Every comic you've read in 2015

[Venneh]

Apocalipstix: Fawkes and Stewart do a post apocalyptic Mad Max meets girl punk band kind of situation. It's cute, it's fluffy. It's a good way to spend a half hour.

This Damned Band 2: Kind of feels like this issue is spinning wheels, but it has some good jokes.

De: Tales: Ba and Moon do short stories they illustrate and write for each other. Poignant, beautiful, and found it on sale, so a good way to spend $8.

[Davedevil]

Really gotta disagree with you on Immonen, Don. I could be biased, since he was the artist when I started reading USM, but I thought he was a worthy successor. I think his storytelling is excellent, and his art in general is just pretty. He's what's making the main Star Wars book so enjoyable for me.

Just read a Filipino comic called Mythspace. It's a collection of six stories by one writer and a different artist for each, and it's all in black and white. Basically, it mixes Philippine myths and space opera. Really solid premise. In execution, not so great. The characters are all archetypes, but I never really got a sense of anything deeper. The storytelling is not all that coherent to me, and the writing's very wordy. This was Paolo Chikiamco's first professional comics work and it shows a bit.

The art, on the other hand, is really cool. There's a pretty strong Japanese influence to it, and character design's consistently interesting. Koi Carreon did the first story, and I'd compare it to Scott Pilgrim. Paul Quiroga's work is closer to typical action-based manga. Jules Gregorio's art is of the dark and digital, Joe Madureira style. Mico Dimagiba does something close to European comics, or Yoshitaka Amano. Christina Chua's art is very cartoony, almost like storybook art. Borg Sinaban's my favorite of the lot, his artwork's really fun. Here's a pinup he did.

I also uploaded some pages and covers on my blog.

So yeah, I didn't hate it, (I enjoyed three out of the six stories) but I was disappointed. It being listed as volume 1 gives me hope that there's gonna be another one.

[Dread]

Baltimore-The Cult of the Red King #5: an outstanding ending to this series. Do they do Library Editions of this like they do Hellboy? Because that's how I want it. Goddamn. So moody.

Crossed Badlands #84: this is the best so far of the recent arc, but it's still a pretty inferior arc.

Future Imperfect #5: a little bit of a copout, but I really enjoyed most of this issue.

Hail Hydra #2: whoa! This blew it open pretty wide. Liking this.

House of M #2: eh...it's alright.

Imperium #8: this series is pretty fucking esoteric. Pretty interesting to see Harada interact with Divinity too.

Masks 2 #6: still okay.

Midnighter #4: Loved this. I want a Midnighter and Grayson comic. The gay hero and the gay icon together at last! They remake the sauna scene from Eastern Promises in this issue too, which is pretty amazing.

Miracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham #1: Pure garbage.

Comics: 1103
Graphic Novels: 43
Trade Paperbacks: 90
Omnibus: 11

[Dread]

Plutona #1: Here's an interesting take on superheroes that is the female version of something I was kind of working on already. I like it. I'm a little bitter about it, but I like it.

Squadron Sinister #3: So fucking good. This might be the best SW tie-in.

Superman-A Nation Divided: this is one of the Elseworlds Prestige Format oneshots they did in '99. This one is radically different because Superman crash-landed in the 1800s and grew up to be a Union soldier ensuring that the North won the Civil War! Whoa! I'm being a little facetious, because a lot of this hangs on a cool ending that turns things up a little bit.

Comics: 1106
Graphic Novels: 43
Trade Paperbacks: 90
Omnibus: 11

[Venneh]

Digger: Ursula Vernon's webcomic featuring a wombat, gods, prophecies, oracular slugs, and some of the best general humor and heart I've seen in a webcomic. Read the omnibus edition, which is heavy enough to serve as a murder weapon, over the course of yesterday afternoon. Read it if you get a chance.

Son of a Gun vols 1 and 2: Jodorowsky and Bess do what they do best: incest, religious themes, and general insanity, and it looks real damn beautiful while they're at it.

Polar vols 1 and 2: First volume is a classic spy left out in the cold story, second is a rape revenge tale. Both are hyper violent and use mostly a three color palette (red, black, white) to maximum effect. Not normally my thing, but a good change of pace.

[Donomark]

Ultimate Spider-Man vol. 19: Death of a Goblin

Norman Osborn busts out of SHIELD prison...again. Wants revenge on Nick Fury...again. Sends Peter and Mary Jane in a tizzy...again. SHIELD gets involve and make everything worse...again. Use Harry as bait...again.

And then Harry dies and Norman begs for his execution which happens immediately.

