Let me start out by saying I don’t endorse the pirating of comic books. With other arts and entertainments, the ethics of pirating are stuck pretty firmly in a grey area, but with comics, it shouldn’t be done. It hurts the industry far too much. If comics don’t get enough sales, what happens? Not only are the comics canceled, but more often than not the creators find it necessary to kill off the characters as well (i.e. the past deaths of Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Silver Surfer). Plus, comic book shops don’t do well financially, and more and more close each year, in part because of the ease of paying for digital comics, or when that fails, pirating scanned copies.

That being said, there are other ways of reading comics for free that aren’t so bad. The big one is to use your local library. Graphic novels have shown a huge rise in popularity over the past ten years, and you’d be surprised by the range of material you can find for the price of a library card (normally free). Everything from Little Lulu to Green Lantern to The Walking Dead I’ve read at no cost thanks to my favorite government institution.

Here’s a guilty pleasure I’ve acquired: reading comics for free at Barnes and Noble. In reality, Barnes and Noble wants people to spend large amounts of time in their store, hence the comfy seats, the free wi-fi, and the lack of clocks. In most cases, if a person starts reading a book in the store, it’s very possible they’ll like it so much they’ll buy it. Comics on the other hand can be pretty easily be read in the store. If I set my mind to it, I can read an entire issue in less than five minutes. If I read it in the store, it saves me a cool $3 to $4. I hate to admit this, but yesterday I read 5 comics after buying a tall coffee (basically the cheapest item at Starbucks) so at least I contributed something to profits.

The way I see it is, reading a comic or two at a book store isn’t ripping off the publishing company. It gives you a chance to read series that you’re not sure about. For example, while reading in the store, I decided I really liked the current directions of Ultimate X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and Green Lantern, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I started buying those in the future. To my surprise, I also found out I didn’t much care for Green Lantern: New Guardians (although it features my favorite GL Kyle Rayner) or The Defenders (although it features one of my favorite writers, Matt Fraction).

Here’s a similar way to read comics for free (almost). If you go to Starbucks with your laptop (wi-fi) or tablet, you can access the Marvel.com digital library containing more than 10,000 comics. Your conscience will probably insist you buy a drink. Might I recommend the tall coffee?

Another way to read comics for free is to simply look up webcomics average people have made. Lots of people have loaded their own handdrawn work online for no price except the occasional compliment. I’ve even put some of my attempts at making comics on my Flickr site. The quality of free webcomics drastically varies.

—If you’re looking for a book to read that’s nearly free, check out my novel A Rapturous Occasion, which is currently available as an ebook for $0.99! 

Do you have any suggestions of how to read comics for free without pirating?

It’s possible Marvel fans have put their foot down and don’t want to see her return if she’s only going to be cruelly taken away. I haven’t seen a real appearance of Jean Grey since Grant Morrison‘s New X-Men series (apart from when Phoenix appears in Wolverine’s subconscious, but then she’s a figment of his imagination). Could it be she’s dead for good?

Today I had to wonder, has Magneto died more times? I simply haven’t read enough old X-Men issues to answer this question. I know he died, then came back and disguised himself as a masked mutant named Xorn only to die again somehow, and, of course, came back again as his normal self later. How many times has he done this?

*Of course, the aptly named Resurrection Man died more times than Jean Grey and Magneto.

So the nerdy question I want to pose is this: which character died more times, Jean Grey or Magneto?

If you know the answer, write it in the comment box. I don’t know the answer myself, but I’m curious. There’s no prize involved, but at least you can feel proud to know your brain contains a lot of trivial information about Jean Grey and Magneto.

From what I can tell, Green Lantern wasn’t really rebooted at all. The story seems to continue seamlessly from where The War of the Green Lanterns left off. Hal is deposed and Sinestro is riding high in his place. This issue features a jaunt to Korugar and an uneasy alliance of the two main characters, as Hal Jordan has to become part of Sinestro’s entourage in order to regain his power ring. 

Doug Mahnke has been penciling Green Lantern for a long time now, but it’s hard to tire of his work. Geoff Johns, who’s currently involved in a ton of different projects, still devotes a large amount of energy to the series that’s been the foundation of his career for the last several years.

