Comics Corner

What are your favorite comics of 2019?

Some of my favorite new stories are Little Bird, Die, and Bitter Root. I havent kept up with Marvel or DC this year, but hear really good things about House of X and Powers of X, and Hickman is one of the best, so I dont doubt it. I also hear Zdarskys Daredevil is really good, even though that seems like a weird pairing at face value since Chip is really funny and Daredevil is really serious.

So many things I've been reading for a while ended this year. Walking Dead, Wicked and Divine, Black Science, Invincible, Paper Girls, and East of West
 
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Woob_woob said:
House of X and Powers of X, and Hickman is one of the best, so I dont doubt it. I also hear Zdarskys Daredevil is really good, even though that seems like a weird pairing at face value since Chip is really funny and Daredevil is really serious.
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This about nails it, it’s been the first year I have followed several Marvel titles since The mass writer exodus 4 or 5 years ago. I am so glad Hickman is back in the fold, he is one of my favorites and the new X books don't disappoint. I also enjoy Slott's run on Fantastic Four and Tom Scioli's Fantastic Four: Grand Design was fantastic too. I absolutely adore his art. Chips Daredevil has been both fun and thrilling, I have yet to find a Zdarsky book I don't like. Aaron’s Thor was great this past year with a big assist from Mike del Mundo amazing artwork. Paper Girls finished strong. As is always the case the new Megg & Mogg collection Bad Gateway is both heartbreaking and hilarious. I also finally read King's Mister Miracle another brilliant, fun, and wistful title from him. I am sad to see Way's Doom Patrol ending but it's understandable with all the MCR reunion stuff coming up.
 
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Chucktshoes said:
This could be a mortal blow. I don’t think Diamond is coming back.

Final Crisis? Diamond Comic Distributors Halts Shipments Of New Comics In Response To COVID-19 Shutdowns
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I don't think Diamond is in that much trouble - they're the only distributor - but it is concerning how much of their staff they laid off after they announced the temporary shutdown. It's not mentioned until 2/3 of the way down the column, but the biggest question is how many independent stores will be able to survive this. I've seen some shops around the country that are still taking orders & offering delivery for what they currently have, but a lot of stores are completely shut down. The manager of my local told me that when they shut down on Tuesday, communication was still so screwed up they had no idea if the shipment of this week's books was on its way. But even if it was, they likely couldn't afford to pay for it and would have had to reject it. With general slowdown of sales for the last month, the delay of ECCC which was their big moneymaker each year, and the shelter-in-place order shutting them down & keeping customers away, they'll be scrambling whenever "normal" life resumes. I've been going there 20 years and this could be the death knell.

Marvel and DC are going to have to make some big changes to communication (not making big announcements after the preorder cut-off date), the way they require stores to pre-order (e.g., 100 copies of the standard cover in order to get the exclusive variant, whose sale will cover the whole order... if it sells), and the sheer number of books they're pushing out on a weekly basis. In a sad irony, it's the type of thing Image Comics has been yelling about for the last couple years while reducing the number of books they publish. Nobody can fix distribution (and many of the same complaints as record shops have after consolidation to 1 Warner-affiliated distributor), but there are a lot of things they can do with pricing and scheduling of the books.

Best-case scenario, all this does is push the printing & shipping schedule out from the original, and that gives time for the publishers, Diamond, and stores to assess and come up with a better system that allows everyone who can to keep going.
 
serotonein said:
I don't think Diamond is in that much trouble - they're the only distributor - but it is concerning how much of their staff they laid off after they announced the temporary shutdown. It's not mentioned until 2/3 of the way down the column, but the biggest question is how many independent stores will be able to survive this. I've seen some shops around the country that are still taking orders & offering delivery for what they currently have, but a lot of stores are completely shut down. The manager of my local told me that when they shut down on Tuesday, communication was still so screwed up they had no idea if the shipment of this week's books was on its way. But even if it was, they likely couldn't afford to pay for it and would have had to reject it. With general slowdown of sales for the last month, the delay of ECCC which was their big moneymaker each year, and the shelter-in-place order shutting them down & keeping customers away, they'll be scrambling whenever "normal" life resumes. I've been going there 20 years and this could be the death knell.

Marvel and DC are going to have to make some big changes to communication (not making big announcements after the preorder cut-off date), the way they require stores to pre-order (e.g., 100 copies of the standard cover in order to get the exclusive variant, whose sale will cover the whole order... if it sells), and the sheer number of books they're pushing out on a weekly basis. In a sad irony, it's the type of thing Image Comics has been yelling about for the last couple years while reducing the number of books they publish. Nobody can fix distribution (and many of the same complaints as record shops have after consolidation to 1 Warner-affiliated distributor), but there are a lot of things they can do with pricing and scheduling of the books.

