Salute to a Writer

Technically, it's the beginning of '10, but this is my shot at writing a little something for the end of '09. Many stories at this time revovle around who has died in the preceding year. I'm going to ride that train and take it to extol a writer who got a late start as a celebrity.

Frank McCourt died July 19 at 78 ,of menningitis and skin cancer. McCourt became famous with the publication of his memoir, Angela's Ashes, in 1996, a mere 13 years ago. That, and the sequel, 'Tis, told the story of McCourt's deprived Depression era childhood in Ireland and subsequent career as a teacher in America. The former won him a Pulitzer.

Now, McCourt was not a comic book writer. Nonetheless, any writer, be it comic book, book, screenplay, or play, should take the time to read these two books. McCourt tells stories better than anyone. Stereotypically, that could be attributed to being Irish, but truthfully, not every Irishman can string together a good story. Still, a culture that celebrates the storyteller doesn't hurt.

While the US in the Depression was in a bad way, in Ireland it was phenomenally worse. McCourt performs the magic of conveying that misery, while telling the funniest stories. He takes a childhood that could be nothing but depressing and finds the humor in the daily trevails. He conveys emotion without being maudlin.

I read far fewer books than I'd like. Fortunately, McCourt's books were given to me as gifts. Along with Alexander McCall Smith, who has probably an even greater skill with the English language, McCourt should be read by all aspiring writers. If any of them learn even a modicum, their own works will be that much better.

A fond farewell, then, to Frank McCourt. He lived a much longer life than a child in Depression era Ireland had a right to expect. He turned adversity into strength. He told tales as well as anyone.

Coincidentally, Douglas MacKinnon, a former White House and Pentagon official who now fanices himself a novelist, provides a succint example of how not to write in the December 31 Baltimore Sun. Well, it's a perfectly fine way to write, if all you're interested in is being snide and critical with no actual solution to a proposed problem. He writes about how the US government is incapable of providing security from terror attacks on US soil. This has been a constant refrain since 9/11/01, particularly from those who think we should surrender all civil liberties in the name of security. MacKinnon, though, isn't even as honest as Dick Cheney, as he never says that's his view. That he only picks at the Obama administration is the only clue a reader has to his prejudices, or bona fides, I suppose, if you're inclined to agree with him. People like MacKinnon never seem to grasp that doing away with our civil rights in the name of physical security is tantamount to surrendering to al-Qaeda and its ilk. If we don't have the freedoms that make us the US, then we're just another power exercising bald power to control others for our own selfish ends, rather than something unique in the history of the world.

2009 The Year in Review Marvel Comics

The final part of my year in review is Marvel. I think Marvel comes last for me as a segment of the market it is the one I have the most problems with from a few standpoints. Number one I think that since I used to love the characters at Marvel the most as Marvel moves away from how I would like to see them handle them it is almost becomes a matter of resentment. I almost resent how they are handling characters I care about. I know that having that type of emotion tied up in characters is a little much, but I think it is part of it. Spider-Man is still dead to me due to the “One More Day” reboot and it will probably take a long time for me to want to go back to that book.

Another problem with Marvel is that since they do not have the legacy aspect like DC does we are stuck with the same characters forever playing the same roles. In DC we had the teen side kicks that grew up and many of the silver age revivals were updating of characters DC owned from the Golden Age. Marvel did some of that also, but they ignored the Golden Age for the most part, where DC embraced it. So we now have almost fifty years of the same Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Daredevil and X-Men. Very few new characters and new dynamic and right now to end Dark Reign they are setting us up for the reborn big three Avengers of Thor, Cap and Iron Man. Fifty years later and we are right back where we started from.

