Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Comics of 2009: looking forward

I've already taken a brief look back at comics of 2008, now I'm taking a brief consideration to what lies ahead.

I've already added a few trades to my collection in this new year - Brian K. Vaughn's Pride of Baghdad and Scott McCloud's Zot! For the rest of my intended purchases, I've divided them by Marvel, DC, Image, other publishers, trades & films.

Marvel is still my number one publisher, 18 years and running. I've made a lot of forays into non-Marvel non-super-hero material in the past few years, but Marvel still dominates my purchasing. Some of this is because of my duties writing for Marvel's handbooks, indexes & sagas, but there are a lot of books I'm currently enjoying: Guardians of the Galaxy, Incredible Hercules, Avengers: The Initiative, Nova, Iron Man, Skaar & War Machine. Spider-Girl & the Marvels mini-series will be ending soon; I occasionally follow Spider-Man; I'm pondering whether to follow Incognito. I'm also looking forward to Mighty Avengers, War of Kings & Agents of Atlas.

DC has really tapered off recently; there are no Vertigo or Wildstorm publications I'm currently interested in, nor anything else on the horizon. I'm still following Paul Dini's Detective Comics but it goes on hiatus soon. JSA has a new creative team that might be good. Nothing else in DC's super-hero line interests me. Well, they don't need my money.

Image surprised me last year by becoming one of my favorite publishers. I can't say I like the delays most of their titles undergo, but when Firebreather & Fell actually come out, I'll be there. Meanwhile, Proof & Dynamo 5 keep me entertained.

Other Publishers have only a few items I've noted so far; new Scott Pilgrim & North World from Oni and a new Potter's Field book from Boom! No sign of more Johnny Hiro from Adhouse...is it over? Beyond that, Comic Book Comics will continue from Evil Twin.

Trades include a new Invincible volume and (hopefully) the 2nd Noble Causes Archives. I have a standing recommendation from Texcap to read Usagi Yojimbo and a recommendation from Riley to read Olympus; we'll see. Considering following Captain Britain via trades. Would like to get some more Will Eisner (Spirit? Contract With God?) under my belt. Maybe read Bone?

Films Naturally there are a lot of comic book movies in development, but who wants to take a bet on those? In terms of what's definitely coming out this year, I'll be in line for Watchmen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Of course, in comics you don't know what to expect until it's been solicited; with 9 months yet to be previewed, I'm sure there will be more. Also, I'm bound to dig into some older material I haven't yet considered. Friends with recommendations, be sure to keep passing them along!

No comments: