2012 Comic Book Bin Awards Announced

written by Leroy Douresseaux

I am also a writer and quasi-editor for the website, the Comic Book Bin. A few years ago, the Bin initiated the Binnies (or BINnies), the site’s very own comic book awards.

The guy behind Binnies is writer/editor, Zak Edwards, who announced the results of the 2012 Binnie Awards (the Third Annual Binnies) at the end of this past week:

http://www.comicbookbin.com/Welcome_to_the_2012_Binnie_Awards.html

Third Annual Binnie Awards Winners and runner-ups:

Best New Series: Saga
Runner-Up: Hawkeye

Best Mini-Series: Bedlam
Runner-Up: Before Watchmen: Minutemen

Best OGN: The Underwater Welder
Runner-Up: Wild Children

Best Anthology: Dark Horse Presents
Rocketeer Adventures 2

Best Ongoing Series: Batman
Runner-Up: Rachel Rising

Best Artist: Terry Moore
Runner-Up: Matt Kindt

Best Writer: Scott Snyder
Runner-Up: Jonathan Hickman

Best Comic Adaptation: The Avengers
Runner-Up: The Dark Knight Rises

Biggest Surprise/Best Moment: Death of Agent Coulson
Runner-Up: Marvel NOW!

Biggest Disappointment: DC Comics
Runner-Up: The Dark Knight Rises

Best Publisher: Image Comics
Runner-Up: Valiant


For your interest, dear reader, here, is how I voted:

Best Writer:
Chris Ware – Building Stories (Pantheon Books)

Best Artist:
Chris Ware – Building Stories

Best New Series (An ongoing series that debuted this year):
Bad Medicine by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir and Christopher Mitten (Oni Press)

Best Ongoing Series
Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ Media)

Best Mini-Series (The series should have either started or ended this year):
The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee with Scott Dunbier as editor (IDW)

Best OGN (original graphic novel):
Batman: Earth One by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank (DC Comics)

Best Anthology (we sometimes collapse this and OGN together if we can't fill up the space)
The Judas Coin by Walter Simonson (DC Comics)

Best Moment/Biggest Surprise
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story (HarperCollins) – a history of Marvel Comics by Sean Howe

Biggest Disappointment:
The Dark Knight Rises (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Best Comic Adaptation:
The Avengers (Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Studios)

Best Publisher
VIZ Media

07-Ghost: Meet Hakuren Oak

I read 07-GHOST, Vol. 2 (07-Ghost (Viz Media))

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics).

Review: STROBE EDGE Volume 2

STROBE EDGE, VOL. 2
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Io Sakisaka
TRANSLATION: JN Productions
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Ysabet MacFarlane
LETTERS: John Hunt
ISBN: 978-1-4215-5069-5; paperback; Rated “T” for “Teen”
200pp, B&W, $9.99 US, $12.99 CAN, £6.99 UK

Strobe Beat is a shojo manga from creator Io Sakisaka. Its premise asks, what if the guy that the heroine falls in love with is not available? That heroine is 16-year-old Ninako Kinoshita; the guy is Ren Ichinose. Just before summer vacation, Ninako tells Ren how she feels about him. But he turns her down...

As Strobe Beat, Vol. 2 begins, summer vacation is over and Ninako is ready to see Ren again. She hopes that she can still be friends with him. Will their first meeting since he rejected her at the train station be awkward? As if she didn’t have enough on her mind, there is a new boy, Takumi Ando, who keeps getting under her skin and in her way.

Ando isn’t the only new thing in Ninako’s school life. She meets the Rejected Alliance and also Ren’s girlfriend, Mayuka Korenaga! Plus, the bonus story, “Strobe Edge ~Another Light~” tells the story of how Mayuka and Ren met.

The Strobe Edge manga has some beautiful art, like so many Shojo Beat series. Graphically and visually, it reminds me of Miki Aihara’s shojo series, Honey Hunt. Like Honey Hunt, Strobe Edge has mean girls and impolite boys. This series is driven by the conflict within Ninako Kinoshita: how can she remain friends with Ren without bringing up the fact that she still loves him. Her obstacles are that she gets in her way and that the other students also make things difficult or awkward between Ninako and Ren.