There's very little variation on this Green Goblin plot that Bendis liked doing in USM. Peter is a lot more proactive and confident in this arc, so it's not hitting the exact same beats with him per-say. There's also romance brewing between Kitty and Kong which is cool. Too often it felt like Bendis had been neglecting the normal drama in the book. Ultimately though it's not a bad story but there's very little impact left with me.

[Davedevil]

Daredevil 18 - A bit too short, probably should've had a higher page count, but still excellent. They did everything they should've done for the finale. And wow that last two page splash.

[Donomark]

Ultimate Spider-Man vol.20: Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends

Generally more light-hearted fare this time 'round. I've gotten used to Immonen's artwork. It was never bad, but Bagely will forever be my favorite Spider-Man artist period, so anyone could've followed him and I would've shrugged. Liz "Mutantphobe" Allan is revealed to be Ultimate Firestar, so Peter and pals are dealing with that. I liked the apearance by Ultimate Mags and the X-Men. The final issue was one I read when it first came out and reminded me why I stopped reading USM for a long while until Miles showed up. The series by this point has gotten into the rut of Peter jobbing to every criminal he comes across against, knocked out and unmasked. I know with the Shocker issue it was more of the point, that he was jobbing out to him but by the time that issue first dropped I was done with the series. I'm less anoyed now, but it's still repetitious as hell this late in the series.

[Dread]

Kamandi at Earth's End #1-6: Tom Veitch wrote this Elseworld miniseries in the early 90s and, besides being in a future post-apocalypse and centering around a blond guy with long hair it has fuck all to do with Kamandi. This is terrible.

Superman at Earth's End: The sequel focusing on the aged Superman. Far better than the intro series, but it still sucks.

Thors #3: a lot of fun.

We Stand on Guard #3: I think I've given this a pretty fair shake. I don't find it terribly interesting or entertaining. The characters are not particularly engaging and Skroce's art is honestly the worst I've ever seen it. He's doing something different here, but it doesn't work for me.

Comics: 1115
Graphic Novels: 43
Trade Paperbacks: 90
Omnibus: 11

[Donomark]

The Batman Adventures (vol.1) issues #1-10

The comic patterned after the animated series. I actually own the majority of the later iterations (Batman and Robin Adventures and Gotham Adventures), but I've barely read any from the first series. This was great. Highly enjoyable done-in-ones by Kelley Puckett, Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett. Moody atmosphere of the tv series (being ever-so-slightly darker than the show was generally allowed to get away with at the time) with really nice pencils by the late Parobeck. He had some solid page design concepts. The stories got better and better as I went along, ending with a brilliant Riddler story that reeked of the 60s show in a great way. There's a character called Mr. Nice that is such a clever idea I'm stunned it's not been seen before or since. Can't wait to read more.

[Koete]

I still have the trade paperbacks of those issues I got as a kid. Great stuff.

[Dread]

JLA-Secret Society of Superheroes #1,2: a two issue Elseworlds miniseries written by Howard Chaykin and drawn by Mike McKone about a secret society of superheroes featuring alternate versions of the JLA. No one knows they exist. FBI Agent Bruce Wayne intends to find out who they are though. Interesting. Could have been longer though. Would have liked to see more of this world.

Postal vol 1: I read most of this in issue form but HAD to get the TPB and fuck this is good. Love this. Great story, great art. I'm along for more.

Daredevil Epic Collection-Widow's Kiss: this covers the issues of DD in the 90s that Gene Colan came back to draw and then the following stuff drawn by Ariel Olivetti. There's a single issue by early Cary Nord, a few issues by early Cully Hamner and a final issue drawn by Lee Weeks. Holy shit, I loved the art. Some of the Joe Kelly issues drag and are poorly paced, but I enjoyed this collection of his run. The final issue drawn by Lee Weeks is amazing, but I find it odd that it's included because it begins DG Chichester's run (which i think gets unduly shit on). Lobdell writes the DD/Deadpool crossover issue which is terrible but it has some lasting consequences for Kelly's run, so I understand why they included it. Mixed bag, but still heavily on the positive side.

Annihilator #1-6: What I can gather from Legendary Comics is that they're IP farms for the film production company, which I have come around on. I'm fine with that. This, however, is far too pretentious and convoluted for them to make a blockbuster out of. Too bad, really. Frazer Irving's artwork is incredible. Morrison just doesn't do it for me anymore.

Comics: 1123
Graphic Novels: 43
Trade Paperbacks: 91
Omnibus: 12

Edited September 11, 2015 by Dread

[Professor]

Spider-Man: Life In The Mad Dog Ward - Two different 3 issue arcs collected.  First is the Spider-Title crossover from the late 80s.  Spider-Man is captured and locked up in an evil mental ward.  What amazes me is that this was the immediate follow up to the Kraven's Last Hunt crossover.  Seems like they may have done something a little more lighthearted and fun.  The Spidey titles were so unrelated to each other at the time that I don't know why this was chosen to join them together, specially right after KLH. The second story is from Spider-Man. The original story is bad, so I don't know why we needed a follow up on it. 

