Indie & Creator Owned General - /ico/

This thread is for discussion on independent comic books / creator owned books.

Personally I just finished reading The Sheriff of Baghdad, which was an interesting book that never really coalesced in the end like I hoped it would.

I need to reread the series. It was kind of hard for me to follow on a month by month basis, but it seems like a better binge read.

Currently reading Black Hammer, and I'm liking what I've read so far.

Black Hammer is one of those ones I really want to support, but I'm a filthy trade waiter. I'm gonna order the first trade, but I'm behind on it because I really liked the first few issues and I didn't want to spoil it for myself.
Also, right now I think my favourite indie ongoing is Unfollow. Think it's pretty much the only comic I've read that uses Social Media well.

So is there any word on if this is officially over or just on pause?

Don't thin there's been official word, but since King is writing Batman I wouldn't be surprised if they'd be willing to let him continue it as long as he likes. It really depends if he's got more stories he wants to tell there.

I thought they teased a second season for it.

Not sure if it's a straight sequel, or a new story, but yeah it's coming back.

Very nice

Well god bless.
Speaking of second season, fuck I wish we'd get some official word on the next season of The Humans. God I loved that book.

Anyone reading Dept. H? I loved Mind MGMT but I'm not really feeling this one tbqh

What're some of the better indie titles out right now?

Loving the art but it's one I'm going to have to read once it's finished, I find mystery titles aren't great spread month to month, too easy to forget the intrigue from the last issue.

Sheriff of Baghdad is neither indie nor creator-owned though

Vertigo always share some of the rights, so it's co-owned

Well, let's see what I can recommend
Current Vertigo has some neat titles, I personally recommend Unfollow.
You have Eric Powell's new ongoing Hillbilly, it's got great art and the plot's pretty interesting.
If you like Witch Folklore stuff, Harrow County's great.
I'm reading a lot of Image titles right now, I'm enjoying Moonshine, Southern Bastards, Manifest Destiny, Stray Bullets. They also recently re-published Prince of Cats, so it's worth checking that out.
Also, Alan Moore's Providence is pretty fantastic, though it's near ending and I'm hearing whispers that it might not get finished, which blows

This is basically just a "not-capeshit" general

But then Invincible is creator owned and indie

>I'm hearing whispers that it might not get finished

From where? I know Moore has said he's finished with comic books but I assumed he already finished writing Providence, I thought he was doing it for the money anyway.

Mainly from Sup Forums, hopefully it'a a load of shit. I can't see him abandoning it with only like, 2 issues left.

This is basically just a "not mainstream Marvel or DC" general

Sorry, I didn't want to be a stickler but as someone working in the industry I hate to see the term get bandied around where it's not applicable

Uh, isn't it Sheriff of Babylon?

But then Young Animal titles and Hellblazer would fit here.

This is silly and semantics, most publishers share some of the rights of their books except Image.

i feel bad for responding to you and i hate your picture.

Young Animal is still capeshit though

It was originally Sheriff of Baghdad but they changed the name to Sheriff of Babylon

Not all of it, and we already established capes are allowed here with Invincible.

Most publishers are indie, so such an objection wouldn't need to be raised.

There's nothing wrong with correcting a mistake when you see one made. And Sup Forums might possibly be a better place if more people understood the mechanics behind their favorite comics.

the last time there was an /indie/ thread on this board, the thread practically descended into a civil war between people who read genre fiction comics from direct market publishers (Vertigo, Image, Dark Horse, IDW, BOOM!, Dynamite, etc) and those who read comics that were more "literary" in tone, subject matter, or target audience (Fantagraphics, Drawn and Quarterly, small-press publishers, etc.) I don't think it's a good idea to start a general thread where there is such a divergent group of different fans and different genres and different audiences, when they don't really have much in common besides not reading Marvel or DC.

There's a clear-cut distinction between co-owned and creator-owned, it's important not to confuse the two. Improper use of terminology in comics is why most consumers are poorly educated in the subject, and why marketing gets away with using words like 'graphic novel' to describe high-brow comics as opposed to contained non-serialized works

Can this thread please not descend into autistic shitflinging

Every single person who reads comics should understand what books are intended to be discussed in threads like these. Can we please all just talk about the comics themselves.

...

Why don't you start shithead?
You bitch about the content in the thread then don't add anything related to the topic.

I get what you're saying but you're trying to start a new term. No creator goes on a interview and says this is my new "co-owned" book even if it is more factually app. It's creator-owned or bust.

Fetch didn't happen and neither will co-owned.

Is this worth a read?

Nothing by Dan Clowes ever is.

>He doesn't like Ghost World

Can anyone recommend a good creator owned book with a consistent schedule? I'm tired of massively delayed books that release like 3 issues a year and never get finished.

bump

Haven't read it but I'm not a huge fan of Clowes. I only liked Like a Velvet from him and I didn't find it amazing or anything. Death Ray was okayish, Ghost World was meh, hated Wilson.

Anyone read this? I heard it got a lot of awards and made it's way into teaching classes at some colleges and is selling pretty damn well. But I've never seen anyone actually talk about it.

Harrow County

Copra by Michel Fiffe

Bunn is gonna bring back Damned.

I think my favorite parts of the comics that aren't from Marvel or Dc's main lines is the artwork.

