I have recently returned to comic collecting within the last year. I am finding it a bit disheartening. I does not seem to be what it was, and not in a positive way. So I need a few shout outs on what to take a look at. I of course have the Legion , or did, and will. Teen Titans , but that is starting to lose some of it's luster for me lately. Looking forward to the cross over though. Fables . JSA . Recently dropped Robin, JLA, all X titles, Amazing Fantasty(too slow moving). Liked Captain Marvell but the last issue sucked!
So any helpful hints? Thanks.

I'm liking Bite Club so far. Sounds like you dropped it, but Astonishing X-Men is really quite good. Runaways was good. Ex-Machina is cool. She-Hulk is fun.

A few that I enjoy and reccomend to everyone:

Birds of Prey
She-Hulk
Astonishing X-Men
Ultimate Spider-Man
Amazing Spider-Man
Marvel Knights Spider-Man
Daredevil
the Pulse
Catwoman (although the current writer is leaving)
Gotham Central
Flash (the best comic book on the market right now IMO)
Hawkman
Outsiders

And you're already collecting Legion, JSA and Fables, which are all great reads. These are the best in the biz right now IMO, even though I do collect a whole lot more.

SHE-HULK is my fave comic of all right now. Highest possible recommendation.

BIRDS OF PREY is darn good too.

OUTSIDERS rocks.

HAWKMAN is making me take notice lately. The new creative team is faboo.

FLASH under Geoff Johns has been steadily good.

The new creative team on Hawkman is pretty awesome! It has it's own distinct 'feel', and both Hawkman and Hawkgirl have their own distinct personalities (and both very likeable). And the art is totally amazing.

I recommend:

Birds of Prey
Hawkman
Outsiders
Astonishing X-Men
Thor:Son of Asgard

My 5 fave titles right now!!!!

I'm going to ring in my 2 cents worth for Birds of Prey - hubba hubba art and excellent characterization.

I dropped all X books too, but recently started with Astonishing XMen #1. I believe #4 just came out. The Kitty-Emma dichotomy is delicious.

Thanks fellow wanna be Legionnaires! I will look into some of those books. I am surprised by the She Hulk one. I have never thought she was handled very well in the Marvel universe, and that had me staying away from the new run out. Now I have to find the money to buy them. And I remember reading somewhere in some thread that it was commented Sandman was overrated. For the record, completely disagree. One of the best written series ever. I wish it were still around...Thanks again. Keep the suggestions coming if any more come top mind.

I totally agree about the Sandman. One of the best comic book series ever, and one that would be perfect for a good re-read.

Same goes for Preacher.

Yet another recommendation for Birds Of Prey, simply put one of the best comics you can buy these days (potentially even ever).

Hellblazer and Lucifer are also both absolutely excellent, but maybe not the best for just jumping on. Actually Hellblazer #200 I think is out next month with a new art team which is meant to be accesible to new readers, so it could be a good place to start. *Lots* of back story involved, but I only started reading it when Mike Carey came on board which was about #180 I think and I've not been lost at all. I'm sure I've missed some things, but nothing major.

Lucifer isn't so good for just jumping on with the monthly comic but there are four trades out (might be five now, not sure) and if you enjoyed Sandman then you should love Lucifer too. Mike Carey has taken Sandman as a starting point and created something unique but equally as good.

Planetary is also worth a look, but again start with the trades. *Very* erratic publishing schedule but a genius book for all that.

Queen & Country is very good if you like 'real life' spy stories. Any Hopless Savages of Blue Monday comics (both are done as mini-series rather than regular issues) also from Oni are well worth a look too.

I've read some of the Lucifer trades and agree that they're excellent. I reccomend those as well.

I agree with a lot of choices here, especially She-Hulk and Bite Club (although BC is just a 6 issue mini). But one missing that you should pick up is The Walking Dead. The best zombie book ever written. I believe the first trade just came out and the second one will be soon. They should be up to issue #9 or #10 now.

The first trade was priced under $10, more than worth the price of admission, even for a black and white comic.

here's my 2 cents, if you get a chance to try Negation from crossgen for a non superhero comic IMO i thought that it was one of Crossgen's strongest books. great characters, an emence and epic story through out the whole book that kept me eagerly awaiting the next issue ,great art, etc. to bad Crossgen folded before they finished the Negation War.
anyway go check the back issue bin at the comic shop you frequient, if they're not too pricey deffinately try Negation you might be suprised, you just might like it.

Thor:

Birds of Prey is indeed excellent. Also, if you want to pick up a deceased Crossgen title, definitely pick up some back issues of Sojourn. (Sadly, the book simply stopped when Crossgen self-destructed, but it has great characters and maybe the best artwork in any comic ever.)

Another seconding of great books by the recently deceased CrossGen. Negation was one I got into late but it was a great book.

What I would recommend doing is watching eBay for sets of CrossGen's Edge and Forge which reprinted much of their line.

Speaking of Crossgen I saw in the latest previews that Lady Death has been picked up by Avatar!!!!!

I HIGHLY reccomend both Negation and Sojourn. I was a huge fan of the much missed Crossgen, and these were the two best. Negation was probably one of the five best comics in the industry consistently for two years.

I understand they are going to try and continue the Lady Death: A Medieval Tale. And the cartoon movie that has been in production for years will be released this October on DVD.

I just wish we could get to see the George Perez Lady Death/Sojourn crossover.

I've been reading Gotham Central for awhile, and it's been consistently excellent.

Ultimate Fantastic Four has been really good too so far, and it's still early on if you're worried about continuity. I wish the regular Fantastic Four titles were this good.

Holy crap! I'm going to have to rob a bank! I guess I was looking in the wrong direction for new books. Thanks everyone!

Better rob two banks!

A couple of others that I've enjoyed are very much offbeat. To be honest I know one is from Image, the other I'm not sure who puts it out.

The Image one I'm enjoying is "Invincible". Premise is that Mark (Invincible) is the super powered teen age son of the (former) premier super hero on Earth. His father however was actually an alien double agent that has now returned to his home planet. Invincible is trying to fill the void left by his father's desertion.

There is a JLA type super group in the story as well but much of the story is done tongue in cheek. I honestly think that this book is written by EDE and Lasher under pseudonyms! Fun read!

The other one is called "Common Grounds" and has either been canceled or has a bit of trouble in maintaining a schedule, beciase it's haphazard.

The comic typically has two to three shorter stories. Each features a different hero. (You could say it's more of an anthology I guess.) What ties it all together is "Common Grounds" the chain of coffee shops that the heroes (and their super powered enemies) patronize. All dsputes are left at the door and everyone is just an average joe inside swapping "shop" stories. Also a fun read.

As far as mainstream (Marvel & DC) books: I really enjoy the new Teen Titans, Green Lantern, Flash, Ultimate X-Men, JSA, & Ultimate Fantastic Four. I've also been following Outsiders (since #1), Nightwing, & Robin but think I'll drop them soon. They're just not doing it for me. (I may wait to see how the female Robin storyline is wrapped up in the hopes that Tim comes back. If not...sayonara!)

I just started picking up 2 of the new "X" titles. One is the new academy series & the other is the team led by Havok. I haven't a clue which is which of the X books any more so that's the best I can do as far as identifying those two.

Let me know what you think of 'em if you pick any of these up. Enjoy.

New X-Men: Academy X is the new student-orientated X-Men book (And one I HIGHLY recommend picking up. It's fun in a somewhat campy way with interesting characters, powers, & rivalries) while the Havok-led team is the regular X-Men title. X-Men isn't really doing it for me with Austin on the title, but Peter Milligan of X-Statix fame will be taking over writing chores this December I believe. It may be worth checking out then.

Also, if there's any X-Men fan within you from the 70s and 80s, you'll love Uncanny X-Men now that Claremont is back at the helm. He's bringing these characters back to life and is even using some of the 90s characters like Bishop a lot better than they were handled by their creators.

Oh, and another Birds of Prey fan here. You have to check that book out!

I bought Academy X this week and quite enjoyed it! Once you get over the stigma off buying X books it's quite a nice wee read. Some of the powers are a bit ridiculous (Tag?!) but I'll be buying it again.

But the one book everyone should be reading is GOTHAM CENTRAL. It's great! The art, the writing, it's brilliant - the recent Mad Hatter Story was really good.

I would recommend some of those series as trades (cheaper and read better), like OUTSIDERS, LUCIFER, 100 BULLETS, GOTHAM CENTRAL, FABLES, HELLBLAZER, FLASH, JSA, HAWKMAN and GREEN ARROW. If you're just getting back into the swing of comics, it's probably the best/easiest way to do it.

To be honest, I restricted my Marvel purchases to a couple trades a month (ALIAS, Morrison's X-MEN, Waid's FANTASTIC 4, ULTIMATE X-MEN, Geoff Johns' AVENGERS, DAREDEVIL and some of the black & white reprint ESSENTIALS lines have been particularly good). Most of their titles have entered some weird BACK TO THE 90S Movement, and it's difficult to support.

Other good things? In no particular order: HOPELESS SAVAGES, DEMO, BIRDS OF PREY, SCOOTER GIRL, SAINT LEGEND, BLACK LEOPARD, LESS THAN HERO, FALLEN ANGEL, THE FILTH, GLOBAL FREQUENCY, PLANETARY

Millar's Wanted has been pretty entertaining too come to think of it.

I was not impressed with how the last storyline ended, but the most recent issue (with the Atom) was SUPER-FABOO! Best comic I have read in DECADES!

I'll also join others in recommending GOTHAM CENTRAL.

Sleeper is a great read. So is Ex-Machina. Love Wonder Woman under Rucka.

I always liked the First, especially the beginning plots.

A contra-recommendation...

Don't waste your money on Inhumans 2099. What a waste of money. The art was horrid, the story disjointed. Even Lockjaw looked pitiful.

Usagi Yojimbo, by Stan Sakai: I don't know where the story's at right now (I'm a TPB reader), but the series is consistently good. Also, most of it is self-contained stories (although there is an overall narrative), and, despite it's twenty-year history, it's quite easy to follow.

Uncle Scrooge: A mix or reprints and new stories. Good, unpretentious fun starring some of Disney's best characters. It's a bit pricey ($6.95 for 64 pages) but on the upside, there's very little in the way of advertisement.

Y, the Last Man. Consistently excellent series by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, dealing with the aftermath of a plague that killed all the men in the world, with two exceptions.

Fallen Angel, by Peter David and David Lopez. Funny, dark, with some very interesting characters, including Superwomen, a man who may or may not be Hitler, and an asian drug dealer who lives in a cript.

Batman Adventures, by Dan Slott, Ty Templeton, Rick Burchett, and others. Recently canceled comic based on the Dini/Timm/Burnett animated series. Batman as he should be. Fun, and oftentimes surprising, mature enough for adults, while still wholesome enough for the kids.

Ultra, by the Luna Brothers. A mini-series about women in a world where being a super-hero is just another job. Each comic book is also framed around a different magazine, adapting it's cover style, table of contents, and interview sections in order to develop the world.

I have to agree about some of the Crossgen books. I went to my local comic shop who was having a one day sidewalk sale and they had a load of Crossgen. I got most of the Negation series, the First and Meridian..all for 18.00
(gotta love those .25 sales)

I read alot of books and Birds of Prey is one of my favorites. Gotham Central is great as well.

Oh heck yes, I bought almost the whole run of Starman out of the quarter box a while back. That run was as good as the other guys were saying it was.
Judicious quarter box searching is one of my favorite pastimes.

I'm going to have to look into that Peter David book. I enjoy reading his work, his style has a flow that really pleases me.

No one has mentioned Astro City yet. I enjoy the everyday people aspect of the series. In fact the Ordinary People mini was a good read.

One of the unusual comics I read is from Matt Howarth. I loved Those Annoying Post Brothers and there are a few trades available but they have to be ordered. Nobody stocks 'em. A three part Savage Henry comic just finished up and I think a new Post Bros series is supposed to be launched by year's end. It's not a book that appeals to a huge audience as Howarth tends to be focused on the band The Bulldaggers and to my mind the musical aspect of the band (which is their "superpower" in a sense) gets lost in the graphic medium. I still love 'em though.

You gotta buy Liberty Meadows if you like funny animal comics at all. The recovering alcoholic drug addict former fraternity mascot pig is worth the price of admission alone. And too, Frank Cho's beeeyyyyoooo-tiful artwork doesn't hurt either.

Here's my laundry list...

The books that I'm finding consistently great at the moment are:
Adam Strange, Ex Machina, Flash, Identity Crisis, Intimates (BUY THIS BOOK!), JLA: Classified (BUY THIS BOOK TWICE!), Ocean, Planetary, Powers, Superman/Batman, The Question, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Wanted (desperately awaiting the conclusion) and WE3 (BUY THIS BOOK THRICE!).

The books that I'm finding merely OK, or kinda inconsistent, are:
Green Lantern: Rebirth, Iron Man, JLA, JSA, Strange, Supreme Power, The Authority: Revolution, Ultimate Nightmare and Ultimate X-Men.

The books that I'm reading largely out of a sense of form, and may be cancelled at some stage, are:
Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, B.P.R.D.: The Dead, Doctor Spectrum, Rising Stars (well, at least it's almost over), Teen Titans and Ultimate Elektra (only a mini-series, fortunately).

The books that I'm really looking forward to are:
The Apparat Singles Group (Warren Ellis stuff from Avatar), Battle Hymn (Image WWII story), Legion of Super-Heroes (OF COURSE!!!), Seven Soldiers (Morrisson's DC Super-Epic), The 49ers (prequel to Top Ten with Gene Ha art), Ultimate Secret, Ultimates Vol 2 (BRING IT ON!), Vimanarama and Wildguard: Fire Power.

I also buy Losers & Invincible in trades (oh, and Exiles too), all of which are enjoyable.

Edited to add: Ooh! And how could I forget Madrox, which isn't on my order, but I still grab each month off the shelves. It's awesome.

"Madrox" and "She-Hulk" are two of the more inventive mainstream comics out there, with interesting takes on the genre (or actually placing superheroes in other genres - noir detective story and legal drama/comedy respectively)

"The Question" is a very different kind of detective story and I love the art (though it's not for everyone).

"Supreme Power" used to be my favorite book, but I think it's off its shipping schedule and the story has been more plot oriented lately rather than character oriented. It's still one of the better things out there though.

IMO Y-The Last Man is the best adult oriented comic today. There are currently 4 TPB's which collect the first 20 or more issues.

I agree about Y-The Last Man.

I was lucky enough to have my comic book store owner suggest the first paperback. The next week, she asked me what I thought of it. After I finished telling her, she just grinned and handed me #7.

It's the LAST book in my stack to read. I just like to end my reading with a good book. And this is shaping up to be an incredible series.

Other good titles not mentioned so far:

The current AQUAMAN series from about issue 14 to present has ranged from pretty darn good to flat-out excellent. Avoid the first 12 issues.

Christopher Priest is a tough read, but CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON is good stuff.

