Comics I've been reading lately (February 2013)

Updated on December 10, 2021

While there’s my monthly recommended comics lists, I thought listing some of the other comics I’ve been reading lately (that wouldn’t appear on such lists) might be worth a post. So, here goes:

Scott Pilgrim: “Pilgrim” is a six-volume series by Bryan Lee O’Malley about a Toronto musician who finds a new girlfriend, but ends up fighting (martial arts-style) her old flames. Weird, but I thought the first volume was amusing, so I’ll be buying the others in the series. “Pilgrim” was originally in black-and-white, but colorized versions are being re-released.
Bakuman: Yes, this is something different for me, a manga series. The series, which ended on volume 20, is about two teenage boys who’re working at becoming manga artists: Moritaka Mashiro (whose uncle was a manga artist), and Akito Takagi (who’s always carrying a pair of headphones). While I’m only on volume two so far, I’m enjoying the boys’ adventures. Reading right to left takes some getting used to, as well as some of the Japanese cultural elements, though the footnotes helpfully explain any of the more obscure ones (such as a few Japanese holidays).
AAAA! A FoxTrot Kids Edition: A compilation of various daily “FoxTrot” comic strips. While advertised as a kid-friendly edition, it’s still the strip’s usual hilarious self. The storyline where Peter and Jason are sent out to buy school supplies is particularly funny (Jason wants to use the $20 Mom gave him to buy comic books and gum).

I’ve also been trying out some webcomics. While a lot of the ones I’ve read seem seem to not shy away from cursing/being crude “South Park”-like (as “Candorville” once joked), there’s some that’re still amusing even in spite of such:

xkcd: Various geeky jokes are made in this strip, most of which I get, some I don’t—and not just because I was a liberal arts major, as the strip’s description on its page jokes.
The Oatmeal: Some amusing strips, such as the “how to fix any computer” strip. The cartoonist also has done some real-life efforts into promoting the work of inventor and scientist Nikola Tesla.
PvP: A long-running webcomic about the employees of a fictional video game magazine. I liked the recent “Star Trek vs. Star Wars” debate strips (as for which petition I’d sign, probably neither—a reboot I didn’t much care for versus Yet Another Sequel).
JL8: A webcomic about most of the founding members of the Justice League of America (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, and the Martian Manhunter) as grade-schoolers, albeit with all of their powers and costumes intact. Very amusing and cute strip. While we’ve seen Clark as Superboy before, of course (though here, he didn’t like a newspaper calling him Superboy despite that being who he is…), and Diana as Wonder Girl, seeing a grade-school Bruce in Batman’s costume is a new one. Oddly, Aquaman isn’t seen here despite also being a founding JLAer…future strips, maybe?
Scandinavia and the World: A webcomic about the countries of the world as anthropomorphized “spirits” (a la Uncle Sam), reflecting each nation’s stereotypes/culture. I particularly like Sweden out of the Nordic countries.

And as long as I’m being thorough, I’ll also list the various newspaper comics I also read, though I read all of them online:

Baldo
Doonesbury
Get Fuzzy
La Cucaracha
Luann
The Meaning of Lila: unfortunately now cancelled, but in reruns.
Monty
Pearls Before Swine
FoxTrot
Edge City
Mother Goose and Grimm
Mutts
Dilbert
This Modern World: the long-running alternative-newspaper political cartoon by Tom Tomorrow.
Kyle’s Bed and Breakfast: a comic running mainly in LGBT newspapers about a gay-owned-and-oriented bed-and-breakfast in Long Island, New York, and the various people who stay there.
A Couple of Guys: another comic mainly seen in LGBT newspapers, about a New York City-dwelling gay couple and their assorted cast of friends.