It's got a totally different feel, it's not the cookie cutter style that they try and push across their collective books. They do different stuff. Like East of West has some amazing stuff going on in it.

Southern Bastards has such a cool aesthetic, the rough style fits the story perfectly. Greg Tochini on low creates some of my favorite pages in images catalogue. Last days of True American Crime by him and Remender is fantastic.

Has anyone been reading the new Metabarons? I've been meaning to pick it up but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Isn't Copra just an Indie Suicide Squad?

This is such a dumb thing to say, DC and Marvel have had a ton of fabulous artists work for them. As for the names you singled out, I'm not very fond of Dragotta, I think his stuff looks pretty boring for the most part. Latour just doesn't look that good for me but his style is nice. Tochini is just weird, some pages I really dig, some pages I really don't like, other pages I can't decide if I really like or really dislike. Cool style though.

They have great artists. But when you start going through their books, a lot of them start to look the same.

Their super cross over event books always have amazing artists, like Esad Ribic on secret wars was awesome. Anyways non cape books have a unique look on almost each and everyone. Can't really say the same about the big two.

Despite its title, I quite liked David Boring

Wow what a meme post. plz leave Sup Forums.

>Has anyone been reading the new Metabarons?

It's not scanned(sosich doesn't count), so of course no one has read it

Not really, they most have the generic look on the big names Justice League/Avengers stuff. And there's plenty of uninspired artists doing creator owned stuff.
I mean, the likes of Paul Pope, Darwyn Cooke, JH Williams III, David Aja, Mike Allred, Frank Quitely, Frazer Irving or Jock have done a ton of work for DC and Marvel and they don't look the same at all.

It's a pastiche yeah. Besides the squad it's full of Fiffe's other favorite cape stuff. Punisher, Hardwire, Doctor Strange, Typhoid Mary, DKR Batman and Robin, and more all have stand ins

Excited to see Darrow return with more Shaolin Cowboy in 2017

I wasn't big into the newer series, I just think it stops being interesting at a certain point, like I enjoy art as the main point in comics but if it's literally all you got going then I'm not gonna be invested for that long. I would prefer for him to hook up with a writer again.

>they most have the generic look on the big names
I thinks that's what he means. the artists who are the current staples of the company and don't come and go for a series or two. The people like Reis, Fabok, Finch, etc

I've been enjoying Clean Room, even though it sucks that the artist had to leave

Where the fuck did you find that cover; it's supposed to be "the Sheriff of Babylon".

That's because the big name titles need to sell and those are the kind of artists that people prefer.

I had a brain fart and reverted to the former name

who Spire here?

I don't believe it actually exists

no u

What's it about?

Revenger has been so stellar. I thought it was a little rocky at first and I think there were growing pains with Chuck switching styles so drastically but all of Revenger and The Fog is amazing.

What's it about? Cover looks cool.

It's about a woman named Revenger who gets revenge for people. It's inspired a lot by 80's action movies and comics. Really violent and cool.

I think of it in the same vein as Copra if you've read that. They're even both published by Bergen Street.

Pride of Baghdad was better...

It's my favorite Clowes since Ghost World. I thought he was stuck doing boring comics about old weirdos but Patience is a pretty solid time travel love story.

This is one of my pet peeves about comic action scenes. For someone who can clearly draw very well, he's somehow made this fight incredibly static.

It's like getting a series of well-shot HD photos of a cheetah snapped in mid-action, when we're actually here to see the cheetah run

Is it available digitally?

Its really slow but I am starting to into it. Its the kind of book best read in trade form

But Kindt himself goes on about how he thinks his books are best read monthly and how his stuff is designed to be read that way. I was always satisfied reading Mind MGMT in single issues.

Why the fuck can't this thing come out on a consistent schedule? Matt and Chip would have made mad bank if they actually released more than two issues a year.

Zdarsky is doing like 5 projects now, it spring boarded him into stardom and he's focused on being a writer now

Most big 2 writers would fucking kill to sell 20k an issue on a creator owned work, plus trades and optioning. Why the fuck did he throw it away to write for Marvel and Archie?

>Why the fuck did he throw it away to write for Marvel and Archie?

To further expand his fanbase/audience you baka.

Expand for what purpose? A successful creator owned book is far more profitable than work for hire.

But by getting more suckers to follow him, his next creator-owned book will be even MORE profitable than his last.

Been a hell of year for comics.

And still so much to read and look forward to.

>A successful creator owned book is far more profitable than work for hire.
there are plenty of people who would NEVER have picked up something called sex criminals but would be the first in line to pick up Star Lord #1

get more fans to buy the next image book you buy

I still haven't made up my mind on Earth War's ending.

>nothing anybody did mattered
>Troll doesn't have any involvement after all the time we spent on him
>Glory destroys the crystal invasion all on her own, no connection to Old Man
>the Earth Empire isn't defeated, it still has thousands of troops and fleets of ships
>it doesn't matter because the Earth War is just a meaningless drop in the ocean of our universe
I guess that's what Graham was going for, but I think it was a mistake to have Prophet AND Earth War both finish with anticlimactic non-endings.

I never went into it with an idea in my head that he would actually conclude the entire story or that everyone on one side would be dead by the end.

The series always went more for the long view and the ending worked for me.