DerBonk

August 29, 2013 12:38 pm I could wholeheartedly go with Chris' list. Maybe switch out DHP for Mind MGMT, DHP has been less consistent the past few months, I think. Plus, the constant new series pushing is a bit too much of a marketing move for my taste. Everything else, yes: 5. Mind MGMT 4. Lazarus 3. Private Eye 2. Saga 1. Prophet Runner ups: Dark Horse Presents, The Massive, Adventure Time, Manhattan Projects, The Wake, Trillium, Astro City, Unwritten, Animal Man I don't get the Batman hype. It's well written and all, but it is just way too standard super hero fare for my taste. But that's what taste is for, I guess.

June 19, 2013 2:01 am Can't agree more with davidtobin100. Really enjoyed Change even though (or probably precisely because) it was so weird. I'm not sure that I have really been able to wrap my head around what actually happens in the book, but I also feel like it doesn't matter as much. It's just great that there are still comic books around that can utterly confuse you. Going to pre-order this book as well, sounds really interesting. I also like the rotating artists, the whole "collective" approach works really well on Prophet, too.

June 4, 2013 1:00 pm Just chiming in as an international reader from a small to mid-size German city. We have two comic shops (one focused on Manga, a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh and some super hero/pop culture stuff and one focused on franco-belgian comics, as well as graphic novels (and some super hero stuff as well, of course). Basically all of their stuff is in German only and many US series, especially those not from DC or Marvel never get translated (and thus never get sold in these stores). Long story short, I have to pre-order all my comics. I buy my copy of Previews every month (for 4.15€ thank you very much) and then try to guess if a new title will be any good by staring at the thumbnail and description David mentions in the article. I fill out my order sheet and then wait for my books to arrive three months later. There's also no way for me to get notified if a book is delayed for some reason or canceled or anything. If I then don't like the first issue I get, I still have buy the next two (because I needed to pre-order those in advance too, of course), even if I cancel that subscription immediately. That means that I will never give a series a try (one of the reasons I read no Marvel books, I think, I missed both Daredevil and Hawkeye), but I have also become more willing to browse the indie section and bet on an indie book. I'd rather read something really out there that I maybe don't really like (Change by Image was such a case), than some mediocre Marvel/DC title that is just plain boring (DC Universe presents).

April 17, 2013 12:58 am I so agree with Mind MGMT. That's really unfortunate, I bet it was close to being nominated and Kindt definitely deserves a nomination.

January 30, 2013 6:37 pm I'd recommend rather picking up the first trade, though. Much easier to get into then recent issues and much better, too.

January 30, 2013 2:14 pm This could be fantastic. The story certainly allows for a really great movie script and I hope Matt Kindt is getting some hard earned money from the deal so he can keep on producing the awesome. The book has been such a fun mix of "Men who stare at goats" type conspiracy with "Bourne Identity" action and chases, some "Minority Report" themes and so, so many mysteries and surprises. I wonder if they can translate the parts "in the margins" into a part of the movie as well. I'm thinking of subtitles for a foreign language that include hidden messages or big giant "mind pointers" i.e. letters hovering in the sky. Finger's crossed.

January 30, 2013 2:09 pm Me too. While the last issue of Unwritten was cool (esp. the cliffhanger), I feel that it really ended with the War of the Words arc. It's still fun, but not the best comic being published right now, if you ask me. While the crossover fits thematically, it still comes across a bit weirdly. I will buy it, as I will buy all of Unwritten, but still. I mean they could have gone completely bananas and have some of the stories visited in Unwritten be from the DCU or other Warner properties, circumventing the whole copyright issue. On the other hand, I loved that they went with literary allusions rather than "crossovers."

November 2, 2012 1:00 am Dark Horse Presents for me. The variety of styles and stories is astonishing, the quality is almost always top notch and some stories like the Finder serial by Carla Speed McNeil, the Speaker one-Off by Brandon Graham, the Mignola Hellboy story, Tony Puryear's Concrete Park serial, the Sabertooth Vampire strips, the #0s that were first printed in DHP (Ghost, The Massive, Criminal Macabre, Resident Alien...) are my absolute favorites this year. Finder in particular is a revelation for me. I will pick up every Finder story I can find, it's so good. I also want to praise DHP for giving space to something like The Speaker by Brandon Graham. Where else could you find such an amazing story where every character is an abstract part of a persons personality (secrets, doubts, ideas, the voice). Comics need DHP as it allows much more freedom than any other book on the stands right now. I would have picked Unwritten over DHP a few months back, though. However, I feel that Carey is going too quickly with the last arc. War of the Words was perfect, but The Wound didn't quite work for me. Still great, but not the best anymore. Also shout-outs to Saga, Manhattan Projects, Batman, The Massive, Prophet and Mind MGMT. all excellent and well deserving the "best" adjective.

October 14, 2012 6:22 am @Ken: The cover design will help, I guess, and so will the unified name for the line. Still, for someone like me, who will never see any of these books on a shelve or get anyone to explain the event (I have to pre-order from Previews in order to get any books at all, living in Germany), most of that stuff doesn't help. I mean, I read a couple of blog posts about Marvel NOW, looked at their website and the Previews catalog and I was still confused. Sure, I'm not 9 anymore and it's clear that children may be more tolerant, but honestly, is this really the main audience Marvel is going for with Marvel NOW? In any case, I don't care all that much as I am certainly not a Marvel reader. It's just that I was excited about NOW initially, because I really want to get a taste of Marvel, but how the event finally rolled out, there was just no interest raised whatsoever.

October 13, 2012 7:46 am As I have never really read a Marvel book outside of a few collections (Marvels, some Deadpool, some Punisher, Marvel Zombies), I totally get this confusion. With Ultimate and Max being different lines, the whole slew of adjectives they put on their titles is confusing. What is part of which universe, who is where and why and what version of that character is this? It's just impossible for me to get into stuff like that. I really, really think that having separate lines that do not need to take each other into account is a great idea (I'd love DC to do this, putting the "Dark" books in their own universe, e.g.), but the way Marvel is executing it (years down the line, by now, of course), is just really unfriendly for new readers.