Curl up with a nice warm cup of the Panel Patter Newsletter!
By which you mean Jameson and coffee, yes?
Moving on! We’ve been offering the Newsletter in bi-weekly installments as the new year gets kicked off. As activity at the site starts to pick up with more releases, you can expect us to be back to our usual weekly schedule.
Paneldom, if you’re anything like your beloved Patterers, 2021 has been just as, if not harder than 2020 in some ways. That’s the ebb and flow of this pandemic, it seems. If you’re doing well right now, we’re happy to hear it. If things are wearing on you, we understand. We all hope that Panel Patter and the Newsletter offer something nice in your world, and we always thank you with sticking with us. Little notes from readers and pros alike mean the world to us. We think we do something special at Panel Patter, and when we hear that someone else agrees, it’s a great feeling. Now, onto the good stuff.
Welcome Aboard, K.C.
The Panel Patter family grows again!
K.C. Ewing is still recovering from having become an adult. The intervening decades have not dulled the pain.
She does a bit of this and a bit of that, and in between she sketches, reads manga and spends way too much time on AO3 and Twitter.
Recent Patterings
REVIEW: The Last Witch #1
CJ Pendragon made her Panel Patter debut with an excellent review of the first issue of the new BOOM! Box series, The Last Witch. CJ brings a strong writing background to Pandeldom, and it’s evident even in her first offering. Check it out.
I'm a fan of character-driven stories and I'm really happy that McCreery has steered The Last Witch in a direction that relies on Saoirse and the legend of a witch rather than flashy scenes. As someone with children, and both an older and younger sister, I felt like the relationship with Saoirse and her brother, Brahm, was really accurate, especially in the way they spoke to each other rather than to the adults in their lives.
Lunatic: A Wordless Story by Dan Mazur
James found Lunatic to be a mesmerizing piece of art. He stepped a little out of his comfort zone with this one, and it’s fun to see how James wraps his head around a fantastic work that deviates from the norm.
Lunatic differs from virtually all of the graphic novels I've read in two key respects. First, as noted above, Lunatic is a wordless graphic novel. No dialogue or thought balloons to be found. Secondly, each page of Lunatic is a single image. This is not the sequential storytelling I'm used to, with multiple panels per page. To be clear, this is a graphic novel, as it very clearly and ably tells a story from beginning to middle to end, but the sequential storytelling is on a page-by-page basis. So, each page needs to accomplish a lot in a single image.
Catch It at the Comic Shop January 27th, 2021
We pick a variety of a books this week from five different publishers. Also, we’re all obsessed with Department of Truth, just sayin’.
From the Archives
An Interview with Matt Kindt about the MIND MGMT Kickstarter
Matt Kindt is a fairly prolific creator, and he has a new book arriving this week courtesy of Dark Horse (featuring the equally awesome Tyler and Hillary Jenkins on art). Check out James’ conversation with Kindt from 2018.
Each project I do is dependent on the story. This story specifically – only works as a comic book and record. If I did continue, I’d have to think of a story that would justify that treatment. So right now – it’s a one-off unique art-object kind of thing.
Through the Intertubes
Best Shots review: The Department of Truth #1 - #5 warns of the power of conspiracy theories
As mentioned above, the Patterers are big fans of The Department of Truth, and Scott takes a look at the first five issues of the series at Newsarama.
Through Cole Turner, Tynion sets us up to be pulled into this rotating trap of belief and skepticism. When you look at the state of the world these last few months and years, there's so much that's ripe for conspiracies. Everything from elections to vaccines to insurrections would make so much more sense if all of the conspiracies and theories were just true.
Best Shots review: Avengers #41 demands you shut down your brain and absorb it on a completely 13-year-old level
Jason Aaron’s Avengers run has often felt like a giant mash up of a comic, one that harkens back to the best version of a crossover comic - playing with action figures in your basement. Scott embraces Aaron’s approach in this write up at Newsarama.
This is the kind of thing that Aaron's run on The Avengers has been leaning into all along, giving us these big, boisterous fights between the Avengers and other classic Marvel characters like the Moon Knight, the Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider, and even the devil himself Mephisto. Maybe Aaron got the need to tell large, nuanced stories out of his system with his modern classic Thor run and now wants to have some fun with the toys.
