By A.K.
January 2, 2003
Each week, Diamond Comics posts the New Comics Release List--- -- a weekly list of comics coming to a store near you this Wednesday.
Here, we have a snapshot of comics as they truly are, in all their Glory and their Gory.
Okay, here’s the drill -- unusual week this week. I am jet-lagged, busy at work, and have to get ready for a New Year’s party of some sort. I spent all Monday on an airplane and at work, so I had no time to go over this list.
So most of this week is just going to be a pretty dull Best-Of, Worst-Of for the year in comic books, as well as movies and music and whatever else I feel like interspersed randomly into the list. And I don’t really have a lot coherent to say about the Best-of/Worst-of either -- they’re actually harder to write than I suspected. It’s hard to look back on 12 months, most of which I don’t remember, and come up with any conclusion or see any themes besides “Crapulence in Entertainment.” The only conclusions I can draw from this year are, what, “Someone in Hollywood should lose their job” or “Saudi Arabia is responsible for 9/11 and no one cares because the White House is all oil whores” or “I wish Spider-man had slept with Kirsten Dunst.” This year -- the news was awful, the economy’s a mess, the movies were mostly worthless, comics held my attention but just barely … and yet, everyone I know had a GREAT year. I know person after person who just had wonderful years where everything went right for them, seemingly. The first year of this site, after all … So … so … yeah, that’ll be what this week is.
Happy New Year.
DIAMOND COMICS SAYS
PLEASE NOTE: Due to the New Year's Day holiday, Diamond customers will receive
their shipments on Friday, January 3 - -- instead of Wednesday, January 1.
Now, that’s a Holiday, man. Fuck Christmas -- New Year’s is so much better. New Year’s is all about how everyone’s entitled to a second chance, another opportunity to get things right, a fresh start. What is Christmas about? Giving? Fuck giving. What’s Thanksgiving about? Thanking?!? Go thank yourself. New Year’s is just about saying let’s start over! There’s no presents or turkey or family -- you just drink and watch some TV and yell a lot at midnight. Perfect. I think you have to have at least one holiday to believe in -- mine’s New Year’s.
So, this week is on a Friday? So that means this list is probably not so great, I’m going to guess -- why would any comic company want their good books to have two days less of the good shelf space to sell?
Every Monday, we provide a list of products shipping for
the current week, as well as those products expected to
ship the following week!
Shipping This Week: January 3
The following products are expected to ship to comic book
specialty stores this week. Note that this list is tentative
and subject to change. Please check with your retailer for availability.
PREMIER PUBLISHERS
The "when did that come out" award: EIGHTBALL 22, which was the best single issue of a comic book that came out in whichever year it happened to come out. The only problem is I'm convinced it came out last year for some reason, even though I've been told by a couple people it came out this year. I think the TIME MAGAZINE critic’s review was from the first week of January, so people just think it was from then; maybe he just reviewed it late, though. The Fantagraphics site doesn’t say. It’s a phenomenal book, but I think it was a phenomenal 2001 book. Also, I'm a bit confused when AKIRA Book 4 came out -- I can safely state that AKIRA Book 4 is the best action comic I will ever see in my lifetime, so it should win something. But I couldn't tell you when it came out.
The better than I expected anthology: The 9/11 Artists Respond anthology. It was much more well-rounded than I honestly expected.
The "what if you made a fucking great comic and nobody cared" award: Lawrence Marvit for SPARKS. The whole tradition of grown-up comics which are basically Raymond Carver short stories done in comics form -- it has its place, and it has its share of great artists. Marvit, on the other hand, made something that felt like a kid's movie, that looked like a kid's movie, that was as joyous in its visuals as a kid's movie. But was more sad and human and surprising than anything anyone else managed to create for me this year. Not a perfect book, by any means -- the tone between the adult material and the visuals is jarring. Some of Marvit's characterizations and dialogue are not perfect, not at all. But the book's heart is. It is my favorite graphic novel of this year.
Best title maybe ever: I saw an ad in the last issue of GIANT ROBOT for something by David Choe (who's really pretty great -- his meltdown over NYX hopefully won't stop his comics output) called EGAD! MY PUSSY HURTS. I like the "EGAD!" a lot.
DARK HORSE
3X3 EYES KEY TO THE SACRED LAND TP (MR) $13.95
ASTRO BOY VOL 10 TP $9.95
Only Good Television: Larry David's CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM; SOPRANOS was worth it for the high points, but that Christopher Columbus episode was just unbearable to me -- Montel Williams??? Network television … no.
Worst television: MIND OF THE MARRIED MAN should be convicted for war crimes.
