It’s my birthday today! That’s how dedicated I am to you, my lovely readers. Even today, the auspicious day which commemorates 29 full cycles around the sun, I do not hesitate to deliver the highest quality newsletters. And what did you get me this year? Oh, you forgot? Don’t worry, you can always send me a tip at my, where you can also buy zines of my writing.
Photo by Rene Asmussen on Pexels.com
Speaking of my writing, this week I published an article about Berserk. I’ve been reading that alongside the Extra Issues podcast (more on that in the Links section). I’m only through 5 volumes, but I love how much you can see Miura continually growing as an artist and trying new things. This article was about how he depicts speed, looking specifically at the volume 4 “Golden Age: Chapter 4”. You can read about that here.
Self Promotion
The second batch of articles from my site is now available in one easy bundle! You can download a digital version FOR FREE. This includes both a readable and printable pdf, so you can print copies yourself and share with all of your friends. If you’d rather, I’ll print copies for you and send them your way (in the continental US) for the low, low price of $5! Best of all, you are encouraging me to keep going by making me feel the guilt of taking your hard-earned cashola. Did you miss out on Zine 1? It’s still available! Same deal as Zine 2. The priceless gift of knowledge in the palm of your hands for $5 or less.
Comics I Read
There was an intersecting but unintentional theme among I bought from the comic book shop this week. Namely, they could all be considered corporate, cash-in comics. Two are adaptations of perennially popular nerd media, and the third is written by the hosts of one of the largest podcasts.
Cobra Commander # 1, my pick of the week, was definitely the most interesting. As a strong non-fan of GI Joe, I have no idea what is original to this story versus just playing the hits. After such a strong horror opening, spending the bulk of the issue in “Cobra-La” was so camp and comicbooky. Again, I don’t know what I’m talking about, but Cobra Commander might be one of those characters that works better when their backstory is a mystery.
Star Trek #16 and Operation Sunshine # 4 were much more replacement level comics. Both felt like biding time and expanding the world than advancing the narrative. I’m sure they’ll read fine in trade, but I wish individual issues would still have one fist-pump moment, for lack of a better phrase.
Links
Archie CEO and Publisher Jon Goldwater has an interview with Publisher’s Weekly where he says we’ll be getting more Afterlife with Archie! Well, it says they’ll be “revisiting it” from a 2024 perspective, whatever that means. Still, pretty cool news for me and the dozens of others like me.
TCJ did a long interview with Dave Gibbons about his recent autobiography, Confabulation.
Oh, look, Susannah Clark had a conversation on camera with Alan Moore! I wonder if these two pieces overlap in any way…
In an attempt to solidify the comic book canon, Comic Book Canon compiled together a lot of “best of” lists into one. Talking this over with some pals in the My Marvelous Year Slack, we think a good next step here would be to follow the Sight and Sound model for film, where creators and critics can submit ballots of their personal top 10.
Shout out to letterer Aditya Bidikar’s blog. It is always an entertaining read, whether discussing Doctor Who, quitting cigarettes, or the philosophy of work.
Not strictly comics, but I loved this blog contrasting Godzilla Minus One and the fascism of Yukio Mishima.
A great article on the devaluation of punk aesthetics into meaningless vis a vis Quentin Quire in Morrison and Quitely’s New X-Men.
Comics Discourse this week, at least in the magazines, was about the Eisner’s decision to remove the award for best comics-related periodical/journalism. Read Heidi McDonald’s thoughts on that over at The Beat.
Ultimate Spider-Man # 1 was a sales success! But could it have been better? Read David Harper of Sktchd on what this means for Marvel’s business.
It’s that time of year again! André Lima Arújo argues that American comics need to adopt some of the best practices from manga. While this is probably true, I think it ignores the real difference between American comics and manga: Japanese people read manga. That’s it. American comics need to get more readers, and that’s basically it. Now, if you know how to do that, congratulations, you can make millions of dollars.
My Marvelous Year, the podcast reading a condensed list of Marvel comics from the origins up to today, has hit 2006. That’s Decimation and The New Avengers. What a great point to consider jumping on.
Their sister podcast, Extra Issues, just began their Fantagraphics series on the public feed with an episode on the Jaime Hernandez side of Love and Rockets. Everyone loved the comics, and so can you!
Cartoonist Kayfabe had a great interview with Bill Griffith, underground cartoonist and creator of the Zippy comics strip. They also continued their “who is this artist?” game series and their Marvel comics by month series with January 1962, which features one superhero comic (Fantastic Four 2), the introduction of Hank Pym (though not as Ant Man, just as a mad scientist), and several monster comics and girl’s fashion comics.
Question of the Week
How should one celebrate turning 29? I’m not very easy to give gifts to, so if you have any ideas on that front, let me know.
If you haven’t already, consider supporting this work at ko-fi.com/spikestonehand. There, you can leave a tip or buy Zine versions of these articles. Doing this helps keep the website going.
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