The Autumnlands #13

The Autumnlands, Issue #13 starts with Dusty and Learoyd running away from the stone-woman Galateans, while Feniz - the golden goddess who clothed, fed, healed, and armored Learoyd following his fight with Seven Scars - watches on.  Bertie, the goat-man, is trapped in the Golden Temple, and Dusty and Learoyd go back to save him.  This current arc is a little longer than the first at eight issues instead of six.  The trade paperback goes on sale in January, if you're into that.

I bought the first trade paperback of The Autumnlands when I was buying just about every Image paperback that was coming out.  I still have nearly a dozen left to read.  Now I mostly read comics, and as good as Image still is, I'm more of a Marvel guy now.  I still buy quite a few Image titles - and I start new ones - but they're always the last ones I read every week.  I think the reason for this is that Marvel and DC comics are written for a much lower age range than Image Comics.  They're often for adults too, but they're so much easier to read than Image titles.

The lower age range isn't the only reason Marvel titles are easier to read.  More importantly, they feature characters and situations that were created decades ago, characters and situations that the reader is already familiar with.  It's much easier to read even Chuck Wendig's Hyperion than The Autumnlands because although I hadn't read anything about Hyperion before, it took place in the Marvel Universe, where superheroes roam and generally do about the same things.  The Autumnlands takes place in a whole new world.

So where do DC comics fit into this?  I read painfully few DC comics - just Green Lanterns and Blue Beetle.  I do get out the old Batman or Green Lantern comic from time to time, and there are plenty of creators I have mad respect for in those publications, but Marvel has been snapping up the writers I like the best.  Charles Soule, Jason Aaron, Jeff Lemire, etc...  Writers whose stuff before they hit the big time are what drew me the most.  Marvel also picked up Star Wars and ran with it.  It has been suggested that without Star Wars, Marvel wouldn't be outselling DC, but DC is ingrained into my generation's mind more than Marvel.  I think the upcoming generation will be a Marvel generation.