As many of you Comic section regulars are aware, through various circumstances, Joe and his intrepid team of "Mighty Reviewers" put this section on a long term hiatus some time ago, and with the exception of a few JLM micro reviews, it has laid dormant ever since.
Well, with Joe's full blessing I have rounded up a new breed of comic reviewers, because this place deserves to continue
I wanted to cover four main areas when farming interest;
I wanted a mix of old and new faces from the forum.
I wanted to cover not just the "Big Two", but the indie books as well.
I wanted an International team, to ensure different social and cultural aspects were represented.
I wanted intelligent contributors who most importantly, KNEW THEIR STUFF.
Considering, I managed to cover five countries, all six years of Statueforum history and some of the most learned SF comic readers you could mention, I think you're gonna enjoy what the team has to say about the funny books they're reading
Without further ado, here are your new Reviews Team, who have provided a brief bio on themselves before we begin launching reviews in the VERY near future!
I hope you guys come along for the ride, this will be a labor of love for us, and although I know many of you prefer to lurk, we hope these reviews spark discussion, debate, passion and support!
Ok, the Reviews Team, with a brief bio in their own words consists of:
JLM:
Hello everyone. My name is Jonathan and I've been a comic addict all my life. It started off harmlessly enough reading long running British comic book, the Beano. Then I saw Captain America #181 where someone has his face ripped off, and later Daredevil #245 and I got hooked on Marvel comics for years. More recently, superheroes haven't been hitting the spot, so I've been looking elsewhere for kicks.
The comic world outside of superheroes is vast and I've read some brilliant things I would never have considered reading a couple of years ago. I'll be sharing some of those thoughts with you, to help me through my addiction.
Supahman:
I am finally seeing a dream come true
![Embarrassment](http://www.statueforum.com/images/smilies/redface.gif)
). I got into comics as a kid, rummaging through my Guitar playin’, soccer maestro uncle's trunk. And Superman was my first discovery, no wonder he became my hero, inspiration and life became about WWSD ( along with stuffing Towels as capes in ym shirt and spit curlin' my hair )
I am from India, a land of beauty and culture which has a huge hole where comics are concerned. There are no comic shops. No LCS' = Horror. So it's always been mooching books off libraries, cool uncles and surprisingly from Pawnshops.. :-) Anyway, work has taken me to Singapore, where I finally saw and prayed at the altars on a Wednesday…picking up comics hot off the Diamond boxes on a Wednesday (which is partly why i rush to post the Haul - cause it means so much).
I read a lot of genres - my favorite being superheroes <obviously>. A close second is Sword and Sorcery / Barbarians, followed by the Westerns. Besides that, I frequent the boards / comic sites and generally pick up a lot of other stuff that is recommended. I’d classify Superman as my fav character. The next few are He-Man, Conan and Wolverine. (From cowboys I actually like an awesome character- Sudden created by Oliver Strange, but this exists only in Novel form). I collect anything Superman that I like, a few DC characters, He-man action figs and selective Conan stuff.
The only other thing I would like to add is that I am married today coz Disney bought Marvel..but that is a great story for another time ;o)
rychehitman:
I remember the first comic book by Dad bought me was at a 7-11 convenience store on the morning of the first (and only) time he ever took me golfing with him. Though I enjoyed that issue of Marvel Team Up, I just had an average interest like any other youngster...and I was content with my Mego figures and cartoons. It wasn't until years later when, now 9, I asked my Dad to buy me a comic book at a local grocery store grand opening that had caught my eye. The cover leapt out from the rest and had SO MANY characters on it. It was the 200th issue of the Avengers with the classic George Perez cover. At that point I realized these comics had meaning and could be collected. Once I saw the big picture I was hooked....and now over 30 years later I still look forward to Wednesdays with anticipation!
After spending years as a proud Marvel Zombie.....(I actually frequented a LCS in Phoenix that sold ONLY Marvel product if you can believe that!)...I eventually branched off into DC with the CRISIS on INFINITE EARTHS event, thanks once again to my Dad for picking up all 12 issues for me at a flea market. From that moment I began to see the comic industry. There were TWO major comic companies and the artists and writers would bounce back and forth between the two. I discovered I enjoyed specific writers and artists over others...thanks mainly to John Byrne and George Perez...and I realized there were local comic shops across the country (and Mile High Comics was the grandest of them all...or so those yellow 2 page ads told me!) I then discovered CONVENTIONS! The hobby just sunk its teeth into me deeper and deeper. I went on a mad tear collecting back issues of all things X and decided I had to buy every action figure I could get my hands on.
As I got older my tastes changed slightly but never deviated from the big two and Image. My buying habits grew and shrank depending on jobs, girlfriends, marriage, and children...but I cannot really say I ever really stopped altogether. At this point in my life I am probably at my personal lowest monthly pull list due mainly because like DC, I have decided to draw the line at $2.99 and all but refuse to get the $3.99 books just out of principal. I will likely be switching over to all HC tpb's soon as those are more cost effective and display better for my current tastes...but I will always be a Wednesday Warrior and browse my LCS and get a few books in an odd effort to keep the tradition alive and pass it on to my kids. Comics have seen me through every high point and low point in my life, and I will forever cherish the memories I have of my Dad and I frantically looking for X-Factor #25 when it sold out at the LCS, and standing in line to grab the black poly bagged Superman #75 among others! Thanks Dad!
I promise to proudly use this opportunity as a platform to endlessly promote Image's SAVAGE DRAGON series at every opportunity and look forward to sharing my thoughts and opinions on the current DC new 52 books I have been following as well as the all too few books that Marvel are doing right these days such as Journey into Mystery, Fantastic Four, FF, and Thunderbolts among others.
