COMICS!

April 23, 2009 8:03 AM

Wanted: Your favorite comics blogs!

I love reading about comics almost as much as I love reading comics. I'd like to widen my range of comics blog reading, so I was hoping AskMe would share some of their favorites with me.

I already keep up with Comicbook Resources, Comics Should be Good and Robot 6 pretty well. Just this morning I found the Flash-centered speedforce.org, which looked interesting.

I've got no criteria for the selections I'd like to add, save for the involvement of comics on some level. I'm keen to read about any and all genres, techniques, history, characters and points of view.

So that's the question - what's your favorite place online to read about comics and all things comics-related.

posted by EatTheWeak to computers & internet (29 comments total)

Newspaper comics, but: Comics Curmudgeon.
posted by box at 8:09 AM on April 23 [2 favorites has favorites]

Dave's Long Box was great, but is no longer being updated. I first learned about it from Metafilter, actually!

I like Chris's Invincible Super-Blog, too.

Both of these may be a little smart-alecky for some, but I love 'em.
posted by cheapskatebay at 8:17 AM on April 23

Journalista has a dizzying amount of info, everyday.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:20 AM on April 23

I'm exclusively into indie comics (no capes), so, keep that in mind.

I love pretty much everything Meathaus ever, ever posts. They publish an anthology called Meathaus SOS but the blog mainly focuses on weirdo illustration, which I love.

Chip Zdarsky publishes Prison Funnies and is obnoxiously hilarious.

Hope Larson barely ever updates but she's got some really helpful tutorials in the archives. Fun Fact: totally married to Brian Lee O'Malley, the cat who does Scott Pilgrim.

Ellen Forney is hilarious and extremely talented.

True Chubbo (NSFW) is more of a comic than a blog about comics but it's so fucked up I couldn't not link it.

This is mostly a place for Liz Prince to post her comics but she does sometime talk about what it's like to be a small time published comic artist (she's had two little books printed with Top Shelf).

The Big Fat Whale blog is done by the dude who draws Big Fat Whale. Lots of bemoaning the state of alt weeklies.

Lucy Knisley is so damn cute it hurts. You get to see a lot of stuff before and after she colors it, which is neat if you're interested in the process. Also, kitties.
posted by Juliet Banana at 8:27 AM on April 23 [1 favorite has favorites]

Randy Lander's blog has good reviews.
posted by jzed at 8:28 AM on April 23

I am a fan of Polite Dissent--medical reviews of comics (and House!) from an M.D.
posted by joydivasian at 8:32 AM on April 23

The Comics Reporter is a great blog with a less super-hero focus than most. A good counterpart to Journalista! mentioned above.

Every Day Is Like Wednesday is the review blog I read right now.

Jog Likes Comics is a review blog I used to read.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 9:02 AM on April 23

io9.com is all kinds of science fiction but also does a solid amount on comic books.
posted by monkeywithhat at 9:17 AM on April 23

I love this AskMe already.

Mightygodking came to prominence with a funny Civil War parody, and continues to blog. I got sucked in pretty quickly to Girls Read Comics (And They're Pissed). Although it seems to be defunct now, it's worth reading through. Also along those lines (aside from the Girl Wonder site) is Colleen Doran's blog and Valerie D'Orazio's Occasional Superheroine. The former has a ton of great comic business stories and advice, while the latter is notable for her "Goodbye to Comics" memoir.
posted by greenland at 9:17 AM on April 23

Overcompensating is the 'blog' of Jeffrey Rowland, the creator of the hilarious Wigu comics and others. The blog is probably his funniest product right now but Wigu is great for a laugh and his t-shirts are pretty hilarious too. I think I bought all of them about 2 years ago... need to check what's new...
posted by gwpcasey at 9:22 AM on April 23

Jason Little is the creator of Bee.

I also like Questionable Content.
posted by mattdidthat at 9:42 AM on April 23

Daily Scans: The resurrected scans_daily, now on LJ clone InsaneJournal. Much more careful about fair use, and, for reasons that should be clear to anyone who followed the bannination drama, nothing by Peter David.

