Independent Comics...

[Beacon]

I took a look around my room for more recommendation ideas and have come to the conclusion that I have REALLY eclectic tastes...and also really need to get rid of some stuff.

From Boom! Studios:

Hero Squared (and the Planetary Brigade spin-off) – A series of minis by the writers who gave us Justice League International. Basically a slacker guy ends up becoming roommates with a superpowered alternate reality version of himself. It doesn’t go well.

The Muppet Show Comic Book – I know I already mentioned this but Roger Langridge is a comic genius. Seems to have moved over to Marvel along with a bunch of Disney properties.

What Were They Thinking?! – A bunch of one-shots in the same vein as Marvel Romance Redux (which is also great). They take a bunch of old (public domain) comics and rewrite all the old dialogue and captions to tell silly stories.


From Dark Horse:

Beasts of Burden – A bunch of house pets solve supernatural mysteries. It’s better (and more violent) than is sounds. Their team-up with Hellboy is the only Hellboy comic I actually own.

Blacksad – It’s a noir hardboiled detective mystery that happens to star anthropomorphic animals (think “Maus”, not “Mickey Mouse”). Really great European crime fiction.

Empowered – I’ll get this out of the way; this is a T&A comic. The lead character exists because convention-goers kept asking Adam Warren for super heroine bondage sketches. Because Adam Warren is, well, Adam Warren he started thinking about what must be going through the head of a character like that. The end result makes for a pretty likable character…whose costume gets “battle damaged” a lot.

Long Wolf and Cub – Story about a badass ronin and his son. Surprisingly densely written for a manga.

Mighty Skullboy Army – I’ve already mentioned Image’s G-Man (by the Mini Marvel’s guy). This is the same type of humor but from the villain’s perspective.

Umbrella Academy – I was really skeptical about this one (they guy from My Chemical Romance wants to write a comic? Really?) but its actually a really good (really weird)


From IDW:

Fallen Angel – Started out as a DC book but has since moved. It’s a supernatural noir series by Peter David.

The Life And Times Of Savior 28 – This is basically JM DeMatteis revisiting his Captain America run. If you liked that you’ll like this.

Richard Stark’s Parker – Old crime/revenge stories adapted and drawn by Darwyn Cooke.


From Oni Press:

The Adventures Of Barry Ween – To paraphrase the TV Tropes site, this is what Dexter’s Laboratory would be like if Dexter behaved like a South Park character.

Hopeless Savages – Remember the Osbornes? It’s kind of like that.

Killer Princesses – Remember Totally Spies? It’s kind of like that only the lead characters are sociopaths. Also Gail Simone wrote it.

Maintenance – This is a story about two janitors who have to clean up the messes (bother literal and figurative) left behind by a bunch of mad scientists. It’s better (and funnier) than it sounds.

Queen and Country – Really good spy series. Honestly I’m more impressed by the Q&C novels than the comics, though.

Scott Pilgrim – It’s a comic about a bunch of Canadian hipsters who seem to live in a video game.


More from Image:

Nightly News – A description of this isn’t really going to do it justice. A bunch of terrorists are targeting various media personalities.

Noble Causes – Superhero comics get compared to soap operas a lot. It’s never been more appropriate than here. A “normal” marries into a superhero/celebrity family and has to deal with supervillains, paparazzi, and family in-fighting.


More from Wildstorm (Yes, I know it isn’t really indy):

Astro City – The best thing Kurt Busiek has ever written.

Planetary – The best thing Warren Ellis has ever written.

Welcome to Tranquility – Its about a small town filled with superhumans (mostly retired WWII heroes and villains and their descendants).

Intimates – Probably the best “school for superheroes” series I’ve ever read. What X-Men?


Other:

Dork Tower – I enjoy this one but it isn’t an all-time favorite. I’m mostly listing this because it’s a comedy series about a bunch of RPG players so someone around here is bound to absolutely love it.

Zot! – This one has aged surprisingly well. I suppose it isn’t THAT surprising considering that it’s by the “Understanding Comics” guy.

Action Philosophers – It’s basically a bunch of philosophy lessons filtered through the minds of a bunch of guys who have read too many Jack Kirby comics. I can’t wait for their history of comic books series to be collected too.

Asterios Polyp – I don’t normally care for the “slice of life” stuff (even if its fictional) but this works. This is mostly due to David Mazzuchelli's art.

Meanwhile – It’s a Chose Your Own Adventure comic! It’s clearly meant for kids but how can you not love that?

The Tick – BECAUSE IT’S THE TICK. SPOON!