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #75 FALL FROST (PART 3 OF 6) (MR) $2.99
LONE WOLF & CUB VOL 28 FALLING TREE TP $9.95
Take a look at this for a second. Both of these are two incredibly violent samurai comics. But the titles of them -- FALL FROST, FALLING TREE? Are they Navajo? Why aren't the titles cool, do you think? The LONE WOLF AND CUB movies -- any time a sword goes into someone in those movies, a fountain of blood erupts from the wound, spraying the countryside for at least ten seconds. Why not "FOUNTAIN OF BLOOD?" It's all that zen in Japan, I guess -- keeps them from naming their comic books better...
KISS PHOTO CVR #5 $2.99
KISS RUBI CVR #5 $2.99
LONE WOLF 2100 #6 $2.99
OH MY GODDESS #94 TRAVELER (PART 4 OF 5) $2.99
STAR WARS DARTH VADER MINI BUST $50.00
Best monthly comic: POWERS or 100 BULLETS. I really can't pick between these two. 100 BULLETS is the Cadillac of comic books -- the best penciller in comics (Eduardo Risso), some of the best coloring, and just some of the best THINKING in a comics -- just the way this comic’s whole approach is very smart, the more I think about it. POWERS, though -- I'm just a POWERS guy. That book just does it for me. I've always wanted to see a comic book like the car chase issue of POWERS this year. Always wanted to see it -- POWERS did it. Both had some issues I wasn't into, but they're the gold standard right now. So I have to call this one a tie, shitty as that is. Runner-up is QUEEN AND COUNTRY.
STAR WARS EMPIRE #4 $2.99
Best media: Movies sucked, comics were so-so, none of the books I read this year did much for me. But the music was pretty good this year, which is strange considering how much of it was being stolen. How you get motivated to put out good work when you're getting fucked by some college kid with a CD burner and a pack of No-Doze, I don't know.
STAR WARS REPUBLIC #48 $2.99
STAR WARS YODA MINI BUST $45.00
SUPER MANGA BLAST #27 (MR) $5.99
USAGI YOJIMBO THE SHROUDED MOON TP $15.95
DC COMICS
21 DOWN #5 $2.95
BATGIRL YEAR ONE #2 (Of 9) $2.95
Favorite movies of the year: PUNCHDRUNK LOVE (rejected by audiences); ADAPTATION (critics too stupid to understand the third act, or more likely just too fucking old); ABOUT A BOY (died quiet death in the summer); 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE (fuck, have you even HEARD of this movie?); RULES OF ATTRACTION (unanimously hated by everyone besides me); CQ (hell -- even I don't think CQ is a great movie, but I just liked it); JACKASS and Bam Margera's CKY2K (why movies were invented -- to show you things you'd never be able to see without cameras); Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN (actually liked by people! Of course, very dirty, so that tends to help); and BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (a good documentary, though Michael Moore never ate a snowcone of his own urine like the JACKASS guys, so that's a strike against him). Oh, and I liked Affleck's final monologue in CHANGING LANES.
BATMAN THE GOLDEN STREETS OF GOTHAM $6.95
Well, if it’s anything like Los Angeles, the streets are golden because it’s rush hour and some guy couldn't hold it anymore. Urine-stained streets of Gotham probably wouldn't have sold as much though. It's all about the bottom line, isn't it?
BIG DADDY DANGER #6 (Of 9) $2.95
Biggest reason movie critics are too old: Failing to understand the third act of ADAPTATION, as so many of the old geezers did, was pretty pathetic, but I'd have to say it was not understanding the pathetically simple plot to Brian De Palma's latest piece of shit, FEMME FATALE. A brutally bad movie, nonetheless? Yes, but here's the thing: critics took the plot LITERALLY seriously, even though the movie TOLD them it shouldn't be taken LITERALLY seriously. I can't say more without "spoiling" the whole thing, but ... yeah, basically it was a piece of shit, but not for the reasons they mentioned.
BIRDS OF PREY OLD FRIENDS NEW ENEMIES TP $17.95
CODENAME KNOCKOUT #20 (MR) $2.75
DETECTIVE COMICS #778 $2.75
Worst word in comics: Hmm, I'd have to go with "cowl." What the FUCK is a cowl? Everyone who reads comics knows the word cowl -- it’s that shit on Batman's face. If someone were to ask me what that shit on Batman's face is called, I'd say "cowl" right away. That or "Robin's scrot." When else have you ever used the word cowl in your daily life but for when you were referring to Batman's stupid mask?
Second-worst word in comics: "Pop." If I can defer once again to Grant Morrison: It disturbs me slightly that the word 'pop' has been bandied about by the most desperately tasteless people of the last five years. Pompous pronouncements are being made about fashion and trends by people who wouldn't know fashion if it set their wardrobes aflame. They have no idea what 'pop' is or they would wear better clothes and listen to better music."
