Comics

I've been real busy with a lot of stuff lately, so I haven't made as many posts as I'd like. I haven't done something not related to hardcore/punk in a while. Before I was into hardcore, I was a comic book nerd. While I still enjoy comics, my main collecting has been through graphic novels. While I was working at a book store, I accumulated a bunch of cool graphic novels. I tracked down the "classics" of the genre (Sin City, V for Vendetta, Watchmen...), and checked out some of the newer hyped books (Exiles, Supreme Power...). I mainly always stick to Marvel titles; New Mutants, X-men and Spider-Man in particular. I also got into stuff like Hellboy, Runaways and Y: the Last Man thanks to my local library heavily stocking their "young adult" section with graphic novels.
So, what sparked my recent resurgence into the world of comics is that every Wednesday, people I work with all go to a comic shop near work. I had previously maybe went to a shop every 6 months or so. Here's what I've been reading lately...

Y: the Last Man- This book I got into through trades. The last issue just came out, and it was probably the best way to end the comic. The story is of a plague that wipes out every man from the earth, leaving only Yorick, his monkey and a planet full of women. The last issue takes place in the future with Yorick telling stories to a clone of himself about what happened after the main storyline ended. An epilogue of sorts. I hear that the book is in the development stages to be made into a series of movies. I'm not really a fan of a lot of the comic movies coming out, but this would be one to look out for.

Madman- I was surprised to see that Madman was back, and it's really good. I've been a fan of Mike Allred's work (Madman, Atomics, X-Force) for a while, and it's good to see Madman back. The latest story revolves around the main character essentially dying, and struggling to find his way back. Madman was a part of the indie comics boom in the 90's, but stood out among a lot of mediocre crap.

Scud- Another great comic from the 90's returns. Scud is probably my favorite comic book ever. It is about a robotic assassin who is supposed to self destruct once it kills its target. This Scud however decides to just cripple his target, and take up freelance assassin gigs to pay the hospital bills. Scud ended in 1998 with a huge cliffhanger, now 10 years later it returns for 4 more issues to wrap up the series. I'm extremely excited, and the first issue back actually progresses the story 10 years. The creator of Scud went on to do some great things in Hollywood (Monster House, Sarah Silverman Show), and thanks to the writers strike was able to finish this. There will be a huge collected trade once all 4 new issues wrap up. I couldn't recommend a comic any more than I can with Scud.

Runaways- Another comic series that I got into through the trades. The story is about a group of children who find out that their children are super villains. Only one of the children in the group have superpowers, though one child has a pet raptor. The kids have to rely on their own resources to outsmart their parents, and strike out to make up for their bad deeds. It has a youthful charm, which reminds me of the New Mutants.

Manchild- This comic only exists in a series of graphic novels. The illustrator/ writer is somewhat known in the HC/Punk community for doing art for some classic records, and playing drums in Double Negative. The comic strips are humorous observations and stories. A lot of the subject matter is HC/Punk related, but is humorous and pokes fun at people without being condescending. The most recent graphic novel comes with a bonus CD of a Melvins demo from 1987.

Exiles- Exiles also just published its last issue, followed by a relaunch soon after. The back story is a cross between X-Men and Quantum Leap, with superheroes traveling to different time periods to fix their own time lines. The series started out strong, then got weak once Chuck Austen took over, then got better later on, then got re-crappy. I think it really suffered when Marvel did the Age of Apocalypse and House of M crossovers. Maybe it was just me who had no interest in it.

Spider-Man- You know Spider-Man, and you know his story. The most recent "One More Day" storyline really fucked up good. Aunt May gets shot, and is going to die (finally!). But in order to save his Aunt, Peter Parker makes a deal w/ Mephisto that if he makes it so Peter and MJ never got together, Aunt May would survive. This basically relaunches all the Spider-Man books, and re-writes history. I'm sorry, but this just doesn't make any sense. Has Marvel forgot the Spider Clone disaster?