Category: year in review – 2008

Fin Fang Doom says: Larry Stroman!

I don’t think I’ve ever got to the point that I hated looking at a comic so much that I didn’t want to buy it anymore, but that was the case when Stroman took over the art duties on X-Factor earlier this year. The writing had been slipping for a while, but the art was the final (and biggest) nail in the coffin. Stroman can’t draw a face to save his own, and he doesn’t seem to understand that characters have specific looks that the artist is supposed to reasonably recreate. Like for instance, M should be a young, hot chick, not your middle-aged sister in her baggiest pair of sweats.

Jim Doom says: Billy Tan!

Man, this guy is awful. I’m sure there are worst artists out there in the comics world, but Tan’s awfulness is amplified by the prominence of the books he’s assigned to. Most recently, that has been New Avengers. Here’s what I said about him throughout the year:

“I think this guy must be convinced that there is a direct relationship between number of lines and quality of art. He’s wrong, obviously. This is just a dirty mess.”

“And Billy Tan is pretty awful.”

“Oh and Billy Tan is just terrible. Would someone do me a favor and stop hiring him?”

Doom DeLuise says: JG Jones! (more…)

It’s that time of year again, where every website and blog on the Internet starts throwing out their year-end Best Of lists. Of course, not to be outdone, we here at Doomkopf.com are going to be spending the next couple weeks rolling out our very own lists of what we thought was the best and worst of 2008 in the comics world.

Each member of the Legion has made their own lists, so each day, twice a day, we’ll compile our picks for each category and toss up a new blog with our choices and the explanations behind those choices. If you’re a long-time reader, you’ll know that this is the fourth year that we’ve done something along these lines.

It’s been quite a year, so we’ll have lots of stuff to discuss. Think about it; last year at this time, none of us knew what Final Crisis was going to even be about. So much has changed…since…then…

Huh. Well, you get the point. When 2008 started, we were midway through Countdown, the worst comic series I’ve ever laid eyes on. Spider-Man had just made his deal with Mephisto to overhaul twenty-some years of continuity, and the groundwork for a giant Skrull invasion was being feverishly laid in the Avengers books.

Now, Batman’s dead (kind of), the Secret Invasion is over (the good guys won, kind of), and Bucky has firmly solidified his role as Steve Rogers’ successor, the new Captain America (really).

Who knows what 2009 has to offer? Well, lots of people in the industry, I’m sure. I mean, they plan this stuff pretty far in advance. Surely, they have to have some clue, right?

Oh well. We’ll get to all of that eventually. For the next couple weeks, join us as we look back on the year that was 2008.