Gamblor187

Small week for me...

JSA #32 - It has a blurb from Wizard Magazine on the cover proclaiming it to be "Best Comic, 2001". Maybe not, but it's pretty darn close.

Green Arrow #11 - Kevin Smith does the impossible here. He limits himself to a story that last only one issue! Unbelievable!

Flash #182 - Now this is where that Wizard blurb belongs! Look at that cover! Can't wait to read it!

And since I still haven't given my opinion, let's hold over last week's discussion for the return on The Question Of The Week!

Just how important is the art to you when you buy a comic book?

I'll give my thoughts later.

And because it will probably be seen more in this new thread, ahadi asked:

Well.. i decided to go back to comics after quite sometime taking 'off', so i was wondering whats hot and whats not and what did i missed for the past 2 years..

can anyone post any online coupons or places to shop for comics?

I can't help you out with the online comic stores, but I'm sure that others posting here will have some advice.

As for what's hot and what's not?
My thoughts on that later, too.

Now I need food and sleep...not neccesarily in that order.

jim

Liquid Death

I picked up:

Scion #20 - Another terrific issue in this great fantasy series.

Violent Messiahs #8 - the first story arc comes to a close, and though some of the art is a bit iffy, I really liked both this issue and the arc as a whole.

As for places to buy comics online, I usually get comics from

www.eastcoastcomics.com

I haven't found any other comic sites online that give discounts and have a free shipping offer (over $30). They don't have much in the way of back issues, however.

I would stay away from www.newcomix.com I ordered some stuff back in April/May, and two issues that shipped late (Battle Chasers #9, Violent Messiahs #7) weren't included (understandly) when my order was sent - but they haven't been sent at all yet, even though those issues have been available. The people who run the site have been less than responsive and have yet to resolve the situation (I've already paid for said comics, back in May).

Sessa17

Extremely small week for me. So I picked up some stuff I would not normally buy. Only read one book so far but I got. . .

The Establishment #5 - I was debating dropping this book b/c I feel it will be inevitably cancelled but this was a really great issue. With the Authority not around this comic makes a great replacement & often, especially this issue makes references to the Athority. People should check this book out, although only 5 titles in this is a great jump on issue, explaining how Great Britain is scared of the Authority so they want to make the Establishment go public as Briains Superhero defense squad.

Green Arrow #11 - I'm not in love with this book but I still enjoy it enough to finish Smith's run.

Howard The Duck #1 - I had no intention of getting this book, but being I only got 2 comics for the week I figured what the hell.

Wizard: Edge Magazine - Bought it mostly for the Dave Simms interview(which was great) but it is actually a pretty good book. It had a lot of great indie artists do their renditions of what superheroes they would like to draw & some great Frank Cho sketches.

I gave my thoughts on the question of the week in last week's thread. I'm on my way our or I'd give ahadi some suggestions, but you really must post a little of what comics you were reading or making some suggestions would be pointless if you have no interest in the genre.

madcougar

Picked up the Marvel Mangaverese books. Some were better than others, but it was interesting to see a Manga take on some of these characters.

Liquid Death

Which would you recommend? I was thinking about picking up Spider-Man, but if there are one or two others that you thought were great, I'll try those out as well

Sessa17

Liquid, for what it's worth, I haven't read any of them b/c I don't like Manga at all, but every single one of these books just flew off of my store's shelves. The customer seem to love these one-shots & Marvel has already decided to make it a monthly series.

Most people seem to really love SpiderMan(who is a ninja that wears a spider man costume) & Fantastic Four the most.

kevin75

really light week for me too. all i picked up was the batman stuff. it seems to me that bruce is acting really really un-bruce like through all of this so far. hopefully he is just acting like bruce wayne should while batman is scheming to get the SOB who tried to frame him.

as for the question, while not all important, the art has to be decent for me to pick up a book. if the art is REALLY bad then i will skim through and make the decision then.

madcougar

I enjoyed them all to different degrees, but I liked the Spider Man one the best. It was interesting that the tone and art of all the books was different. Ghostriders was kinda funny. X-Men was very similar to an X-Book. If you were only going to pick one up, I would pick up Spiderman.

greydt

Wow, I never bothered looking in the Book section, but I would have sooner if I knew there was a small group of comic book fans here

Just tossing out my thoughts on a few things mentioned so far:

What I picked up this week: I'll avoid this for now since I've fallen into my old behavior of picking up titles for the sake of continuing to picking them up. I also have the habit of reading them in spurts (get 6-10 of them before reading a bunch in a sitting) so I'm in "catch-up" mode right now.

"Just how important is the art to you when you buy a comic book?"
Story is generally key for most people, but for me, it still needs to be backed up by some level of art. Asthetically, what one likes in art varies from person to person: it's a bit hard for me to describe what I look for, but it doesn't involve whether it's in color or in balck and white. I guess an example would be "Queen & County" (Oni press) which I am reading now. I only picked it for one reason: the writer Greg Rucka. However, when I first opened to the first page, I thought: what in the heck is up with the art?

