127: What?s Actually Good (In Comics)

[Dominic Davies]

What?s Actually Good (In Comics)

"The brilliant writer of 100 Bullets, Brian Azzarello, recalls in an interview being told by a lawyer of all people 'novels are about what people think; plays are about what people say; and film is about what people do. And comics is about all of that, or has the potential to be about all of that.' All these elements can be found within your modern comic book, and this is the medium's greatest strength. ? And there are a lot of them. Enough to confuse even a veteran page-turner. So, if you're new to modern comics, what should you be reading?"

Dominic Davies, in an exclusive off-topic feature for The Escapist, examines what's hot right now in the world of comics.


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[Quistnix]

I can only add one thing to your list: Mike Mignola's excellent Hellboy series. I haven't read anything that can match it yet.

 

[Vail]

I would have mentioned the writer Gail Simone who is very hot right now. She's writing Wonder Woman and is receiving rave reviews. She also made Birds of Prey a hit. For younger readers PS 238 is a great comic with kid superheroes.

 

[Spinwhiz]

It's nice to see The Escapist with a little something different! Some off-topic stuff is always fun! Great article. I'll have to check a couple of those writers out.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Props for breaking things down by author, which is really how people should be looking at comics, not the franchise they belong to.

Though how you mentioned Brian K Vaughan and missed out Pride of Baghdad, easily the best comic of last year, is a mystery.

Also, stepping away from DC/Vertigo/Wildstorm, I also reccommend Finder, by Carla Speed Mcneil.

 

[aidopotato]

While the article mentioned Bendis, I'm surprised it didn't mention 'Powers'- a real breath of fresh air in the superhero field; as is Kurt Busiek's "Astro City".

Keep an eye out for 'Stray Bullets'by David Lapham. It's fairly old (say 10 years or so) but very very good- especially the earlier ones. Very knowing, well-drawn, coherent noir...

 

[oneplus999]

Ok, one thing to learn about Wikipedia - NEVER EVER QUOTE IT DIRECTLY! Absolutely ANYONE could have written that. It's useful for a cursory summary of a subject, but it really shouldn't ever be used as a source. Instead, look at the citation for the information you want to quote, and cite that source, and not Wikipedia itself. If you can't find the underlying source, it is simply not a valid quote.

 

[Thaddeus]

I've been enjoying the hell out of Ed Brubaker's current runs on Captain America and The Immortal Iron Fist.

 

[Zanzibar]

I must have had bad luck with superhero comics before, because every single issue I've ever read I would easily summarise with one word: Rubbish.
Of course, I haven't specifically been looking for different authors/artists either.

Now, I'm not American so I don't have any natural fondness with Superheroes like you over the pond seems to have, and that might colour my perspective of it all. Here in Sweden we have a huge comic industry as well, however you will be very hard pressed to find comics about superheroes.
I've got a pretty large collection of comics myself actually. Should I count them there'd probably be somewhere between 1000-3000 comics and pocket comic books, where a large part of them are Donald Duck, who's huge in Sweden.
In fact, nearly all the comics in Sweden are comedy comics, made to make you laugh. You'd be hard pressed at finding more dramatic comics over here, and of those few I can think of right now it's "The Phantom" and "Secret Agent X-9" who are the most popular. Hard to find a store which sells them though.

Still, no matter what kind of comics you enjoy I'd recomment trying to get ahold of Don Rosas Donald Duck comics. It's without a doubt the best Disney writer out there right now, with imense detail and thought put into both art and writing.

 

[onefiddyone]

Now I'm very happy to see the Escapist doing some comics coverage. That said I'm pretty disappointed by that coverage. First off it was very brief, two pages with plenty of semi-filler content.

And as a fan of comics and manga I have to say the second to last sentence "So get out there, take some market share away from that generic manga bullshit and be a better person for it." is just ignorant. Yes lots of manga is "generic bullshit" but no more or less so than American comics. A manga like PlanetES is both amazing an unlike anything else in manga or comics. The Akria manga would be another example of an amazing work. It might seem cliched now was ground breaking on release.

The comment on manga had nothing to do with the content of the article and just makes you look petty and ignorant.

I agree with most of your comics recommendations, though I think not mentioning Fables is a cardinal sin.

 

[onefiddyone]

Oh and RE Zanzibar's post, most comics are "bad." Just like most TV shows, movies, and games are. That said there are tons of good comics. One problem with these major franchises comics is there are 100s of back issues and tons of history. This can make finding an X-Men or Superman comic made recently that you can follow and appreciate hard.

There are a few solutions to this. Comics unconnected to these vast back stories have been made, most notably Marvel's Ultimate line. Another option is shorter comics involving new super heroes. Planetary mentioned in the article is one of the best of these but there are many others.

Then there are more and more comics that have no super powers involved. Y the Last Man, DMZ, or 100 Bullets are example of these (Vertigo publishes some good comics...)

