* At Comic Book Galaxy's sister blog Trouble With Comics, Christopher Allen delves deep into his recent comics reading: My Comics July. If I'm reading him right and we get one of these massive missives monthly (true believer, etc.), I will be a very happy comics blog reader indeed. Chris talks about what he does and doesn't enjoy in the New 52, what's good from Marvel right now, and puts a cherry on top with a lengthy look at the Daredevil: Born Again David Mazzucchelli Artist Edition, which I also reviewed not that long ago.
* I want to call out one part of Chris's post, because I've been working with him and occasionally writing with him since the end of the Clinton era, and had never really realized this. But talking about Born Again, Chris notes "The only book to really excite me was IDW’s Artist Edition of David Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil: Born Again. I’m not like ADD—I don’t read even my favorite comics over and over again, so it had been probably 20 years since I read this story." That really stopped me in my tracks, as it's something I had never considered before, that there are comics readers -- and Chris is one with about the the best taste of anyone I've ever known -- who read even the best comics and never again pull them off the shelf. That's a Wow Moment for me, as I can't imagine not returning every couple of years to re-immerse myself in the very best comics ever. Born Again, From Hell, Ghost World, Waid and Garney's Captain America, Lee and Ditko's Amazing Spider-Man, these are books that never get old to me, that I return to again and again and always find something new in. I re-read Ellis and Raney and Hitch's Stormwatch maybe once a year, sometimes extending it into the first twelve issues of The Authority, and it's a thrill and a wonderment every time. I'm not disparaging Chris's approach in any way, I'm just fascinated that we could have fairly simpatico tastes and interests in comics, and yet have such a very different approach in how we curate our own experience of them as entertainment, as art.
* For me the return-to-the-greats is a pattern in other artforms, too. Rare is a year that goes by without a re-watch of Dark City, or Citizen Kane, or Glengarry Glen Ross. These movies, like the comics I return to regularly, create worlds and people I can't leave behind. They represent places, and ideas, and feelings that mean a lot to me, and that I cannot envision ever not wanting to revisit from time to time. Not as much for the comfort of the known, but more for the thrill of discovering some new aspect I had never noticed before (I find the older I get the more I see that I could not at a younger age). The very best comics, like From Hell, always offer something new, and may in fact be too complex and too layered to ever be absorbed in just one reading.
* It looks like Ed Brubaker's pretty great run on Captain America will influence the next Cap movie. While that's good news in terms of the possible quality of the movie versus its just-okay predecessor, I do hope that Brubaker is well-rewarded for whatever contribution he makes, either from here on out, or in the form of his existing work being adapted. Pro tip, Marvel: Reward Brubaker for the good work he brought to your stable of titles, and maybe he'll do some more stuff for you some day. Just an idea.
* I'm glad to hear Alternative Comics is returning. There was a time when almost everything they published was pure gold, and the feel of (apparently not-returning publisher) Jeff Mason's line of books was not quite like anything else from peers Top Shelf, AdHouse or whatever other small-press off-beat comics house you might compare them to. If the return of Alternative is half as good as the publisher was in its heyday, that's great news for comics all around. Names like Kochalka and Henderson are being mentioned, so, yeah. Cool.
* Mark Evanier champions readable book design. Goddamned right, Mark. Anyone with a keen interest in learning more (or an obsession with AMC's Mad Men) might read David Ogilvy's books on advertising. Google 'em.
* Bob Temuka joins the number of comics bloggers talking about Harvey Pekar's Cleveland.
* As a reader, I fairly despise Newsarama's click-through top 10 lists because of the format, but here's their list of the ten worst Avengers, anyway. It's a pretty solid list of misfires from what has, from time to time, been my favourite Marvel comic over the course of my comics reading life. (It hit me recently that this year marks 40 full freaking years of my reading comics, and I feel every minute of it.) I was nerd-relieved to see Wonder Man not on the list, but then I remembered he isn't a bad Avenger, he's just been written that way by Bendis. Man, there's an Avengers era that can't end fast enough for me.
* Uncomics: A report by someone who actually went to see Star Trek: The Next Generation in a movie theater recently. I might have gone if they'd shown "Best of Both Worlds Parts 1 and 2." Or some other of the series' best episodes.
* Really Uncomics: 25 words English borrows from German. I love throwing foreign words into conversation, because it's fun and it keeps people on their toes.
I was never much of a re-reader myself until getting into Love & Rockets. Now I get it. I've read the series, all of it, at least five times and still find new little things each time. I can't imagine reading any superhero series that many times, though.
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