The All About Comics Thread 5: Comic Books Ate My Paycheck

So my foray into the TMNT has led me into Usagi Yojimbo too. I'm reading some of the old comics from the 80s. It's really good. It's fun and simple, yet has an epic feeling to it. Sakai also did a great job of developing interesting characters.
 
Captain Canuck said:
So my foray into the TMNT has led me into Usagi Yojimbo too. I'm reading some of the old comics from the 80s. It's really good. It's fun and simple, yet has an epic feeling to it. Sakai also did a great job of developing interesting characters.
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Usagi Yojimbo is the best.
 
I purchased the special edition volume of the fantagraphic series a while back and im really enjoying it. I got a $25 gift card to Indigo (a Canadian bookstore) from my inlaws for my birthday and used it to purchase the next two volumes (Mirage series and the beginning of the Darkhorse run). I'm excited b/c the tmnt are going to show up in the first of those books, which is why I got into Usagi in the first place.
 
I'm really enjoying Usagi. I've read the fantagraphic collection and I'm part way through the second dark horse omnibus now. I have a question about the graphic novel Yokai. Is it in continuity? And if so, where does it fit in the chronology? At what point should I read it?
 
Regarding Scarlet by Bendis & Maleev: How can someone be so good on one book and so bad on just about everything else he writes?!
 
E said:
Regarding Scarlet by Bendis & Maleev: How can someone be so good on one book and so bad on just about everything else he writes?!
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Bendis writes popcorn summer blockbuster comics. And just like popcorn summer blockbuster movies, people will go pay money for them. I think he's a talented writer who writes intelligent and interesting stories, but he spends most of his time giving the masses what they want so he can make money.
 
I mentioned in the TMNT thread that I just bought every IDW continuity Ninja Turtles comic on comixology because they're on for half off right now. It's ruining my life. I haven't binge read a comic like this in... a long time. Maybe since I discovered DNA's cosmic Marvel and Hickman's FF stuff.

IDW's TMNT is really great by the way (most of the time).
 
Captain Canuck said:
he spends most of his time giving the masses what they want so he can make money.
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The reviews on a lot of that stuff are usually terrible though. I don't think it's what people want, and would explain his absence from big event books the last few years compared to earlier.

I think it's just that he writes one type of book really well and is awful at everything else. Normally a talented writer can adapt to different genres or types of books but not him.
 
Captain Canuck said:
I've never been in to Cerebus (the only thing I've ever read with him in it was when he made an appearance in the original TMNT comics, and I didn't like it). Regardless, this is noteworthy comic book news. David Sim to revive Cerebus.
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Dave Sim is a weird dude. He is notoriously sexist and a lot of his fellow creators don't like him for it. The guy invented his own religion. I guess that kind of kookiness is what makes a good or interesting writer but I've never felt compelled to read Cerebus. His appearance in early Spawn was pretty good though.
 
Newsarama posted part 1 of an article today about the comics industry in 1996 (when things were at their worst). It's interesting to hear about how Marvel v DC and Almagam comics were gimicks to try and save the industry. And Heroes Reborn was an attempt by Marvel to save money and boost sales by outsourcing it's properties.
 
Captain Canuck said:
Newsarama posted part 1 of an article today about the comics industry in 1996 (when things were at their worst). It's interesting to hear about how Marvel v DC and Almagam comics were gimicks to try and save the industry. And Heroes Reborn was an attempt by Marvel to save money and boost sales by outsourcing it's properties.
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Part 2. Fascinating stuff. 1996 was the beginning of the online comic book forum.
 
That was really interesting. Especially the idea that the comics speculator boom is a myth/misunderstanding of what happened. I've never heard that before, but his reasons seem credible.
 
Captain Canuck said:
That was really interesting. Especially the idea that the comics speculator boom is a myth/misunderstanding of what happened. I've never heard that before, but his reasons seem credible.
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I thought the same thing when i first read it. I thought, "are you kidding me? I saw it with my own eyes!" But his reasoning makes perfect sense, and considering all of the stores that closed around me as quickly as they opened it seems he's totally right.

Those articles are old but there's a lot of good reading in there about the hobby over the years.
 
E said:
I thought the same thing when i first read it. I thought, "are you kidding me? I saw it with my own eyes!" But his reasoning makes perfect sense, and considering all of the stores that closed around me as quickly as they opened it seems he's totally right.

Those articles are old but there's a lot of good reading in there about the hobby over the years.
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Just his experience as a back-issues retailer sheds a lot of doubt on the speculator boom. The fact that he's never been sold a personal collection that included multiple copies of 90s comics, but has had quite a few people come to him trying to sell the stock of failed comic shops from the 90s gives his theory a lot of credibility.
 
It's so great. When I got it I bought from the least expensive place at the time - Walmart. When it arrived the inside binding was ripped the whole length down the book. I was so ticked. With Amazon I would have been able to send it back and get a replacement.

I hate Walmart.
 
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