While so much of the new DCU involves unnecessary changes and convoluted backstories, it’s nice to see a series going strong. So far, the only DC titles I’ve fully enjoyed have been Batwoman, Batgirl, Action Comics, and Static Shock*. Add Green Lantern to the list. Time to scrounge up another $3 every month!

—-If you’d like to help me afford my comic habit, you should purchase my book The Madness of Art: Short Stories, available on Amazon in paperback and as an ebook.

*Static Shock has already been canceled.

If you enjoyed Green Lantern issue 5, you might also like Action Comics issue 3.

Sunday Afternoon is the title of the first collection of Little Lulu I have read, and I liked it so much I already headed back to the library to pick up another volume. Most of the stories range from 10-20 pages, punctuated by the occasional single page stories good for a quick laugh.

Little Lulu is a little girl of unspecified age (presumably around 10) who constantly lets her imagination run away with her, frequently leading her to some tight scrapes. The opening story of the collection is the most audacious. Somehow or other, Little Lulu, outside of school, is mistaken for one of her much wealthier school friends and is kidnapped by a pair of bumbling goons. In no time at all, Little Lulu has successfully outsmarted her captors without thinking too hard. In the mix-up, she gets a hold of one of the goons’ tommy guns and points it while saying “rat-a-tat-tat,” at which point, her captor says it’s a toy gun, which only prompts her to actually pull the trigger, sending the goons running, while she continues to say “rat-a-tat-tat!” In today’s PC age, it’d be hard to find a funny comic about little girls playing with guns, but in Little Lulu, only the most prurient of snobs would cry foul at her antics.

The Little Lulu series is in many ways a parody of snobs. Lulu has aspects of snobbishness herself, but she doesn’t hesitate to find ways to tease others for their snobbishness, especially her friend who’s appropriately nicknamed Tubby. He’s a typical poor-little-rich-boy, who falls to pieces everytime he’s mildly afflicted by anything. Whole stories are about Tubby losing a shoe, or eating his lunch for breakfast and getting hungry again.

The character Little Lulu was originally created by Marge Buell in 1935, but was given a new lease on life in the 1940s with the help of John Stanley and Irving Tripp. The artwork is fascinating in its simplicity. There hardly seems to be an extraneous line in the whole book. Little Lulu, along with Peanuts, are two great examples of how to do more with less. And Little Lulu does a lot.

It’s a great book for kids as well as for adults. I laughed a lot while reading this.

—–If you’re looking for a novel to read, check out my book A Rapturous Occasion, available on Amazon in paperback and as an ebook.

If you enjoyed this book review of Little Lulu: Sunday Afternoon, you may also like my write-ups of Calvin and Hobbes: The Lazy Sunday Book and Mutts: What Now.

For proof of this, check out Matt Fraction’s work with The Invincible Iron Man. While the first story arc, The Five Nightmares, largely revolved around fights with Ezekiel Stane and his cohorts, the second large story arc, which started with World’s Most Wanted and segued directly into Stark: Disassembled,  brought into focus Tony Stark’s managerial skills, his relationship with Pepper Potts, a brief dalliance with Maria Hill, and took us into our hero’s subconscious. In the entire storyline, there wasn’t much actual fighting at all. Instead, issues centered around corporate espionage, political corruption and the ethics of technological advancements.

The lack of fighting wasn’t a problem at all. Invincible Iron Man is consistently entertaining, provocative and thrilling.

It has to be pointed out that Matt Fraction can handle action packed stories too. For evidence of that, check out the central Fear Itself story. One of the things interesting about Fear Itself is that there wasn’t a huge build-up, unlike DC’s Final Crisis which was preceded by a largely arbitrary 52 issue series appropriately titled “Countdown.” Instead, the premise is set up in just a few pages of Fear Itself Issue One: The Red Skull’s daughter Sin has decided not only to follow daddy’s footsteps, but to go one step further by awakening an ancient evil: a long forgotten Norse god who happens to be the rightful heir to the throne of Asgard! On top of featuring a god out for revenge, Fraction also throws in robo-neo-Nazis and mystical hammers that instill new powers in the wielders while also controlling their minds. When the hammers came into play, I thought at first Fear Itself was borrowing from DC’s Blackest Night, but the similarities ended quickly, as Fear Itself went onto be a powerful and mesmerizing story, while Blackest Night became rather convoluted towards the end.