HELLBLAZER SPECIAL LADY CONSTANTINE #2 (Of 4) (MR) $2.95
JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES #15 $2.25
LOONEY TUNES #98 $2.25
Best adventure on the high seas: Anytime I use a toilet at a goddamn airport. I always have to perform some acrobatic maneuver to keep the hi-tech laser-guided auto-flush from STOPPING flushing. As soon as I sit down to as soon as I get up, the toilet will be in a constant state of flushing, no matter what I do. And then, when I get up, it'll refuse to flush, so I have to do some elaborate trickery to trick it into thinking I'm about to take a shit so it can start trying to fuck with me and flush finally. It's really distracting trying to contort yourself in such a way that a laser stops seeing you while you're trying to defecate. It takes shit-jitsu. Me? I'm not an expert in shit-jitsu. I can't grab the piece of feces from my master's hand. It is shameful.
MAD MAGAZINE #426 $3.50
ROBOTECH #2 (Of 6) $2.95
SANDMAN PRESENTS BAST #1 (Of 3) (MR) $2.95
Worst cameo: I'd have to go with Martin Luther King Jr. in THREE FINGERS. A minor black comedy about animation history published by Top Shelf Comics was too insubstantial to support working in the assassination of King Jr. into its plot. The rest of the comic was too light to manage to pull off that moment. A for effort for that comic, but while critically lauded, I'm not sure if it really amounted to anything besides an exercise in style (where I did think it succeeded). It didn’t really have anything to say exactly. But it does make Rich Koslowski someone I’ll pay more attention to in the future…
SUPERBOY #147 FACSIMILE ED $6.95
SUPERMAN THE MAN OF STEEL #134 (Note Price) $2.75
YOUNG JUSTICE #53 $2.75
IMAGE
BATTLE OF THE PLANETS #2 ANIMATION COVER EXCLUSIVE PI
FIREBREATHER #1 (Of 4) $2.95
I don't really know what this is, but I know it's by Phil Hester and I think maybe Andy Kuhn too? Well, I'm not sure -- I'm just guessing. I like to guess. I'm guessing you don't bathe much. Am I right? It's as if I had ESP, isn't it? LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU! Oh, I mean in the future…
Biggest “how the fuck did that happen?”: I got a column to say stupid shit about ESP that doesn’t make any sense and isn’t funny. What? How the fuck did that happen?
SERIOUSLY, who the fuck am I sleeping with? I … I don’t know why I have a column either. Funny old world.
GI JOE #13 $2.95
Best Ice Cube movie: Speaking of All American heroes… Well, ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS wasn't just a little bit about the Benjamins as I cynically expected -- it was, in fact, quite a bit about the Benjamins. And the ads for the new FRIDAY were good, though I've always felt no sequel could match the first movie. But no, the best Cube was obviously BARBERSHOP. I like how it got Jesse Jackson mad, too.
Worst Keiran Culkin overrated piece of shit: Keiran Culkin's not so bad, but man, did I hate his movies this year. Well, DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS was a pretty putrid movie that lots of critics seemed to love. Bad Todd McFarlane animation splices in with a nonsensical, cliche coming-of-age story. However, Culkin's final scene earns points for being so fucking insane that anyone would think it should be in a movie -- it's so insane that it earns my affection. So, the worst Keiran Culkin overrated piece of shit was IGBY GOES DOWN, a loathsome piece of crap adored by critics. Another coming-of-age story, this time mired in the dull angst of ultrarich WASPS, a subject I had no sympathy for whatsoever. Critics fawned over its faux-cutting dialogue which I found tiresome and artificial. Note also a stunningly bad turn by a completely unbelievable, horribly bad Claire Danes. Jeff Goldblum was the most fun I've ever seen him, at least, and Bill Pullman's usually interesting to me, for some reason. Just a useless movie regardless.
MICRONAUTS ACROYEAR CVR #4 $2.95
MICRONAUTS KARZA CVR #4 $2.95
NOBLE CAUSES FAMILY SECRETS HESTER CVR #4 $2.95
Guilty pleasure -- movie: I don't know -- SPY KIDS 2? CATCH ME IF YOU CAN is a funeral of a movie compared to how fun the book is. The LORD OF THE RINGS movies are nice, but seriously way too fucking long for me. INSOMNIA had too many movie stars in it; just seemed like some lifeless exercise compared to MEMENTO. SPIDER-MAN had me for the first hour completely, and lost me for the second hour completely -- saving babies? SALTON SEA -- same thing; enjoyed the beginning, but the ending was UNBEARABLE. ROAD TO PERDITION -- yeah, yeah, Paul Newman was fine, but a mediocre movie besides. SIGNS -- total piece of shit.
