Comic Book Resources

Deborah Whitman was an old girlfriend of Peter Parker’s, mostly a supporting character in Spectacular in the 70’s and 80’s, who became “irrationally” convinced that he was really Spider-Man. Peter finally decided to unmask before her - he was planning on telling her the truth, but she decided that she was being silly in thinking Pete was a super-hero, and thanked him for “helping” her. Actually, she was being completely rational - it was a running subplot that every date the two went on was interrupted by Pete having to suit up as Spider-Man to stop some villain or other. Whitman was the only character (incredibly) smart enough to piece the clues together (since Captain Stacy, anyway). Given that Peter has gone public as Spider-Man, a new Deborah Whitman story actually sounds like a good idea.

Wait, there’s only three more issues of Action Philosophers left? I thought it was ongoing.

Darnit!

I thought the solicited cover for American Virgin 10 was gorgeous, though I guess the “drinking the bath water” imagery might put off germophobe types.

Manhunter - yes, it is worth the purchase! One of the smarter, funnier, action packed comics to come out in a while (wow, that sounds like one LAME sales pitch). It really is good, though.

Manhunter does indeed own. She’s the most unique female character to headline a book in a long time, and it’s not blatant cheesecake either. It’s just good solid art.

Plus, her supporting cast is great and just tied in with the DCU enough to be interesting for fanboys while stand-alone enough to be interesting as a….um….stand-alone book.

I know its been said alot, but Manhunter is one of the best books being offered by the Big 2 right now. I picked it up when I heard that Andreyko was offering everyone their money back if they didn’t like it. After reading one or two issues that day, it wasn’t long before I owned almost the entire run. Along with Firestorm, its probably the most underrated DC superhero book right now.

Also, on an unrelated note, Matt Wagner is awesome and I’d really like to get into his Grendel stuff, but I have no idea what order everyone was published in and my LCS doesn’t carry any Grendel books. Can anyone help me out with the best purchasing order for what is out there?

Alan - the reason I don’t like the cover has nothing to do with drinking your own bathwater, although that’s kind of icky. The girl looks really young, which is why it kind of grosses me out. Maybe she’s not young, but she looks about 15. Eeeewwww!

I’m not entirely sure what of Grendel has been collected and what hasn’t, Ye Olde Iowa. Devil by the Deed is definitely the first appearance of Grendel, however, so it’s a good place to start.

When was Black Diamond on Ramp originally solicited? I feel like I’ve been hearing about that book for five years now, but it can’t possibly be that long, can it?

If you’re going purely by what Dark Horse has in print, here’s the chronological order of their Grendel trades:

- Black, White and Red
- Red, White and Black
- Devil’s Legacy
- The Devil Inside
- Devil Tales
- God and the Devil
- Devil’s Reign
- War Child

Then there’s stuff that hasn’t been reprinted like Devil by Deed, a few issues between Devil Tales and God & The Devil and the two Batman crossovers. But that should be a goo enough starting point.

Didn’t like Manhunter. Overly violent, completely humorless, zero depth, and I kind of hated all the characters.

But I guess if you can deal with “completely humorless” in your superhero books, you might like it. I can’t, and didn’t.

And, while Jon Ney Reiber did give us the worst Captain America ever ™ his run on Books of Magic had the sweetest l’il teenage love story I’ve ever read in comics. Great characterization that more’n made up for the (and I’m being charitable here) muddled plot.

John Ney Reiber’s Captain America was truly wretched, but I don’t remember it being a “America is the real terrorist” take. I remember it being ridiculously conservative and hypernationalistic. Are we talking about the same comic?

I’m going to buy Batman #660 and 661 (page 60), because I love John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake, but the solicitation text is a little weird: Grotesk? Johnny Kareoke? Geisha Grrls? I worry. But things always make more sense in the goofy world of comics than when you try to explain them.

Honestly, those types of names sound like the kind of kookiness Morrison would come up with anyway.

