The September 2023 Previews made me kind of sad….

It’s not particularly different than it has been for a few months, but the reduced nature of information Diamond now offers is finally sinking in with me…

In another case of “be careful what you wish for”, many people used to lament about Diamond’s monopoly on comics distribution.

Now distribution is sprinkled all around with Lunar & PRH holding the major publishers now and Diamond reduced to a pale shadow of their former self.

I used to love to be able to browse through the Diamond Previews catalog each month and get a pretty complete picture of all the comics coming out. This is sadly no longer the case and the Previews catalog is rushing into irrelevancy for many (most?) comics fans who primarily read super-hero comics with a smattering of indies led by Image.

What you will NOT find in the Diamond Catalog: Marvel & DC. They each publish a smaller comic book sized solicitation, though the DC one is pretty weak. Image has a single page in the Diamond catalog with a list of what they’re putting out in November, though you can still find full Image solicitation information online.

The BIG publisher leading off the Previews catalog is now BOOM!, followed by Dynamite. They’re putting out some good stuff, but now the entirety of the Previews catalog is what we used to call “the back half of Previews” (which many/most fans never looked at or cared about).

Previews is still a good tool for retailer orders and hardcore indie comics fans, but I question the $4.99 cover price.

I think it’s pretty much irrelevant for most fans now. At least prior to the distributor schism we could get a pretty good idea of everything coming out, now to get that picture we HAVE to go online, so I think most of us would be just as well off going 100% to the publisher online solicitations and skipping the print catalog.

Maybe not a bad thing to just let this massive monthly tree-killer just fade from memory.

Bob Bretall (bob@comicspectrum.com)
http://comicspectrum.com/ By Fans who Love Comics For Fans who Love Comics

Conceptual Funnies #1 (Bad Idea)

e-mail from “Bad Idea”

Rating: 0/5* – Completely lacking in story/substance (see last paragraph for qualifier)
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.

The “best comic company many fans have never heard of” has jumped the shark with its issuance of the world’s first Invisible comic book, Conceptual Funnies #1… the 1st comic I will review and rate as a 0/5 “Zero out of 5 stars” since it only exists as a marketing jape.

For more info, you can read this story on Bleeding cool, I’ll summarize here:

Bad Idea was formed by various founding members forced out of the latest incarnation of Valiant Comics, including Dinesh Shamdasani. They have been distributing their comics direct to a select group of 200 or so comics retailers, bypassing the normal comics distribution channel of Diamond/Lunar/Penguin. In general they have been putting out some high quality, if pricey, comics, with talent like Matt Kindt, Robert Venditti, David Lapham, Marguerite Bennett, and more.

They have thumbed their nose at the comics establishment in a variety of ways and have had promotions for their customers ranging from “mail-in” comics (theoretically available only through the mail-in offer) to offers where loyal fans could buy a rock with “Bad Idea” painted on it for about ten bucks.

Now they have teamed up with CGC to slab 34 pieces of clear acetate that they are calling the world’s first invisible comic. Not the silliest thing, I suppose, since you cannot read ANY comic that is in a CGC slab, so it may as well be a piece of clear acetate..but you can usually at least look at the cover like it’s a poster. This one they are offering 5 “mega fans” (aka complete idiots) the chance to buy one of these for $1000 (or more). I’ll be really curious about who has the spare money to throw away…and if 5 people actually send these guys $1000 for this curiosity. Thinking about this more… I see the meta-commentary on the practice of slabbing as fairly humorous. Upon reflection, part of the commentary they are making on the practice of slabbing is attaching a ludicrous price tag to this since many otherwise questionably valuable comics raise in price an insane amount just by putting them in a slab with a 9.8 on it.

In any event… purely on the basis of the observed writing and art in this comic/”not really a comic”, it has to get a zero for being completely lacking in story/substance, though it would get a 5/5 for being a wry commentary on the industry practice of arbitrarily placing a sometimes insanely increased value on anything that is slabbed.

Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
http://comicspectrum.com/ By Fans who Love Comics For Fans who Love Comics

Kang the Conqueror #1 (Marvel)

Kang the Conqueror #1 – Released on 8/18/2021

This new telling of Kang’s origin is off to a good start with young “yet to become Kang” setting himself on the path to adventure only to be met and mentored by an older “wants to teach his younger self to avoid his mistakes” Kang.

Decent story by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly, with superb art by Carlos Magno.

People who became interested in the Kang character as a result of the recent Loki series on Disney+ may want to check out this comic-book version of the character as he makes his way through the timelines of the comics MarvelU.

Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
http://comicspectrum.com/ By Fans who Love Comics For Fans who Love Comics

Arise #1 & 2 (Satyrn Studios)

If you like Zombie comics, keep an eye out for Arise #1 (Satyrn Studios) in back issue bins.  This was supposed to be a 6 issue series but only 3 issues came out back in 2016.  The Publisher’s web-page is no longer active, but they do have a Facebook page where they are talking about selling ad space for Arise #4 thru 6.

I can only recommend #1, which has art by Vince Locke  who is best known for the 1990s indie zombie comic ‘Deadworld’ as well as ‘A History of Violence’ from Paradox Press and later reprinted by Vertigo (subsequently made into a film starring Viggo Mortensen).

It’s a fairly standard zombie outbreak story, but I liked seeing Locke’s art again.  The ending really set me up to look forward to the next issue, unfortunately Locke only did #1 and the artist on #2 and #3 (James Whynot) should be a case study for atrocious art.  Anyone who decides they want to call any comic art “bad” should be required to look at Arise #2 and then criticize any other comic book art taking into account that Arise #2’s art exists as well.

Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
http://comicspectrum.com/ By Fans who Love Comics For Fans who Love Comics

‘Dawn of X’ X-Men Reboot (2019)

Rating: x/5 – Not All Things for All People, Your Mileage May Vary.
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.

After not reading Marvel’s X-Universe books regularly for several decades, I let Jonathan Hickman’s reboot have a try at pulling me back in.  The interlocking mini-series that kicked off the reboot (House of X / Powers of X) worked really well for me, though ‘House’ worked better than ‘Powers’.

The challenge Hickman, and any X-writer at Marvel, must face is pleasing casual readers and also hardcore X-fans who can recite the most arcane X-lore in their sleep.  I fall firmly in the casual fan camp.  I like the idea of X-Men, and generally love the movies that are distilled down to be consumable by a wider film-going audience.  A successful X-book for me is one that I do not have to feel like I need to jump on my computer and do a lot of heavy research to understand what is going on, but that is not necessarily what will please the hardcore fans, because they don’t need to do that research, they can easily call to mind all the backstory being referenced and it enhances the reading experience.

With House/Powers, the reason I liked House more was that I knew just enough about the X-Men and their world that I could pretty much follow along as Hickman unfolded the story.  When he jumped to the future stuff in Powers, I got a bit lost on the Nimrod stuff since that is an era of X-Men I skipped.  But, to Hickman’s credit, he added enough connective story tissue that I didn’t feel completely lost, resulting in me liking, but not loving Powers, but I didn’t dislike it either.

After my original lapse in reading X-Men in the early 90s, I have tried jumping back on the X-Men train a number of times.  I liked Morrison’s New X-Men run, Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, Bendis’ time-displaced ‘Children of the Atom’.  But while I liked the core books by the core writer (Morrison, Whedon, Bendis) X-Men is just not X-Men unless it spawns a tremendous number of related books by other writers.  That’s where I get lost.  Eventually when the other writers start diving into those corners of the X-universe where I don’t really want to go, I drift away.  But, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, I am not the primary target audience and as long as those diverse other books are well received by X-fandom in general, then it’s a success for Marvel.  This is the challenge with Hickman’s ‘Dawn of X’…  With House/Powers complete, Marvel is launching a pile of new series, and true to form, a number of them are not clicking with me:

X-Men: 4.5/5 – Continuing the story from House of X

The main series has me on board for now.  It’s continuing the Krakoan story from House of X and even though I am not a big fan of Leinil Francis Yu’s art, I’m sticking with this for the story.  This isn’t a knock on Yu’s art, a lot of people love it, it’s just not my cup of tea and I tend to avoid his books unless I am a really big fan of the writer, which in this case, I am with Jonathan Hickman.  Sticking with this.

