And then there were some new comics this week.
The weird thing about coming across previously unreprinted strips in The Complete Bloom County (volume 3 of which was released this week) is that you feel like a bunch of your friends finally got around to telling you about this great time they all had a while back, and, oh, wait, we never told you? Man, you should have been there, it was awesome. And you’re all: “I can’t believe I hadn’t heard about any of this. I’ve been missing out all this time” and you feel just slightly put out about it.
Or maybe that’s just me. I did read all the original Bloom County collections to the point of memorization, almost, so seeing “new” strips comes as a strange shock, even more so than seeing long-lost Peanuts strips in the Fantagraphics collections. Not sure why that is, really…perhaps that there are so many Peanuts strips and strip collections and so on that it doesn’t feel odd when you spot a strip you hadn’t seen before. Whereas the number of Bloom County books are, what, less than a dozen? And it feels more like a “continuity” strip than Peanuts…when a sequence is suddenly placed back into its original context in the middle of other much more familiar storylines, the effect is jarring.
And there I go overthinking it. I’m just glad there is a Complete Bloom County series at all. I kinda wish creator Berke Breathed supplied more strip commentaries, as those have been entertaining, but…well, I’m not gonna complain.
By the way, in volume 3, there exists the single most terrifying image ever presented in the comics format: the reveal of Opus the Penguin’s post-plastic surgery nose. To this day that disturbs me with its unnaturalness. (No, I’m not posting the picture here. You’ll have to go find it yourself.)
Some other brief thoughts about this week’s new comics:
Issue #4 of The Simpsons spin-off Comic Book Guy actually has some Comic Book Guy in it, which is nice…series has been a fun read overall • • • Incredible Hulks #614 is almost like daring me to read it…I couldn’t care less about Hulk’s son, Skaar, or whatever, and the only reason I picked it up is because I’ve been reading this comic since I was 12, which is the worst reason in the world to read anything and I’ll have more thoughts on this (and another long-read title that I really am dropping) in a future post • • • I do like Green Lantern comics an’ all, but we don’t need three ongoing titles (two of which came out this week)…so, no reason at all why the story in the Emerald Warriors comic couldn’t have been folded into Green Lantern Corps? • • • Irredeemable #18 drops about as nasty a bit of business performed by a “hero” as I’ve ever seen in a superhero book, and I don’t mean by the series’ main antagonist, the Plutonian…a genuinely upsetting reveal • • • So, is Batman saying “‘the average guy’ isn’t our problem” in Superman #702 quite possibly the worst characterization of Batman ever? And like people asked me when I brought this up on the Twitter…which Batman is this, anyway? The still time-lost Bruce Wayne or current cape caretaker Dick Grayson? disregard that…it’s Dick • • • Muppet Sherlock Holmes #2 continues to cater to my strange fascination with Sherlock Holmes pastiches. And it’s Muppets, and Muppets are always wonderful. If you do not love the Muppets, then we have nothing more to say to each other. …I SAID GOOD DAY • • • Untold Tales of Blackest Night is entirely unnecessary, but if you needed more Blackest Night stuff, here it is, and it’s about as good as you’d need it to be. The Animal Man segment feels like a set-up for a new series • • • I like Hellblazer, so I’ll be reading this City of Demon mini-series, but honestly, it’s not like Hellblazer is selling so crazy-hot that we need what amounts to two of ’em on the shelves at the same time. Should have been folded into the regular series • • • the first issue of Strange Tales II (indie artists take on Marvel Comics) didn’t start off with a bang like the first issue of the previous series did…still, entertaining reading, with the standout being the Galactus/Magneto team-up by Perry Bible Fellowship‘s Nicholas Gurewitch • • • Turok Son of Stone #1 is out, and…I don’t know, I love the old Dell / Gold Key Turoks, and every time there’s a new revival, I realize you Can’t Go Home Again. Kinda like Turok himself, in a way…okay, I’ll stop • • • nice of DC to announce their intention to keep the $2.99 price point, saving customers money, just the week before releasing four Bruce Wayne The Road Home one-shot tie-ins at the same time, or five if you count Return of Bruce Wayne • • • Tiny Titans / Little Archie may actually contain too much cute. It’s a beauty to behold.
It’s definitely Dick as Batman. Superman says “Just as Bruce’s parents were killed by a mugger, and just like your parents were killed by a normal gangster”. It even showed the Waynes’ and Graysons’ deaths.
Your discovery of new Bloom county strips reminds me of when I discovered, c. 1969, that the Beatles albums I knew and loved, weren’t the way the rest of the world were experiencing them. What, no Beatles VI? What is Beatles for Sale? And why is that Rubber Soul different from mine?
Mike – Huh…how’d I manage to miss that? Let other people’s complaints overrun my own memory of the story, I guess.
Still can’t reconcile the “average guy” thing, though!
I totally agree with your comments about spin-off Green Lantern and Hellblazer comics when they could just tell those stories in the regular comic. Do you think there is any hope of oompanies adding pages to comics (instead of reducing the page count) and putting some of these stories together. Even if it meant a price increase on the issue? I’d feel better about higher prices if the comic took longer than 10 minutes to read.
I guess I’m asking if Batman Family would have any hope in today’s market if they had the creators on it that they have doing the individual comics today.
I honestly cannot understand how anyone at DC could look at a JMS Superman script and think “Man, this is a comic we won’t to publish!” I thought his characterization of Superman was wrong, but I have never seen a writer show so blatantly that he has no idea what a character is about than that Dick Grayson appearance. If I were Grant Morrison, I would be screaming at an editor over this.
Never thought I’d think and/or say this, but JMS has become a bigger hack than Jeph Loeb. Anyone who can write those words into ANY version of Batman’s mouth just shouldn’t be writing that character, and probably any character remotely identified with him. Like, Superman and the entire rest of the DCU.
Also…Did anyone think five years ago that the market would be over-saturated with GREEN LANTERN, DEADPOOL, and THOR comics? What a strange day we live in…
I remember that nose, Mike. God, no matter how much I drink, I still remember it.
“Won’t to publish.” Yet another reason why my English degree was useless. Sigh.
Maybe I’m the only one, but I’ve really enjoyed the JMS run on Superman up to this point. I’ve got to say, though, that he really dropped the ball with Batman. I could almost see the more assholier versions of Bruce spouting that kind of nonsense — Miller’s “Goddamn Batman” is more concerned with punishing Criminals than Helping Victims — but Dick?
I just wanted to say that that last part of the post was like “Larry King goes over the week’s new releases.” And I mean that as a complement.
Complete with the factual error!
It’s not like you weren’t given plenty of warning about that nose before it appeared. LIFE…IS NOT ALWAYS PRETTY.