Honestly, those types of names sound like the kind of kookiness Morrison would come up with anyway.

That’s very true; Morrison is very much a fan of self-conscious camp. In fact when I read those names the only thing that really surprised me was that they were coming from Ostrander, who tends to have a more level head.

John Ney Reiber’s Captain America was truly wretched, but I don’t remember it being a “America is the real terrorist” take. I remember it being ridiculously conservative and hypernationalistic. Are we talking about the same comic?

You can certainly debate how liberal it was, but it was far, far from a conservative comic book.

The terrorist bad guys were supplied by SHIELD, there was a bit comparing the bombing of Dresden to 9/11 (”History repeats itself”), Cap apologizes for America - it might not be a “liberal” book, but it sure wasn’t conservative.

Cronin - I read it as liberal-er too.

Now most of the people who have written Cap historically have been lefties; At least most of the people who have written Cap well.

But at least you got the sense that, say, Engelhart or Dematties or Kirby at least kind of LIKED America. As opposed to J.N.R. Who doesn’t.

Yeah Moose, I have no idea what you were readiing there but it was a moral equivalency at its worst. It was not pro-American or conservative in the least.

By conservative and nationalistic, I mean that it offered a ridiculous, pantomime version of terrorism (a villain motivated entirely by a desire to destroy America, which is absolutely absurd - actual terrorists, however murderous and deranged, do have goals beyond simply blowing shit up) and presented it as somehow gritty and realistic. Much of the arc is concerned with the view that terror is motivated by nothing more than “hate,” or the desire to “destroy freedom.” This is, in fact, a standard conservative trope, and the fact that you identify the book’s perspective as too liberal only indicates a misunderstanding of liberalism.

Yes, Cap apologizes for America’s various old war crimes, but it’s notable that all the actual crimes discussed take place long ago in the past, and the clear implication is that modern America has learned from its mistakes and just doesn’t do that sort of thing any more - that the war on terror is more or less untarnished by the innocent victims and moral compromises of the Cold War.

In other words, the specter of Dresden is raised only so it can be dismissed. The idea isn’t to compare America’s past misdeeds to today’s terrorism and show that America, too, has blood on its hands, but to compare America’s past misdeeds to America’s current, and supposedly pure, deeds today, to show that now we truly are fighting the good fight.

So to sum up: you get America personified by Captain America, putting the Ghosts of Atrocities Past behind him to fight a purer, better fight, versus an Arab terrorist whose one goal is to destroy America because he’s been “blinded by hate.” It’s not liberalism; it’s rather simple jingoism dressed up as maturity.

T., I don’t expect to agree with you on anything about politics, remotely, at all.

Incidentally: the reason why it’s important to understand why terrorists do what they do, and what their goals are, instead of just going with the “they hate America” approach that Reiber takes, is that if you don’t understand what makes someone decide to become a terrorist, you’re more likely to accidentally provoke more terrorism while attempting to fight it. See, for example, Iraq, where invading the wrong country at the wrong time has lead to a massive surge in terrorist recruitment. What we want to be able to do is go around capturing and killing terrorists while minimizing the root causes of terror itself. To do that, you have to understand what those root causes are - and they’re not as abstract or as arbitrary as “hate,” unfortunately.

>
> I’d love to buy Age of Bronze (page 147) in the
> singles, but I don’t feel like tracking down the back
> issues and they come out so infrequently that I think
> the trades will be much nicer. Does this mean I’m
> taking food out of Eric Shanower’s kid’s mouths?
>

I’m pretty sure he doesn’t (or will ever) have kids, but
sales of the comic are on the crapper and I fear that it
might be cancelled before the story’s completion - which
would be a Very Bad Thing.

