Amph ***OFFICIAL*** Comics Thread

There's no rule against talking manga here.

 

I wouldn’t be surprised.

The artist credit errors are embarrassing and very disrespectful.

It’s bad enough Marvel rarely pushes the artists or use pull quotes that promote the creative team as a whole, but this really bothers me (And not just because I’m a massive Checchetto fan.)

I will happily take that proofreading job.

Anyway…

 

Bryan Hitch has been making similar points on Twitter on his Venom run with Ewing and Ram V. He's done 16 sequential issues, does Marvel sell it on that basis? Do they hell.

 

Had some digital credit at Amazon so I finally picked up Marco Checchetto & Stefano Vietti’s zombie horror comic Life Zero.

I was heavily into Romero’s zombie films for many years until the Walking Dead basically killed my interest (Still love 3 films and Romero’s brilliant Toe Tags comic).

So I was dragging my feet on reading Life Zero.

Well, this series honors all the great things about George’s seminal horror output:

- Absolutely awful humans (especially the creator of the cloud that causes the outbreak & at least one professional soldier.)

- The weird cloud that turns folks (the science behind the apocalypse.)

- Unorthodox protagonists (especially the seemingly typical hero Captain Derek Shako. I love Marco’s design for Shako. Reminds me of Marco’s Solid Snake look for Frank Castle, but also unique.)

- Emotional content. There was some suspense and you wound up caring about Shako & some people around him.

-I liked that the zombies were a major threat, but as usual, it’s the terrible people who are even worse monsters.

It was fun seeing Marco draw horror. He came very close to supernatural horror with the early issues in his initial Daredevil run and serial killer horror Punisher run. (Again, current Daredevil has the awesome Hand dissolve into skeletal ninja when they die. I kind of wish the Lunate Talisman allowed some of those skeletal ninja to keep fighting as they remind me of The Blind Dead, but I digress.)

Marco nails the dread, the intense desolation and utter gross of zombies and the evil that men do here.

I was surprised I liked this as much as I did, given my general boredom & disinterest with zombies. I’d be happy to read something else Marco does outside of Marvel. Think he could tackle a great action or crime drama. It’s surprising it took 7-8 years to see proper release, but I’m glad it did.

 

Oh and Chip Zdarsky’s Public Domain is very good too! Chip is releasing PD issues as they are completed to his substack subscribers.

Issue 6 about character notes was cringe funny in the best way (I can imagine Chip remembers the All New Marvel retreats from 9 years ago.)

 

I had no idea this existed.

Damn you Lok, I'm going to have to buy it now!

... wait, now? No, not quite, next week, after pay day.

 

That's why the name looked familiar! Turns out I really like his stuff in that case.

 

That Punisher series Marco did with Greg Rucka remains my favorite Punisher run.

@Jedi Ben Ablaze Comics published Life Zero in English. It’s really good, hits all the right Romero beats and feels fresh to me.

And…my avatar is one of two Daredevil original art pieces I bought from Marco’s agent last year. Looking forward to owning more of these “red busts” when Marco has time to make them (A commission won’t happen for years yet.)

 

Hey guys - kinda late, and maybe only of interest, or mostly of interest, to the...er....slightly older (HA) comic book fans, but if you are in the Philly area, Mike Grell is at something called ZOLOCON at a venue called THE FUGE in Warminster (and if you have a little time to kill, look up the history of that venue...the centrifuge has a very interesting history). Got a couple of his prints yesterday, and he couldn't have been nicer and more gracious. Just an FYI.

 

Bat-Tynion

Is this better than Tynion's 'Tec run? No. Is it bad? Also no. It's a good run but not the equal of its predecessor. The main reason for this is this isn't the 'Tec book, it's the flagship of the Bat-books and has to take the lead on events. And it's those that Tynion finds difficult.

Act 1: Their Dark Designs / The Joker War Saga

Picking up the pieces from the very messy aftermath of Bat-King, this opens well with Batman more vilnerable and isolated. That part works well, Punchline? Really doesn't and Harley Quinn getting worfed by her feels hollow.

It all builds up to a great finale - the Joker raids Batman's bank account. That's not good, but it would have been far worse if Ra's had done it. As it is Joker just uses his new resources for a sustsined spell of utter chaos and carnage that Batman and his allies slowly turn the tide on.

