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Tuxedo Mark: My review of "Catnapped!" from Betty and Veronica: Friends Forever: Sleepover: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/03/10/comics-catnapped/

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Tuxedo Mark: My review of "Makeover for a Moose" from Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #321: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/02/04/comics-makeover-for-a-moose/

Jan 27 2024 5:44pm
Tuxedo Mark: My review of "Love is a Football Field!" from Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #347: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/01/27/comics-love-is-a-football-field/

Jan 25 2024 4:30pm
Tuxedo Mark: My review of "One Shot Worth a Million" from World of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #136: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/01/25/comics-one-shot-worth-a-million/

What comics have you been reading?

Started by irishmoxie, March 30, 2016, 10:49:35 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

DeCarlo Rules

#510
I still haven't received my subscription copies of Archie Back To School Annual #271 or World of Archie Double Digest #61 that came out last Wednesday.
In the meantime I've been reading mostly manga.

THE OSAMU TEZUKA STORY: A LIFE IN MANGA AND ANIME by Toshio Ban (Stonebridge Press, 2016) - Finished reading this 865-page manga story. It's a little like a crash course in the history of Japanese comics and animation, and explains a lot about how the industry works and developed over there.

THE ART OF OSAMU TEZUKA by Helen McCarthy (Abrams ComicArts, 2009) - I'd mostly just skimmed this oversize coffee-table book and looked at the art when I bought it, so this was a good textual support to the information in the manga biography, with a little more detail about specific works of Tezuka's. Rather than read it from the beginning though, I'm skipping back and forth through it focusing on the parts of greatest interest. Didn't finish it, so I'll be returning to it a bit later to polish off specific sections at a later time.

THE BOOK OF HUMAN INSECTS by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical, 2012) - Here is Tezuka venturing into the kind of 'alternative' comix pathways trod by Daniel Clowes and Gilbert Hernandez. While the graphic storytelling remains top-notch, it's not one of his better works, IMO - not even if we're confining that comparison to his works aimed at older readers (that would be stuff like the multi-volume PHOENIX and BUDDHA, or MESSAGE TO ADOLF). The whole thing comes off a bit too melodramatically, like an adult soap with a few weird elements (and a lot of implausible circumstances) thrown into the mix.

CAPTAIN KEN VOLUME 1 (of 2) by Osamu Tezuka (Digital Manga Publishing, 2015) - Here's Tezuka in his classic mode, with a boys' SF-adventure manga from 1960-61. It's a space western taking place on the Martian frontier, right down to the Martian cacti, shootin' irons and mecha-horses, and oddly enough with an early (possibly) gender-bending element to the story. Haven't finished this yet, but I put it down to read a few other things.

FLINTSTONES #2 - Still kind of lukewarm on this title. The covers are a lot better than the interior story.

BATMAN '66 MEETS STEED AND MRS. PEEL #2 (of 6) - Not enjoying this as much as previous Batman '66 stories, both because the of the writing (by Ian Edgington, presumably chosen because of his familiarity with Steed & Mrs Peel) and the artwork, which aren't as good as I'm used to for Batman '66. Hope any future B66 miniseries go back to Jeff Parker as the writer.

DONALD DUCK #383 - Pretty weird story, almost Lovecraftian in plot (in a Disney comic?).

THE SHADOW: THE DEATH OF MARGO LANE #3 (of 5) - Matt Wagner does the best Shadow comics, ever.

ONE-PUNCH MAN VOL. 2 - I'd missed this one volume from 2015 earlier in my reading of volumes 1-7, so now I'm caught up. This is probably my current favorite superhero series right now (with the possible exception of Dan Slott and Mike Allred's SILVER SURFER, and Jeff Parker and Evan Shaner's FUTURE QUEST).

Next I plan to finish CAPTAIN KEN VOL. 1, and read a few volumes (#19, 20, & 21) of an older manga from 2006, KNIGHTS OF THE ZODIAC (Saint Seiya) that I found at my LCS.

