Carlos Pacheco has died aged 60. That’s very sad, one of the few who’s 90s art looked both incredibly 90s and incredibly good. He’d toned down a lot in recent decades, but I always loved seeing his stuff in the 00s and 10s, really dynamic and had so much depth and dimension to it.
Seems like so many big names are passing recently.
So true. Gary Leach, Kevin O’Neill, Alan Grant, George Perez and Neal Adams were all responsible for my golden age of comics in my teens. Now they’re all gone this year.
I think there’s just five people still alive who worked for Marvel in the 60s - John Romita, Jim Steranko, Sal Buscema, Roy Thomas and Larry Lieber.
Finished Ducks. Made me tear up once a chapter or so. It’s cosy and cute and funny but also just devastating. (This means I liked it)
Kevin Conroy has passed.
Dunno where to post it but here feels the closest. Worst.
DC Pride 2022, featuring a story by Kevin Conroy, is free to read in light of his passing.
(might have to use a VPN cuz the DC website can be a bit fucky)
just coz i’m tryna get a few followers and promote it… i did a thing:
I’ve just read Ducks also. Fuck me it was heavy. Absolutely heartbreaking. Had me weeping several times. A few times I had to shut it and walk away for a bit because it got too much. It’s an amazing comic. I’ve not read a lot of new stuff this year but this is absolutely my favourite.
can’t stress enough that The Nice House on the Lake is so great.
Just bought this , the kindle/comixolgy are doing the first Graphic novel for £3.
That’s bargz
Yeah me too. I have the trades so absolutely no need for it, but that cover is the best
I donated a lot of my cape trades to my old primary school this year. I’m gonna make my bank implode if/when I’m in a position to get omnibuses (omnibi? please don’t steal that superhero name it’s mine now)
They’re doing it again
Actually don’t know what I want. Super annoyingly the last Hickman F4 book has been delayed into January, cos that would be good for a big discount. Planning to move onto his Avengers next but they didn’t have any in stock last time I was there…
Also I didn’t buy any comics for the first few months of last year so I could catch up on purchases and reread stuff and was planning to do so in 2023 as well, but it feels a bit self defeating if I buy loads of things in advance!
Wooooo
New Zdarsky hardboilled thing, new Department of Truth, second volume of Fatale only about three years after I bought the first one, and took a punt on the complete Lemire Moon Knight. Love a sale!
If you don’t mind me asking, how much was moon knight? I really should get that, read a few issues I enjoyed then lost track
£31.99, 14 issues though so basically three trades.
My Christmas/New Years reading courtesy of Humble Bundle/making the most of Marvel Unlimited before the subscription ended. My subscription to DC Universe Infinite is wrapping up too but it’s a dreadful app so I’ll be sticking with just buying any trades I’m interested in from now on.
Saga (Brian K Vaughan/Fiona Staples) - I had read volumes 1-8 before in 2018 when I was getting back into comics after being a broke student, now caught up to volume 10. Bit weird how this wild space opera universe with no Earthlings has words like woke and pro-life but it seems a deliberate choice along with calling the language Language. Great characters, stunning (and unabashedly horny) art, and somehow got one thing spoiled and not another for volume 9, gut punch. Glad to have it back.
I Hate Fairyland (Skottie Young) - Pretty much what I expected from the premise. Super violent Wizard of Oz parody. Stretching the gag very thin by 20 issues but Young is such a good cartoonist that it was nice just to see him go wild. Also suited hangover reading.
Autumnlands (Kurt Busiek/Benjamin Dewey) - Two things I love: high fantasy and dopey animal worlds, and one I don’t: dopey animal world with omg a HUMAN? Strong start, liked the old Blyton blurb style epigraphs starting each issue, but didn’t keep my interest the whole way through. It was never officially cancelled as far as I can see but left unfinished so didn’t feel much investment.
Revival (Tim Seeley/Mike Norton) - Read just the first volume. Didn’t dislike it, just had no interest in continuing. Was hoping for more of an outright horror rather than reverse-Leftovers, I guess.
Daredevil/Devil’s Reign (Chip Zdarsky/Marco Checchetto) - Daredevil doing what he does best: self-pity, Catholic guilt and keeping gang wars in check. Devil’s Reign like most superhero events could have just been a regular arc in the main series and is mostly there to set up what comes next (and to remind me that there really should be a Heroes for Hire comeback) but it’s hardly the mess other events are. Already deserves to be counted among the better Daredevil runs, no small feat. The Disney+ reboot could do worse than take notes from this, particularly with Kingpin.
Eternals (Kieron Gillen/Esad Ribic) - Think maybe this needed to not be read while tired on a plane, lot going on and sure to be stuff that went over my head. Still better than the movie (which I liked just fine but still) with a more intriguing version of the Eternal murder mystery format. Less mad about the Thanos stuff but that could just be because I’ve had enough Thanos the last few years, thanks.
Moon Knight (Jed MacKay/Alessandro Cappuccio) - Stopped after five issues. Can’t really put my finger on it but it felt a bit slight? Maybe I let the hype I read about it influence me too much. I’ve also read a bit of MacKay’s Strange and didn’t get on with it either so could be he’s just not for me. Also really did not like MK referring to himself as a ‘priest’ even if his Jewish heritage is also touched on in the same issue.
Also got a whole bunch of Kazuo Koike in Humble Bundle, including the full Lone Wolf & Cub which I’ve read the first few stories of before. Lord knows if I’ll ever read all of it (especially since every other genre thing is basically LW&C now) but it’s nice to have.
Got the next volumes of Ice Cream Man and Silver Coin on my TBR amazon wishlist, and will be picking up It’s Lonely At The Centre Of The Earth by Zoe Thorogood, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V, My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris, and The Good Asian by Pornsak Pichetshote when I get a chance too.
Loved Autumnlands when it was running, gutted it’s stopped.
Agree re: Devil’s Reign. It’s increasingly hard to get excited for the crossover events because they go hard on ‘NOW WITH EVEN MORE CROSSOVER’ and blargh, it’s so dull.
But the core conceit with Kingpin’s plan is kind of… great? Like really well thought out, and only relies on an idea/power that’s well established too. I think shit works best in big events when there’s no new mechanic creating the crisis: it’s someone figuring out a new way of looking at things. See also Batman Eternal on that score.