The real truth is if they can tell great stories with great art, I can live with the same old characters, but I miss seeing some advancement in the lives of these characters and miss seeing anything happen that will have a true consequence down the road. I know all the reasons behind it, but Marvel is more static then DC. Marvel performed a wonderful and market share grabbing illusion of changing the playing field the characters are in, without ever truly changing the characters. I think this is why Marvel is usually my least favorite and why the independent side of books and the reprints where things seemed to happen are becoming my favorite material. Of course no one expected fans to stay around for almost five decades, so I’m not their core audience. Julie Martin from Echo, Dara from the Sword, Mark Grayson from Invincible, Bigby Wolf from Fables actually change as time passes and their stories may end, it makes for a better read as a generality.

The Dark Reign dominated the main core of the Marvel Universe and this year it seemed that an editorial mandate was to drag almost everyone into the core universe and we saw the Punisher come back, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Captain America, Thor was slowly dragged into it and the X-Men were brought kicking and screaming into it. The few areas that remained outside of the DR were the Ultimate line, Max line and the cosmic side of things.

Where Marvel did shine was with Agents of Atlas and Incredible Hercules. I put these two titles together as both are 2009 best of the year books in my opinion. I know that we saw Agents of Atlas cancelled and Hercules is rumored to be canceled (at least the current title soon), but both books are fun and Agents survives just not as a regular series. Each tells a good story, has dramatic moments and still keeps the humor in the books. The characters are respected and are developed, yet it is always with a huge emphasis on keeping the book a little breezier. Hercules is the much lighter in tone of the two, but if you read a lot of Agents of Atlas you can see the irrelevance is all throughout the title.

Under the category of “you only miss them when they are gone” Brubaker ended his run on Daredevil. At times his pacing rivaled the previous writer (Brian Bendis) for mind numbing slowness, but overall the stories that he told were entertaining and very strong, The cast of Daredevil is as important as Daredevil himself and with Dakota, The Tarantula, Foggy, Milla and all the rest the book was a good read and will be a better read when read issues at a time. Diggle has started out okay on his tenure on the book, but it is too early to judge if he will continue the tradition of well told stories. Of course the new artist is very good, but Lark, Guardino and Hollingsworth are tough to match.

Staying with Brubaker his run on Captain America has really slowed down and from what I read I believe his plans for this book were derailed a lot and he was forced to do a lot of treading water. Then the god awful Captain America Reborn was put out and we are still awaiting the end of that story even though the ending has been pretty well put out there in the last few weeks with all the Steve Rogers as Captain America appearances. I have the feeling that Captain America dying was only suppose to last for about one arc after he was shot and then he was coming back in perhaps a less convoluted manner, but editorial came in and I think they wanted to milk the Death of Captain America and then decided he should be involved in this whole rebirth of the Avengers thing. It is a shame, if true at all, as Brubaker’s first 25 issues of Captain America made it a book I wanted to read again. Now it is living off the good will the book built up during that run. The other Brubaker project is Marvels Projects, which is a nice reworking of the origins of the Marvel Universe and a good capping off to the excellent 70th Anniversary work Marvel did with so many updating of their Golden Age titles.

Marvel also did the “Noir” line of books and except for the first Spider-Man one and the Wolverine series I never finished any of them. Not enough originality for the $4 entry price for a 22 page comic. The Ultimate Line came back and I now only get Ultimate Avengers and I could not even tell they did the big Ultimate cross over that changed the Ultimate world forever. Ultimatum was a non-event from what I am reading. It seems that Marvel’s Ultimate Universe has lost its way and there is no buzz on this material. The Ultimate Avengers is my action movie book as Millar writes a good adventure as long you don’t think about it. Eventually even with good art, Millar will probably do something so inane I will have to drop the title.

Another best book from Marvel was Thor by JMS. I have read some people saying how the new writer has done a seamless job since JMS left, but I would disagree as I thought JMS’ last issue wrapped up a lot of stuff quick and the new writer was hitting the reset button with a lot of the story elements also. Thor was a top selling title and I know JMS did not deliver scripts as fast as Marvel wanted, but they could have just used Thor in other books and left JMS’s Thor as its own thing.

