Cartoonists and critics log the comics they read, as they read them.
Flaming Carrot 25 1991 Bob Burden Dark Horse
The Last Generation 1 1986 Bill Bryer Mitch Foust David Porch Black Tie Studios
The Last Generation 2 1987 Bill Bryer Mitch Foust David Porch Black Tie Studios
Korak 51 1973 Robert Kanigher Frank Thorne DC Comics
The Last Generation 3 1987 Bill Bryer Mitch Foust David Porch Black Tie Studios
Flaming Carrot 26 1991 Bob Burden Dark Horse
Robin Red and the Lutins1 1986 Pat Boyette ACE Comics
Dark Angels of Darkness 2018 Al Gofa Peow Studio
Dr Strange The Best Defense Special 1 2019 Gerry Duggan Greg Smallwood Marvel
Project X: Thumpin’ Guts 1 1993 Kevin Eastman Simon Bisley Kitchen Sink
Flaming Carrot 27 1991 Bob Burden Dark Horse
Lust for Life 4 1998 Jeff LeVine Slave Labor Graphics
Here’s the first twelve comics I read this year, I’ll continue the numbering through 2019 and see how many I can get. I also read through Amazing Heroes #145 today but it’s not on the list because it’s not a comic book.
From Robin Red and the Lutins:
That Korak issue is the last one in the series by Frank thorne, seems like it’s about Korak being on a search for a girl who wants to hook up with him, he’s willing to get involved in some Thunderdome type shit inside a volcano for her – but it winds up being a dream.
The Flaming Carrot issues are his team-up with the ninja turtles and the battle some evil umpires. Fun but dumb.
Thumpin Guts is completely moronic but with high production values.
Dark Angels of Darkness is definitely a great comic, check it out.
42. Claw the
Unconquered 10, 1978, David Michelinie, Keith Giffen, John Celardo, DC
Comics
43. Eclipso 7, 1993,
Keith Giffen/Robert Loren Fleming, Ted McKeever, DC Comics
44. All-Star Squadron
Annual 3, 1984, Roy Thomas, Various, DC Comics
45. Action Comics
565, 1985, Mort Todd/Keith Giffen/Robert Loren Fleming, Kurt Schaffenberger, Keith
GIffen, Bob Oksner, DC Comics
46. The Mighty
Crusaders 2, 1966, Jerry Siegel, Mike Sekowsky/Paul Reinman, Paul
Reinman/Frank Giacoia/Joe Giella, Radio Comics/Archie
47. DC Silver Age
Classics Detective Comics 225, 1992, DC Comics
48. The Mighty
Crusaders 7, 1966, Radio Comics/Archie
49. Legion of
Super-Heroes 1, 1984, Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen Keith Giffen Larry Mahlstedt,
DC Comics
50. Legion of
Super-Heroes 2, 1984, Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen Keith Giffen Larry Mahlstedt,
DC Comics
51. Legion of
Super-Heroes 3, 1984, Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen Keith Giffen Larry Mahlstedt,
DC Comics
52. Legion of
Super-Heroes Annual 3, 1984, Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen Curt Swan/Keith
Giffen Romeo Tanghal, DC Comics
53. Legion of
Super-Heroes 4, 1984, Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen Steve Lightle Larry
Mahlstedt, DC Comics
54. Legion of
Super-Heroes 5, 1984, Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen Steve Lightle Mike DeCarlo, DC
Comics
55. Legion of
Super-Heroes 6, 1985, Paul Levitz Joe Orlando Larry Mahlstedt, DC Comics
56. Legion of
Super-Heroes 7, 1985, Paul Levitz Steve Lightle Larry Mahlstedt, DC Comics
57. Gregory, 1989,
Marc Hempel, Piranha Press/DC Comics
58. Legion of
Super-Heroes 8, 1985, Paul Levitz Steve Lightle Larry Mahlstedt, DC Comics
59. Terminator: The
Burning Earth 1, 1990, Ron Fortier Alex Ross, Now Comics
60. DC Comics
Presents, 80 ,1985, Paul Kupperberg Curt Swan Dave Hunt, DC Comics
61. Manhunter Special
1, 2017, Giffen/DiDio/Humphries Buckingham/Rude, DC Comics
62. Legion of
Super-Heroes 9, 1985, Paul Levitz Steve Lightle Larry Mahlstedt, DC Comics
63. Space Family
Robinson Lost in Space 25, 1967, Dan Spiegle, Gold Key
64. Splitting Image
1, 1993 Don Simpson, Image Comics
65. Splitting Image
2, 1993 Don Simpson, Image Comics
Well, I read a ton of Keith Giffen comics, new and old, this month. I think I burned myself out on him! The Manhunter Special from 2017 is the most recent comic by him that I’ve read – the art is layout/breakdowns by Giffen and finished by Buckingham but it’s so close to Giffen’s line that it looks like he drew it. It’s a lousy comic.
