I liked Scott McCloud's Making Comics a lot better than the previous Reinventing Comics. I didn't find it as cool as I did Understanding Comics way back in the mid-90s, though that's probably also because I hadn't read a lot of other comic meta yet, and also the format was really unusual then ( Read more... )

The Animal Man run of Grant Morrison (pencils by Chas Truog and others, inks by Doug Hazlewood and others) is easily the most meta superhero comic I've ever read. It's one of the most meta comics I've ever read, superhero genre or not. I can come up with very few that are even more meta-textual about the readers reading a comic and the rules that ( Read more... )

A new three parter starts in this issue: Made of Wood, written by Ed Brubaker, pencils by Patrick Zircher, inks by Aaron Sowd. As a sidenote, can anyone explain to me this newfangled idea that it's a good thing to put the title at the end of the story instead of at the beginning? Personally I find this annoying, I keep waiting for the opening ( Read more... )

Superman: Birthright is a maxi-series (written by Mark Waid, pencils by Leinil Francis Yu, inks by Gerry Alanguilan) that retells the origin story of Superman; I've seen its concept compared to the "Ultimates" version of Marvel characters. I picked it up not at least because I'm relatively unfamiliar with the previous incarnations of the origin ( Read more... )

I just read Batman #588 - #590, the three part story Close Before Striking (written by Brian K. Vaughan, pencils by Scott McDaniel, inks by Karl Story), and wow, Bruce / Batman's identity problems were already way out of control even before the events in the Murder / Fugitive story line. Eventually I'll reread that whole period in chronological ( Read more... )

I'm sure it's not the only version of Oracle's origin story (I don't think anything is ever the only version of some important continuity with DC...), and I have no idea whether this one is the most recent that counts in current continuity either, but I enjoyed reading Oracle -- Year One: Born of Hope (writers John Ostrander and Kim Yale, artists ( Read more... )

I've just finished reading the Essential Spider-Man Vol. 2, and it was a lot of fun to read that many of the early Amazing Spider-Man stories in one setting. That way it's much easier to follow the drama of Peter Parker's daily life. I got the Essential Spider-Man Vol. 1 collection when I first started reading the current Amazing Spider-Man -- ( Read more... )

I updated my website. I added new comic artist recommendations: Isabel Kreitz on the Wimmin's Comics and Carl Barks and Don Rosa on the Other Comics page. I also updated my comic want list, with the Paradise Too issues I'm looking for.

I have finally created the Other Comics page with comic recs, or rather artist recs for the most part. It's far from complete, but much better than the eternal "coming eventually" place holder. I decided that if I wanted that page to be something other than "coming eventually," I had to settle for something less ambitious than the page I originally ( Read more... )

chrismaverick posted this "canonical list of comics" in response to the book canon lists. Now, I have issues with such lists (as anyone who read the previous two entries knows), but I like to rec comics.

This is no definite list, not even my definite list. This lists does not claim to prepare you for either European or American comics, it is not a required ( Read more... )