I’m writing the title of this post in 2021, and I have no idea which version of Doom Patrol I’m referring to here.
A few New Comics Day comments:
I finally got my signed and numbered copy of Freak Show (#139/700), several months after the regular unsigned edition was released…nice big, fat autographs of Bruce Jones and Bernie Wrightson on the endpapers. You can see a five-page preview of graphic novel here (even though the title of the page says “Flaming Carrot #1 preview” – this ain’t Flaming Carrot, I assure you). The reproduction is fine, the detailed linework is nice and clear, though the initial title splash page is printed much darker than the rest of the book. I’m assuming it was intentional, but it’s hard to tell.
The Image Comics 13th or 14th anniversary hardcover is out. Really. Honest. I held it in my very hands. I saw it with my own eyes. It exists! I will admit I am curious about the Savage Dragon story, which features the first ever telling of the character’s origin. Even though I haven’t been a regular reader of Savage Dragon, I have admired Larsen’s ability to stick with his project as long as he has (despite the current hiatus caused by his new Image head-honcho status). And I do flip through the new issues when they come in…sorta makes me wish I’d stuck with it (I did read the mini and the first five issues of the regular series). Well, maybe someday they’ll do a Marvel Essentials/Showcase Presents-style reprinting of the comic so I can catch up for cheap.
Adventures of Superman #646 has a understated and downright attractive cover…featuring Mr. Mxyzptlk, of all people. I think the post-mid ’80s reboot Mxyzptlk has undergone an interesting evolution, having started off as a downright nasty piece of business, openly hostile toward Supes, then turning into essentially a wacky cartoon character in the hands of Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove in the early ’90s, and, in recent comics, becoming a far more sympathetic being…gentler in a way than even the Silver Age Mxy.
The current incarnation of the Doom Patrol has limped to its conclusion, leaving me to wonder when the next version of the team is due to appear. Who wants to bet that we’ll be back to the old continuity with the next series, ignoring (or perhaps incorporating, as some kind of “alternate timeline” storyline) the “reboot” status of this series?
And, oh, Good Lord, about a zillion manga paperbacks came in. Somehow pal Dorian is to blame for this, I just know it.