Purgatori

Wandering Island - Kenji Tsuruta: Slow-paced first volume from author not know for speed of publication (I really enjoyed Spirit of Wonder, also from Dark Horse, many years ago now). Beautifully illustrated with minimal dialogue. The story of a young woman who is co-owner with her grandfather of an airplane shipping service in the Japanese islands. When he dies, she finds a package addressed to her, but the address is for an island that doesn't exist. So begins her obsessive desire to find this mysterious island

DeCarlo Rules

#512
I'm glad you mentioned SPIRIT OF WONDER. I remembered that as being one of the last manga I purchased new in the floppy comics format (all the way back in 1996). I liked the artwork, but I can't remember much about the story other than it had a little bit of a steampunk feel to it (before that genre had become as popular as it is today), and I'm not sure that I ever finished reading it, since I recall that I'd missed an issue or two somewhere. I must have found them since  then (the copies I have of #1, 2, and 5 are bagged and boarded, but issues #3 & 4 aren't boarded, so I must have found them much later). I was able to locate the whole set and put those aside to read later.

Today my subscription copy of WORLD OF ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #61 arrived, and I read that. I'm guessing it's been almost 2 weeks since I've read an Archie digest, when my copies of B&V FRIENDS #248 and 250 arrived on the same day. Even though I'd read at least a half-dozen of the stories in there before (including both of the long ones, part 2 of "The Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E." and "The Archies in London"), at least there wasn't any space taken up in the digest with Little Archie or Li'l Jinx stories, and I always look forward to reading the Archie 1 stories in the back. Hopefully I'll be getting my subscription copies of ARCHIE BACK TO SCHOOL ANNUAL #271 and JUGHEAD AND ARCHIE ANNUAL #22 sometime in the next week.


Purgatori

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 10, 2016, 02:32:55 PM
I'm glad you mentioned SPIRIT OF WONDER...I liked the artwork, but I can't remember much about the story other than it had a little bit of a steampunk feel to it (before that genre had become as popular as it is today)

I realised when I read this, that I couldn't remember anything about the story either. So I'll have to dig out the issues and add them to the reading pile (Judge Dredd: The Uncensored Cursed Earth Saga is on top at the moment).

I did re-read Betty and Veronica 1 last night and found what could well be a reference to the storyline in Jughead , but it is very tangential

DeCarlo Rules

Quote from: Purgatori on August 11, 2016, 03:55:43 AM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 10, 2016, 02:32:55 PM
I'm glad you mentioned SPIRIT OF WONDER...I liked the artwork, but I can't remember much about the story other than it had a little bit of a steampunk feel to it (before that genre had become as popular as it is today)

I realised when I read this, that I couldn't remember anything about the story either. So I'll have to dig out the issues and add them to the reading pile (Judge Dredd: The Uncensored Cursed Earth Saga is on top at the moment).

I am also a big Judge Dredd fan, although I find it difficult to keep up with the various Rebellion releases, but I've been reading Dredd (and other 2000 AD series like Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog, A.B.C. Warriors, Nemesis the Warlock, etc.) since the Titan Books albums released in the 1980s.


steveinthecity

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 11, 2016, 06:31:33 AM
Quote from: Purgatori on August 11, 2016, 03:55:43 AM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 10, 2016, 02:32:55 PM
I'm glad you mentioned SPIRIT OF WONDER...I liked the artwork, but I can't remember much about the story other than it had a little bit of a steampunk feel to it (before that genre had become as popular as it is today)

I realised when I read this, that I couldn't remember anything about the story either. So I'll have to dig out the issues and add them to the reading pile (Judge Dredd: The Uncensored Cursed Earth Saga is on top at the moment).

