Tag: Batgirls

Year in Review 2022: The Best Ongoing Comics of the Year

Year in Review 2022: The Best Ongoing Comics of the Year

We are back with one more “Best of” list. I know, I said that I am not a fan, but once I got to looking at all the great comics that came out this year, I felt that I had to celebrate some of the comics that didn’t have New Number Ones in 2022.

This list is group of books that debuted before 2022 and continued well into the year or throughout it completely. It is much harder to do a list like this in today’s world. Books from the “Big 2” are rebooted often with new number ones just because the creative team changes, and Indie books are often only giving one trade paperback worth of leash to prove themselves.

Despite those tough odds, I found ten books that started pre-2022 that have been delivering high quality comic story telling on a consistent basis. A couple of them have reached their end, but still had enough length for me to consider them ongoing.

I recognize that this list is a bit DC heavy, and that bothers me slightly, but I stand by the books on this list being at the top of the industry in terms of execution over the course of the year.

Best Ongoing Series 2022

Action Comics
DC Comics
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artists: Riccardo Federici, Mike Perkins, Lee Loughridge, Will Conrad, David Lapham, Adriana Melo, and more.
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Cover: Daniel Sampere & Alejandro Sa`nchez

PCS Notes: The Warworld Saga came to completion this year and Phillip Kennedy Johnson along with some amazing artists told a story about struggle and survival. Throughout the story Superman fought for the beings that needed him, and exemplified all the traits that make him a hero. Some of the best long form Superman storytelling in a long time. Continue reading “Year in Review 2022: The Best Ongoing Comics of the Year”

Brainiac On Banjo: How Many Batmans Does It Take To Screw Up A Catalog?

BATMAN. Don’t stop dancin’. Do it, do it, do it, do it. BATMAN, BATMAN, BATMAN. Don’t stop, don’t stop. Let’s do it. Don’t stop dancin’. Let’s do it, BATMAN. Let’s do it, BATMAN. Don’t stop dancin’. Don’t stop dancin’. No, damn it! Turn the music back up! You son of a bitch! – Batdance, written by Prince, 1989.

Between 1960 and 1993, Harvey Comics published (I could have ended the sentence right there) some 48 different Richie Rich titles. Screw Casper and Hot Stuff, Richie was the big breadwinner in the Harvey household. Whereas I’ve got way too short an attention span to plot this out on a spreadsheet, a great great many were released at the same time, over the same two-month publishing cycle.

Pumping out Richie stories was a tonnage operation because Richie Rich was that successful. It’s not as though most titles had an aura of individuality – aside from Richie Rich and Casper; that series was a lot of fun and, for that matter, pretty weird. Harvey Comics published whatever the newsstand market could bare at that time. I highly doubt anybody at Harvey ever said “Shit! Richie Rich $ucce$$ isn’t selling, so let’s hurry up and replace it with Richie Rich Gems.”

Artist Frank Brunner once quipped they needed a title called “Richie Rich’s Tax Shelters.”

Which brings us to the matter of Batman.

Take a look at DC’s product catalog for January 2022. The catalog is called DC Connect and it’s available at most comics shops and maybe your more refined pet shops and hardware stores. Count the number of different Batman titles. I’m including all the titles that prominently feature members of the Batman Family – including The Joker. Each of their Batteam books – Robins, Batgirls – count, as do those other teams that put a Bat on the cover. I’ll wait.

If my math is correct (and I’ve only got so many fingers and toes) DC Comics is releasing 31 different “Batman” comics titles in January 2022 alone. That’s roughly two-thirds the number of different Richie Rich titles Harvey Comics published over 33 years, but I repeat, DC is doing this in just one month.

Should you want to purchase them all – which will make your friendly neighborhood comics retailer very happy – all you’ll need is $352.72. Personally, I’d ask for a discount, but not all comics shops can afford to do that.

Apples to apples, in constant dollars using 1993 as our vanishing point, 352.72 dollars right now would have only cost you 184.27 dollars in 1993. But given this whole supply-and demand COVID inflation thing going on, you might want avoid stalling your purchase.

Can the marketplace handle 31 different Batman comics titles for the cumulative price of $352.72? Ask me again in, say, February. Take comfort in the fact that Batman is not appearing in The Peacemaker teevee series. Batman completists wouldn’t be able to make their rent.

Richie Rich has been unemployed these past several decades, although, really, when did he ever hold down a real job? Nonetheless, he’s got the money to go into any business he might like. Please note the Rich Family does not seem to be lining up to buy DC Comics.

Come to think of it, I might ask “Would Richie Rich spend all that money on a 10-minute ego trip to inner-most outer space? The answer is “I have no doubt he already did.”