Alison Bechdel: Despite the blog title and URL, her long-running strip Dykes To Watch Out For is on indefinite hiatus, but Bechdel posts about her new project, appearances, YouTube vids and whatnot.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:59 AM on April 23

Let's see:

Anything by Lynda Barry (up to an including
her illustrated novel, Cruddy)

Josh Simmons (publishes infrequently, but his comics are INSANE) - See God is Happy

Chester Brown is re-issuing Ed the Happy Clown, which features Ronald Reagan's head on the end of Ed's penis. That alone makes it worthwhile for me.
posted by orville sash at 10:53 AM on April 23 [1 favorite has favorites]

Cartoon Brew
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:53 AM on April 23

Um...ok I need to read the OP a little better. I was just suggesting comics. I am officially an idiot.
posted by orville sash at 10:54 AM on April 23

Also, Schoolgirl Milky Crisis. (Which is worthy of note for the awesome name, even if for no other reason.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:55 AM on April 23

The Update-A-Tron tracks 20-30 comics blogs and is a good place to start.

My personal faves include Progressive Ruin (funny commentary from a comic shop manager), The Factual Opinion (intelligent reviews about comics and other popular culture), and The Hurting (probably the most discursive yet insightful comic blog out there).
posted by turaho at 11:13 AM on April 23

I always enjoy The Ephemerist.
posted by martens at 11:41 AM on April 23

If you're at all interested in Cerebus, here is a project in which a couple of insightful people are reading it front to back, all 300 issues. They're trying to engage with it on every possible level, including a confrontation of Dave Sim as a human being which is level-headed and demythologizing without excusing him.

I also like their individual blogs, particularly Leigh Walton's, Picture Poetry.
posted by thesmallmachine at 12:02 PM on April 23

Shaenon Garrity used to do a feature called Overlooked Manga Festival on her livejournal. Lots of interesting titles that never made it.
posted by thesmallmachine at 12:11 PM on April 23

Damn, sorry, that link goes to Your Webcomic Is Bad And You Should Feel Bad, which I thought about but decided not to recommend. It hasn't held up well for me.

This is the Garrity link.
posted by thesmallmachine at 12:12 PM on April 23

I can't believe no one has mentioned ABSORBASCON which is too good for words.

The first time I came across it, I spent several days reading the archives.
posted by wittgenstein at 12:13 PM on April 23

I love Living Between Wednesdays, specially the Rating the Super Hunks feature.
posted by clearlydemon at 12:56 PM on April 23

Savage Critics: Great group review blog. Especially keep an eye out for Abhay Khosla's stuff. Also includes Brian Hibbs, Douglas Wolk, David Uzumeri, Diana Kingston-Gabai, etc. Most of them have their own blogs as well.
The Beat: Heidi MacDonald's news blog
Eddie Campbell: Great commentary on comics (his own and others) and other assorted topics
Paul Pope: Posts some amazing art. Unfortunately updates infrequently.
FLOG!: Fantagraphics blog
Comics Comics: a group blog from some PictureBox/Buenaventura art comics guys (Frank Santoro, T. Hodler, Dan Nadel)
Brian Lee O'Malley
posted by Awkward Philip at 1:23 PM on April 23

Oh, hells yes - these are exactly what I was hoping for! Thank you so much, everyone - please keep'em coming!
posted by EatTheWeak at 1:29 PM on April 23

Mindless Ones - funny, rambling, discursive group blog with a love for Grant Morrison
Hooded Utilitarian - wide ranging blog from several of the better TCJ contributors
If Destroyed, Still True - well thought-out superhero reviews
posted by Hartster at 1:59 PM on April 23

I-Mockery has a great Comics section.
posted by Pangloss at 3:15 PM on April 23

Damn, Hartster beat me to it, but If Destroyed is my weekly update on the world of Xmen comics which I largely stopped collecting 12 years ago. The same guy used to do his comic reviews on The X-Axis, but has pretty much stopped updating there in favor of just doing everything on his main blog. The X-Axis has a lot of reviews of older X-books, and is worth sifting through.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:56 PM on April 23

I really enjoy reading Todd's Blog, by letterer Todd Klein. Especially the logo studies. He will devote a series of posts to a famous logo, such as Spider Man or Legion of Superheroes, discussing how they have changed over the years. He also talks about his own step-by-step creative process for lettering and logo design (America's Best Comics, for example). He writes really well and doesn't rush through anything. Great stuff!
posted by Fred Mars at 1:19 PM on April 24