At the end of one of my favorite comic book podcasts, 11 O'Clock Comics, they have a segment called "In Your Travels" right before they sign off. In this segment, everyone gives their weekly recommendation for either a comic book series, trade paperback, OGN, or web comic that they are recommending to the fellow members of the podcast as well as the listening audience.
I thought it would be cool to have a thread on here where people could recommend a book as well as give the reasons why. Normally, it's a book that they don't think others are reading, but sometimes it's just a book that any particular member is enjoying at the time.
So I ask this: What do you recommend? Why?
Replies
I'll bite.
The Misadventures of Adam West (Blue Water comics) is, well...FUN! The idea behind it is that somehow Adam is being shifted between various types of Hollywood scripts, trying to defeat the villain and save the girl. He continually inherits the life of the main character int he script and has to get past the script's villain in his attempt to defeat the main villain and get away. It's got a bit of a Quantum Leap thing going for itself. I wouldn't call the art the best, but it's serviceable. All in all, it's just a fun read.
Rachel Rising by Terry Moore.
I think of Terry Moore (sort of) like Milton Caniff, who had the guts to walk away from a hugely successful strip (Terry & the Pirates) to create a new one (Steve Canyon) when another syndicate offered him a better deal. Moore has already proven (with the recently-completed Echo) that the success of Strangers in Paradise wasn't a fluke. In Rachel Rising, he has created a story as different from Echo as Echo was from SiP. It's too early to describe exactly what it's "about," but it's a character-driven story that begins with a woman who has apparently risen from the dead.
I have to admit that I have never ever read a Terry Moore comic. And RJ, it's good to know that Bluewater puts out some comics that aren't biographies!
In your travels this week, check out The Compleat Terminal City. Although it was originally published by Vertigo, the "compleat" version just came out a couple weeks ago, this time published by Dark Horse. The volume includes both the original seven issue series and the five issue follow up series, Aerial Graffiti. It was written by Dean Motter and drawn by Michael Lark. The art doesn't look like the Michael Lark you know today. The figure work is the same, but the lines are much thinner and cleaner. The story is about an ensemble of citizens sometime in the present day, but the present day as it was envisioned back in the World's Fair of the 1930's. Household robots, cityscapes with streets in the sky, and a sky full of blimps are all a part of the Terminal City world. It's a very cool series. I found out that Motter had a third TC series planned, but Vertigo wouldn't publish it, so he took it to Dark Horse and called it Electropolis. I haven't read that one, but I might now.
I mentioned it the Cappies Memory Box, but I highly recommend My Friend Dahmer, by Derf. Derf actually went to school with Dahmer, and the story takes place mostly during their high school years. It was creepy and fascinating. I wasnt' a big fan of his art on the original comic, but he has really refined it and it looks great.
He includes copious notes at the end, some pictures, and some of his art from that era.
It really was one of those books I couldn't put down.
I understand they're supposed to be putting out a Julie Newmar comic shortly as well. There's a preview here.
JeffCarter said:
This is a good idea for a thread, Jeff. I'll try to add to it as often as I come across something.
This week, the best issue I read was Avenging Spider-man #5. The world might not need another Spider-man title but this one is fun. Issue 1-3 was a team up with the Red Hulk, you may groan at that combo. I know I did. Turns out it was a blast. If you want jokey, carefree Spidey this is a great title. Issue 4 was a team up with Hawkeye and it was pretty good, thought the portrayal of Hawkeye seemed a bit off to me. Issue #5 centered on Spidey's relationship with Captain America. This was a terrific issue. It focuses on Cap's past as an artist. Peter is ecstatic that Cap was a nerd. He tries to connect with Cap on it but it doesn't work...or does it. The whole series is fun but check this one out for sure.
Fun idea!
I've hyped it before, but I can't gush enough about the (currently on hiatus) Dungeons & Dragons series from IDW. If you're at all a fan of John Rogers' work, his writing here will definitely fit your bill: it's got the fun sense of adventure from Blue Beetle, and the character-driven team dynamics of Leverage. The stories are pretty by-the-numbers, with just enough clever twists to keep it fun, and the cast of heroes are fully realized. And Andrea Di Vito's artwork is absolutely beautiful. Don't take my word for it; Comics Alliance's Chris Sims reviewed it last year, and he expresses perfectly what's so good about the book (and has some great scans to show off that Di Vito artwork).
The series may be on hiatus, but the first collected volume, Shadowplague, is worth picking up. It's a high-quality printing, which makes the art absolutely pop. You want something fun and compelling to read, this is the one to pick up.
I've been reading Carl Barks Greatest Ducktales vol 1.
It's a collection from the 90s that came out to accompany the Duck Tales TV cartoon. It collects several Barks stories on which episodes of the cartoon were based. These are really my first exposure to Barks' work. I'd always heard he was great, and these stories are masterfully done. Every panel has some great expressions on the character's faces or posture. His characterisation is amazing, often working by subverting expectations.
Huey, Dewey and Louey are the bravest and most sensible, even though they are little kids. Donald Duck is often the long-suffering voice of reason, which is not his role in anything else I've seen him in. Scrooge McDuck isn't all meanness, often showing decency and fairness in his dealings with others and sometimes even a soft heart.
I got the book from the library to read to my 3 year old. Unfortunately, her being a 3 year old, she wants the same stories over and over again, so I've only read three of them so far. One about Scrooge's past as a gold prospector in the Yukon, one about his ancestral Scottish castle being terrorised by "The Hound of the Whiskervilles", and finally, last night, I was able to read her one about a little spaceship full of Micronauts tiny duck spacemen.
Structurally, the stories are a bit like The Simpsons. They begin on one innocuous topic, (Scrooge's bad memory, a visit to an art museum and a broken window respectively in the stories above) but then spin off in a completely different, wildly imaginative direction.
Despite some of the story matter being complicated and sometimes quite sophisticated, the Wean* was able to follow the action, and certainly understood the emotional heart of each story beat. She was outraged when Scrooge McDuck woke up in the snow to find his big gold nugget stolen, and she got a thrill out of Glittering Goldie's pet bear attacking the group. She keeps asking for 'the story with the bear!'
I see on Amazon that the collection I have out now is currently selling for 90 bucks in new condition, despite it originally being produced as a cheap collection.
If you have only heard of Barks' work but haven't gotten around to reading him, do try to check some out. He's a master storyteller in the graphic form.
*child
I remember grabbing one of the early issues of Teminal City and thinking there was something there, but it didn't quite get there in that single issue. Is this something that is serialized or a bunch of done-in-ones?
JeffCarter said:
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