NOBLE CAUSES FAMILY SECRETS OEMING CVR #4 $2.95
Best action comic book and best eye candy: BASTARD SAMURAI. Was there anything else that came close? Kelsey Shannon's colors (the best I’m seeing in comics right now, I think), the Miles Gunter and the Mike Oeming, good times to be had by one and all. Considering how many comics are supposed to be action comics, it’s amazing this thing didn’t have any competition, really. Most comic writers seem to look down on the fight scenes, even though that's what so much of the audience is there to see. Like, I just imagine these writers sitting there, saying to themselves, “I want to write about Batman stopping CHILD ABUSE and give a speech about his dying buddy with AIDS, but first, let's throw in a fight scene for the kiddies.” Fuck that -- action comic books should have ACTION in them. And those that do have action -- the action usually isn't that much fun. BASTARD SAMURAI reveled in some pretty gloriously executed set-pieces.
MARVEL
My favorite superhero comic (excepting POWERS which already won something with me) and the best thing Marvel published all year: the last issue of CABLE by Darko Macan and Igor Kordey, published by Marvel Comics. I believe it was the best comic Marvel published this year. Its subsequent series SOLDIER X been cancelled and/or "re-tooled."
ALIAS #18 (MR) $2.99
DAREDEVIL #40 $2.99
Huh, a couple Bendis comics this week. I enjoy what he does on these two books -- the way they're told, the artists he's working with, etc. Surprising to see this come out on Friday -- the list is pretty awful for how I like to spend my money besides these two books.
CAPTAIN MARVEL #4 $2.25
EDENS TRAIL #3 (Of 6) $2.99
EXILES #21 $2.25
FANTASTIC FOUR UNSTABLE MOLECULES #1 (Of 4) $2.99
Oh, buying this. This is by James Strum of the GOLEM'S MIGHTY SWING fame. GOLEM was one of the better books from last year, about a Jewish baseball team in the early days of baseball. Strum was relentlessly attacked for choosing to write this comic, before anyone had seen a single page of it, mind you, so I'm curious to see what he actually came up with.
MARVEL DOUBLE SHOT #3 (Of 4) $2.99
Best Covers: Kaare Andrews’s HULK covers were always fun to look at. Runner-ups are the FILTH (the last few especially), and… you know, the usual people -- Jason Pearson’s covers for the BATMAN books, anything of Dave Johnson’s, the LA PERDIDA watercolor covers, Kagan McCleod’s work…
PUNISHER #20 $2.99
Most interesting controversy: I know it’s a recent one, but I have to say it’s the RAWHIDE KID controversy. Comic books fans irrationally hate Ron Zimmerman (what’d the guy ever do?), they irrationally hate Marvel Comics (well, some of it’s rational for what they were like in the early 1990s, but…), and they apparently irrationally hate gay people (where’d that one come from?). Put that together and that’s one tasty goulash. Response to a gay cowboy comic about a character NO ONE cared about before this thing came up is pretty fascinating. No one cared about this character before -- here’s how I know: there WAS no Rawhide Kid comic book. If people cared about the character before now, he’d have had his own comic book -- it’d have sold like hotcakes. People are pretending to care so they can put forward their bizarre agendas. It’s just a strange goulash.
Least interesting controversy: The “They’re drawing her tits too big” controversy in QUEEN AND COUNTRY, a runner-up for best ongoing comic for me. Leo Fernandez’s work drew the ire of some rabid tit-haters, who for some reason didn’t seem to notice that his art was quite suited to the book and gave the arc he worked on, one of the best arcs of that comic yet, a lot of adrenaline. Some awfully dull comic fan whining.
SPIDER-GIRL #55 $2.25
THOR #58 $2.25
Best manga: Osamu Tezuka's PHOENIX. Unless AKIRA Book 4 came out. You see the problem? Well, this book is beat by any of the AKIRA collections for me, but it’s a particularly excellent book worthy of note anyway.
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #34 $2.25
UNCANNY X-MEN #417 $2.25
Favorite Bad Movies of the Year: HARVARD MAN (a pretty awful movie, but it has a GREAT Al Franken cameo and the LSD sequence is pretty cool); EQUILIBRIUM (a too-slow, too-somber 1984 homage redeemed by GUN KATA, THE MARTIAL ARTS OF GUNS! Also, my favorite action sequence of any movie this year, involving a sword -- FUCK YODA, I liked this more and it only lasted maybe 20 seconds).
