Adam Tyner

That's where I am too. I buy everything Legion-centric that comes out every month, but they're never the first thing I read anymore, and I pretty frequently forget what happens from month to month. I've found myself accidentally rebuying a couple of issues over the past year because they're so unmemorable...I thought I'd missed an issue but just forgot buying it. I don't regret sticking with LSH but have started to feel like I'm picking up these books completely out of habit. I loved the Legion of Super-Villains one-shot, but part of me thinks that might be the first Legion comic I've felt that way about since the Waid/Kitson run?

Patman

I'm probably about 3-5 issues behind in my LSH reading (didn't get Adventure Comics since it was a $3.99 title until the start of this year, so I'll probably look for AC back issues in the cheap bins this summer at various comic conventions). I'm also buying them out of life-long habit for now. Perhaps I'll get caught up and decide that Levitiz's LSH just ain't doing it for me nowadays...

JasonF

It's probably a fair bit of nostalgia -- Levitz is doing the old school mix of soap opera and superheroics that was a staple of the 80s, and that's what I love. He's also pacing it like an 80s comic, which means that something happens in every issue but it all leads to a larger story, which is also something I love. Mostly, it's just a fun superhero comic that epitomizes what I think a superhero comic should be and that nobody else is really doing these days.

ivelostr2

it took me 5 nights to get through the annual in the middle of the Great Darkness trade...but i guess I see its relevance since that is where the "new" invisible kid is introduced and he has been fairly important so far. I'm probably going to finish it up tonight, I'm loving it so far though.

davidh777

I was thinking the same thing!

Glad ivelostr2 is enjoying the Great Darkness Saga since that's one of my favorite Legion arcs (and I'm just a little regretful that this discussion isn't being recorded in the Legion thread). I have the original TPB but the peripheral material mentioned in this forum made me put the new edition on my wish list.

The good thing about being old enough to have read this in floppies is that we were fed the stories in monthly increments that allowed it unfold, rather than getting the villain spoiled by the cover.

fujishig

Forget what I said before, don't buy the new Flash series, just wait for the trade. I've been suffering through buying this title monthly, the opposite of my usual "wait-for-the-trade" mentality, only to see it met by delays and the building up of a supporting cast only to promptly ignore them for issues on end. Now they say that issue 12 will be the end of the current series anyway. I know they'll relaunch something Flash related after Flashpoint, but it does make me a bit peeved.

brayzie

I wanted to buy it on your recommendation but I've been avoiding the comic shop because of my budget.

I guess it's good I didn't buy it. I understand that illustrating a monthly comic is difficult but I'm curious to know if the creators in the Japanese manga field have the same problem?
I don't like supporting a company that is so lax with the deadlines. It wouldn't make any difference to me, but eventually I get bored of waiting and lose interest.

fujishig

As for the Flash thing: seems like people still don't know what's really going on, but they did solicit a "fake" 13th issue that may just become a Flashpoint one-shot. They have to be doing something with the Flash, because I would assume he's central to Flashpoint. It's just that the series, while decent, with a good creative team, suffered through decompressed storytelling, schedule delays, and now a sudden ending, all of which are reasons I should have just waited for the trade (the first trade, I think, has already been solicited anyway).

The Japanese manga industry is an entirely different beast. Most manga gets serialized into huge anthologies that may come out quarterly, monthly, or even weekly. In most but not all cases, the manga is written and drawn by the same person, who usually has a studio with assistants to help out with the deadlines (for instance, some of the backgrounds and set shots, some panels, etc. But they have to be able to ape the main artist's style). There is tremendous pressure to keep up with this pace... unless you're a really established artist, delays will kill your series and perhaps your career (as there are never "fill-in" issues). While the creator doesn't have to deal with the crossovers that American comic creators do, they do have editors that they meet with regularly to help shape the series; at times, they have to make decisions solely on trying to become more popular so the series doesn't get canceled (and in some cases, series drag along BECAUSE it's so popular). The stories are then usually collected into volumes, which is how they are released here. Of course, the artists does not usually have to worry about color, so that does eliminate one step.

If you're interested in it, read Bakuman, from the creators of Death Note. It's the story of two high school kids who want to become manga artists for Shounen Jump.

brayzie

That's pretty interesting about the manga situation. I had heard about the assitants but didn't know anything past that.

