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Comic Book Heaven. Been catching up on some different comic book series in the last month since X-mas. Here\u2019s a little rant on comic books – the old fashioned kind. Here’s the list:<\/p>\n
Crickets #3<\/em> I finally read The Bulletproof Coffin #6<\/em><\/a>. The finale. I gotta say that I liked it. But I\u2019m such a fan of this series that I don\u2019t expect you to believe me. Is this propaganda? Did Kane and Hine pay me to write a five-star review? Something to be Google searched and referenced in some futurepast?<\/p>\n I\u2019m incapable of writing anything critical about The Bulletproof Coffin<\/em>. And I mean about its context in 2010\/2011. I wish I had a grad student\u2019s tenacity to explain how I think this comic is \u201cjust right\u201d for this Comic Book Golden Age that we are living in these days.<\/p>\n I think the book\u2019s power is drawn from using the language of comics itself \u2013 a self referenced set of symbols. And they are Pop symbols\u2014Jungle Girl, Noir Men in Hats, Zombies, Costumed Heroes, Comics\u2014which all sort of write themselves & propel themselves forward. So the \u201ccomics-within comics\u201d bends the straightforward whodunit\/time-machine storyline like a House of Mirrors. So at the end the entire bejeweled reflection of BC\u2019s<\/em> comic book universe spins away into the pure white of the last issue\u2019s glossy back cover in a Mylar bag. Finished. The End. The end of the series and the end of Comics. That\u2019s the \u201cjust right\u201d feeling for me. It comes from believing that comics as we know them are changing faster than we care to admit. We\u2019re in denial that comic books are not going the way of the dodo. Pamphlets and Wednesday afternoons at the shop, I mean. The end of The Bulletproof Coffin<\/em> seems to say it better than I can. It\u2019s Over! The times they are a\u2019 changin\u2019. So track down those back issues, True Believers, don\u2019t wait for the trade.<\/p>\n Beyond \u201cThe End of Comics,\u201d the end of The Bulletproof Coffin<\/em> makes me think about how a couple of my favorite series of last year have ended. King City<\/em> ended. Batman and Robin<\/em> basically ended now that Morrison left the book. (Big Questions<\/em> ended but somehow that doesn\u2019t count in this round-up.) Alan Moore\u2019s new series is almost over and he was thrown under the bus for real for the first time in memory. Something is happening. The end of The Bulletproof Coffin<\/em> also makes me think about this Golden Age and how we the fans are in on most of the gags \u2013 are so informed about what is going on. It\u2019s weird.<\/p>\n But is this a resurgence of the comic book serial or a death rattle? I was trying to imagine what a King City<\/em> collection is going to look like. It\u2019s gonna be huge and prolly expensive. I can\u2019t even imagine what a Big Questions<\/em> collection is gonna cost. So even though there are all these pamphlet series I love – the reality is that most of my friends haven\u2019t read them because they are hard to track down. Shit, King City<\/em> was hard to keep up with and I worked in a comics shop for most of last year. Just making sure the shop would \u201cput one in my bag behind the counter\u201d wasn\u2019t guaranteed. <\/p>\n So, when the collections of King City<\/em> and The Bulletproof Coffin <\/em>come out is everyone gonna go bananas? Is anyone going to be able to afford Big Questions<\/em>? It reminds me of when Dash\u2019s Bodyworld<\/em> was fist released. Everyone was blogging about waiting for the book to come out to read it \u2013 that they didn\u2019t wanna read it online – and then when it did it was like everybody just griped about the format and\/or the price. It was easier when everything just existed as comic books and only blockbuster hits got \u201ccollected\u201d in a trade. The game was to collect the comics. That\u2019s what the stores and knowledgeable schmoes like me were for. Now stores are mostly just middlemen for Amazon. I ask Bill at Copacetic<\/a> to order me things just to throw him the business even if I can do it easier myself. Sux.<\/p>\n I know, I know, I\u2019m going on a buncha different tangents. It\u2019s just that I was thinking, \u201cWow, look at all these comic books. I like reading serials.\u201d And then I was realizing that most of my stack was \u201cover.\u201d One more issue of Neonomicon<\/em>. And it\u2019ll be years before another Crickets<\/em> or Uptight<\/em> comes out. So really my big stack of serials was stalled and I just didn\u2019t know it. What? You think Kyle Baker will stay on Deadpool<\/em> indefinitely? I doubt it. What else is there to read? I mean, I read mainstream stuff a lot just to have something to read. I haven\u2019t gotten hooked on any webcomics yet. I\u2019m okay with going down with the Wednesday afternoon ship. (I made a bet with Jordan Crane that DC will stop publishing serial comic books within two years.)<\/p>\n This is when I think putting out \u2013 or trying to put out \u2013 a 48-page \u201calbum\u201d or \u201cannual\u201d every year is best. Something like Prison Pit<\/em> or Powr Mastrs<\/em>. CF has almost managed to put out one a year since 2007. Johnny Ryan is on schedule \u2013 one a year. Going to Angouleme last year made me realize that the annual \u201calbum\u201d is best. And that self-contained works sell better than a serialized works. I also noticed that most popular North American cartoonists who trucked in short stories were not very popular in France. But cartoonists who do long-form self-contained works were popular. Maybe they know better.<\/p>\n At least Lose #3<\/em><\/a> will be out at TCAF<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Comic Book Heaven. Been catching up on some different comic book series in the last month since X-mas. Here\u2019s a little rant on comic books – the old fashioned kind. Here’s the list: Crickets #3 Uptight #4 The Bulletproof Coffin #6 King City #12 Neonomicon #3 Deadpool MAX #3 I finally read The Bulletproof Coffin #6. The finale. I gotta say that I liked it. But I\u2019m such a fan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[592],"class_list":["post-8371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-inside-baseball"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nUptight #4<\/em>
\nThe Bulletproof Coffin #6<\/em>
\nKing City #12<\/em>
\nNeonomicon #3<\/em>
\nDeadpool MAX #3<\/em><\/p>\n