 

Comics: 393
Digital First Comics: 65
Graphic Novels: 23
Trades: 132 (706)(4)(144)

[Dread]

GI Joe-Special Missions vol 1: this is the first seven issues of the spinoff series and the debut backup in GI Joe #50 which is one of my all-time favorite comics. This is pure Hama/Trimpe. Trimpe did a decent amount of GIJ ARAH work but this is all him and is some of his best work. Great stuff.

Comics: 1123
Graphic Novels: 43
Trade Paperbacks: 92
Omnibus: 12

[Davedevil]

Spider-Man: Life In The Mad Dog Ward - Two different 3 issue arcs collected.  First is the Spider-Title crossover from the late 80s.  Spider-Man is captured and locked up in an evil mental ward.  What amazes me is that this was the immediate follow up to the Kraven's Last Hunt crossover.  Seems like they may have done something a little more lighthearted and fun.  The Spidey titles were so unrelated to each other at the time that I don't know why this was chosen to join them together, specially right after KLH. The second story is from Spider-Man. The original story is bad, so I don't know why we needed a follow up on it. 

 

Comics: 393
Digital First Comics: 65
Graphic Novels: 23
Trades: 132 (706)(4)(144)

 The amazing Bill Sienkiewicz covers tricked me.

[Dread]

Madwoman of the Sacred Heart vol 1-3: 3 OGNsby Jodorowsky and Moebius that satirizes religion, in a sense. The best Jodorowsky is when it's drawn by a genius so that when things go all "what the fuck is going on?" then it's at least beautiful. This is one of the absolute best examples of that. I've never read it in its entirety before, only in chunks in various issues of Dark Horse Presents back in the 90s. That was black and white, but this is beautifully coloured. I like.

Judge vol 2, 3: The second and third volume of the manga a student lent me over the summer. Figured I should read them all before I see him again. This was not great, but not terrible. I haven't been made a fan.

Comics: 1123
Graphic Novels: 48
Trade Paperbacks: 92
Omnibus: 12

[Professor]

 The amazing Bill Sienkiewicz covers tricked me.

I've always thought they were downright awful and I am usually a fan of Sienkiewicz.  I had the Web & Spectacular issues forever and that Spectacular might be one of my least favorite covers ever.  That said, if he would have done the interiors, it would have been an improvement.

[Venneh]

Ms. Marvel 18: Neat twist with Amir, I freaking love the Carol and Kamala teamup, and that her ma actually knows about her being Ms. Marvel? Good way to leave it off. Looks like there's one last issue before the renumber/reboot/rewhatever. 

Planet Hulk 5: Good job, definitely not where I was expecting it to go, but a nice mirror darkly kind of situation. Kind of seems like Cap Conan? Neat little mini. 

Giant AvX 4: Cute as always, great four page spread, and cute ending. Couldn't ask for too much more than that.

Darth Vader 9: Hm. Okay. Neat stuff with the twins and Vader, but honestly, what I'm real interested in is Aphra's line of questioning at the end of the issue.

Phonogram: The Immaterial Girl 2: Holy 80s music video montage, Batman. Claire really gets into fucking with Emily's life, and this is gonna be real fun to watch play out. And you can tell McK and Wilson are having the time of their lives on the work here. Great little backup, too. 

WicDiv 14: So they point blank said this issue was gonna be experimental. Experimental here means that except for maybe a page or two tops, art has been repurposed and recolored. Swear to god, Matt Wilson is going hard for the Eisner for coloring. Big info dump, for sure, and some very clever reuse of Zdarsky art here. Not entirely sure what's going on on that last page, but hell, let's see where this goes. Got the Grimes variant, and it's fucking gorgeous. 

1602: Witch Hunter Angela: Fuck you Stephanie Hans for your gorgeous fucking art. Frazer Irving shows up with 1602 Cloak and Dagger by way of Romeo and Juliet, and in the present of sorts, there's a Rogue. So much fun to read. 

Siege 3: DPSes by some assholes named Tedesco, Ryp and Troy, and Kaluta and Rosenberg. The last one is my favorite by far. One of them is kind of ruined by Marvel putting in a fold out ad for the upcoming rewhatever smack in the middle of it in the physical copy. More general battle insanity, awesome ladies, puns, and glory. Also, Thanos just showed for sure. Let's see how this turns out. (Probably not well.)

A Force 3: What a surprise, the traitor is Loki! Also zombies. I really hope they get a new artist, cause as good as Molina is, he's just not hitting it that well here. Supporting it for this first arc, going to hope that they get freed up a bit with not being under Secret Wars to make the story a bit less generic.

Gotham Academy 10: So remember the little girl who was Clayface from BTAS? She shows up here, and it's pretty amazing. God I love this adorable fucking series.

Injection 5: So THAT'S the shape of it at the last. Well well well.  Let's see where this goes after. Amazing work by Shalvey and Bellaire here.

Bitch Planet 5: well fucking FINALLY. Again, the shape of things is coming out here, and unfortunately, it's real fucking depressing. Lots of neat tricks by the art team on some of the themes, and especially look at the back cover. Good back material too. 

Bouncer: Raising Caine: Jodorowsky does Western revenge with a crazy ass trainer, opening up the mind with peyote, and your normal dose of borderline incest. "I don't need no coffee, my hate will keep me awake." Not my favorite, but still a neat read.

Madame Xanadu: Exodus Noir: second tpb of the ongoing from 09. Kaluta is on this arc, and does some pretty goddamn amazing art. You know where the flashback story is going pretty much instantly, but it's woven in nicely with the present mystery. Gonna read the rest of this. 

[Dread]

Revival-A Faraway Place vol 3: so great. Really fun and tense. Some great mystery going on here.

Comics: 1123
Graphic Novels: 48
Trade Paperbacks: 93
Omnibus: 12

[Dread]

10th Muse vol 1: This trade covers the initial IMage series. Pretty late into the "bad girl" craze, but I have been meaning to read this for many years as the premise sounded very similar to the comic I was working on 10 years ago. It's nothing like it. It's not great. I have the other collections too, but not sure if I'll read them now.

1602 Witch Hunter Angela #3: Boy this book is pretty. Thank God it is, because it doesn't have much else going for it. Snoozefest. At least the annoying character is dead.

All-Star Section Eight #4: Wonder Woman gets shit on by Ennis this month. 

Batman #44: this starts off really great and ends pretty fucking fantastically. The middle lags enough to make it noticeable. Beautiful looking book, though.

Civil War #4: These Marvel Books need to be more than 18 fucking pages if they plan on being epic. It suffers because of its length.

Comics: 1127
Graphic Novels: 48
Trade Paperbacks: 94
Omnibus: 12

[Donomark]

 

Batman #44: this starts off really great and ends pretty fucking fantastically. The middle lags enough to make it noticeable. Beautiful looking book, though.

Just now read it m'self, and...hmm.

 

I'll need some time on it to figure out how I feel. It's a damn sight better and less insulting than Action Bro #42 was.

[Dread]

Yeah, I was weighing it against other New 52 Batman stuff which is just dreck in my opinion.

[Dread]

Crossed Badlands #85: Finally starting to like this run a little more.

Darth Vader #9: yawn. I'm done with the Star Wars comic experiment.

Faster than Light #1: pretty good. still not great for a first issue.

God Is Dead #42: Fucking excellent as usual.

Harrow County #5: a little less spooky, more character development.

King Tiger #2:ooh! They cracked this fucker open. I'm in!

Ninjak #7: Okay, a little confusing actually. Jose Ryp on art is great, but it felt like he was doing something different here.

Planet Hulk #5: The best tie-in, I think. Superb ending.

Red Skull #3: Fuck. So fun.

Savior #6: Okay, I think we're done here.

Secret Wars 2099 #5: great ending. Maybe a close second to Planet Hulk.

Suiciders #6: Hmmm...felt a little rushed, but still a great first arc.

The  Maxx Maxximized #23: not sure why I continue to read this, to be honest.

Comics: 1140
Graphic Novels: 48
Trade Paperbacks: 94
Omnibus: 12

[Dread]

Sex vol 1: this is an interesting look at superhero life after retirement and the sexual depravity they get up to. It's graphic, but it's dark and I imagine about as sexy as Lars Von Trier's NYMPHOMANIAC is. I would be hooked and read the rest, but the lettering fucking kills me. The lines are thin and instead of bolding, emphasized words are highlighted with various colors. It's an interesting idea, but it fails and quite truthfully ruined my reading experience.

Punisher Vol 1: this is the all-new Punisher stuff by Edmondson and Gerads. It's good for a lot of it, but they build up these villains, The Howling Commandoes and have them say "we're the Howling Commandoes, we always..." every time you fucking see them. It's annoying. I liked about everything else, especially the relationship with the female cop. Not sure if I would read a volume 2.

Comics: 1140
Graphic Novels: 48
Trade Paperbacks: 96
Omnibus: 12

[Dread]

X-O Manowar vol 5: One half of a crossover. That was a little frustrating. On the other hand, some of Cary Nord's best work ever. Beautiful stuff.

Comics: 1140
Graphic Novels: 48
Trade Paperbacks: 97
Omnibus: 12