I only found out this week that Matt Fraction has written comics outside of Marvel as well, and has his own creator-owned series titled Casanova, which is created with the artistic help of Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon, who were the unique talents behind the series Daytripper, published in America by Vertigo.

Possibly Matt Fraction’s biggest accomplishment as a writer with Marvel was to make Tony Stark likeable again. I for one was never a huge fan of Iron Man to begin with, but his character became immensely harder to like when he lead the superhero initiative that eventually caused the Civil War. I avoided Iron Man successfully for years until finally reading Invincible Iron Man only because Matt Fraction’s name was attached to it. In days, I had read the first 25 issues.

There’s one more thing I have to thank Matt for: bringing back Kitty Pryde! He was a writer for Uncanny X-Men for a while, and managed to create some pretty stellar comics with the help of two of my favorite pencilers, Terry Dodson and Greg Land. Then, towards the end of his run on the series, he comes up with a storyline where Magneto joins forces with the X-Men, and, to show he’s legit, he guides Kitty Pryde back to Earth (she had been lost in space ever since phase shifting into a giant bullet during Joss Whedon’s amazing Astonishing X-Men series).

Last I heard, Matt Fraction shifted gears a little bit. He’s still writing Invincible Iron Man, but has also taken up responsibilities with Thor (what do you do with Thor after Fear Itself?) and The Defenders. I’ve learned though it doesn’t matter what characters he’s working with, Matt Fraction always creates satisfying comics.

Here’s the comics I’ve already reviewed by him.

Fear Itself: 6

Uncanny X-Men #512

Coming Soon: My #4 pick for my favorite comic book writer currently working. If that interests you, you can subscribe to this site for free.

Check out my book The Madness of Art Short Stories, available on Amazon in paperback and as a cheaply priced ebook!

Here’s a youtube interview where Matt Fraction discusses how he became one of the most prominent writers at Marvel.

What you learn in The Designer’s Guide to Color Combinations can be applied to anything from graphic design, to logos, to comic books, and to greeting cards. The nice part is, it doesn’t contain a daunting amount of information. In the past, I have looked into books on coloring only to freeze up when I come across dense descriptions or strange terminologies. Plus, so many books on coloring are written specifically for Photoshop or for other pricey programs, but The Designer’s Guide to Color Combinations can be used with any photo editing software. For instance, I use the free program Gimp and this book worked fine with it. The book will also be helpful to the rare vestige of mankind who color by hand with paint, but you will have to use a lot of guesswork. 

To use The Designer’s Guide to Color Combinations with whatever computer program you have available, you should acquaint yourself with CMYK coloring beforehand. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (black). From these four colors, all colors can be made through different combinations.  Most computer programs have given numbers to each variation of the colors, and so, to find the exact colors used in the book, it provides a guide showing what to type in.

The main drawback to this book is that it’s not written for novices. I knew very little about color going into it, and had to figure out how to use CMYK through trial and error. The nice part is, The Designer’s Guide to Color Combinations is divided by style, starting with selections of Late Victorian artwork to retro 50s to rave colors. Below is an example of an illustration I made using the template for 60s psychadelia.

If I hadn’t read The Designer’s Guide to Color, I never would have thought to combine orangle, light blue, and an earthy brown together. If you struggle with color as I do, give this book a shot.

——If you’re looking for something else to read, be sure to check out my book The Madness of Art: Short Stories, available in paperback and as an ebook through Barnes and Noble.

If you found this review of The Designer’s Guide to Color Combinations helpful, check out my three secrets to drawing comics article.

I thought I had already read all of the highlights of Neil Gaiman’s ouevre. I’ve read the entirety of The Sandman epic, plus Neverwhere and some of his earlier work with Vertigo, but it turns out, there’s still so much quality stuff left to read by him. Murder Mysteries is one I’d never heard of until stumbling onto it at a library. Imagine, browsing around listlessly and having a book catch your eye, a book you’ve never heard of… sounds like a scenario right out of The Sandman.