THIEVES & KINGS is a little fantasy-themed B&W indy with deceptively simple artwork that belies a years-long storyline that evokes Tolkien without being the least bit Tolkien-esque. No elves, dwarves or such. There is an unseen dark lord who is apparently the brother of the heroic wizard who, apart from being a nutcase, appears to never actually cast a spell. Ah, why am I trying to explain any of this? http://www.iboxpublishing.com/?page=1

And I like ASTRO CITY, ULTIMATES and BIRDS OF PREY, too...all for different reasons, obviously.

yep, astro city is good!!! I also highly recommend Dave Lapham's Stray Bullets...excellent comic!!!

GRIMJACK: KILLER INSTINCT by John Ostrander & Timothy Truman. OH GOD, what a sick, depraved, violent, viscious yet somehow glorious piece of work! You'd SWEAR it can't possibly be 15 YEARS since First Comics went belly-up. The "sci-fi Mike Hammer" is back!

I've meaning to check that Grimjack out.

You make it sound like so much fun.

Congrats on getting your letter printed in the latest Alter Ego, btw. Roy Thomas was even kind enough to plug your book.

2 cool HORROR reprint items on page 276 of this month's PREVIEWS:

EDGAR ALLAN POE by Richard Corben

DRACULA by Fernando Fernandez


I have both of these books from around 20 years ago. Both are adaptations of classic stories with exquisite painted artwork. Nice to see them back in print for a new generation!

I find it interesting that the Fernandez DRACULA adaptation is coming out again only months after the Thomas & Giordano version is FINALLY being finished, "only" 30 years late! they're both worth checking out.

Following on the heels of the GRIMJACK revival...


JON SABLE FREELANCE by Mike Grell !!!


As with GJ, a brand-new mini-series by the original creator-- AND a reprint volume of the old stuff. (Also solicited this month, a 2nd GJ reprint volume.)

Get Cable/Deadpool. Get it now.

That is all.

Solicited this month:


BATMAN: DARK DETECTIVE # 1 & 2 by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin, a brand-new SEQUEL to their 1970's stories. (Also, a new TPB reprints the originals.)

IRON MAN MASTERWORKS Vol.2 -- reprinting TALES OF SUSPENSE #51-65 in color, by Stan Lee & Don Heck. This includes the very first appearances of The Black Widow and Hawkeye The Marksman! (To think, it "only" took them 13 YEARS to do a follow-up to VOL.1)

ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS VOL.1 -- includes the 3-parter between DR. STRANGE, SUB-MARINER & HULK that started things rolling, MARVEL FEATURE #1-3 and the first year's worth of the regular book. Included in there, apparently, is the entire AVENGERS-DEFENDERS WAR. Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, lots of Sal Buscema and a variety of other artists.

ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR Vol.1 by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. Sure, they're better in color, but here you get 528 pages for only $16.99!

Solicited this month:

YEAR ONE: BATMAN / RAS AL GHUL # 1 (of 2) -- art by PAUL GULACY!!!

BATMAN: DARK DETECTIVE # 3 & 4 (of 6) -- Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin!!!

DC SPECIAL: THE RETURN OF DONNA TROY #1 (of 4) -- art by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez & George Perez (gee, the 2 guys who did the longest runs on NEW TEEN TITANS in the 80's!)

GIFFEN'S WHAT WERE THEY THINKING (one-shot) -- that lunatic Keith Giffen takes old WALLY WOOD war comics and replaces the dialogue to turn them into comedies... I'M NOT making this up!!!

SECRET IN THE SHADOWS: THE ART & LIFE OF GENE COLAN (available as either HC or SC)

WALLY WOOD'S LUNAR TUNES -- the last work Woody did before he passed away, most of it never published before (Wonder what took so long?)

Solicited this month:

ESSENTIAL KILLRAVEN --contains the entire run of KILLRAVEN / WAR OF THE WORLDS from AMAZING ADVENTURES, plus the MARVEL TEAM-UP issue, the KILLRAVEN graphic novel, and, inexplicably, the 1st issue of the Marvel Knights KILLRAVEN series. (Say what???) The bulk of the collection, of course, are stories written by Don McGregor and illustrated by Craig Russell!

DOCTOR WHO / THE TIDES OF TIME -- 3rd collection of DWM comic-strips, this one gets into the Peter Davison era, beginning with "The Tides Of Time", art by Dave Gibbons, considered by many possibly the single BEST DW comic-story EVER.

WALLY WOOD'S WAYOUT -- collection of Wood's sci-fi paintings!

X-MEN MASTERWORKS Vol.5 -- contains X-MEN #43-53, essentially Arnold Drake's run on the book, with art by Werner Roth, Jim Steranko, Don Heck & Barry Smith (his very 1st Marvel appearance!)

The New Legends of the Dark Knight storyline called "Snow" with seth Fisher (a personal fav) on art! The way he draws Alfred's hairdo is worth the price of the book alone

Well, this is what I am geting these days. Not too much. Marriage, a house, dogs, a kid, and of course beer cut into the old budgetmore than you would think.

LOSH (of course)- pretty good, need more interaction with the characters though

Teen Titans- like it, keeps my interest

JSA - starting to slow for me but will get JSA Classified

JLA - the arc about the fall out from Identity Crisis, we'll see from there

Supergirl - I'll try it

Return of Donna Troy- How can you pass it up if you're a Titans fan?

Green Lantern - The mini was okay, art good, but this is a trial

Young Avengers - Has my attention and I am enjoying

Red Sonja - Only have #0 so far but I likey!

Rann/Thanager War - Legion tie in, I'm in

Dropped Fables recently, it wasn't bad but just wasn't grabbing me much, I dunno...

Any new must haves out there?

Anyone else around here read The Goon? Downloaded it on bittorrent just to see what the fuss was about, and I'm now going to get the trades to have it onhand for re-reading. Someone referred to it as a cross between The Spirit and Hellboy, and that comes pretty close. Hilarious and violent, but also has some touching human moments here and there.

Other offbeat stuff I've enjoyed lately is Walking Dead and Death, Jr. (both from Image).

I finally got started on reading (in some cases re-reading Titan Books' reprinting of the JAMES BOND 007 newspaper strips.

Titan Books began a reprinting project back in 1987... but inexplicably, stopped in 1990 after only 4 books, 3 of them later strips and the final one being CASINO ROYALE, which should have been the first!

At the beginning of 2004, they suddenly picked up again, and have done 6 books so far. What's maddenning is, 3 of these have been reprints of what they already reprinted in the late 80's. But at least they've FINALLY filled in the gaping holes of the early stories, even if they published them completely out-of-sequence. Now that I have ALL the early stories, I can finally read (or re-read) them IN sequence.

The "1st" book (new edition Feb'05) is CASINO ROYALE, which also includes (as in the Jul'90 edition) Live And Let Die, but also includes the NEVER-before reprinted Moonraker. (This is exactly the kind of "rip-off" that bugs me-- I had to get this for the 3rd story, even though I had the earlier version.) I plowed through the 2nd story last night, and the 3rd one this morning.

These were done originally by The Daily Express in England, and syndicated to a number of other papers in different countries... but NEVER seen in any US papers. They're very faithful adaptations of Ian Fleming's novels, with the exception of having most of the sex and violence trimmed down to an absolute minimum. As a result, while I only read the novels once apiece, and around 30 years ago (except for LIVE AND LET DIE which I read twice) I have very clear images in my mind of certain scenes in the books which are just not in the comics, because they couldn't do stuff like that at the time in English newspapers. Even toned down severely, the strips were STILL too nasty for American papers. Damn shame.

The strip started in Jul'58, 4 years before the 1st Connery film DR. NO (and even a year before the aborted Kevin McClory project THUNDERBALL). Presumably the artist John McLusky based his renditions of the characters on descriptions in the books. Even so, I'm picturing in my mind a few actors from back then who might have been perfect had they made movies actually based on the books...


James Bond -- Guy Doleman (THE IPCRESS FILE)
Gala Brand -- Honor Blackman (THE AVENGERS)
Sir Hugo Drax -- Howard Marion Crawford (SHERLOCK HOLMES)


With his tight squint and crew-cut blonde hair, I can't quite picture an actor for Felix Leiter... but I find in funny that he bears a slight resemblance to Race Bannon on JONNY QUEST, who was an American security agent not unlike Leiter.



It's also interesting to be reminded of some of the details from the books which turned up in movies not based on them directly. Between DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971) and MOONRAKER (1979) the film producers did 5 films in a row that were a travesty of "adaptations". The next 5, however, from FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981) to LICENCE TO KILL (1989) seemed bent on making up for ignoring Fleming throughout the 70's by including as MUCH of Fleming as possible-- even though they'd run out of novels. So little of so many novels had been used in some cases, a ton of material could still be utilized... but as I like to joke, you need a score card to know what came from where.

The climax of the book Moonraker was used as the climax of the film THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977). The film FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981) used the main plots of both For Your Eyes Only and Risico (a pair of short stories that began as possible tv episode plots) but it also includes an "identi-graph" scene from the book Goldfinger, and the famous keel-hauling scene that was the climax of the book Live And Let Die.

In OCTOPUSSY (1983) the line "Spend the money-- quickly!" (one of Louis Jordan's best lines) came from Moonraker, after Bond out-cheats Hugo Drax at cards.


I'm about to start in on the "2nd" book, DR. NO-- which begins with Diamonds Are Forever and From Russia With Love. This was only just reprinted in May'05, though an earlier edition was the only book in the series put out by The James Bond 007 Fan Club in the US (sometime in the late 70's, apparently).

Unfortunately, the quality of the reprints varies depending on available stats. But for any fans of the books, these are a great way to relive the original stories.

Solicited this month:


SOLO # 7 with MIKE ALLRED. This features a story I've been waiting to see for years, since Mike mentioned it some time ago: "BATMAN A-GO-GO", a tribute to the Adam West Bat-universe!

Mike Allred? Oh, yes.

Comic book (& related) events reported in comic book form - what could make more sense? A panel discussion with Brunetti, Seth & Ware, Neil Gaiman, a Harry Potter book launch... available at:

Stripped Books

My two must reads are:

1. Ultimate Spider-man This is probably my all-time favorite comic book. Bendis has a way of drawing me back to my past through this book. I'm not saying I'm Spider-man, It's just that when he's writing a lunch room scene, I feel like I'm sitting at the next table trying to trade my bologna sandwich for somebody else's pudding cup. I just feel connected to the characters. It's a special book.

2. Invincible Great book. A lot like Ultimate Spider-man in that the main character is High School age and put into awkward situations. It's filled with lots of little "grin" moments throughout the story, but I always feel connected to the main character. Filled with twists that are hard to see coming. Couldn't ask for more from a comic book.

CRISIS ON MULTIPLE EARTHS VOLUME 3

One of the few things I consider a positive effect of the current Crisis is that it's moved DC to reprint its earliest Crisis stories, originally from JLA during the 60s and 70s.

Volumes 1 and 2 are a bit too old-fashioned for my tastes, but I did buy Volume 3, and I love it more with every read. Most of these stories are written by Len Wein, they are all penciled by the late Dick Dillin, and many of them are beautifully inked by Dick Giordano. Wein, with the guidance of the late, great editor Julius Schwartz, brought into the DCU the original Seven Soldiers of Victory, as well as the (now much-missed) Freedom Fighters, and he inadvertently anticipated a JSA plot strand (by almost 30 years) with his story about the Golden Age Sandman's sidekick.

The best story here is probably Crisis on Earth X, with the Freedom Fighters, but they're all great fun, and they stand the test of time very well. Get this TPB while you still can.

It seems that me and Cali have been the only LWers talking about J. Michael Straczynski and Mike McKone's run on Fantastic Four. It's been really good so far, with JMS showing signs of being the rare FF writer to not be straitjacketed by the FF legacy of Stan & Jack, and McKone once again proving his greatness. The current issue, # 535, is the second half of an excellent Thing vs. Hulk 2-parter which does not unfold the way you might expect.

"Japan As Viewed By 17 Creators" is an anthology: French comic book creators visited 8 Japanese cities and did stories about their experiences - and stories about 8 cities by Japanese mangakas. The very wide range of styles, both in art and story-telling make this a really unusual book. The anthology also serves as a travel book, if you're interested in non-tourist Japan.

A list of artists involved available at Mars Import

Comics you might not be reading

SGT Rock: the Prophecy - great gritty war comic by Joe Kubert, doing what he does best.

Jonah Hex - anyone ever wanting something more from DC: well, here it is! And its EXCELLENT!

Aquaman - so good it was worth the entire Crisis and OYL for this alone!

Fallen Angel - definately the best work Peter David has done since when Hulk was peaking. Years from now, it might be noted that this *is* his best work.

Runaways - Along with Sentry, Young Avengers and She-Hulk, this proves that Marvel still has an extremely creative and fun side to them that fans just don't seem to realize.

Captain America - most likely my pick for the single best comic book being published right now.

Ultimate Fantastic Four (Mark Millar's run) - The 'pleasant surprise' book of the year! Mark Millar is peaking as a writer right now and this feels like Stan and Jack diong the FF in 2006.

There's more of course (I collect 81 titles with my Dad and brothers) but these are ones I think people might not notice but are excellent.

I'll second that recommendation. And I agree, this seems like the masterpiece that Peter David had been working towards for his entire career up to now.

And I'll second this one! I actually have access to the original issues right now (there on display on my Dad's 'comic book basement wall'). I read all the way up to the 7 Soldiers one (which I'm saving for the weekend). I think they get better with each one, as additional JSAers come out of limbo. The best part is the interaction b/t the two teams and how there really is a sense of a gradually growing friendship between them (Superman even says "perhaps a JLA-JSA team-up will solve the problem?").

Cool things to note: the Red Tornado! The GLs (Alan and Hal) sending Aquarius into the negative dimension! Thunderbolt and Johnny arguing, and the Thunderbolt even giving the whole JSA back talk! E2 Atom bending down to shake E1 Atom's hand after their first meeting--for some reason that visual struck me as a very 'if I was ten years old I would cherish this panel' moment.

Here would be some of my recommendations:

Marvel
Moon Knight. The first issue was just amazing. This read like the original Moon Knight by Doug Moenich and Bill Sienkiewicz. Charlie Huston has a great feel for the characters and David Finch's artwork fits this title like a glove.

Captain America. I have never liked Cap, but Ed Brubaker is so incredible that he has made this one of the Top 3 titles out right now. Steve Epting's art fits Brubaker's tone perfectly.

Daredevil. Yet another Ed Brubaker title. I liked Bendis' run on this title. I like Brubaker's run even better. I'd have to say that Daredevil is also one of the best comics out right now. And even though Michael Lark's art isn't my favorite style, Lark's art fits this title.

X-Factor. This title is a little off-beat. And that is why that aside from Astonishing X-Men, this is the best X-title out there. David's writing is entertaining. The art is a bit inconsistent.

Astonishing X-Men. This is how the X-Men should be written. Whedon is making this title just a blast to read. And the last issue? Wow. Great stuff.

Squadron Supreme. Stracsynski is weaving a fantastic story on this title. The characters are all so interesting. I hate to make this reference, but this title has a nice Watchmen-esque feel to it while still retaining plenty of originality. Gary Frank's art is perfect for this title.

Ultimate Spider-Man. This title is just pure entertainment. Candy for the brain. It delivers each and every month. The most consistently good title out there.

DC
Batman and Detective Comics. This title has done a great job with the OYL storyline. Robinson has crafted a very interesting story. Plus, soon Grant Morrison will take over Batman and Paul Dini will take over Detective Comics. I cannot wait to read Morrison's Batman.