WOLVERINE LEGENDS VOL 1 WOLVERINE HULK TP $9.99
X-MEN UNLIMITED #40 $3.50
WIZARD
DF DARKNESS FOIL CVR SGN #1 $29.99
DF ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1/2 SGN $69.99
INQUEST GAMER MAGE KNIGHT DUNGEONS II CVR #94 $4.99
INQUEST GAMER YU GI OH & ANIME CCGS CVR #94 $4.99
COMICS
Favorite small-press comic: INFINITE KUNG FU. Its as fun as the title makes it sound -- more maybe. Just a distillation of every 70's kung fu movie you ever saw on a Saturday morning, and some movies you wish you saw. Great art, well-designed, great execution. A lot of fun. Honorary mention goes to TEENAGERS FROM MARS, which ran a very close second.
AKIRA CINEMANGA VOL 1 (Of 5) $14.99
Cinemanga -- I don't get that stuff. That's when they take still images from some anime movie, and then they just turn it into a comic book. It's for people too lazy to rent the movie? Who is it for? People who want to swipe the art, who are too lazy to just use the pause button? I don't really understand it.
AMYS ADVENTURES #1 (A) $4.99
ANGELIC LAYER VOL 4 GN (Of 7) $9.99
AP HOW TO DRAW MANGA #21 $4.95
Best scanlation: A scanlation is manga scanned in and translated by Japanese-speaking manga fans for the English audience on the Internet. If there's already an English translation, they don't share the manga -- so there's no BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL manga, but for obscure works that noone could publish, or works in genres that wouldn't sell here, scanlation's the way you go. My favorite was KATTENI KAIZO, which unfortunately its translators weren't as fond of as they removed it from their Web site. I liked what little I saw of BECK, too.
ARCHIE #531 $2.19
ARCHIE DIGEST #195 $2.39
AVENGELYNE SHI ROYAL BLUE FOIL CVR #1/2 $75.00
BABEFORCE #3 $2.95
BANZAI GIRL LTD ED SKETCHBOOK $7.95
BATTLE OF THE PLANETS #2 LTD ANIMATION ART CVR $8.99
BATTLE OF THE PLANETS #2 SKETCH CVR $15.99
BECKETTS FOOTBALL CARD PLUS #6 TP $9.99
The best Web-comic: I've seen some good ones this year by people like Robert Valley(who I really wish would work with Jim Mahfood on a book, for some unknown reason), or the person I believe is the master of the whole web-comic scene, Jasen Lex. I enjoyed what I saw of Derek Kirk's work, too. Bryan O'Malley of ONI COMICS and Locke, alone or together. But obviously, this was Jason Little’s year, with the completion of the first Bee arc, and its subsequent publication by Doubleday in a quite excellent hard copy format. No one else was as focused or as ambitious, it seems.
Worst Web-comic trend: These sites where they'll give you the current episode for free, but you have to pay for the "Back-issues." Isn't that great? Paper comics are completely inaccessible to people who aren't longtime readers -- there's no way for anyone to catch up to so many comics on the shelves. Everyone knows this. So what do the Web-comic people do but go and try to RECREATE that condition on the Internet! I appreciate that they want to make money from their Web-comics; apparently this method is successful. Still, I can't in my wildest imagination conceive of paying for content on the Internet, which is AWASH with free content. The Web-comics that are actually worth looking at, that are actually quality comics regardless of being on the Internet, that I list above -- they don't make you fucking pay for them. Moreover, I think it’s distressing that so many of these creators are more focused on how they're going to get paid, and have ignored the technical issues which makes so many Webcomics completely unreadable. The level of Webdesign that's heretofore gone into Webcomics is worthy only of our censure. The Web presents a global distribution system ideally suited for comics. I find the failure of so many comic artists to take advantage of that pretty pathetic. The people above did it for me. Everyone else (and I look at more than most people, I believe) failed big.
BONDAGE FAIRIES EXTREME #14 (A) $3.50
Everything's "extreme" now, even the BONDAGE FAIRIES. What does that mean? The Bondage Fairies will snowboard? Isn't it dangerous to snowboard if you're presumably have your hands or legs tied, or in some way bound? Extreme ... the Bondage Fairies smoke the pot? That's basically the most important thing about the extreme sports right? Skateboarders, snowboarders, BMX bikers -- they like to smoke the pot, I hear. Man, the Bondage Fairies have to get off the dope, and on the hope. They'll lose all their motivation -- a year from now, they won't even be able to muster up the energy to tie each other up and do sick comic=book porn shit to each other.
The "Fuck, dude, I wish I had some pot" award: in movies, I'd have to say the trailer for SWIMFAN -- I was laughing hysterically sober. In comics? Oh, any of the AKIRA books. That’s pretty obvious, I should think.
