Personal blog - and temporary home page until new website is finished - of writer, editor and graphic artist Christopher Mills


Saturday, December 31, 2011

New Year's Graphic Novels

Yesterday, I ordered two new books from Amazon, using a portion of a recent freelance check. Both titles harken back to my personal "Golden Age" of comics in the early 80s: the long-awaited Marv Wolfman/George Perez New Teen Titans graphic novel, "Games," and The Complete Captain Canuck - a favorite series from my youth, collected in paperback with gorgeous art by George Freeman.

The New Teen Titans was probably the first superhero comic that I made a point of following on a monthly basis, starting with the third or fourth issue. It was also the title I collected for the longest time: I bought it - and its spin-off titles/annuals/specials - every month for more than ten years. This graphic novel was originally announced back in the late 80s, if I recall correctly - so it's been a long while coming.

Captain Canuck was an oddity; a Canadian-produced comic about a Canadian super-hero, that somehow got distribution to local newsstands here in Maine. In fact, I bought my earliest issues of Canuck at the same convenience store where I discovered the Titans. I discovered Canuck with its fifth or sixth issue, and eventually tracked down and collected all but two issues of the run. This trade has them all, including the unpublished final issue. It was an offbeat, cool comic combining super-hero, sci-fi and spy elements, and I loved the art by George Freeman. I'm looking forward to having the collection on my shelves.

With luck, these will show up in my mailbox soon after New Years.

4 comments:

Rip Jagger said...

The Captain Canuck volume is outstanding, good value for the money.

I hope you enjoy as much as I am.

Rip Off

Charles Gramlich said...

Never heard of Captain Canuck but it actually sounds pretty interesting. I just read Batman RIP and didn't frankly understand much of anything in the story.

If you have an ereader and are looking for a funny piece, I just put up a humorous beer drinking memoir called Days of Beer on Kindle and nook. I wonder if the new kindles and nooks let you read comics well too.

El Vox said...

I used to read some Titans ever so often I always enjoyed Perez and Wolfman. I'd never read any Capt. Canuck, but you always make anything you read sound so darn interesting. I've wondered about that Dagar stories as well, & how they compare to the Marvel Conans.

Professor Fester said...

sadly, the Captain Canuck book doesn't include the newspaper dailies.Other than that it's great to see these stories back in print after all these years.