Well here is James' list . . . I'm sure most will come up with better stuff than I will. I only read the comic equivalent of pop music anyway.

Best On-Going Title
The Ultimates count in this section?

Best Mini
I want to say Infinite Crisis, but since it's not completed how about Villains United.

Best Collected Trade
Looks like it's going to be Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths

Best Original Graphic Novel
Gotta leave it blank.

Publisher of the Year
DC hands down.

Writer of the Year
Geoff Johns for his hand in reshaping the DCU

Artist of the Year
I'm digging the art in Infinite Crisis so far so how about Phil Jiminez

1) IMO, the series is pretty well self-contained. You won't really need the crossovers. They flesh out the story more than anything. Just like the current "Crisis".
2) I don't think you're going to have nearly as much appreciation of the story and it's actual affect on the DC universe if all you've ever read is "post-Crisis" stuff. That doesn't change the fact that it's a good read.
3) Yeah, my tpb copy.

I would stop reading Infinite Crisis right now since you plan on reading CoIE. You'll appreciate both better.

Yeah, I love his work. The Snake and Bacon's Cartoon Cabaret is fantastic, and "Thrizzle" (despite the awful title) is good so far. The guy has such a skewed sense of humor, but it works ("The adventures of ... The Manister! Half man, half banister!")

Ok...

Best On-Going Title
JSA

Best Mini
Villians United, since it's too early to say Infinite Crisis. That, or Green Lantern:Rebirth.

Best Collected Trade
Out of one's I bought... Batman/Superman:Supergirl or New Teen Titans:Who is Donna Troy?

Best Original Graphic Novel
didn't read any 'original' ones this year.

Publisher of the Year
DC - without a doubt

Writer of the Year
Geoff Johns

Artist of the Year
Tough call, but I think I'll give it to Ethan Van Sciver for his (always) excellent work on Green Lantern:Rebirth, and the current ongoing series.

Just checked my DCBS order on DHL's site - comes in at a whopping 21 pounds!

Delayed shipment email still didn't stop it from arriving on the regular day!

Edit: by far my lowest DCBS order total last night, only $75! Not much of interest coming out that month, I guess.

Haven't read any new releases but I did read the 1st collection of the new Black Panther series. I wasn't too impressed by the writing though some of the ideas were good. Romita Jr. & Janson their usual good work.

I just cracked open the Spirit Archives Vol. 1 and am excited about that. I've read the Spirit at various times through Kitchen Sink's reprints over the years but never got to go all the way back to the beginning. Can't wait to dive in.

This is the correct answer. You order two of 'em, you use the .75 button. You order any more than that, you start using the 1.49 button too.

There's not other covers on this one.

After using Mile High Comics for about 5 years I'm switching over to DCBS after having heard so much about it here and checking out their prices I just couldn't pass it up.

Way to go. I don't think you will regret it.

yeah, mile high doesn't hold the appeal for me it once did. since they took away the big discounts on their collected editions and started charging shipping per book, it takes away any good deal. and their individual comics prices are so jacked up usually that that kills that too.

Best On-Going Title
TIE
Solo
Usagi Yojimbo

Best Mini
TIE
We3
Smoke

Best Collected Trade
We3

Best Original Graphic Novel
TIE
Black Hole
Scott Pilgrim

Publisher of the Year
Vertigo

Writer of the Year
Grant Morrison

Artist of the Year
James Jean

Favorite Single Issue
Fell #2

Favorite New Series
Fell

Comic Most Deserving of More Attention
Usagi Yojimbo

Favorite Online Comic
Penny Arcade

Favorite Cover Artist
James Jean

Favorite Talent Deserving Wider Attention
TIE
Stan Sakai
Kyle Baker

For those still leary of DCBS, here’s a breakdown of my latest DCBS order. I'm doing this to show you what kind of discounts you might expect. Your results may vary, but the more you buy, the more you save.


