The Comic Pull List

[RyanSz 3140]

So the idea of a topic like this was brought up in a recent discussion that took place in a mini-ep where we realized that many of us have a love of comics, but our recommendations get lost to time in the middle of other discussions. So I figured why not go with the idea and start the topic. Basically it's about sharing a love of the comic medium and giving others ideas for series we may not have heard about or on the fence on for reading.

Couple things:

If it's a specific run of a series, like with a superhero, try your best to list the writer to make it easier to find

Just give a brief pitch of what the series is about or why you like it, otherwise be sure to use the spoiler covering

 

Since I'm now back at work a bit more, albeit still under a modified lockdown, I've been reading into my backlog of paperbacks and have really been lucky with some good series.

DC

Doomsday Clock - a fantastic blending of the mainstream DC universe and Alan Moore's Watchmen universe

Mister Miracle by Tom King - very interesting blend of psychological look at a hero riddled with trauma/PTSD and having to deal with the fallout of his upbringing as the adopted son of Darkseid

Marvel

Spider-Man: Life Story - a Spider-Man tale with now sliding timeline, so Peter Parker is aging realistically and is dealing with real world events like the Vietnam War and other societal landmarks

Image/Dark Horse/Etc.

Deadly Class - solid high school  story where the school specializes in creating the next generation of criminal and killers, where cliques are made of groups like the Yakuza and cartel rather than jocks and preps

A Walk Through Hell - a dark psychological horror story involving two FBI agents who are forced to combat their sins and their ramifications while searching a new crime scene

[theworstbuddhist 572]

Thanks for creating the thread, @RyanSz. I'm just going to list what my "pulls" are from my local comic shop - for those who don't know, this basically means it's what I have my shop set aside for me as it is released. I may also separately list some all-time recommendations for books for whoever is interested, but I'm not at home at the moment so I'll need to wait until I can look at my shelves.

So my pull list is as follows; W stands for writer and A for (primary) artist:

The New Batman Adventures: Paul Dini (W), Ty Templeton (A) - basically a new miniseries of comics in the universe of Timm's early 90s classic Batman cartoon.
Blackwood: Evan Dorkin (W), Veronica Fish (A) - I pretty much pick up whatever Dorkin works on, from his own auteur books (Dork, Milk & Cheese) to his collaborations with artists (Beasts of Burden, etc.) This one is a dark tale of kids at a school for witchcraft.
Die: Keiron Gillen (W), Stephanie Hans (A) - very smart series about a group of kids who discover a fantasy world that works according to paper RPG rules. They manage to escape as kids but then get pulled back into it as adults. Dark and brilliantly illustrated like most of the books Gillen has worked on like Young Avengers and The Wicked + The Divine. I can easily see this getting adapted as a big HBO series or something.
Exorcisters: Ian Boothby (W), Gisele Lagace (A) - fun and silly story about twin women (sort of) who battle demons, literally and figuratively a la Supernatural. Boothby is a veteran humour writer who has worked on the Simpsons comics and Lagace is the head of a webcomics empire that includes Menage a Trois, Eerie Cuties, and more - she also has done some excellent contract work for Archie.
Faithless II: Maria Llovett (W/A) - Llovett has quickly become one of my favourite current  artists, her work is very reminiscent of eurocomics and Paul Pope. This book is essentially erotica, the story of a young artist who becomes involved with a gender-fluid demon who is also her patron. Plus the optional X-rated covers are by one of my other favourite artists, Tula Lotay.
FirePower: Robert Kirkman (W) and Chris Samnee (A) - a fun new action title which is basically a mashup of Iron Fist and Avatar: The Last Airbender, only about firebending instead of airbending. Kirkman needs no introduction, he is the creator of The Walking Dead and Outcast and Invincible. Samnee is one of my favourite artists, having worked on great runs of Daredevil and Black Widow and Captain America and a bunch of other stuff.
Plunge: Joe Hill (W), Stuart Immonen (A) - first of all, any book with Immonen is worth looking at, even if Warren Ellis wrote it. This one is a wonderfully creepy arctic horror story that will hit the same spot as The Terror or The Thing.
Sabrina: I enjoyed a lot of the Archie relaunches but this is the only one I'm still buying, by the great writer Kelly Thompson and artist Veronica Fish again. There is also a darker horror title that maybe will be continued? It's the one that the Netflix series draws most of its inspiration from.
Sex Criminals: Matt Fraction (W), Chip Zdarsky (A) - it's hard to explain this book if you aren't reading it already, but it is very special, as much for the painfully honest letter columns as it is for the actual story. It's unfortunately ending soon.
Steeple: John Allison (W/A) - I love John Allison and would follow him into hell, which I guess I kind of did when reading his long running webcomic Scary Go Round, which morphed into the wonderful college series Giant Diays, which in turn has morphed into the post-college book Wicked Things (see below). This book is about a young female vicar sent to a remote seaside town where the grizzled elder vicar spends his evenings fighting off what appear to be Lovecraftian sea monsters. Also, satanists.
Strange Adventures: Tom King (W), Mitch Gerads and Evan Shaner (A)- Ryan mentioned one of King's other great books (Mister Miracle) above, and I know Zouks is a fan of everything King has worked on. His Vision series for Marvel is being adapted as a TV series currently, which should be pretty interesting. This is their latest book, about the classic DC hero Adam Strange, who travels between Earth and the alien planet Rann, and the schizoid existence that he leads. Brilliant so far, only a couple of issues in.
Wicked Things: John Allison (W), Alison Cogar (A) - the latest incarnation of the Scary Go Round comics. You certainly could just start here, but I highly recommend you go online and dive into the SGR archive, then read Giant Days, then this. It's wonderful, sometimes dark, often poignant, always fun.

