A Ramble of Comics

Daily Ramble 217: A Ramble of Comics

Today turned out to be a day of comic rambling. With the Angels having a day off on Thursday, I decided to hold off on discussing more baseball this morning and instead look at the Eisner Awards, the parking lottery, and the Unbelievable Gwenpool. With both parking and the nominees, I am really getting anxious that San Diego Comic-Con is gonna be here real soon. And with the increased knowledge I have from reading so many comics this past year I am a bit more anxious than usual to see what the panels will have in store for me. I envision I’ll have a bunch more options this year since I know more about the various TV and movie properties, the comics that are being published, and the writers and artists that are coming to the show. I know it’ll all be fun but as usual there’ll be so much to see.

First Look at The Unbelievable Gwenpool #1

Untitled by Christopher Hastings, Gurihiru, and Danilo Beyruth. Published by Marvel Comics, 2016.
Hmm…ok…before yesterday I had never read anything with Gwen Stacy in it. Not even the original Spider-Man where she first appeared. But today is the second day in a row where I read a number one issue of a Gwen Stacy comic. Actually, this one is a Gwen Poole comic, and of course it’s a mashup of the expected…Gwen Stacy and Deadpool. Realistically, I haven’t read any Deadpool before either but I at least have seen the movie and am looking forward to the sequel.

With that outta the way, I really enjoyed reading Gwenpool. The issue is broken into 2 segments, a prologue and a main story with different artists for each. The writer is the same and his script works for me. In the prologue we get a quick introduction to our “hero” as she breaks up a bank robbery at the place she’s trying to open a checking account at. The police are kinda pissed she shot up all the bad guys and mistake her far another of the villains. Fortunately she ends up in the cruiser of a disaffected cop who’s decided he’s done protecting the public. He lets Gwen and the hacker who helped the robbers go. With then hacker as Gwen’s new sidekick, things only get more interesting in the main story.

The whole idea about Gwenpool is that she believes she’s a real person who has suddenly found herself in a comic book…she’s been an avid reader her whole life. Since she’s in the comic universe, she kinda feels the tropes should apply to her so…1) she figures the hero is always gonna win, 2) she doesn’t need superpowers to take down bad guys, and 3) perhaps her costume was meant to be a bathing suit rather than a superhero outfit.

In any case, the comic is a fun read. The art in the main story takes on a magna-esque style that works for what’s going on and I was really getting to like the vibe of superhero/hacker until…well, you’re just gonna have to read it to find out.

From my understanding, the whole fourth wall breaking thing is a standard in any Pool comic and I think Hastings does a good job with it. And I really liked the idea that Gwen figured out how to take down some sentinels by remembering the video game she used to play.

On the whole, the art and script worked and I give this a definitive A- rating. Like the Spider-Gwen from yesterday, I think I’ll keep reading this series for a while to see where it goes.

I Won the Lottery!

The Comic-Con Parking Lottery, that is…

Yeah! This is the first time I’ve EVER been graced with making the first round of parking reservations. Sure, up until a few years ago it was a free for all, but still, there have been years where I got no reservations.

So now the question is…do I try to grab parking at the convention center itself which is relatively cheaper than many of the other lots or do I stick with my tried and true locations where I’ve parked for many years in the past?

2018 Eisner Award Nominations

Continuing the comic theme today, I saw that the Eisner Award nominees were announced recently. Actually I guess they were posted on the Comic-Con.org website earlier on Thursday. And I’m pleased to see that I’ve read a few of these comics.

I plan on going through the nominees a bit more in the future but for now, I’m just looking at those I’ve already read…

I can really see how Black Hammer by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston made the cut for Best Continuing Series but I can see some stiff competition from series where I’ve read some of the previous issues…Hawkeye, Monstress, and The Wicked + The Divine. While I haven’t read recent issues, these were all good graphic novels I’ve read in the past.

I’m surprised though that with my increased reading counts for the past year that I haven’t read more of the conics up for the awards. I guess I read The Flintstones but I really wasn’t a fan. I also read some of the original Jack Kirby Mister Miracle but not the Tom King incarnation which I’ve heard is pretty good. Other than that, most of the nominees are new to me which is good and bad…good that I have a bunch of new books to take a look at and bad that I’ve got so many books to look at I probably won’t get through them all before the convention.

With the Con coming in July I’ve got basically May and June to try to catch up on anything nominated but I also want to get a bit familiar with current events so I can be more knowledgeable about the stuff the main comic panels discuss rather than being my normal ignorant self. I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll be able to catch up on everything I want to focus on.