Total comics purchased - 31 (plus one trade at 50% off)
Total cover price - $115.04
Total DCBS price before shipping - $68.32
Plus monthly shipping ($7.95) - $76.27
Plus twice a month shipping ($4) - $80.27

Total payment for comics this month: $80.27
Total cover price - $115.04
Total savings - $34.77 (I also add mylites/full-back combos, which are 50 cents each)

So after shipping, I save a little more than $1 per book. At Mile High (my LCS), I generally save about 20 - 35 cents a book on my pull list. So on this order, my Mile High cost would be about $107 (or a bit more). So I save about $27 or more by using DCBS.

That's not a huge savings. But that $27 sure goes a long way to buying other comics or going out with my wife or whatever. And since I'm on a monthly budget for all of my spending, any savings is a very good thing.

For the order I got from Mile High last month I had 28 books for a total with shipping of $83.87.

The order I just placed today I ordered 45 books + bags and boards with shipping: $95.85.

Ugh I am so tempted to get back into comics but I got into the bad habit of buying without reading. I am sure I still have books laying around I haven't read.

Is there anywhere I can just get a previews shipped to me? I would love to browse and see if there are any titles that even interest me. The problem I have is the local shop is a good distance away to browse or even pick one up.

http://www.dcbservice.com/ has the same synopsis Previews does with every title. Browse around their site.

I used to be a big X-fan back in the day but hadn't looked at an issue in some time. I saw a copy of Uncanny #466 recently and flicked through it which brings me to my next point. What the fuck is wrong with the artwork?! Seriously! It looks like they gave a coked-up child a box of crayons. The proportions of the characters are all wrong and not in the good, exaggerated-breasts sense. The colours are all round just horrible. This book looks like shit. Is this a temporary thing or is the way the book has been looking for a while?

I actually like Bachalo's art. Bought this issue just to enjoy it in fact. To each his own I suppose.

What's "Back in the Day?" When I think of X-Men, I think Dave Cockrum and John Byrne (even though I didn't start reading until later). I read when guys like Silvestri and Lee were drawing and liked them at the time, but like their X-Men work less now that I look back on it. On the other hand, I hated John Romita Jr. when I was a kid and love him now. And then after I stopped reading, you had guys like Joe Madieura (never liked him) and Andy Kubert (he was good) and Carlos Pacheco (I think his X-Men stuff was terrible, but I like his work on Avengers Forever that he was doing at about the same time. Go figure.)

As for Bacchalo, I haven't seen his X-Men stuff, but I enjoyed his run on Shade the Changing Man from about 15 years ago. Definitely not to everyone's taste, though.

Have you checked out Astonishing X-Men? That has art by John Cassady, who's got a clean-line style that's very different from Bacchalo's.

With all due respect to my comic loving brothers here....

Can we make a seperate thread for all the Online Comics Store shi...stuff?

I mean I hardly come in here anymore because this is all the "Monthly comic threads" have become...."Look how much I saved!"..."My package..(he he he )...Was 29 lbs this month!!"..."I spent $12,000 on comics this month, I saved $3,000 thanks to XXXXcomicstore.com, and I also saved 75% on my car insurance by switching to GIECO!!!" Ok, that last one was a joke. But you know what I mean.

All the talk of heroes, stories, and other stuff directly related to comics is just a sidebar at this point.

It could be worse.

We could be talking sports.

But, i'm glad i'm not the only one thinking that. Then again, perhaps we should have two separate threads...one for people who get their stuff monthly through the mail and the other for those of us that buy our stuff weekly. Actually, that'd probably be a bad idea. Wouldn't want to clog up Book Talk

Continued from last month's thread...

Really? I had no idea. I'll have to look that stuff up. There's another great talent I wish were still in the biz.

Good call. I was disappointed when Dixon and Nolan left 'Tec. But then I really enjoyed Rucka and Martinbrough's run. I liked the experimental color scheme. It certainly made it stand out.

Tell that to this guy:

Has anybody else been reading Fell?

Issue #3 was another good story. Well worth the $1.99 cover price.

I missed the boat. I finally got around to reading The Dark Knight Returns and you know, I wasn't terribly impressed. I'm thinking this was groundbreaking stuff back in the day. But now, after years of "dark" comics, the book was pretty much ho hum. And pretty poorly drawn to boot.