The big weakness of this act is it cannot deliver on what it talks of, a final Batman vs Joker fight. Not a bad thing given act 3 but the later stort only helps this one so much.

Act 2: Ghost Stories / The Cowardly Lot / The Fear State Saga

The first of these is the best, as Clownhunter and Ghostmaker are good additions to the Bat-world. The annual with Stokoe art being a great story of the former.

The second feels like your standard event prologue story, which it is. What I like most here is there's no super conspiracy, it's Scarecrow taking advantage of Joker's actions for his own benefit.

Peacemaker-01? Ehhh, there's only one Peacemaker in DC and it isn't this walking mess

Tynion has some fun with the idea of a silicon valley Tech Bro deciding to make a quick buck out of Gotham and having it all go very, very wrong.

Fear State concludes well enough, with the Omega wrapping up most of the threads Tynion started running.

Act 3: The Joker

Told across three collections covering 15 issues and an annual, this is easily the strongest part of Tynion's run.

Part of that is due to the focus being smaller and more personal, but it is also more restrained. There isn't the excess of the Joker War finale having Alfred's corpse re-animated here.

Tynion also uses the run to look at the DC world outside of the US, positioning overt, flashy supervillains as being a more US-only problem.

Where the run is best is in how it uses the DC continuity, both old and new to explore the Joker / Gordon relationship away from Batman.

This is an excellent example of what to do with a villain that cannot be killed off.

 

Arkham Asylum: The Order of the World

This is an excellent Gotham tale. Gotham, not Batman? Yes, Gotham. This is a side story of madness.

The story looks at what happens in the wake of the Joker's mass murder attack on Arkham Asylum. Where do the surving inmates go? What is the response from Gotham citizens? What is the risk profile? As not everyone in Arkham was a supervillain.

Watters then spins it into a tale of a psychistric doctor trying to find value in her work. She does this knowing that that attempt is failing. Along the way she crosses paths with various Arkham villains, descending further and further into it all.

At the same time Azrael is back and what Watters does with him here has me intrigued for the trade due July. Here Azrael cuts a far scarier figure, and that's before he brings out the flaming sword.

Art is by Dani, not someone I know but their work conjures up the right atmosphere for the book. A sense of unease, of things bring off-kilter.

 

Crap…today sucks.

My beloved Daredevil run is ending in August. Chip & Marco made the announcement today. My eyes have not stopped leaking since…

 

Wow, did not see that coming. What does that take the issues up to in this second volume?

 

Recent reads:

The Magic Order Volume 3

I'm intrigued enough to see where this goes because it was a better volume than its predecessors, despite having the same weaknesses. It's also a strange story that is set as looking at Asia but does nothing with that.

Some of the story beats here will be familiar to those who read Books Of Magic, with this arc going with the idea that something bad is going to happen - and does.

The biggest problem for the series is it's big plot twists assume the reader cares about the characters. I don't. They are a bunch of ********s. I'm sufficiently intrigued to see what happens to these game pieces on the board, but that's all they are.

Bat-Tamaki: The Neighbourhood / Fear State / Arkham Rising

The first two trades form an arc running parallel to events in Batman. And it's a good one. The third is more a prelude volume for the Shadows of the Bat event.

The idea of Bruce Wayne having to downsize both his personal life and Batman activities is a good one. It plays well off of Joker War, with some sharp observations on Gotham's society.

These three collections share one major weakness - not enough Mora. When he's on an issue the art is superb, the others are good but they're not on the same level.

Still, despite that, this is a good set of stories.

Batman: Abyss

While I've come across him here and there, like the Batman / Flash: The Button crossover, I don't have much sense of Williamson, so bought this to do so.

This is a good Batman transition piece that uses both the Bat-continuity and wider setting of DC to its benefit -Luthor, Batman Inc, the impact of Joker War.

It also has excellent art that really sells the story.

Enjoyed it more than I expected to so will try a couple of his other books.

 

Batman: Detective Comics: Shadows of the Bat: The Tower HC

A 12-part weekly tale built around things go very wrong at the new Arkham Tower, this was a good event story and an effective follow-up to Fear State.

