Comical Books: Capsule Reviews, February 2017

I might do detailed reviews/fun analyses of a few of these in the future, but at the moment- I'm writing/revising four different books, in addition to learning how to make print books of all ten of my currently published books.

So for now, just an overview, with the most highly recommended stuff first. 

LOVED!

Uzumaki, Junki Ito

Dissolving Classroom, Junji Ito

Fragments of Horror, Junji Ito

Gyo, Junji Ito

Dark Night: A True Batman Story, Paul Dini

Vote Loki, Hastings

Punisher Max, v.1-10, Garth Ennis

Harrow County, v.1-3, Cullen Bunn

Paper Girls, v.2, Brian K. Vaughan

Batman: Bloom, Scott Snyder

I'm No Scientist, but I Think Feng Shui is Part of the Answer, Scott Adams

Optimism Sounds Exhausting, Scott Adams

Go Add Value Somewhere Else, Scott Adams

Supergod, Warren Ellis

FINE! (No strong feelings one way or the other)

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, v.4, Ryan North

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe!, Ryan North

Power Man and Iron Fist, v.1: The Boys Are Back in Town, Walker

A.B.C. Warriors: The Meknificent Seven, Pat Mills

Hell Baby, Hideshi Hino

Parasyte, v.1, Hitosi Iwaaki

Walking Dead, v.27, Robert Kirkman

The New Frontier: Absolute Edition, Darwyn Cooke

Vision, v.1: Little Worse Than a Man, King

Black Panther, v.1, Christopher Priest

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, v.2, Reeder

Hip-Hop Family Tree v.1-3   

Scarlet Witch, v.1       

Guardians of the Galaxy New Guard: Emperor Quill, Brian Michael Bendis

Guardians of the Galaxy: New Guard, v.2: Wanted, Brian Michael Bendis

Detective Comics, v.9: Gordon at War                 

Munchkin, v.1, Various Authors

Constantine, v.1, Ray Fawkes

Superman: Brainiac

Superman, New Krypton
Pluto, v.1, Naoki Urasawa

The Losers, book 1     

Doctor Doom and Doctor Strange: Into the Dark Dimension, Mike Mignola

Doctor Strange v.3: Last Days of Magic, Jason Aaron

Doctor Strange, Classic, v.3, Various Authors        

Doctor Strange: What is it That Disturbs You, Stephen?, P. Craig Russell
Doctor Strange: Into the Dark Dimension, Roger Stern

Fantastic Four, v.5, Stan Lee

Another fun thing- in addition to the first appearance of Galactus, this 60s comic collection has the first appearance of a character named "Punisher" (no relation to the gentleman with the guns and the skull shirt):

Please note that this version of The Punisher is "a compact, supremely merciless, hard-core mass of mayhem." Yeah. Take that.

Carthago, Christopher Bec

New Suicide Squad, 1,2,3, Sean Ryan

Batman v.8 Superheavy, Scott Snyder

Sweet Tooth, v.1,2, Jeff Lemire (A masterpiece, yes, just not on my wavelength)

Invincible Iron Man v.11, Matt Fraction

ACTIVELY DISLIKED! 

Superman: New Krypton, Geoff Johns

Civil War II: Choosing Sides, Various Authors

Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage, Various Authors 

Ah, the early 90s, when the art/writing/attempts at grittiness were THE WORST:

Rat Queens, Kurtis Wiebe (Yes, it’s great for what it is, but it’s not for me)

Lady Snowblood, v.1  Kazuo Koike

Oldboy, v.1, Garon Tsuchiya

Ghost in the Shell, Shirow Masamune

I’ve been reading a lot of manga lately, which is shocking because that’s a genre I always abhorred. But I loved Uzumaki so much, it opened my mind. Ghost in the Shell has a panel that encompasses everything I hate about the genre. From out of nowhere, for no reason, our strong lead female protagonist appears like this:

And she looks that way quite often for the rest of the book. Whole lotta objectification goin’ on and the tone is very leering. Also the art sucks. After reading this one, I decided I’m just gonna stick to horror manga like Uzumaki.

Tomie  Junji Ito 

HOWEVER, this is the first horror manga by Uzumaki author Junji Ito that I didn’t like. It’s just about a young girl who can’t be killed and makes people go crazy. A few cool scenes, but no solid characters to latch on to and it’s just kind of bland and WAY too long. It’s just as long as Uzumaki, but the story is wafer-thin, it doesn’t build the same way, it fails to escalate the stakes and end with a satisfying epic wrap-up that pays off everything.

-Phony McFakename

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