@RyanSz, I haven't followed the Doomsday Clock stuff - I really hate what DC has done to Alan Moore with the Watchmen spinoffs - but if you haven't seen it I highly recommend Keiron Gillen's recent miniseries called Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, which is a post post modern look at Watchmen through the lens of one of the Charlton characters that Moore originally based it on.

[RyanSz 3140]

@theworstbuddhist Yeah Peter Cannon is on my reserve list on Amazon and I'll probably get it with my next paycheck. Doomsday Clock works fantastically because Geoff Johns really treats the original with reverence and keeps everything in character. As for Tom King I was lucky enough to meet him and Mitch Gerards at Comic Con last year and he might easily be one of the nicest comic creators that I've met, he was also amazed that prison inmates were reading his novel, A Once Crowded Sky, which if you haven't read I suggest you pick it up as it is a very interesting take on the fallout of the epic crossovers we as comic readers have become used to seeing every year or so. 

Great list all around, loved Wicked + Divine, starting the second volume of Die and waiting for volume 2 of Exorsisters, and I can't wait to read the final volume of Sex Criminals.

[theworstbuddhist 572]

2 hours ago, RyanSz said:

@theworstbuddhist Yeah Peter Cannon is on my reserve list on Amazon and I'll probably get it with my next paycheck. Doomsday Clock works fantastically because Geoff Johns really treats the original with reverence and keeps everything in character. As for Tom King I was lucky enough to meet him and Mitch Gerards at Comic Con last year and he might easily be one of the nicest comic creators that I've met, he was also amazed that prison inmates were reading his novel, A Once Crowded Sky, which if you haven't read I suggest you pick it up as it is a very interesting take on the fallout of the epic crossovers we as comic readers have become used to seeing every year or so. 

Great list all around, loved Wicked + Divine, starting the second volume of Die and waiting for volume 2 of Exorsisters, and I can't wait to read the final volume of Sex Criminals.

It's safe to say I also have a bit of Watchmen fatigue. It was what I wrote my MA thesis about, using an adapted form of one of Noam Chomsky's theories of linguistics. At the time it was still a relatively new book, not a cornerstone of DC's continuity and livelihood. I think the deal they made with Moore and Gibbons was shitty, even if Gibbons has been willing to roll with it and stay involved in some of the various projects since. I do eventually get around to reading most of the Watchmen stuff, I just try to minimize DC's revenue from it, so I borrow it from a library or whatever. I've heard good things about the TV series so I'll probably watch that eventually too.  The only thing I've read so far related to Doomsday Clock is the story "The Button", which mostly made me angry, because it seemed to be implying that DC's comics line had become ever-grimmer-and-grittier because of the success of books like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns (which, again, so many shitty sequels), and not their own feckless editorial decisions, endless publicity stunts and reboots and so on. The point of Watchmen was that it was self-contained. The last line of the book is literally to leave it in the hands of the reader, and DC keeps taking that away.

Anyway. People get different stuff than I do out of any given comic series, and that's fine. There are a lot of Watchmen-adjacent books that I would rather read instead, like Fleming and Von Eeden's Thriller from the early 80s, or the late Denny O'Neil's Question series, etc. As far as Moore's work went I actually preferred V for Vendetta.

