This Week in Comics: 12/16/2009

Readers, I apologize on behalf of comics this week. Not a whole lot of good new stuff (save Forgetless) is coming out this week, so my selections for this week’s installment were a struggle. To make matters worse, this will be the last installment of the year because I’ll soon be on vacation and I don’t want to have to do sh*t when I’m supposed to be loungin’.

Don’t worry, I’m mean to return from vacation on January 3^rd. So expect more opinionated rambling then.

Since this column is more pessimistic than usual, here are the things I liked this year.

Best New Series: Chew, featuring a totally bizarre premise that no TV network would touch. Let’s wait for Cinemax to prove me wrong.

Best Collected Edition: Final Crisis hardcover by Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, Doug Mahnke & Others. Morrison uses the good vs. Evil dynamic of the DC Universe to create a comic more dense and epic than The Invisibles. And this is a mainstream superhero comic. Brilliant.

Best Single Issue: God, it’s between Ricardo Delgado’s Age of Reptiles: The Journey #1 (beautiful highly detailed art, dinosaurs, no dialogue) and Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie’s Phonogram #5 (supercool, about music, focused on The Long Blondes this time).

Best Current Series: Invincible Iron Man by Matt Fraction & Salvador Larroca. In which Tony Stark is stretched past his limit, as all superheroes should be. Fraction writes his book like a mainstream Casanova, which should tide us over until the real deal comes back.

Best Original Graphic Novel: Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe by Brian Lee O’Malley. You like comic books, video games, music, and being cool, right? Well, read this fantastic series before the movie comes out or in a year from now you’re going to look like a total dweeb.

Best Manga: 20^th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa. Thank god for Viz Entertainment, which publishes good manga in addition to stuff that’s going to be popular with teenaged goth girls. I can’t wait to read the rest of it.

That said…

Welcome to This Week In Comics, where every day comics just make me sad or angry. So I make fun of them. Oh, please love me for my venom.

MONDAY – Phonogram: The Assassin’s Club

Forgetless #1 (of 5)

(Nick Spencer/Scott Forbes/Marley Zarcone)

Image Comics

If I were to make a movie, I’d want to name it Forgetless, but that’s because I’ve a boner for Godard. Also, that has nothing to do with this comic book. I’m just establishing a cult of personality by rambling on about myself because it makes me feel important. What was I talking about? Oh. Forgetless.

Forgetless the comic is about a supercool (and eponymous!) NYC hipster club and, apparently, hipster assassins. The art in both stories is killer. The cover is that magazine pastiche thing that’s becoming oh-so-popular these days. This is a cool book for cool people who read cool books like Phonogram. In fact, it’s a bit like Phonogram with guns.

TUESDAY – It’s Pronounced Ohhku, not UKU

Ooku: The Inner Chambers Volume 2

(Fumi Yoshinaga)

Viz Media

What if Y: The Last Man was about samurai? Doesn’t that sound like the only way to improve Y? Well then, I give you Ooku: The Inner Chambers, which depicts an alternate-universe Edo (the town that would turn into Tokyo), where a disease called the Red Pox has decimated the male population, forcing the women to take on roles traditionally carried out by men. I love everything about this premise.

WEDNESDAY - You Take Your Plastic Rings and Choke on Them

Justice League Of America #40

(James Robinson/Mark Bagley)

DC Comics

Justice League of America #39, a rubbish comic, had Zombie Dr. Light licking a woman’s corpse and muttering about how tasty it is. These “Blackest Night” tie-ins, by the way, are $4 comics that come with a free plastic toy when you buy it from the comic shop. Rumor has it that #40 contains authentic child porn, and comes with a candy Green Lantern ring. Y’know, for the kids. Jesus Christ, I hate comic books.

THURSDAY – I Guess This Will Have to Pass For Second-Most Exciting This Week

Authority: The Lost Year #4

(Keith Giffen/Darick Robertson/Trevor Scott)

Wildstorm/DC Comics

Look at Apollo on the cover. Why is he so sad? Does he know I thought #3 sucked?

Despite the quality of the issue, I felt bad for Keith Giffen, who had the misfortune of having to finish a Grant Morrison story despite not being Grant Morrison. If they hired someone to do a Grant Morrison pastiche, no one would be happy either. Except me because they’d have hired me because I can do a great Morrison pastiche (there’s that cult of personality thing again). May have been best to let this series remain unfinished but I’m curious to see if Giffen becomes comfortable with it.

FRIDAY – TGISteve Ditko

The Art of Ditko

(Steve Ditko)

IDW Publishing

Steve Ditko’s not dead yet, is he? Why are people appreciating him all of a sudden? I thought the rule of comic books was to treat an artist like shit until he dies AND THEN we all realize that this dude (because comics is a boys’ club, never forget) was actually a genius and he shall be missed. Worked for Jack Kirby.

Fantagraphics published a Ditko anthology within the past few months, and now IDW’s jumping on the Ditko bandwagon with The Art of Steve Ditko, which has an amazing cover. Steve Ditko’s a bit of a loon. Besides Spider-Man, he invented the cooky, Ayn Randian superhero The Question, then the pathologically insane superhero Mr. A. Those latter two characters, FYI, were Alan Moore’s inspiration for Rorschach in Watchmen.

SATURDAY – FORSOOTH! BY ODIN’S BEARD! ET CETERA!

Thor: Ages of Thunder

(Matt Fraction/Patrick Zircher)

Marvel Comics

Here’s how shitty this week is: I’m featuring the softcover edition of something that’s been available in hardcover for nearly seven months. And get this: it’s only like five bucks cheaper in softcover. Still, this is Matt Fraction’s Thor, which he described as “Lord of the Rings for people who hate Lord of the Rings.” I love Lord of the Rings, but count me in. I bet this book is METAL as hell.

SUNDAY – Probably Should Have Come Out Like Two Weeks Ago, But Hey

Captain America Reborn #5 (Of 5)

(Ed Brubaker/Bryan Hitch)

Marvel Comics

Oh, hey, we Flinged that!  Shame this book is late because we already know the ending considering Cap is popping up in books already as of last week’s Invincible Iron Man (go read it). Then again, the title was a bit of a spoiler. Regardless, I really dug Captain America Reborn, because it had this “Grant Morrison meets Slaughterhouse-Five” thing going on, and I love both of those things. Thanks Marvel.