With Batman off the board for the majority of the story, it gives space for the other members of the Bat-family to take spotlight. This works very well.

Art is supplied by a trio of artists with complimentary styles. All are very good, though it would have been nice to have more Reis art.

This is a good finale story for Tamaki's run.

Life Zero HC

Often the best stories are the ones you don't know about, the ones other people tip you off to. And it is so here. My thanks to @Master_Lok for the recommendation. Published by Ablaze, this is a fresh take on the zombie genre with art by Chechetto.

It's his art, plus the excellent colours, that really makes the story shine.

The story of a black ops unit on one last job is well known by now, but this still throws in several surprises. The cast is well characterised, you care about what happens to them. And some bad things happen to a few of them.

Those plot bombs are perfectly placed and are detonated at just the right moment. And in the end? The story knows when to stop.

The Lion & The Eagle

"My son is a good boy, the old man told me. He will look after you."

It might be thought that Garth Ennis would have ran out of WW2 stories by now. Such is the nature of that conflict, however, is that it is more likely Ennis runs out of comic companies to publish them first.

Vertigo, Dynamite, Avatar, Aftershock - for all the way corporate superheroes love to invoke the language of war and violence, actual war comics don't sell that well. With Aftershock in a bad way, hopefully someone will be around to publish future stories.

This series is about the forgotten conflict with Japan and brings up aspects not talked of. Like how for China WW2 started in 1931 when Japan invaded. It looks at how the alliance between the US and Britain, and even each part of it, was far from united against a common enemy.

Ennis lays it out with his usual skill. Characters are quickly established, placed in terrible situations and then left to it. British, Indians and Gurkhas, behind enemy lines, without the support they were promised.

There's an excellent pair of prologue and epilogue sections. Where a British and Chinese officer talk of the way things are. The epilogue is especially good, China has gone communist, Japan is occupied, the Cold War in full flow. What was all of it for? It's become harder to tell years afterwards. Yet Ennis refuses to go the cynical route, Imperial Japan did have to be stopped. The British Empire was no angel to India either. Ennis goes for the details to show how it was and how, if not for how WW2 played out, it could have been.

Holden's art is superb. He's called on to depict everything and anything. Gurkhas running rampant through the Japanese, kukris slashing and carnage everywhere. Aerial combat. Quieter, more emotiobal sequences. And the last page of the story is devastating.

The only flaw here is Aftershock's choice of format. It should have been a hardback, the same as Into The Blue. The paper is, due to the greater page size, a bit too floppy.

Overall this is your usual excellent war story from Ennis and, as usual, you should read it.

 

Um, if no annual or extra issues are released, then 14 issues since the July 2022 relaunch.

I knew this was coming since: 1) When Chip was interviewed for it before last year’s relaunch, he said this was the last phase of their story (4.5 years is a great run and 60 issues with The Devil’s Reign & DD Woman Without Fear Mini.)

2) Marco has been pulled onto other projects (Not just covers). I think Marco recently dropped the hint that he is finally moving onto a Spider-Man book (His holy grail. We’ll see soon enough. I am super happy for Marco if that’s the case, even though I am so bummed their DD is ending.)

3) Marvel even telegraphed the end with their solicitation for August 2022’s Daredevil 2 (650) saying something to the effect “for the next year.” I was hoping that just meant this War between the Hand & Matt & Elektra’s opposing army, the Fist, but no.

I am just going to miss the great characterizations, gorgeous art, and really cool and crazy ideas. Anyway, I’ll keep doodling my tributes and rereading the run.

Oh, I goofed with the Eisners (Chip & Marco’s DD was nominated for two years in a row as best ongoing and Marco was nominated once for best artist.)

Speaking of Marco Checchetto, glad you enjoyed Life Zero. I enjoy it for all the same reasons you do and think it would make a great done-in-one zombie movie. I hope Marco will have time to do another creator-owned book at some point.

Oh, I read the first volume of Brian Michael Bendis, David Mack & Zu Orzu’s Cover. I loved the comic con scenes and the ninja comic inside the story, but wasn’t interested in the apparently true story of David Mack being roped in by an intelligence agent to spy on foreign targets (all through the guise of comic conventions and his art.)

David Mack’s art is gorgeous and I was delighted to see Zu handling the digital colors.

