#except comics many times this time

[burins]

eisners 2024 roundup pt 1!

because I collect for graphic novels at the library I technically get to vote in the Eisners. which means that every May I read an ungodly number of comics because try as I'd like to keep up with stuff throughout the year it is impossible!

there was a lot of really good fun stuff I got to read, and also some stuff that made me absolutely furious. please enjoy the fruits of my labor and my very very long spreadsheet.

Best Continuing Series: birds of prey 1-6 (dc, kelly thompson and leonardo basto romero)

if you read my yuri zine piece you might remember that at the end of it I mentioned I hadn't read this yet because I knew that Babs was going to be Batgirl in it. Babs is Batgirl in it, but the series is still really really good. it is exactly what I want out of birds of prey – a really cohesive, fun team comic. also dinah really shines in this! I love the old school take on the art and the almost screen tone edges of the coloring, it gives it a really retro feel. also appreciate the lack, at least so far, of tons of cheesecake. I read the entirety of old birds of prey and I'm done with crotch shots thank youuuu (this is not counting issue 5 which takes a really jarring completely different artistic bent where everyone is drawn like it's 2003 and they're anime waifus. you cannot skip issue 5 for plot reasons but i did grit my teeth through it)

(continued below the cut for saving-your-dash reasons)

honorable mention: shazam 1-6 (dc, mark waid and dan mora)

I have never before cared about a Shazam comic but this was really fun.. it really leans into Billy being a kid with some real big powers and the rapport between him and his foster siblings is delightful. also I'm never going to say no to Dan Mora art

i won't get into my feelings about taylor's nightwing run AGAIN here but i resent that i had to read more of it for the second year in a row. and i especially resent that the fps nightwing issue got a nomination for best single issue.

Best Limited Series: the cull (image, Kelly Thompson and Mattia De Iulis)

another Kelly thompson! this was a cool and interesting story about a group of kids who, after a tragedy, go out to the beach to film one last short film together and discover an alien world. the plotting is sharp and quick and the character stuff hits well. hyperrealistic art isn't always my jam, but I think it does work in this instance. also quite frankly the rest of this category was pretty weak.

honorable mention: superman lost (dc, chris priest and carlo pagulayan)

I loved the start of Superman lost. I thought it was a really fantastic take on Lois and Clark and the inevitable very real difficulties that their relationship would face. I loved how it let Lois be angry and hurt without condemning her which we SO rarely see in a capes comic. and then it almost completely lost me towards the end. I thought the infidelity / pregnancy subplot was both unnecessary and frustrating (and tbh I don't love the only Black-coded character in the comic, even if she does have pink skin, being a secret villain who's trying to keep Clark trapped with her.) it felt like it fizzled and that's a bummer because boy do the first few issues put clark through the grinder.

Best New Series: Phantom Road (image, Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Hernández Walta)

this category was really hard to pick a favorite because it was full of cool shit. phantom road is a familiar narrative if you've listened to Alice isn't dead, from the Long haul truckers to the truck stops that slide into another world, to the body horror other world monsters. I think Alice isn't dead does it better, but I'm excited to see where phantom road goes. in general I really like Jeff lemire's stuff and I think this will be well done, and hernandez walta's art is tautly paneled and slides between uncanny normal into horror perfectly.

honorable mention: black cloak (image, Kelly Thompson and Meredith McClaren)

I love the worldbuilding in black cloak, but I think it's undercut by art that is too cute for the story. everything in McLaren's art is really rounded and feels kind of like a video game world where I'm collecting pets or something, rather than a fairly gritty fantasy murder mystery. still think this is worth a read though!

honorable mention #2: Local Man (image, Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs)

I enjoyed this enough to read the second volume even though it didn't actually come out in the nomination period! the plot on this is great and although I think the trope of down on his luck superhero who has to go back in disgrace to his hometown and solve some mysteries is maybe a little overplayed (the overall plot feels a bit too watchmen lite for me) the way it's done here is interesting to read. also the diegetic comics are delightful, particularly the ones with Inga.

next category: kids 9-12. hey did ya'll know there are some really good middle-grade comics coming out right now! there are some really good middle-grade comics coming out right now. this isn't actually my collection area but too bad.