Finally another favorite of 2009 is the War of Kings, which led to the Realm of Kings. DnA seem to be having the time of their lives with this stuff and basically are being left alone to do what they want. Since they write all of the books involved the mini-event has worked quite well and I think you could have just read War of Kings and been very content with only that story.

Even though Marvel is not my favorite for the most part they still produce some quality books, but they also produce a slew of add on crap and flood the market with it. For me I would like to see a little more focus on the individuals and less focus on the landscape they are playing in.

That ends my year in review and ends my active participation on the blog for the rest of 2009. I have some commentary upcoming and I may pop in on the twitter side of things, but for the most part I will see you all again in 2010.

Thanks for all the support as you can see by the cluster map on the sidebar we get a fair amount of traffic from all over the world. The internet is a wondrous thing.

2009 The Year in Review Vertigo and Wildstorm

In some ways the Vertigo side of DC Comics has to be my favorite. Three of the top series are from Vertigo with a lot of other titles that are very good and the new line of OGN that have been coming out from Vertigo.

Scalped has to be one of the best all time series. It started out slow but has been building ever since. At this point it appears the proverbial crap is going to hit the fan as Dash’s identity as an undercover FBI agent who has infiltrated Red Crow’s organization is going to be exposed. But there is so much more to this story. Red Crow is the Chief of the reservation and the owner of the new casino. Dash has recently been strung out on heroin and been banging Red Crow’s drugged out daughter. Dash’s Mom (who was killed a few issues back) used to run with Red Crow when they were sort of Native America rebels fighting the US Government. It all got mixed up with a FBI agent who is now Dash’s boss. Of course Red Crow borrowed money from the Hmong’s for the casino and then got tired of their hit man screwing around in the reservation so Red Crow shot him and now the Hmong’s are after Red Crow. I told you a lot was going on. The raw emotions are what stay with you, one little scene where Dash has hit the wall and he is punching a car until the door is dented and his hands are bloodied was riveting. The fact is that this book seemed to be focused on Dash and slowly Red Crow has become the center of the book. No one is 100% a bad guy and no one is 100% good and the shades of gray run the gamut up and down the spectrum. This series is the seminal work of Jason Aaron’s young career and hopefully is a harbinger of future great works. The main artist on this book is RM Guera and his work is outstanding as he delivers the emotion and power of Jason’s story. As it was last year, it is again this year as one of the best series of the year.

Next up is Madame Xanadu from Vertigo and this is also one of my best series of 2009. Matt Wagner has crafted an excellent story and has been slowly telling us the origin of Madame Xanadu and then started to just flow right into her life once she hit the 1940’s. What has been another great element of the book is the way that Matt has refused to stay out of the DCU proper. She has run into the Phantom Stranger, the green lamp that would ultimately power Alan Scott, Sandman, The Spectre and John Jones (the Martian Manhunter’s human identity). I love that we have a Vertigo title that is in fact part and parcel and the regular DCU. This year we had a “fill-in artist” for five issues and the fill in artist was Michael (frigging) Kaluta. I mean this guy is a master artist and I loved his five issues, but Amy Reeder Hadley owns this title. Mike’s work was great but his style is very different from Amy’s and her work is the prettiest artwork in all of comics. I’m in love with Madame Xanadu as she is drop dead gorgeous when Amy draws her. Her style is so fluid and has such grace, but she knows how to design a page and tell a story at the same time. She also can do expressions and tell more with a character’s look that five paragraphs of exposition could ever tell us. With a writer who is also an artist it works perfectly as Matt Wagner knows when to let the pictures tell the story.