Teen Titans. Geoff Johns has taken the OYL storyline and run with it like a madman. There is so much going on with this title. It is one of the more exciting comics to read.

Green Lantern. Again, Geoff Johns has really made the most of the OYL storyline than most other authors. Good story plus good art equals a great read.

Checkmate. If you like international espionage then this is the title for you. Mix in some cool JSA'ers like Alan Scott and Mr. Terrific with a splash of second string JLA in Fire and you have a title with lots of potential. I liked Greg Rucka's first issue and I thought that Saiz's art was nice.

BLACK PANTHER's 40th Anniversary!


Solicited in this month's PREVIEWS:

MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS: FANTASTIC FOUR #52

Now here's something cool. I have #53, and as some may know, the still-recent MASTERWORKS book that reprinted that shot that story from the original art, so for once, the reprint looked BETTER than the original comic!

In the case of #52, I have the 1970's MGC reprint (fuzzy) and the still-recent MASTERWORKS (also fuzzy). But I never tracked down an original comic.

Now here's the REALLY cool part. The upcoming reprint is going to be shot off THE ORIGINAL COMIC! Sure, not as good as the original art-- but still, bound to be WAY better than the previous reprints!


I loved it when they did those 2 1940's HUMAN TORCH comics this way, and have said on several occasions I wish they'd do more like it. Maybe someone's been listening?

Been awhile since I shilled for the Dead so:

<marquee behavior=alternate><span style="font-size: 40px;">BUY THE WALKING DEAD!</span></marquee>

Also:

Jonah Hex
Moon Knight
Captain America

This just sounds like fun!
Ursa Minors

This month in PREVIEWS:

AGENTS OF AXIS -- a story set in the 1950's Marvel U.

STRANGE WESTERNS: THE BLACK RIDER -- Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin ride again! YEE-HAH!

ESSENTIAL PUNISHER Vol.1 -- from his debut in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #129 on up. Conway, Andru, etc. etc. Spidey's book may have been depressing and miserable at the time, but that only made The Punisher fit right in!

IRON MAN MASTERWORKS Vol.3 -- at last, GENE COLAN's run is getting reprinted in Masterworks form! ASTOUNDING visuals... even if you were getting a lot less story per episode than with Don Heck. (Stan who?)

My latest loud recommendation would be:

THE GOLDEN AGE HAWKMAN Archive Edition volume 1.

I love this book! For some reason, I'm finding that a lot of DC's Golden Age material holds up better for me than the Silver Age stuff. As crude as it sometimes is here and there, I litterally have no idea what's about to happen as I turn the pages... And there's a real sense of adventure and FUN.

A lot of the comics from the Silver Age were definitely better crafted (plots better structured, art more polished), but that sometimes lead to things being a bit dry (imo). I don't notice that happening while reading this Golden Age stuff. Mostly what I notice is myself saying, "W-what...?!" to an empty room, as I read the stories.

From this month's PREVIEWS...

Essential TALES OF THE ZOMBIE -- stories that the Comics Code FORBID, even after they changed the Code to allow for vampires, werewolves, etc.!!! From TOTZ #1-10 and DRACULA LIVES #1-2.

Big Bang presents: SUPER FRANKENSTEIN -- I'm not making this up!! I've got EVERY BB comic to date, naturally I'll be getting this one.

Simpsons' TREEHOUSE OF HORROR -- this year's edition features the work of Kyle Baker, Terry Moore & Eric Powell. WOW!

E-MAN RECHARGED -- from Digital Webbing, original creators NICK CUTI & JOE STATON reunite once again! Yee-hah!

BACK ISSUE #18 -- this issue devoted to GREEN LANTERN. As I'm buying 2 GL books for the first time in 15 years, I figured I might as well go for it.

Castle Waiting a hardcover collection of the original comic (published by Fantagraphics) might be of interest to Fables fans. I certainly enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to! A princess on the run finds refuge in a peculiar castle, filled with other beings, whose pasts unfold as the story proceeds. It's the usual fairy tale mix of humans and animal-type people (with a charming demon thrown in), in a medieval setting. All ages, but the characters are interesting enough and the story has enough twists and turns to keep older readers turning the pages.

There is the official (creator\'s) site but more info about the story, characters and artwork can be found at this site .

Plastic Man Archives Vol 1

This is truly a strange and wonderful creation. I find myself staring in disbelief at some pages, because Jack Cole's villians are sometimes grotesque and odd but always wonderfully created. And while I was expecting a goofy JLA-esque Plas, that is NOT THE CASE! No. Instead we have a rather straight forward hero who lapses into goofiness here and there. There is a definite draftmanship to Cole's work as the volume progresses. and the stories, while at first almost cookie cutter, come alive once the page count increased(by this point Plastic Man was a feature and not a back-up) and when Woozy is introduced the tales go great Guns.

Worth the 50 bucks. Especially for the Toth cover.

I got a couple items in today I thought I'd pass on...


BIG BANG PRESENTS #1 -- Gary Carlson has resumed publishing BB under his own label, hoping for a bi-monthly schedule. First up, "Protoplasman", a Jack Cole tribute with art by Mort Todd, and a new "Knight Watchman" story which has to be seen to be believed-- and maybe not even then. It's a WILL EISNER tribute, and it's SO authentic, you'd SWEAR Mike Ploog must have done it! This Jeff Austin guy is AMAZING!!!

CHIPS WILDE: THE WILD ONE! -- new graphic novel from Dick Ayers. The art is really on the "rough" side, but I've been admiring his stuff all over again so much the last 2 years, I couldn't pass it up.

Ranking on Constantine: an upcoming project which I'd recommend just because Rankin is one of my favourite mystery writers (and Constantine is okay too).

from LiTG -
Ian Rankin, crime novelist and author of such titles as "Knots And Crosses," adapted as the "Rebus" TV series for the BBC, announced at the Edinburgh Book festival that he is to write a comic book project for Vertigo.

Further investigation reveals it is a John Constantine project, with Constantine pitched as a pulp-fiction style private eye who happens to deal with supernatural clients.

I understand the introduction happened through current "Hellblazer" writer Denise Mina.

Birds of Prey still continues to be good, and Squadron Supreme really has me hooked. I would definitely recommend the SS.

At mid-October 2006, a few months post-Crisis and mid Civil War:

My Top 5-ish DC Reccomendations:
Aqauaman
Green Lantern
Teen Titans
Batman & Detective Comics
Superman & Action Comics
52
Birds of Prety

My Top 5-ish Marvel Reccomendations:
Hulk
Daredevil
Captain America
Uncanny X-Men
Runaways
Ultimate Fantastic Four

Other Reccomendations:
Fallen Angel - just when I thought this couldn't get any better, it suddenly has.

Fables - ditto

I'd recommend Dynamite's The Lone Ranger series to anyone who's enjoying Jonah Hex!

I picked up the first two issues the other day, and they're pretty cool!

You know, I keep meaning to get the Lone Ranger series. I'm going to try again this Sunday and hopefully it'll still be there.

110 Percent by Tony Consiglio. A GN about three middle-aged women who are huge fans of a boy band, 110 Percent - they are even members of a fan club that meets regularly. It's really funny, but realistic too. Consiglio captures three very different personalities with charm and insight, women of such ordinary lives. One is quite isolated, one neglects her family terribly, the third lives with a real pain-in-the-ass husband. It's a moral fable as well: when the big concert comes to town and there aren't enough tickets for all three to attend, the backstabbing begins.

You can download a 12-page pdf preview here.
(Scroll down to Tuesday, April 04, 2006.)

All in TPBs

Y: The Last Man (onging)

Ex Machina (ongoing)

Invincible (ongoing), plus there's a who's who issue currently out.

Empire (short run in TPB now -- unless we can get Barry and Mark to start it up again without having any consequences for SLSH)

Pride of Baghdad Graphic Novel by Brian K. Vaughan.

Whether you believe the Iraq war to be wrong or right, this will remind you who's really bearing the burden of the fighting and the chaos.

The story is a little predictable but moving nonetheless. The art is stunning and taken together they show what the medium is capable of conveying.

I'm going to give Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer from Image a chance. First issue comes out April 11.

Four issues in and I'm totally sold on "The Immortal Iron Fist". It's got superheroing, eastern mysticism, international corporate machinations, the revitalization of a decades old character (without totally screwing him up) and *gun fu*. It's fun without being nostalgic or simplistic.

I thought some of ya'll might enjoy this, just posted at another site...



"mechanikat" wrote:
"Given my displeasure with the current state of superhero comics (a
reason I've mostly just lurked here, given the discussions centering
on "52"/"Infinite Crisis"/"Civil War"/etc.)"

To paraphrase the words of comic actor Rupert Crosse: "Who READS that
stuff???"


"no mainstream DC Universe"

Well, that lets out GREEN LANTERN and GREEN LANTERN CORPS, 2
surprisingly good books (and I'd boycotted GL for 13 years after
you-know-what).


"the 90's/early 2000s version of Batman and what I saw of the "Justice
League" cartoon come to mind...)"

And Batman USED to be my #1 favorite costumed hero. I got sick of
what they were doing with him by the LATE 80's!! Seriously! The 1989
Tim Burton movie was actually a "relief" by comparison, I was
susprised by how comparitively "nice" Keaton & Gough's portrayals of
Bruce & Alfred were. After all the hype about how Dc was planning to
"fix" things with their "Infinite" mini-series, I was dismayed to see
they did NOT in fact reboot the current universe... so, no matter WHAT
they do with that BASTARD who's impersonating Batman, I won't be
reading it.


"major storylines *not* being built on stuff like: characters' wives
being raped/killed"

A good friend asked me, "Would YOU write a story like this?" And he
was surprised to find I had. Except, the way i did it, it was
enjoyable. Because nobody really got hurt except the bad guys. And
they were BEGGING for it! As another person I know once said, "What's
the point of being a writer if you can't play God?"


"no manga (never cared for manga or anime)"

Well, that lets out GUNSMITH CATS and CANNON GOD EXAXXION, both by
Kenichi Sonada, 2 of the best comics of any kind I have ever read.
CGE was part of SUPER MANGA BLAST for awhile. Sonada was so good, the
other guys-- though their art was nice-- clearly, by comparison, had
NO F****** idea what they were doing, in the "storytelling"
department. Some of these guys should just study Belgian comics, like
TINTIN. I did!


"All-Star Superman"

There's one on my list!


"Krypto the Superdog"

There's a COMIC, too? For all the extremes they went to 20+ years ago
to stupidly eliminate all traces of there ever having been an Earth-1
or Earth-2 (don't let anybody fool you, the "new DCU" seen since 1986
is NOT and NEVER HAS BEEN Earth-1!!!), it's hilarious that one of the
best cartoons on the air right now is based (loosely) on such an
essentially "Earth-1" concept-- Superboy's POOCH! I love it.


"Various comic strips"

LIBERTY MEADOWS (the only thing Frank Cho SHOULD be spending all his
time doing, if it paid as well as all those DAMNED jobs he's doing for
Marvel must be-- GORGEOUS ladies and WB-cartoon-style funny animals.
what a combo! The funniest thing I've seen on paper in the last 15 years.

JANES'S WORLD (which keeps reminding me of a cross between DOONSEBURY
and ELLEN, but with better writing than either).

PEANUTS (the earliest stuff was the FUNNIEST!!)


"any suggestions?"

MADMAN ATOMIC COMICS (Mike Allred finally decided to revive his
signature character, after virtually wasting years of his life and his
fans' time on that viscious, brutally-violent, sick excuse for a
"superhero" comic, X-STATIX). This is fun-- imaginative-- and funky!
(And I haven't even seen the 1st new issue yet.)

BIG BANG COMICS (Gary Carlson's tribute to the best of many different
comics, styles, and genres of the past, with an ever-rotating set of
features and creators. BIG BANG PRESENTS #5 just came out, featuring
TeenRex, a tribute to both KAMANDI and DEVIL DINOSAUR rolled into one.
See the listings at the GCD site to get an idea of the range of
material that BB has done over the last decade or so.


Henry

The trade collecting the classic 3-part Batman storyarc Blind Justice will become available again on July 5th. It's quite possibly my favorite Batman story, authored by Sam Hamm, who wrote the original (and best) draft of Tim Burton's first Batman movie. And the art by Denys Cowan and Dick Giordano is outstanding.

I've recently been informed that I passed up an excellent chance by Scooter to check out the Walking Dead I think perhaps I should revisit this offer...

(Scott, I'll reply to your PM shortly...been busy at work in Baltimore )

(Oh yeah, Stealth, will post to the All Avengers Thread hopefully tomorrow...been busy at work in Baltimore )

MR STUFFINS was a fun read from BOOM Studios. A teddy ruxpin type teddy bear gets a Green Beret type upgrade. The first issue is funny, but I can see this getting too dark for the kids.

Well, currently the best Batman story in ages is being done by Grant Morrison in 'Batman', and I highly reccomend it to readers who'd like a strong Batman story.

Also, let me give my reccomendation for 'Faker' by Vertigo, written by Mike Carey. Its been very enjoyable so far, with the right mix of characterization and innate creepiness.

Potters Field by Mark Waid & Paul Azaceta - a 3 issue series from Boom Studios; the first issue is out now.

John Doe is a mystery man who is dedicated to finding names for all the unmarked graves in Potters Field. He has a network of specialists in New York City on whom he calls for help with the task. Doe is not official, we don't know anything about him - but he solves the mystery, extracts some justice for the unsolved/unknown crime and marks the gravesite with the name of the dead person.

The network of specialists reminds me of Global Frequency, but the mysteries are more along the lines of Will Eisner's tenement stories, involving everyday people and forgotten victims.

Scalped is the best Vertigo comic in a long time. Highly recommended.

Also, I assume you're buying Casanova, right?

On my blog , I have short reviews for this week's haul, including the following:

Booster Gold #8 (C+)
The weakest issue of the series thus far.

Countdown to Final Crisis #3 (D)
God, I hate this book.

Echo #2 (B+)
Even though there's not a lot of the plot movement here that I might demand in a super-hero comic, I'm okay with that. I just wish I could do it for less than $3.50 a pop.

Fantastic Four #556 (B)
Left me feeling a bit cheated in a plot that pretty much boils down to: Villain appears, heroes engage. Still, there are some good character moments, and Bryan Hitch's art is, as always, a wonder to behold.

The Goon #23 (B-)
I think Eric Powell better give up on the monthly schedule, or else take on some assistants. This book looked and felt terribly rushed.

Justice Society of America #14 (A-)
This story seems like it's been going on forever, and yet, I'm loving each issue.

Number of the Beast #1 (of 8) (B-)
It's okay to drop the reader in the middle of the action, but at some point, preferably early on, the author must lay down the rules of his or her fictional world.

Serenity: Better Days #2 (of 3) (C+)
I may be the biggest Firefly fan ever, but this book left me a little disappointed.

Wonder Woman #19 (C)
Largely predictable. I saw every beat coming, almost as if this were an ABC After School Special. This book is Legion A/R though, being as it features Khunds.

Marvel's Max comic "Flight of the Phantom Eagle" by Garth Ennis and Howard Chaykin is superb.

