University Comics Anthology

This post applies mostly to Wesleyan students I think. The next issue of the University Comics Anthology is featuring Travelling Bible Salesman vs. Pirate which some of you may recognize from Good Stuff Number 1. The last issue was pretty cool and I'm sure this one will be too, so you should all pick it up if you get the chance.

BADASS Comic Friday: Preacher

There’s plenty of badassness in Preacher, the story of a preacher on a quest to kill God. The concept itself is pretty badass. I may revisit Preacher in the future for multiple reasons. Today, I’m going to be talking about one character and one scene featuring this character. If you haven’t read the series than you might want to skip this post and then go out and read Preacher.

The character the Saint of Killers is based on Clint Eastwood in his various cowboy roles. He basically kills everything he comes into contact with. Most of the heads that get blown apart in the series are due to him. If that was it, then he would just be a violent freak. And not all that entertaining to read about. I gave up on Ennis’s punisher after only two volumes. But there’s so much more that makes the Saint cool.

The scene that may personify his badassness the most is when another character drops a nuclear bomb on the Saint. The mushroom cloud goes up and messes up a lot of other characters. The bomb hits the Saint directly and all he says is “Not enough gun.” That’s badass.

I think that sums up the series too. Incredibly ridiculous and absurd but also badass and cool.

This comic shouldn’t be good. But is.

The comic series Hikaru no Go is about a kid playing the ancient strategy game Go. That doesn’t sound like a great idea for a comic even though I am almost a fan of the game. The series features an spirit that inhabits a Go board and then a kid and teaches him how to play Go. I’ll admit, concept wise, this comic doesn’t sound that good.

Guess what? It’s amazing. Sure it might not be deep or on the level of great but it’s more entertaining than most titles coming out today. I haven’t studied the Japanese comics scene that much so its possible that this level of quality is standard across the board.

What makes it more incredible is that I’ve never really heard anything about this comic except from Go fans. That made me think that it might just be good to people who didn’t really know comics. No, its good no matter who you are. It’s one of those titles who have no knowledge of comics would probably enjoy.

I know the basic rules of Go, but you don’t even need that to enjoy this. The books themselves explain the rule particulars that are needed for any individual scene. I found myself getting into who was going to win each game. Some of the games were more intense than action scenes in other comics.

It was this comic, as well as a few others that I’ll go into later on, that made me realize that concept and plot are important but not that important. Just hearing the plot of this comic sounds only okay. Go ahead, try it out and you’ll see that its more than that.

BADASS Comic Friday: US War Machine

US War Machine was part of the first wave of Marvel’s Max titles. These title were their answer to DC’s Vertigo line but instead of telling supernatural stories which was Vertigo’s main focus in those days they told extremely violent and curse filled stories with traditional Marvel characters. While the overall quality of the line did not hold up to Vertigo they did produce one of the most badass versions of Iron Man ever.

Lets start off talking about the format of the comic. I think that format plays an important role in the attitude you take with an individual work. I come in with a different mindset when I pick up a slick glossy floppy from Marvel compared to a deluxe hardcover version of the exact same title. The format of US War Machine was Badass. It was a regular length comic for a dollar fifty and it was weekly. They made up for its low cost and frequency by printing it in black and white and on newsprint. I’ve heard argument that newsprint is not that much cheaper than the current paper. Even if that’s true, the newsprint a cheap feel to the comic.

I’ve never been an Iron man fan. He seems like a boring rich guy who feels guilty about creating sweet weapons. Jim Rhodes, who is the star of this book, was never that much more interesting. When he took over the suit in the early 80s it was interesting to see him struggle with the suit and it created drama. After that point he was just a boring character. In the early 90s when War Machine was first introduced he had a falling out with Iron Man for some lame reason that I can’t even remember. The early 90s were full of fake Badasses. Like Rob Leifield.

But in the early 2000s, Chuck Austin (a writer who would go on to write a terrible run on X-men) decided to take all the cool elements of War Machine and make a new comic. The War Machine suit had huge guns on it. That was so sweet. He also made Jim Rhodes command a group of War Machines so that they could go kick ass together. And that they did. They shot people to pieces. They fought terrorists. This comic started coming out right around 9/11 so seeing terrorists die was even more satisfying. The actual plot wasn't that great, though it was entertaining. There was a subplot about racism that I thought was handled pretty well though what do I know. Mainly the plot allowed people in suits of armor to go around killing bad guys.

This following illustration that I’m sure is copywrited by Marvel will hopefully sum up the entire series
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Badass Comic Friday Preview

Image copywrite of Marvel.

50 cent bin

The Incredible Hulk 445

I have to admit that I’m a pretty big fan of Peter David’s run on the Hulk. It’s one of may favorite examples of long form super hero soap Opera. I’ve read from the beginning of his run up to issue 415 and overall liked it quite a bit. I don't know if it got worse after that point or now. . Some day I might make a post explaining why his run was good. However, this issue was not.

Peter David’s ongoing storyline had been interrupted before by crossovers. The Infinity whatever story around issue 390 added nothing to the overall plot but was quickly forgotten about afterwards. This issue is even worse.

The main plot of the issue is Hulk taking a few heroes who have banded together to fight Onslaught and making an attack on Onslaught. They fail and return to their base. The only thing that changes from the beginning to the end is that the heroes stop trusting the Hulk. But most of them didn’t trust him at the start either. It’s a poor main plot.

The side plots have two pages dealing with the Pantheon which is a group of super powered characters based on mythology. It moves along this particular sub plot decently if not great. There are also a few pages with Rick and Marlo. The Hulk’s sidekick and the sidekick’s wife. These pages don’t do much and just continue characterization of previous issues.

The worst part of this issue is not the story. By the end of the issue, I’ll admit that I was getting into it. The worst part of the issue is the art. This issue was penciled by Angel Medina. Its possible that Angle is a decent artist. If so, this issue did not showcase that. It could be because of an attempt to ape the Image creator’s art style. That was the main problem of the 90’s. Most of the actual image creators were pretty good artists. Liefeld excepted. However, people trying to ape the image creators were fairly ugly.


I’m sorry but I can’t recommend this issue. I’m not even sure it’s a necessary issue to have if you're collecting David’s Hulk run though Onslaught does end up playing some role in the overall storyline. At least it was only 50 cents.

Introducing myself

So Simon wants someone on this blog to write about comics and stuff of that nature. And unlike Simon I like pretty much all kinds of comics. I still subscribe to a fair number of mainstream titles. I’ll pick up runs of random super hero titles on ebay or in back issue bins. But I also am picking up Love and Rockets trades and Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth is pretty good. I’ll read whatever trades the college library has and they skew a little indie and more intellectual and are honestly pretty good.

Also

I just authorized my friend Logan to post on here. He's going to be writing some comics criticism. There's plenty of space here and it's not like anyone is reading this anyways. So why not...