Do you happen to know if the manga industry in Japan is still healthy or is it in severe decline like the American comic industry?

starman9000

Does anybody now how many issues a comic needs to still pull a profit and stay in production? Is top 300 good, or is that basically everything that's being put out?

fujishig

In Bakuman, they do mention that they will probably never see another manga series outsell the numbers of Dragon Ball because the population is declining. And certainly there is the problem where they are trying to manufacture hits, but I think that problem is there in every industry. Otherwise, unlike here it's cheap enough and pervasive enough in society there that it seems to be doing ok, unlike, say, the anime industry. At least, I haven't heard the same concerns about the manga industry.


Depends on the publisher, I would think. Are you looking at a certain book?

starman9000

I was just looking at the Farscape numbers (Boom!). They are listed at about 4,000/month, which doesn't seem that high.

fujishig

It's not that high, but if you look at the entire sales chart, BOOM! series are all around there (the top of the chart, especially the top 100 are filled with Marvel and DC, with Image, IDW, Dark Horse ,and a sprinkling of others in the 200+ ranges). Iredeemable is their top book at 173. So it seems like while it's not exactly burning up the charts, for a niche title based off of a now-defunct TV show, it's doing well enough for them to publish it, considering what they're already publishing. If it was a Marvel or DC book it'd be in big trouble for sure.

edited to add: basing this off this list: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/19570.html

davidh777

Just finished the fourth and final TPB of Astounding Wolf-Man, which I liked, though not as much as Invincible or The Walking Dead. Both of those I'm caught up on TPB-wise, and have pre-ordered the new volumes for each. Of course now Amazon wants to throw everything else Kirkman has ever done into my recommendations --kidding! I actually did buy one of them, some kind of Guardians of the Globe spinoff miniseries.

fujishig

I just received volumes 2 through 4 of Astounding Wolf-Man, but I'm going to re-read 1 first. Is the series over, or are you just saying that that's all that was collected?

Also received the 6th Invincible Omnibus, now I can read 5 and 6 back to back...

I read the latest issue of JLA. I know I complain about the book all the time (and I don't think the current series, starting way back with Meltzer's run, was any good) but I really want a team led by Dick Grayson to work. The issue before, I thought Robinson was on the right track, with the whole setup of the Eclipso threat. This issue, a stupid Doomsday crossover gets crammed into the book, so we have the team split with Eclipso and Doomsday both decimating parts of the team. I feel like I got half of a JLA issue and part of some Doomsday special I have no desire to read. The kicker is that the Doomsday story continues in some Superman/Batman annual I'm not getting. Oh, and I hate Dark Supergirl and insecure Jesse Quick. Art is better now the Bagley is off, but I don't get the love for Booth, who I still see as an Image-lite kinda guy.

Read last month's JSA... what the heck is going on in this book? I'm going to wait to see what the larger cast (now that the totally unnecessary JSA all-stars book is done) is like, but I have no idea how or why anything is happening in this book. And Alan Scott dressed up as an actual physical Lantern without the cool Alex Ross armor is really dumb looking (and I otherwise like Kolins art here)

Here's hoping last month's Teen Titans, Superboy, Legion of Superheroes, Adventure comics, and Legion of Supervillains special are more exciting.

davidh777

Wolf-Man is over. I wouldn't mind reading more, but better to go out when it feels right rather than try to prolong it.

And I just got Invincible 6 too, even though I had gotten impatient and bought the TPBs for the equivalent issues. I just like having all the HCs together.

fujishig

Well, I look forward to finishing up Wolf-Man, then.

Teen Titans has been great. I mean, after Felicia Henderson's run, there was nowhere to go but up, but both the art and the plot has been pretty good, even if the team seems to get trounced every issue. I can't tell you how much I missed Tim Drake, and how grateful I am that he's not only back, but he's leading the team.

I've been enjoying Supergirl as well. That's another title that has had a horrendous history, to the point that I dropped it, but I wanted to see what the new creative team was going to do. Unfortunately, it seems like the creative teams are rotating again. But here we get a competent, non-dark Supergirl who actually leads a small team of former Titans. I don't even mind that they used Blue Beetle and Miss Martian with no explanation (Beetle's been with the outcasts of JL:Generation Lost, and Miss Martian was in some kind of coma or something from the aforementioned Henderson Titans run).

I'm ambivalent about the status of Oracle after the recent Birds of Prey storyline... it doesn't make much sense to me how and why that happened, but I assume it was some kind of editorial mandate.