A great war comic set in WWI that really conveys the danger and tension of fighter pilots during this new age of war. Amazing Chaykin art. Excellent Ennis humor at all the right moments. Only 2 issues in and I think it'll really be picking up next issue (its a 5 issue mini). A great Marvel character long forgotten getting some much needed treatment.

Vertigo's new "House of Mystery". I picked up the first issue. A good mix of Sandman and the classic House of Mystery style.

My positive review of House of Mystery #1 right here! I thought the second issue was also great!

I recommend the recently released trade Iron Man: War Machine. Back in the early 90s, I followed Iron Man off and on when the team of Len Kaminski & Kevin Hopgood were on the book. This may be the most underrated run on Iron Man to date -- they introduced promising new technology, new villains, new status quo...the early 90s had a lot of good stuff that fell through the cracks. In fact, I don't think it got really bad until the mid 90s -- and I also think that a lot of well-received stuff from the late 90s is nostalgic piffle, the comic book equivalent of a rock and roll oldies revue. I'm hoping that if Iron Man: War Machine sells well enough, they'll reprint the rest of Kaminski & Hopgood's run, or at least up to # 300.

House of Mystery #1 I thought was disgusting, which immediately made me skip the book.

A really great read I can only recommend to anyone: The Graphic Novel "Box Office Poison" by Alex Robinson. Great coming of age story including a very critical view at the comic book industry... it's some years old but stands the test of time

[repost from "Immortal Iron Fist" thread, in case anyone skips that one, but checks out this one]

I just got caught up on Immortal Iron Fist with the second HC and 15-17. And you know what? This may be the single very best title Marvel is currently putting out, possibly better than any of DC's stuff as well!

One thing I absolutely love about it is that so far, Marvel's allowing the title to be self-contained, no crossovers or suped-up hype. I love the sense of history the title has to it. I love the mysticsm. I love the martial arts. I loooove the characters!

And you know what else? Having read #17 with the new creative team, I don't think it's gonna miss a beat! Unknown talents Duane Swierczynski and Travel Foreman are very wisely building on the storylines and narrative flow that superstars Brubaker, Fraction and Aja established instead of tearing it down as so many others have. Example: the flashbacks to previous Iron Fists are apparently here to stay!

So if you've never tried this excellent comic or dropped it because Brubaker and Fraction left sight unseen--SHAME ON YOU!!! (Cobester, I'm lookin' at you since this title's never appeared on your pull-list! )

So pick up the first trade, at least. And if ya like what you saw here, I GUARANT-DAMN-TEE ya, you'll like everything that comes after!! (An' if the new creative team jumps the shark, I'll tell ya!)

Well, I picked up the first several issues of Iron Fist and ultimately decided to drop it when I hacked and slashed a lot of Marvel titles off our list. Even though Bru is by far my favorite writer at Marvel right now, it just wasn’t really grabbing me. It wasn’t bad, but at the end of the day, I’d often forget about adding to my pile more weeks than not and when I got around to finally doing so, it wasn’t giving me any really big reason to want to add another issue. But hey, maybe it picked up steam and I’d enjoy it more if I read several issues in a row. It is Brubaker, after all, and he writes what I consider to be Marvel’s (2) best comics: Daredevil & Captain America (which is the best comic on the market IMO besides Fables, even more so than JSA).

I like Iron Fist, and he has a striking visual, but I don’t *love* the character or have a long-standing attachment to him like I do Iron Man, Thor, Daredevil, the Falcon etc. Still, I don’t dislike him either, but it doesn’t work in his favor.

BTW, are YOU reading Daredevil or Cap? Because you may end up missing a title you’ll love!

If by YOU, you mean ME, of COURSE I read Cap and DD! Don't be ridiculous!

I was always more of a casual Iron Fist fan like you, but they've deepened his mythos so much that the title is definitely a must-read. I will say that the comic is more story-centric than character-centric. In a way Cap & DD are more story-centric too, so that's probably not a problem for Bru-fans of his Marvel work.

BTW, anyone who enjoys Brubaker's work and hasn't checked out Sleeper-- Sleeper, IMO, is still Brubaker's very best work, even considering Cap.

I loved Box Office Poison when I read the individual issues in the late '90s. Robinson's art style is on the cartoony side, but his characters and the situations they experience are very much slice-of-life, and will resonate with many twentysomethings -- especially ones who live or have lived in NYC.

One of my favorite recent graphic novels is Night Fisher, by R. Kikuo Johnson. It's set in small-town Hawaii, and follows a teenager in the waning days of high school, dealing with his father, friends, and various temptations.

The black-and-white artwork is painterly, and the pace easygoing -- a good break from the cape-and-cowl stuff.

A recent favorite TPB is Star Wars Tales Vol. 5. It has tons of great stories for both die-hard and casual Star Wars fans, and a lot of unique contributions from artists of a more indie bent -- such as Peter Bagge, Gilbert Hernandez, Tony Millionaire, Chris Eliopoulos, Jim Campbell, and Rick Geary. Sno Cone did the color and lettering for a number of the stories.

Lots of quirky, far-out, and funny stuff, and more than worth the cover price (although you can get it for significantly cheaper on Amazon).

I picked up the first TPB of the Astounding Wolf-Man title, and I've really enjoyed it so far. I'd seen the book on the shelf a while back, but I figured I'd missed so many issues that it wasn't worth going back to try to get them all.

The TPB solves that problem. As a bonus, there are quite a few pages of sketches and other artwork at the end.

Stu, is that one of the 'new' comics coming from Image? Is Kirkman writing that, or someone else? I saw it too recently in solicits but not at my comic shop. Looked interesting.

It's an Image title and I guess it's relatively new, but there have been at least seven or eight issues. I'm not sure how many more issues have come out beyond the ones in the TPB.

And yes, the astounding hairy Wolf-Man is written by the amazing furry Kirk-Man!

Now for something which really moved me deeply while reading it last night:

Alex Robinson - again - "Too cool to be forgotten"

A 120 page new graphic novel by the author of Box Office Poison and Tricked. It is very emotional and is bound to inspire a memory flash for everyone reading it, as the "hero" of the story gets transferred back to his high school days.

It is a wonderful homage to our teenage days, but still very mature in its approach and has a wonderfully emotional ending. I was very moved by this one, highly highly recommended (available via Top Shelf, I guess).

I went to a comic book store I usually don't visit to get plastics and figured it'd be a good time to shop around for 'oddities' that I don't normally get (so I wouldn't cheat on my reg store), but I couldn't find the Astounding Wolf-Man there.

I'm still itching to try Dark Horse, Image, Vertigo and other independent titles but I need reccomendations. Years and years of independent publishers crumbling and coming out mucho infrequently have left me jaded to just try anything.

X-Men Noir, from the OCtober Previews, actually has me interested. It would be the first X-Men comic I bought in I don't know how many years. There's also a Spiderman and Daredevil Noir. All 4-issue specials. I might get them all just for the pretty pictures.

news release blurb

Dennis Calero is supposed to be drawing X-Men: Noir, if that sweetens the deal for anyone...

CBR\'s Marvel Solicitations for 12/08

I don't know if most stores order just a few copies, or what. After getting the TPB, I was interested in the ongoing title. On the day issue #8 came out a few weeks ago, I got to my store around lunchtime, and there was only one copy on the shelf. The guy at the counter said they only ordered two, and the other copy was for another customer who had it on his pull list.

I picked up the copy on the shelf, and put the title on my own pull list for future issues.

Cobie, Dark Horse has been getting a lot of my money lately. I tried a few books that looked interesting and some that were in trade, and so far none of them have disappointed me.

The Umbrella Academy - this one is a given. It’s just fun Silver Age superheroics with a shot of modern cynicism. You get teen angst, over the top action, insane villains, and the occasionally WTF! I know you like Morrison’s run on BATMAN, and this has a similar vibe with respect to comic book history.

B.P.R.D. – this is the Hellboy team. They handle paranormal threats. It’s got a dark humour to it, and the soap opera feel is akin to Spidey’s. Not as heavy on the big bang action, it’s more horror themed. Start with the 3rd trade if you can, it’s got a full story and really starts the ongoing series run. The first 2 are a collection of anthologies highlight the different cast members.

The End League – this is “Days of Future Past” the ongoing. It’s superheroes fighting a losing battle. The bad guys have won our post-apocalyptic world and there’s no hope. It’s a heavier read, the characters are obvious analogs, but it’s does for super heroes now what the LSH did for them in the 60’s and 70’s- progresses them. Think 5YG.

Grendel - Matt Wagner writing Batman! Only this Batman is a bad guy!

Solomon Kane – just the first issue out, based on the literary character. It’s horror, with a seemingly DEVOUT religious man for the lead in a Van Helsing role. I like it enough to keep trying it.

P.S.238 by Aaron Williams, about an elementary school for kids with super powers. The early issues can be read for free at www.ps238.com so you can get some idea if it suits your tastes before spending $$ on it.
A note: the earliest stories deal with the establishment of the school, and therefore focus on the faculty and staff. Once the school is open, the storytelling focus gradually shifts to the students.

Ceej, thanks for the reccomendations! Comic book reading has hit an interesting transition for me. Whlie I feel Marvel is superior to DC for the first time in my lifetime, I've devoted an actual large portion of my time in the CBS to find independent titles I can follow but don't make me commit to an actual company (since Crossgen and multiple others still linger in my mind).

End League sounds cool, as does B.P.R.D. and Solomon Kane! Definitely keep me updated on any other titles you try out and I'll do the same! How far along is End League? I'm always hoping I can catch it from the beginning.

PS - Eryk, you still picking up issues of the Lone Ranger? If so, how is it? The art at least looks great.

Nope. Haven't picked up any comics in ages.

Its amazing--I've never seen so many Legion Worlders so discouraged / ambivalent / 'just not buying comics' at the same time before. I'm in that category too. At lot of it I blame on DC Comics.

Not me! Since I started going to the new CBS that opened nearby, I've been in hog heaven! I keep having to resist the urge to buy everything that peaks my interest. Maybe it's just all those years of withdrawal after my longtime CBS closed in 2000, but I've rarely picked up something and regretted it since the shop opened (actually, I can't think of any eggs laid at all). The key is to read reviews and get plenty of recommendations before spending your hard-earned moolah. Word-of-mouth hasn't done me wrong yet!

The reason I didn't mention you by name Lardy is for the most part, by and large, we *usually* have similar tastes in the titles we buy, specifically DC & Marvel. Several times I've noticed that when a comic goes to shit, you and I both notice right away, and when a sleeper hit is kicking ass (Priest Black Panther, anyone?) we're both on board.

Sooooo...what comics are you absolutely going ape over lately? Both DC, Marvel and any independents (what I'm especially interested in). How is Iron Fist with the new team?

So wrong...

Isn't it?

EDE had such potential...

I, of course, blame the Titans.

Echo by Terry Moore isn't grabbing me as quick as SiP did (One issue and i was hooked), but its more sci-fi intrigue than what SiP was.

But, with his writing and art, it don't hurt to read it.

Finally asked my local cbs to just get me the final tpb of SiP. Wasn't ever going to get the end waiting on them to find it. Disappointing, but whatcha gonna do?

Anyone that enjoyed Morrison's Doom Patrol, and especially anyone that enjoyed Rachel Pollack's Doom Patrol, I reccomend 'Young Liars' by Vertigo. Its probably the weirdest, most non-sensical comic series in 15 years. And its good!

So is anyone checking out the whole "Project Superpowers" thing from Dynamite Entertainment? With all those Alex Ross covers and other things.

I've been pretty busy in 2008 so I really only started paying attention to the articles, covers and shelf-space of these comics within the last month or so. Anyone reading them? They sure look pretty but I know next to nothing about them story-wise or if they are of any quality.

Random thoughts:

Armed Forces – by Kyle Baker, Image Comics – wow, anyone pick this up? Talk about way over the top parody of war, ‘selling the war’, and American culture in general while remaining poignant and at times realistic. This is probably the most controversial thing I’ve read in quite a number of years even if no one seems to be engaging in the controversy other than a handful of critics. It was definitely eye-opening, especially #3 which is where I came in, what with all mutated, disfigured, orphaned children trying to cannibalize prisoners and all. Worth a buy though.

Ghost Rider – Scooter or anyone…still buying this? I’ve heard good things with Jason Aaron coming on board, but I’ve never bought an ongoing Ghost Rider series in my life.

Project Superpowers – So I guess no one is reading? Or no one checking this thread? The concept seems really cool but I’ve read mixed reviews. Plus, didn’t Alan Moore do this with Terra Obscura already?

Incredible Hercules – buy this title! You’ll love it!

Jonah Hex – buy this title! You’ll love it!

I’m not a fan of Ross and his opinions on comics. That alone has me avoiding the Superpowers line. It does sound like interesting work he and Joe Casey are doing.

I gave the last 4 issues of Captain America a try, Bru’s run being so well received. It’s good work, and an example of the diversity I keep expecting from DC. So these recommendation threads just might be working…

I'm not too familiar with his views outside comics but I generally find his writing to be a little weak, though obviously his art is terrfiic. That's kept me from checking it out, as has the fact that I have no real idea what the overall story is about beyond the concept of reintroducing these characters, which isn't enough to win me over by itself. I was hoping someone could give me a 'they're great!' or a 'they're terrible!' reccomendation and I'd move on

Re: Armed Forces - I'm a big Kyle Baker fan but this one looked a little raw to me (the previews; I haven't read any of the issues). They say everything is funny eventually but I didn't know if I was ready for laughs about the War on Iraq. But maybe I'll check it out, since I'm already scheduled to beat you up if I don't like Four Eyes. Gosh, I've got to get to the CBS soon!

Right now I'm slavishly devoted to Dungeon by Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar. It's a paperback series about a world inhabited by strange funny-animal type characters (for adults). A weird and funny satire on fantasy stories and contemporary society.

FC, I think 'raw' is the perfect way to describe Armed Forces. I'll admit that if I hadn't have been in the mood for something weird and controversial I might have ended up hating it. Right now, since I've been in that mood, I definitely found it interesting, and ended up going back and picking up the first issue.

And jeez, now not only will I have to owe you and Blockade Boy more than the cover price for Four Eyes, I might get beat up too!

Cobester, have you tried Invincible yet? I was thinking about you as I read the latest batch of Invincible trades my wife got me for Christmas (YAY, wife!). Why? Because I know how much of a Spidey fan you are! Invincible has everything that you loved so much from the classic Stan Lee/Ditko/Romita years--subplots, romance, great villains, epic stories--without ever seem derivative or plagiaristic of it. It's the kind of title Spidey might have been if it were created this decade instead of in the sixties. Even Ultimate Spider-man seems a tired, slow also-ran next to what our boy Kirkman is doing with this series! It's as fresh as Spidey used to be!

Try it...alla ya!

CJ did me a big favor when I was leaving San Diego that day and gave me the first trade of Invincible to take home. I thought: not bad! But it wasn't enough to 'wow' me yet...however, that still being said, I've heard from a few sources (like Vee), that the series definitely gets much better as it goes on. Is that a fair assessment, Lardy?

I was considering picking up the latest issue because it crosses over with Astounding Wolfman--which is a series I gave one issue a chance but didn't follow up on. I was considering getting these two Kirkman books for this mini-crossover, and seeing if I stick with Invincible. I also see there's this major issue to come with like every Image hero ever in Invincible, which seems like a lot of fun. Invincible is actually the type of comic where I wouldn't mind coming in in the 40's or 50's, so long as I catch a decent jumping on point.

