Watch out Court of Owls, the Comic Geek Round Table of Seattle is the newest secret society…well not so secret.
Tonight Zanadu Comics Downtown Seattle hosted the first ever Comics Round Table. Perry, Howard, Casey and Morgan who I learned is the store’s self-described ‘shelf monkey’ welcomed 10 customers to share, discuss and recommend what we love about the medium.
Tonight reminded me of what’s cool about comics and my fellow fans. The shared love of comics brings together fans of different backgrounds with diverse tastes and helps us understand each other and pushes us to try a different kind of book we may not usually pick up and have a new experience.
Everyone shared a book, creator or publisher that we currently love or have rediscovered to recommend to the group. I hope I have captured everyone’s picks and the topics that kept coming up during tonight’s round table.
Brothers of the Spear – Dark Horse Comics – Perry’s pick
The favorite writers of women in comics – Terry Moore, Greg Rucka
Greg Rucka’s new web comic Lady Sabre and the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether
X-Statix Omnibus by Milligan and Allred – Milligan’s Justice League Dark
2000 A.D. the birthplace of Judge Dredd and anticipation for the new film – Clint Eastwood should have been Dredd and the helmet stays on!
Preacher is the all time favorite of Scott Adams (It finally nice to put a face to the email! Great to finally meet you.)
The Goon by Eric Powell
DMZ by Brian Wood
Batwoman – a definite favorite among the majority of the round table!
Howard wanted to “show some love” to Archie recommending the twin timelines of Life With Archie and how it’s evolving into an Archie multiverse.
Secret History published by Archaia
Hellshock by Jae Lee – (I always wondered what happened to that 90’s Image creation that just vanished…the finale finally came out.)
Thunder Agents by Nick Spencer
Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remember, Wolverine and the X-Men by Jason Aaron
The Strange Talent of Luther Strode from Image Comics
Butcher Baker, The Righteous Maker by Joe Casey described by Casey as “Captain America doing drugs and banging hookers.”
Image is the source of new talent, new ideas
Elric
Hellboy, B.P.R.D.
Longshot (Much love) and X-Factor by Peter David now featuring Longshot
Swamp Thing
Animal Man
King of the Flies by Fantagraphics
Young Liars by Dave Lapham
OMAC by Dan Didio
Breaking the boys club at the big publishers could mean more female driven titles. Gail Simone and Marjorie Liu (soon to be on Astonishing X-Men) are the only top female writers
A recommendation to try European books where comics are treated like art by the mainstream and it doesn’t follow the American book a month structure/ schedule.
Jason Thompson brought everyone a copy of Hyperborea, a comic featuring his art from Mock Man Press.
Next step for the round table: A book from a non-top tier publisher for the group to read and discuss and a non-superhero genre book.
If I may have left out one of your picks or themes – I have to admit I got home and couldn’t read all my shorthand – please send me a comment on this post or to comicsblendwill@gmail.com.
If you’re in the Seattle area check out Zanadu’s facebook page or this site for the next round table and always feel free to give me your picks.
This Wednesday night meeting was the highlight of my week; even more than my usual Thursday morning Zanadu Shopping Spree Day. It was great to meet You too Will! I picked up my 3-Day Pass for Emerald City ComicCon. Hope You’ve got yours!
Thanks for the fine write-up of our gathering last evening, Will! And thanks for mentioning Hellshock. Even though that last installment wasn’t too good, the earlier ones were works of genius — each one a fine example of the synergy of art and story.
Great to meet you – I am now interested in Archaia. I know they just released an Immortals tie-in.