Murder Mysteries is a graphic novel adaptation of a story by the same name that appeared in his prose collection titled Smoke and Mirrors. The artist P. Craig Russell (who worked with Neil Gaiman also on the phenomal book Sandman: The Dream Hunters) took it upon himself apparently to transfer Neil’s story into a short graphic novel format. This was a good idea on P. Craig Russell’s part, as the story works better as a graphic novel than as a short story, in large part due to Russell’s imaginative world-building.

The story begins in an interesting way. A quiet, loner type goes to visit his ex-girlfriend, and in the process, finds love with his ex’s roommate. This is all covered in a few short pages. The main thrust of the story occurs when he leaves inauspiciously enough to take a walk outside when he’s approached by a downtrodden man who asks for a cigarette and for a light. For all the evil cigarettes engender, they at least bring smokers together. That’s what happens with the protagonist and the stranger. While smoking together, the stranger begins to tell him a strange story that begins where so many stories end: the afterlife.

The stranger, it turns out, was formerly a resident of the angelic plane, himself a spirit of high ranking in the holy hierarchy. The time is shortly before the dawn of time. The angels are busy putting the final touches on the universe, when something unexpected happens: an angel dies. What could cause an angel to die? This is where the murder mystery of the title comes in. He then has to find out what caused the angel to die, and what motive could the killer have. As strange as the premise is, Neil Gaiman manages to conform the story into a perfectly thrilling Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler style potboiler, except this isn’t the world of Humphrey Bogart in Angels With Dirty Faces. These are angels with dirty hands.

Murder Mysteries is fairly short, so I won’t give anything more away, except to say that it all ties together in a surprising and fascinating way. The ending, and how it related to the two men on the bench, was so provocative I realized I have to read more of Neil Gaiman’s work.

P. Craig Russell’s artwork is enchanting and unique. I think he and Charles Vess are the best artists around for fantasy comics. To see a few examples of P. Craig Russell’s art on the Comic Art Community site, click here.

Unfortunately, Murder Mysteries is out of print, but you can purchase old copies on Amazon for under $20 and you can always check your local comic book store.

Here’s a tip: the whole book is merely 64 pages long, and I’d recommend you try to read it all in one sitting. I read it in small doses over a few days and didn’t understand the ending at first until I went back and reread the beginning.  To get the most out of it, read it quickly the first time through. I’m sure this one can be enjoyed a second and third time too.

——-If you’re looking for a novel to read, check out my book The Madness of Art: Short Stories. It features 8 stories by me, each one written in a different genre, and all are connected by the theme of art. It’s available on Amazon.

If you liked Murder Mysteries, check out Creatures of the Night, also by Neil Gaiman.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a great artist attached, and, as luck would have it, that’s frequently the case with the industry’s best writers. They have the clout necessary to snatch up the best artists.

It’s alway saddening to see a good artist go to waste when working with a lousy script. For example, one of my absolute favorite artists right now is Frazier Irving. I recently found an Iron Man mini-series drawn entirely by him and thought it would be amazing. Frazier Irving has an eye-catching, cyberpunk style and it seemed like if he were working with Iron Man it’d be a perfect match. Unfortunately, Iron Man: Inevitable had a crummy, convoluted, and cliche story that not even Irving’s work could save. Afterwords, I found a mini-series about The Inhumans drawn by Frazier Irving and written by David Hine and it was worlds better. You wouldn’t think so either, since The Inhumans are basically b-list characters.

Bottom line: writing matters.

For the next week or so, I’d like to share who my top five favorite comic book writers are, and I’m going to focus on ones who are currently working. I’ve decided to leave out great writers who only publish comics sporadically these days, such as Neil Gaiman, Jeff Smith, and Alan Moore. I’m mainly interested in the writers who publish something every single month and sometimes more.

If you’re looking for something else to read besides comics, check out my book The Madness of Art Short Stories.

If you want to keep up with my list of my five favorite comic book writers, you can subscribe to this blog for free.