The "Dude, thank god I don't have any pot" award: whoever planned out that pre-show to the Super Bowl, where they recreated the Declaration of Independence signing. I think my brain would have melted.
BONEYARD #5 (O/A) (MR) $2.95
BONEYARD #6 (O/A) (MR) $2.95
BONEYARD #7 (O/A) (MR) $2.95
CARDCAPTOR SAKURA #31 $2.99
CARDCAPTOR SAKURA #32 $2.99
CASA HOWHARD VOL 1 SC (A) $10.95
CAVEWOMAN RAPTOR PURPLE FOIL ED #2 PI
Best "career-best" album: the new EELS album. They're my favorite band, and their new album was the best they've ever been. I've heard this said about the FLAMING LIPS and BECK, both of whom I like as well, but while I liked their new albums, I enjoyed earlier work by them more. The QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE was a strong runner-up. ELVIS COSTELLO had a great album this year, too, but he's past the point where we can talk about career best, I figure. I haven't gotten the new SLEATTER-KINNEY or ROOTS yet though.
Best music I heard this year: Finally hearing the Automator's DELTRON 3030, which didn't come out this year. I liked Dan the Automator before, from albums like HANDSOME BOY MODELING SCHOOL and GORILLAZ, but I'd never heard that particular album, which I believe is his masterpiece. DELTRON 3030 was without a doubt the most ridiculously best thing I heard all this year, and it's the best rap CD I own (which may speak more to the failure of my CD collection than anything else...). Between this, LOVAGE, and HOW TO BUY A MONKEY, I listened to a lot of fucking Dan the Automator CDs this year.
CELESTIAL ZONE #23 $9.95
CHIAROSCURO #5 (MR) $2.75
CICI MINI SERIES #4 (Of 4) (MR) $2.50
COURTNEY CRUMRIN & THE NIGHT THINGS TP $11.95
DAREDEVIL VISIONARIES VOL 1 LTD HC (O/A) $39.95
DAREDEVIL VISIONARIES VOL II LTD HC (O/A) $39.95
DAREDEVIL VISIONARIES VOL III LTD HC (O/A) $39.95
DECIDE VOL 1 HC RAGE AGAINST THE GODS (MR) $15.95
DF JLA SECRET ORIGINS SGN $49.99
DFE DARKNESS #1 ALT CVR SGN $19.99
Most interesting critical backlash: MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING. It's not one of my favorite movies of the year, it's nothing I was too into, but it got the biggest response I saw from an audience all year. I find the way critics are dismissive of that fact sort of interesting. It was the only "entertainment only" movie without artistic aspirations that seemed to actually entertain anyone this year. Where were the comedies this year? Bad Sequels -- AUSTIN POWERS 3, ANALYZE THAT? Audiences like comedies, I love comedies -- where were they? Is it a DEEP movie or an accurate movie about ethnic subcultures? Uh, no, it's a comedy – it’s odd to ask it to be anything but funny. I don't think it’s a great comedy, by any means, it’s nothing I ever never ever ever never ever want to see again, and the girl from that movie's annoying now. But backlash is interesting ... I think some critics are just mad that there’s an indie movie that successful that they didn’t anoint. I mean, movies are a popular art form -- what’s popular does have some relevance occasionally, I should think.
Least interesting critical backlash: “Oh, the Strokes are just the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, and the Hives are just the--” Would you please shut up? For the love of fuck, if it’s some band ripping off the Velvet Underground or it’s the bad rap-rawk horseshit rock and roll, the “I want to hang out with Fred Durst” shitty shitty excuse for rock and roll, if it’s some band ripping off the JUDGMENT NIGHT SOUNDTRACK that clogs the airwaves, then I’ll pick the former. I’d rather hear a Velvet Underground rip-off than PUDDLE OF MUDD, thanks. Radio was godawful before those bands -- at least I can listen to them. It’s not like if they stopped playing the VINES that everyone would realize how good YO LA TENGO is. They’d all just go back to playing CREED or that “You’re my butterfly” song 24 hours a day. It’s not the most amazing music ever -- but look at commercial music before this trend, and it was a WASTELAND. I like to be able to listen to the radio…(that and I like that the YEAH YEAH YEAHS have that band name -- that’s a great band name -- I just feel happy saying their name)…
DORK TOWER LORD OF THE RINGS SPECIAL $2.99
DUNGEON #1 (O/A) $2.95
DUNGEON #2 (O/A) $2.95
EDEN VOL 1 #3 (A) $2.95
ENNIS & MCCREAS DICKS 2 #3 (Of 4) (MR) $3.50
ENNIS & MCCREAS DICKS 2 OFFENSIVE #3 (Of 4) (MR) $3.95
FIRST #27 $2.95
GEMINI SOLUTION #1 $4.99
The worst review I did award: I tried to say something nice about the ANNOTATED MANTOOTH. I really wanted to say something good about that book because I had a really good time reading those MANTOOTH comics this year. But man, I have no idea what to say about them -- they really do defy intelligent description in a way. I don’t know -- they were funny. Leave me alone.
