« To Buy Or Not To Buy? | Main | I Got Nothing »
January 18, 2006
Crazy in the Head
With the success of recent comic strip reprint packages like Calvin & Hobbes, Peanuts, and Dennis The Menace, etc, one has to imagine that similar collections will be forthcoming. I would like to submit my requests for Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy and E.C. Segar's Popeye. Nancy's surreal formal experiments and clean, geometric art was like Chris Ware without the existential angst. Popeye was much more straightforward, but the character design, both visual and conceptual, was spot-on perfect and infinitely satisfying. I would buy those books in a second. Get on that, somebody, would you? I demand entertainment!
Mark your calendars for two New York-area comic events this February. On Friday, February 3, Michael Kupperman, creator of the ridiculously funny Tales Designed to Thrizzle will be signing books at Rocketship. At the end of the month, of course, is the big NY Comic-Con. Guy and Buzzscope are throwing an after-party on Saturday, February 25, with special guests Andy MacDonald and Ivan Brandon, creators of NYC Mech. Don't miss these very special opportunities to party with The Pickytarian!
All Star Superman #2 - That whole "I'm the G-D Superman" stuff? Man, I HATED that. What's Morrison doing, phoning this one in? Or having a big joke on the fanboys?
Ex Machina #17 - Something about that last two-issue story about Hundred's mother left me kind of cold. Let's hope Vaughan & Harris get back on track with this issue.
Infinite Crisis #4 - Speaking of being left cold, if anybody can explain what the heck was gong on with the multiple Lex Luthors in issue #3, I would be much obliged. The fact that Luthor was wearing the purple bandolier costume UNDER the big green armor costume cracked me up, but not because I understood the ramifications of it. I just found it funny that a character was wearing one super-costume under another one. Frankly, I just wish they would get on with the Superman vs. Superman fight. Why do I have a nagging feeling that the fight isn't going to happen at all?
Losers #31 - For all my talk about how much I love this title, I have no memory of reading the last issue. Did I miss it completely? Duh... how's that for insightful commentary?
Planetary #24 - Must... wait... for trade....
Seven Soldiers Mister Miracle #3 - I've been thoroughly underimpressed with this series so far. This issue brings us the 3rd artist in 3 issues, and to these bitter, jaded eyes, they're 0-for-2 so far. Shining Knight and The Manhattan Guardian didn't really pick up until the halfway point, though. Let's hope the same thing happens here.
Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy #1 - Somebody's doing something right when I can buy monthly comics written and drawn by a comic legend like Joe Kubert. Buzzscope has a 6-page preview.
Testament #2 - A little birdie recommended this Vertigo series to me last week, and I liked it enough to stick with it. There's something creepy about the super-young looking mother of the teenage boy and the "I'll be 18 in one month.. tee hee" sex-bomb girl, but that might be an integral part of the story. If not... yikes.
Punisher vs Bullseye #3 - Is this too much of a Garth Ennis rip-off? It's hard to judge that objectively with the Steve Dillon artwork. Either way, I'm getting a kick out of it. The final sequence in #2 was classic.
Conan #24 - It's old news at this point, but color me extremely sad that Kurt Busiek is leaving this book. The silver lining is that Mike Mignola will be scripting a couple of issues after he leaves.
Iron Man The Inevitable #2 - Pretty.
X-Statix Presents Dead Girl #1 - This comic is a bittersweet reminder of that all-too-brief, increasingly distant time when Marvel took chances and published some halfway-irreverent takes on their superheroes. The joy of reading it may be outweighed by my longing for those bygone days. That said, we did get Fantastic Four Iron Man: Big in Japan last year, and that book is twelve different kinds of crazy.
Schizo #4 - Read some of Ivan Brunetti's strips and then tell me that you don't want to pay $9.95 for this 11 x 15 collection. The only question for me is where am I going to get a bag and board big enough for it? I ask this question because I am a massive nerd.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at January 18, 2006 09:42 AM
Comments
I've heard that somebody is indeed going to bring back the Popeye reprints. Not sure if it's Fantagraphics again or not. I've also heard rumors of somebody collecting Crockett Johnson's Barnaby, which makes me crazy happy. I have only one book collecting that strip, and it dates back to around 1943!
Posted by: Bill Doughty at January 18, 2006 03:42 PM
Hmmm... a little research (now there's a novel idea) turned up the fact that Fantagraphics DID reprint the entire run of Segar's Popeye in the late 80's. Sadly, I was only 15 at the time and much more interested in spending my money on Def Leppard cassette tapes. There was a thread last month on the TCJ board where Kim Thompson teased that they may be doing something with Popeye in the near future.
I'm not all that familiar with Barnaby. I know Crockett Johnson from Harold and the Purple Crayon and I've always liked his minimal, graphic drawing style.
Posted by: jdonelson_nyc at January 18, 2006 04:02 PM
I have a super old Barnaby book too, Jerm. Bruce got it for me last year (well two years ago, technically) for my birthday. Remind me to lend it to you.
Posted by: Matt B at January 18, 2006 05:27 PM
i agree. i have always liked segar's popeye. the nancy comics of my youth were well paced it's usefullnes. i concur that the original run was art. thouight the same thing about us acres first run myself.
Posted by: derek at January 24, 2006 10:51 AM