them in the solicitations. But of course anything by Stokoe is an exception, so I've just ordered this series from my LCS.

Speaking of.... now where IS that fourth issue of Predator vs. Judge Dredd vs. Aliens? It seems like it's been... forever, since issue #3.

positronic

#2133
Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 27 April, 2017, 08:05:42 PM
Weekly Shonen Jump is on fire right now, I might add, and by farthe best anthology on the market besides the tooth. New series Doctor Stone is the paleolithic post apocalyptic survival series I never knew I wanted, One Piece is pulling out all the stops to be as crazy as possible, Food Wars! continues to do it's thing, The Promised Neverland is jaw droppingly wonderful, and so out of the Jump comfert zone as to be enigmatic. Then theres My Hero Academia. Oh how I love it.

ULTRAMAN #8 continues to be mesmerisingly brilliant yet so familiar.

Seeing how we both like stuff like Stokoe, Kill or Be Killed, Savage Dragon, and Hillbilly, it seems like we might have some similar tastes in comics. So I have to ask, is Ultraman really that good? Someone else had recommended it to me, but when I flipped through it, it just seemed entirely too unnecessary... for an Ultraman manga, that is. Just like overly busy (artwise), and maybe a little too 'grim & gritty' and trying too hard to prove something in terms of justifying itself as a seinin manga for nostalgic adult readers. In general though, I'm eager for some tokusatsu hero manga. I'm still hoping for an English translation of Kamen Rider Spirits someday, in a subdued 'don't-hold-your-breath' kind of way. How would you compare the new Ultraman to something like (the highly-underrated IMO) Bio-Booster Armor GUYVER?

I take it Jump's all-digital now? I never really liked following the stories piecemeal, a few pages at a time every week; I prefer them in tankobon-sized chunks. I'm all over it when a new One-Punch Man volume comes out, and My Hero Academia (from last year's FCBD preview) seemed all right, but maybe a little like One-Punch Man lite, crossed with Avengers Academy or something. Maybe I'll give it another shot.

Any other notable manga you're enjoying?

Hawkmumbler

You are welcome, my good man! I should say, my analysis of Dead Orbit #1 was a tad pessimistic, it's excellent, but maybe not up with Orc Stain just yet.

ULTRAMAN is something that is very, radically different from the source material, but when you get over that what you find is a superb series full of murder mystery intrigue and galactic political espionage. It wont be for everyone, but it's magnificent in it's own little way.

The WSJ is a bag filled with a bit of everything. From high sea's adventure to high fantasy, from post apocalyptic comedies to superhero society in decay, fairy tale horror and sports manga. For the price of a chocolate bar you get at least 150 pages of digital comic, so it's worth a moment of anyones time.

I, Cosh

Comparatively big week for me, dominated by endings.

The big one is obviously Unfollow #18. Unlike Colin, I have greedily read it before embarking on a reread. It's a mixed bag, but more successful than not so I'm looking forward to picking up on some of the things I've no doubt missed along the way.

It's more from a sense of duty that I'll also reread the first arc of Doom Patrol #6. It already seems like a lifetime ago that I was raving about the first issue.

Had assumed there was another issue so Hookjaw #5 ending took me a bit by surprise. This series has been a bit of a moist octopus for me. Far from Spurrier's best.

Not had a chance to read it yet, but the eventual appearance of Archangel #4 in our timeline is a boon to our species.
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 27 April, 2017, 07:30:24 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 27 April, 2017, 06:59:54 PM
Britannia Vol 2 #1: Lawks it's the second run and I'm still unsure about this, and still buying it. There's just enough Milligan goodness to outweigh the Milligan badness, but it's a fine line. Is Nero ever going to get some good press?  Not in this book.
Given my love of both Roman comics (comics set in the Roman Empire (or Republic I guess) and Pete Milligan you'd think I'd all over this but I'm getting tired of Roman comics that just lend on some super natural element or other. Just give me a straight historical damnit.
Interesting thoughts. I'd say Britannia was the first Milligan joint which I've unreservedly enjoyed for about ten years so I was over the moon to see a second series out so soon.


Quote from: Colin YNWA on 23 April, 2017, 12:41:51 PM
AND just messaged Walt Simonson and I'm now all star struck as he responded pretty much straight away - alas the news was not good. It could be a year between this issue and next BUT The MIGHTY SIMONSON is doing this so the next arc can come out monthly.
That's good news and bad news. Still loving Ragnarok and it looks like the next storyline will move off in a different direction.
We never really die.

positronic

Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 28 April, 2017, 10:16:14 AM
ULTRAMAN is something that is very, radically different from the source material, but when you get over that what you find is a superb series full of murder mystery intrigue and galactic political espionage. It wont be for everyone, but it's magnificent in it's own little way.

So, could you compare it to something like Urasawa's PLUTO then, in terms of how that was a reimagining of Tezuka's Tetusuwan Atomu: "The Greatest Robot on Earth" story? Lots of political allegory and a more realistic 21st century re-do in that one (with a very different sort of art and storytelling sensibility, and not just a rehash of the same plot), and one of the best manga I've read in recent years. If the Ultraman reboot is anywhere half as great as that, then it's probably pretty good.

Hawkmumbler

Perhapse an inherently unfair comparrison (PLUTO is a masterpiece) and rather a reimagining it's a sequel that ignores everything that came after Ultra Q and Ultraman '66, but over all, yes. Go in with that mindset and you'll likely read into it a lot better.

