Tops and Bottoms 04/10/23

Another busy work week but I’ve been on the road so it’s given me some hotel comics reading time. Say what you will about digital but one thing it is for me is convenient.

Myself and Falpy tabled at the Satanists Flea Market this past weekend and it sure was fun. Not least of all because at no point did anyone come over and think that I was interested in their lack of sales. Nice to see four or five tables full of comics. I’d recommend it for the UK Underground Comics scene. Just not for any of the usual desperate knuckleheads.

So. Easy one this week. Some magnificent highs and some lows that are so low they made me gag.

Tops.

This was a great little recommend I saw in the Manga channel over at the EOC Slack. I’d never heard of Baron Yoshimoto but will look for anything by him in the future.

This is a collection of short stories that address often very adult issues. The darkness of post-war Japan done in a number of different visual styles that range from the realism of Ikegami to the cartooning of Tezuka. Brilliantly written flawed characters with somewhat bleak moments of redemption. I chatted about it on the ACP podcast this week and it entered my shortlist of 10/10 books this year.

Bottoms.

Sadly I went back to the well this week and read a couple of Marvel Comics on the app that are just terribly written. Almost through the door first was Warlock Rebirth issue 3 which was drawn by Ron Lim with writing by Ron Mark. Both creators have been great but this felt rushed and full of Twitter language! Awful! I’m a massive Warlock fan and this should just be stopped now and deleted from their server.

Genuine Dialogue from Warlock Rebirth issue 3 – ‘I want to help. That’s Part of being a hero, right?

But the winner this week was Captain Britain issue 5. Thankfully the last in the series. Written by Tini Howard who seems to think that Captain Britain is concerned with who blocks her on Twitter! (Genuinely).