August '23 Reading Round Up

 

 

Well, well, well, will you look at this: Mark Millar is saying the comic book industry is in the worst state it’s ever been. I’m not really a big Marky Millie guy what with his enormous fonts and bombastic marketing approach to his books BUT I respect his game and believe that he in fact does love making comic books, although I think he loves turning them into TV shows more. That said, his claim that the Big 2 need to hire some bad ass writers and get readers back on board is spot on. Here’s a link to his interview:

 

Mark Millar Interview 

 

Let’s face it, DC & Marvisney have become all but unreadable the past year, why? Beats me. You can just feel the ick oozing off of the pages despite the talent attached. I don’t know if some sort of demonic entity is jizzing all over the books at the printer, wouldn’t be surprised, but there’s something way off with these two major publishers. DC was at least able to knock the industry out of the park last year with its scintillating Black Label releases but this year they’ve been few and far between. I see that some ‘Batman: Gargoyle’ book is coming out in September under their Black Label imprint. It looks half decent, but is it a game changer like say, something like ‘Catwoman: Lonely City’? I doubt it.

 

Also, if you’ve been following my continued desire to completely overhaul the Marvisney comic book line for the past several months, you’ll remember that I’ve been clamoring for the Marvisney stock price to plummet with the hopes that if it falls far enough they might be inclined to sell it. Well, this week the Mouse dipped under $83 a share, it’s lowest price in 9 years. There are murmurings now that they’re going to sell off their shows, reduce the amount of Star Wars garbage that they’ve been pumping out etc. I don’t think we’re too far off from them being open to selling Marvel Entertainment to someone. If there’s a billionaire comic geek conglomerate out there, now’s the time to pounce guys!

Besides my reviews this month here's what I got into:

If there should be a new CEO of one or both of the Big 2 it should probably be Jeff Lemire. This guy oozes 'I love making comics'. His new series is another one of those grounded stories mixed with the fantastical that he's sooo good at. There's a great back story at the end on his process for imagining up the concept for this book. He even goes so far as to mention that "For $5.99 you're getting the equivalent of three regular comic issues for less than the price of two" All hail Jeffy! Oh, his 'Phantom Road' book also finished up its first arc and ended on a 'I must keep reading this immediately' hook. Lemire is the frikkin' man.

 

You know what delivers time and time again? Groo. Groo is like Conan meets Curly from the Three Stooges, it's can't miss entertainment and such a tidy perfect little escape from the world for the several minutes that it takes to fly through the exquisite detailed cartooning of Aragones. The current first ish in the most recent mini-series isn't going to upend any genre or turn the industry on its head, but hey, in this day and age Cheese Dip and Mulching beat DC & Marvisney drivel all day every day.

 

Deep Cuts is turning into a real delightful monthly vignette that I truly look forward to. The creative team really conveys the sense of the time period along with the musicality of each issue. While having these double-sized one shots that are part of an overall set of six that span six decades of Jazz is wonderful, it would be great if this opens the door for an ongoing monthly that takes up the mantle of a 'Jazz Story'. As we can see, it's such a rich untapped history with so many stories to tell. Hopefully Image can transition one of these into a monthly or at the very least inspire a new one.

 

Something Epic got back on track after a blah second issue. The emotional electricity is back in the third installment. This is fast becoming must read content by Kudranski and it feels like it's the book he was meant to write. The book that he's worked on for decades that is finally seeing the light of day. I have no idea where this is leading but I hope for Kudranski's sake and ours that it's somewhere worthy of the title he's so boldly chosen. Also, interesting to note that three of the four books I've blurbed about are all from Image. Hmm, maybe Image should do a corporate takeover of MarvisneyDC and just run the whole damn industry. I think that and then I remember the absolute debacle of Kirkman's Void Rivals and its pathetic Hasbro cross-promotion and then think otherwise.

Who should take over the comic book industry? Oh wait, Jeff Lemire, right. Jeff. Jeffy, we're gonna need you to watch 'Wall Street' on repeat for a few months straight, get in the mood for some serious boardroom bloviating. I have faith in you. 

Here's the reviews of the past month:

Monstress #45

Batman: White Knight - Generation Joker #2

Hunger & The Dusk #1

Barnstormers #1

Antarctica #1

Batman: Knight Terrors #1

Dive Marvisney Stock! DIVE!!!