Buzzscope Comics: Best of 2005

What’s good? What’s worth the money? What will leave you satisfied when it’s done, and not wishing you’d bought a copy of Entertainment Weekly, or rented Batman Begins instead? Fear not, loyal reader, because we here at Buzzscope have read way more comic books this year than, say, Andrew Arnold – plus, we don’t self-consciously spell comics with an annoyingly pretentious “x” – slogging through some of the worst comics to hit the shelves, in order to bring you the Best Comics of 2005.

COMMENT: Who Cares About Journalism?

The response to yesterday’s article reminds me a bit of how minorities often tend to be more accepting of a lesser quality product made by one of their own, simply happy to have something they can relate to. (ie: UPN comedies, Wayans brothers’ movies, Hudlin’s Black Panther, etc.) Because there’s such a lack of real journalism in the comics industry, anything resembling it becomes worthy of praise.

In the Scope: Speakeasy Shakes Things Up

Fledgling independent publisher Speakeasy Comics sent another ripple throughout the industry with their “announcement” of their own internal cutoff policy, raising the bar more than three-and-a-half times Diamond’s 500-copy threshold to 1,750 copies, and, judging from recent sales figures as reported by ICv2, placing the futures of several of their titles in doubt.