Ultimate Power is a 9 part series from Marvel’s Ultimate franchise. It takes place shortly before the events of Ultimatum. If you’re not already confused, you should know another world of stories plays into this too: the Supreme universe. Basically, what this book is is a meeting of the bulkiest and brawniest dudes of the Ultimate universe clashing with the beefiest of the Supreme universe.

Not only do universes collide, but a few big names join forces to bring us this comic: Brian Michael Bendis, J.M. Straczynski, and Jeph Loeb. If you ask me, those are some of the best writers in the business right now. If that weren’t enough, another force to be reckoned with joins in too: Greg Land, one of Marvel’s most dynamic pencilers. 

The story begins by showing not the proverbial chink in Ben Grimm’s armor, but the literal one. While engaging in a fairly standard fight with so-so supervillains, a chunk of Ben Grimm’s rocky exterior falls right off of him, exposing a pink fleshy side we rarely see. Reed Richards, when he’s merely an 18 year old and not the Marvel patriarch he’s now seen as, wallows in his remorse, knowing full well if not for his intergalactic aspirations, his old pal Ben wouldn’t be a walking boulder.

In an attempt to cure The Thing, what does Mr. Fantastic do? He decides to send probes into a parralel dimension to see if they might stumble on a cure. At this point, the premise makes very little sense. Is he hoping the probes will find a different version of Ben who happens to be going through the same problem? It seems the minds of all three writers involved can’t explain this plot device.

Shortly thereafter, Hyperion, leader of Squadron Supreme, shows up to arrest Reed Richards, and shows him shocking footage of what his scientific meddling has done: large swatches of America (in the Supreme universe) are besieged by weird mold-like organisms that kill millions. The germ from which this sprang was located–you guessed it–in Reed Richard’s probe. “After such knowledge, what forgiveness?” (I’ll use any excuse to quote T.S. Eliot).

Reed willingly allows himself to be arrested, but his chums in crime solving don’t wish to see their pal go away, especially Nick Fury. It’s then up to several members of the Avengers to team up with the remaining members of the Fantastic Four to get Reed Richards back, which, of course, means the heroes of the Marvel universe have to fight the heroes of the Supreme Universe…for several issues.

After glancing at reader’s reviews on Amazon for Ultimate Power, I saw the most common complaint was that the fighting went on for too darn long. I’d agree. However, I won’t agree with the angry nerds who give this book 1 star out of 5.

To be clear, Ultimate Power was simply not great. With Jeph Loeb, Brian Michael Bendis, and J.M. Straczynski attached, you’d think you were about to read the greatest thing ever. “With great power…” Alas, some of this series was an irresponsible use of power. At times, the story was too silly to gain suspense, and at other times the plot was overly convoluted. That being said, there’s definitely positive aspects to Ultimate Power, the biggest being Greg Land’s artwork (to see a large selection of his work on the Comic Art Community site, click here). Greg Land is a fantastic penciler, but I only see his work sporadically. For example, he took over the penciling duties of Uncanny X-Men for a while to let Terry Dodson recharge his batteries, but just for a few issues. It was refreshing and invigorating to see 9 consecutive issues drawn by Greg Land. His style involves full-bodied rounded characters similar to Terry Dodson, but downplays the cartoonish aspect for a more “real” effect. Frankly, after living through the 90s wave of artists, I’m happy to see men and women in capes and cowls who aren’t stick-thin like Calvin Klein models.

Ultimate Power is currently out of print, but Amazon has old copies for sale and so too might your local comic book store. There’s definitely better books out there, but if you’re bored, Ultimate Power will keep you entertained for an hour or two.

—–If you happen to be looking for some regular books to read, why not check out mine? I have two out on Amazon, The Madness of Art: Short Stories and A Rapturous Occasion. Both are available as paperbacks and as affordably priced ebooks.

If you liked Ultimate Power, you may also like The Mighty Avengers: The Ultron Initiative.

