Spatula Forum

The Shipping News
Owch. December is shaking up to be a hefty month for comics fans. I order my monthly comics stash from the good people at Westfield Comics so I do it a few months in advance to when the comics actually come out. So, it's October and I'm looking at comics that come out in December, which means I actually will get them in early January. I need a time machine.
Anyway, this month is a pretty great one from my p.o.v. -- it features the return of Paul Chadwick's Concrete, easily one of my 10 fave comics of all time, and Bob Burden's surrealist masterpiece The Flaming Carrot, which would be #11 on that same list at least. Plus there's new comix by Pete Bagge, Evan Dorkin and all my usual Marvel/DC guilty pleasures. I'm unapologetically a superhero geek when it comes to comix, although I do try to narrow my focus and get the good stuff -- which of course is all in the eye of the beholder anyway.
Let's look at the haul, all (urk) $80 or so of it (hey, remember when comics used to be 60 cents each? Them were the days...):
Identity Crisis #7 This series has been controversial as heck, but well crafted so far. I'll admit for all the hoopla it hasn't left much lasting change so far -- one third-tier supporting character dead, and that's it for the first four issues. We'll see if it wraps up in style.
JLA #109
JLA Classified #2 Grant Morrison back on the JLA and Gorilla Grodd. 'Nuff said.
Question #2
Superman / Batman Set #15 & 16 As guilty pleasures go, this comics is the New Kids on the Block of them for me. It's up and down, mostly down in the latest arc, but I'll give it this next storyline to go. I'm a sucker for Batman/Superman team-ups, old-school style.
Y - Last Man #29
Authority: Revolution #3
Tom Strong #30
Astonishing X-Men #8
Daredevil #68
Fantastic Four #521
New Avengers #2 Everyone in the blogosphere seems to hate Bendis' "Avengers Disassembled" storyline, and I certainly think it's one of his weaker efforts so far, but I'm willing to give his new title a try for a little while based on my admiration of most of his other work. Besides, Luke Cage in the Avengers automatically erases the stupidity of having Wolverine join.
Ultimate Nightmare #5; Ultimate Secret #1 These on the other hand might not make the cut. Warren Ellis has been de....com....pre....ss....ing his work to painful lengths lately, especially in "Ultimate Nightmare's" first two issues (which Stan Lee woulda done in about 4 pages), and while I like his writing it's feeling more and more like his Ultimate work is paycheck fodder. It looks purty, but is there a "there" there? These two may well drop out before I send my order in an effort to cut costs this month, methinks.
Amazing Spider-Man #515; Marvel Knights Spider-Man #9 ; Ultimate Spider-Man #70 Yeah, I'm a Spider-Man freak. What of it?
Ultimates 2 #1
What If Aunt May Had Died Instead of Uncle Ben?; What If Dr. Doom Had Become the Thing?; What If General Ross Had Become the Hulk?; What If Jessica Jones Had Joined the Avengers?; What If Karen Page Had Lived? I'm still irked at Marvel for releasing seven "What If?" comics in one month (somebody needs to introduce the idea of "flooding the market" to them, but the talent involved and my kooky love of alternate universe histories will still probably lead me to buy five of them. Ack.
Powers #7
Supreme Power #14
Concrete: Human Dilemma #1 See above -- my favorite comic from the 1980s, I think, with stone-encrusted philosopher Concrete living the most extraordinary of lives, told in the most evocative and ordinary of ways. Gentle and good-humored and more thoughtful than most of the rest of these comix put together, it's been too long an absence for this rocky mountain man.
Flaming Carrot #1
Biff! Bam! Pow! #1
Stray Bullets #36
Hate Annual #5
Jay's Days Vol. 3 By my good ol' pal Jason Marcy, sure to be an excellent tome of autobio comix. Support him and get a copy yourself!