Morning all,
A quieter week here for comics events although I did manage to get into Gosh and pick up the pull list this week. There were some crackers in there and I mention one later. I also got to set up the venue for Qvention – that is fast approaching on July 20th.
Less an actual convention and more a bunch of pals meeting in a pub to celebrate Cliff ‘Q’ Cumber’s visit to the UK. Lots of beer will be drunk, comics swapped and discussed and the air will be blue with language. The venue is nicely close to at least two comic shops so we’ll probably troop off there at some point. Everyone is welcome.
This week on the ACP we had a guest drop out through illness so we talked/ranted about the current state of comics and asked ourselves, ‘Have Comics Become too Niche?’. Lots covered there along with some great recommendations and I lay out five ongoings that are actually worth their money. Have a listen and see if you agree.
I’ve been reading a lot this week and a chunk of it has been old fanzines from the UK and US.
They are nostalgia/time-travel machines and once you get over the advertised price for a Neal Adams original art page you can enjoy the sharp-tongued opinions (remember when people pointed out things wrong with comics?) and some of the fan art from people who went on to become giants in the industry (Mike Zack, Steve Dillon, Dave Gibbons…)
The above dropped out from the pages of a 1978 copy of Comics Media News. From a political and historical point of view, interesting reading! Things you find huh!? Another fun read was this EBay find from one of my favourite science fiction authors. Fred Hoyle once again proving how much of the world around us is Maths and in doing so works out routes, timings and just how a series of massive rocks get dragged through Wales and into a big circle. Or as someone like me is prone to describe it, ‘This is some clever shit!’
Enough of the old bloke ranting. Let’s get on with the task at hand this week. I’ve read 134 comics (including fanzines) this week. Here are the highs and the lows.
Tops.
Please excuse the rather underwhelming cover on this new release. Resident Alien: The Book of Life follows on from last years The Book of Love. It’s a hard one not to spoil and worth mentioning that this is very different in tone from the more deliberately funny tv series based on it. The players are pretty much the same, but the story has taken a different turn.
Honestly, there’s nothing here that you could describe as an event comic. However, it is solid comics storytelling and perhaps that’s the secret sauce that we all need. Peter Hogan (writer) and Steve Parkhouse (art and letters) just know how to communicate character and get you involved. Part sci-fi, part mystery, part soap-opera this just makes me smile every time I read an issue. Consistent, professional, warm and there are a few twists you may not expect. Get on it.
Bottoms.
You may not initially realise this but the new(ish) series of (the) Outsiders from DC is in fact a reboot (kinda) of the old Warren Ellis/John Cassaday, Planetary run from WildStorm between 1998 and 2009. But without the story, craft, insight, style or anything else that made the original series a classic.
This is just a mess. Some faces that look like they’ve been cut out of a magazine, stuck on a page with glue and then traced over by a lazy eight-year-old. It’s a boring-ass story that never gets near to being engaging. What the Fuck DC?
Once again, good comics and bad comics.
This time tomorrow we’ll all be off to vote. Make sure you tell everyone on Twitter tho! That’s the most important thing.
See you soon and thanks for reading.
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