Ongoing Round-Up

It’s been a while since I’ve done any regular reviewing of my comics – that’s mostly because the number of issues I’ve been getting has dropped throughout most of the month, with most of the series dropping at the start. This means I’ve less time to do even bullet pointed reviews at the beginning of the month, and then next to nothing for the rest of it.

With the August 21 solicitations starting to be released, I thought of doing something else, which is a look at the titles I’m either getting currently or which are coming soon.

BABYTEETH has finally returned and is due to finish at issue #20; THE BEQUEST has just started and is a good fun Earth meets fantasy world story; SILVER CITY is brand new and deals with what happens after death, with the recently departed ending up in the titular city.

Aftershock’s been mostly pretty good – there’s only been a couple of series that haven’t worked for me – but they do tend to promote new series without telling you whether they’re ongoing or mini-series. OBERON from a couple of years ago, for example, was really good but then, after issue 5 or 6, it was done, without a hint that it had been a mini-series.

Dark Horse for me boils down to the BLACK HAMMER series and spin-offs, which have mostly been excellent. The current VISIONS series allows other writers to play with the characters, while the forthcoming BLACK HAMMER REBORN and THE UNBELIEVABLE UNTEENS are both welcome additions. Lemire has, I believe, mostly gently pastiched DC series with his spin-offs up till now, so UNTEENS and it’s look at a “school of teenaged misfit superheroes” looks to be branching into Marvel and the X-Men territory.

At first glance, it looks like I’m getting a ton of stuff from DC, but of those eight titles, there are two one-shot specials (STARGIRL and INFINITE FRONTIER SECRET FILES), four mini-series, and only two ongoings – GREEN LANTERN and JUSTICE LEAGUE. Regular readers of my 100 Issues Ago series of posts will know that ten years or so back, there were just one or two issues per month that weren’t DC, and the majority of the DC books I was getting were ongoing. How times have changed.

Oh, and I really should point out just how much I’m enjoying the CRIME SYNDICATE series – it is an absolute gem.

Liking a good Edgar Rice Burroughs derived story as a I do, I’ll be getting the continuation of the last DEJAH THORIS series, even though the whole character A vs character B trope is a little tired. Still, Dan Abnett’s work on that last series was good, so hopefully the quality will continue.

And I’m getting my first Red Sonja ongoing with THE INVINCIBLE RED SONJA. I’ve red a few collections over the years, but this is the first time I’ve picked up a regular She-Devil with a Sword series, and that’s due to it being written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, with art by the marvellous Moritat.

And here’s the big challenger to DC in my neck of the woods right now – each of these series is splendidly done (CROSSOVER especially) and offers up something a little different. BIRTHRIGHT is coming to an end with the next issue but it’s currently the oldest continuously published series I’m getting on a regular basis – it started in 2014; for DC, that title goes to JUSTICE LEAGUE and it’s 2018 relaunch.

Plus, some good news from last month – LADY MECHANIKA will be published by Image from September, with a new mini-series coming out.

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There you go – that’s what on my pull list or about to be.

Nice to be putting out something that isn’t a mash-up and who knows? I might continue with this sort of format a bit more regularly.