I also started re-reading the Baxter paper era of Legion of Super-Heroes and I have to admit, it’s not great – for die-hard LSH fans only. I like the art by Giffen and later by Steve Lightle but the stories are not very exciting or well-told. I’m planning to read the whole series so we’ll see how it goes.
Marc Hempel’s Gregory is a really nice looking comic, really good cartooning. May be problematic subject matter.
The Mighty Crusaders stars the super-heroic characters from MLJ/Archie comics. I like these ‘60s off-brand heroes (everybody was riding the coattails of the Batman TV show, I think?) and Jerry Siegel is good at writing them. I try to pick up MLJ mags, Dell’s Super-Heroes and monster Heroes when I see them cheap.
18. Billy Nguyen, Private Eye 1 1988, John Hartman, Stanley Shaw, Attitude Zone/O'Leary’s Books 19. N for Nadelman 2019, John Hankiewicz 20. Charlton Action featuring Static 11 1985, Steve Ditko, Charlton Comics Group 21. New York: Year Zero 2 1988, Ricardo Barreiro, Juan Zanotto, Eclipse Comics 22. New York: Year Zero 3 1988, Ricardo Barreiro, Juan Zanotto, Eclipse Comics 23. New York: Year Zero 4 1988, Ricardo Barreiro, Juan Zanotto, Eclipse Comics 24. Tough Guys and Wild Women 1 1989, Walter Johnson, Eternity Comics 25. Invasion ‘55 1 1990, Chuck Dixon, Lito Fernandez, Apple Comics 26. They Were Chosen to be the Survivors 3 1983, Steve Woron/Bob Lewis, Spectrum Comics 27. Alpha Flight 47 1987, Bill Mantlo,Craig Brasfield/Mike Mignola/Steve Purcell, Whilce Portacio/Terry Austin, Marvel 28. Alpha Flight 48 1987, Bill Mantlo, Terry Shoemaker, Steve Leialoha/Hilary Barta, Marvel 29. Alpha Flight 83 1990, James D. Hudnall, James Sherman, Marvel 30. Wolverine the Jungle Adventure 1990, Walter Simonson, Mike Mignola, Bob Wiacek, Marvel
Alpha Flight:
Alpha Flight 47 is weird, a fill-in I guess, it looks like the artists alternated pages. I did a flip-thru at the store and thought it was all Mignola so I got it but I was disappointed. Alpha Flight 83 was a really nice looking comic drawn by Jim Sherman who you’ll remember from a handful of Legion of Super-Heroes comics and The Fly #1.
They Were Chosen to be the Survivors:
I remember Steve Woron’s name from years ago in Previews – back then every issue there always seemed to be a softcore looking comic that he’d drawn the cover for. But Survivors #3 is a sci-fi super comic, not very well written but they take advantage of the color – I saw the first issue in the bin the other day and it was black and white so maybe this is the first color issue in the series – and there’s these neat spider robots.
Invasion ‘55: This artist Lito Fernandez seems like he’s just a hair away from drawing a really great comic in Canniff style. This one suffers from some screwy/confusing balloon reading order. No letterer is credited so I assume it was done by the artist. The story’s kind of fun with a fucked up ending where a kid’s whole class is killed by aliens and thrown in a pit. There’s an essay by Chuck Dixon (who wrote this comic) in the front cover where he claims he’d never vote for a Democrat, wonder if that’s still true.