Example of some pages from Queen & Country:
http://www.opsroom.org/queen-and-country.html

Yet, when I finished the first issue, the art really "fit" what I read, despite the style not being overly flashy, it's detailed in it's own way. I'm up to reading issue #4 of Q&C now and I have to say that I am a fan of the artist Steve Rolston.

Suggestion for ahadi: I'd say to hit the tradepaperbacks first. Recently, alot of the "good stuff" has been reprinted into trades, and it's a satisfying read to get whole story arcs in at once. Just from the top of my head, I'd recommend these trades to start of:

- Preacher
- Authority & Stormwatch
- The Punisher "Welcome back Frank"
- anything by Rucka
- anything by Bendis
- Batman: Long Halloween
- Akira
- Ultimate Spider-man, Ultimate X-Men
- Spider-Man, tangled Web
- Transmetropolitan

In NYC, my LCS is "Midtown Comics" which offers $20 back for every $100 purchased (they keep track of your running total on their computers). I use to pre-order from Westfield comics, but got tired of the large amount of backorder due to lateness or cancellations that haven't been made official yet (and since it's prepaid, it meant I would have $100+ tied into comics that might not come out for awhile, if ever).

A reliable site I like to use otherwise is:
www.mycomicshop.com
...and you can usually see the latest week's comic availability by Friday (they post up the covers)

Also try:
www.midtowncomics.com
...if you're going to get trades because you can get 15% off. I vouch for them since I go there every week

Marvel Mangaverse: Have only read "New Dawn" and "The Punisher" and liked them both (you need the proper mindset to read The Punisher ). Haven't gotten to the others yet.

Hope there's still interest in this kind of thread to keep things going

Sessa17

Welcome to the thread grey, glad to have another felloe comic book fan here, I stopped reading/collecting for almost five years & this year got back into & I have to say comics are better now than they have ever been. hope you post about what you get every week, when gamblor starts the new thread.

Too bad no one here lives in New Jersey. My store is going to be having a %50 percent off back issue sale the entire month of February, & %30 off trades & statues.

Some quick thoughts on what I picked up last week...

Howard the Duck #1 - Not familiar with the original series & only picked this up b/c it was such a light week. Wish I didn't cause this book sucked. I feel it is utterly & completely lame to make fun of or spoof the "boy band" prenomenon. It has been done to DEATH. There is nothing original about making fun of them, especially the approach this book takes from the angle that they are so diluted & mass-produced nobody would notice if you replace one member with another.

Gree Arrow #11 - I've enjoyed this series so far, but nothing special. This was definitely the stongest issue by Smith so far, but I will probably drop the book st issue #13.

ahadi

Thanks for all the advise,

Pushing it up again! Any feedback for places to buy comics are welcome!


Need more advices on what comics to buy

greydt

Sessa - Thanks for the welcome! I only got back into comics around 2-3 years ago, after a 5-6 year break before that. I concur with you that it's a good time to be a comic fan: I haven't read such good stories since Watchmen and Dark Knight, and that was ages ago

By the way, the "Essential Howard the Duck" (those big Marvel b&w re-print books) should be coming out sometime early this year. Personally, I've never read any Howard the Duck stories before, so I'm not sure if having a background in those older stories (and their style) might play a role on whether one enjoys the new MAX one or not.

Gah, I have to wonder why none of my nearby comic stores ever have sales like that

ahadi - Just curious, but kind of stories do you enjoy? (might help us focus the recommendations).

Yeesh, I totally fogot to recommend "The New X-Men": you don't need to know the continuity (I certainly don't anymore ) to enjoy the story, which has been a bit of a doozy.

What I'm looking forward to getting this week: Ultimates #1, Dark Knight Strikes Again #2, Transmetropolitan trade v.6: Gouge Away, Ruse #4, Powers #17, Lone Wolf & Cub v.17. Guilty pleasure will be Fathom #13, when Michael Turner comes back to the title. Hope to get some impressions up (or to hear of them from you all) later in the week

Gamblor187

A few comments on the books I picked up....

Green Arrow #11 - The weakest issue of Smith's run, in my opinion. It's nice to have a one issue story instead of the mammoth ones Smith usually writes, but this issue just felt like a throwaway. It's nice of him to introduce a bit of character development, but if you're going to do that, try to measure up to the following titles....

The Flash #182 - Gotta love a writer whose not afraid to leave the title character out of the book to explore other areas. (I believe that The Flash shows up in maybe two panel, both of which are flashbacks with no dialogue. With this issue, Geoff Johns continues to revitalize the rogues gallery. An excellent issue focusing on Captain Cold and a very early nomination for best single issue of the year.