Best-case scenario, all this does is push the printing & shipping schedule out from the original, and that gives time for the publishers, Diamond, and stores to assess and come up with a better system that allows everyone who can to keep going.
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Diamond has been struggling and hanging on by a thread for a long time. It is one thing to shut down most operations and furlough the staff to respond to the current crisis. The thing to really pay attention to is the fact that they have stopped accepting deliveries and are only shipping the product that they have in the warehouse at this point. This shut down applies to both their comic and toy divisions.

The biggest changes that Marvel and DC could do to help the print comic industry would be to stop shipping out trash books that nobody is buying. That said, it is rumored that AT&T is on the verge of shutting down DC‘s print publication division. I strongly suspect that over the next few years comics will move to a strictly online distribution model outside of a few niche creators using crowdsourced funding.
 
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I inadvertently ended up with an extra copy of the X-Men GN "God Loves, Man Kills" and missed my return window on Amazon. Anyone interested in it? $10 including shipping in the US. Also, happy to trade for something that would go onto the PIF thread too if you are looking to move some vinyl you don't listen to, instead. Thanks!
 
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Here's a little mention on the whole comics distro debacle right now.

And no, literally nobody anywhere is talking about releasing new print comics right now, so don't ask. The sole comics distributor has suspended operations and suspended payments to publishers. It is entirely possible that some people pointed out a de facto monopoly international comics distributor was a bad idea twenty five years ago. I may even have been there at the time.
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Until the dust settles on who's shipping what when (Diamond says maybe by mid-May, DC says they're going to start using 2 new distributors in a couple weeks... but are all the people involved in printing & shipping even open again?... and Batman #92 isn't coming until June, so....), there's a new digital comic, Friday, from Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martin. Brubaker is calling it "post-YA", and so far it feels like what the Nancy Drew tv show *should* have done. He wanted the art to have a Lovecraft's New England meets Edward Gorey, and damned if Marcos doesn't just nail it. It's pay what you want, so you could technically download for free, but in this case you know all your $ is going directly to the creators.

I'm generally not one for digital comics, prefer tactile feeling and physical ownership (and trying to reduce my screen time), but I've really liked what Marcos has put together with his company. Also, a couple of the comics, The Private Eye and Barrier (both by Brian K Vaughan and Marcos and Muntsa Vicente), were eventually printed by Image and sold in stores & I recommend getting your hands/eyes on both.
 
Anybody here familiar with Chuck Dixon's Winterworld? My brother gave me a collection of (I think) everything he's published for it to date (it's a little hard to tell because they're so spread out over time and multiple runs are just called Winterworld).

Anyway, he also published a companion novel a few years ago called Winterworld: The Mechanic's Song, and whew, it was dark. Not a comic, but comic-adjacent. It's a prequel to the comics, and aside from a few references to the character of Wynn, you don't really need to be familiar with the comics to understand/enjoy the book (not that the comics have been big on continuity anyway).

Most of my familiarity with Dixon was from his 90s-00s work for DC, especially in the Bat books. I don't think I was really prepared for just how bleak this book would get.

Edit: I also wasn't aware of Dixon's political bent until reading more about him just now, but that explains some of the worldview on display from his narration in the book.
 
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So, I guess this would have been SDCC this week...Does anyone have anything cool they want to plug? I saw Mondo is doing some cool poster and soundtrack offerings.

I'm trying to pick up some of the Eisner nominees this summer. I currently have Daredevil and Bitter Root on my pull list. My buddy recommended Criminal so that's on my list, and I think I'm going to try Little Bird tonight.
 
gregathon said:
So, I guess this would have been SDCC this week...Does anyone have anything cool they want to plug? I saw Mondo is doing some cool poster and soundtrack offerings.

I'm trying to pick up some of the Eisner nominees this summer. I currently have Daredevil and Bitter Root on my pull list. My buddy recommended Criminal so that's on my list, and I think I'm going to try Little Bird tonight.
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I loved Little Bird and any crime series by Brubaker and Phillips is a must read for me. Also good to see Crowded nominated as it's a series that is much better than i expected when I started it. I'm going to have to pick up Zdarsky's Daredevil as I enjoy both the writer and character, but I've been mostly staying away from the capes lately.
 
