Paul's Picks - August 8, 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, another huge stack of comics (and files of digital comics) to read. I couldn't wait to get my pulls from the LCS this week, but once I nabbed my stack, I realized that many of my books are in a strange place right now. I wouldn't say we're in a dull moment, I mean AvX is rapidly approaching its climactic end, and many series are in the middle of an arc (some more enthralling than others), but I found myself a bit disinterested in some of the titles I've been reading over the last couple of weeks. A keen example would be New Avengers by BMB. It's a good title, and it has contained some of the best tie-ins from the event so far, but when I flipped over to it on my iPad, I was a bit nonplussed. It wasn't a bad book, I guess it's just that I'm feeling the longevity of this event in the tie-ins more than anything else. The one book that I immediately lifted to the top of the pile was Scott Snyder's Batman #12, but I'm sad to say it just didn't blow me away. I think I was pulled in by all of the Twitter hype singing its praises, so once I had it behind me I was a bit let down (although the guest art by Becky Cloonan was top notch).

But never fear! There were two books that totally rocked my world this week, but as in Highlander (and the Phoenix Five), "there can be only one." And so, without further whining/yapping/introducing, my pick this week goes to...

Paul's Picks! - May 2, 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...

Well the time has come folks. It's the first Wednesday in May, and man oh man, what a week! And for that, what a month! Not only does this week mark the release of what many sites are deeming the Best Comic Book Movie Ever Made (yet to be seen, don't gather a mob just yet), but this week in May also began two highly anticipated events in comics: namely DC's Second Wave of the New 52 and the launch of May's "Night of the Owls" crossover event in the Bat universe. And of course, we also had the release of issue #3 of one of the biggest ( if not the biggest) events Marvel has ever released in AvX, which changed from author Jason Aaron to Ed Brubaker. All in all, right now is one of the best times to be a fan of comics in the history of comic-dom. And the fun is just getting started, with 9 more issues to come in AvX (not counting a plethora of tie-ins), plus some promising new series from DC, as well as the greatly anticipated (although dreaded by some) Before Watchmen miniseries that launches in just a few short weeks. As I said, it's the golden time for fans, although it's definitely an all-out assault on the wallets of said lovers of comics.

Buy This! - April 25th, 2012

Here we go again.

With Marvel ramping up AvX this week with the biggest week of tie-ins released thus far, and DC launching a full scale invasion of the bat family with Night of the Owls it’s safe to say that event season is officially underway. Really it has been for at least a month but with DC launching their own volley it really feels like it now.

 Due to this fact, this week’s Buy This is going “All Avengers VS X-Men”.  Partially this is due to the fact that AvX has been really quite enjoyable so far and partially it is because… well AvX has me anxious to see what happens next. Who knows, depending on how some of the first slew of Night of the Owls releases fare maybe I’ll do a special column for the bat titles next week.

Paul's Picks: April 4th, 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. Hello everyone! I'm writing to you from the mountains of Tennessee, off on a small but much needed vacation from all the hubbub of the college life. But don't worry, I may be off the beaten path, but I still found the time to dive into this weeks books. Action Comics #8, the long awaited reveal of Swamp Thing, and, of course, Avengers vs X-Men #1! The question is, which of this week's books stood out as the definitive winner of the lucrative "Paul's Pick" award? I'll have to admit, it's not one I saw coming... 

Podcast Episode 9 - The Best Issue of 2012!

Hello everyone! Here's episode 9 of our podcast, where we reveal all of our opinions about the world of comics from this week. And just so everyone knows, our Pick of the Week was Avenging Spiderman #5, which we somehow managed to talk about for 10 minutes without ever mentioning the title... Enjoy! Comment! Rate us on iTunes!

Buy This! - March 14th, 2012

 Every Monday Seth picks out three items that are due to ship on Wednesday and directs you toward your best bets for a quality purchase. Some times it's a single issue of a comic, other times a massive omnibus edition of a beloved series, and occasionally a figure or shiny bauble that caught his eye. Read on to find the three items you shouldn't leave your comic shop without this week.


We now return you to your regularly scheduled column...

Sorry for the delay this week. I could complain about work being overwhelming and getting in the way of the regularity of Buy This for the last two weeks but without my job I'd be unable to buy any of the stuff I promote on here. Last week's column was written and posted and then promptly destroyed when I attempted to edit the post on my iPad. It didn't end well. However, I did write about the new volume of Emitown as well as Hickman's new creator owned project Manhattan Projects #1 last week and at least one of those two is definitely worth your time. I'll give you a hint as to which it is... it's the one that doesn't have robot samurai in it.

Due to the lack of a column last week and the lateness of this one I'm going double sized. I'd probably have gone bigger with this week's even if it was on time because there is a ton of great stuff coming out this week.

Podcast Episode 4: The One Where Seth Goes to Disney World

Hello friends! Episode 4 of the Ancillary Characters Podcast is live, and here's an embedded version. Don't forget to comment after listening in! IMPORTANT: if you're a subscriber on iTunes, our feed just changed so you may need to go in and resubscribe... And if you haven't subscribed yet, now's the perfect time! Go!