Best Of 2009!

Hello Chums,

I'm back again with my second annual best of list for 2009. Enjoy it. I did.

Best (single) issue: Uncanny X-Men Annual #2. Matt Fraction doing a Hellfire Club story=COOL!

Best Limited Series: Stephen King's The Stand. Every arc of this massive book is a great read. (Marvel)

Best continuing series: The Warlord. (DC).

Best continuing series (read) in trade format: Scalped. Vertigo.

Best trade packaging: Absolute DC New Frontier.

Best Graphic Novel: Funny Misshapen Body. Jeffery Brown. (Touchstone).

Best book by a foreign creator: A Drifting Life. Yoshihiro Tatsumi. (Drawn and Quarterly).

Best independent comic (read this year): The King. Rich Koslowski. (Top Shelf).

Best Black and White comic (old): Our Cancer Year. Joyce Brabner and Harvey Pekar. (Four Walls Eight Windows)

Best Cover: Fables #81. (Vertigo).

Best Zero issue: Resurrection. (ONI).

Best Licensed comic property: Star Trek. (IDW).

Best character in a continuing series, limited series or one-shot: Punisher. (Marvel).

Coolest New Thing: Wednesday Comics. (DC).

Biggest Comics Disappointment: Frank Quitely doing only three issues of the new Batman and Robin series. Thanks a lot to DC Comics and Frank Quitely.

Comic book company of the year: Marvel.

Best Writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Stephen King -The Stand. (Marvel).

Best Artist: Mike Perkins. Stephen King - The Stand. (Marvel).

Best Colorist: Laura Martin. Stephen King -The Stand. (Marvel).

Best book related to comics: Comic-Con 40 years of Artists, Writers, Fans & Friends. (Chronicle Books).

Best book on an artist: The Life & Art of Dave Stevens - Brush With Passion. (Underwood Books).

Best comic book related podcast: Fan Boy Radio.

Best comic book con: San Diego Comic Con. Until another con unseats it, San Diego still rules. Although I plan to hit the New York Comic-Con this year and maybe the Chicago Comics Entertainment Expo or maybe Heroes-con. We'll see.

Best Mini-Comic seen at the San Diego Comic-Con: First Plane Comics Presents Medical Maladies by D.L. Nelson. (First Planet Comics).

Best Superhero movie: The Spirit. I know this is laughable but was there another super hero movie this year?

Best movie period: Star Trek.

Keep Reading Comics.

D.L.

Pick Of My Pile for the week of 12-23. The Last Pick.

Hello Chums,



A lot of trade reading completed. Check it out. The Boys vol.5 Herogasm. A trade better than the two before it. Really raunchy! And 100 bullets trades 6-13. A very good crime comic from start to finish. Nice art + Hard core story = WINNER!



Here's the picks:



Marvel:



Punisher #12. Frankencastle and the Marvel monsters with Tony Moore art.



Stephen King - Dark Tower - Battle Of Jericho Hill #2 (of 5). End this already.



The New Avengers #60. Micro surgery on (inside) Luke Cage's heart by Hank Pym and Stephen Strange.



Stephen King - The Stand - Soul Survivors #3 (of 5). Maybe the best Marvel book on the shelf currently.



Halo -Blood Line #1 (of 5). The new Halo series with nice art and coloring.



Uncanny X-Men #519. Hank McCoy leaves the X-Men.



Spider-Woman #4. Okay story so far but GREAT art / coloring by Alex Maleev.



Criminal - The Sinners #3 (ICON). Nice Tracy Lawless story so far.



DC:



Detective Comics #860. More Batwoman back story. This has been very good overall. Rucka can write nice women stories. We know that but the Williams III art is great.



APE:



The Black Coat - Or Give Me Death #4 (of 4). An interesting end to a series a loooong time in the making.



Dark Horse:



Hellboy - The Bride Of Hell (one-shot). An entertaining story with Richard Corben art.



The Last Pick Of My Pile is Stephen King - The Stand - Soul Survivors. These Stand mini-series are very good. The story may not follow the book word for word but the story is definitely there. Very enjoyable with super art and coloring.



Keep Reading Comics. I will.



D.L.

Pick Of My Pile for the week of 12-16.

Hello Chums,

I read the next two vols. (4 & 5) of 100 Bullets this week. Very good over all, however my favorite story so far was Idol Chatter. Although they're not named, this story features a baseball player (Joe DiMaggio), a starlet (Marilyn Monroe) and a president (Kennedy). This story explains what happened to Monroe and Kennedy 100 Bullets style. Very Nice.

On to my picks.

Marvel:

Astonishing X-Men #33. This story seems to be getting better and the art work is very good.