GTO VOL 9 GN (Of 25) $9.99
GUNDAM WING LAST OUTPOST #2 (OF 12) $2.99
GUNDAM WING LAST OUTPOST #3 (Of 12) $2.99
ISLAND VOL 7 GN (Of 7) (MR) $9.99
JACK STAFF #11 $2.95
JANES WORLD #1 $2.95
JUNGLE FANTASY PREVIEW VIXENS NUDE CVR #1 (MR) $6.00
KARE KANO VOL 1 GN (Of 13) (RES) $9.99
Best silent-comic: 3 by Cornelius. It's French, and I have no idea where you get it. It's just this surreal action thing -- like a storyboard for a deleted scene from the Matrix which happens to involve mutant fish. I don’t know if Peter Kuper’s thing came out this year though.
Best non-English comic: Tokyo Tribe 2 by Santa Inoue. Why isn't this being published in English? It's fucking neat -- violent manga inspired by rap and hip-hop. I like seeing the Japanese take the hip-hop influence and turn it into what looks like essentially samurai comics. I have no idea what anyone's saying though. It'd be nice to know what they're saying. Inoue’s art is damn stylish, too.
KILLBOX #1 $5.00
This needs a tagline... like a movie tagline.
"KILLBOX: Keep a one-eyed monster open for it?" That's a PORKY's homage -- PORKY’S's tagline was "keep an eye open for it." Hmmm, no, that's no good at all. That's pretty awful.
"KILLBOX: This vagina doesn't take any shit!" Eeeeew, that doesn't sound right. That just sounds fucking filthy. "I should hope so!"
No, this needs one of those "..." type taglines like from ‘80s horror movies. "KILLBOX: Coming soon ... coming screaming!"
LOVE HINA VOL 8 GN (Of 14) $9.99
LUBAS COMICS AND STORIES #3 (RES) (MR) $3.50
MANGAZINE #39 $8.99
MARS VOL 8 GN (Of 15) $9.99
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE PREVIEW BOOK $9.99
Best Rediscovery: Potato Sticks. Man, these are so much better than potato chips. They’re like potato chips in stick form. Brilliant.
Best “comix” with an x -- isn’t that a pretentious way to pretend you’re somehow special? award: the best of the arty folks? Probably LA PERDIDA by Jessica Abel. I wasn't expecting to say that, I thought I’d drop some Adrian Tomine rap or Nick Bertozzi or whoever, but now that I think about it, that's the book I've probably thought about the most times or remembered the most times subsequently. It's about an American expatriate in Mexico City. It's lingered more than I expected it to. I actually have all sorts of complaints about the series, but the funny thing is I think about my complaints about this comic more than I think about just enjoying other comics.
MILK #32 (A) $2.99
MIRACLE GIRLS VOL 7 PKT TP $9.99
OGENKI CLINIC VOL 9 #6 (A) $2.95
PARADISE KISS VOL 4 GN (Of 5) $9.99
PEACH GIRL VOL 8 PKT GN (Of 13) $9.99
PRIEST VOL 4 GN (Of 9) $9.99
PRIMAL THE COMIC BOOK S/N $15.00
PRINCE VALIANT VOL 46 SUNKEN TREASURE $16.95
PUNCTURE #5 $3.99
I don't have any joke: this is just a bad title. PUNCTURE? Yuck.
R A SALVATORE DEMON WARS TRIAL BY FIRE #2 (Of 5) $2.95
RAGNAROK VOL 5 GN (Of 10) $9.99
RED STAR VOL 2 NOKGORKA LTD HC $49.95
REMEMBRANCE THINGS PAST VOL 2 PT 1 HC (O/A) $16.95
ROBERT CRUMBS ZAP COMIX #12 (O/A) (A) $3.95
The best thing in my To-Read pile: probably Forlorn Funnies #2. I hear that's about perfect, but I haven't had a chance to sit down with it yet. I was busy, doing other things. What am I -- a comic reading machine? I have other things going on.
The best thing I didn't buy but I probably will sooner or later: a comic book called FLEEP. It's created by some math genius or math professor apparently, and it's about a mathematician who's trapped in a phone booth that's been dipped in concrete, stuck in there with a telephone book in another language. It's about how he uses math to escape. I hear it's just a great fucking comic book.