I am also a big Judge Dredd fan, although I find it difficult to keep up with the various Rebellion releases, but I've been reading Dredd (and other 2000 AD series like Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog, A.B.C. Warriors, Nemesis the Warlock, etc.) since the Titan Books albums released in the 1980s.
Dredd can be a bit hokey and over the top with some plots and the "Law" thing, but it's a great series overall, imo, but well worth reading.  Additionally, anyone who can get these at their libraries should check it(them) out.  Probably falls mostly under the "hero" genre beyond the action-sci-fi futuristic thing for those interested.

I don't recognize Nemesis The Warrior.  Was that originally a Starlord magazine character?
Comics!

DeCarlo Rules

#516
Quote from: steveinthecity on August 11, 2016, 09:01:13 AM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 11, 2016, 06:31:33 AM
Quote from: Purgatori on August 11, 2016, 03:55:43 AM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 10, 2016, 02:32:55 PM
I'm glad you mentioned SPIRIT OF WONDER...I liked the artwork, but I can't remember much about the story other than it had a little bit of a steampunk feel to it (before that genre had become as popular as it is today)

I realised when I read this, that I couldn't remember anything about the story either. So I'll have to dig out the issues and add them to the reading pile (Judge Dredd: The Uncensored Cursed Earth Saga is on top at the moment).


I am also a big Judge Dredd fan, although I find it difficult to keep up with the various Rebellion releases, but I've been reading Dredd (and other 2000 AD series like Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog, A.B.C. Warriors, Nemesis the Warlock, etc.) since the Titan Books albums released in the 1980s.
Dredd can be a bit hokey and over the top with some plots and the "Law" thing, but it's a great series overall, imo, but well worth reading.  Additionally, anyone who can get these at their libraries should check it(them) out.  Probably falls mostly under the "hero" genre beyond the action-sci-fi futuristic thing for those interested.

I don't recognize Nemesis The Warrior.  Was that originally a Starlord magazine character?

NEMESIS THE WARLOCK is another great strip from 2000 AD, created by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill (who once had a DC Green Lantern Corps story of his rejected by the Comics Code Authority purely on the basis of his art style, because they found it repugnant). The same team later went on to create the equally great (creator-owned) MARSHAL LAW, sort of a cathartic avatar for all the comics creators who hate superhero comics but are forced to work on them if they expect to make a living in the American comics industry. Marshal Law was a hero-hunter who skewered superheroes, both in the visceral and the satirical senses of the word. And of course, O'Neill went on to illustrate Alan Moore's Victorian-era "superhero team", THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN.

A sample of the Mills/O'Neill NEMESIS:



One of the great things about the early 2000 AD characters was that a number of them didn't need to "spin-off" from one of the more popular features in order to inhabit the same universe. The above image shows Mek-Quake, Ro-Jaws, and Hammerstein, who also featured (individually, or together) in other 2000 AD strips like ROBO-HUNTER, RO-BUSTERS, and A.B.C. WARRIORS.

BettyReggie

#517
I'm going read these 6 Betty & Veronica #1's so I can put them in my comic frames. I'm going take my time reading them. I don't think it will take one day.
💝 -Hughes
💞-Cliff Chaing
💕 -Ryan Sook
💓-Genevieve F.T
💌-Tom Bancroft
💗-Ramon Perez
This morning I read Hughes & Cliff Chaing issues so far.

invisifan

Related trivia:  while it's not close to a record, there appear to be (excluding the blank) 40 variant covers for B&V  — 24 specifically from ACP and the rest retailer and convention exclusives (including another Adam Hughes, an Andrew Pepoy. J.Scott Campbell and more).

Purgatori

Quote from: invisifan on August 12, 2016, 02:39:18 PM
24 specifically from ACP and the rest retailer and convention exclusives (including another Adam Hughes, an Andrew Pepoy. J.Scott Campbell and more).