Superboy suffered from fill-in art. but otherwise I enjoyed the Kid Flash race. I didn't think Superboy really had super speed, though, certainly not to the level of Kid Flash.

LorenzoL

I only have an iPhone but the one I downloaded "Bookman" is free and works really well.

boredsilly

I'm reading through Strangers in Paradise, and I cannot put these books down. They're like soap opera popcorn for the soul. So tasty.

davidh777

Just burned through Invincible HC 6 yesterday even though I already have the TPBs.

Good day for finishing things as I also finished The Hunger games and Batman: Arkham Asylum for 360.

fujishig

Finished up Wolf-man a couple of weeks ago... pretty decent ending, but was this just because of poor sales? Some of the latter plot point resolutions seemed really rushed (though I was reading them at a brisk pace).

Maybe I'm just reading too much internet criticism, but man am I tempted to just drop all DC titles except for Legion (the LOSV special was actually pretty good!), Superboy and Teen Titans. The editorial decisions are just killing me. The can't get a consistent team on Supergirl, they have Oracle abandoning heroes who had learned to rely on her because she has to "create a new internet" for Bruce, and they're putting out 20+ Flashpoint specials/miniseries in a single month. 3 issue miniseries at that, which will be great for comic book retailers to try to guess on ordering the final books before the first ones even get sold. For this they canceled the Flash (maybe temporarily, maybe not) JSA, while going in a new direction, is not the JSA of old, and unlike other books there was nothing wrong with the JSA of old. The JLA is a mess, and I might just wait until Johns just puts the hammer down and puts out a big 7 book himself (now that all members of the Big 7 are back).

How are the three Green Lantern books these days? I've been collecting them in HCs and trades, but it's pretty far behind... is the War any good, or is it just dragging on at this point?

The Valeyard

It's kinda dragging for me.

Adam Tyner

I really dug the LoSV special too.

I stopped reading Power Girl when Amanda Conner and Palmiotti/Gray left the book, but I hear it's still been really great. I might get back into that. I'm really liking Batgirl and Secret Six too. (Since you like Supergirl -- which I have to admit to not reading but have meant to -- there's a Batgirl/Supergirl team-up-ish issue that might be a good jumping on point for you. That's actually where I started reading...) A lot of the other DC stuff I've been reading has either just ended or is about to end, so I'm not left with much. I'm reading a few other Bat-books but could take or leave those.

fujishig

I actually am reading (and enjoying) Batgirl too, just forgot to mention it! I had dropped Supergirl a while back after the first year or so of issues had her becoming Dark Supergirl, dreaming of killing Superman, and had her shacking up with Captain Boomerang's son and randomly fighting whatever hero happened to guest star in her book. I think Amazon's Attack was the last straw. It supposedly got better a while ago (and they retconned the whole "dreaming of killing Supes" thing as Kryptonite poisoning during World of Krypton), but I jumped aboard when the new creative team came on. The new writer lasted one issue, and now the replacement writer is leaving... which is too bad, because Supergirl is portrayed as competent and able to lead a small team of heroes.

I need to go back and get those Amanda Conner issues of PG... what have you been hearing of the book? I dread anything that Winick is writing, ever since he massacred Donna and Young Justice in "Graduation Day." (I have been picking up JL: Generations Lost, but that was mainly for the characters, and at this point I'm just waiting to complete the run).

I do highly recommend the latest run of Teen Titans (not the dreadful Deathstroke-led Titans book). After what may be the worst run of a writer I've ever read on a book, they rebooted it nicely.

As for the Legion, ironically what I'm liking is that they're tying things into stuff like Oa. Which is odd, because IIRC, what made the Great Darkness Saga big bad reveal so shocking was that they had purposefully avoided stuff like Legacy Heroes, Green Lanterns, and tying things into the 20th Century, besides Supergirl and Superboy. Adventure Comics has been decent too, though I've always liked Phil Jiminez's work (anybody who can draw that much like Perez...).

Adam Tyner

Just what I've read on a few comic review sites and heard on podcasts like Awesomed by Comics. There was more than a little bit of skepticism about Winick taking over, and that's why I dropped the book too, but everything I've heard seems to be pointing to Power Girl still being really great.

I'm liking Adventure a lot...kind of reminds me a lot of Avengers Academy, which is one of my favorite Marvel books.