I know you're a big fan of Spidey too so the endorsement helps. And I generally like the 'spirit' of what Kirman is trying to do at Image.

Maybe its time I really gave Invincible a go?

PS - cool gift from the wife!

PPS - I assume you saw the thread about 'Four Eyes' and immediately made plans to read it, become hooked and thank me!

(I accept thanks in the form of such posts of yours as the one about Scalped )

I've been getting Invincible since checking out the fifty cent #0 issue they did back around #23... I snapped up whatever back issues I could and have been ordering it regularly ever since. I know Vee's a big fan as well. Every time the series seems to hit a lull, Kirkman manages to pull it around before too long. Lotsa cool bits lately-- I's trip to the future, Oliver's alien attitude, Mark and Eve's blossoming relationship, Omniman's big reveal about the secret of the Viltrumites... and yes, I'm looking forward to the upcoming pan-Imageverse issue.

That's more than a fair assessment, Des! Earlier this year, I bought the Vol. 1 Ultimate Collection Hardcover which collected issues 1-13 (combining the first three trades). The issues that comprised what you've read were pretty ordinary. In fact as I read those early chapters, I was wondering what the big deal was.

Then, I got to issue #7. OMG! That issue changes everything and turns everything on its ear!

Des, do NOT read Invincible out of order! It would be a sin! Not only would it probably spoil all the great twists this series offers, but you would be missing out on the juicy slow-build subplots that are touched upon from issue to issue. I remember loving those subplots in Spidey, and Kirkman really has mastered the art form.

Obviously, Invincible's a much different character from Spidey in many ways, but it's definitely kin to the same vibe. One huge difference, though, is that Invincible does have its moments of ultra-violence. But be assured that those moments are well-chosen and always have huge impact.

Well, jeepers! You just might have saved me some serious spoilers Lardy! Because I was about to forego all trades and just get the latest issue. So I take it the second trade is a MUST READ? That's good news! Like I said, the first trade didn't 'wow' me, so maybe that's what I need.

Actually, if you decide to get the second trade, you should buy the third with it--REALLY! The big twist happens in the second trade but PAYS OFF in the third trade! Seriously, you'll HATE yourself (again, if it's not already too late ) if you don't immediately have the third there waiting next to it to plow right into!

Seriously, the major events of those two trades are some of the best moments ever to appear in comics!

Yeah, the second trade is THE volume to get, Des. The first six issues are supposed to be almost mundane, as a set-up for the HUGE shocks to come. Consider Vol.1 all build-up, with the payoff in the second TPB.

I wish I'd been reading it as it came out, as the #0 issue DID spoil the surprise for me. But it also got me into the series in the first place, so I really shouldn't complain I guess.

Link to said endorsement?

*cough*

Hmmm...guess that depends on what you think of Scalped, huh? Read it, yet?

Incognito - Just picked up #1 by Brubaker and Phillips while they take a mini-break from Criminal. As you'd expect, it's "Melt your face right off" awesome thus far, and I expect it to be only more so. Highest reccomendation possible.

The two-page article on the Shadow in the back was great. No less than two months ago I spent a day researching the history of the Shadow and this was a surprise pleasure to read, complete with some great insight on one of comic book's most important influences.

The Marvel Noir series: so far, I've read X-Men Noir 1 & 2 and Spiderman Noir 1. They're good, I like that genre; not too tied to the original, just taking the concept of mutants against society and a guy who can shoot spider-webs into a noir detective setting. All very gritty.

X-Men: mutant criminal youths (surely misunderstood) trained/helped by headshrinker Xavier (now in prison) fight corrupt police led by Detective Magnus.

Spiderman: Aunt May is a political activist in the Great Depression, Peter her nephew and helper. Uncle Ben has been visciously tortured and murdered by the local crime lord. Terrific cliffhanger at the end of #1. It's not yet revealed how Peter becomes Spiderman.

The Unknown by Mark Waid/Boom Studios. I really enjoyed this first of four issues! Cat Allingham is an exceptional detective who has a brain tumor and six months to live. She continues to work and starts investigating the theft of a machine which <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text"> is designed to measure the soul</span></span>. That's a spoiler because it's the last page's reveal. She has naturally become very interested in life after death.

The subject matter is captivating, Cat is likeable (even if her boobs are hanging out of tight shirts) and already I'm wondering if the final issue will have her dying and finding out the answer, somehow surviving, or just dying and leaving us guessing.

You had me at "boobs are hanging out of tight shirts" ...



Seriously, though... I'll have to check Boom!'s website. Sounds interesting.

You don't have to be a Marvel fan to enjoy the Young Allies 70th Anniversary Special. The great Roger Stern has done it again, writing a thrilling, funny, and lump-in-the-throat-moving story about Bucky and his fellow teenage WWII freedom fighters, following them from the Golden Age to the present.

Makes me wish Stern was writing Captain America instead of Brubaker (sorry, Bru fans, but despite flashes of brilliance, I never quite warmed to his Cap stories, and dropped the book.) Makes me wish Stern was writing the upcoming Steve Epting-drawn Golden Age extravaganza The Marvels Project instead of Brubaker (if you haven't read Stern/Epting's Invaders story from the late 90s, shame on you. The back issues of Marvel Universe are cheap and easy to find.) And it almost makes me wish Stern was taking over JSA instead of Willingham, except that I've always felt Stern and DC were never a comfortable fit, while Stern and Marvel have always fit together like a hand in glove.

So I enjoyed "The Unwritten" (Vertigo) so much that I felt it was my duty to inform more readers of its existence. Here is my review of #1 :

Detective Comics #854, the first issue of the new Batwoman story by Greg Rucka and JH Williams III is *fantastic*!

There are just no words to describe how good the art is but Rucka tells an interesting and engaging story too and in one panel (on page 4 - you'll know it when you see it) does more to make me a fan of a character than most writers are able to over their entire careers.

This book has HIT written all over it so get a copy quick before they're all gone!

I am SO looking forward to this in my next subscription shipment(Monday!)...

Wow, the high praise of 'Tec almost takes away some of the sting of knowing Winnick is taking over Batman! (Note I said 'some' )

^^^

Good news - Winick is off Batman after only 6 issues!

Bad news - Tony Daniel is writing the following 6 issues!

Worse news - Winick might be coming back after that!

OK, I went to CBS on Saturday and had to pick up 6 weeks of comics--basically all the DC's, all the Marvels, half the Vertigos and many independents. So I've decided as I blow through tihs huge pile I'm going to try to review each one over the next few weeks. I'll use thread for any 'stragglers'. Such as:

Fantastic Force - I know I'm really late to the party on this one but I picked up #1 some time ago and finally got around to reading it. I'm curious if anyone else is (Reboot? Actor Lad?). It spins out of Millar & Hitch's FF run with some new characters they introduced, and the set-up actually gives it a pretty cool premise--they exist on "Nu Earth", a man-made planet very close to our own Earth, now popularted with several billion people from the far-future in a time where Earth is essentially dead. Thus they are the "last super-team". The moniker, some may recall, was used once in the early 90's. Don't let that get you down (because I remember that era well and FF fans certainly had reason to be down during that time).

All in all, the story was actually pretty good! The set-up was original, as I said, but the first issue serves to further explore what this world can offer. The links to the far-future are not cut off, which is welcome, so there is potential for stories from there too. And the characters are all new and interesting, and I appreciate Marvel's willingness to introduce and use such characters these days.

I have no idea how this is selling but I can just tell from the current market its probably not so good. I wonder if anyone else read this?

Fantastic Force was solicited as an ongoing, cut to a five-issue mini before #1 came out, and is now (I believe) a FOUR-issue mini. That should tell you something about how it's selling.

And you're actually the first person I've seen with a good word to say about it.

I also read the bad reviews but was surprised by them. There's nothing in there that is bad at all. I think people just hate (A) Future Wolverine, (B) descendant of the Hulk or (C) the fact that it spins out of Millar & Hitch's run. All reasons why not to buy something I guess but having already bought it and wanting to give it a fair shake, I did think it was actually pretty good (not GREAT, but good).

But from what you say, I doubt there will be a follow-up mini given its already rough history

Wasn't it on this thread that I got the rec for "Four Eyes?"

Got my money's worth. Still reading it.

I believe I recommended that!

Still reading it too and finding very enjoyable!

I recommend Dark Wolverine. Daken is definitely not his father's Wolverine. He's got better fashion sense for one thing. (Except for the mohawk, and yet, somehow it works.) Daken's a very dark character who'll "do anything or anyone" to get what he wants. There's something kind of sympathetic about him, though, although I can't explain it. I'm enjoying this a lot more than I've ever enjoyed a Wolverine comic.

Preview for DW#75.

Preview for DW#76.

Also caught up on Incognito #4 & #5 and once again am just completely blown away at how talented Ed Brubaker and Sean Chen are. The series continues to impress, and Brubaker seems to have a handle on the superhero meets noir fusion better than anyone else (since almost no one else gets it right).

Best of all are the articles in the back, the two here written by Professor Jess Nevins, who has written articles in the past for Criminal and Incognito. The articles are two pages, loaded with information and as fascinating and interesting as anything else I read all year. #4 dealt with "Operator #5" a pulp hero from the 30's I've never heard of and found fascinating, particularly because the series generally always had invasions in the US from foreigners resulting in massive casualties and destruction--something that was a major fear during that era. #5 deals with Fu Manchu, who I *am* familiar with--or at least, I thoguht I was but now feel like I've finally gotten some real history on the character/concept. What it really does is give some incredible insight into the "Yellow Peril" archtype of villainy in the pulp era that stretched on beyond WWII though never quite as ruthless as it was in pre-WWII days (and during of course).

I highly recommend it to anyone who considers themselves intelligent, moral, decent or generally cool in anyway

Of all the 70th anniversary books, I've enjoyed the Captain America & Sub-Mariner ones the best.

hey any recommendations for heroic characters? seems like books are really bloody lately...(LO3W, Ultimatum,) I even read a description of Storm as "not afraid to kill" or something...which is the opposite of how she was written before...

i'm into new avengers because at least there is a debate going on about what a hero is.

are there any books out there now without guns, and without heros that kill?

Wednesday's comics. There is killing a small bit but done off panel.

Well, there is a Hawkman so it's not ALL off panel, lol.

Seriously, I was hunting for this thread to recommend Wednesday's Comics. This is a comic best read with someone; kid, sweety, neighbor's dog.

I'm getting to Wednesday comics eventually in the stack of comics I've got. I'm savoring it because from what I've seen already it looks fantastic.

DB, heroes acting heroic? Without needless bloodshed and violence? That's tougher than it sounds since I've had to actually think about it quite a bit. Best options: Nova, Amazing Spider-Man, Incredible Hercules, Supergirl, Superman, and Booster Gold. That might be it, believe it or not.

Thor hasn't been killing anyone, but he hasn't been afraid to kill his enemies since 1970.

I'm not a gamer, but I am a Peter David lover, so I read Halo: Helljumper 1 (of 5) and liked it a lot. Very reminiscent of James Cameron's Aliens, but with more character depth. The art is a bit drab for my tastes, but it's not the first time PAD has risen above the art.

I thought both were excellent as well.

thanks cobie, i will try amazing spider man...i like how he's written in new avengers. i get thor, that amount of bloodshed dosn't seem excessive, i think only two people have died the past ten books.

I wouldn't. I really wouldn't...

As I'm going through my pile, I found a one-shot I picked up some time ago but can't remember when it came out, SGT Fury & his Howling Commandos. Not sure if anyone else got this.

Now, as I've said before, I basically began reading comics by reading all of the Marvel Silver Age. This included the original SGT Fury & his Howling Commandos run by Jack Kirby, which are all stories that I consider some of the greatest to ever be published. If you ever want to see Jack Kirby at his finest doing something other than superheroes, I highly recommend that.

Thus, I have a natural love for the Howlers and enjoy reading about their WWII exploits. Growing up, Dino was my favorite, but probably I like them all equally now, with perhaps Reb and Gabe being equally as much faves as Dino.

The one-shot was actually rather good. And it was completely done in the spirit of the original Silver Age series. What I mean by that is essentially there is over the top action from first page to last page with only several panels seperating the sequences and usually those panels were hysterical scenes so you really don't catch your breath.

The dialogue is all one-liners, usually with the Howlers breaking 'em off on one another and adding an additional layer to the obsurdity of their exploits--which are usually Fury's exploits as he does things that maybe even Captain America couldn't do, which stays true to the original Kirby series.

Some of the plot points are things I saw coming a mile away but I didn't really mind it too much. For instance: The show a Golden Age Black Widow, which wasn't too surprising. Zemo shows up and Baron Von Strucker does at the end. The final sequences reference Captain America. All these things almost always work their way into a Marvel WWII stories, and have since the 1970's--still, they aren't too distracting.

But I love a good war story, I love a *fun* story, and I love sequences with characters really riffing off one another and that was certainly the case here. The dialogue read like a Giffen/DeMatteis JLI story but with Fury and the Howlers in WWII.

I wish they'd make it an ongoing or at least a miniseries.

Based on this CBR review , I decided to take a chance and pick up the first issue of Boom! Studio's adaptation of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? For those who've never heard of it, this was the book that the movie Blade Runner was loosely based upon.

While I do like Blade Runner, I've never been a really huge fan as it seemed to me to have more style than substance. While there are a lot of great visuals and concepts, the story and the characters never set my intellect on fire. Really, it wasn't all that great or distinctive a story, IMO.

So over the years I'd heard that the movie was very much not representative of the book like so many other movie adaptations, but the thought of actually reading the book was something that never really came to fruition.

So I read the review and was fascinated by how this project was actually going to use every single word that Dick used in his book (rather than some writer's selective use of them) accompanied by traditional comic book panel layouts (as opposed to spot illustrations you might expect in similar undertakings) and was intrigued enough to give it a go.

I just read issue one, and it was outstanding! Nothing much happens actionwise in this first issue, but it's just LOADED with imagination and fascinating sci-fi concepts as you are invited into this fully realized world. The visuals aren't exactly groundbreaking in and of themselves, but they do what a project like this should do and enhance what you're reading with them.

I suppose I could save the money I would spend on a 24-issue project which costs $3.99 a pop by just buying the novel for a portion of the total cost, but I really feel like I got my money's worth here. It was a much longer read than a normal comic, and each issue also has a bonus article like Brubaker's Criminal or Incognito, the first one by Warren Ellis.

That was some nice value for my money! I've already got #2 and look forward to reading it when its turn comes (I'm about a month behind in my reading and read each comic in the order I bought them almost without exception). I wish all $4 comics provided as much thought-provoking entertainment!

Please phrase your dissent in the form of a recommendation in order to remain on-topic. Thank you.

The Management

Nevins has written several books laying out details of all the characters and background stuff in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books. He's also got websites listing many of the classic pulp and Victorian-era heroes. He knows his stuff.

All the above are recommended.

Another really refreshing comic I just read (hopefully you read my write-up of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? at the bottom of the previous page) was Immortal Weapons #1 featuring Fat Cobra.

Immortal Weapons features the other five Iron Fist equivalents introduced during the recently ended (and excellent) Immortal Iron Fist series. Each issue is written by a different writer and has a serialized Iron Fist backup by the team who was doing such excellent work on the ongoing.

Fat Cobra is a sumo-inspired character and probably the most popular of the five among fans. The writer is Jason Aarons who is the writer of Vertigo's Scalped, one of my favorite books on the market. The story centers on the long-lived Fat Cobra hearing his origin from a guy he paid to write his biography. Seems Cobra's been so long-lived and partied so hard that he forgot a lot about his own history.

It's a terrific story from start to finish with some beautiful art--even though there are about four different pencillers, each handling different sections of the story. The story runs the gamut between hilarious and tragic and all points in between. It's an entertaining standalone that requires absolutely no foreknowledge of the character! Quite a feat!

The Iron Fist back-up is entertaining as well. While it's not a complete story, it doesn't rely on whether you picked up the ongoing at all and looks to be an engaging street-level story.

I don't know if subsequent issues will be this good because of the different creative teams, but I can definitely recommend issue 1 to anyone looking for a good Kung Fu saga that's new reader-friendly. It's $3.99, but there's plenty of extra pages for the money, unlike most $4 Marvel comics.

Looks like those of us that are addicted to the crack that is the zombie sub-genre in comics have another must-read comic being published! This one is a miniseries published by IDW called The Last Resort and is written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (GrayPal). If you've enjoyed a lot of what GrayPal have done in the past, I don't think you'll be disappointed by this effort.

The premise of The Last Resort is that a zombielike plague has hit a fictional tropical island resort. In the first issue (only one out so far), we're given a glimpse of how this plague begins. The rest of the issue sets up our cast of potential victims, and we get to meet them as they prepare to board a plane which will eventually have to make an emergency landing on the resort island in question due to some really bad weather conditions.

The first issue sets up really well as what would be the opening act of a really cool horror movie. We get enough of a flavor for the characters to start rooting for and against each of them surviving to the end. The tone is mostly humorous. Even the zombie attack at the beginning is a little (literally!) tongue-in-cheek. I wouldn't say it's setting up as a laugh riot, exactly, but kinda in the same way that many horror films are fun while still delivering thrills and chills. I mean, you know that most of the characters are gonna bite it, so it's fun to anticipate which ones and how gruesome it will be, y'know?

The art is kinda cartoony and realistic at the same time. So far I think it works pretty well. The content is most definitely of the R-rated variety with gore, language and sexuality all being prominent. What's a zombie story without all those things?

Anyway, issue one ends with the plane only just arriving at the resort and ends with the plane itself in dire peril. So it doesn't really get down to counting down the victims by the end. I suspect that will begin in earnest next issue! I like that it took the time to paint the broad strokes of the characters, though, and I look forward to the carnage that's to come!

Try some trades therough your local library first. Some of Amazing isn't that bad, I just cannot support the book after what they've done to him over the last few years.

Is this a mini? If so, how many issues of carnage can we expect?

'Tis a mini, indeed. Not totally sure about how many issues, though. I'd guess four or five, though. They don't plaster this on the covers like they used to.

Here's a preview they had of issue number one, though.

Looks interesting enough.

I'm just glad somebody's reading some of my reviews!

to Dev

Oh, and here\'s an interview with Palmiotti about that project.

And the revies for issues 1 and 2 .

(These links and the others for Last Resort, courtesy of CBR.)

Have not seen it mentioned so far but I would recommend North 40 a six issue mini-series by Wildstorm. It is a bit Lovecrafty in story and so far (at the half way point) has been very good indeed.

I picked up Deadpool Team-Up #899 because of three reasons: (A) Fred Van Lente is writing and he's doing some great stuff for Marvel right now, including some of the better Spider-Man stories; (B) Hercules is in it and his comic (co-written by Van Lente) is excellent; and (C) I've been wondering what the fuss over Deadpool is all about and up until now could not find a Deadpool comic in the CBS that looked even remotely good. Also, starting the numbering with #899 was a marketing ploy that worked on me because its amusing.

And you know what? I'm glad I picked it up. A solid, funny issue. Seeing Deadpool interact with Hercules was fun, and the issue had the right blend of humor with action. It was good enough to pick up the next issue (which I believe is traveling backwards in numbering?).

Wishful thinking: this title could be an outlet for the Van Lente / Greg Pak / Jeff Parker corner of the MU and we could see appearances by Agents of Atlas, Banner & Son of Hulk, the new Scorpion and some others.

#899 was Van Lente's only issue (and the ungoing technically started with the previous month's DP #900). I forget who's doing #898 unward.

[And Cable/DP's being released in 18-issue "Deadpool and Cable Ultimate Collection" TPBs - I recommend buying them ]

^^ Well, after I got bummed out that Van Lente was not the ongoing writer ( ), I didn’t pick up the next issue. I don’t like Deadpool *that* much… Meanwhile, maybe I’ll finally check out a Cable/Deadpool TPB…

Anyway, another comic I picked up that I’ll recommend is:

Murderer #1 by Kirkman and Top Cow. Its part of Top Cow’s “Pilot Season” which I guess means they’ll have 5 one-shots then the fans will vote on the best series and it’ll get a mini or ongoing. Which means I have no idea if there will be more stories and that’s why I didn’t give it its own thread. The idea seems great for fan interaction but I really hope this one wins because I liked it and I don’t know if I’ll maintain a level of curiosity to pick up the other contenders over the next few months (history tells me no, I won’t). Anyway, its by Kirkman, teaming with Marc Silvestri (though its obviously mostly Kirkman) and a pretty solid art team. Like “Haunt”, I wanted to get in on a Kirkman comic from the ground floor up because I came in late on everything else he’s done and really ended up liking most of it. He’s a great writer and that really shows here.

The concept of Murderer is one that could go either way—something really interesting or a one-trick pony to showcase some good ol’fashioned gore, and luckily it appears to be the former. The writing it top notch and the character is intriguing. Its most implied but there appears to be a whole heck of a lot going on in his head. The middle of the comic dealt with the inevitable murder but the ending sequences showcased Kirkman’s ability to provide a series with some really heart & soul, which I liked. I think Kirkman is getting much better at making his beginning issues have much more of an impact rather than his traditional slow build.

The art was pretty excellent all the way through by Nelson Blake, whom I’ve never heard of before. It had a very eerie feel to it, and I think that had a bit to do with the coloring job. My only complaint is the lack of backgrounds in the panels—something that is a major pet-peeve of mine, as I feel it’s the classic easy-way out for an artist to get pages out on time. That should be addressed.

Thinking about it, I’ve never really collected any comics from Top Cow. Other than Cyber Force #1 and #2 in the early 90’s, and a few issues of Hunter-Killer on Vee’s recommendation a few yaers aback, the only series I can recall was Wanted. Nothing against the company, I’ve just never really followed Witchblade or the Darkness and don’t really know anyone who does. Marc Silvestri gets roped into the category of other Image founders often, but I think he’s a fantastic artist—I recently reread his X-Men stories in the 80’s and his art was completely awesome back then. His recent Marvel stuff was as well. I think the man is majorly talented and criticisms on his art are often unfair. Sure, he likes to draw scantily clad women (and men too) but I think he’s dynamic enough in his interiors where its not all pin-ups but has a real energy. That’s all beside the point because his involvement here isn’t really noticeable. He’s co-creator with Kirkman, likely on a design basis, but you can tell the story is all Kirkman.

I wonder if any other Kirkman fans will check out? I thought it was totally worth the price of admission.

Maybe it's the spirit of the season, but the gory-sexy-funny Last Resort sounds pretty appealing right now. Are you still reading it, Lardi?

There seem to be a lot of murder/crime books around now, but Kirkman is a big draw.

These days I'm basically collecting every comic in the world, especially independents and Vertigo. So after being genuinely delighted by the new Warlord series by Mike Grell, I decided to pick up the new John Sable, Freelance series by Grell through IDW Entertainment. I know the series history but I've never read any John Sable series before, as I was in the single digits age group in the 80's.

And you know what? Its really freaking good! Grell seems to having a renaissance these days in the quality of his work, even if it seems as if no one is buying it or talking about it. The story is interesting and dynamic, and keeping me curious for more. And the artwork is simply terrific--it seems like he's only gotten better with age, and its better than its ever been. Each page is loaded with interesting layouts, almost popping off the page. He, of course, draws incredibly attractive characters, but has such a unique style that it makes them seem almost normal (which kind of makes them seem even more attractive).

Also, Grell's pencils and inks make the work a little scratchy and then the coloring kind of jumps off the page because of it. Its really kind of dynamic--not sure if thats by design, but I like it.

I think its definitely worth a buy. Good mystery / spy type series with some of the best art in comics these days.

Cramey, the last issue of that mini (5 issues in all) came out last week. After I've finished reading it, I'll let you know here what I thought of it as a whole. Then you can decide whether to buy the trade or whatever. I'm perpetually behind in my comics reading (and like it that way!), so expect the review in about a month, 'kay?

I've read little-to-none of Jon Sable; it's one of those indies I missed out on in the '80s. I've always perceived it as being a crime comic not too far off in tone from Grell's Green Arrow run, but I've never been entirely sure. One thing that always confused me was that mask, makeup or whatever he wears on the edges of his face when he's in action. At times I even thought it was just a shading effect. Des, can you (or anyone else who's read Sable) give me some idea of the flavor of the series and character? (and can anyone explain the mask/makeup/shadow-thing on his face? )

To be honest, I have no idea about the mask/makeup/shadow thing on his face...thus far he hasn't had it on for the first three issues except in flash backs. I'm not familiar enough with the character yet.

From what I've seen thus far (like I said, I've read all of three issues), the closest thing I can compare this to is Grell's Green Arrow. It has the same flavor of being a crime comic with exciting stories and interesting, beautiful characters. Sable is also a pure ladies man with at least four ex-girlfriends / lover interests thus far, so thats comparable to Ollie Queen; Grell does it in such a way though that it doesn't come off as piggish or macho at all, but really endearing. Sable is also older (even referenced in the series) so its similar to how Grell consistently portrayed Ollie as an older man in his 40's going on 50's (even though that obviously no longer applies in DC continuity).

One major difference between Grell's Green Arrow and Grell's Sable is there is a strong connection to Africa in the first two issues and references in the third suggesting there usually are connections to Africa in the series. Sable is aparently there often. So its almost like "what if Grell had just come off doing his Green Arrow run and Warlord run and wanted to tackle the Phantom, but a more crime-based series with little use of costumes" (even though Grell was doing Sable the same time he was doing Green Arrow).

I really think its worth a glance. The artwork was noticably excellent. It stood out as some of the best art of the year in any comic book for me, and I usually focus on the writing.

This morning I read a comic that was so good it made the jump from the "Random Review Corner" to an "Any Recommendations" review. It was Zorro from Dynamite Entertainment.

I picked up Zorro based on the strength of Matt Wagner's writing on Madame Xanadu which has been simply excellent. I've always known Wagner was an enormously talented writer but for whatever reason have not been reading a lot of his stuff over the last few years. But his recent work has been good enough to get me to search out what he's doing. Like most of us, I'm familiar with Zorro, but I've actually never collected any Zorro-related material. Even though I've been curious to check out the various Dynamite licensed properties, I never really considered it.

But boy am I glad I did--it was really terrific! Matt Wagner does an excellent job at providing a solid, really awesome adventurer story. The issue I read is #16, which was a done in one story and it reminded me of Jonah Hex--the story wasn't epic or grandiose but a solid excellent story that I'm glad I bought. Its tightly plotted and has a certain 'wow!' factor to it that reminds you of the coolness of comic books. Even better, Wagner writes Zorro in such a way that its distinctly Zorro the character you're reading about--though it reminds me a bit of Batman, there is a distinctive feel to the character to differentiate him from the numerous other masked mystery men in comics and other mediums.

Even better than the writing--which was great--was the artwork by Francesco Francavilla. I've never heard of him before but his work is really awesome! In a lot of ways he reminds me of Joe Kubert (senior) but some subtle changes--not as "ugly" or ferocious, but the same basic style but cleaned up a little (no disrespect to Joe Kubert whose artwork I love). He also did a great job in showcasing beautiful backgrounds, dynamic fight scenes and some great, cheer-worthy depictions of Zorro. I definitely felt like this guy was the real deal.

The comic was good enough to get me to come back for more. It was a 'modern' story in the sense of style but also had the feel of the pulps / radio serial / other mediums of old the character was born from. Great read!

^^picked up #14 and #15 as well and they were magnificent. I'm really impressed--I'm going to pick up #17-18 next time I go to the CBS.

No recommendations in two months? C'mon Legion World, give 'em to us!

I'll have to say that anyone not reading Jonah Hex every month is missing a great story and in danger of being a person I no longer respect, like or want to see live a fruitful life. Jonah Hex is simply smashing all notions that a western comic can't survive, that a series of done in comics can't survive and that a quality comic book can come out every single month. The writing is always tight, the stories are fantastic and the artwork is just a monthly dose of the best thing on the stands.

Not only should you go buy the latest issue, you should go do it right now. Best part? Every issue is a jumping on point.

I still have to find issue 50. Then we'll see about the rest.

Gotta put in a recommendation for Atomic Robo --anyone not picking this up is really missing the boat. It's a fun series, action-packed, with some great science-fiction and awesomely likable characters. Every issue has hilarious moments. And Robo is just about 100 years old, and his long history makes the larger mythology of the series so fascinating.

Any issue is basically a jumping on point, even mid-miniseries.

Eryk, Lash, Lardy--how are you guys not reading this yet? Especially you, Eryk! This could restore your faith in comics.

Dev and others with kids--this is also a comic that I think kids would love as well, though of course equally enjoyable to adults!

Grimm Fairy Tales by Zenescope.

Cobie...have you ever read Shamans Tears by Grell? I just found the 8 issues I have from Image. Sable is featured in several of them as well.

Dev, I haven't but I remember my Dad buying at least the first issue, if not the first three. We have a misc. Image box which I wanted to take a look at anyway to review Youngblood, so I'll take a look.

Please review them when you get the chance! What I remember most is the cool logo. I bet it came out in 1993 (my memory is usually pretty good).

May 1993 was the first issue. Very good Cobisan.

"These days I'm basically collecting every comic in the world"


Oh yeah?

My comics mail-order for this month:

BEST OF THE WEST #1 (1999)
HAUNTED HORSEMAN #1 (1999)
THE PRESTO KID #1 (1989)


All 3 of these are reprints from AC Comics, and all 3 feature DICK AYERS art. The original GHOST RIDER, I'm reminded in 2 of these 3 books, was MUCH better than the lame version Marvel tried to foist on readers in 1967, which was too watered-down and "Marvel-ized". (Stan, Roy & Gary apparently felt every comic Marvel published should read like Spidey or DD, even if it was set in the old west.) There's no angst in the 50's comics, there's no lame same-opera, there's no annoying recurring characters who exist for no reason but to get on the hero's nerves... just good characters, heroes, and OUTLAWS. And that's how westerns should be! (heh)

JON SABLE FREELANCE was one of the best series from First Comics, one of the best new publishers in the early 80's. It was designed to have a "real world adventure" feel, with Sable being a paid mercenary, like James Bond except on a freelance basis. For quite a lot of issues, month after month, it also featured some of Grell's best artwork. So to me, that puts it heads and shoulders ABOVE Grell's GREEN ARROW run, where I don't recall him ever doing any interior art except for the initial prestige format mini-series. (I STILL have my LONGBOW HUNTERS promo poster hanging on my closet door after all these years!!)