Captain America - Reborn #5 (of 6). Captain America vs. Captain America.

DDP:

The Zombies That Ate The World #7 (of 8). This issue was actually better than the last one.

Image:

Elephantmen #23. Tusk is dead and Hip has been turned back into a soldier?

IDW:

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine #1. Although the character likeness' aren't that good, this is still a Deep Space Nine comic! Sign me up.

Incorruptible #1. What if a super villain turned good to battle an out of control hero? Cool Tim Sale cover.

The Pick Of Pile this week is Star Trek - Deep Space Nine. No Star Trek show had a meatier continuing story than DS9. This arc seems to be set in the first 2 or 3 seasons of the show. That's okay by me.

K.R.C.

D.L.

Pick Of My Pile for the week of 12-9.

Hello Chums,

I read three trades this week. The first was My Space Dark Horse Presents vol.1. This vol. has numerous short stories that appeared at Dark Horse on-line. My favorite was a 4 part Goon story. The other two trades were 100 Bullets vol.2 & vol.3. By reading a couple of titles back to back you can kind of see a long underlying story develop.

My Picks:

Marvel:

The New Avengers annual #3. Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, Mockingbird and Jewel go on a all women mission to rescue Clint Barton.

Punisher Noir #4 (of 4). The conclusion to this thirties era Punisher tale.

Punisher Max #2. Part two of this wonderfully violent Kingpin story.

Black Widow - Deadly Origin #2 (of 4). Nice story with okay current art and great flash back art.

DC:

Johah Hex #50. Extra long story with very nice art by Darwyn Cooke.

DC Universe Holiday Special '09. Anthology issue with 16 or so stories. Featuring the usual Superman, Batman, the Flash, etc.

Sweet Tooth #1. After the accident (nuclear war?) few children were born. The ones who were born are born special. Sweet Tooth has horns(?).

IDW:

Star Trek - Alien Spotlight - Cardassians. A weak Cardassian story that takes place after the Dominion War.

Jon Sable Freelance - Ashes of Eden #3. More Mike Grell! Jon Sable looses the diamond?

NEC:

The Mangalicious Tick #4 (of 4). The okay end to this weak mini-series.

Dark Horse:

B.P.R.D. - War of Frogs #4. A creepy Frog ghost story.

Image / Top Cow:

Murderer #1. This is a Pilot Season issue (basically an issue for fans to vote if they want to see more). This story features Jason a young man who can hear every ones thoughts and who kills people (they seem to deserve it). I liked this story quite a bit.

Although there were a few books worth mentioning: Johah Hex, Black Widow and Punisher Max, The Pick Of My Pile this week is The New Avengers annual. This book was a lot of fun with decent art.

K.R.C.

D.L.

Pick Of My Pile for the week of 12-3.

Hello Chums,


I read one "trade" this week which was Young Gods and friends. If you remember back to the mid 90's Dark Horse Comics was publishing the OVERSIZED Barry Windsor-Smith Storyteller. Each issue featured three continuing stories, Young Gods, Paradox Man and (my favorite) The Freebooters. Although there were only 9 issues, this comic had fantastic art/coloring and was sorely missed when it was canceled. Well Fantagraghic books has collected all of the Young Gods material (from the issues) along with never before published stories and extras into a very handsome over sized hardcover. This book contains everything BWS did on the Young Gods with notes on why it was canceled (Dark Horse Comics [poor] management). This book is a must for BWS fans.


On to my picks:


Marvel:


Captain America - Theater of War - Prisoners of Duty (one-shot). Steve Rogers in a Nazi prison camp jail brake.


Stephen King - The Dark Tower - Battle of Jericho Hill # 1 (of 5). How many more dark Tower books are there going to be?


Black Knight #1 (one-shot). The secret origin of the Black Knight is revealed.


The Marvels Project #4 (of 8). The assassination of The Ferret.


Uncanny X-Men #518. Cyclops doing psychic surgery on Emma Frost. Since Scott Summers and Emma Frost are a couple and have been for so long, does that mean when Jean Grey comes back (she's coming) she will finally hook up with Logan?


Siege - The Cabal (one-shot). Nice art featuring Osborn vs. Dr. Doom.


DC:


The Warlord #9. More great story and art from Mike Grell. Who could that be at the end who is coming back? I wonder.


Red Tornado #4 (of 6). More with Red Tornado and his siblings.


Jack of Fables #40. Probably my last issue.


Blacklist:


R13 #2. More R13 fighting monsters, this time a giant bird.





Del Rey:


The Talisman #2. Jack Sawyer travels to the territories in hopes of saving his mother.


Radical:


The Last Days of American Crime. Free Primer for Rick Remender's new mini-series. Nice art.