67wm:
Hello all,
My name is Bill and I have been reading/collecting comics for close to 35 years. Two books that I actually remember being among the first for me are Uncanny X-Men #111 and Fantastic Four #192. Penciled by John Byrne and George Perez respectively and was hooked on the books and the artists. Over the years I have followed the various books that they have done and also branched out to others due to my developing eclectic habits now stay mainly in the DC and Marvel area and while monthly books will always hold a special spot in my heart, I am seriously considering switching over to trades on some of my titles.
Was very excited to get the invite to be a member of this review group and look forward to sharing my thoughts (and sometimes rants) on comics and comic related topics that will come up in this thread. One thing I would like people to take under consideration is that while you may not agree with what is posted at least be civil and let's not turn this into a flame campaign against what a person posts. Hope this can turn into a good discussion area on SF!
Pure Invasion:
Hello SF Community,
I have a confession to make. I don't remember much about my first legitimate superhero comic that I read. I know it was a Superman title. I know some ET looking alien stole his powers. I know at the end of the issue (for some reason) it was Clark Kent (without powers) who defeated the alien. Aside from that, I can't tell you anything. I just remember that the guy in the blue spandex was the first superhero I ever laid my eyes on.
In the early 90's, when I was still a young one, my family would always take our annual trip up to a cottage. The owner of the cottage always kept a box of old comics on hand for any kids that came down. It was there I learned of Iron Man, Batman, Spider-Man, and of course big blue (mentioned above).
I always enjoyed comics up to my early teen years. My dad would take me to the local shop once a month and let me buy a few books. I had a small little collection going. I was never one to really care if I had every issue in the story arc. I didn't even care if I knew anything about the character when I picked up their book. If a comic cover caught my eye, it would be purchased.
Then something changed...
I didn't read a comic for about 13 years. From my early/mid teens to my mid twenties, I just didn't care about reading comics anymore. Can't really say why, but I guess my focus just shifted and I spent my money elsewhere. Nonetheless, I watched the movies, I kept up to date on the characters via the internet, I did what I could to keep a place for these characters that I was so amazed by at an earlier age.
Enter Statue Forum...
For some reason when i saw these characters in physical form that initial love was reignited. DC's New 52 was exactly what a lapsed reader like me needed to finally once again commit to the characters I had loved so long ago. My pull list grew to anywhere from 30-40 titles per month and once again I was loving the superhero world
With a decent mix of DC and Marvel titles (with a few indie books sprinkled in), I bring a relatively easygoing opinion to the review staff. I read comics to enjoy myself, to get away for 5-15 minutes at a time. So grab an issue and lean back in your chair, turn that first page and see where the book takes you.
Glad to be on the team,
Kyle a.k.a. PureInvasion
Rocket:
I think I'm "in your face" enough on the forum for most people to know who I am and what my interests are
No two ways around it, I'm a Marvel Zombie. My entire house is a shrine to all things Marvel, and my luckiest moment in life was finding a partner (now wife) who would go on to embrace comics and everything that entails.
What many of you don't know, is that I still do read a truckload of DC and indie comics. You'll discover that though over the course of these reviews, and I do look forward to showing I can break out of the Marvel mold.
I've been reading comics since I could read at age four or five, starting with Marvel's "Star Comics" label, my mother would buy me one book a week. After teaching me to read at an early age, she wanted to continue to encourage my love of it so I would get all the "kid" titles like Wheelie, Casper, Heathcliff, Flintstone Kids, etc etc. I got a little older and made the natural progression to Transformers and G.I.Joe where I first started to develop recognition for writers (Furman, Hama) and artists (Trimpe, Wildman) as well as the joy of character and plot development.
While those books were my bread and butter, I would also read anything else I could get my hands on, but in Australia in the 80s and early 90s there was no consistency to which books would actually hit newsagent shelves in any given month, especialluy non-Marvel stuff, so I could never follow storylines through to their completion which meant while I read many superhero adventures, it was hard to commit to those books fully.
At around age twelve though I discovered Minotaur books in the city (Melbourne) and realised I could actually place a standing order. Well that pretty much changed my life, and made me the person I am today. I've told this story before, but when I was a teenager I lost my Dad to cancer and I found myself in a position where I needed to step up and be a man well before my time and help support my family of five. The life lessons I had learned, established by the one and only Stan Lee and then championed by so many writers and artists after him, made me the man I am today and it was a joy in both 2010 and funnily enough just YESTERDAY, to shake his hand with a tear in my eye and tell him what an impact he has had on my life.
That's why I love comics, and that's why I pour my heart into this place so much
Ok in adittion to the avove team we have two "specialist" reviewers who are experts in their respective "fields"
We have ratchet, who will be our Hulk book reviewer and Primal who has promised to keep us up to date with his first love, the Green Lantern Universe, as often as he's able
ratchet was also able to knock out a short bio:
This is a quick Bio from me:
I am a Hulk fan from Massachusetts, hosted my own Hulk blog since 2007 with 1,500+ followers. I have a beautiful wife and daughter who I adore.
If you're looking for anything else - let me know!
Ok so that's us in a (large) nutshell!!
Once we get some reviews up, we will strive to establish a routine of sorts, not sure how regular we will be just yet, and then we'll look at further developing the comics section here at SF, with features such as roundtable discussions, guest reviewers, HC and TPB reviews, etc etc
So please jump on board, and let's see if we can't get this section jumping!
Rod.