Marauders: 4.5/5 – Rescuing Mutants from Peril

Kitty Pryde is a pirate and calls herself Kate now, her mission is to help rescue mutants from countries that are not friendly to the new Krakoan Mutant Nation, with some Hellfire Club stuff thrown in as well.  I’m digging the story Gerry Duggan is weaving here and like the addition of Storm, Bishop, and Iceman (among others) to Kate’s crew.  Sticking with this for now.

Excalibur: 3/5 – Betsy Braddock is Captain Britain

This one lost me, which is not unexpected, as I was never a particular fan/reader of previous Excalibur or Captain Britain material.  Tini Howard is telling a story that draws on a lot of lore that I’m not very familiar with and issue #1 was not told in a way that made me want to learn more.  I had more of the ‘walked into the middle of something in progress’ feeling that I do not really care for, so I’m giving this series a pass.  It’s not bad, just not something that grabbed me and made me want to learn more.

X-Force: 4/5 – Black Ops in the ‘Dawn of X’

Marvel describes this as the ‘CIA of the Mutant World’, basically covert ops run by the Krakoan nation.  Featuring some mega popular mutants like Domino & Wolverine, we also get Beast, Jean Grey, and Forge in reserve.  The theme of getting me to stick with an X-title seems to be how closely it is sticking to and expanding some element of Hickman’s core Krakoan story without pulling in a lot of legacy information that I’m not particularly familiar with (like Excalibur’s Avalon/Captain Britain mythology).  They’re bad-asses doing missions for the Krakoan nation.  Simple. Sold.  Sticking with this for now.

New Mutants: 3/5 – New Mutants in Spaaaaace!!!

This one surprised me, I was going in expecting to absolutely love it.  Written by Hickman with Ed Brisson and with beautiful art by Rod Reis that has a nice Sienkiewicz-y vibe, it almost immediately went off the rails for me when the team decides to go off into space looking for Sam Guthrie (Cannonball) who apparently went off to live in space at some point (a bit of lore I was completely unaware of).  Very personal hot button issue for me, and not something that should bother anyone else as a matter of course, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE “X-Men in Space” stuff.  I know it’s a very entrenched part of X-Lore that has been going on for a very long time, and I have never care for it.  Also, Mondo?  Not familiar with this refugee from Generation X, I had to look him up on Wikipedia.  His entry confirms that he is as lame as he comes across in this issue (Yay!  A guy who can absorb dirt!), sorry to all you Mondo fans out there.  Hard pass.  Dropping this title like a hot space rock.

Fallen Angels: 3/5 – Psylocke is Back as a ‘Pure Ninja Assassin’

Psylocke is a character that rose to prominence in the years I was not really reading X-Men.  I knew bits and piece about the character.  Betsy Braddock had apparently taken over (or was merged somehow) with the body of a Japanese assassin.  Betsy is back in her own body (in Excalibur) and the ninja assassin Kwannon has her own body back in this series as Psylocke.  This book was dark… and by that I mean the art by Szymon Kudranski with color by Frank D’Armata was very dark and shadowy on many pages, and I was also not a big fan of the excessive close-ups of eyes, noses, and mouths.  This one joins Excalibur on giving me the feeling that I walked into the middle of something that was not fully explained.  The fact that the art really got on my nerves just cemented my decision to drop this one.