Well, I’m a sucker for Shojo Beat teen romance, so perhaps, dear reader, you can take whatever I say with a grain of salt. I do think that this series must do something to stand out from the pack. Still, I look forward to the inevitable you-took-my-man confrontation between Ninako and Mayuka Korenaga.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Tenjo Tenge: Susano-O the Swift

I read Tenjo Tenge, Vol. 10: Full Contact Edition 2-in-1

I posted a review at ComicBookBin.

Albert Avilla Reviews: Green Lantern #14

Green Lantern #14
DC Comics

Reviewed by Albert Avilla

Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Doug Mahnke
Inks: Christian Alamy, Mark Irwin, Keith Champagne and Tom Nguyen

“Courage” (Spoilers!)

The Guardians are planning to destroy the Green Lantern Corps. Okay, we covered this before. Now, it’s time for the new Lantern to get into some action. The Justice League is on the scene; there is going to be some major throwing-down going on in this piece, yeah, buddy!

Nope! We get some jibber-jabber about helping Simon Baz get his ring off and finding out what happened to Hal Jordan . Once Batman puts his hands on the ring, Sinestro uses the ring’s energy to slap the Justice League off. Baz decides to run; he makes a car and fast and furiously gets his ass out of that situation. Don’t let the cover fool you; not a punch, a lasso, batarang, or trident was used in the making of this comic. How does Baz make his getaway? He confuses the League by making hundreds of cars and driving away.

Simon gets a lead on the van that blew up in the car factory. The Guardians who were guarding the vault are locked in the vault and the First Lantern is on the loose. Now, the Black Lantern shows up trying to find out where he is. Not finished yet; hold on. Some ominous figure shows up in the place where Hal and Sinestro are, and he’s ready to make Sinestro pay for his crimes. There are a lot of things happening in this story. The background has been set for this story. Now, let’s tie up the loose ends; it’s time to rumble. All this crossing-over and the only place that I can find some action is in the Red Lanterns.

The art is good. It is the strength of the book. The Justice League looks good. The artists are carrying their share of the load.

I rate Green Lantern 14 Read a Friend’s Copy. #3 (of 5) on the Al-O-Meter Ranking

Albert Avilla Reviews: Batman #14

Batman #14
DC Comics

Reviewed by Albert Avilla

Writer: Scott Synder
Pencils: Greg Capullo
Inks: Jonathan Glapion
Cover: Greg Capullo and FCO Plascencia
Variant Cover: Trevor McCarthy variant

“Funny Bones” (Spoilers!)

This is another gem from Mr. Synder. Batman has to get out of a minor difficulty in the beginning; Synder makes it a heroic moment. The Joker didn’t kill Alfred; he kidnapped him, because he needed a butler. Synder does a masterful job of illustrating the Joker’s unpredictable and fearsome nature through Commissioner Gordon. Gordon is breaking down from the pressure that the Joker is putting on his life, and to top it off, the Joker almost kills Gordon.

The Joker is always attacking physically and psychologically. I am afraid to read this stuff. It takes great strength and resolve to face him in battle. Batman tries to outthink him, but the Joker is always two steps ahead of him. Joker has his own arsenal of gadgets that keep Batman at his wit’s end. The Joker’s new sewn on his face adds to the Joker’s maniacal persona, if that is even possible. He is awesomely frightening in the new face. The Joker throws the Bat world into chaos when he claims to know everyone’s identity and predicts that they will be dead in seventy-two hours by Batman’s hands. The Joker not only has the Bat Family in turmoil, he also has the Gotham underworld in chaos. The Joker is that relative that everybody is happy when he leaves.

We learn that he has set up the Penguin to help him in his plot to destroy the Batman in a six-page extra, entitled “Men of Worship.” This is a whole other level of heroic fantasy.

The art just adds to the terror and gruesomeness of the story. I don’t usually enjoy the dark style in comics, but this is the only way this story should be illustrated. The splash page with Gordon and Batman is a masterpiece of terror.

I rate Batman #14 Buy Your Own Copy. #2 (of 5) on the Al-O-Meter Ranking

D.Gray-man: Searching for Allen Walker

I read D.Gray-man, Vol. 23

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics).