Paul's Picks! - September 19, 2012

Well, it's that time again folks: Wednesday! And you know what Wednesday is?... Well, of course you do, you're reading a blog about comics, so you obviously know it's New Comics Day, a.k.a. Paul's favorite weekly holiday! And now for his much-anticipated pick-of-the-week...

Hey guys! Sorry about the delay on this weeks Pick, I'm in the heat of classes, so I'm afraid there may be a few weeks throughout the semester when my column may slip back a day or two... But don't worry, I'll be certain to get a pick up every week, barring any excessive hindrances.

Throwing out my usual blurb leading into my pick of the week, lets just get right into comics, shall we? My absolute pick of the week (as spoiled by this weeks episode of the podcast) is...

Paul's Picks! - April 18, 2012

Well, it's that time again folks: Wednesday! And you know what Wednesday is?... Well, of course you do, you're reading a blog about comics, so you obviously know it's New Comics Day, a.k.a. Paul's favorite weekly holiday! And now for his much-anticipated pick-of-the-week...

Another week has passed, and with it comes a whole new slew of comics to keep us here at Ancillary Characters busy with writing, thinking, podcasting and stuff. With a long list of incredible books to survey from Wednesday, April 19th, I'm here as usual to give you my well-founded (or so I think) opinion regarding my pick of the week! For those of you who have been following us here at AC for some time now, you may be pleased to hear that, thanks to Seth and my recent acquisition of an iPad, my weekly Marvel intake has greatly increased (not to mention the Image titles I'm reading monthly now. And so, both in my column and on the show, our topics will be branching out more so from the DC-heavy stuff we've been covering since the arrival of the New 52. And so, you can definitely expect to see titles from all over the spectrum of comic book publishers from now on. With that being said, I must confess that this week's pick was so fantastic that my desire to expand the column into broader horizons has been somewhat dwarfed by the sheer awesomeness of the absolute winner...

Paul's Picks! - March 21, 2012

Well, it's that time again folks: Wednesday! And you know what Wednesday is?... Well, of course you do, you're reading a blog about comics, so you obviously know it's New Comics Day, a.k.a. Paul's favorite weekly holiday! And in celebration of this weekly, well, celebration, Paul is here to give you his favorite book of the week.

Welcome back friends! I hope your week has been amazing so far. Yesterday was one of those comic book days that make all of us readers and buyers glad to be a fan. Especially on the DC end of the market, three of the best titles hit shelves on the same day (JLA, Wonder Woman, and Batman or course), not to mention lots of other great stuff across the board. I knew when Wednesday rolled around that I would be facing a tough decision in terms of my pick. My wife and I recently obtained one of the new iPads last Friday, and I have since begun my trek into the world of digital comics, so this week's pick was not only affected by my stack of issues from the local shop, but also a handful of ancillary books that wound up in my Comixology app. I finished all of my issues yesterday afternoon, but it took me most of the night and this morning to finally decide on my chosen piece this week.

So what is it? Which book took the lead? In a way, no single issue did. I was (obviously) tempted to hand it over to Batman #7, which was obviously great, but in the end I decided to go with an unconventional choice: The Curse of Shazam! by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank.

Paul's Picks! - Feb. 29th, 2012

Well, it's that time again folks: Wednesday! And you know what Wednesday is?... Well, of course you do, you're reading a blog about comics, so you obviously know it's New Comics Day, a.k.a. Paul's favorite weekly holiday! And in celebration of this weekly, well, celebration, Paul is here to give you his favorite book of the week.

Justice League in Review


For those of you who may have already read the "epic" finale to Geoff Johns and Jim Lee's introductory arc on the best-seller from the DCnU, please don't roll your eyes when you see their title at the header for this week's pick. If I can be totally honest with you, this week's column is much less about my favorite stand-alone issue from Leap Day, 2012 and more so about the feelings that I was left with after reading the greatly anticipated conclusion to this first arc of Justice League. I'm going to try and make this as concise as humanly possible, but take into account that this article has been half-a-year in the making. So without any more build up, let's get down to the nitty-gritty, shall we?

Gotta admit, it's a cool cover.

My Expectations:


When I read the solicitations for the launch of the New 52, there is no hiding that this book was most likely sitting at the top of my most-anticipated list. I mean, get real people: a Geoff Johns/Jim Lee ongoing series? And not just any series, a Justice League book! Let's be honest DC fans, over the last few years, the JLA book had pretty much fallen off the deep end. It was stuck in Lamesville and couldn't get out. DC promised to return to us all the things that we could possible desire from a team-up book: an A-list writer, one of the most favored artists in the business, a line up of the best heroes that DC has to offer, and a villain of epic proportions. In theory, this was the perfect setup! And I couldn't have been more hyped.