TordelBack

Quote from: I, Cosh on 28 April, 2017, 10:25:14 AM

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 27 April, 2017, 07:30:24 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 27 April, 2017, 06:59:54 PM
Britannia Vol 2 #1: Lawks it's the second run and I'm still unsure about this, and still buying it. There's just enough Milligan goodness to outweigh the Milligan badness, but it's a fine line. Is Nero ever going to get some good press?  Not in this book.
Given my love of both Roman comics (comics set in the Roman Empire (or Republic I guess) and Pete Milligan you'd think I'd all over this but I'm getting tired of Roman comics that just lend on some super natural element or other. Just give me a straight historical damnit.
Interesting thoughts. I'd say Britannia was the first Milligan joint which I've unreservedly enjoyed for about ten years so I was over the moon to see a second series out so soon.

Given that it's one of only four monthly comics I buy regularly (Black Hammer, Knights of the Dinner Table, JD Megazine), it's not like I don't enjoy it - and this issue is a particularly good one. It's just that Milligan's characters often have very similar voices, and his dialogue is uneven, with lots of repetition and awkward anachronisms: and there's a LOT of it.  I wish my enjoyment was less equivocal, it SHOULD be an easy win.

Bolt-01

Quote from: I, Cosh on 28 April, 2017, 10:25:14 AM
Had assumed there was another issue so Hookjaw #5 ending took me a bit by surprise. This series has been a bit of a moist octopus for me. Far from Spurrier's best.

Inversely I've loved it. It's been years since I've followed a floppy so I've really enjoyed seeing the tale unfold. I think Spurrier and Boyle have done a bang-up job and I'd be happy to see them tell another tale.

positronic

Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 28 April, 2017, 10:57:32 AM
Perhapse an inherently unfair comparrison (PLUTO is a masterpiece) and rather a reimagining it's a sequel that ignores everything that came after Ultra Q and Ultraman '66, but over all, yes. Go in with that mindset and you'll likely read into it a lot better.

Okay, thanks, Hawkmumbler. Manga can be a little hard to navigate sometimes in terms of recommendations because there are so many different genres and tastes out there. Where seinin manga overlaps tokusatsu/superhero or classic anime-manga reboots or sequels, it's hard for me to find recommendations from people of like-minded sensibilities.

Theblazeuk

I have really enjoyed Alien: Defiance, mainly because it's far removed from the mess of the 'Fire and Stone' crossover series with Predator/Prometheus. Thank you Ridley Scott for making a Dan Abnett written Aliens series unappealing to me.

Defiance is however great and coming to the end of its run. I'll have to check out Dead Orbit. I've always enjoyed the DH Aliens stuff though I found the best stories were always found in DHP (Herk Mondo - cigar chomping monster hunter shouldn't work in Aliens but it did!).

Link Prime

Quote from: Bolt-01 on 28 April, 2017, 11:13:10 AM
Quote from: I, Cosh on 28 April, 2017, 10:25:14 AM
Had assumed there was another issue so Hookjaw #5 ending took me a bit by surprise. This series has been a bit of a moist octopus for me. Far from Spurrier's best.

Inversely I've loved it. It's been years since I've followed a floppy so I've really enjoyed seeing the tale unfold. I think Spurrier and Boyle have done a bang-up job and I'd be happy to see them tell another tale.

I really liked the look of this and intend to pick up the collected edition.

Maybe a stupid question- but is artist Conor Boyle a member of this forum?

Bolt-01

Link- Conor was known around these parts as Uncle Fester if my memory serves. He's a boarder of 'very' long standing (He was around is approx 2002-3).

He's also half of Disconnected press with his good lady and has worked on a lot of stuff for FQP/Zarjaz too.

positronic

#2144
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 27 April, 2017, 07:30:24 PM
Wow Positronic that's quite a pull list. How many titles are you getting a month? Some good stuff there - always nice to hear some love for the fantastic Hillbilly

About... "kind of a lot"? Who counts? If I did, I guess the next thing I'd be thinking about was cutting down.  :(   [I have a secret though. I kind of cheat, because about half the comics I might read in any given week might be borrowed, not bought, which sure does make it easier to sample stuff or read things that I'd otherwise dismiss out of hand as of marginal worth.]

I just try to find comics that appeal to me, and I have eclectic tastes. Some comics are the "comfort food", some are "meat & potatoes", some are "fine cuisine", and some are "dessert". Some are like candy or bubblegum, and some are "snack food".

I do tend to lean towards comics that are science-fictional (especially some of the more specialized subgenres), or have monsters, or are cartoony or comical (big animation fan, too), at least to some degree. But I'm not ruling anything out per se, so anything from mainstream to kids' comics to manga to alternative/underground could be on my list in any given week.

I used to be a huge DC and Marvel guy. But that was back 5-10 years ago or more, so my reading list of the Big Two has been shrinking ever since. It's easier to pass most of their titles by when you aren't reading for "the universe" any longer. Too many years of gimmicks and "event burnout" I guess. I tend to view the Pavlovian-response techniques with a jaundiced eye these days. I still keep a finger on the pulse, as it were, and sometimes relent when people push me to read something. There are exceptions to restricting my diet for "fast food" comics. There are always exceptions, depending on who the writer and artist is, but considering how few Marvel & DC comics I actually buy, as opposed to just borrow...

I feel bad now about missing The Goon when it first started, or select Vertigo titles, or lots of the Mignolaverse stuff. There's a huge back catalog I missed in the last 25 years or so.