Comic Picks By The Glick

Marvel revealed their solicitations for May a few weeks ago and there was one bit of news there that I found particularly interesting. I doubt that it would surprise most people that they’re going to start adapting the rest of Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” novels, and while Robin Furth (plot) and Peter David (script) will be back writing it, Sean Phillips will be stepping in to replace Jae Lee on art. While I’ve really enjoyed Lee’s art on the series, Phillips has always been a personal favorite of mine since he has this uncanny knack for illustrating comics that I want to read and his run on “Hellblazer” showed that he can handle fantastic horror as well as superheroes and noir. The downside of this is that this will likely mean that he’ll be drawing less of “Incognito” and “Criminal” while he’s working on this, and that’s a shame. At least I have the collected edition of “Criminal: The Sinners” to look forward to in the near future. And on that note…

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I don’t think this imprint is long for the world, but there’s been some decent stuff published so far.

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If there’s one thing the people over at Dark Horse love, it’s anthologies. The publisher’s initial title and signature series for many years was an anthology series titled, appropriately enough, “Dark Horse Presents.” Many of its signature series got their start here including “The Mask,” “Sin City” and “Hellboy.” I believe “The Goon” also had its Dark Horse debut in the series, but as creator Eric Powell pointed out in the fine print of vol. 1, the series ended with that issue #150. Pure coincidence, I’m sure. Since then, the publisher has put out a number of anthology titles, but not one that I felt compelled enough to pick up. Until now, that is. “Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics” boasts an all-star list of creators that includes the likes of writers Ed Brubaker and Brian Azzarello, artists like Sean Phillips and Gabriel Ba, and writer/artists such as David Lapham and Paul Grist. That’s not the entire list, yet while some of these stories show how familiar “noir” tropes can be the fact that it contains new “Stray Bullets,” “Criminal,” “Kane” and “Mister X” stories will make the purchase worth it for fans of these series.

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This take on the descent of Christ’s bloodline is ultimately flawed, but still a fascinating and compelling read.

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After taking the time out to focus on USM last time, there’s been a considerable amount of stuff piling up for me to look at. Without further ado…

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“Astonishing X-Men:  Ghost Box” and “Astral Project:”  Two titles that had interesting ideas, but didn’t successfully execute them.

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For some reason Marvel would have you believe that this is the last volume of “Ultimate Spider-Man.” It says as much on the back of the book, and there’s a credits page at the end acknowledging all of the people who have worked on the series since its inception. I can only assume that Marvel thinks it’ll get more sales out of doing it this way, but now that “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man” is up to issue six I don’t think that anyone is going to believe that. That said, if this really were the last volume of USM then it would be a mostly successful wrap-up to a series that has been, for me, “the only Spider-Man comic you need to read.” I say “mostly” because for all that it does right, Marvel essentially kneecaps it in the end by not reprinting the series’ actual ending.

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The ten best (and then some) of last year.

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First post of the new year… and I’m still waiting for the first comics of the new year to show up. I was expecting to have the new Vertigo Crime GN, “The Chill” by Jason Starr, and the first volume of “The Unwritten” by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, but Amazon doesn’t have them shipping until next week. That’s still better than the fact that they don’t have a shipping date for “The Walking Dead vol. 11: Fear the Hunters,” which means that they’re likely sold out of it until further notice. That said, I’ve still got PLENTY of stuff to talk about from the previous year…

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And to finish off the year, here are my thoughts on one of the best writers working on American comics today.

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