Of the ones not already mentioned (but wholeheartedly co-sign on Daredevil, Bitter Root, Little Bird, and anything at all by Brubaker/Phillips) - Al Ewing has been doing fantastic work on Immortal Hulk, haven't read Sentient yet but like Lemire and recommend everyone check out TKO in general as a newer publisher that's trying to shake things up a bit, Undiscovered Country, and Pretty Deadly (only got Cover Artist and Letterer nods but fantastic writing by DeConnick and art also by Rios [and Bellaire]).
 
I'm watching Mondo like a Hawk this week, they teased a Bill and Ted something or other.

Comic related, I picked up the Sandman Audio drama, started listening today, it's pretty good. I've only read the first volume or so, so I'm looking forward to hearing more. I've only recently gotten into Neil Gaiman, having just listened to Neverwhere and Stardust. I don't count Good Omens, that was pretty much a Pratchett novel with a bit of Gaiman on the side.
 
Woob_woob said:
I loved Little Bird and any crime series by Brubaker and Phillips is a must read for me. Also good to see Crowded nominated as it's a series that is much better than i expected when I started it. I'm going to have to pick up Zdarsky's Daredevil as I enjoy both the writer and character, but I've been mostly staying away from the capes lately.
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I'll have to check out Crowded then - looks like maybe a light hearted Black Mirror concept! I really enjoy this run of Daredevil as Zdarsky's mainly paired with Marco Checchetto who really just knocks the dark moodiness out of the park. Zdarsky can do a more serious comic surprisingly well. It's a pretty stark contrast after I caught up on the Waid/Samnee run.

serotonein said:
Of the ones not already mentioned (but wholeheartedly co-sign on Daredevil, Bitter Root, Little Bird, and anything at all by Brubaker/Phillips) - Al Ewing has been doing fantastic work on Immortal Hulk, haven't read Sentient yet but like Lemire and recommend everyone check out TKO in general as a newer publisher that's trying to shake things up a bit, Undiscovered Country, and Pretty Deadly (only got Cover Artist and Letterer nods but fantastic writing by DeConnick and art also by Rios [and Bellaire]).
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I love Gideon Falls so I'm down to expand more on Lemire. Looks like TKO also has a Garth Ennis series called "Sara" about a Soviet Sniper that sounds intriguing. Seems like they are angling for a more boutique style of indie publishing with those box sets. Yeah Immortal Hulk has been something that's been getting a ton of praise that I just haven't picked up yet. One of these nights I'll sit down and check it out...

Max Sterling said:
I'm watching Mondo like a Hawk this week, they teased a Bill and Ted something or other.

Comic related, I picked up the Sandman Audio drama, started listening today, it's pretty good. I've only read the first volume or so, so I'm looking forward to hearing more. I've only recently gotten into Neil Gaiman, having just listened to Neverwhere and Stardust. I don't count Good Omens, that was pretty much a Pratchett novel with a bit of Gaiman on the side.
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Most Excellent - good luck with Mondo if it's one of those limited releases! That Sandman Audio has an UNREAL cast!!! Never read Stardust, but I really enjoyed the movie when it came out, and didn't realize it was Neil Gaiman for years.
 
Mondo teased a Batman Animated Series Vol 2. vinyl release as well.

Been lucky to go to SDCC a number of years now. Usually grab something from Mondo, and a Bobs Burgers item from Toddland too.

Going to re-read Mark Evanier's excellent biography of Jack Kirby over the next few days, and watch some of the virtual panels. Today has some good ones - Oddball Comics not So Live, Marvel 616, Music for Animation, and a MSTK Panel to close things out.

 
I picked up Sentient after reading the free preview chapter on TKO's site. Was happy to support my LCBS through TKO's online orders (50% to you designated store).

I went with the trade PB. Haven't read the rest yet, but the one thing I did note on arrival is that I wasn't a huge fan of the paper it was printed on. Dunno why, just feels weird. Might've preferred some gloss.
 
Max Sterling said:
I'm watching Mondo like a Hawk this week, they teased a Bill and Ted something or other.
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Looks like it's a poster - available Saturday morning:

sdccblog.com

Mondo San Diego Comic-Con Online 2020 Exclusives & Panels [UPDATE July 24]

Can't have Comic-Con without Mondo — and the good news is, you don't have to. Today, we learned more about Mondo's Comic-Con @ Home plans, which include panels and live chats, as well as exclusives for Batman, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, X-Men, and more through their
sdccblog.com sdccblog.com
 
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