The third series which falls under the radar at times for me because it is not one long story is still one of the best series on the stands. Northlanders has been ignored by me at times because it can have one shots and story arcs of three or four or eight or whatever number of issues is right for the story. Each arc has a different artist, but they are all tied together as they are stories of the Viking People and are set in the 10th and 11th Century if memory serves. Brian Wood has been telling some great stories that give you a sense of the time and is based on historical facts, but focuses on the people of the time. As you come to know each character you hate to see an arc end. This year we got a one shot story following up on Sven from the first arc, a sort of ten years later type deal and with the original arc’s artist back. The current story line about the Plague Widow is a fascinating look at a culture trying to deal with a viral outbreak and is rather timely as we are still dealing with the Swine Flu in the world this year.

Okay so that is three best series from one tiny segment of the market and DC could make some big bucks off of me by publishing some hard cover collections of these books, but I may have to pick up the trades just to keep them on my own shelf.

Quickly coming up in the ranks is Sweet Tooth by Jeff Lemire. A decidedly different take on the post apocalyptic world story where our main hero is a clueless young man who appears to be part animal with his Antlers (at least he is a six point buck). Vertigo gives us Fables which while not blowing me away is still a solid entertaining title and had their first hard cover collection come out this year, which I bought. Cinderella has a mini-series going, House of Mystery is decent and Hellblazer continues to be a very good series. Add in some OGN and the crime OGN and you have a great mix and brand that has produced a lot of classics.

Since I’m covering all of the corners of DC Comics I would be remiss to not mention Wildstorm and the fact that Planetary finally got the last issue out and we have the second collection coming out in July 2010 (why so long I have no clue). One of the best all time series has finally concluded and I can’t wait to read it over the course of one week.

Wildstorm has had fits and starts and while I enjoy some of their books the WU has never been able to sustain any long term direction and is rebooted more often then Hawkman. One day they will get the right formula and take off from there. It is interesting as Wildstorm is still building up the way Dark Horse, IDW and Boom have with license deals for video game based comics. I’m curious to see what Wildstorm will do for 2010.

2009 The Year in Review The DCU

DC had a great year as Blackest Night has been lighting up the sales charts for DC with some astounding numbers. I would make the Blackest Night series one of the books of 2009. What Johns and Ivan Reis have done with this series is to make it feel like it was an organic event as opposed to a forced event that was being pushed for by the company. Infinite Crisis was a perfect example of editorial trying to mandate an event and then constantly putting its nose into the project and what happens is an event that never quite works out. I mean all you have to do is look at 52 that editorial basically let the writers alone and Countdown where editorial had a heavy hand in it and you see why the creators should be left alone.

Blackest Night has been building for awhile and DC was also smart to let the impact hit other major players in a separate mini-series so that Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman’s own stories would not have to be heavily impacted by Blackest Night and then any integration into their own books could be done naturally as opposed to just shoved down a writer’s throat.

This year also saw the end of Final Crisis where we had a book that was really about the New Gods, but it felt odd as we are all preprogrammed to think that something this big should impact the DCU. Now while Batman was “killed” by Darkseid, the actual mini-series had zero effect on the DCU at this point. I want to re-read Final Crisis in one sitting to see if it works better that way. I understand what Morrison was doing, but I thought it failed as an episodic comic.

When Morrison misses he misses, when he hits he hits it big (usually). Batman and Robin is a great series and one of my favorite books of 2009. Dick Grayson and Damien are the new Batman and Robin and when Bruce gets back I hope he is no longer Batman and becomes more of the mentor. The dynamic between Batman and Robin is fantastic and it really works having the happier Batman and the dangerously demented Robin. The battles with Professor Pyg, The Red Hood and the Flamingo have all been wonderful issues.

In fact DC did a good job with the entire revamp of the Batman line up. Personally I think Gotham Sirens will be a failure and Birds of Prey was a better book, but Batgirl, Red Robin, Streets of Gotham and Detective Comics have all been well done. In fact only the actual Batman book itself seems to have issues. Detective Comics has been spectacular with Greg Rucka writing and JH William III on art giving us our first extended look at the new Batwoman.