Buzzing (Samuel Sattin and Rye Hickman)

i'm usually not one for Issue Comics, even ones for kids, but this was such a lovely and sweet story about a kid with OCD who finds friends in his D&D group. the art is lovely and i wish baby me had had access to this!

Mexikid (Pedro Martín)

Mexikid is just a delight from start to finish. funny, poignant, great stuff about family and culture and the experience of going on a very long road trip with your horrible siblings who you love very much. Martín switches between laugh out loud humor and deep emotion with incredible facility. This was my picks for the category, but it was tight!

Saving Sunshine (Saadia Faruqi and Shazleen Khan)

really sweet story about a pair of twins who have to pretend to get along in order to get their phones back and end up remembering that they do, in fact, love each other.

on to the teens!

Best Teen (13-17) Danger and Other Unknown Risks (Ryan North and Erica Henderson)

I like this comic so much that I made my partner read it, and they also loved it. delightful romp of an adventure through a post-apocalyptic world in which magic has replaced all electricity. the Chosen One (and her dog) have to bring certain artifacts back to her uncle in order for him to save the world. or do they? the plot turns on this one are extremely good and the cast of characters is a delight

honorable mention: Frontera (Julio Anta and Jacoby Salcedo)

I think it is extremely good for kids, and for everyone, to read stories about the horrors of the us-mexico border. however the ghost subplot on this one really really lost me.. it felt like it took a lot away from the seriousness of the story instead of heightening it or relieving tension.

Best Humor: How to Love: A Guide to Feelings & Relationships for Everyone (Alex Norris)

I went in fully expecting not to like this at all- I assumed it would be really didactic. but it is actually both extremely funny and very sweet. it is essentially a relationship manual from the "oh no" comics person, with all of the silliness and care that that entails.

honorable mention: The Yakuza’s Bias (Teki Yatsuda, trans. Max Greenway)

what if you were a hard boiled high ranking Yakuza, and your boss's daughter got you into kpop? and you became really inspired by your bias and the way that he tirelessly works towards his dreams? delight of a manga (obvious comparison would be the way of the househusband and this is just as fun.)

Best Anthology: Deep Cuts (Kyle Higgins, Joe Clark, Danilo Beyruth, and others)

this SLAPPED. collection of loosely related comics about jazz and the joys of improvisation and the various indignities of the music industry. the art is great from comic to comic, the colors are so tasty, and this made me really emotional about collective artistic endeavor. it's good to have a jam session, and this is the comics equivalent of one.

honorable mention: The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics (ed. The Kao, Min Christensen, and David Daneman)

i'm generally pretty hit or miss on anthologies (the nature is such that there's gonna be someone in there i really dislike) but this one was actually quite lovely and the art was great. a good variety of stories and takes and a lot of nonbinary artists :)

DIShonorable mention: Comics for Ukraine (ed. Scott Dunbier)

i could have lived my whole life without seeing an Astro City take on the invasion of Ukraine. i wish this had been good! there was one single story in here that didn't make me want to go, head in my hands, hey maybe american comics writers are not like, best positioned to write about what it's like to have your country invaded! i just think. superhero comics are not always the best medium with which to tackle every issue. and that is okay! (the story, "talking to a hill," was also one of the few non-tie-in stories in the anthology and one of the few that actually like. told a ukrainian story rather than a weak allegory.)

Best Nonfiction: Last on His Feet: Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century (Adrian Matejka and Youssef Daoudi)

woof this is a killer. incredible art incredible writing incredibly nuanced take on a pretty difficult figure, famous Black boxer Jack Johnson, that does not pull any punches in its treatment of either the virulent racism he faced or his treatment of his wife. honestly probably my favorite book of the whole collection.

okay my arm is crapping out so I'll round up the rest (adaptation, international, album, academic, strips, and a few good things I read for best writer and artist) later!

