Wednesday Comics #1

A comic so fun it made me post a blog. And I was kind of leaning towards not talking about comics on here until the "Best of 2009" post because I personally thought that would be funny, but WEDNESDAY COMICS #1 just wasn't going to let that happen.

Is this the best comic to ever come out? No. But damn if it wasn't a ton of fun. From the format (newsprint!), to the size (HUGE), to the incredible art. And although I'm not sure if the feeling will last through all 16 weeks, I'm willing to see how long.

With any kind of anthology, there are going to be ones that work and ones that don't. Some of the strips really use the size (14" x 20") and others that do not. With only one page for each strip, it is hard to talk story because they are just getting started, but let's be honest here: this is mainly to showcase the art. And as a guy that LOVES LOVES comic book art, but chases writers with his purchases, this comic made me really happy. The inevitable over-sized collection should be a beauty.

Here's what I thought.

The Elite (so far):

STRANGE ADVENTURES

w/a. Paul Pope

The art, not suprisingly, was amazing, beautiful Paul Pope work. From the design of the characters to the use of that bad-ass tall panel, Pope hits this one out of the park. Story was pretty good too.

BATMAN

w. Brian Azzarello, a. Eduardo Risso

For both of you that read this blog, you know I'm a huge fan of Eduardo Risso and this was a really great start to a Batman Noir Azzarello story. Nice placement too, as the first story out.

METAMORPHO

w. Neil Gaiman, a. Mike Allred

This was pretty fucking fun. I like the whole team, I like the merging of story style with artist, and the floating head roll call at the bottom made me happy. One of the surprise successes for me.

SUPERGIRL

w. Jimmy Palmiotti, a. Amanda Conner

What a perfect little page this was. It helps that I have a huge crush on how great Amanda Conner's art is. Cute, but still dynamic and cool. And I don't know that I've ever read something with Streaky in it, so score.

(Note: Pic is from a future installment of Wedneday Comics.)

FLASH

w. Karl Kerschl & Brenden Fletcher , a. Karl Kerschl

Another one that surprised me by how much I liked it. The most original in design as the page is split into two strips: the Flash adventure one, and the IRIS WEST romance strip which seems to be telling the same story from her point of view. Kerschl's art is awesome. One of the best so far.

The Next Best:

GREEN LANTERN

w. Kurt Busiek, a. Joe Quinones

The Silver Age setting seems to be perfet for these two creators, and although we only saw the title character in the last panel, the cartoony Quinones art looks perfect. This strip could easily "move up."

HAWKMAN

w/a. Kyle Baker

Um, this one has the potential to be really bad ass. Baker's art, although in a much more realistic style than I am used to seeing, is really good. The bird talk is eerie and cool. I'm looking forward to the next installment of this a lot now that I'm thinking about it.

DEMON & CATWOMAN

w. Walter Simonson, a. Brian Stelfreeze

A team up strip? With these two? Ok. I like the adult-noir feel here so far, and I really like it when Selena comes across as sexy and not sleazy (ignore the saucy pic above if you don't think it fits what I'm saying here). And speaking of artist's working in a different style: I so rarely get to see Stelfreeze's art when it's not painted. Nice job here.

Ones I'm not sure about:

SUPERMAN

w. John Arcudi, a. Lee Bermejo

Although the story so far did nothing for me, Supes fights an alien with a dumb cliffhanger, Bermejo (of JOKER fame) is working his ass off on the art so I feel like it deserves the middle of the road response here.

DEADMAN

w. Dave Bullock & Vinton Heuck, a. Dave Bullock

This almost fell to the section below, but it stays here for the Bruce Timm-like art that won me over. We'll see how this one continues.

WONDER WOMAN

w/a. Ben Caldwell

I'm being suuuper kind to this one, as it was kind of a mess, but when I was first flipping through it the art looked amazing, with the use of the Chris Ware-like small panels and what not. But what we got was hard to read, with odd panel-to-panel work and a HORRIBLE fucking font. It's here because I WANT it to be good, and I'm finger crossing for the rest. The story seemed ok and the artist is talented.

The Ones that didn't work (for me):

SGT. ROCK

w. Adam Kubert, a. Joe Kubert

The hardcore military one just didn't work for me here with the fun I was having with the book, but the Joe Kubert art is fantastic as always. I reserve the right to take this one back.

KAMANDI

w. Dave Gibbons, a. Ryan Sook

Although the Sook art was good, and the Prince Valiant style worked well for the character, I was left a bit cold here. The best part to me was the Kirby bit at the bottom and that's not good. I will not be surprised if some dudes love this.

TEEN TITANS

w. Eddie Berganza, a. Sean Galloway

This was just not good. Maybe the strip that missed the mark the most for me. Galloway is not a bad artist, but I think the style lends itself better to the animation design work that he comes from. I just didn't care about anything happening here.

(Note: Pic is from a future installment of Wednesday Comics)

METAL MEN

w. Dan DiDio, a. Jose Luis Garcia Lopez

This could be the book that I differ the most from with the masses if what I've seen around the internet is to be believed. Fun story with awesome Lopez art is what I'm reading. What I saw? A really silly strip, that wasn't very entertaining with some really good Lopez art. This one was not for me, and I was rooting for Dan too!

***

Man, it feels a bit good to post.