I would normally bag on mainstream comics. Most of them are boring or whatever, this isn't about those ones. I've been reading a comic by two friends of mine for half a year now, after their previous run on Supergirl, and I'm here to say that Batman: the Brave and the Bold by Landry Walker and Eric Jones is one of the best books I read this year. Admittedly, I'm biased. I think of both of them as two of my best friends in comics. But the truth is I wouldn't write about something I didn't like on here.
Landry and Eric worked for years in independent comics and created Filthy Habits, X-ray Comics and Little Gloomy as well as working on a host of other books. They still have a shared livejournal: http://xray-studios.livejournal.com/. They did an amazing run on Supergirl, creating one of the best superhero comics in recent memory.
And like that, their run on Batman (which is at an end with issue 21) is an actually engrossing lovesong to what makes superhero comics good. The stories are written for all ages, just like the 1960s comics that inspired them but they are full of all sorts of witty in-jokes and beautiful art that doesn't really have any target age. The last issue they worked on together of Batman just came out and it is particularly funny and good.
I'm serious when I say: Go pick up Batman the Brave and the Bold issues 9,10,12,14,16,18 and 21. Some of them will most likely be collected but not all of them together (unless a smart editor figures out what a diamond they have). If you are a fan of alternative or independent comics just get stoned and chillax. These comics are the definition of fun entertainment, totally tongue in cheek and enjoyable by anyone. I'm hoping that somebody at DC or Marvel will be see their way to picking up on the beautiful and symbiotic relationship that Walker as writer and Jones as artist have developed after 20 years of working together. I want to see more books by them with superheroes. Landry writes for Incredibles by Boom! comics but has yet to be pared with an artist I like as much as Eric. Eric has done other work for DC. But together they've managed to create a kind of timeless shining example of what superhero comics are capable of.