JSA #32 - Another good issue for new readers. We get the departure of one character, the return of another, and brief introductions to every current member of the team. There's a big storyline coming up, and the addition of more new members (the big red cheese is rumored to be joining up very soon) makes now a great time to start reading this title. Unfortunately, Peter Snejberg returns to do the art. The guy seems to hound me, following me around on all my favorite title, but I hate his art.

This, of course, brings us to the question of the week (and last week).

I've always been far more concerned with the writing in a comicbook than the art. While the best books should be a combination of great art and great writing, I can usually overlook sub-par artwork as long as the story's good enough. "JSA" is a great book and, though I'd prefer to have better art, Snejberg's doodlings do not take away from my enjoyment of the story one bit.

It's rare that I'll buy a book just because I like the artist involved, but I'll almost always buy it if I like the writer involved. (My reluctance to drop "Fury", though, shows that I will stick with a title for a little while if the art is good enough.) If I see that an artist I like is doing a new book, I'll usually just look through it at the store unless a quality writer is also involved with the title. If I do pick up a book just because of an artist, I'll usually drop it pretty soon if there isn't a good story there, too. (I'll definitely be picking up the Captain America and Avengers revamps because John Cassady and Brian , two of my favorite artists, are involved. But if the writer can't deliver, I'll drop the books quickly. I can't justify paying $3.00 for a book just because it has pretty pictures.

In the latest issue of "Powers", Bendis remarked in his letters column that, for the first time in a long time, writers are now considered just an important, if not more important, than the artists. As someone who suffered through the early Image days, bad girl fads, and multiple covers fiascoes, I could not be happier about this. It's a good time to be a comicbook fan. Of course, these things come in cycles. I'm sure that in a few more years art will be all that matters again and no one will give a damn about the writing. I plan to enjoy this while it lasts.

jim

Gamblor187

It's hard to make recommendations without knowing what kind of books you like. As for what's "hot"....

Brian Michael Bendis writes about 257 books a month. Most of them are quite good and very popular, including "Powers", "Ultimate Spider-Man". and "Alias".

With the movie coming up and some quality writers finally attached, the Spider-Man titles are finally worth picking up again.

Marvel's "Ultimate" line has been very hot. Right now the only titles are "Ultimate Spider-Man", "Ultimate X-Men", and "Marvel Team-Up", but more, including The Avengers, are on their way.

"Crime comics", for lack of a better term, are also doing quite well in terms of sales and quality. Besides the many, many titles by Bendis and Greg Rucka, there's also the cult hits "100 Bullets" and "Murder Me Dead".

"Transmentropolitan" comes highly recommended and, although the series will be ending soon, DC/Vertigo has been keeping up on the trade paperbacks so it's not hard to catch up.

There are many others, but those are the first that come to mind.

jim

Sessa17

ahadi - Like other's have said before, I don't think anyone can really make any suggestions without knowing what you like.

For instance for an amazing completed story I would recommend getting all of the Preacher trades, but you might not like violence(or flat our perversion at times in this book).

The only recommendation I could make, that I honestly can't imagine anyone who ever read a comic in their lives not liking is Planetary . It's kind of like X-Files meets X-men. It has my favorite artist & one of the best stories I have ever read. The first trade is called All Over the World & Other Stories.

I rarely order online b/c my friends own the store I go to. But the 2 times I have I used eastcoastcomics.com They usually have sales always going on, & ship pretty fast.

Unless it's over milehighcomics.com which has been around probably the longest of any online retailer has a huge %40 off Spiderman titles, Supes, & some others.

I just checked out what's shipping tomorrow & looks like a LOT of great stuff.

Liquid Death

I again ordered most of my comics for this week online, so I'll weigh in with thoughts on those when they get here.

I read Soul Saga 1-5 (I guess all thats out now? Any plans for Platt to finish another issue this year?) and I thought it was a great fantasy series ....though obviously Platt is in no rush to get the next issue out (I think those five issues took two years).

I also caught up on Daredevil - I'm really liking this new story from Bendis, though I felt the 'nuff said issue was more of a throwaway (at least it fit in with the story though). I guess Elektra #6 is sort of a tie-in issue, should I pick that one up or just flip through it?

Believe it or not, I still have yet to pick up Planetary (I plan to get the TPBs sometime soon tho And I have to get the new Transmet TPB to finish out the run thus far - I can't wait.

For newcomers, if you're into more mature comics, I'd look into Transmetropolitan, Preacher, 100 Bullets, and Queen & Country.

As for superhero stuff, the new Spider-Man by JMS is great. Older stuff worth looking into is:

Batman: Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Year One, Dark Knight Returns

Superman: Man for All Seasons

Also, I need recommendations for Flash - I just decided I'd start picking up this title, and to be honest, I don't get any DC on a monthly basis (for the exception of Kevin Smith's Green Arrow, but I stopped w/ issue #10). I picked up Iron Heights (loved it) and I ordered 181 and 182. Where does Geoff Johns run begin? Where should I definitely start?

As for the mangaverse titles, I ordered Spider-Man and passed on teh others in favor of the Flash