New York Year Zero: This is an Escape From New York/Mad Max type of comic. It’s like something you’d see in Heavy Metal – the story’s all about future violence and the art by Juan Zanotto is really good, I’d check out more comics by him but I’m not sure if there’s anything else in English.
The Rest:
The Billy Nguyen comic sucked, they’d been reading Howard Chaykin comics I think. It gets points, though, for being published by an outfit called Attitude Zone because that’s a pretty cool name for a comic book publisher.
Charlton Action feat. Static was fine, I’m not the biggest Ditko fan but I keep trying.
Tough Guys and Wild Women reprints some ‘40s comics starring The Saint, even though it’s not very obvious by the title. But the comics suck so who cares. They also put the Canniff swipe right on the cover to confuse you.
The Verdict:
I’m adding N for Nadelman, Alpha Flight 83, and Wolverine’s Jungle Adventure to my collection and putting the rest in the discard bag.
Electric Warrior: This is the first time I’ve read any of these and it’s a pretty promising series. It’s like a darker ‘80s version of Magnus Robot Fighter, I guess. Great drawing by Jim Baikie and neat story set up by Doug Moench. I’m curious about how this story goes, maybe I’ll read it online sometime.
Champion Sports #3: I love comics by Jerry Grandinetti, just great drawings.
Dakota North This is a really fun series. I expected to just check out the Tony Salmons artwork and ignore the the rest but it’s a solid, fun comic. Will keep my eyes out for the rest of the series.
Crossed Swords and Daemon Mask: Two nutty comics from the black & white boom of the 80s. Crossed Swords is a goofy fantasy comic with wizards and warriors, real amateur artwork but I found it very charming. If I ever feel like doing a fantasy comic it’s going to be Crossed Swords #2. Daemon Mask has really nice drawings and a completely oddball story inspired by the old time pulp magazines. They were both definitely worth the half dollar apiece I paid for them.
Odds and Ends Roundup: Tarzan by Jesse Marsh is always fun; more Legion; a dash of Dandy Don; brand X super-heroics from Peter Cannon Thunderbolt by the stellar Pete Morisi; wouldn’t mind seeing a high-quality reprint of Russ Heath’s Son of Satan #8; Battlestar Galactica by Simonson – did I see that they made an Artist’s Edition out of this??; My copy of Ghosts #1 was so thrashed that I tossed it in the wastebasket when I was done reading it.
13. Border Worlds 1 1986, Don Simpson, Kitchen Sink 14. Metacops 1 1991, Link Yaco, John Heebink, Monster Comics 15. Yarn Man 1 1989, Don Simpson, Kitchen Sink 16. Megaton Man Meets the Uncategorizable X+Thems 1 1989, Don Simpson, Kitchen Sink 17. Bizarre Heroes 11 1995, Don Simpson, Fiasco Comics
I had a real good time reading these Don Simpson mags. After reading these I officially prefer the Bizarre Heroes Mega-verse over Bob Burden’s Mystery Men-iverse. I’ve read most of the first series of Megaton Man and there was something about them that I couldn’t get into but these are later in the cycle – I think his artwork has gotten a little tighter and stylistically formed. The long term story continuity is interesting in that it seems to have progressed very little from the first Megaton Man series (early ‘80s) to Yarn Man #1 in 1989 to Bizarre Heroes #11 in 1995. It’s not a bad thing – I like that Simpson just seems like he’s screwing around and making goofy comic books.
Border Worlds seems like a pretty interesting comic … I’ve only read bits and pieces of it but maybe I’ll get the collected version one of these days.
I also checked out Metacops #1 from Monster Comics (aka Fantagraphics) and there’s pretty decent art by this guy John Heebink who I haven’t seen before but it’s an otherwise unfunny comic. The inside back cover has an ad for Don Simpson’s King Kong adaptation also from Monster Comics (just so I can keep this an all-Dandy post).