Later, other pencillers took over, during a period where a growing number of writer-artists (Starlin, Byrne, Miller) all got tired of drawing their own stories. Around that time, ABC did a live-action SABLE tv series, but it was rather watered-down from the comic (whose name, stupidly, was changed to reflect the altered name of the tv series-- which only lasted 7 weeks!).


Nice to hear Grell has returned to his "baby" again, I know this isn't the first time he's done so. Wish I could afford it, maybe one of these years...

Curse you. I have to get another issue later this week now. Great stuff, and I only read 1 and 50. Good thing is, I have a lot of reading to catch up on.

I need more convincing Des! There's an eBay lot on the first TPB that's minutes from ending (for a bargain price) that I've been on the fence as to whether or not to buy! Does it have memorable characters, or is it just big, fun robot action?

Characters are highly memorable! Nikola Tesla is a major character! There is a guy who works with Robo named Jensen that is COMPLETELY AWESOME. He's like Batman and he's put in situations that totally mirror Batman in the JLI.

Stories are complex, loaded with science but have a slight whimsical touch!

Backstory is so large you can't help but try to figure it out whenever you open a comic!

Buy it! Totally worth it! You'll love it!

All right, I bought it already! Hope it's not another Umbrella Academy, though...

I liked UA, but it isn't like Atomic Robo at all.

Robo's more funny than weird, though it's weird as well.

The colorist is pretty cool too.

Miner, Umbrella Academy (first series) just wasn't my cup of tea. My major problem with it was that the characters just didn't grab me. They were weird and quirky, yes, but they didn't breathe for me. For Cobie, backgrounds on art are often the deal-breaker on a comic. For me it's characterizations. If everyone feels like a stock character and I don't really care about any of them, that takes me out of the story. I picked it up on LW recommendations, and I can see why they liked it. But it didn't really do anything for me personally.

And, yeah, I've heard excellent things about the colorist!

That's a totally reasonable position, OT.

Characterization's usually important to me, too, and I think UA does have some of that. But mostly it's just out there, which is exactly what I was missing from comics at the time.

UA would never work for me as a monthly book, but in mini-sized doses it does fine.

Do you thing Robo has more of what I'm looking for than Umbrella Academy did, OM?

I think the Atomic Robo guys are more concerned with making an action/comedy series than worrying about long-term development of characters. But AR does not lack character development, I'll put it that way.

It sounds a little more up my alley, then. Not every title has to be on, say, the level of Scalped in characterization. If they grab me and make me want to see what happens next, then that's enough. There was just too little of that feeling in UA for me at all.

Lardy, I think AR won't be what you expect and you'll be glad you got it. It certainly is different enough from everything else that I like having it on my pull list. Trust me that Atomic Robo himself is a really deep character who you'll love almost instantly and that will grow over time.

I was still reading posts last night when I was holding the baby before bed (posting from my phone at this point would have been too hard) and I noticed this. You know, you're certainly right, but I don't know when I started to feel this way. I’ve *always* been a ‘story over the art’ kind of reader, where I’d take a great story with mediocre art but couldn’t stand a beautiful artfully done comic with a bad story. Ever since day one. My father, meanwhile, is the opposite (and he’s given me several speeches about comics being a visual medium, mind you ).

But at one point, possibly after a few film classes I had in college, I started to really pick up on what the artist has to bring to the table other than what the writer and editor tell them to do (mis en scene, dynamic energy in the panels, etc.). And I went and looked at the Golden, Atomic, Silver and Bronze Age stories I co-own and I noticed how the greats did it too. So these days, when I notice an empty background, I truly feel like the artist isn’t trying hard enough, doesn’t know what the hell their doing (and needs an editor) or is actually just trying to make a quick buck. So it grates on me—it’s become my personal pet-peeve.

I hear you on characterizations too, of course, but I’ve come to realize that’s your own pet-peeve too. I enjoy when you take a character to task even if I’m not as vehement about as you are.

Okay, here is a comic book that jumped immediately from a "Random Comic Review" post to "Any Recommendations" as I've just put it down and was so impressed by it that I had to stop whatever I had planned next and post about it. Previously, I had reviewed the Top Cow / Robert Kirkman "Pilot Season" Murderer , which I also recommended. I liked it so much, I hoped it won the contest. Now I'm not so sure, because I just read the third Kirkman outing (I skipped Demonic, the 2nd) and I was pretty blow away. The comic book was Stealth and anyone who is a fan of Robert Kirkman, fascinating characters with just about no analogues in all of comics and incredible twists need to pick it up.

Honestly, the premise starts off pretty strait forward but then has a twist or two that is both incredibly fascinating and also really dynamic in the sense that after only one issue, I was feeling some real emotional concern for these characters.

I'm biting my tongue because I can't really say much about it without giving away the entire thing. Trust: any preconcieved notions you might have about Top Cow, Kirkman or whatever are wrong. I almost passed this up and only decided to get it because Comic Book Resources gave it a glowing review and I'm spending so much more time at home these days I wanted more material to read. Man, am I glad I did!

"Characters" is the word of the day here (naturally as a Kirkman comic) but everything else clicks: artwork, pacing, moodiness...*everything*.

Solid buy! One of the best hooks I've ever read in comics before. The hook, though is not a story-driven hook (like Thunderbolts #1), but a character-driven hook. I'm dying to know what happens to the two main characters.

Hopefully someone buys (I'm looking at you Kirkman fans) and we can discuss some spoilers.

FYI, Top Cow's "Pilot Season" is this thing were they release 5 different one-shots and then the fans vote on their favorite and it gets continued as a series. This year, they are doing 5 Robert Kirkman projects.

Recommended for kids of all ages, but especially to those just learning to read and who are still too young for superheroes, is "The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics." Spanning stories from the dawn of comic books in the late 30s through just before superheroes took over in the early 60s, it's a wonderfully eclectic selection of timeless whimsy, weirdness, and wonder. The $40 price tag is a bit steep, but you can probably find a copy to borrow from your local library.

^This absolutely sounds like something I'll be looking for in the next few years. I definitely want to try out various comics for my son (and next few kids too ) when they can start reading and your description sounds perfect for that.

In a few years I will certainly be on the look out for comics to read with my kids so I will need your advice, Stealth! You know *all* the best Disney, cartoon-related and other groovy ones.

I'm always happy to help.

Looks like growing up with my parents forbidding me from reading superhero comics (the few that were even available in Ecuador) has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

did anyone get the Manhunter series with Kate Spencer ........ i'm curious, if it's any good.

^ I never read it but I know it has a rabid fan-base.

I was tempted to pick it up but after the writer killed off one of my favourite C-list villains (Monocle) in about the third issue I refused to support him with any of my money.

Still, it may be worth a look if I see it in a cheap back-issue bin one day.

It was a pretty good series that had moments of brillance but then also issues where it seemed to really linger. So yes & no.

Prior to its cancellation, I was on the fence about continuing.

They also did some screwy-things with DC history/continuity that I didn't like and didn't make sense (therefore were distracting). On the other hand, they gave Obsidion an awesome role for the first time since the 80's.

I'm gonna add my voice to all those who have recommended Fables over the years. It really deserves all the praise it's gotten! I've recently read the first three volumes and found them outstanding. I put a lengthier review on the Fables thread proper, but I'd avoid that thread if you're a Fables newbie because, as the thread title states, it does contain spoilers that you might stumble onto. I even decided not to simply cut and paste my post there as it may be considered slightly spoilerish itself.

If you don't know the premise, all the characters from all the fables, fairy tales, nusery rhymes, etc. we grew up with are real. They've been banished by a mysterious entity known only as the Adversary to our world where they must be careful not to draw attention to themselves. All of them are immortal, or at least extremely long-lived, but far from invulnerable. They live as a secret society and have their own government and culture.

Through three volumes, the main characters are at the center or near the center of the the seat of power. Old King Cole is the Mayor of the Fables (as they call themselves), but it's Snow White who is the power behind him. Bigby Wolf (as in Big Bad Wolf) is the Sheriff and is able to take human form. Other core characters are Little Boy Blue, Jack (from "Jack & the Beanstalk" and possible other stories with a lead character named Jack), Bluebeard, Snow's sister Rose Red, the Frog Prince (called the Flycatcher or simply "Fly"), Prince Charming, Goldilocks and a slew of others.

This series is the perfect combination of whimsy and that mature "edginess" that Vertigo is known for. It's not dissimilar in tone to Gaiman's Sandman, I'd say.

Volume 1 "Legends in Exile" sets the table for this world around the mystery of Rose red's murder. It's a very clever story tool to let us meet all the players and has a neat, unexpected resolution to the mystery. I'd recommend you where your Holmes cap while reading it!

Volume 2 "Animal Farm" shows what the Fables who can't pass as human are living and what happens when they get fed up with having to play by the rules because of it.

Volume 3 "Storybook Love" contains a one-, two- and four-parter that kind of have love and romance as a theme. The four-parter really explores the core romance of the book while resolving a certain conflict that's been brewing in a satisfying manner.

So if anyone out there still hasn't tried Fables (assuming I wasn't the last, of course! ), do yourself a favor and try it! All three trades are a great read, and IMO, each volume is better than the previous one! I wasn't absolutely batshit about Fables after the first trade, but I definitely AM after three!

I've been thinking about picking Fables up. My LCS never seems to have it on the shelf, but maybe I'll ask them to bring vol 1 in for me next time I'm in.

From what I've gleaned of your tastes, Arachne, I've a feeling Fables just might be right up your alley!

If you're worried about investing money in the unknown, try your local library! Many LWers have experienced the joys of reading trades for FREE thru the wonder of these magical places! Right, Rocky?

P.S. Stealthie should try Fables, too, if she hasn't already!

I read the first trade. It was good, but it didn't thrill me.

I also read the special, "1001 Nights" I think it was called. That one I liked a lot, probably because it had a more traditional approach than the ongoing.

Alas, my local libraries don't have much in the way of graphic novels. Although, surprisingly they do have some Three-boot Legion trades.

*ahem*

WTF?!?!

I don't try to make sense of it. They seem to buy things at random sometimes. For instance, I just checked and they do have one Fables trade -- the one that collects issues #34 to #41.

Don't start with that one!

LOL Because it's bad or because it's confusing? (Not that I was planning on starting there anyway.)

Isn't that the one about the... Adversary?

Nah, I'm just always an advocate of starting at the beginning! Hell, I've only read the equivalent of the first 18 issues, anyway. So therefore....

...I've no clue!

Alright then.

Yes.

Here's the official publisher's summary:

"Collecting issues #34-41 of writer Bill Willingham's Eisner Award-winning creation, HOMELANDS follows Boy Blue on a mission of revenge as he uncovers the Adversary's true identity! Plus, the 2-part story of Jack's adventures in Hollywood and the one-shot story of Mowgli's return to Fabletown."

They did some great things with the supporting cast, including Obsisdian and Cameron Chase.

But I always found the main character to be boring, and the retcons they pulled with Manhunter continuity were unnecessary and unforgivably bad.

Warning to potential Fables readers: Avoid TPB descriptions! One of them (probably the volume after this one), I'm quite certain gives away the Adversary's (the mysterious bad guy in the first uber-arc) identity! It doesn't spell it out, but if you know your fairy tales at all (read: seen a lot of Disney movies), it's TOO big of a clue!

I could be wrong because I don't want to spoil ever detail before I even read them, but it seems likely I'm not!

Yet the fact that the fans were able to keep it going prove as testament that fans can get things done.

Definitely avoid all Fables blurbs--there are many spoilers that can be given away. You've heard the praise and know the premise...you don't need anymore convincing!

I also recommend the Hourman series by Tom Peyer. It was the one that focused on the third Hourman, the android one Grant Morrison created, and had Snapper Carr as a co-star.

The late 90s really was a beacon of originality over at DC.

Hourman, Resurrection Man, Young Heroes in Love, Relative Heroes, Birds of Prey...

Yeah, there's a big spoiler in lots of blurbs, I'd imagine, that would easily spoil the first trade's twist.

I'll second all this and add Chase, Chronos, Challengers of the Unknown, and Starman.

Great stuff that mostly wasn't rewarded with great sales.

Hitman, too!

Though it reads seamlessly, I think DC pressured Garth Ennis to wrap it up somewhat sooner than he'd planned, IIRC. Never was the blockbuster seller it deserved to be.

If I ever start writing at DC I want to harken back to these books. God knows SOME of them were dark, but they weren't all bloody.

Lot of great series you guys mentioned.

The Hitman final issue actually made me tear up.

Chase was a solid series--whatever happened to D. Curtis Johnson? Did he leave comics all together? I actually used to read his blog back in '99.

Chronos was great and a lot of fun. It never had a chance but bravo for the attempt.

Hourman was fun but sometimes it would drag IMO. I was thinking about Hourman III the other day though. He was a GREAT character. I like Rick a lot but its a shame Ty is no more. Easy way to fix though.

The 90's get a bad rap and deservedly so, but DC always had a few really original and exciting series throughout the entire decade. Ostrander's Spectre earlier on, the Ray by Priest and others.

Oh GAWD, yes!

This one I definitely liked for a while. Seemed like it sputtered after a year or so, so I wasn't all that upset when it got cancelled. Ray coulda been the next big teen hero if allowed to grow.

Well, what exactly do they call that haircut Superboy and Ray used to have when they started out? I think that contributed to the bad rep.

I also can't recommend fast enough Devin Grayson's Arsenal miniseries and Relative Heroes.

Even if she had Tarantula rape Nightwing.

Wass that what they called a 'fade'? Where's Dean when we need him??

Oh a fade cut, that's it!

Aha. Okay. I'll definitely give 2 and 3 a go then. Thanks, OT.

What do you guys think about Secret Six? I just read the preview for the next issue and it's got me curious.

Arachne, Secret Six is one of DC's best ongiong series currently published. Period. This is the book that made me a Gail Simone fan. I think she's done many really good things in her career, but S6 is the book where her talent really shines.

Just an awesome, AWESOME book. Dark. Funny. Morally ambiguous. Flat-out entertaining!

It's kind of the spriritual descendant to John Ostrander's Suicide Squad without being imitative. It's a travesty that this book isn't a top ten seller on Diamond's monthly list.

Try it, Arachne. I doubt you'll regret you did!

If you do, you can send it to him for a refund.

LOL I think I'm more intrigues by this right now than by Fables. Maybe it's time to make a trip into the city to see what they have in stock, rather than ordering from my local CBS.

ETA: Or maybe I could just order from Chapters. If I ordered all four there'd be no S&H charges...

It really doesn't get better than Matt Wagner's Green Hornet: Year One by Dynamite Entertainment, which I reviewed here a few times in the Green Hornet thread . #3 is the most recent issue out and is another terrific execution of story & art introducing readers to the world of the Green Hornet & Kato.

I was not much of a Green Hornet fan prior to this but I sure am now. Wagner uses the global 1930's backdrop to flesh out both characters, and Aaron Campbell and Francesco Francavilla provide an art style evocative of the era the character was born in while feeling fresh and exciting.