Of course you said most comics you read are designed to make you laugh. Most "serious" comics or comic books will have humorous moments but are not designed to make you laugh all the time. When you read Ultimate X-Men think of it like watching an action movie, when you read Y the Last man think of it as a drama. Few comic books are like a comedy, in America that is usually saved for news paper comics.

 

[preacher212]

The comics i'd reccomend would have to be, Neil Gaimans: The Sandman (like a mature fairytale and also a fantasy) , Garth Ennis's: Preacher (like reading a very well made action movie) , and Warren Ellis's: Transmetropolitan ( sci-fi which is not only interesting, full of lovable character, but amazingly hilarious).

 

[Vail]

I like superhero comics and manga myself (I love Wallflower series among others). I might even try the manga version of the X-men that will be coming out.

 

[GloatingSwine]

I must have had bad luck with superhero comics before, because every single issue I've ever read I would easily summarise with one word: Rubbish.
Of course, I haven't specifically been looking for different authors/artists either.

Superhero comics frequently are rubbish.

Fortunately, there are a growing number of comics, including many of the ones referenced in the article, where there is not a cape to be seen. Start with Transmetropolitan.

 

[Joe]

Ok, one thing to learn about Wikipedia - NEVER EVER QUOTE IT DIRECTLY! Absolutely ANYONE could have written that. It's useful for a cursory summary of a subject, but it really shouldn't ever be used as a source. Instead, look at the citation for the information you want to quote, and cite that source, and not Wikipedia itself. If you can't find the underlying source, it is simply not a valid quote.

You do understand how humor works, right?

 

[fupjack]

This article mentions a few decent authors, who will be very difficult to find in one of the few surviving comics shops in the country. It totally ignores anything from smaller publishers, or from outside the US borders. This is like a general article about games that only covers RPGs produced by Activision. I could rant a lot more, but I'd end up rewriting the article.

Comics are a medium, not a genre. An article like this is not helpful when it ignores the output of the entire world, including all U.S. publishers other than Marvel and DC. It's all well and good to name authors worth reading, but it's naming corporate properties that were done as work for hire. It's like recommending Star Trek novelizations "because these ones are less crappy".

I don't even care for manga and I find that last comment irritating.

And! No mention of places you can buy the physical issues of comics mentioned in the article? Given the number and quality of comics shops in the US, that pretty much guarantees nobody's going to get them.

And and! Nothing about webcomics? What the hell do you think we're using to read this?

Anyway: yay comics coverage, boo coverage depth.

 

[Virgil]

Although he isn't very prolific, I also suggest taking a look at the few runs penned by Kevin Smith. His take on both Daredevil and Green Arrow were fantastic - if the movie writing/directing thing doesn't work out, the man definitely belongs in comics.

 

[Smokescreen]

I thought this article was too brief, and considering the breadth of comic books out there, too focused on superhero stuff. Only about 6 writers (and then the plethora of books they've done) and it ignores things like Brubaker's crime stuff, or Walking Dead, or almost all of Dark Horse's or IDW's publications.

 

[DominicDavies]

Now I'm very happy to see the Escapist doing some comics coverage. That said I'm pretty disappointed by that coverage. First off it was very brief, two pages with plenty of semi-filler content.

And as a fan of comics and manga I have to say the second to last sentence "So get out there, take some market share away from that generic manga bullshit and be a better person for it." is just ignorant. Yes lots of manga is "generic bullshit" but no more or less so than American comics. A manga like PlanetES is both amazing an unlike anything else in manga or comics. The Akria manga would be another example of an amazing work. It might seem cliched now was ground breaking on release.

The comment on manga had nothing to do with the content of the article and just makes you look petty and ignorant.

I agree with most of your comics recommendations, though I think not mentioning Fables is a cardinal sin.

I am petty, yes. Ignorant? I wouldn't say so. Manga used to take up a big part of my budget as well but I find that these days the artwork and writing seems too generic and bland. I found this with anime too. You are right however, I was making a very general comment, although I am probably just upset with how poorly my beloved Western comics are suffering right now compared to say in the early 90s when I was younger.

Akira will always have a prominent spot on my bookshelf.

It was short yeah, I agree. I could have mentioned many more writers and artists, including Gail Simone, Bill Willingham and of course Ed Brubaker but there was just no room. I had limits. So much more could be said, I agree.

I am sorry I missed so much, but there really is quite a lot to fit in. I am glad people are bringing up what I missed, gives those people who are new to the industry even more to look for.

Just here and now guys if you are interested in those three writers I would tell you to go out and get Birds of Pray (Simone's run just ended on it), Fables (still going strong from Bill) and Brubaker's Captain America. In Cap you might have heard about the big thing that just went down (I noticed some American newspapers ran a story on it) to do with Cap's death. It really is superbly written.

Oh, and I am never going to mention webcomics ever again because thats really not what I am into but I will say here and now that xkcd.com is my favorite.