A Look Back: Small Press 2006

An apology in advance, as A Look Back: Small Press 2006 will not be as thorough as it probably deserves to be. It’s not quite as easy to keep track of what happens in smaller companies as it is to keep track of what happens at Marvel or DC. So this review will mostly just cover the books that I read.

Image

Image Comics was more of the same this year. Invincible and The Walking Dead continue to be two of the best comics on the stands today. PvP and the color reprints of Battle Pope dished out a big helping of funny each month (ish). Savage Dragon and Spawn continued their lengthy runs. Fear Agent dealt with scheduling problems and the loss of hyped co-penciller Cory Walker before his work on the title even saw print.

Top Cow and Marvel signed some sort of a deal in 2006 that would allow Marvel the use of some of Top Cow’s talent pool in exchange for Top Cow using some Marvel characters in crossovers. As of right now I think only X-Men/Cyberforce has seen the light of day (which I remember one blogger pointing out was a crossover between a superteam and the direct rip-off of that superteam). Marvel got Tyler Kirkham, who drew a few issues of Amazing Spider-Man. Big whoop.

Dark Horse

Dark Horse celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2006, and took that as an opportunity to re-establish it’s horror roots. They put out a bunch of titles I didn’t read under the heading “Drawing on Your Nightmares.” Cal MacDonald returned in a mediocre Criminal Macabre one-shot in the summer before he starred in a pretty good mini-series that began at the very end of the year. Perhapanauts was my favorite title put out by DH this year, blending sci-fi, horror and comedic elements into one series. Also in 2006 from Dark Horse: a buttload of Conan, Star Wars and manga books.

IDW

IDW was all about licensed comics in 2006. Transformers, 24, CSI, and Angel all had multiple series released this year. 24: Nightfall hasn’t been very captivating so far, and neither has any Angel series not written by Peter David. Speaking of Peter David, his creator-owned Fallen Angel continues to be one of the best independent series published today. In fact, Fallen Angel is doing so well that former publisher DC decided to put out a new trade of the DC run of the title, as well as a trade of the early 90s mini-series featuring Fallen Angel supporting characters Sachs & Violens.

Boom! Studios

I’ve only read a handful of books from Boom! Studios, but out of those the only ones worth the price of admission have been Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis’ Hero Squared and Planetary Brigade. Planetary Brigade uses the standard Formerly Known as the Justice League formula to tell fun stories with composites of the classic JLA. Hero Squared is a comic version of the Odd Couple, with the heroic Captain Valor landing in an alternate universe (where his alter ego didn’t get superpowers) after his own universe was destroyed (which may or may not have been his fault). Valor is forced to live with his non-super counterpart Milo and fight his arch-nemesis at every turn, which just happens to be the alternate universe counterpart of Milo’s girlfriend Steph. Hilarity ensues. Check out what Jean-Claude Van Doom has to say about Boom! Studios.

Archaia Studios Press

Mouse Guard was a surprise hit for ASP this year. It’s been compared to Bone, my all-time favorite comic book story, so of course I was going to give it a try. Unfortunately, the whole series has been pretty hard to get a hold of. I’ve only read the first issue so far because I don’t want to read them out of order, but I definitely enjoyed it. I really like the trim size of the comic, as it brings back fond memories of reading storybooks as a child. It sure makes it pretty hard to find a bag to fit it in, though. Check out what Jean-Claude Van Doom has to say about some other ASP offerings.

Jean-Claude Van Doom has actually done a lot of great posts about small press stuff this year. Check out some stuff he wrote about Fantagraphics, Cheerful Abandon, Top Shelf, and Undercard. Or just click on Interviews to see which small-press creators he’s talked to.