[raycatzdraws]

A Linked Universe meets The Dark Crystal AU! I don't even remember what started it at this point. I remembered that the Dark Crystal and Age of Resistance are things I like, blinked, and woke up three days later with an AU and a bunch of art.

The designs and the story are a wip and for fun so expect a lot of variation! (I have a few different beginnings, ideas for different designs, etc)! :D

In addition to #linked universe I'll be using the tags #the dark crystal lu au and #courage of the dark crystal!

[capricioussun]

2am post jumpscare

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

At the start of this project all I wanted was to 'learn how to draw' using comics as a medium and the MDZS audio drama as inspiration.

I've come *very* far from making simple, 3 panel black and white comics, and I truly do intend to go even further. Thank you to everyone who cheered me on throughout 2023, it has been an incredible year in so many ways I never could have imagined. I look forwards to drawing throughout 2024 B*)

[princeanxious]

Fear the Daycare attendants all you like, but say one mean word to their faces and their handler will swoop in at a moments notice with a silent rage fueled by the many months of mental and emotional rehabilitation these three went through to ensure they could handle being re-released to the public.

Fazbear Entertainment might turn a blind eye to the animatronic rights movements that their highly specialized world renowned technology is absolutely a contribution towards, but this stout little animatronic handler didn’t pour their blood sweat and tears into helping rebuild these bots’ self confidence from the ground up every single day, for over half a year, to just let some entitled prick try and stomp over all the boys hardwork and progress at the drop of the hat.

Faz.Co can deal with the consequences of letting their two most expensive animatronics bond to one specific emotional support human whose made of like 70% protective feral rage at any given moment.

A good fit for the daycare, to be sure, but also a solid reminder that humans are just as capable of being the danger so many others label animatronics to be. (Moon is holding onto their handler for a reason, you know.)

(Edit: second take here)

[sweetandglovelyart]

Knightfall in Dream Land - Page 6

Meta Knight begins his long fall to Popstar’s surface and passes by some familiar faces on the way down.

[b4kuch1n]

found out this year’s snow miku contest is happening yesterday while on call with my friend and then I blacked out and woke up to this being posted on the piapro site (it’s here btw)

[neptunym]

throws this at you as a sign that i'm alive and immediately runs away

[serialreblogger]

the thing about the joker

is that - well, even canonically, he’s not actually “insane.” in the most canonical version of his backstory (bc there are many conflicting incarnations, but this one is the touchstone for a lot of later canon), he was part of a street gang before falling into a vat of Nondescript Toxic Waste that damaged his melanin production and That’s It. he supposedly “lost his mind” after seeing his reflection, which is absurd on many levels. no. he’s not “insane.” what he is, is an angry white boy.

the thing about the joker is that he exults in his own uncontainability. He laughs, because all of gotham - all the world - is built to be his playground. the only lunatic thing about him is the lunacy of ~Society~, to borrow from the joker’s own playbook; the lunacy of the joker lies in the world that grants him power: in the inheritance of loss: in white privilege, and what it means for everyone else.

“to prove a point.” those were the joker’s exact words, when he shot and paralyzed Barbara Gordon. she asked why: he laughed. “to prove a point.”

because that’s all he ever does. he hurts people because he can. and because all the power in the world can’t save him from getting hurt - and isn’t that just peachy?

because the thing about the joker is that he can get hurt. he has been hurt. but he has so much more capacity to harm than to be harmed. he is immortal. he and he alone will never have to face the consequences of the hurt that he inflicts on other people.

so then: why not hurt them? misery loves company, after all.

the joker is the embodiment and end result of our own social system: the madness of the exception: the laughter of the white man: the imprecation to smile, as he kills you.