Best graphic novel -- "fun": CREATURE TECH by Doug TenNapel. I know a lot of people don't agree -- they mind that the book's essentially advocating creationism. Well, I'm an atheist, and I'm an ex-biochemist. If anyone had used the arguments this book uses in a conversation with me, would I entirely dismiss their beliefs, and think less of their intelligence? Oh yeah, absolutely -- I am nothing if not a judgmental snob. I don't respect any of that intelligent design bullshit -- not in the slightest. You know what, though? It's a COMIC BOOK. It's fucking FUN. People who require their art to have the same politics as their own don't have any faith in either their politics or in art. Look at Spider-man comics. Spider-Man is essentially about telling kids that repressing their desires and putting the needs of co-dependent Aunts in front of your own is the way to live a satisfying life. FUCKING BULLSHIT! Fuck Aunt May! STAR WARS is 2 hours about how believing in invisible forces is better than trusting science -- I don't believe any of that horseshit either. I don't agree with CREATURE TECH, but it was the most fun I had this year. Effortless fun.
ROBERT CRUMBS ZAP COMIX #14 (O/A) (A) $3.95
ROBERT CRUMBS ZAP COMIX #5 (O/A) (A) $3.95
SORCERER HUNTERS VOL 13 GN (Of 13) $12.99
The well-reviewed comics I just don’t want to read: I hear AGE OF BRONZE, LUCIFER and FINDER are good. I have no interest in picking them up. Just no interest. I don’t know -- sorry, folks.
SOULSEARCHERS #57 $2.50
SUPREME THE STORY OF THE YEAR TP $26.95
Diana Ross got arrested for drunk-driving today (well, two days ago your time). Funny timing.
THOR VISIONARIES LTD ED HC (O/A) $69.95
THRESHOLD CONNECTING CVR #49 (MR) $5.95
My favorite questionable claim:: for Frank Quitely’s recent claim in an interview that he draws four pages a week. I like Quitely, but … he’s saying he’s doing four pages a week? I don’t know -- that just sounds IFFY to me.
TIM VIGILS WEBWITCH PRISM FOIL CVR #1 $12.95
TIM VIGILS WEBWITCH RYP NUDE CVR #1 (MR) $5.95
TWILIGHT X STORM #1 $3.50
VAMPIRELLA LIVES SGN DLX GOLD HC $29.95
VERONICA #135 $2.19
WEAPON BROWN $4.95
I've had some nasty shits myself, but WEAPON BROWN -- I've never thought of WEAPON BROWN before. That sounds like something you'd do to a buddy's bathroom out of revenge.
WEST OF THE DAKOTAS #1 $4.99
WITCHBLADE #40 KEU CHA SGN ED $9.99
WITCHBLADE #40 STORMCHROME CVR ED $6.99
WOUNDED MAN 9 VOL GN SET (MR) (Note Price) $92.00
YELLOW JAR HC $12.95
ZOMBIE COMMANDOS FROM HELL SOUNDTRACK ED #3 (MR) $12.95
CONCLUSION
Drum roll, please…
Best comic book, not collected into a graphic novel yet: Paul Pope's 100%. Endlessly visual, joyously visual, without resorting to cheap cliches. Gorgeous and smart, casually multicultural, personal while still fun, not sacrificing fun to some distant unknowable ideal of “Art.” The best work of his career so far.
The Good Riddance Award: Hmmmm, you know, I want to say it’s the fact that CHAOS went into bankruptcy since they published so much awful stuff. Then again, I always heard nice things about Brian Pulido before that. A few people committed career suicide, I thought, but they’re technically still around. A few people signed exclusivity deals with CROSSGEN, which … they might as well not exist to me anymore, but again, technically still around. So … I don’t know. Hopefully, Todd McFarlane fired his lawyers -- they keep losing his cases. They’re not very good, apparently.
Biggest story in comics: Paul O’Brien at NINTH ART says it’s the penetrance of manga in bookstores. I think last week I was thinking it might be that SPIDER-MAN movie. He seems right, though -- that’s a much bigger story. Especially with the plans around SHONEN JUMP, but it’s too early to say if that’s taken off yet.
Looking ahead, the why I'll probably be saying "Fucking Hollywood!" in 2003 award: probably to whoever is planning on releasing both the new Coen Brothers (INTOLERABLE CRUELTY) AND the new Quentin Tarantino movie (KILL BILL) on October 10, 2003. For the love of fuck, there's month after month of pure shit in 2003 -- why do these two movies have to open on the same day? Fucking retards! Runner-up is whoever named the FAST AND FURIOUS sequel -- 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS. Jesus ...
Looking ahead, the why I’ll probably be saying “Fucking Comics” in 2003 award: What, I need reasons??
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