Power Girl was a great surprise from DC this year. Amanda Connor, who at first I was hesitant about her art style on the book but now love, has given us a great book with tons of expressive and humorous pictures. The writers have keep the book light hearted, but not made it into a kiddie book. Too many comics are still the grim and gritty material and too few have the old time lighter feel to them. This book keeps it light with strong modern writing and great art. Power Girl is busting out on her own this year and another winner from DC.

Two other series I enjoyed this year from DC are The Mighty and Rebels. The Mighty is one of those creator owned books published under the DCU banner and never get much attention (see Simon Dark). Both have been great concepts and may have fared better under the Vertigo banner. Rebels has been a delight and a joy for me as it has picked up on all the old LEGION and REBELS stuff from before. Tony Bedard seems to have a good long term story to tell and I hope this series last long enough that we will get to see the entire thing.

To switch gears let’s look at some of the things that have gone the wrong way for DC. Except for Superman Secret Origins, the entire Superman franchise is a mess. I know in 2010 we are building to a Superman event, but right now all of the Superman titles feel like the sub plots and not an actual main plotline. A year of little things happening and character building has burden and slowed down the titles Superman, Action, Superman World of New Krypton and Supergirl. All the books have all been treading water. Here and there we have gotten a decent issue, but all in all the sub plots need to be just that and a strong main story also needs to be told. Wonder Woman has been pretty tough this year also. Gail Simone is a great writer normally but the multiple story lines going on and the gorillas as her sidekicks and all the other elements seem disparate and never comes together for me. There are elements of a great story, but it never pulls together or works. Maybe it reads better as a trade.

Two other series that seem to have a level of importance for DC but are missing the mark a little are Justice League Cry for Justice and Flash Rebirth. I think both series are okay, but I think both series are serving the wrong master. What I mean by that are both series are setting up things and laying the groundwork for stuff to come, when they need to remember to be a good story first and foremost. It is okay to be laying groundwork for future events, but you have to tell a good dynamic story first.

We also got a hint of the First Wave coming out in 2010 with the Batman/Doc Savage special. This series looks great as we have a world that is both the 21st Century and 1930’s mashed together. Bruce Wayne is a rookie hero and a little bit of a hot head, Doc Savage is the cool and calm perfection of humanity that Bruce is maybe aspiring to be. We have the promise of Black Canary and other non-powered heroes showing up in this new world.

Last and far from least was Wednesday Comics. I will eternally love DC for giving us this weekly series. I have to think that there was no way anyone had a clue how well this would go over as you have to be a Sunday funnies fan of single page strips (like Prince Valiant) as well as a super hero fan. They gathered a wide array of talent and let them each tell us a twelve part story using the large single page of a newspaper size to tell their stories. There were great successes and some misses, but all in all it was glorious and well worth the money. Heck I got four copies every week and gave all four away to share the joy.

Finally we got back up features in a few DC comics and I like the idea, but not sure I like the extra buck I have to pay for them. Plus I would prefer it if the back up takes the front of the book every fourth issue or so. Not sure where the back up feature is going as Marvel has basically said screw it and charging everyone $4 whenever they feel like it.

Next up is Vertigo and Wildstorm as the year in review continues.

2009 The Year in Review The Indies Part 2 of 2

Dark Horse continues to publish the Mignolverse. BPRD has to be one the best books on the market if you follow it and have followed it from the beginning. Hellboy is of course part of it, but Hellboy has gone off on his own and BPRD is the story that is still following threads that have been around since the first Hellboy series. I’m sure it has been covered in some interview somewhere but I would live to know if Mignola had this all laid out years ago. An under the radar book for sure but BPRD is another 2009 best series.

Dark Horse has done plenty with the Robert E. Howard works over the last year with Conan, King Kull and Solomon Kane, but lately I have found that I hit a saturation point with that material and have dropped most of it.

