May 2024 Update

lately ive been doing a lot of "cape comic" research.

i really havent been interested in or read much marvel/dc/image/etc type stuff for most of my life.

seemed like, as someone who makes comics for a living, it was about time to check some of that out. this research may also be for a project im working on, but you'll just have to wait and see...

on top of my reading list, ive been watching youtubers, animated adaptations, browsing databases, visiting actual comic shops, and various other research. i have a huge list of stuff i want to check out, but heres a few of the things ive read so far:

i started with grant morrison's doom patrol run, followed by rachel pollacks. a non-binary writer's run leading into a run by a trans woman in the late 80s/early 90s; both of them seeming to try to get DC comics to print the weirdest shit they can come up with. love the characters. there is a sentient living street which is also queer. 

 i need to check out gerard way's doom patrol run at some point. i feel like i personally owe him for the extremely kind favor he did me a few years ago.

im reading through an omnibus of the spiderman clone saga, an infamous, widely-loathed mess of a story from the 90s. apparently a ton of writers struggled to figure out what to do with it and how to end it for 2 years, which is the kind of thing i have to see for myself. i love to see the strangeness things like this can lead to. my philosophy is that a unique success or an ambitious failure are both fine things to be, as long as the art is taking some wild swings. the worst outcome is competent boredom. honestly, i need this one to start getting a lot stupider or a lot better.

also digging through a collection of issue #1s from marvel comics in the 90s. will be interesting to watch the changes over the course of the decade.

i have even taken the plunge into reading a currently releasing comic- ultimate x-men 2024. was intrigued by the different art and horror-y vibe... but mostly i saw lots of nerds being mad the series wasn't 'x-men enough', and had to check it out. only 3 issues are out so far, and its still setting things up, but im interested enough to keep grabbing the monthly issues and see where things are going.

really want to score an omnibus of x-statix.. some of these things are out of print, and secondary market comic prices can get annoying. want to grab a new mutants one, too, just check out this sick bill sienkiewicz art.

im into the omnibus format- something about a absurdly huge thick comic really satisfies me in a tactile way. idk if i could have gotten through all of death note if i hadnt bought that massive brick version. would love to put out a big fat comic someday.

im also getting into individual issues... a comic hits different when the story is periodically interupted by ads for m&ms minis or tomb raider to really add some time period context to the whole thing. plus, i can put cool cover art on my wall.

anyway, heres some stuff, which may or may not be for something or other:

im doing lots of other work and research on this and other things, but ill save that for another day....