September 1, 2024

2024 is flying by. We’ve reached September already, and, before you know it, we’ll be ringing in 2025.

We are currently running the EYG Hall of Fame ballot on the main page. As I was thinking about that, I realized that I should have announced the EYG Hall of Fame Comic Wing Inductees for 2024 in the EYG Comic Cavalcade. I inducted the following earlier this year: Avengers Annual #10, Saga #54, Future Imperfect #1-2, New Mutants #98, Top 10 #8, The Boys #1, and Tales of the Teen Titans #44. Congratulations to this year’s class.

EBay pick ups this week included The Tick #11 from the original run of comics from New England Comics. I am down to just two Ticks from that first series missing in my collection. I also had some trouble with an eBay seller who apparently couldn’t find two of the books that I had purchased from him. He wanted to replace the books with a couple of other books. This was the second time this had happened, so, just because I was annoyed, I said fine. In the end, he did find the two books I wanted and he also sent me the Amazing Spider-Man variant #666 for free. In the end it turned out acceptable and I got the Amazing Spider-Man books (#554, 632,659,660, and 662) I had ordered.

Books from this week:

Something is Killing the Children #40. “Road Stories Part Five” Written by James Tynion IV and illustrated and cover art by Werther Dell’Edera (Bronze Medalist). This might have been my favorite book of the week as Erica goes through the memories of one of her most traumatic monster fights that ends with an unspeakable tragedy. This “Road Stories” has been some of the best stand alone issues of the series so far.

Last Mermaid #6. Written and drawn by Derek Kirk Kim. The final issue of Last Mermaid, for now. This book has been an amazing one, with beautiful art, with sweeping imagery filling each page. The very end of the book lists a “To Be Continued” tag so it tells me that we may not be done yet with the story of the Last Mermaid.

Life #1. Written by Brian Azzarello and Stephanie Phillips with art and cover art by Danijel Žeželj. DSTLRY have been doing some of the most creative and original books. Admittedly, the release dates of them have been a bit… scattered, shall we say. However, Life#1 has two stories and two covers and brings some solid sci-fi storytelling to comics.

Hello Darkness #2. This anthology series continued this month with a bunch of stories from the horror genre. My favorite one this issue is probably “The Clown” by Azam Raharjo. I love the stylistic black and white this story is presented in. There are other stories from Frederik Hornung, Wes Craig, Robert Hack and Garth Ennis.

X-Men #3. Written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Ryan Stegman. Cover art is by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, and Marte Gracia. Scott Summers has a meeting with Agent Lundqvist in a little coffee house and they have an intense discussion about the X-Men and the future. Scott end the issue looking as if he were having a panic attack. The new X-books have all been very solid to start and I hope they can maintain this quality.

Aliens vs. Avengers #1. Written by Jonathan Hickman and art and cover art by Esad Ribić. I wonder if Jonathan Hickman can ever write a Marvel story inside of continuity? With the resurgence of the Xenomorphs on the big screen, a conflict with the Avengers feels right. This book was pretty good too.

NYX #2. Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly and art by Francesco Mortarino. Sara Pichelli & Federico Blee did the art on the cover. Young mutants are being lured to the control of the mysterious Mr. Friend and Laura wants to do something about it. A surprising villain is shown as being behind Mr. Friend.

Fantastic Four #24. “If It Wasn’t Forever…” Written by Ryan North and art by Carlos Gomez. Cover art by Alex Ross. Marvel’s First Family continued with the adventure from last issue by trying to help save a little tentacled alien that was choking Johnny Storm. I was not as fond of this space story as I have been of the rest of this run of FF. It was still a competent read.

Saga #68. Written by Brian K. Vaughn and drawn and cover art by Fiona Staples. There are so many awesome characters in Saga that you could go issues without seeing them and not miss out on anything. Saga is one of the easiest and yet most involved reads every month and I am so glad that it has come back to a regular release schedule… hopefully for the foreseeable future.

The Nice House By the Sea #2. Written by James Tynion IV and art and cover art by Alvaro Martinez Bueno 9Gold Medalist). The group of people together at the end of everything continue to interact and show more about their characters. They are doing that while wild things are going on around them. Tynion IV still one of the best writers working today and this is a great example of his work.

Deadpool Team-Up #1. Written and drawn by Rob Liefeld. Liefeld and Juan Manuel Rodriguez did the art for the cover. Deadpool fighting dragons? Yes please. But I will be honest and say that the biggest draw of this series is the appearance of Crystar, Lord of Crystallium. I was shocked when I saw him on the cover back in the Previews because I knew he was based on a toy and I did not know that Marvel had the rights to the character. I bought the Crystar books when they first came out and I like the character a lot.

