November '23 Reading Round Up

 

This was it. The last chance for a Black Label book to reclaim the glory it found in 2022. It was Charlie’s final chocolate bar to find the golden ticket in, ‘Batman: City of Madness’. My goodness this year has been dumpster fire for the Big Poo (Marvel and DC). Marvel has become unreadable and DC has been a hit and miss of mediocrity and failed potential. Last year DC’s Black Label was King of the Roost with short form mini series that just exploded off of the page. The stories were phenomenal and the art was breathtaking. I don’t know what happened from last year to this one, perhaps budget cuts? Hubris? Too many cooks spoiling the comic book broth? Whatever the case was it was clear there was serious drop off in quality despite the prices being the same or higher. Sounds like my Groceries!

 

All the elements were there: Christian Ward, an absolute art beast and titan of the industry doing a Court of Owls story. Ward is like one of those people in those house renovation or restaurant renovation shows where a bad ass comes in and turns everything upside down and gets you crying by how good it is by the end of the episode. This HAD to be amazing. If it wasn’t my faith would be shaken to the core. Hero movies are officially garbage and now you’re telling me that no matter who works on a hero comic it will be garbage too? Oy vey.

 

Well, it wasn’t trash. God Bless you Christian Ward. This book fucking rocks.

 

I have to wonder though, am I gushing over how amazing this book is because it is actually amazing or has it been so long since a Bat Book blew me out of the water that now that one has come along after all this time that is halfway decent that I’m overlooking any flaws just so can I be happy in my Bat Place again?

 

I just met somebody actually and we’re getting to know each other. I’m officially crazy about this girl but I have to wonder, is it because she’s truly amazing or is it because I’ve been wandering through the muck and death of the dating world for so long that when somebody normal and beautiful comes along I melt into a puddle.

 

I think that’s where we’ve arrived when it comes to comic books these days. We’re left swiping through series just looking for that transcendent book that reminds why we love the medium so much in the first place. I think our culture of art in general, art across all mediums, has been in serious decline for quite some time now. Perhaps that’s intentional, perhaps they want to make it where we’re so used to junk that now they only have to put something out that’s halfway decent for us to lose our minds. I wouldn’t doubt it. At any rate, Batman: City of Madness was an absolute joy to read. The art was predictably ‘Christian Ward Wow’ and the call back to Snyder’s All Time Great ‘Court of Owls’ storyline was done just right. We can all breathe a sigh of relief, well at least I can, there is hope for Bats and Black Label. Marvisney? Oy, I dunno, that’s gonna take a major detox. Seriously I think the entire company needs to have Jack Nicholson’s Joker show up to their offices and say his classic line ‘This Town needs an Enema’ and then literally give everyone in the building an enema because Marvisney if completely full of shite.

 

 

Anyway, here’s what I also got into this past month:

 

Hey! This got really good! I kinda trashed the first issue a bit as it meandered and felt half baked and basic. I also laid into the writer, Richard Blake, because, well, it was fun to do. Yet the second issue really upped the ante as the main character and her AI Robot Detective Buddy worked out the kinks in a virtual world before embarking on their quest to find her parents. Again, it doesn’t feel like for a second that this takes place in the 31^st century but the overall feel and look of the book is really intriguing and I’m looking forward to what comes next.

 

 

 

Superlatives. Exclamatory praise. Ebullient page turning. More superlatives. A contented exhale of ahhh followed by a gaping maw of ‘wow that was awesome’. The first Conan story came to a close after four issues. I can’t find a single thing wrong with this book. It’s impenetrable. It’s impervious to criticism. It’s what this industry desperately needs. It’s the pinnacle of what any Conan fan could possibly ask for in a comic. Turns out they’re also coming out with a new batch of ‘Savage Sword of Conan’ comics which may make me spontaneously combust while whinging Crom take me!

 

 

 

 

 

Boy this started out sooo frikkin’ good and it ended up so mind bogglingly bad. I was over the moon for Kudranski’s treatise on what creativity means and how it manifests in our lives as seen through the life of a special kid who’s imagination is so real he can see it before it exists in our reality. Halfway through this first arc the kid became an adult and then he got transported to the land of imagination and well, it got goofy as fuck. There was the predictable sabotage by his repressed anger which manifested as a nightmare that took down this amorphous world that never felt grounded or real. Seems like Kudranksi infused a bunch of psychological stuff into the plot, from inner child work to shadow work and trauma work. It kinda devolved into a cheezy 80s horror movie. Like something you’d rent at a Blockbuster when all the other good movies were already gone. They say it’s coming back next March but I won’t be coming back with it.

 

 

Is there a way I can subscribe to Jeff Lemire? Like, just sign me up for whatever the hell he’s working on. Just drop it in my mailbox whenever it’s done. I’ll take scribbles on napkins or voice memos or even a crumpled up idea from his trash can. It’s not that Fishflies is the greatest comic ever or that this story is going to change the world. But everything Lemire does is so uniquely his and presents worlds you’ve never seen before in a way that draws you in to the point where you have to see it to completion. I wish Lemire could give me dating app and texting tips. Is there a Lemire Pick Up Method? Can he write one? Please? The Lemire Wingman Camp?

 

 

 

Yeah. Sorry Murph. I love ya but oof, this is rough. I really wanted to love this but, yeah, I just can’t. Looking forward to White Knight Wonder Whoababe and Justce League of Knightly Comic Geeks. Not much else to say here other than, well, sometimes the greatest of the greats put out poop. Lord knows I’ve done it and will continue to do it in my art. It happens. You just have to keep squeezing ‘em out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, this is kind of a spoiler. I’ve only gotten through issue three of ‘The Sacrificers’ but, umm, well, is Rick Remender writing about Adrenochrome? He's introduced this royal elitist class of deities, an oddly drawn mishmash with elemental attributes of fire, water and air. There's this ominous character who collects children from the peasants of the countryside. He shackles them and takes them up this mountain where they're tricked. They think they've been blessed with an abundant feast in a paradise. After living it up they're taken to a salon to be cleaned up but rather than being given a haircut a long needle penetrates their brains and their essence is sucked from them. 

 

A bluish liquid is then vacuumed from their corpses and it is immediately filled up in the chalices of the elite in their party in the clouds. One of the victims gets scared and due to their state not being one of joy their liquid turns brown and has to be discarded. Adrenochrome is extracted at the highest state of fear so this is the opposite of that but, hmm. Remender are you making a comment about this? Is this a sneaky way of waking people up to this horrific crime that has been perpetrated upon humanity for many many moons?  If it is then I applaud you for bravery. If it isn't and you just though this up then, yeesh, this is some dark subject matter. Maybe you should've called this 'Black Science' instead.

That's all I got! Lots of interesting new titles I just grabbed from my LCS and many of them are sexy erotic ones, grrrr, hopefully they won't suck. Please don't suck! Unless you're doing a promotion with a blow-up doll or a pussy mold I'm tired of buying books that suck! 

Also, later this month I'll be posting my 'Best Comics of 2023' article. It's been a rough ride but some definitely fit the bill. Happy Reading!