(no one ever says it, i find, but it’s still true: barbara deserves to kill him.)

and who, then, is the batman? if the joker is the yin to his yang? if they’re two sides of one irredeemable coin, if they represent the “balance” of an unjustifiable system - who is he if not another white man?

because he is. Bruce Wayne is a white boy born into unspeakable privilege and forced to endure suffering anyway; who copes with his suffering by taking it out on others; who copes with his suffering, not by taking advantage of the world as it is, but by attempting to reshape it. to make it in his own image - as if it isn’t already his, as if claiming it further will crush out the pain.

the batman is the benevolent oppressor to the joker’s malevolent one. he changes nothing, in the end. two privileged white boys with their own respective navel-gazing grudges - where, after all, lies the difference between benevolence and malevolence?

because they are not “chaos” and “order.” not really. They are laissez-faire laughter and law. Joker exults in the disease of the system, Batman seeks to treat its symptoms, but neither of them will ever change anything about the root cause. because they may have suffered the faults of this system, but they still benefit so much more from it as it exists. Uphold it or break it, neither of them wants to change the law.

but the law is only as good as the people it’s made to protect. and who does that law protect, really?

waylon jones is, in one issue, explicitly depicted as Black. between that and his skin disorder, there has never once been room for his character to be any more than a monster: king croc is, always, a character to be violated and brutalized, over and over and over and still - always - written as the villain. (he tried so hard to scrape out a place for himself, so many times, in so many incarnations, and each and every time he finds himself relegated once more to the sewers. he will never be anyone’s king. there is no place under the sun for people like him.)

victor fries only ever wanted to save his wife, and a capitalist mogul decided a few extra numbers on his eight-digit paycheck were more important than the people whose lives depended on that money. fries’ body was damaged to disability by that choice, left without the resources to find a cure for his wife, and he robbed banks because there was no other option available to him. we seem to have forgotten, or maybe never really understood, why that matters. why a desperate man trying to save his life and that of his loved ones under the crushing gears of capitalism is a villain, and the one who stops him is our hero. why, under the law batman upholds, a bank vault and a CEO’s hoard is worth more than a life.

poison ivy just wants to live, too. wants a life not defined by the devastation of her body, of the beings that exist as extensions of her, a life where green and growing things are not commodities to be plowed up and poisoned and destroyed for the sake of another man’s profit. these are villains; they are written as such. these are their motives.

who does batman fight for, really? who is our hero, this emblem of our law?

is he our hero? ours, the broken and bleeding members of the world he claims to protect?

who does the law protect, except him - him, and the joker?

[kinaesthetiqueer]

(follow-up to this)

having grown up in atlas, weiss is very familiar with the academy's team anti-frat policy and gets very hung up on just how much trouble they could get in if anyone thinks they're dating.

(which they're definitely not doing. no, sir. absolutely not, sir.)

so better safe than sorry.

(except winter has eyes. and also doesn't care.)

[antirepurp]

you know, they Could just say that silver has been lying when he talks about his world and the way he travels back to the past. they could still make a storyline about post-06 silver that dips into existential horror and does something interesting with him. they still have the opportunity to determine some rules for the way time-travel works and do so without looking directly at the player and spelling it out for them. like silver hasn't had significant appearances outside of forces and spin-offs after his debut and thus his exact position in the world is vague at best and highly up for interpretation. most doors are still open. they could still make him canonically interesting

[misspickman]

transfem kon proposal could have been good if was good

[ekat-fandom-blog]

I got this idea from this post by @phoenixcatch7 and decided I absolutely love using it as a thought experiment. (Thank you, phoenixcatch7, for putting that idea out into the universe. I'm absolutely in love.)

If you don't want to read their post, the jist is that Captain Marvel and 6 members of the JL are fighting against a super strong opponent(s) and Cap decides to share his power like he does in the movie. Each one gets one of his 6 powers (not including his magic ability. that's from him and the Rock of Eternity, not one of his patrons). Who gets which power? Phoenix already chose 6 and wrote out their thought process on their post that I linked, go check that one out if you haven't already. (I added on to that with my own thought process and came to a similar conclusion.)

I'm gonna put it under the cut because I have two groups of 6.

The first group of 6 is: Martian Manhunter, Cyborg, Aquaman, Black Canary, Plastic Man, and Constantine.

Strength InvulnerabilityCourage Stamina Power Wisdom Speed

Martian Manhunter has flight, strength that is sometimes comparable to Superman's, density shifting, shapeshifting, flight, mind reading, sometimes he has heat vision. I don't really want to give him power (because flight), wisdom (because mind reading), or strength. I am, however, tempted to give him invulnerability because his only true weakness is fire, but speed or stamina are still on the table for him.