So, please, I beg you to switch, say, one of your Marvel
books to TPB only (Marvel is pretty much TPBing
everything right now) and buy Age of Bronze. Pretty
please. With sugar on top.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

>>If you’re going purely by what Dark Horse has in >>print, here’s the chronological order of their Grendel >>trades:
>>
>>- Black, White and Red
>>- Red, White and Black
>>- Devil’s Legacy
>>- The Devil Inside
>>- Devil Tales
>>- God and the Devil
>>- Devil’s Reign
>>- War Child

I don’t think God and The Devil and Devil’s Reign have actually made it into trades yet - which is unfortunate seeing as (for my tastes) that was when Grendel got really good.

On John Ney Rieber - Forget Captain America - he was a really odd pick for it.
Do yourself a favour and pick up his Books Of Magic work (particuarly the 2nd trade Summonings) or his Vertigo mini Mythos, and see that he is in fact a very good writer.

On Mahunter - it’s alright. Decent enough book, but way over hyped, and trying a little to hard to be realistic. It’s one thing to have a female character who smokes, but damn does it get old having a character mention it EVERY ISSUE.
Also there’s a scene where she lights a smoke off the oven, and goes on about how degrading it was and what sad old smoker she must be. That’s rubbish - every smoker has done it, and the majority of us never thought twice.
So yeah, good read, but just tries a little too hard to be gritty.

Age Of Bronze - I love that book, but I’m sticking to trades. I always assumed the singles would have been a loss leader on that one. Their infrequent, and the material, although some of the best comic work out there, lends itself more to the bookshop crowd than the comic shop crowd.
What school library could afford to go without it?

Ah, let’s see, where to begin…

Grendel: Definately start with Devil by the Deed, which reprints the Mage back up series that really launched the character. When this comes out, this is what you should get! But I’ll warn you, the rest of the series is MUCH different from this book.

Manhunter: I read the first issue of it and thought it was really bad, very cliched. But with all the love it’s getting, I keep thinking that maybe I was wrong and I should pick up the trade. I think this might be one of those “found the trade cheap at a con” type deals.

Age of Bronze: Sorry, but it just reads better as a book. I wish I had waited for the collected version of Berlin, and I’m not making that mistake again. Image has to figure out a better way to market the title.

Greg - back to the American Virgin cover for a sec.

I took another look at the cover. Given that the figure is pretty short on detail, I’m curious as to what makes you read her as young. I’m guessing that (consciously or otherwise), it’s the size of her breasts, which is (I think) an interesting comment on how women are generally drawn on comic book covers.
Cheers.

That’s certainly a possibility, Alan, and probably has something to do with it. The way Middleton draws, however, always makes me think of teenagers. The girl has a bunch of piercings in her ear, and her face just gives off a teenage vibe. Whenever I see a Middleton girl, I think “teenager,” whether she is or not. That’s just the way it looks to me. Weird.

Something tells me there’s another free comic book in your future…

Seriously, though: Thanks for mentioning us! Issue #2 is a 100% improvement on #1, and we can’t wait for folks to see it. You guys will get the first two for sure. I can send out high end printouts, but I’d rather get them pro printed, bound, and send ‘em that way.

Thanks again!

“Whenever I see a Middleton girl, I think “teenager,” whether she is or not. That’s just the way it looks to me. Weird. ”

I always think 12 year old, or really young teenager.

Middletons art looks nice, but when he draws girls, it creeps me out.
Take Meridian - his fantasy world/technology was great, but I didn’t need to see up-skirt shots of what at first appeared to be a 12 year old girl.

Something you mentioned in passing I want to rant on…

GRRRRRAAAAARGH! Stop, stop, stop, STOP relaunching long-running series every five years or so to get the cheap sales hit of having a new issue #1! They don’t put the issue numbers on there as advertisements, they put them on there so that you can tell which order to read the freaking issues in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry. Captain America Volume Whatever reminded me of this.

I haven’t been able to sleep without knowing Krypto’s fate. I wonder if it’ll be a flashback comic or will he have been missing for a YEAR?

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