2020 Blogging Projects #2: Unread Comics

I own a lot of books. Most of them I’ve read. Many still that I haven’t. This second year long project to help me work through my TBR shelf and to encourage me to write stuff for SUR will focus on comics.

I’ve put together a list of comics I’d like to read this year. I was going pick a number and use that as my goal. Instead, I’ve made a list of all the comics I own that I have yet to read and pick some from there. Here are the lists, sorted into four categories.

Multi Volume Series:

This list is made up of series, mostly. Not necessarily complete series or complete runs by a single creative team on a series, though many on this list will fit that description. All I mean by series for the context of this project is any comic that I own that has two or more volumes of it that are unread. Here is that list, in no particular order:

1)      Seven Soldiers of Victory, Books One and Two by Grant Morrison et al

2)      Swamp Thing, volumes 8 and 9 by Rick Veitch

3)      Star Wars: Legacy, Books 1-3 by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema (mostly)

4)      Wasteland volumes 6-11 by Antony Johnston, Christopher Mitten, et al

5)      The Cartoon History of the Universe I, II, and III by Larry Gonick

6)      Zenith: Phase One to Four by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell

7)      Casanova: Acedia, volumes 1 and 2 by Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba, and Fabio Moon

8)      Southern Bastards, volumes 1 and 2 by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour

9)      Tokyo Ghost, volumes 1 and 2 by Rick Remender and Sean Murphy

10)   The Spirit, Books One and Two by Darwyn Cooke

11)   Concrete, volumes 3 and 4 by Paul Chadwick

You’ll notice some of these start counting mid-series (Wasteland, Concrete, etc.). This is because I’ve already read the preceding volumes. I may or may not include them when writing about the above. It’s my blog so I make the rules!

Single Volume:

Most of the comics on this particular list are short series or mini-series. However, you will finda few random volumes that are part of a longer series. For the purposes of this project, single volume comics simply mean any comic that I own only a single volume of that is unread. Here is that list, in no particular order:

1)           S.H.I.E.L.D. by Jim Steranko: The Complete Collection by Jim Steranko

2)           Crisis on Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman and George Perez

3)           Blueberry: Intégrale, Tome 1 by Jean-Michel Charlier (Moebius)

4)           X-Men: Asgardian Wars by Chris Claremont

5)           Spider-Man: The Death of Jean DeWolff by Peter  David

6)           Batgirl/Robin: Year One by Chuck Dixon

7)           Paleo: The Complete Collection by Jim Lawson

8)           Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware

9)           Jungle Book: Stories by P. Craig Russell

10)         Rose by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess

11)         Marvel Universe: The End by Jim Starlin

12)         SIP Kids by Terry Moore

13)         The Multiversity by Grant Morrison

14)         The Wrenchies by Farel Dalrymple

15)         Brighter Than You Think: 10 Short Works by Alan Moore: With Critical Essays by  Marc Sobel

16)         Excalibur Epic Collection Vol. 1: The Sword Is Drawn by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis

17)         Jon Sable, Freelance by Mike Grell

18)         Sisters by Raina Telgemeier

The next two categories are a mixture of single volume comics and series comics. They’re separated out for the mysterious reasons that while I consider them comics, manga and comics that are part of the Mignola’s Hellboy and B.P.R.D. universe tend to fall into different categories in my brain. I’ve labelled them Bonus categories in order to heighten the sense of mystery. Or call it whimsy, whatever you want.

Bonus - Five Manga volumes:

1)      Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Volume 13 by Fumi Yoshinaga

2)      Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Volume 14 by Fumi Yoshinaga

3)      Bleach (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 4: Includes vols. 10, 11 & 12 by Tite Kubo

4)      Vagabond, Volume 1 by Takehiko Inoue

5)      Ode to Kirihito by Osamu Tezuka

Bonus - Five comics in Mignolaverse:

1)      Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder, Vol. 3: The Mysteries of Unland

2)      Abe Sapien, Vol. 3: Dark & Terrible & the New Race of Man

3)      Abe Sapien, Vol. 4: The Shape of Things to Come

4)      Lobster Johnson, Vol. 2: The Burning Hand

5)      Abe Sapien, Vol. 5: Sacred Places

Now that I’ve listed a ton of comics, let me explain what this project is about. It’s about publically shaming myself into reading stuff I bought ages ago and haven’t read yet. This isn’t about rereading, unless I’m rereading volumes of a series that I haven’t finished reading in it’s entirely (again Wasteland). It’s that simple.

The exercise, which will be repeated throughout the year, is to read one of the comics listed above, then write about it for SUR. That’s it.

I want to know if anybody else buys comics that they do not end up reading for a long time. I think it’s more common with prose books (see another 2020 Blogging Project forthcoming focusing on prose), but it happens just as much for me with comics.

I want to hear about your comics TBR of shame. Write me a comment or show us a picture of your TBR pile/shelf.