Dark Horse has been publishing my favorite hard cover collections with Creepy and Eerie. This material was the heir to the old EC material. While I have not sat down to read many of these books I know what the material is and will enjoy it when I have the time. Also this material is great to read a little bit of it at a time.

The little publisher who could this year has to be Th3rd World Studios. These guys have been producing some nice material over the years, but not a lot of material. They have done anthologies which I like, but this market chews up and spits out anthologies out like it's poison. This year we got the Stuff of Legend and while we only got 2 issues and have to wait to get more it is a wonderful story. It is half Fables, half Toy Story and all original with a well written story and art that will make you drool. Only two issues and yet this book makes the best of 2009 without batting an eye.


Avatar has really started to come into their own and while they have a hug ereliance on Warren Ellis written material (Doktor Sleepless, Gravel, No Hero, Ignition City, Anna Mercury and Supergods come to mind) they also have Crossed by Ennis, Chronicles of Wormwood by Ennis and Absolution by Christos Gage. A good mix of genres and strong writing talent has taken Avatar from the soft porn / ultra violent category, to the very violent, great story category. Of everything this I think Gravel has to be their main book and one of 2009 best of the year.


Other titles that have to be best of the year are the Locke and Key series from IDW. I see Locke and Key as one of the best written series on the stands. The art by Gabriel Rodriquez is also top notch, but I love it when the characters come alive and they do in Locke and Key. IDW has also corned the Steve Niles / Bernie Wrightson market and between Dead She Said and the first issue of Ghoul we get great stories and drop dead gorgeous art in a horror/mystery genre.

Oni only got one issue of Stumptown out but I think Greg Rucka has a breakout indy hit with this story of a PI from Portland, Oregon. Dynamite brought us Garth Ennis doing more war stories with Battlefields and I believe as good as Ennis is doing other things, this is where his best work comes from, with Dear Billy being one of my favorite all time stories.

To round out the indies I would be remiss to not mention Radical, who did not crack my best of 2009, but as a publisher I always willing to try a new series from them as they know how to produce quality and I’m looking forward to the rest of the FVZA series. Archaia has made a semi-copmeback in 2009 and finally released Robotika for a few Rubles More. If you missed this series get the hardcover or trade and treat yourself to good story telling and terrific artwork.

Last and far from least is Echo by Terry Moore. Echo is a story that I have raved about constantly this year and it is obviously one of 2009 best series. More then that I think this maybe one of the best graphic novels I have ever read. Terry Moore is using a lighter line then he did in Strangers in Paradise and this story feels like it was written entirely before Terry ever started to draw it. Now I’m sure as he got into the story he may have made adjustments but the story of Julie Martin was already set in stone (in my opinion) when the series started. What that does is make the story telling better because the story has a beginning middle and an end eventually. Also Terry has created a cast of characters who are so real that you could meet them in real life and know who they are. I like to describe as a story that has science fiction elements in it and set in the day after tomorrow, but ultimately along with the action and the beta suit that Julie is partially stuck with, it is a story about Julie Martin and Annie the girl who is now an Echo.

2009 The Year in Review The Indies Part 1 of 2

I’m approaching my year end review a little differently then I did before and getting it done before the end of the year. A few things are driving this process, number one I’m taking an almost two week vacation from the blog at the end of this year as I’m going on vacation for Christmas. Also comics have a skip week coming up at the end of the year. Finally while I would have occasional access to a computer and the internet in the hopes of this marriage being my last marriage the prospect of me being on the internet and doing posts would probably work against that desire.

The actual format of this will be somewhat of a stream of consciousness type of thing and will run over a course of days, how many will be determined by how long I go on about various things. Of course I will occasionally have to pull out of my recollections and do a little research as what came out this year gets fuzzy the further back we go.

I want to start out talking about the non big two and in fact I want to mention some of the smaller publishers and the steps they are taking to be not as small as they were before. In that group I include Image, because regardless of what they used to be they are no longer any bigger of a player then anyone else not named Marvel and DC.