Do you have a list of these other sixteen variants? Are you counting signed editions separately?

invisifan

#520
Quote from: Purgatori on August 13, 2016, 04:32:41 AM
Do you have a list of these other sixteen variants? Are you counting signed editions separately?
I don't count signed or sketch covers separately:

  • Adam Hughes SDCC Exclusive
  • Mike Federali — Tidewater Comicon Exclusive
  • J.Scott Campbell Exclusive ... doesn't seem to be for anyone though ...
  • Andrew Pepoy — New England Comics Exclusive
  • ... Comix Connection ... everyone looks wasted on something〔apparently a self portrait〕 ...
  • Dan Schoening — Curious Comics ... nice one
  • Jenny Frison — Dynamic Forces ... also nice
  • Des Taylor — Flying Colors Comics
  • Annie Wu — Fried Pie Comics
  • Jay P. Fosgitt — Comic City
  • Michael "Locoduck" Duron — M-M Comics
  • Dave Dorman — M-M Comics ... forms a join cover with his Archie #1 Variant!
  • Pop Mhan — Comics and Gaming ... Manga-ish
  • Sam Payne — Rick's Comic City
  • Marco D'Alfonso — Stadium Comics ... Hulk 181 tribute w/Betty as the Hulk〔don't ask〕
  • Stan Sakai — Atlantis Fantasyworld

DeCarlo Rules

#521
Yesterday, I got JUGHEAD AND ARCHIE ANNUAL #22 in the mail and started reading that.
Also attended Boston Comic Con on Friday and found a number of deals, including a big pile of Archie Comics in VF/NM condition for $1 each:

B&V SPECTACULAR #76
BETTY AND VERONICA #196, 198, 199, 231, 250, 253, 256, 259, 260, 265
VERONICA #43, 71, 72, 74, 75, 134, 136, 209var (KEVIN)
KEVIN KELLER #2
JUGHEAD #187, 188, 200var*, 211 (had the #200 variant cover signed by Dan P.)


The best find: ARCHIE: THE BEST OF SAMM SCHWARTZ VOL. 1 hardcover (slightly dinged lower right-hand corner) for only five bucks!!

Also found a copy of that Papercutz THREE STOOGES "Bed Bugged" TPB by George Gladir and Stan Goldberg for $5. The only other things I bought worth mentioning were a TP reprint of ZORRO newspaper strips by Don McGregor and Tom Yeats, and a couple of manga TPs.

Dan Parent has the blank cover and convention exclusive variants of the Chapterhouse Comics DIE KITTY DIE #1 at his table at Boston Comic Con, so I'll probably pick those up on Sunday -- I also already picked up my Kickstarter rewards package from him at the show (minus the commission piece that I'll hopefully also pick up on Sunday). Haven't had time to look through it much, but I did read the Gisele backup story exclusive to the DKD hardcover collection. Got a couple of nice original Dan P. Archie and DKD art pages in there. I'll see what I can do a couple days later when I get some time about posting some pics of those.

Mark Waid and Erica Henderson are also at Boston Comic Con and were together with Dan Parent on an Archie panel on Friday afternoon. Adam Hughes was originally scheduled to appear but had to cancel (due to his workload) a month or two back.

Had my eye on some older Silver/Bronze SABRINAs and JOSIEs, but didn't buy them on Friday. I'll check back again on Sunday and if he still has them I might try to haggle with the guy for some kind of package deal for a dozen issues or so. We'll see.


BettyReggie

#522
I'm going read each of these for 12 minutes
🎠Betty & Veronica Annual Digest Magazine #1
🍎 Betty & Veronica Double Digest #1
☎ Betty & Veronica Comics Double Digest #239
🐯 B&V Friends Jumbo Comics Digest #250
🐷 World Of Archie Comics Double Digest #49
💞 World Of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #60
🏯 Archie Giant Comics Digest Collection

BettyReggie

#523
I finished Betty & Veronica Comics Double Digest #239 & World Of Archie Comics Double Digest #49.

DeCarlo Rules

#524
Bronze Age swag (and a couple of Silver Age) that I got at Boston Comic Con today:














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