One Month Later

Well, it’s been over a month since my last post. How can that be, I read so many comics and I love writing this blog, so what’s going on?

The truth is two-fold. Firstly, I’ve been busy. Yeah, yeah, I know, that’s no excuse whatsoever, so I offer you a second reason. Let me paint you a picture:

I love writing about comics. I love comics. I really love good comics. I don’t enjoy writing about comics that I haven’t enjoyed and I’ve read a lot of comics over the past month that have not entertained me as much as I hoped they would. This began when I looked over my previous posts and realised that they were nearly entirely devoted to older (Gold, Silver and Bronze Age) comics with practically nothing concerning Modern Age recent releases. So for the past month I’ve given my reading time over to recent books. But I also felt that it was a little pointless writing about whatever Alan Moore or Warren Ellis or any other high profile creator has put out over the last few months, because reviews and discussions of their works are abundant on the internet. So I was specifically looking for relatively main stream books that weren’t produced by industry giants.

I’m not going to mention what I’ve read (apart from two books which I’ll name later.) because pretty much every comic I’ve ever read is better than I could produce, so I don’t want to slight the chaps that keep the industry ticking over. Let’s just say that I got through plenty of books from a range of publishers, from the very large to the smaller indies and none of them grabbed my attention enough for me to write a post about them. Most of them were OK, a few were awful, one was really good, but I intend to purchase it as a trade when it’s released and I’ll talk about it then. But apart from that last one, none of them offered anything new to the medium. Which is kind of ironic of me to say when you consider that most of the comics I read were created decades ago.

So where does that leave us. Am I suggesting that the entire industry has stalled and that everything good to come from comics already exists. Well, that was my first knee jerk reaction of a thought. But no, I don’t think that that is the case. So what is going on?

I do tend to gravitate toward comics that are older than I am. Most of my favourites tend to be created before the early 80’s (there are plenty of exceptions though.) So when I’m reading comics to review there is a period from roughly 1935 to 1985 that I can cherry pick from. That’s a fifty year window for me to select high-lights from. Huge scope for success. Particularly when you consider that most of the comics are already considered noteworthy so I don’t often have to trawl through dozens of issues to find one gem. The gems are usually packaged in a well presented trade to facilitate my reading pleasure. But over the last month I’ve limited myself to a much smaller window. Frankly, a tiny window when you consider the number of books produced in that half century time frame. If anything, in retrospect it’s amazing that I found even the one book that was exceptional in the one month period of reading. So no, comics are alive and well, still evolving and still able to impress at least this Grumpy Sod.

But, I do have one big complaint with one particular limited series. Doc Macabre, written by Steve Niles with art by Bernie Wrightson and published by IDW. The story and art itself I have no problem with, in fact Wrightson’s art is particularly good, but the three issues have a page count of only about 15 pages of story each, and this is a $3.99 book. What you actually get is a 2 issue limited series or possibly a one off special that has been spread over 3 issues and as far as I can see, the only reason for this is to take more money out of your pocket. This really annoyed me. I don’t lay the blame at anyone’s feet in particular, although it surely rests with either writer or publisher. But practices like this in no way benefit us, the consumers. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t buy it, but you should be aware of what you’re paying for. Dirty, dirty rascals.

However, you know me, I dislike ending on a negative note so I’d like to mention a fantastic series published by Dark Horse. The only thing I’ve read over the last month that hit all the bases for me was Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom, written by the superb Jim Shooter and drawn by the previously unknown to me Roger Robinson. Jim and Rog have provided me with four issues of comic excellence and at only $3.50 with 22 pages of story (take note IDW) except for the first issue which was the same price but with a hefty 48 pages, including a classic re-print of the first Doctor Solar appearance. Super. Recommended. I’ll discuss this series further when in trade paperback, me thinks.

Mad Thinker Reads……

Pretty much anything, regardless of quality.

MT