(click the pics to biggen them!)
This month’s MKE Comicbook meetup at Anodyne Coffee was a blast! The topic of the night was a double-header – “your favorite non-Marvel/DC books, and any fave banned/challenged books (as next week is “Banned Books Week”). The attendees brought out of a number of great books to share, lots of laughs were had, and the 9:00 closing-time came way to fast!
Kate
-her first selection was a classic issue of Jughead, from 1988! In this issue, Jughead has a great daydream of being a superhero. ARCHIE COMICS
–Attack on Titan is a well-drawn, futuristic sci-fi drama – and also a book that’s been banned in China. Kate said, only half-joking, that the main lesson of the book is “Don’t trust anyone in power, they will let you get eaten by a giant.”
–Hyperbole and a Half – has lots of text, but plenty enough illustrations to qualify comic. It has great stories everyone can relate to. The stand-out story though, has the memorable “Clean All The Things” line.
-Kate is a big fan of manga and shared one more title – Full Metal Alchemist – which, besides many inventive characters, also features “an empty suit of armor that’s inhabited by a soul, and likes to collect cats.” She also mentioned this book as being special due to its female author.
Molly
–Ratqueens – “I assume everyone here heard of this, but if you haven’t…” is how Molly started describing this fantasy “dragons, orcs, and wizards” book that also manages to pretty diverse in how it depicts its characters. IMAGE
-She recently picked up Lady Mechanika, and with it’s steampunk styling and “mysterious origin” of the main character seemed like a book perfect for her. BENITEZ
–Still I Rise: A Graphic History of African Americans is an interesting, thorough, and powerful history book. STERLING PUBLISHING
-For banned books, Molly brought a graphic novel version of HOWL by Alleng Ginsberg.
Luke
–Aliens vs Parker “Nothing new, but just a lot of fun – guys in space, fighting against monstrous aliens” BOOM STUDIOS
–Velvet – spy story from Brubaker/Epting/Breitweiser “what if Moneypenny was framed for killing James Bond?” If you enjoyed the work that reinvigorated Captain America a few years ago, you probably want to read this, too! IMAGE
–30 Days of Night – Steve Niles was THE horror writer of the 90s. “Why didn’t anyone think of this concept before?” 30 Days was a totally novel use of vampires – transporting them to the North Pole and its long, long night. IDW
Don
-The Expo SPX09 (Small Press Expo) – This was a lil anthology with a great strip by Jim Mahfood – “Scottsdale Baby vs Fratboy Baby”, and an easy way to try different stuff. Shawn finished reading the one-page strip and declared, “I just got done reading this, and it just reminds me of the GOP Debates!”
-Don shared another anthonlogy called Mind Riot. He singled out “With Arthur” for special mention, as being a good 4-page story about dealing with elderly parents – “I had all my siblings read this one before we had a serious talk about our own aging parents.”
-The collected “Life and Times of Martha Washington”, from classic Frank Miller/DaveGibbons – “if you want a whacked-out crazy version of the future, that’s already happening, here it is…” DARK HORSE
–Palomar – The Heartbreak Soup Stories – This was a challenged/banned book, for accusations of having child porn in it, “and I remember reading it, and had no idea what could have caused that.” It turns out that the controversial section was a half-page scene (3-4 panels) of some young kids being curious about how their bodies were different and innocently showing each other what was beneath their clothes. FANTAGRAPHICS
–Mind MGMT, from Dark Horse – a dramatic drama about psychic secret agents in training.
-“Henry and Glen” was probably the crowd favorite tonight with its “what if Henry Rollins and Glen Danzig dated?” concept! MICROCOSM
Troy
-I brought 7 Psychopaths – from Boom Studios – an “alternative history” wherein the title characters try to assassinate Hitler during WW II.
–Doc Frankenstein is a terribly creative, gone-too-soon book created by the Wachowski Brothers and one of my favorite artists, Steve Skroce. BURLY MAN ENTERTAINMENT
–Black Hood is a great, dark cops-and-crime drama set in Philadelphia. DARK CIRCLE COMICS
Dillon
-shared The Pride of Baghdad, from Image, a perspective-changing view on the Iraq War, written by notable “surprise” writer, Brian K Vaughan.
Shawn
–We Stand On Guard, from Image – “US invades Canada over water”. It’s also written by BKV and illustrated by Steve Skroce (the same guy who did Doc Frankenstein)
–Assassin’s Creed: Subject 4 – “I’m a video-gamer first, and a history teacher, so this book…” Easy to see why it appealed to Shawn, what with appearances by Tesla, Rasputin and more! UBISOFT
–A People’s History of American Empire – a must-read history book by Howard Zinn and Co. METROPOLITAN PUBLISHING
–The Sixth Gun – a supernatural western by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt (another fave artist of mine). ONI PRESS
Northlanders – some great, brutal, well-written viking stories from DC’s “sub-imprint” VERTIGO.
Emilio
Case Files: Sam and Twitch, from Image, more hardboiled crime, with very interesting layouts and creative storytelling.
FUSE, also from Image, another “near future” sci-fi murder-mystery drama set on a space station. As someone mentioned tonight, “IMAGE sure does like space stations.”
Dirk Gently’s Holistc Detective Agency, from IDW… “As I’m a big Douglas Adams fan…”
Super Sikh and The Atma Defenders – “sometimes censorship is the censorship of omission, not allowing peoples to tell their own stories” and this comic is seeking to do a little correcting of that.
Zipi y Zape – like a Spanish Mad magazine
Jen
-brought us another spy-story in The Silencers, about a “small hitman squad that works for the mob. MOONSTONE COMICS
–The Only Living Boy -about a young boy trapped, memory-less, on a strange, fantastic world.
–Sex Criminals, from Image, that features two wanna-be criminals, but is really more about their relationship.
–Negative Burn – showed just how weird comics can be. CALIBER PRESS
