Posts Tagged ‘ Brian Clevinger ’

Comic Capsule Reviews: Recent Indie Miniseries

It’s been a while since I looked at small press comic miniseries, but I only have three completed ones to talk about. Between the economic downturn and the sudden rise of Image as the go-to place for indie talent, the tiny publishers are slowly getting squeezed out. There are still comics worth paying attention to, though.

(Note that, in the American comics industry, “small press” generally refers to anything that isn’t from one of the five “big” companies that occupy the front of the Previews catalog. This is actually a fairly strict definition, as some people will actually use terms like “indie” and “small press” for anything that doesn’t feature a DC or Marvel hero on the cover.)

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Comic Capsule Reviews: Ongoing Indie Series

My recent comic reviews have focused mainly on “First Look” reviews of new series, and I’ve fallen behind on reviewing some existing ones. Here are my looks at the latest chapters of several independent (or at least non-superhero) ongoing series. Most of these are actually miniseries that pick up where earlier miniseries left off. That has become the trend for independent comics lately. Most people are unlikely to start reading unless they have a “#1” to reassure them on the cover of an issue, and the delay between miniseries also gives creators a chance to take a break for a few months, either to take on other work or to build a buffer on the next series.

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Comic Capsule Reviews

Comic book series come through faster than I can write full reviews of them. I’m going to experiment with capsule reviews to cover some of the recent series that I read. My plan is to cover “indie” miniseries today (in comic terms, that means “anything without superheroes”), and then look at some recent superhero ones tomorrow.

Note that these are just the comics that I read. They aren’t always the most significant ones. For example, the big summer events are underway at both DC and Marvel, and I haven’t been interested in picking up either of those. I’ll be the first to admit that my choices are sometimes arbitrary, but I don’t have the time (or money) to try everything. Looking at the list below, I’m fairly happy with my choices. Even the failures are interesting ones, and if I hadn’t been willing to take a chance on the occasional disappointing comic, I wouldn’t have found the good ones, either.

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