Sacrilege: Shared Themes of ‘Blade Runner 2049’ and Naoki Urasawa’s ‘Pluto’
This excellent article at NeoText feels like it was written to speak directly to the Patterers. GET OUT OF OUR HEADS, SEAN WITZKE!
The power chord of the emotional center for both K and Geischt is, ultimately, one of disquiet -- in particular, the way they relate to their artificial wives; wanting to please them, wanting to evolve them through stimulus. In 2049, Joi (Anna de Armas) is a product to be upgraded in K's desultory existence; she shows emotion and concern, but it's unclear how much of that is just programming. In Pluto, Gesicht's wife Helena's inability to understand quite why she feels wrong, or quite if she is experiencing loss, is played for tragedy; the lack is what's on display. Both characters display an anxiety of self hatred in both leads — they cannot improve their station because their brains are not built to do that, instead projecting onto the woman they love.
Uh, guys, Kirk won the internet again
Check It Out
Athena Voltaire and the Terror on the Orient Express
Holy smokes! In the time between bookmarking this link and starting the newsletter, this Kickstarter for Steve Bryant’s throwback adventure series already surpassed it’s goal. But, there are some great stretch goals still available, so make sure to check it out.
Messenger #23 and Proton #1 by Jerry Ordway
Comic legend Jerry Ordway has a new sci-fi hero series in the works, and he’s reprinting the first appearance and taking orders for debut of the series proper.
Extra Patterings
What did you read this week?
Rob
More Hickman X-Men, and some vintage Liz Prince, among other things.
James
I reread the first issue of the Other History of the DC Universe and I reread the first 4 issues of We Only Find Them When They're Dead in anticipation of reading the new issues out this week. Other History is great but wow it's a dense read! And We only find them is such a great, exciting series.
K.C.
Siberian Haiku - Jurga Vilé & Lina Itagaki, Bride’s Story - Kaoru Mori, Sneeze - Naoki Urasawa, Blue Giant - Shinichi Ishizuka
Stephen
New Department of Truth, new Rorschach, new Batman/Catwoman, new Dark Detective. I also just bought the first 2 volumes of Death Note, and I’m reading House of M (shoutout Wandavision).
Mike
I read and adored The Magic Fish by Trung Lê Capecchi-Nguyễn, a book that easily would have made it onto my 2020 list if I had read it in time. I also finished the second volume of Black Hammer: Age of Doom, a bizarre gap despite my enjoyment of that series, and Charles Soule’s new Star Wars High Republic novel, The Light of the Jedi.
What is on your reading pile?
Rob
Some upcoming manga from Viz, this week's monthlies.
James
The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott by Zoe Thorogood. My Panel Pals have raved about it so I got it from the library.
K.C.
Mermaid Saga Vol.1, In Clothes Called Fat, Hostage, Nori, Beautiful Darkness, Year of the Rabbit, Nineteen, Ōoku the Inner Chambers Vol.1, Go With the Clouds, North-by-Northwest vol.4
Stephen
Civil War, more Death Note, Adventure Time, and finally The Dark Knight Returns.
Mike
I might have accidentally checked out 18 books from the library so let’s say I’m prioritizing Remina and the a novel called A Thousand Ships.
What is a series that merits a re-read in 2021?
Rob
Perhaps Ex Machina, which tells what happens when one person gets too much political power.
James
I just read a great article on SKTCHD that was an oral history of Marvel's 2015 series "Secret Wars" and it makes me want to reread all of the Hickman Marvel stuff - FF, Avengers, etc.
K.C.
Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū by Haruko Kumota
Stephen
The Dark Knight Returns haha. Also maybe Snyder’s Batman. That was a standout for me last year, and it’s all on ComiXology Unlimited.
Mike
As DC heads in a new direction, I’ve found myself looking back on the Johns era of DC and decided to re-read some of his contributions, starting with JSA. I’ve also been pining for Brightest Day and the vision of the DC Universe as Johns and Tomasi laid it out. I’m not looking for a return to this time, nor am I unhappy with the current direction - quite the contrary. But, I find it to be a bit of a historical exercise to look at where the DC Universe was ten to fifteen years ago compared to where it’s heading today.
That will do it for this week’s iteration of Panel Patter: The Newsletter. Be sure to check in at Panel Patter Dot Com this week for more reviews, quick hits, cultural milestones, cheap takedowns, random lists of things in our houses, and also the weekly Catch It picks.