[RyanSz 3140]

56 minutes ago, theworstbuddhist said:

It's safe to say I also have a bit of Watchmen fatigue. It was what I wrote my MA thesis about, using an adapted form of one of Noam Chomsky's theories of linguistics. At the time it was still a relatively new book, not a cornerstone of DC's continuity and livelihood. I think the deal they made with Moore and Gibbons was shitty, even if Gibbons has been willing to roll with it and stay involved in some of the various projects since. I do eventually get around to reading most of the Watchmen stuff, I just try to minimize DC's revenue from it, so I borrow it from a library or whatever. I've heard good things about the TV series so I'll probably watch that eventually too.  The only thing I've read so far related to Doomsday Clock is the story "The Button", which mostly made me angry, because it seemed to be implying that DC's comics line had become ever-grimmer-and-grittier because of the success of books like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns (which, again, so many shitty sequels), and not their own feckless editorial decisions, endless publicity stunts and reboots and so on. The point of Watchmen was that it was self-contained. The last line of the book is literally to leave it in the hands of the reader, and DC keeps taking that away.

Anyway. People get different stuff than I do out of any given comic series, and that's fine. There are a lot of Watchmen-adjacent books that I would rather read instead, like Fleming and Von Eeden's Thriller from the early 80s, or the late Denny O'Neil's Question series, etc. As far as Moore's work went I actually preferred V for Vendetta.

Yeah the Watchmen series served as a good spiritual sequel to the book with some great performances from the leads and a few of the Before Watchmen stories were really good, like the ones on the Minutemen and Night Owl. In regards to Dark Knight Returns, the one cowritten by Brian Azzarello I thought was actually pretty solid, because it was later revealed Frank Miller was really only involved in name since he's become batshit insane, and adds an interesting twist where the jarred Kryptonian city of Kandor was probably jarred for the best rather than be a fully grown city. Though that also may be in part because I love Azzarello's work ever since 100 Bullets. Miller and Moore are a couple writers, along with Grant Morrison and Gail Simone, who I've come to realize really need a handler to keep the leash short because otherwise they go so insane with creative freedom it becomes an utter dumpster fire. With Miller you have things like Holy Terror, Morrison with his Animal Man run, Simone with Clean Room and Moore with the independently published sequels for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where the main storyline is Harry Potter is the Anti-Christ and shoots lightning from his dick. Yes that actually happened.

[theworstbuddhist 572]

I can’t believe I forgot this when I was writing out my list because it is not only one of my all time favourite books, it’s been one of the most influential to me as a cartoonist, and it certainly merits its own post, so:

Love and Rockets: Gilbert Hernandez (W/A), Xaime Hernandez (W/A), sometimes Mario Hernandez (W/A). This title has been published since 1980, initially self published by Los Bros Hernandez and shortly picked up by Fantagraphics, who have published most of their material since. It started as a magazine format comic that ran for 50 issues, then went through some other formats, and is now back as the magazine. Most of the material is created by Gilbert (“Beto”) and Xaime, each of them telling stories about Latinx people in California and Central to South America. beto's stories originally centred around the fictional small village of Palomar and an extended cast of characters and their travails, but over the years he has shifted to focus on one particular character called Luba and her children and extended family. Xaime tends to write about a pair of young women called Maggie and Hopita (“Hopey”) who are best friends and occasional lovers, as well as their families and friends in a barrio called Hoppers in LA. 
Beto also does a lot of standalone side graphic novels these days, whereas Xaime generally sticks to the main book for his comics and does some book illustration on the side.

I don’t think it’s possible to overestimate the impact of L&R on American comics or world comics for that matter. There is also so much of it now after 40 years that it’s probably intimidating for a new reader, but I really can’t recommend it enough. Fortunately Fantagraphics has collected various storylines into manageable volumes, so for beginners I would recommend “Heartbreak Soup”, “Human Diastrophism”, “The Death of Speedy”, “The Love Bunglers”, and Beto’s autobiographical graphic novels like “Bumperhead”. Or just start from the beginning. It takes a volume or two to gel in terms of art style but once it does, their unique fusion of influences like Schulz and Bob Bolling and Dan DeCarlo really sings.

