Recent Purchases

I used to be a once a week buyer. I used to be there on Wednesday without fail, waiting for the new shipment of comics to be put out. Now I get there whenever I can. Very rarely will I make it within a week's time of my last visit, sometimes a month will go by before I can make it. But I also don't try and buy every comic that comes out anymore either. I'm a lot more selective in what I buy. I figure if I buy a comic and after I get home I don't want to read it, than that's a comic that I won't be picking up the next trip to the comic store.

I picked up a few comics on this last trip. I've already talked about Batman and Robin and Detective Comics, so I won't repeat that here, except to say both are excellent and you should pick them up.

The New Avengers: Bendis is what pulled me back into Marvel Comics with his run on Daredevil after I had pretty much given up on it. His run on the Avengers has been so hit and miss. Part of the problem is that with all the events lately the Avengers seems to be just a spin off on whatever big even is going on. But this issue is Bendis at his best, setting up a new Sorcerer Supreme.

Daredevil: Still one of my favorite comics. I've been a fan of Daredevil almost since his inception. But the last few years have been my favorite version of the man without fear. I think it's better than Miller's run since Bendis and now Burbaker have been on it.

Echo: I was a fan of Terry Moore and his Strangers in Paradise, but in the end I wasn't that satisfied with that series. This series has suffered none of what I found wrong with that series. This is in fact one of my top comics that I pick up. I can't wait to see where he's going with it. And while I'm not sure what the frequency of its publication has been, I do know it's been pretty reliable.

Captain American: Reborn: Very well written and drawn but pretty much just a set up for the next issue. Not sure how I feel about the fact that Steve Rogers wasn't shot and killed now, he was shot with a gun that threw him a time statsis, where he now is tumbling through time. But than we all knew that Steve Rogers was coming back. (Not that I mind that, I am a big fan of the Steve Rogers Cap and am looking forward to his re appearance. Even though Burbaker did a good job with Buck as Cap.)

The Boys and Herogasm: Not for kids, but I love this series. Ennis is another writer I either really love and the opposite. And I'm loving this.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Maybe it was just me but I found some of the transitions between scenes to be confusing. I had to go back and re read some pages to figure out where I was supposed to be. Still it's Buffy.

Detective Comics: This was the second half of Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert's "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" I am a big fan of Gaiman but this book really didn't do it for me.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Swag Report: Neil Gaiman's Batman, '100 Bullets' Finale And... Ghengis Khan? (splashpage.mtv.com)
• Bye Bye Birdie - Nightwing's Final Issue Released Today (groovysuperhero.com)
• Do Teenage Girls read Comics and Graphic Novels? (connectwithyourteens.blogspot.com)
• A Whole Mess Of Single Issue Comic Reviews You Don't Need (goodcomics.comicbookresources.com)

Current Comics

Image via Wikipedia

With the economy the way it is and probably not going to get better before it gets worse I've cut back on some of my comic book spending. And with certain companies (Marvel) raising the prices on some comics to four dollars an issue (ok, really $3.99) it's getting easier to decide what to drop. I'm a big fan of Brian Michael Bendis, he got back to reading Marvel Comics with his Daredevil issues, but it's hard to walk out of the comic book store after spending twenty dollars and have only four comics to show for it. Yes, it's only a dollar increase over what we were paying, but it's just getting so hard to justify spending that much on comics every month.

I did pick up an issue of Mighty Avengers and found it basically unreadable so that will be an easy one to drop. I haven't picked up Secret Warriors, even though I'm tempted. I'm on the fence with the New Avengers. Dark Avengers I passed on, even though Bendis is writing it. At the moment I'll probably continue to buy it, but it won't take much for me to drop it.

I've dropped Captain American, even though I was enjoying Brubaker's writing it was starting to lose some interest for me. Daredevil is about to change writers soon, so I'll probably buy a few with the new writer, Andy Diggle, before I make any decision to continue or drop it. Daredevil has always been one of the cornerstones of my collecting so it'll be hard for me to drop it.

At the moment comics that I buy every month (or whenever they come out):

Echo
The Boys
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Walking Dead
Daredevil
New Avengers
Spiderman Loves Mary Jane
Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade
Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam

And that's about it. I might have forgotten a few, but I don't think so. I'll pick up an odd issue here and there of something that might look interesting. Right now I've been buying Greatest Hits but that only has one more issue to go and than that's over.

I find myself buying trades of books that I don't pick up on a monthly schedule. I was buying the trades of DMZ but have missed the last two. I plan to go back and get them, that is a title I've been enjoying. I just ordered the hardcovers of Swamp Thing and the second volume of Starman. I also just picked up the second and final volume of Bill Loebs' collected Journey.