SUMMARY

50/50 on the initial 6 series is not that bad for Marvel given that I was reading a total of zero X-books 6 months ago.  The series I’m sticking with (X-Men, Marauders, X-Force) seemed, at least to me) to be more connected in telling a single story, while to ones that I am skipping (Excalibur, New Mutants, Fallen Angels) seem to have gone off on tangents.  This makes sense to me since I was pulled into this reboot by Hickman’s “Krakoan Nation for Mutants” storyline, as opposed to having any particular interest in exploring lots of other corners of the X-Universe.  Everyone likes different  stuff, the ones I don’t care for may be someone else’s all-time favorite.  I’m very interested to see this story play out.  I’m also interested to see how long Marvel can hold out before they derail the whole thing by pulling it into some big crossover event.

Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
http://comicspectrum.com/ By Fans who Love Comics For Fans who Love Comics

Spider-Man #1 & #2 (Marvel)

Rating: 4/5 – Decent “Marvel Elseworlds” that goes off on a tangent from normal Marvel continuity.
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.

This is the series that has been mostly publicized as a vehicle for JJ Abrams & his son Henry to write a Spider-Man story.  The 1st issue was the #2 selling comic for September 2019.  I’ll be curious to see if people who bought #1 are going to be swarming back to shops to buy #2 (we’ll see when the October sales come out).  I’m guessing no.

Sara Pichelli’s art is outstanding in both issues, I have no complaints there.  The story is fine as an “elseworlds” story that goes off on a tangent and is totally unrelated to any other Marvel comic or continuity. 

Personally, I didn’t enjoy how the Abrams duo has characterized Peter Parker.  My idealized version of Peter wouldn’t do what Peter does in this story, but this is really a story about Peter & MJ’s son Ben, so they had to get Peter out of the way, so it is what it is.  After reading the 1st 2 issues, I think I can safely skip the rest of the series at full price.  I suspect the balance of these issues are going to be in dollar bins within a year or so.  I also suspect when this is collected the trade paperback will sell decently well to people curious to see a Spidey story by JJ Abrams, essentially the same demographic that went out and bought lots of issue #1. 

Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
http://comicspectrum.com/ By Fans who Love Comics For Fans who Love Comics

The Stan Lee Story (Taschen)

CREDIT: Taschen

Rating: 5/5 – A Lavish & Thorough Treatment of Stan’s Life & Career.
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.

I’ll be up-front with the fact that I loaned lots of comic books and related material to Taschen for them to photograph for inclusion in this book.  I was happy to do it as a life long Stan Lee fan.  My compensation for this was getting copies of both the limited edition book (that came out last November) as well as this new $200 edition that comes out July 25th, 2019.  That I got a comp copy does not affect my love for this book.  I’d have happily paid $200 for this because I am a HUGE Stan Lee fan.

It is available on the Taschen web-site, Amazon, and I’m sure in a few other places as well.

Written by Roy Thomas and designed by Josh Baker, it covers Stan’s childhood through to his later years doing cameos in the Marvel movies and acting as an elder statesman of comics. Roy takes care to give credit where credit is due to co-creators and this seems to be a very balanced and thorough biography of Stan with LOADS of pictures of people, documents (like the patent statement for “Marvel Comics”), comic books, toys, original art, movie stills, etc.  The text accompanying the pictures is informative, an easy read, and flows nicely from one topic to the next.

To give an idea of everything covered, here are the chapters:

• Stanley Martin Lieber (1922-1940)
• Stan Lee’s Golden Age (1940-1949)
• Atlas Hoists That Globe (1950-1961)
• The Marvel Age of Comics (1961-1964)
• An Expanding Universe (1964-1968)
• Days of Destiny (1968-1972)
• Stan Lee Presents (1972-1980)
• Welcome to Hollywood (1980-1990)
• The Notorious Nineties (1990-2000)
• 21st Century Unlimited (2001-2018)

The book itself is massive, 12 inches by 17.5 inches and weighing in at over 15 pounds!  It comes in an illustrated cardboard protective box with a handle (like other Taschen books in this large format).

