That series needs to be released as an omnibus.

I agree. It's the only comic I've been reading consistently for the last 22 years.

Those stories were good but I can't stand Breyfogle and Aparo's art was in a serious decline. It wasn't the inker's fault, either. If you look at the Outsider art it was just as bad and he inked a few of those. His best work was in the late 60's and 70's on BB, Batman and Detective. I am a huge Aparo fan but at the end it really was bad.

His best work was compiled in the Legends of the Dark Knight Jim Aparo Vol. 1 and 2. I thought if Neal Adams never came around Aparo's version of Batman would have been the definitive one...or maybe Marshall Rogers version. All other artists versions pale in comparison.

Breyfogle is my favorite artist of all time.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I do own most of his Batman work. They were good stories.

I largely agree, Aparo's Batman would have been definitive if not for Neal Adams.

Yeah, I grew up on Aparo's mid-'70s B&B run, but I've seen some of his later stuff, and it really does pale in comparison. Not sure if it was the Knightfall arc or what, but it was something I'd read fairly recently.

It sorely needs an omnibus collection/hc. And not the Essentials-style black and white ones that are currently out.

Are his letter pages still awesome? I've kinda fallen out of collecting SD monthly,but his interaction with the fans in the book was always great.

The letter column is still good, but the quality of letter hacks is down from 15 years ago or so. A lot of times I'll skip the letters and just read Larsen's answers.

He should probably got with the 50-issue phone book reprints that Walking Dead and some Top Cow books have done. Even in 24 issue chunks it would take too long to catch up. But my understanding is the early issues would need to be recolored, which seems to be the hold up.

The Phantom comic series was the most boring ever. Don't know what they were trying to depict him as, a superhero or some alien.

I was just browsing old threads and did a search on Loeb as I just picked up two of his books today. Have to say I disagree quite a bit. In all honesty Loeb is probably one of my favorite writers and he and Tim Sale make a great duo. Love his Batman stuff (The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight, Hush) and also the Marvel Color books he's done.

Grant Morrison ruins everything he touches.

The Defense offers up Morrison's late '80s take on Animal Man and immediately requests dismissal of all charges.

Seriously, that could one of the finest comic book runs ever.

I would say Morrison used to be better. A lot of his new work such as the RIP storyline for Batman was just convoluted and seemed like he was making it intentionally confusing just for the sake of it.

The Long Halloween is definitely a great Batman story, it is his best work. I despised his take on Superman and most point to Loeb changing as a writer for the worse once his son passed away around a decade ago.

I find that Morrison does his best work when he's writing for his own creations, or when he's playing with established characters in his own sandbox (Animal Man, Doom Patrol, All Star Superman).

His sensibilities don't really transfer well into a shared universe (New X-Men).

Geoff Johns is completely overrated, mostly to his obnoxious love for the silver age and Super Friends

Bleu L. Finnegan is the greatest comic book character of all time.

DC writes for headlines because they are desperate

The comics industry should drop monthly books almost entirely and switch to "graphic novel" format. Make each book an event and reboot continuity every 5-10 years. Let creators run relatively free and keep fresh iterations of each character/concept every "cycle".

Stop appealing to older fans and move forward permanently, leaving older characters behind or in a niche "classic" imprint.
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Also, unrelated, but DC should stop focusing on making their characters relatable and make them more aspirational.

They already do both more or less. I mentioned this before, but DC has been big doing graphic novels for the kids and young adult crowd and they are selling millions of copies with those books, but mostly outside the the LCS market.

As for the reboot, they’ve been doing that in shorter cycles since Infinite Crisis.

I don’t think they need to stop doing weekly books. That would kill the industry potential as fewer artists and writers would have opportunities in the field. That’s one thing people outside of the business don’t see about sequential art. A lot of these weekly books are try outs and opportunities for artists and writers to hone their skills. Shooting unproven talent to a graphic novel that may fail is not ideal in any business situation

You will probably also lose a significant number of people who are otherwise "addicted" to the monthly drip that will realize just how much money they're spending and how much or little they're really getting out of it. There's no way they cancel monthly comics while they're still viable.