First up are my friends at Boom. I have a mad love of Chip Mosher (not in that way) as I have struck up a friendship with him over the last couple of years via e-mail. Chip is the sales and marketing director for Boom and given how they keep moving up in market share I think he is doing his job. I see Boom as a great brand to have on your book. Now on occasion besides Michael Allen Nelson and Mark Waid, you wander if anyone else writes for them, but they do get a lot of different writers doing projects. Boom has done a great job in developing license deals over the last year and now has a kid book line that I hear is doing great, the Farscape comics (which I’m in love with as it is moving the story forward on one of my all time favorite shows), the Waid corner of the Universe and their novel section. What I call their novel section are the four part mini-series they do with great stories like Swordsmith Assassin, Dead Run and numerous other stories over the years. I see this as a great strength for the company because as digital comic distribution increases they have tons of genres covered that could get non-comic book fans interested in graphic story telling.

The license side of the business is where I see many companies (Dark Horse and IDW come to mind) learning that they can finance other ventures and be more experimental with what they publish as these books provide dependable sales and I’m sure a reliable profit number. Each license deal comes in with a built in market and remember a great selling comic maybe has 50,000 in sales, but a TV show with a small market may have 4,000,000 fans and a worldwide base so only getting a small percent to buy the comic guarantees great sales. Of course I’m sure Boom uses multiple distribution channels as tying themselves to just Diamond would be suicide. Then we have the Waid corner of Boom. Mark is busy writing for Marvel and I think Top Cow as well as acting as Editor in Chief for Boom as well as promoter in chief for Boom. Somehow he managed to squeeze in writing Irredeemable and has written one of the best new books of 2009. Irredeemable is shaping up as being a seminal piece of work for Mark and Peter Krause (artist). This is the story of a Superman like character who turns bad. It is told as both a present day story and a story revealing the Plutonian’s past and what drove him to going off the deep end. In fact not only is this one of the best new series of 2009, it is one of the best series of 2009 period, new or old.

From Image comics we have gotten some break out hits this year and not from their “big” names but from different guys publishing under the Image banner. Jersey Gods, Chew and Cowboy Ninja Vikings are all books that I classify as pure creative passion. Like Proof before them (which unfortunately is ending soon) the passion of the creators is there on the page for all to see. Jersey Gods is a great amalgamation of New Gods and Young Romance and each chapter keeps me interested in what is next for Barock (the god) and Zoe (our Jersey girl). Of course having lived in New Jersey for six years makes this book have a special place in my heart as Jersey never gets the respect it deserves. Chew is tearing up the charts and was so hot that the first issue of the book was selling on E-Bay for $50 or more. I never should have sent it onto Lee (kidding, I don’t care about those short term things anymore). The point being this book garnered a lot of attention and thankfully continued to deliver issue after issue and is now six months into its run and is even more enjoyable today. Cowboy Ninja Viking is just a baby at two issues old and I’m wondering if the concept has the legs for an unlimited series, but the dialogue is great, the characters are wacky fun and the art is cool and it is in the golden age format. I love seeing these new kids on the block (not really all that new but less known) lighting up the charts. Of course as that get more and more successful then Marvel and DC will come knocking on their doors and off they go as Jonathan Hickman, David Hine and Rick Remender can attest to.

Also out of Image we still have Invincible and Walking Dead from Robert Kirkman. These are two series that continue year after year to be consistently strong and well written books. I believe that 2009 were great years for both books as the consistent monthly schedule help to keep the pacing of the books strong and the consistent art teams are a big plus also. For 2009 I would have to give Invincible a nod as one of the absolute best of the year as so much happened and the character advanced so much.


Image has had issues with not finishing books like the Great Unknown, Four Eyes, Firebreather, Guerillas, Infinite Horizon and others. While I believe that is on the individual creators Image has to be careful allowing creators to publish under their banner if they can’t deliver because that then blows back on all of their titles.