Print

[The Australian Panther]

In terms of current comics, what's happening, whats new thats good.
First, the US.
The big two. There are some good things, but very little.
Both companies have in my way of looking at it largely abandoned reality. Marvel grounded Super heroics in reality.  DC followed suit but those days are long gone.
Both companies now just use the characters as starting points for any kind of stories, Multiverses, Magic, Clones, Imaginary [Headspace] stories, doppelgangers, alternate realities, Zombie Universes, Dark Universes and on it goes.
They used to do events.Massive story-lines tying half the titles together.
Now they do 3 or 4 at a time. Result? Who cares? 
One trend that is becoming widespread. Page after page of characters just talking . Nothing visually interesting happening in the pages, no action. I feel that this is a negative consequence of writers becoming paramount as the creators.   
So is there anything good?
Marvel. I have liked the Black Cat series, the current Black Widow series and  Strange Academy. Some nice ideas in this one.
DC. There are way too many Bat Books, but, that said, some of them aren?t bad. I?m quite liking Robins With all of the various current and past Robins exploring similarities and differences. And also Batgirls, (with the 3 batgirls). I know both books sound horrendous, but they might surprise you. The current Human Target book is nice. Very human look at some of the DC characters. Green Lantern is quite interesting, but that is about it for me.
The really noteworthy books are the independents.
I enjoy,
Firefly two series now. They keep entertaining me.
Once and Future Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora.
If you read this, you need to start from the beginning, or you will get lost. What Jack Kirby did with Norse, Roman and Greek Mythology, Gillen and Mora do with British and Celtic mythology. And Gillen knows his stuff. Takes off like a rocket and hasn't stopped yet. And Aunt May on Steroids to boot!             
Firepower. Robert Kirkman and Chris Samee
Good old-style comic  and revolves around A suburban family, a dog, Ninjas and Dragons. What?s not to like.
I can?t comment on manga, I?m not up with it. 
But really, European comics are the real deal right now. And its becoming more common to translate them for English editions, so people are beginning to take note. 
A few that I thoroughly recommend.
Streamliner by Fane. Magnetic Press. On-going series.
This to me is a masterpiece. Somebody must film it, because it is structured wonderfully as a film. Can't wait for  the finale.
These are not new, but on-going. Published as Graphic Novels but as part of series. 
Blacksad by Juan Diaz Canales and Guarnido. Superb. I?m just going to shut up about it, no spoilers. I'd wipe anybody who spoiled it for me.
TAXI by Alfonso Font Saf comics. Escapist adventure. But the detail in the art! I keep going back to it and drooling.
Taxi Tales by Ergun Gunduz. Europe comics Totally different style and art. A Taxi driver relates stories told to him by his passengers. A Turkish artist.
Noir Burlesque #1 by Marini Europe comics. My kind of book.
But that really just scratching the surface, with my fingernail only.
So, there is a still a comics industry out there. Inevitably it will grow and evolve.
Wishing us all a better new year and a fruitful one. 
See you in 2022! Cheers.

[paw broon]

Interesting crit of current comics.  I'm not really qualified to comment on very recent product as I have found most mainstream material unreadable or downright awful in recent years.  I will though have a look at some of your big 2 suggestions. There is also the problem of value as I believe a lot of modern comics are simply not worth the price.
This year I have bought old comics and some TPBs.  And having followed the conversation here on Kirby which brought up the controversy of X-Men and Doom Patrol, I dug out MGA and some DP comics and re-read them. They were most enjoyable and I still prefer them to early X-Men.  Actually, I'm not a big X-Men fan.
Euro comics.  I have a collection of Corto Maltese titles in French and Italian and re-read a couple this year.  Simply superb.  Also Alvar Mayor but my editions are in Spanish and it's slow going so I don't read a lot at a time.
As a long time Rip Kirby aficionado, I'm fortunate to have the newspaper strips and the Super Detective Library versions.  Just great stories produced by a master of the craft. 
It is so difficult to choose modern comics after the old stuff, but I do appreciate there is a lot of worthwhile reading out there and I will make a better effort to get hold of some Euro books particularly.
What I have planned for my reading pleasure in the New Year is going back to a French series, Agence Hardy by Pierre Christin and Annie Goetzinger.  Haven't read them for a couple of years.  Good stories, well told.

[gregjh]

Just like Paw Broon I only offer modern-era comics a cursory glance as I do feel the industry - especially for the big two - is in a great decline.I mostly support indie comics from Kickstarter or indigogo. The only youtube channels related to comics that I follow are Comics Matter with Zack, Just some guy and Yellow Flash.

With that said I will certainly seek out the suggestions you made and on that note, I want to wish everyone here a happy new year and mention that I enjoy reading the analysis of you guys as much as I enjoy the comics themselves. I always learn something.