I picked up this stuff yesterday for a cool $26.57. The Batman issue is one of the earliest comics I bought as a kid and I’ve read the Projectra/Karate Kid wedding comic numerous times. I also had the hardcover of the Druuna story from that Heavy Metal issue at one time. I had a different issue of Ralph Snart as a kid but haven’t read any others. Aside from that stuff everything else here is new to me. I’ll report back as I read these.
31. God the Dyslexic Dog 1, 2004, Brian Phillipson/Philip Phillipson, Alex Nino, Bliss On Tap Publishing
32. Terminator: All My Futures Past 1, 1990, Chuck Dixon, Diego Latorre Now Comics
33. Batman 401, 1986, Barbara J. Randall, Trevor Von Eeden, DC Comics
34. Sanctuary 1, 1992, Sho Fumimura, Ryoichi Ikegami, Viz
35. Sanctuary 2, 1992, Sho Fumimura, Ryoichi Ikegami, Viz
36. Caravan Kidd 3, 1992, Johji Manabe, Dark Horse
37. Thrasher Comics 5, 1988, Various, High Speed Productions
38. Scarlet Kiss: The Vampyre 1, 1990, David Gomein, Charles Walker, Mark Yanko, All-American Comics/Innovation
39. Ms. Tree Quarterly 5, 1991, Max Allan Collins, Terry Beatty, DC Comics
40. Future Beat 2, 1987, Tracy Schell, Richard Johnson, Mark Yanko, Oasis Comics
41. House of Mystery 320, 1983, Various, DC Comics
Pretty slim pickins in my reading pile this time around!
God the Dyslexic Dog
This comic did nothing for me, even the Alex Niño art couldn’t put it over – plus the digital lettering looked terrible
Terminator: All My Futures Past
This sort of winds up being a prequel comic for the fifth Terminator movie if you ever saw that one. I kind of liked the artwork in this, it’s like the illustrations in a Sunday school magazine or a anti-drugs PSA comic. Not exactly what you’d think of for a Terminator comic, however.
Batman 401
This is a cool comic. It’s actually one of the first comics I got when I started reading regularly as a kid. The writing has some of the tone of the 60s Batman show but the artwork by Von Eeden doesn’t go in that direction. As a kid I really wasn’t into the style but I think everyone ages into liking Trevor Von Eeden.
Sanctuary 1 and 2
I love Ikegami’s artwork but I’m not sure the premise of this series is enough to hook me. I got a couple random issues from later in the series but I might not read them. I’d rather read more Crying Freeman.
Caravan Kidd 3
I read Outlanders and one or two other issues of Caravan Kidd but I’m over it, not going to go back for more of these.
Scarlet Kiss The Vampyre
I bought this because the artwork looked neat, like Jaime Hernandez meets Archie but the story was not well written.
Ms Tree Quarterly #5
This is the DC-published movie-of-the-week era of Ms Tree. I’ve only read this mag and three issues of the Eclipse series and they’re fine, I guess, but not memorable. There’s a backup story in here starring the character Midnight who was originally a knockoff of the Spirit but here he’s been rebooted into a scary vigilante character. He goes out and kills a pimp is pretty much the whole story.
Thrasher Comics #5
There’s a comic by Spain in this about a skateboarding granny but it’s kind of phoned in. Nothing in this book did anything for me.
Future Beat 2
It sucked.
House of Mystery 320
I got this because it has a comic by Gray Morrow, I always like to check out his stuff. The story was by Bruce Jones so you know what it was like if you ever read his comics in Alien Worlds and Alien Encounters. There’s also a comic drawn by Vicatan – I liked his art in some stories of the Jaguar from Red Circle.
The Verdict
I think all but Batman and House of Mystery are going in the discard pile – but those two might go in there, too.
Notes From a Sickbed: Two excellent new autobio minis from indy queen Tessa Brunton detailing the feeling of being trapped in bed due to chronic illness. Gorgeously drawn with lots of humor and magical realism.
From book 1:
From book 2:
You can get the minis for ridiculously cheap on her website. Follow her on Twitter to read excerpts of the comics as she posts them. ❤️
