The best comic of last week? MARS ATTACKS POPEYE. I don’t mean to give out spoilers, but the Martians lost. I do hope they fare better this week against KISS. Maybe with KISS gone IDW will start publishing a Jethro Tull comic book!
ONE of the best comics of last week was Hellboy In Hell #2. Elegant, creepy and fun, HBinH #2 made up for most of the first issues rambling clunkiness with big pay offs in both direction and character. I am a crazed Hellboy Fanboy… a Hellfan if you will, though I stopped getting the spinoff title B.P.R.D. some time ago. One thing that makes Hellboy in Hell so great is Mike Mignola back at the helm of both pencils and writing. The past few years worth of Hellboy books have been drawn (and possibly written) by several artists, including Richard Corben and Duncan Fegredo. These are great, fun titles and both do amazing jobs carving out their own fingerholds in the Hellboy cliff face. Hellboy The Wild Hunt was a fun, romp through the woods of Hellboy’s milieu, and a great place to jump on for fans eager to get caught up on Big Red. This week sees the release of B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth Abyss Time #1 of 2, aka B.P.R.D. #103. I believe that the current storyline focuses on the actual end times playing out on the surface of the Earth and the combined efforts of all concerned to stop it. What struck me the most, oddly, was the title. I’m not sure how many issues of Hellboy there have been, but I was struck by a question. Would Hellboy in Hell #2 sell better or worse if it was just called Hellboy #85?
TITLES AND NUMBERS
Superman’s latest periodical hits this week in the form of Action Comics #16, which sounds far more accessible than Superman #2345. Superman is going to go toe to toe with an evil demonic version of himself from an alternative universe. Sounds great! There are so many ways to read comics now, be it through classic single issues, trade paperbacks or even digital downloads. Comic book names are getting a bit unwieldy simply because the publishers need you to be able to recognize the reprint trades when they hit the shelves later on. So for example, Superior Spider-Man #1 hits the shelves this week, a guaranteed must buy (unless your boycotting Dan Slott), and I am sure we will see a few issues go down the pike before they’ve branded the book with a subtitle for the sake of trades. This leads to a bigger thought on what the main draw to a comic is, anyway. Dark Horse has a new Graphic Novel out collecting Peter Bagge’s recent comic RESET. There are no titular characters we’re familiar with. Would it have sold better or worse if the book was titled after Bagge’s old indie comic which launched hom to fame? Should this collection be renamed Peter Bagge’s Hate: Reset? It’s fun to think about, especially when you take it to the extreme. Since all comics derive from Superman, and Superman was the inheritor of the work done by the Gaines family on Famous Funnies, I think the most accurate title for this week’s Detective Comics #16 SHOULD be Famous Funnies Staring Superman #167895234, Batman Detective Comics A Death To the Family #16!
