Comics

[avram]

I joke that my weekly comics habit has turned into me walking around the store moaning about how there’s nothing worth buying, but this week I found the latest trades of Ex Machina and Ultimate X-Men. I think I’m gonna give up on the latter — they’ve just introduced the Magician, and checking the storyline on Wikipedia), it looks pretty lame. Ex Machina’s still doing a decent job of looking like it might actually lead somewhere in along with the melodrama.

In webcomics news, eurotard linked to Dean Haspiel’s Immortal, a new Billy Dogma and Jane Legit story. I’d seen Billy and Jane in various indie sources over the years (probably SPX but maybe other places too), and somehow never taken a shine to them, but damn, this story’s got graphic chops! Simple, square panels, black and red and a bit of a tone, a nice grainy brush line, and a sexy story that reads like a Brooklyn creation myth with superheroes (or villains, or whatever Billy and Jane are). (Panel © Dean Haspiel)

And a couple days back, scans_daily put up the entirety of the Cerebus-Elrod-and-Lord-Julius-in-a-closet (actually a ship’s cargo hold) story that originally ran in Cerebus #51 and was reprinted in Cerebus #0. I first started collecting Cerebus around the time this came out, and even though I didn’t know who the characters were, it was still hilarious. What really knocks me out after all these years is this: Not only is Sim using these tall, thin panels to give himself lots of time (because time progresses across panels) for reaction shots to properly pace his dialog-heavy comedy, but he’s also slightly tilting the panels to indicate the ship’s rocking motion. (Page excerpt © Dave Sim)

Comments

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Sim just made it look so easy. I think my favorite story was "Like-a-looks."

("Let's go back to my office, and whoever Baskin sucks up to is the real Lord Julius.")

[avram]

Issue #44, “The Deciding Vote” (aka “the wuffa-wuffa issue”). Best issue of the whole 300. Go back and re-read it; you’ll be amazed at just how much funny is packed into that one pamphlet.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

(from memory, obviously)

"You've cast your vote already?"
"Yup"
WHAM

Yes, very well done.

[baldanders.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite issue was Petuniacon. "In my country, when the wheels squeak we hit them with hammers until they stop."

Velma might agree with you; she's very fond of making frostonite jokes.

[baldanders.livejournal.com]

God, I loved that issue. I haven't read it in years, since it didn't get collected in the phone boooks, but I thought it was one of the half dozen funniest issues of a comic I'd ever read.

[man-size.livejournal.com]

Avram--

Thx for the kudos!

--Dino