Cyborg has flight, strength, heat vision, and sometimes the ability to make boom tubes (among other weapons). I don't want to give him wisdom because of the mother box and ability to connect his brain to the internet. Strength and invulnerability are kinda useless for him. I don't think he has low stamina either. He already has half of power (flight), so he gets speed.

Aquaman's got strength, durability, and sometimes the trident gives him the ability to strike others with lightning. So cross out strength, invulnerability/courage, and power. That makes stamina or wisdom his only options. Considering he's already got pretty good stamina, I'm going to give him wisdom. Plus, it would help him be less of a hot head.

Black Canary has nothing that is the same as, conflicts with, or similar to the six powers so any of them would be beneficial for her.

Plastic Man is made of plastic. This makes invulnerability rather useless for him, and while it's paired with courage and he's canonically kind of a wimp (at least when it comes to sharp objects) he's not exactly the brightest bulb. Considering his lack of common sense is part of what makes him effective, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. This leaves him with power, strength, or stamina.

Constantine can already fly and conjure lightning with magic, so that takes out power. And, while wisdom's off the table, I do want to point out that even if it was on the table I wouldn't give it to him because of how often he out-thinks people. Strength, invulnerability, or Stamina would be most useful for him.

This leaves strength, invulnerability, stamina, and power.

For strength our contenders are Canary, Plas, and Constantine. I honestly don't think Canary could use strength as much as the other two because she was taught how to fight like a boxer. Plastic Man might be better for strength simply because he's the weakest of the group.

For invulnerability we've got Canary, Constantine, and Martian Manhunter. Martian Manhunter is more durable than the other two so I think I'll give it to one of them.

For stamina there's Canary, Constantine, Martian Manhunter, and Plastic Man. Since I took MM out of the running for invulnerability, this is the only one that would be useful for him.

That leaves power for Canary, which gives Constantine invulnerability

So the final verdict is Martian Manhunter with stamina, Cyborg with speed, Aquaman with wisdom, Black Canary with power, Plastic Man with strength, and Constantine with invulnerability.

~~~

The second group of 6: Metamorpho, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, Firestorm, Vixen, and Zatanna.

Instead of trying to figure out which character should have which power by going through why each character should/n't have each power I'm going to go by why each power would/n't be beneficial for each character.

Invulnerability/Courage of Achilles: I'm actually going to give this one to Vixen. Anyone else that would benefit from this is either a distance fighter or is more durable than she is.

Strength of Hercules: Metamorpho, Hawkgirl, and Red Tornado already hit like a truck. I'm going to take out Firestorm as well because he tends to not hit people unless it's with an object. That leaves Zatanna.

Power of Zeus: Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, and Firestorm can fly. So that leaves Metamorpho.

Wisdom of Solomon: Off the bat, I'm taking out Red Tornado since he's an android. Hawkgirl or Firestorm would probably benefit the most from this one. Considering how often Professor Stein struggles to reign in Ronald's impulses, wisdom would be more beneficial for them than it would be for Hawkgirl.

Stamina of Atlas: Red Tornado is out automatically because he doesn't get tired. So, Hawkgirl gets stamina.

Speed of Mercury: Red Tornado is the only one left for this one. Which is terrifying, but it's also the only one that would be useful for him so...

Final Verdict: Metamorpho with power, Red Tornado with speed, Hawkgirl with stamina, Firestorm with wisdom, Vixen with invulnerability, and Zatanna with strength.

[oc-cinematic-universe]

i LOOOVE thinking about fantasy disabilities!!!! i love figuring out what people would have to do to accommodate them! it's literally awesome!

[lostandbackagain]

sometimes I'm like "okay so that was just a terrible auto-translation, I'm sure she didn't actually write that" and then I look at the page and it's a sentence I can read unassisted and she did actually write that

[lemonlimetoast]

Just went to a comic con in my area. Post hangout anxiety x10 fr