Since I have both the ultra expensive limited edition that sold out within days of its release as well as the new $200 version, I thought it would be good to offer up a comparison of the two.  All-in-all the $200 edition has pretty much everything that’s in the unattainable limited edition and given its size and production values seems to be a pretty decent deal for people who are fans of Stan Lee and his legacy.

The $200 version is PRETTY DARN NICE. It’s just as large as the limited edition, the main differences being:

• The limited edition is signed by Stan (probably among the last things he signed) on a vellum overlay page that is bound in next to the shot of him in the tuxedo at the beginning.  The $200 edition does not have the vellum overlay/signature and has added an “In Memoriam”
• The limited edition came in a 1/4″ thick clear lucite slipcase with a circle cut out in the middle where Spider-Stan is (instead of the dustjacket on the $200 edition).  The $200 edition comes with the illustrated cardboard carrying case not present for the limited edition.
• The limited edition came with a separate reproduction of Lee’s “Secrets Behind the Comics” booklet from 1947 (reproduced from my copy of that book)

  
  

• At the beginning of every chapter there is a white sheet that looks typed overlayed on top of some art. In the limited edition those are actual separate pieces of paper that are adhered to the book along their top edge (so you can lift them and see the art underneath).

  
  

• In 13 places: For example page 43 where you see the little Mystic Comics image at the top of the page, page 139 where you see the little “Day in the life of the FF” splash page from FF #11 at the top, etc. Basically anyplace you similarly see a little comic on the top of a right hand page with a description of it).
  In the limited edition, a reproduction of that comic is bound into the book along its left edge right there.
  In the $200 edition you get these reproductions all at the end (after chapter 10) on the giant-sized pages that make up this book. Arguably, this is even cooler than “same size” reprints on pulp paper in the limited edition.
  

The design of the book is awesome in the limited edition.  Having all the reproductions bound in make it look very unique.  However, even without these, all the information is still there in the $200 edition and the layout and flow of material, including the curation of some really spectacular items to visually highlight the points Roy is making in his text, makes this a must-read for “Stan Fans”.

$200 seems like quite a lot, but look at it this way:  a 22 page comic book is $4, which means you can get 50 comics for $200.  That would be roughly 1100 pages of comics.  This book is 624 pages, each of which is 4 times the size of a comic book page.  I guarantee this will take at least as much time (probably more) than it will take to read 50 comics.  On a page for page, pound for pound, and hour for hour basis this book delivers more entertainment to Stan Fans on all counts, so the price tag seems downright reasonable to me.

 

Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
http://comicspectrum.com/ By Fans who Love Comics For Fans who Love Comics

Ghosted in L.A. #1 (BOOM! Box)

CREDIT: BOOM! Box

Rating: 5/5 – Making Friends in L.A. is Hard, but Daphne Gets Creative.
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.

The newest comic from creator/writer Sina Grace (Iceman, Not My Bag) is a story where the main character Daphne goes away to college in Los Angeles and finds that everything is not going the way she had dreamed it would.  Friends (both her boyfriend & friends at school), social interactions, and life in general all end up being more complicated than she had hoped.  But then… ghosts!

The ghosts are pictured on the cover, and referenced in the multiple meaning title, so their presence is not much of a spoiler, but I won’t go into the specifics of how Daphne meets them or how their initial interactions proceed.  That would spoil the enjoyment you would get from reading the issue, and I really hope people will love this title as much as I did.  Grace’s dialogue flows naturally and the events “feel real”, which is hopefully a goal of writing a book that’s essentially slice of life, but with a fun twist.

Siobhan Keenan provides the art (with a contribution on a few pages from Grace, who is also an accomplished comic book artist, though he is mainly writer on this series).  Keenan his a very clean style that conveys they action and emotion without a lot of additional/unnecessary linework.  She has a great facility in facial expressions and body language that added a lot to the story in a subtle way.

