DON’T BE SNOOTY
New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis @brianmichaelbendis, Stuart Immonen, Leinil Francis Yu, Howard Chaykin and Alex Maleev. Sale ends tonight!
Alias #1 - “Alias Investigations” (2001)
written by Brian Michael Bendis
art by Michael Gaydos & Matt Hollingsworth
I AM SO JEALOUS I COULD POOP
Dinner with the New Avengers (from New Avengers #7, by Brian Michael Bendis @brianmichaelbendis and Stuart Immonen)
A comiXologist Recommends (their favorites from 2015)
by Harris Smith
There were too many comics this year to pick one favorite, so here’s just a bunch of my favorite things that happened in 2015:
1. Stories from a comic I published, Felony Comics #1, were featured in Best American Comics 2015, so that was pretty cool.
2. Ben Marra, cover artist for Felony Comics #1, published his first graphic novel, Terror Assaulter: One Man War on Terror, from Fantagraphics. That was also cool.
3. Chuck Forsman’s self-published Revenger continued to channel the spirit of 80′s action movies like Death Wish 3, combined with the stark, deadpan sensibility that made his previous comics, like TEOTFW and Luv Sucker so powerful.
4. Future Shock Zero- If you want to get an overview of the best of today’s indie/art comics scene, Josh Burggraf’s sci-fi anthology is the perfect place to start, with comics by some of my favorite artists, including Lala Albert, Alex Degen, Sophia Foster-Dimino, Victor Kerlow, Jasoph Murphy, Aleks Sendwald, Pete Toms and Ben Urkowitz.
5. Every moment of Transformers Vs. G.I. Joe
6. Antisocial gorilla bikers in The Humans
7. Upping the indie quotient on comiXology like wow with the digital debut of MOME from Fanagraphics
8. We got my favorite book by my favorite cartoonist, The Freddie Stories by Lynda Barry, on comiXology, thanks to the digital launch of Drawn & Quarterly
9. Another one of my favorite indie cartoonists, Michel Fiffe, took on Ann Nocenti-era Daredevil (possibly the best creative run on a superhero comic of all time) in Marvel’s Secret Wars: Secret Love #1
10. Good superhero shows on TV- Jessica Jones, for its emotional complexity; Gotham, for being a noir-ish soap opera with Batman characters; and Supergirl, for being smart and fun.
11. DC Comics in general, for giving us a Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League book, teaming up Gilbert Hernandez and Darwyn Cook on the Twilight Children, the new PREZ book, launching the old Joe Simon PREZ on comiXology, launching Jack Kirby’s OMAC on comiXology, and I know it isn’t out yet, but a new Swamp Thing book by Len Wein and Kelly Jones? Too good to be true.
Harris Smith is a senior production coordinator and the editor of comiXology’s Tumblr, as well as the publisher of Felony Comics and a film programmer at the Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn. His New Year’s Resolution is to read and make more comics in 2016.
Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #7 by Steve Englehart, George Tuska and Billy Graham
Jessica Jones for The New Yorker by Tomer Hanuka / Blog / Facebook / Twitter / Tumblr
Jessica Jones invades the New Yorker (btw if you’re not reading Emily Nussbaum’s TV criticism in general, you’re totally missing out).
(via aka-jessica-jones)
A comiXologist Recommends
By Kate Leth, Brittney L. Williams, and Megan Wilson
AKA HELL YES
Sometimes the thing that makes a superhero interesting is what sets them apart from the mundane – their extraordinary abilities and the grand, spectacular scenarios that play out around them. But sometimes all that super-ness can seem a little remote, and after a while I start to find myself more interested in the minutia of superhero lives. Like, how do they pay the bills? I mean, not every superhero is a Tony Stark or a Bruce Wayne.
Some superheroes are more of a Patsy Walker. She also wonders how people with super powers are supposed to pay the bills, because this is a particular problem for Patsy and her friends. And this is a problem Patsy is determined to solve, using to their advantage the very thing that makes it a challenge.
We may not have the ability to sense mystical energy, or possess the power of telekinesis, or learned to kick butt on the moon. But we can all relate to needing to figure out life, and how to manage our own unique potential that maybe sometimes feels like a burden. Patsy Walker is here to tell you that life is hard but you are important and you can do it.
In many ways, this is a Patsy that fans of Jessica Jones (on Netflix) will recognize. She is your best friend and your conscience and do NOT mess with her if you know what’s good for you. But this Patsy lives in a world that is decidedly less grim than the show. The colors in this book are downright cheerful, the panels are packed with charming details, and the dialogue is upbeat. (All the high fives for that line about the fridge, Kate!)
I predict that Hellcat will join the ranks of Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel, proving that fun, bright comics about young women have an eager audience. And if you were wondering if you should join that audience, the answer is HELL YES.
Tia Vasiliou is a Digital Editor at ComiXology. She hopes to one day learn butt-kicking on the moon.