Alan Moore

Neil Gaiman cameo on The Simpsons

There’s A Lot of Interesting Stuff on the Shelves
In the past decade, a lot of comics have come very close to finding the right synthesis of style and content. In the 90s, as a lot of people have said, comics were heavy on style, but light in the content department. Starting around the mid-90s, we saw the renaissance of the writer when Grant Morrison worked his way into the mainstream with JLA, and other writers like Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, and John Byrne satisfactorily proved that comics didn’t have to be independent to be good. What they started came to full bloom in recent years, as so many writers started developing fanbases and special recognition. We can now browse through shelves each month and pick up new work by such notables as Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Mike Mignola, Geoff Johns, and Bill Willingham.

Comic Book Artwork is Taking New and Exciting Directions
Part of the reason why comic art has changed so much is because the medium itself has too. Most mainstream comics are printed on glossy paper now, which allows colorists a wider-range of tones and hues. Eye catching comics like J.H.Williams III’s Batwoman or Frank Quitely and Alex Sinclair’s art for All-Star Superman simply wouldn’t have worked  on pulp paper. Unfortunately, the use of glossy paper is responsible for the spike in prices, which is one of the few drawbacks of this era.

Independent Comics are Easier to Find

Mister Wonderful by Daneil Clowes

It used to be that you’d have to go to specialty shops to find the “underground” work by Robert Crumb, or to read the infectious grumblings of Harvey Pekar, but now, even my local library carries books by both. Fantagraphics Books has done an astounding job of making what was once marginal available in the mainstream. If we go online, or browse at a good comic book shop, or check out our libraries, we can find stuff like Jim Woodring’s wonderfully absurd Frank series or read the down-to-Earth work of Daniel Clowes or Chris Ware. Independent comics make up only a small portion of comic sales. I recently looked at a list of the top 100 best selling comics of 2011, and most were Marvel and DC. Maybe it’s best that way. Part of the enjoyment of reading indie books is knowing we’re holding something so many others haven’t heard of.

Reading Comics isn’t Widely Shunned
Okay, I’ll still get weird looks at certain places when I’m seen picking up a comic, and sometimes cashiers look puzzled and librarians get confused, but otherwise, I’ve avoided judgment or undue criticism. In the 90s, you were thought stupid if you read books that had pictures, as if the illustrations saved you the effort of thinking. Now, so much of the new movies and TV shows out there are so mind-numbingly stupid that you can consider yourself smarter for checking out what’s on the shelves instead. Most cities have a handful of comic book stores, and there you can go in and not worry about being called a nerd–you only have to worry about not being nerdy enough.

We Have Access to Digital Comics and Webcomics
Some industry insiders have said that online comics are ruining the medium, but they can say that because they’re on the inside. Webcomics and digital comics allow people who couldn’t find a way into Marvel or DC or any of the other companies to show off their work and build up a decent fanbase of their own. In reality, so many of the big companies aren’t looking to pick up new talent at all, so you almost have to go solo to get anywhere. There’s a lot of easy ways to get your home-made comics out there, such as starting up a blog like this one, or putting them on Flickr, or self-publishing them through Amazon. Silicon is the new pulp.

Old Comics Are Easy to Find

Clockwise: Tintin, Krazy Kat, Little Lulu, Peanuts, and Donald Duck

Graphic novel sales account for a large part of the industry’s profit, and so every company is doing everything they can to reprint their backlog in convenient forms. The nice part is, you could argue we have it better than people who were reading these books decades ago. For one thing, in the Golden and Silver ages of comics, it was the norm to withhold credit for the creators. Maybe they thought it broke the fourth wall to list who the writers and artists were, but this prevented fans from finding artists and writers they liked and following them. Now, companies are retroactively giving credit where credit is due. For example, Disney rarely bothered giving Carl Barks credit for his work on Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, but now books are being specifically marketed as the work of Carl Barks. Now we’re in the priveliged position to find comics that were published even before the Golden age, such as Krazy Kat, which is something people in the 50s couldn’t do with much ease.

So, comic book fans, take a moment to sit back and think about how nice we have it now. Sure, some of the companies have made some pretty preposterous mistakes as of late, but it’s still a fine time to be alive and to read.

—–If you’re looking for something besides comics to check out, then look for my books A Rapturous Occasion and The Madness of Art: Short Stories, both of which are on Amazon in paperback and as ebooks.

What are your thoughts on new comics?