There’s a lot more story to tell, Grace & Keenan have just revealed the tip of an iceberg in this debut issue.  I look forward to continuing on with the series as they flesh out the Ghostly characters and build more out of their interactions with the living world, as well as Daphne’s continuing adjustment to life in L.A.  I can see this growing into a solid spot in my top 10 if I enjoy subsequent issues as much as this debut.

Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
http://comicspectrum.com/ By Fans who Love Comics For Fans who Love Comics

Batman Universe #1 (DC)

CREDIT: DC Comics

Rating: 4/5 – Awesome Reprinted Story with a Too-High Price Tag.
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.

Batman  Universe #1 reprints the Batman story written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Nick Derington that was originally included in 100-Page Batman Giant #3 & 4 which were available only at Wal-Mart stores.

The story is great.  In my opinion Bendis does best on street-level heroes and I enjoyed his work here on Batman far more than on Superman.  Derington shines on the art, a clean/crisp style that does a great job in conveying both action and signature Bendis “talking heads” pages.   Appearance by The Riddler and Jinny Hex are well done and convey the gist of the characters with ease as part of the story, which makes this very new reader friendly, which was the stated intent of the original Wal-Mart issues (reaching new readers).  That said, charging $4.99 for this 24 page issue of reprints seems a bit excessive, given that the original Wal-Mart issues were 100 pages, a 12 page new story and 88 pages of reprint material.   Sure, it’s “new to comic shops” but DC is really reaching into the wallets of their fanbase with this one, it should be $3.99.

My quibble over the pricing of this series aside, it really is a great story (5/5 – 1 point for predatory marketing).  A good story for new readers, but given that this will run 6 issues and it’s reprints anyway, it might be a good idea to skip six $4.99 issues that will cost ~$30 and just get the collected edition when it comes out.  I suspect it will be fairly easy to get the collection at a price less than $30.

Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
http://comicspectrum.com/ By Fans who Love Comics For Fans who Love Comics

The Dark Age / Afterburn FCBD 2019 (Red 5 Comics)

CREDIT: Red 5 Comics

Rating: 4/5 – Red 5 Spins Post-Apocalyptic Tales.
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.

In the opening pages of The Dark Age, a mysterious gray mist descends on the Earth and dissolves all metal to dust.  Society breaks down.  Then the story time jumps to 13 years later where the world has devolved into feudal states, roving bands of cannibals, etc.

The 16 pages presented in this FCBD book focuses on a Father (who was fortunately a professor who specialized in studying ancient cultures and their survival methods) and his son/daughter, facing just a few of the perils of this new world.  This is a good setup and gives a taste for what these people will be facing in the new Dark Ages. What makes it more interesting to me is the list of consultants for the story: An associate professor of Anthropology and Archaeology, a PhD sudent in Medieval Studies, and a medical consultant.  This tells me that writer Don Handfield and artist Leonard Rodrigues are making a decent attempt at accurately portraying the regressed world instead of just making up stuff that “seems right”.

If this sounds like the kind of story you like, it will be worth looking for.  You can ask your Local Comic Shop to order issue #1 for you, out in July and solicited in the current Previews as MAY191885.

The second story in the issue is an 8 page taste of the work of Afterburn (“Soon to be a major motion picture!”, we are told).  This is another post-apocalyptic setting.  Two years prior to the events in this story a massive solar flare hit the day side of Earth (which at that point was Europe/Africa/Asia) killing most living things and mutating what it didn’t kill.  That’s the world building part, which we get from some set-up text, but is not featured in the story, which is primarily a heist focusing on a group of raiders who are going into Moscow to get some Faberge eggs for a Russian millionaire and who have a run in with local mutants which makes it a bit more challenging than just walking in and taking them.

This is an interesting take on the post-apocalyptic in that it doesn’t just focus on basic survival, instead telling tales of adventuring in the altered world.  The current series of this being published as single issues, is called “Afterburn: Crossfire” and issue #3 is in the current May Previews catalog as MAY191884.

Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
http://comicspectrum.com/ By Fans who Love Comics For Fans who Love Comics