Universal Monsters Frankenstein #1. Written, drawn and cover art by Michael Walsh. This is the third series of Universal Monsters from Image, following Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Frankenstein is one of the most iconic of all monsters and this fresh take blends the classic bits of the story with some new takes that really work.

Amazing Spider-Man #56. Written by Zeb Wells with art by John Romita Jr. Cover art was by Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Marcio Menyz. This is Legacy number 950 for Amazing Spider-Man. I still wish they would just leave the legacy number as the number of the issue, but who am I? I love it when Peter shows how smart he is and he does so when Tombstone tries to deliver a message to Spider-Man by killing his “friend” Peter Parker.

Captain America #12. “The Last Stand of the Front Door, Part 1” Written by J. Michael Straczynski with art by Jesus Saiz. Taurin Clarke did the art for the cover. I am not a fan of this Cap and the demons and this weird door story that has been going on through the Captain America series recently. I hope the “Last Stand” doesn’t take them too long.

X-Force #2. “Igubu Lika-Anansi” Written by Geoffrey Thorne and art by Marcus To. Phil Noto did the variant “Disco Dazzler” cover art. X-Force heads into Wakanda to confront someone claiming to be Black Panther. I do like this new team, but I really do not know the characters very well. I hope to learn more about them as this series progresses.

Ultimate X-Men #6. Written, drawn and cover art by Peach Momoko. Shadow King makes his appearance in this book and it takes an intriguing turn. I am not 100% sure I know what happened, but I do like the seemingly bizarre twist that the book took. I still love how this book is so different than any other X-Men book we have and how this Ultimate book is not just the same X-Men in a different setting.

Drawing Blood #5. Written by David Avallone and art by Ben Bishop. Kevin Eastman did the art on the cover. Shane “Books” Bookman is facing all kinds of troubles. Now the FBI wants a piece of him. Books has to try and weave through the Lithuanians as well as keep his comic publishing company afloat. Oh, and he has to go to Hollywood. While this series originally was not one I looked forward to, by now I am into it and I have enjoyed the last several issues quite a bit.

Void Rivals#12. Written by Robert Kirkman and art and cover art by Lorenzo De Felici. I just complained last issue that things were starting to feel repetitive with this series. So this issue, Solila and Darak head in their own separate directions, with their own missions to complete. We get a powerful goodbye between these two who have spent the last eleven issues together and have developed something more than just friendship.

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #4. “Haunted, Part 4” Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Paolo Villanelli. Mark Brooks did the cover art. Gwen is going through some troubles in 616 universe. It seemed as much of it was coming from Chameleon. Is it though?

Chasm: Curse of Kaine #1. Written by Steve Foxe and art by Andrea Broccardo. Leinil Francis Yu & Dean White did the cover art. Ben Reilly is back and the focus of this new series which includes his “brother” Kaine. There is also a intriguing appearance from the Eternal Druig and the Mole Man. Lots going on here.

Marvel 85th Anniversary Special #1. This featured a ton of writers and artists as Wolverine and Deadpool’s head take a special tour of the Museum of Heroism in the 85th Century. We get several shorts featuring such characters as Ms. Marvel, Spicer-Man, Excalibur, and a Moon Knight. Koore Andrews did the cover art.

Incredible Hulk Annual #1. Written by Derek Landry and art by Geoff Shaw. Cover art is by Salvador Larroca & GURU-eFX. What more could you want besides Hulk vs. Thanos for the Mind Stone? And you may be surprised who winds up with it. This also includes the sixth chapter of the Death Stone Saga written by Derek Landry and art by Sara Pichelli. Fury and Coulson vs. Nighthawk.

Zatanna: Bring Down the House #3. Written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Javier Rodriguez. Variant cover by Tula Lotay. The Zatanna series is getting stranger by the issue as we get a woman with rabbit ears and we follow her down the Bunny Well. This has been a weird series so far, as a book about using and not using magic should be. And it is only going to get weirder as John Constantine shows up on the last page.

Phases of the Moon Knight #1. “The Once and Future Knight” and “Crusader“. First story written by Erica Schultz and penciled by Manuel Garcia. Second story written by Benjamin Percy and art by Rod Reis. Cover art was by Mateus Manhanini. This is an anthology series that will tell stories of the different Moon Knights over the years. This one starts with the Shroud and ends up with the Moon Knight of the Old Crusades. It is an intriguing concept. I’m not sure there is enough to sustain this over time, but we’ll see.

Other books: Kill All Immortals #2, Nights #10, Killadelphia #35 (Silver Medalist), The Mammoth #3, and The Butcher’s Boy #4.