Comic Book Librarian

This was obviously not my next planned post, but the question came up and so.. I think it deserves a post to answer it. Q: So without further ado, should I be a completist and get all of comic X? A: Depends. No really, it depends. Comics are not like books where you generally have the same creators on every book (James Patterson being an obvious example of that not being the case). Comics can switch creators around easily and it's common in some areas for that to happen. Super hero comics especially by DC and Marvel comics have a tendency to regularly swap out creators. This can be to bring a new fresh idea to the book or it could be because the previous creators are leaving for any number of reasons. So one issue in a comic about the same character or team can look very differently depending on the creative team. One obvious example of this is the New 52 Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang (mostly) vs. the Rebirth Wonder Woman with Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp, Nico...

Forgive me, but this post is going to be a lot of set up and while it may be informative.. you may not find it remotely informative at all. But I am amazed, regularly, at the number of people I talk to who are avid comic  book fans and yet know nothing of the history of comics and so, in order to make recommendations to the library staff on ways to combat this (and maybe offer a wider variety of titles from different periods since every patrons needs are different).. I have to explain the history of comic books for those that know nothing or little. The Golden Age of Comics  (1938- c. 1950) When comic books started, they were a way to reprint and collect daily comic strips into books. National Periodicals Publication, one of the companies that would become DC comics, was one of the early publishers to jump on board with this method. Early in the 1930's, DC realized they could create their own materials for vastly cheaper, so they started with Funny Animal books (which were ...

I didn't pick this book up on Wednesday, but got it today.. so read it real quick and yeah... Let's just get to it. Iceman 2 starts off with basically Iceman running off for a mission, of course we don't know it's a mission for a while, but we finally get that revealed.. And Iceman's co-pilot for this adventure to find a new mutant whose powers are out of control? Ex-Girlfriend Kitty Pryde. We all knew it was coming from the interviews.. I just never wanted to read it and this issue is exactly why. First the action stuff.. Iceman and Kitty fly off to save kid, their Blackbird plane fails in mid flight and Iceman has to ice ramp them down. Then they find kid surrounded by an angry mob. At that point, Kitty's powers go wacky and Iceman decides to quickly throw up a wall.. which just angers the mob and pisses off Kitty since she's now the leader of all the X-Men.They argue which boils down to Kitty is mad because Bobby didn't run to her as soon as h...

I really had planned to only do the 4 earlier posts, but it's Pride Month and I still have other things I can recommend that don't really fall into any of the earlier categories. This post will be about books that have LGBTQ characters in the supporting cast. Basically the books I'm going to mention have LGBTQ characters who have a decent story (often with a coming out story), but don't drive the story over all. Sometimes that means they have one major scene and are just there supporting and being supported over the course of the series or sometimes their role is more prominent at times than others, but again their story doesn't dominate the series as it's not really about them. Make sense? I hope so. Now onto the recommendations: X-Force/X-Statix   by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred - Sadly the only way this is available at the moment is in an over-large Omnibus edition which many libraries would be reluctant to lend out due to cost and the fact that the...

Back again with the 4th round of recommendations.. So this list is books that have an ensemble of different LGBTQ characters. So with no further ado, here they are: Secret Six (first run)  by Gail Simone and various artists - This includes Villains United, Murder for Money, Cat's Cradle  and Caution to the Wild  for all 36 issues plus the mini that started it all and yes.. you want them all. Contains: bisexual man , bisexual woman,  lesbians,  and  genderqueer  characters So to start off this rag tag band of misfits were a group of villains that refused to join all of the other villains in the world as they teamed up and the Secret Society of Villains didn't take to highly to them doing that, so they tried to have them killed. The Secret Six of course resisted, fought back, and won despite their power sets. It's a really fun romp all around and it has some nice emotional moments and backstabbing fun. In case you're wondering, Catman (Thomas Bl...

Richard Stanton becomes Madam Fatal to fight crime Earlier today on my private account a rather rude troll decided, after repeatedly trying to say I don't read comics, decided that he would call me a slur. Who it was, doesn't really matter as he's not worth a bunch of people trying to silence him and make him a martyr.. That said, this is a post and a comment that I've made for a long time and it needs to be made again. Firebrand in see-thru shirt with man servant Comics are for EVERYONE. Comics were designed for everyone. According to William Moulton Marston, the main driving force behind Wonder Woman as both writer and co-creator, during his time.. EVERYONE read comics. Women, men, children of both genders.. Everyone. He openly fought hard against Fredric Wertham, author of Seduction of the Innocent , a mostly made up study that lead to comics censoring themselves, and the two clashed a few times while Marston was alive. Marston and others working in comic...

First of all, let me say that I'm not lumping these groups together because they're all the same. They obviously aren't and it's not any attempt to downplay any of the people or groups represented. It is just sadly there are less characters in this group that get their own stories. Also don't forget next post will be for ensemble casts, so these are stories that have several queer characters. You'll see more characters there. Now onto the show.. Jughead vol 1 and 2   by Chip Zdarsky - This series obviously made waves as it was announced that Archie's best pal. Jughead is asexual. It's kind of been a hinted at thing for years as Jughead never really had a major love interest or crush other than burgers and so Chip Zdarsky made it official. This is a great all ages book with typical Archie humor and drama. I mean it's Jughead.. what more do you want me to say? Astro City Private Lives  by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Alex Ross - This ...

This is going to be something a little different because there is a lot that needs to be said about this comic and the direction and given how few LGBTQ leads there are from either DC or Marvel, I figure I can devote a little time to this one, explain some stuff, and give a review of the first issue. I'm thinking since I'm going to be keeping up with this one, that I may just keep an on-going review of this particular series for the time being and tell you what I ultimately think. This will be good for a couple of things. First of all, I get to talk about this book that I want to talk about and no one I know is actively reading. Second, you guys get to see some of my reasoning and thought process behind books, why I might or might not recommend something or even why I like some things over others. Finally, I get to talk about a few elephants in the room that desperately need to be discussed that I haven't seen anyone really discussing. With that said, let's set this...

Ok.. on to the next recommendation list. Again, focusing on bisexual female and lesbian leads/major characters, but mostly leads. The first was gay/bi men (aka male/male relationships), this one will be lesbian/bi female (aka female/female relationships), trans*, queer, intersex, and asexual will be next and a final installment with books that just have a lot of everything. Again I'm putting lesbian and bisexual female characters together for the simple fact of female/female relationships would appeal to similar readers. That's all. So onto the list shall we? First up is Harley Quinn. Most of her books will work as there has been a strong subtext that she and Poison Ivy were more than just friends since she first appeared, but it's recently been confirmed in the Amanda Conner/Jimmy Palmiotti run that she is in fact bisexual and in a finally happy and healthy relationship with Pamela Isley aka Poison Ivy. It's a wacky fun series and Harley has recently gained a g...