Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Indy comics and the wait

Back in the day, before graphic novels saveded comics, everyone released floppies/pamphlets/comics - some regularly, some irregularly.

Marvel and DC were regular. The indendents were irregular but there was always something. There was always an Eightball, or Hate, or Andi Watson effort. A Sin City series was pretty annual, Madman, the tick, bone, stray bullet, a pekar effort. There was always something cool to grab.
Now days it feels output has ground to a halt. DC and Marvel would have filler issues when regular creative teams on a book were late. Now everyone is working on and for trades. Since stories are designed for 6 issue cmpliations, Editors don't like interrupting stories with inventory, which is sort of understanable.
So you have stuff like Ultimates coming out 5 times a year (i'm not sure, don't read it but i've heard its not anywhere near monthly). On the indy side, creators are going straight to Graphic novel, skipping serialisation, meaning i have to wait a whole year for 144 pages, instead of 2 months for 28 pages.

What am i supposed to read on the dunny?

Sure some really good stuff is serialised, like Andi Watson's stuff, Losers, Y the last man, etc but i'm going to get the trade anyway and I don't like paying for the same thing twice (lap dances being the exception).
So i have to buy something, i've been socially conditioned by Marvel and DC to buy something when i visit my local comic shop, so i buy bubble gum pop comics.

Sleeper - the second season not as great as the first but still good (and its finished now too).
Legion of Superheroes - on time, dependable. Its got great pacing and dialogue.
Young Avengers - yes i'm a sucker for teen comics, but this is very funny and has some weight, ie its not over in 10 minutes.
Blade of the immortal - this i'm getting because of momentum, haven't actually read it for years, but it looks pretty
Captian America and the Falcon - Christopher Priest makes comics worth reading, its a shame he's usually held back by crappy art and his books keep getting cancelled.

Besides Blade, all wordy dense comics.

Also tried recently
City of tommorrow - Blow jobs, head wounds, weird hair; check check check. Its a Howard Chaykin comic. Not bad, i'm interested in more.
Desolation Jones - Warren Ellis, writing fan fiction staring himself. It was clever that the main chracter was in an experiment that meant he didn't sleep for a year and so far the set up is homage to "Big Sleep" but otherwise - nice art.
Nerd of Apocalypse - crap

1 comment:

Mark Selan said...

Spaceship go ZAP!