posted
Yeah, it's a very hard book to review. All I know is it's excellent.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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The preview for Unwritten just didn't look interesting. I don't dig Harry Potter, so even a send up of it seems like it wouldn't be something I'd enjoy. I got the first trade based on good word of mouth, but it still sits on my shelf unread. I think I just need to be sold on it.
From: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by rouge: The preview for Unwritten just didn't look interesting. I don't dig Harry Potter, so even a send up of it seems like it wouldn't be something I'd enjoy. I got the first trade based on good word of mouth, but it still sits on my shelf unread. I think I just need to be sold on it.
I bought that one to for the same reason--the word of mouth. And like you, mine has sat on the shelf unread because I wasn't inclined to get it in the first place. (Of course I have a HUGE backlog of unread TPBs anyway...) It's low on my "things to read" list. This is despite the fact that I DO dig Harry Potter.
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Outdoor Miner: The Unwritten continues to be a great book, though I can't really do it justice review-wise.
The second trade is coming in my next DCBS shipment... can't wait.
Cool. Hope you enjoy the story as much as I have.
Definitely enjoying it.
CT and Rouge, I wish I could explain what appears to be happening here that would get you to at least give the trade a chance...
OM, am I wrong in my interpretation that Tom's father has written him into these immensely popular books to give him the abilities needed to combat Pullman and his unseen (as of the 2nd trade) bosses? That's what I took from the Jud Suss two-parter, anyway... Love how Tom was able to Click Here For A Spoilerunravel the "canker" the Nazis built around the original novel .
-------------------- "Anytime a good book like this is cancelled, I hope another Teen Titan is murdered." --Cobalt
"Anytime an awesome book like S6 is cancelled, I hope EVERY Titan is murdered." --Me
From: Up a Gumtree | Registered: Jul 2003
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Pov, I DO have the trade but just haven't put it anywhere near the top of my read pile. Like rouge, I bought it because of the word of mouth. I guess it's the preview they put in the books before #1 was released. Those pages were just underwhelming. I know, it's not fair to judge a book by its first few pages, but sometimes, that's all we have to judge whether or not to drop the money on something.
That said, I bought the trade, so it WILL get read! Eventually....
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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With the recent discussion of Unwritten, it's timely, because I've just caught up on the recent issues. I want to give you guys a whole beautiful paragraph about why you should read it immediately, but it's actually rather hard to put into words. Like Outdoor Miner said earlier in the thread, it's a difficult series to describe.
Know that there are excellent characters with excellent characterization. An incredibly complex and cool plotline with all kinds of twists and mysterious. Gorgeous artwork.
But one thing I can say is if you liked Sandman, you'll like Unwritten. It's the comic most like Sandman to come out since Sandman in terms of themes and narrative / metaphorical nature of the story-telling, it's quite similar to Gaiman's approach in Sandman. This series has a specific plot and characters, but in a much bigger picture, it's a story about stories. It's a narrative about the nature of fiction and how it shapes reality, and people who loved Dream of the Endless and that aspect of Gaiman's Sandman will love this series.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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I also caught up on Daytripper, which is now approaching it's final issue. What a great series by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba--each issue is really moving. The 9th issue really began to tie it all together and almost felt like the final issue; I know there is one more to come, so I'm curious as to what else will be added to this already excellent maxiseries.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Fat Cramer: I also read Cairo, by G. Willow Wilson (writer) and M. K. Perker (artist). A pleasant surprise; I was expecting a story about some Americans in Cairo, with interesting visuals of the city. However, the story was a bit more complex, mixing in the fantastic with the everyday events.
There was a good mix of characters: a young Lebanese-American on a spiritual quest, an Orange County girl looking for a meaningful life, a female Israeli soldier stranded in Cairo, a drug smuggler, a journalist, a rather earthly djinn (who doesn't grant wishes but manipulates probabilities), and an assortment of bad guys - who all get entangled with one another. Throw in an Underground Nile Realm and you've got a captivating combination of caper, chase and romance.
Based on FC's review several months ago, I picked up the Cairo OGN (see, it pays to review, people read your recs!); I'm really glad I did, because I thought it was an excellent and fascinating read. I previously had read the first two TPB’s of Air and praised them in this thread, and I hadn’t realized that the same creative team responsible for Air also did Cairo first. I can see some strong similarities between Cairo and Air in terms of themes and tones and this is a very good thing.
Like FC says above, the very best thing about Cairo is how Wilson and Perker are able to weave together the fantastical elements of Egyptian history of various eras with modern political overtones. Muslim and Israeli tensions may take centerstage for a few pages and then the next few pages will involve a djinn or the awesome Under-Nile legend (a river below the Nile that runs in the opposite direction). That combination was a terrific was to make fantasy elements seem incredibly realistic; like my review of Air, the only real comparison I can make is the way the television show Lost.
The story centers on 6 major characters and each one is fleshed out really well, undergoing their own personal journey. In the middle to end parts, I was suddenly amazed by how moving each character’s journey had become. Wilson re-uses the phrase “your boundaries are your journey” a few times and it was done incredibly well. She also does a really beautiful job at showing how one of the characters, Shaheed, interrupts the Qur’an one way in the beginning and midway through comes to realize he was interrupting it completely wrong; he eventually begins to see it as uplifting, strong message, in the way it was originally intended. It’s incredibly topical right now, but that takes a backseat to the poignant way Wilson writes the sequence.
I didn’t really know much about G. Willow Wilson before this until I read the back cover for her brief auto-biographical summary. I didn’t realize she was a woman and I didn’t realize she converted to Islam in her early 20’s. Both of those things obviously inform her writing in a deep way and I can understand her perspective more by knowing that. She’s really talented and I not only will be buying the rest of the Air trades as I always planned, but I will be following her around to whatever project she does next.