[shenron]

Oct 29, 2011 21:40:34 GMT -5 Beacon said:

On Marvel and DC buying other companies:

On Jenkins: You have to love that the genius action-hero robot is awed by that guy.

“We're not trapped in here with them. They're trapped in here with Jenkins.”
"What's a Jenkins?"
"Jenkins is... well, he's on our side. You'll come to appreciate that."

Yep, awesome moment. I think that was from trade #4 and it was my facorite.

[shenron]

I have been meaning to pick up Planetary but I have not for around to it yet.

I am sound dumb, but what is a T&A comic? That title sounds interesting.

I will check out some of your recommendations. They seems really cool.

[Beacon]

Oct 30, 2011 13:57:31 GMT -5 shenron said:

I have been meaning to pick up Planetary but I have not for around to it yet.

Warren Ellis is one of those guys who is best when playing with his own toys.

He messed up Thunderbolts so badly that it took Jeff Parker to fix it years later but he also created the Authority and Planetary*.

Planetary is basically Ellis’ love letter to sci-fi. It had some MAJOR scheduling problems when it first came out (thirty issues spread out for just over a decade) but works really well now that it’s all finally finished.

*It’s worth noting that two of the three Planetary crossovers averted my expectations. The crossover with the Authority was awful (so was the JLA one but I expected it to be). The crossover with Batman may be the funniest thing Ellis has ever written (yes, I’ve read Nextwave).

I am sound dumb, but what is a T&A comic? That title sounds interesting.

The profanity filter prevents me from adequately answering your question. ;-)

Lets just say the series isn’t full-on porn but has certainly earned the “Explicit Content: Parental Advisory” sticker.

Speaking of “Explicit Content: Parental Advisory” stickers, I completely forgot some other older Dark Horse series I like…

Gunsmith Cats – A manga set in Chicago that I could easily see as a summer action movie. It stars a master markswoman who owns a gun store and a former prostitute turned explosives expert. They fight crime.

Concrete – Okay, this one could be considered a “mature reader” comic but not because of titillation. I’ll just give the premise of the book. A guy goes on a hike, gets abducted and experimented by aliens, and ends up transformed into an indestructible rock man (think “Ben Grimm”). This is a world without superheroes and Concrete doesn’t really want to become one. Instead he tries to live a normal life and fails completely at it. He sits on a pile of cinderblocks because he’d crush a normal chair. He has to hire an assistant to do a lot of day to day things for him. His appearance makes an instant celebrity of a guy who’d rather live in anonymity. He tries to use his newfound fame to do some good as an activist but he ends up getting taken advantage of by extremist fringe groups.

I will check out some of your recommendations. They seems really cool.

They’re kind of all over the place. In hindsight I should have broken them up by genre rather than publisher but some of them are hard to define. Besides, Atomic Robo, Maintenance, and Barry Ween are all technically weird-science action-comedies but they’re completely different.

[shenron]

Ya, I will have to see what I can dig up. I have a few titles I am trying to complete and read and all of that jazz.

I think from the same Atomic Robo trade he also says "The adults are talking" to the new intern which made me bust up.

[roxolid]

Quite enjoying Invincible.

Sometimes though the narrative is way off the mark, for example:



DC would NEVER do such a thing. And nor would Marvel, despite their recent renumbering of titles back to #1 getting really high sales figures (and in Marvels case Hulk and Wolverine titles seeing their renumbered first issues offer the only competition to DC with the rest completely floundering). And Fans are smart enough to not be taken in by such tactics, even if the big two did the cynical sales ploy renumber thing, as sales figures have, err.... shown.

Other than that, Invincible has the title character getting the snot pounded out of his face every issue despite being some near superboy level teenager powerhouse. I never saw so much blood in a mainstream comic book, nor so many 'real life issues' (Invincibles girlfriend and fellow hero Atomic Eve had an abortion and put on a hundred pounds of weight or so).

So aside from that cynical last panel line being completely wide of the mark, the rest of the time the comic book is bang on.






Oh, wait...

[Hypester]

Invincible is rocking my socks. I remember Authority in its heyday. I really love those riffs on the DC archetypes. Perhaps I'll get around to some of the more truly original stuff at some point, but Invincible is so my new fave.

[Beacon]

The fourth wall breaking is a little out of place but it isn’t like you should be surprised to see this kind of sentiment coming from Kirkman. He’s been pretty vocal about the big two’s handling of things.

I’d go so far as to claim that the charm of Invincible is that we get to see a great writer writing a superhero comic without editorial interference. How many times have we heard about a great story getting the ax because some suit is worried that it’ll make it harder to sell lunchboxes? How many terrible stores have been mandated by corporate for the same reason? You don’t get that with Invincible.