I'll make this part short because besides me only 2 people (pretty sure it's only 2) that come here regularly will care. The rest of you uncultured heathens can just wait for a few more days until the last part of this little series comes to cover the odds and ends. Anyway, on to the best comics of 2008.
There is no way around the first thing I mention being Matt Wagner's new Grendel series, Behold The Devil. Last year marked the 25th anniversary of this iconic character and Wagner brought him back in style, writing and doing the art (black, white and red of course) himself. You know how you wait and wait for something and then it comes and it's better than you hoped? Yeah, it's like that. Vivat Grendel!
Joss Whedon brought back both Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel for seasons 8 and 6 respectively and is writing and overseeing the comics the same way he did the shows, both of which I love. Since Joss Whedon is my lord and master I implore you all do give him as much money as you can and so sacrifice any creatures it seems right to sacrifice unto him.
Ben Templesmith's (Fell, 30 Days of Night) Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse hits all the sweet spots. A sentient worm inhabits and reanimates a human corpse and spends a lot of time either drinking or fighting to save earth from all manner of foul and loathsome things from horrid dimensions. Horror, humor and action with Templesmith's always eye grabbing art.
Other series/one shots/whatever from '07 that are worth more than a look:
100 Bullets
Y: The Last Man
Criminal
Doktor Sleepless
The Boys
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier
All Star Superman
All Star Batman
The Nightly News
Probably forgetting something but this is still a damn fine example of last year's best. Now some other stuff:
The Award for Best Art goes to Jae Lee and Richard Isanove for their work on The Dark Tower. Isanove painted over Lee's pencils and it was beautiful.
The award for Dumbest Scam to Try to Make You Buy A Lot Of Shitty Comics goes to Marvel. Yet again. Multiple times last year actually. They did their usual massive company wide crossover event, Civil War, which was designed solely to try to make you buy titles you don't normally buy in order to get the complete story (Marvel began doing this kind of shit way back in the late 80's and was part of the reason I stopped collecting the first time) which ended with the death of Captain America (he'll be back if he's not already) and then they IMMEDIATELY launched into another company wide crossover called World War Hulk designed to do the exact same thing. At least they're consistent.
Speaking of Marvel, I was feeling guilty about buying one of their titles (even my lord and master Joss Whedon writing an X-Men book couldn't make me give money to Marvel), Moon Knight, but justified it because it was written by the grabtacular Charlie Huston. I love his novels so I felt like I had to buy his take on Moon Knight. It was awesome. It looks like he doesn't write it anymore so I can go back to quietly ignoring Marvel again. It's sad to see Huston off the book but as long as he keeps writing novels that are all manner of yay then I'm fine with it.
The I Just Stopped Giving A Damn So I'm Not Buying It Anymore Award goes to The Walking Dead. It might be because Kirkman is writing something like 473 monthly titles now but the story just stopped making me give a shit about it. Shame.
7 comments:
Civil War is also deserving of the It Could Have, and SHOULD Have been awesomely Epic, But Failed in damn Near Every way, award.
Instead, the only parts of it that were worth a damn were, coincidently, on Huston's Moon Knight. The first where Cap tells Spector to sit it out because he thinks he's a psycho. The other where Stark tries to recruit him, and Spector calls him, and i quote "a fucking asshole"
It pains me to give credit to Marvel for anything these days, but World War Hulk had some pretty good moments.
I cried giggly fanboy cries at the end of the second issue of Wake the Devil, when Argent makes his appearance.
And somebody should give Eduardo Risso some kind of award. The man's art isn't incredibly realistic, but he just has this really awesome way of showing body language that I have yet to see anyone come close to matching.
Also, Doktor Sleepless is filled with win and yay, as is most Ellis. Though, i'm still not sure about Fell. The single issue per story form is cool, but it feels rushed to me. It was the same thing when Ellis was doing Global Frequency. I think he does much better when he has something that unfolds slowly over a longer period of time.
Damn. You just gave me another reason to need a job really badly. Fucker.
Agreement, agreement, agreement.
Civil War: Made me cancel my renewed subscription to Amazing Spider-Man. I couldn't agree with you more. And god damn it, the shit they did to Spidey in that whole fiasco. Grr. How do you misunderstand your own shit? Fucking morons.
Joss Whedon: Joss is very nearly my Lord and Master. But 1) He's let me down a couple times, 2) I never really watched Angel, and 3) Kev has dibs on being my Lord and Master.
I'm not overfond of Joss where comics are concerned. Maybe if I pick up some of the Buffy stuff it'll change my mind, but I thought his X-men work fucking sucked. The Firefly comic arc bridged the gap between the series and the movie and filled you in on how you get from one to the other, but that's about all I can say for it. The writing was just OK (uncharacteristic for a Whedon project), and the artwork was... well, it wasn't bad, but it was inconsistent and didn't really capture the characters.
Kirkman: I've stopped collecting the Walking Dead, too. I hear it picks back up, but the last collection I read had changed gears from "holy shit, it's all about a bunch of people who actually fucking survive the initial outbreak, how they deal with it, and what it does to them" to "OMG badass ninja bitch with a katana!" Bleh. Plus I hear Rick doesn't look like Charlton Heston any more.
Thankye for the support good sir!
New "Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse" in a matter of days!
I am intrigued by this Wormwood. I need to hit the comic book store next pay day. Thanks for the heads up, Coyote.
Ben Templesmith left a comment on my blog.
Ben Templesmith left a comment on my blog!
Ben Templesmith. Left. A. Comment. On. My. Blog.
*dies*
*reanimates*
WOOHOO!
If you'll excuse me I have to go change my pants...
And we're back!
Tim, even though I knew what the "I am being watched" thing was leading up to, I still got goosebumps when I saw Argent.
As for Eduardo Risso I have to say that the best compliment I saw for him was that his art is so in tune with the story that you if didn't know better you'd think the writer and artist are one person. That, to me, is damn high praise.
I see your point on Fell and Global Frequency but I still have to say that they are much better than most and I absolutely love Fell in every conceivable way. I hear that another Global Frequency series might be coming so maybe we'll see more development, which is the only thing that I thought it lacked.
suyapi: Neener neener.
Taco, I've heard some of the goofy shit that's been going down at Marvel, particularly Spider-Man, recently. The worst being armored Spidey. Fucking. Stupid. Again, now that Huston is off Moon Knight there's no need to give them any money. It's a shame because I was deeply in love with Marvel as a lad.
Also, definitely check out Wormwood. There's a collection out of the first four issues and I think another one coming in the next month or two, or you can get the individual issues depending on the quality of the comic shop you go to. His version of leprechauns is worth the price of admission by itself. Did I mention the undead strippers and the tentacles? So many tentacles...
Ben, I can't wait to get to the comic shop and when they say, "Hey what's up, man" I can reply with "Ben Templesmith left a comment on my blog." They will gather unto me as all lesser geeks do when an Alpha Geek asserts himself and they will bask in my geek glory.
I almost forgot! When I went to the comic shop last week there was a new issue of Fell! I thought I was never going to see another issue of it it had been so long but BAM there it was. The noise I made is best described as a contented sex sigh.
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