M. K. Perker, her partner in crime, has a great connection with the author and they seem to compliment each other very well. At first, Perker’s art is a little cartoony, but as the story goes on, you get used to it quickly and come appreciate Perker’s strong points, particularly his facial expressions and how he provides an element of ‘wonder’ to the fantastical elements of the story.
I was very pleased with this read. To be perfectly honest, I’ve grown incredibly tired of political statements about the Middle East and require some sort of originality in stories with that setting; I was delighted to find not only was this a very original take, it was not preachy at all, and the setting truly informed the characters and story.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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While traveling heavily for the last week, I brought along several TPB's to read on the planes. One was a story I read several years ago, but wanted to reread, Death: the High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman. Most people know this, but for those that do not, this is a supplement to Gaiman's Sandman series, and features Dream's sister, Death, who was hugely popular in the 1990's.
The reason for rereading this was because while I've reread a lot of Gaiman's Sandman over the years, I've never reread this. It wasn't my favorite of his stories and IMO isn't one of his very best, but it is a solid, strong story that has all the facets of the 'Gaiman charm'.
It has extremely likable walk-on characters, a story that feels very 'small scale' yet epic in terms of characterization, and has that quintessential 1990's Gaiman outlook on the world that may have just inspired the 'emo outlook'. In fact, Sexton, the teenager who hangs around Death the whole story, is the most emo character ever in comic books--doing the typical teenager "the world sucks and isn't worth living" bit, while acting as if his worldview is the most informed and poignant of anyone's. Naturally, he's still just a teenager and totally has no idea what he's talking about, but Gaiman is always sure to show how sometimes he's not that far off the mark.
This is definitely a story worth getting for someone whose never read it.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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I read American Vampire # 6 last night, and I must say that this book is looking very healthy post-Stephen King if this first offering is a good indication! This is an especially good thing because the first five issues didn't exactly knock my socks off as they progressed. Though they were ripe with some decent moments of characterization, the two split stories of those issues went to some predictable places plotwise. Worse, King's Skinner Sweet story was downright confusing read in monthly format. It was hard to remember who's who and what's what, especially among the good guys in his story.
But with number six, Snyder goes it alone and shows quite a bit of promise as this arc changes the setting to the formative years of what we now know Las Vegas to be. As with his focus on early Hollywood in his first arc, Snyder shows us Vegas as it is about to become the Sin City it is (in)famous for being. Snyder shows how it began to attract the gambling and partying element as it catered to workers who were constructing the nearby Hoover Dam in their downtime.
We meet Vegas's sheriff who is dealing with the town's overnight growth and especially all the crime this brings with it. His police force is far too understaffed and underfunded to deal with this negative side effect of his town's growth. He doesn't know it yet, but the latest crime he's investigating heralds the presence of another unsavory element in his town--vampires. And by the end of this issue we learn our old friend Skinner Sweet has already dug his nails into the town.
Honestly, the issue would be fascinating to me even without the vampiric elements. If this were simply the story of nascient Las Vegas and a sheriff trying to deal with a sudden overwhelming criminal element, I'd really be enjoying the story on that alone. It seems Snyder's one of those writers who's gifted with telling interesting historically-set stories. Having already interested me in silent film-era Hollywood, he's awakened another interest I never knew I had in learning part of how Vegas became Vegas. That's quite a talent in my book.
Snyder also has his secret weapon in Rafael Albuquerque, his tremendously gifted artistic collaborator. Albuquerque has already drawn three American historical settings in this series and pulled them all off terrifically while subtly changing his style for each. He's terrific with setting the story's mood and selling the characters to us. I'd say he's as much the star here as Snyder, and I hope they are together for the long haul.
I was kind of iffy about whether I'd continue with this book for much longer after the initial arc and with the $3.99 price tag staying even with reduced story pages, but this issue seems to show that this series has a lot of life to it and should be well worth the cost! I hope it lives up to the promise!
[ October 03, 2010, 07:01 PM: Message edited by: Chief Taylor ]
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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The 6 Senses storyline in Madame Xanadu is nearly finished (along with the whole series <sob>) and while I haven't loved it as much as I did Wagner's earlier stories - I have to say it has been pretty dang good, and I *love* the creative risk he took by having each of these issues be about a totally new character with the lovely Madame only popping up for at most a couple of pages here and there to help/hinder our protagonists/antogonists along their paths.
My only criticism with it this month was that we spent so long building up to the big confrontation between Madame and the baddie and then it was over in such a quick flash. I really needed a longer, more satisfying fight there.
The experiment with having each issue drawn by a different (female) artist has been good too - though this month's artwork did take a little while to get used to. This artist clearly comes from a fashion sketching/design background which suited this story but meant lots of weird, angular figures.
This book has had such a welcome place on my pull-list since it began, I'm really going to miss it when it's gone.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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I also just bought all three Trades of The Young Liars. Did anyone here read that book? I think I remember hearing good things about it around the traps.
Will post a review once I'm done with it.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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I scanned through a few issues in the store and thought it was OK, but something about it kept me from committing to it as a purchase. hard to put my finger on it, but I don't think I cared about the characters much.
I agree with your thoughts on Madame Xanadu. Definitely going to miss that book. This issue did seem like Wagner was more interested in the modd piece he was creating and just kind of shoe-horned the title character in at the end.
The baddie might be a conglomerate of various real-life celebs, but much of her history is clearly drawn from model/singer Nico of Velvet Underground/solo fame.
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