Buying these hardcovers and trades is costing me the money I could spend on montly comics, but I feel like I'm getting a better deal with these volumes. And I'm enjoying the comics more.

If there's anyone out there that's still reading this blog after my terrible absence of not blogging for so long, tell me if the economy has made you cut back on your purchases. Or tell me about a comic that I just have to buy because it's so good. I'm always looking for that comic that I can't live without.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Spider-Man set to battle recession (guardian.co.uk)
• Dark Avengers #1 (popsyndicate.com)
• 'Jericho' TV Series Lives On As New Comic Book Series (splashpage.mtv.com)
• There Will Be Blood - And Wisecracks: Buffy Lives (npr.org)

Kids Comics Aren't Just For Kids Anymore

I've just realized that two of my favorite comics are supposedly for kids. I just picked up the first issue of "Spider-man Loves Mary Jane" written by Terry Moore. Terry is also the writer/artist on another favorite comic of mine "Echo." The art is by Craig Rousseau and is also very good. In fact I really liked the art in this book, it's cartoony without being too cartoony but not realistic, it fits the story perfectly. I never picked up this book before, but have heard it was good also before Moore took it over. I may have to go back and hunt up past issues. This book was fun, but you get the feeling that there is a seriousness just beneath the surface.

The other book has been out a little longer. It's "Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam" by Mike Kunkel. Mike does the writing and art on this book and his style is very cartoony but I love it. This book is really so good.

These books are being targeted for kids, which is great, I'm glad to see some really good comics being done for kids. But they can also be read by adults. They've leapt to the front of my list of comics to read for sure.

I'm also looking forward to the new Supergirl comic. It's called "Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures In The 8th Grade." And Supergirl looks like Supergirl, not some extra from the Playboy channel. This is also a comic aimed at kids, but from what I've seen and read it looks like it'll be a great read.

(And I'm going to take a deep breath and not post about why it seems all comic females have to be dressed like they're auditioning for a role in the new Cheetah Girls video.)

Terry Moore

Terry Moore is the writer/artist mainly known for the long running black and white series "Strangers In Paradise." For the majority of its run Terry published the series himself. Image published it briefly before Moore took it back under his Abstract Studios imprint to publish himself. I admire what Terry did with SiP, but I ended up not as a big fan of the series at the end as I was at the start.

His newest creation is "Echo" another self published black and white comic. This comic is fast becoming one of my favorites. From what I've read he's structuring it to last around 18 issues. I find myself eagerly awaiting each new issue. And one thing he seems to have been able to do is keep up on a schedule for the book, which a lot of other self publishers still have trouble doing.

Terry is also taking over the writing chores on "Runaways," a series published by Marvel that Brian Vaughn created and more recently Joss Whedon wrote. I usually wait for the hardback volumes of the series to come out, I have the first two and thought the series really good. I'll be looking forward to Terry's take on the characters.

And finally he is doing "Spiderman Loves Mary Jane" comic. Which I might just have to check out, since he seems to be on such a roll lately.

Echo # 2

I know, another review that is beyond late. This book has been out for weeks now, but I wanted to at least make mention of it. The first issue of Echo really was just a setup for what is coming now. We only saw a little of what was happenin. This issue the storyline starts to open up and we start to find out more about the characters.

From what I've read so far I'll be back for the next issue. Terry Moore's art is always first rate and it continues to be so in this series so far. I like the way he can be realistic and than throw in a "bigfoot" moment in the art.

I'm intrigued by the storyline so far and am interested to see where he goes with it. I was a semi regular reader of Strangers In Paradise, but I felt it wallowed in its melodrama too much, and after reading it for so long I had to finally give it up.

It's kind of interesting that three of the big independent creators from the old days of the black and white explosion: Dave Sim, Jeff Smith and Terry Moore all came out with new books around the same time.

Joss Whedon's Dollhouse

From what I've read they've started filming the new Joss Whedon tv show "Dollhouse".
The show stars Eliza Dushku as the main character Echo. Eliza was Faith in the Buffy shows as no one needs to be reminded. Fox explains the show:

"Echo (Eliza Dushku) is a young woman who is literally everybody's fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo's burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse."

I'm very excited that Joss is returning to television, after making what I consider three of the best shows ever in Buffy, Angel and Firefly. The new show has a lot of his old writers coming back to work with him, which is another plus. Another actor from the old shows will be in this show. Amy Acker, better known as Fred, will have a regular role in the series.

Hopefully this will be a show that they will give a better chance than they did Firefly. I for one will be watching when it comes out, hopefully it will be on the Fall schedule.