An aside, Zu and David are two of the nicest artists I’ve met. I am happy to be acquaintances with Zu now. Just saw my 2nd King Daredevil commission from Zu, it’s beautiful as typical for her lush style.

 

14, a nice number for a final OHC to tie it off, as Devil's Reign omnibus has been announced.

Is it known that there will be a second volume of Cover? Had the sense ut had just had v1 tag added on.

 

Yes. I hope they might surprise us with another annual as frankly, I’m disappointed issue 11’s extra pages are being used for a back up story with the new Iron Fist* to tie into May’s celebration of AAPI folks. If DD wasn’t ending this year, I’d be fine with this bonus story, but I want all the pages this creative team can give before the last issue.

*He’s really Sword Fist but not my area of expertise.

Anyway, may have to pick up the Devil’s Reign omnibus just to support Chip & Marco. I did not read any of the tie-ins except for the Moon Knight & Winter Soldier one shots.

Yes, Brian, David & Zu are working on volume 2 of Cover.

 

Had a sort of duh moment with artist influences.

Finally read Elektra Assassin today and while the story was a bit too convoluted for me, Bill Sienkiewicz’ art made it soar. The inventive mixed medium and styles he deployed still feel new here.

As I was looking at Bill’s art in EA, I realize where some of Simon Bisley’s style came from, and know that Paul Azaceta homaged Bill’s EA Elektra in his amazing story in Elektra Black White & Blood 3 (With A Passion). I’m waiting for a small Matt Murdock commission from Paul, and am hoping he draws it in the style of the EBWB3 story with those Sienkiewicz’ touches.

Also read Daredevil:Father (Wasn’t for me). I much prefer Joe Quesada’s recent style (especially his more realistic work for the Netflix Daredevil series) as opposed to his super exaggerated work during the Marvel Knights era.

 

Electra:Assassin is a trippy masterpiece (imo).

 

It is, I just found the parts with the agent uninteresting after the second issue and overlong (this could have been 4 issues rather than 7). Art-wise, it’s amazing and yes, trippy.

It was cool to see how this influenced other artists (Sometimes, it takes me a while to catch that; I.E. Marco C’s John Romita Jr. influence (I prefer his Elektra to JRJR).

Anyway, I was glad to read EA, I can see why people enjoy it.

 

@SHAD0W-JEDI Oh that's cool you met Mike Grell. I had Warlord and Green Arrow commissions from him - eek - 15 years ago, but had to sell them. Glad to see he's still active on the convention circuit.

 

Reckless: Friend of the Devil - Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

Okay, I kind of cheated in how I read this: I was looking through Sean Phillips’ available original art through his
art dealer and 95% of the graphic novel is still available for sale. Ed’s dialogue & narration were printed in the pages so I read it. Ed & Sean’s Reckless series is about Ethan Reckless, a sort of scrappy P.I. / bounty hunter whose seedy stories are set in the 1980s.

The second of several graphic novels featuring Ethan, Friend of the Devil sees Ethan trying to uncover what happened to Lihn Tran’s sister, after Ethan shows Lihn a grade Z horror film called the Sirens for Satan and Lihn recognizes her missing sister in the background of a scene. Well, digging through some awful dirt, Ethan discovers the film was made by the 1970s cult The Church of The Fallen and their human sacrifices turned out to be real. The cult leader Magnus vanished and reinvented himself in 1980s as a magnet for skinheads… ultimately Ethan nearly gets killed by Magnus & his new underlings for discovering the truth behind the disappearance of Lihn’s sister (She was a sacrificial victim of the Church), but lucky for us Magnus pays for his crimes. The reveal of exactly who Magnus really was is excellent (so much better than what Moon Knight writer Max Bemis attempted to do) and I liked that Ethan won, but barely.

Ed likes those sleazy, sex death cults from the 1960s and 1970s to recreate as villains; as this is the second time (that I’m aware of) he’s invented such a cult for his post superhero noir. Sean Phillips’ art is very good, just right for the story. Not sure I’d read the other volumes of Reckless, but it was good to see what Ed & Sean have been up to recently. I kind of like Ethan, but the sleaziness of this isn’t a world I’d want to spend much time in. That’s a credit to this team, they are so good it’s hard for me to read.

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