[RyanSz 3140]

14 hours ago, theworstbuddhist said:

I can’t believe I forgot this when I was writing out my list because it is not only one of my all time favourite books, it’s been one of the most influential to me as a cartoonist, and it certainly merits its own post, so:

Love and Rockets: Gilbert Hernandez (W/A), Xaime Hernandez (W/A), sometimes Mario Hernandez (W/A). This title has been published since 1980, initially self published by Los Bros Hernandez and shortly picked up by Fantagraphics, who have published most of their material since. It started as a magazine format comic that ran for 50 issues, then went through some other formats, and is now back as the magazine. Most of the material is created by Gilbert (“Beto”) and Xaime, each of them telling stories about Latinx people in California and Central to South America. beto's stories originally centred around the fictional small village of Palomar and an extended cast of characters and their travails, but over the years he has shifted to focus on one particular character called Luba and her children and extended family. Xaime tends to write about a pair of young women called Maggie and Hopita (“Hopey”) who are best friends and occasional lovers, as well as their families and friends in a barrio called Hoppers in LA. 
Beto also does a lot of standalone side graphic novels these days, whereas Xaime generally sticks to the main book for his comics and does some book illustration on the side.

I don’t think it’s possible to overestimate the impact of L&R on American comics or world comics for that matter. There is also so much of it now after 40 years that it’s probably intimidating for a new reader, but I really can’t recommend it enough. Fortunately Fantagraphics has collected various storylines into manageable volumes, so for beginners I would recommend “Heartbreak Soup”, “Human Diastrophism”, “The Death of Speedy”, “The Love Bunglers”, and Beto’s autobiographical graphic novels like “Bumperhead”. Or just start from the beginning. It takes a volume or two to gel in terms of art style but once it does, their unique fusion of influences like Schulz and Bob Bolling and Dan DeCarlo really sings.

I know that they put out a kind of omnibus a decade or so ago called Palomar and it was a good few hundred pages, and it's a helluva lot easier for a comic fan to get into a series these days as almost any series of note has any combination of fan wikia, Wikipedia page, online reviews, or Youtube breakdowns, so a potential reader can easily fill in the blanks on a given story. It's definitely helped me as I'm going through the Stray Bullets omnibus where basically every chapter is out of chronological order and there are numerous connections between characters than span years.

[theworstbuddhist 572]

25 minutes ago, RyanSz said:

I know that they put out a kind of omnibus a decade or so ago called Palomar and it was a good few hundred pages, and it's a helluva lot easier for a comic fan to get into a series these days as almost any series of note has any combination of fan wikia, Wikipedia page, online reviews, or Youtube breakdowns, so a potential reader can easily fill in the blanks on a given story. It's definitely helped me as I'm going through the Stray Bullets omnibus where basically every chapter is out of chronological order and there are numerous connections between characters than span years.

Yeah, there are big collections of Xaime's stuff out there called Locas and Locas II as well but I think those are out of print.

If you can find it, the bros also worked on a miniseries of Dean Motter's Mister X that was pretty good.

[theworstbuddhist 572]

Hey @RyanSz, was it you in another thread that was into John Layman's work (Outer Darkness, Chew)? I just saw an announcement that he has a new prequel to Chew called Chu, about the original detective's sister.

[RyanSz 3140]

2 hours ago, theworstbuddhist said:

Hey @RyanSz, was it you in another thread that was into John Layman's work (Outer Darkness, Chew)? I just saw an announcement that he has a new prequel to Chew called Chu, about the original detective's sister.

Yeah it was me and I've seen that, and since it's the original team coming together to work on it again, I'm excited. The artist for that series Rob Guillory called Farmhand which is in the same humor vein as Chew and centers around a farm that grows replacement body parts and organs for people. Great mix of dark and light humor with Guillory showing he can write as well as he can draw.

[RyanSz 3140]

Got a big order in from Amazon today and was reminded of a fantastic series that finally came out of hiatus from Image, Manifest Destiny. It's about the real reason for the Lewis & Clarke expedition after the Louisiana Purchase, which is focused on cataloging the strange creatures of the land such as killer plants, centaurs, and plants that take over a person and turns them into zombies, among other things. The writing is great and the character building of the crew, which is made up of expendables in both soldiers  in trouble with the army as well as prisoners looking for a quick shot at freedom, and the art is fantastic. It took a bit over 18 months for the most recent volume to come out from the last, but that can tend to happen with owner created stuff, especially with Image where the writers and artists tend to get signed to exclusive deals from the big two which causes them to put their great self-owned series on hold for an ungodly amount of time.

[theworstbuddhist 572]

Some comics adjacent news: check out the trailer for the new Marvel/Disney+ series called 616, it’s a series of mini documentaries about different aspects of comics and Paul Scheer is in one of them!