The Pick Of My Pile this week is The Warlord. Mike Grell continues to please as the writer/artist of this great series.


K.R.C.

D.L.

Pick Of My Pile for the week of 11-25.

Hello Chums,





I read only one trade this week, bummer. My trade was Pigeons From Hell, a re-imagined Robert E. Howard story. While I liked the art and coloring, the story fell very flat with me. On to my picks.





The biggest comic buying week ever! But I don't think that's necessarily a good thing.




Marvel:




Son Of Marvel Reading Chronology (free). Off to a good start with this one.




Stephen King - The Dark Tower - Fall of Gilead #6 (of 6). Is the end in site for these limited series?




Uncanny X-Men #517. The X-Men battle Predator Xs.




Ultimate Avengers #4. Captain America running from S.H.I.E.L.D. in France.




The New Avengers #59. The Avengers and friends jail break Luke Cage from the clutches of Norman Osborn.




Giant-Size Thor Finale #1 (one-shot). The conclusion to the Straczynski re-introduction to Thor with a back up of Journey into Mystery #83 (first Thor issue).




Immortal Weapons #5 (of 5). The untold origin of Prince of Orphans. Most definitely the weakest of the five issues.




Criminal - The Sinners #2 (Icon). Ed Brubaker's Badass Tracy Lawless + Sean Phillips' art + 24 pages of story + 10 pages of extras = Complete Package!




Halo Helljumper #5 (of 5). The conclusion to the Helljumper series.


DC:


Detective Comics #859. A story from Kate Kane's (Batwoman) military days.


Radical:


Hercules - The Knives of Kush #4 (of 5). Herc and friends hanging with the Egyptians.


Dark Horse:


Creepy #2. Cover by Eric Powell with art by Nathan Fox and Angelo Torres to name a few.


The Goon #33. A fully painted stand alone story. Very nice!


Ape:


The Black Coat - Or Give Me Death p.1&2 (of 4). After a computer crash and loosing the art files for issue two, this book has FINALLY shipped TWO YEARS LATER!



The Black Coat - Or Give Me Death p.3 (of 4). This series is almost over. Bummer but worth the wait.


NEC:







The Tick - New Series #1. A full color, nice little Christmas kick off issue.


IDW:


Star Trek - Nero #4 (of 4). Nero finally catches Spock. Oh No.










DDP:







I Am Legion #6 (of 6). Finally the conclusion to this slow moving story.



The Pick Of My Pile this week is The Black Coat 1,2,3. Over two years in the making and it's finally shipping! Yeah!


K.R.C.


D.L.

Pick Of My Pile for the week of 11-18.

Hello Chums,



No trades read this week. On to my picks.



Marvel:



Punisher #11. After the events of Punisher-Dark Reign - The List (one-shot), this book has the Punisher being put back together (Frankenstein style) and hanging out with some monsters. Odd idea with great art by Tony Moore.



Spider-Woman #3. From the writing to the artwork to the coloring, this book is bad ass. I highly recommend it. Check it out.



Deadpool - Merc with a mouth #5. Okay, I wasn't going to sign on to pick up multiple issues of this book, but it has been a lot of fun. The Bong Dazo art doesn't hurt either.



Stephen King - The Stand - Soul Survivors #2 (of 5). We all know this story is great, but month after month Aguirre-Sacasa, Perkins and Martin continue to shine.



Powers Encyclopedia (Icon). The thick issue is a who's who of the Powers universe. This issue has a lot of helpful entries on characters I had forgotten and a few spoilers of future story lines.

Del Rey:

Stephen King / Peter Straub - The Talisman #1. As much as I liked the novel, this first issue is just so so. I will give it a chance though.

Dark Horse:

Dr. Horrible #1. A nice little story that sheds some light on how Dr. Horrible took the villains path when he was a kid.

Sugar Shock (one-shot). Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon's futuristic rock band. Funny bit with President Lincoln. Nice art.

Bongo:

The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror #15. Bought for one reason only: Jeffrey Brown story - Bad Milhouse. Brown's Incredible Changesbots coloring really makes his story stand out over the other fare in this issue.

IDW:

Star Trek - The Next Generation - Ghosts #1. Although this first issue sets up a good story, the character likeness' by this artist is not the usual IDW fare.

DC:

The Flash - Rebirth #5 (of 6). This limited series has been pretty good so far. My only complaint is: why is it so late?

Avatar:

Supergod #1. This is probably my first Avatar book since Frank Miller's Robo Cop. Avatar's type of books just don't appeal to me. This book is no exception. This will be my first and last issue.

The Pick Of My Pile this week is The Stand - Soul Survivors. I'm liking this series so much I kind of wished I'd held out for the hard backs.

K.R.C.

D.L.