My Secret Six trades didn't arrive today. I thought they'd be here, darn it.

I reread the BoP/SS crossover. Good stuff. Maybe I'll reread some more of Simone's BoP while I'm waiting.

A Green Hornet book, set in the 1930's, written by Matt Wagner has to be as good as Sandman Mystery Theatre.

That's got to be a good thing.
(P.S. - when do you gonna break down and read MAGE and GRENDEL, Cobie?)

SOON! Both are definitely on my list of trades to get (I just put in a big order so these will have to wait until my next big one).

But lately I feel that Matt Wagner is a contender for best writer in comics between Zorro, Green Hornet: Year One and Madame Xanadu. The guy is just so good!

And all the things you mention that would leave you to believe Green Hornet: Year One is good are as good if not better than what you imagine them to be!

Personally, I think you should read Sandman Mystery Theatre before Mage or Grendel, Cobie!

Tonight, I finally dove into my TPB of The Astounding Wolf-Man Volume 1 which I've been holding onto for about 2 years. I'm really not sure why it took so long for me to read it. I mean, I rarely read a TPB as soon as I buy it as I constantly have a backlog of monthlies and trades and rarely prioritize any particular trade. Plus, I absolutely LOVE Robert Kirkman's writing on his other hit Image creations, Walking Dead and Invincible. So by all rights, I should have dove right into this thing a long time ago.

But I didn't. I read trade after trade after trade before this one, including tons that I bought after this one. Why? I think maybe I was afraid that this one was the dud of the Kirkman crop. I mean, no one ever talks about or reviews this Wolf-Man comic on the professional sites or even here. Using "search" button here, the most it ever got mentioned was here by Stu with just a little follow-up. Add into it that Kirkman announced last year that this title would be ending with #25 due in part to low sales and, well, the signs seemd to point to this one being the one that brought down Kirkman's batting average.

Well, for whatever reason (probably that final issue recently being solicited), I picked it up tonight over a bevy of more recently-purchased and more looked-forwarded-to trades and finally read it. I'd say, yes, this isn't as excellent as Invincible or Walking Dead, but it's still pretty darn good!

This is exactly what you'd expect if you've ever seen a cover or drawing of the character: a superhero book using the trappings of a horror staple. I wouldn't say the concept is groundbreaking (Man-Wolf or Werewolf By Night, anyone?), but the execution is really nice. I like, for example, how Kirkman slowly sets up the workings of a specific mythology for this character and for his take on traditional horror epics. He doesn't bury us under exposition but works it into the story a little bit at a time. It works really well here and leaves us waiting for more answers when each nugget we get begats more questions. It's very involving and engages me very well.

Kirkman's stuff is not really known for being dense reads, and this one is no exception. No narration and dialogue that can be minimal at times leads to this being a very brisk read. But if you enjoy Kirkman's stuff, you already know this. What keeps me coming back to his work is the sense of character he injects to the players and his trademark plot twists. Both are definitely present here, and this trade ends with a real hum-dinger on par with some of the others he's pulled on us.

Is it perfect? No. I'd say the superhero aspects tend to be pretty ordinary and only become more interesting when they cross over to the supernatural aspects and mythology. Kirkman has a habit over in Invincible of creating scores of throwaway characters (especially villains) to match his heroes against, and that trend continues here. The real draw is what's going on with our title character and the forces that surround him. The superhero aspect is average at best.

Fortunately, I think Kirkman realizes where the strength of the book lies and doesn't waste too many story pages on the stuff that's not interesting to us. It's a safe bet, given the ending, that Kirkman will be focusing less on the superhero stuff and more about what makes the character interesting in subsequent volumes.

The artist Jason Howard has a style that is reminiscent of the work of Michael Avon Oeming, who is best known for his work on Powers with Bendis. It doesn't ape his style but definitely belongs to the same school that Oeming and others come from--what I would describe as derivative of the look of Batman: The Animated Series. (Darwyn Cooke belongs somewhat to this school as well, though he and Oeming have transcended it, IMO.) It's a simpler, cleaner style than, say, the more hyper-detailed and 'realistic' styles out there.

I think Howard's style works pretty well, given this is a horror/superhero lovechild. Given that the horror aspects are more interesting in this series, I'd say that his work could be a turn-off to some. I mean, something more in the vein of Mignola or Colan might have gotten this book the tone and sales that Howard's style might not have. But the art is attractive and is accompanied by some striking monotones in night sequences and some John Workman-esque lettering.

Boy, this art criticque is coming off more negative than I'd intended! But more detail definitely could have helped in places. Probably the most negative thing to me is the Wolf-Man's fur or specifically, the lack of detail in it. It's basically just exterior outlines at the fringes of the figure work without any interior detail. I think some of the intent with the choice of Howard is to soften the horror and accentuate the superhero, but I'm not sure that was the right choice.

On the plus side, Howard can tell a sequential story very well, so you're not missing thos narrative captions. His designs for a lot of the other characters show a lot of imagination. I just wish his Wolf-Man was more elaborate. I also wouldn't say that Howard's backgrounds are particularly a strength either, but not so much that they are detrimental.

Overall, I enjoyed volume one quite a bit (including the art--really!). As I said, it's not up to the level of Invincible or walking Dead, but it's definitely worthy of attention. I'll say one thing--if I'd read this last night, I most definitely woulda been looking for Volume Two today when I used my gift card to buy more trades! Volume One most definitely leaves you eager to read what happens next!

Astounding Wolfman was always one of those comics I wondered about because it was Kirkman but never pulled the trigger on. Like you said Lardy, it's pretty hard to find someone who reviewed it! Your review has done a great job at making me consider grabbing the first trade the next time I make a run.

PS - you were up pretty late last night! 3:37 AM?

I'm glad you found it helpful! I try to give a pretty thorough accounting of a book, pro and con, when I review it, especially if it's not one that's gotten much press.

That's because I'm on a mini-vacation. I say "mini" because it's seven days instead of about 10 or 11. Stupid boss wouldn't let me extend it thru the July 4th weekend...

Very nice! Enjoy your vacay! Sucks about the stupid boss. My vacay is the week after next (so I also can't extend my vacay to the 4th) and will also be the same amount of time. Damn work!

And as you know, you're reviews are a major factor of what I may end up buying!

As a long time major Spider-Man fan, it would seem like a no-brainer for me to pick up The Black Cat miniseries (four issue) which has recently come out, but I have to admit that I wasn’t immediately on board. These days I’m just more judicious in anything Marvel and DC put out that isn’t specifically one of those characters I’m 100% committed to.

Still, what sold me at first was I thought Amanda Conner was on art; I was wrong, however, but she did do the cover, which is simply gorgeous, with perhaps the best looking Black Cat I’ve ever seen EVER and a cool logo design very reminiscent of 1960’s cinema (which I bet was encouraged by writer Jen Van Meter given her inside script, which I’ll get to shortly). The actual interior artist, however, was Javier Pulido, which is even better for me, as I consider him currently one of my favorite artists currently working in comics. In Lardy’s Roundtable thread I listed him as one of the artists I would buy a comic book specifically for his work and I meant it; his recent Spider-Man and Marvel Zombies artwork is some of the best I’ve ever seen and I even mentioned my familiarity with him stemming from his Human Target days how good I think he’s gotten before on Legion World.

So I did buy the comic and I’m thrilled that I did. I liked it so much that rather than post about it in the Spider-Man thread where it might fit, I figured it deserved a post here in the “Any Recommendations?” thread. I’ve always considered the Black Cat one of my favorites, though I believe that (A) she works best as a supporting player for Spider-Man (like the Punisher) but with the caveat (B) she works best when she’s not a love interest for Spider-Man; I think she deserves to stand out on her own more than that. She’s one of the truly great Spider-characters after the end of the Silver Age. And here, in her mini, I think she gets the best treatment she’s gotten perhaps ever, or at least certainly since the early 80’s when she co-starred with Spidey in Spectacular Spider-Man.

She’s presented here as a strong lead that is intelligent, brave and above all, having fun. There’s a quirkiness to her that makes her more than just ‘attractive thief’ since fiction is littered with those. And she stands apart from Catwoman in more than just physical appearance, which is absolutely necessary in any Black Cat appearance.

But getting back to the art for a minute, which I feel is good enough to justify anyone to buy it. Pulido fits into the category I’ve been for several months calling the more ‘cartoonish style’ that Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale have helped re-popularize as comics move away from manga. Just yesterday Lardy called it more of a Batman: the Animated Series inspired style and I think he really nailed it on the head; whatever you want to call it, I’m a big fan of it, from Mike Avon Oeming’s very sharp, quirky style to Darwyn Cooke’s masterful style and now to my two new favorite artists (both Spider-Man artists): Marcos Martin and Javier Pulido.

Pulido stands apart from the rest due to several things. First, he has a very quirky, Steve Ditko-esque style that both ‘odd’ and also funny at times. It’s obviously intentional and I like it. When the Black Cat is talking to some of her fences about ‘Russians’, she’s also landing from the ceiling and the way Pulido draws her doing it makes it look like she’s doing a Russian dance. Subtle yet hilarious. Secondly, he has a very stylized composition and way of pacing the comic like Cooke does but in a completely different way. There is a big 1960’s cinema influence. The entire ‘other burgler’ breaking into the museum sequence is very referential to the movie “To Catch a Thief”, which is a very stylized Hitchcock movie (I just watched last year). Pulido also draws a very sexy Black Cat, as well as other attractive characters, which is very pleasant on the eyes. The sequence where the Black Cat and Spider-Man are dressing post-coitus is a brief yet incredibly sexy shot that leaves most of it to the imagination. But like Steve Ditko used to do, he liters his comics with very normal looking people which many artists fail to do.

Best of all is the little things Pulido does which shows that gives the reader little easer eggs. The hotel the Black Cat meets Spider-Man at is the “Pollard Hotel” and its sign along the side is the same exact way former Spider-Man (and other things, notably Thor) artist Keith Pollard used to sign his artwork. A nice tribute. The Black Cat is in stocking later on and rather than sheer or fishnet, they are spider-webbed. You can just tell Pulido puts a tremendous amount of thought into every panel which is also reminiscent of Cooke.

Getting more towards the script itself, I think Jen Van Meter did a terrific job. I admit I don’t really recognize her name, just having seen it before in passing and thinking her name made her sound really hot (as some names do ). What is noticeable right away is she is really good at snappy dialogue that is witty, charming and advances the plot. As I say time and time again in the Spider-Man thread, when people try to force Spidey to be funny it just comes across as lame (I’m looking at you Dan Slott) but when its seemless its just brilliant (take a bow, Joe Kelly). Here, Van Meter falls into the latter and even though Spidey is only in it briefly, he has a great line I’m surprised no one ever said before after Black Cat’s luck powers accidentally make him trip: “ouch, you’re the only woman I’ve ever fallen for” (and Van Meter realizing its so obvious even has the Black Cat mention how she bets he’s held his tongue for that one). Van Meter also introduces several very likeable Black Cat supporting characters, which is something she’s always needed.

Van Meter also does a great job with giving us this story, which just works for me. It starts as a thief vs. thief story but by issue’s end we see there is a much bigger story at work tying into the mythos of Kraven the Hunter and the Chameleon and their families, which is a mythos I’m fascinated by and have always loved. She seamlessly ties it all into Russian history and the history of the black market and I’m anxious to read more about it.

All in all, this was a fantastic first issue and I can’t wait for the rest and already want to read more miniseries like this or at least have Van Meter join the Spider-Man writing team and rejoin with Pulido for it.

I recommend this comic to anyone looking for a great artist, a great ‘smaller story’, a strong yet interesting female lead and anyone who loves the later Hitchcock films. Great stuff.

This is something I'll definitely be on the lookout when it eventually gets put into trade form. I also like Javier Pulido's (and Marcos Martin's) work anytime I see it, and I have a great fondness for the days when Felicia was a regular supporting cast member during that era of Spectacular. In fact I'd probably buy this in singles if it weren't for that pesky $3.99 cover price. As quality as this sounds, I don't shell out $4 a pop for a Big Two book classified as a "smaller" story. (Quality Indies and Vertigos I make exceptions for.)

Anyhow, it's good to hear that our girl Felicia is getting some four-star treatment these days!

I can't blame you for the $3.99 price. FYI, it does include an 8 page "prologue" of the upcoming Spider-Man story 'Grim Hunt', but I can't tell if that is something reprinted elsewhere or specific to this issue. I know that doesn't help you much because you're not going to be picking up Spider-Man right now.

We might need to start a thread to discuss the current 'Batman: the Animated Series-inspired' style which you and I have talked about for months. And maybe create an actual name for it?

So who here collected Rocketo when it was coming out? Any one recommend it? I was looking at some of it online today and it looked pretty groovy!

Pov--I kind of remember you were maybe into this?

Pov was into it and so was I.

The art might be too abstract/atmospheric for some, but I really liked it.

These days art that might be too abstract/atmospheric is right up my alley. I checked out some images online and I really was digging it. I think I might try to hit up the TPB's or dig for some back issues.

(and leave it to you OM to fill me in on all the coolest, more obscure stuff!)

Enjoy it while you can guys. The story comes to a close this summer. It had good potential, but I do think the lack of depth actually hurt the book. too often it came across as Kirkman's fun book, something he wanted to try. With each new issue, I was wanting less of the main character and more of the throways.

On the plus side, setting this book in the Invinceable-verse allows for more of a future, if not an actual ongoing.

Des, ROCKETO was awesome! I recommend the two Image trades for Journey to the Hidden Sea, vol. 1 in particular-- Speakeasy went belly-up and there was never actually a fifth issue. Image picked up with issue #6 and included the unpublished #5 in the trade.

The next leg of the story, Journey to the New World, was announced as coming out in 2007 on the last page of the 2nd trade, but never materialized; Last I heard of it was in 2008 when Espinoza put up some gorgeous designs for the next volume. No further word has been forthcoming...

Groovy! I think I'm definitely going to buy next time I order up some trades (and once again, Image comes through in a big way for me!). I was checking out Espinoza's website and was really awesome stuff!

So I guess there are only 2 trades out there right now. I admit I was a little confused based on what was announced and what actually came out. At least this way I can get on the ground floor early and hope for more new material going forward.

I've begun my heavy travel season now, and so that means a ton of time on planes, where I'll be bored out of my mind. Luckily, I stocked up heavily on trade paper backs over the last few months (and regular books too) to kill the time. One of those which I read last week was so damn good, I felt it could only go in the "Any Recommendations?" thread.

This was Revolver by Matt Kindt, published through Vertigo. I originally became interested in the OGN when I saw a preview in the back of various Vertigo comics a few months ago. The premise was intriguing and very similar to the awesome movie Memento by Christopher Nolan. Upon reading the OGN, I now can say the premise is 'sort of' similar (but different), while the tone of Revolver is what is very close to Memento. Fans of that movie will know this is high praise.

Matt Kindt does just about every single thing in the OGN, from writing to penciling to coloring and it's a pretty amazing job. When one person controls every facet of the story is usually gains a little something extra in story-telling structure and that is certainly the case here: every panel has a little oomph to it in telling the overall story but having a deeper meaning. I think Kindt succeeded on every level here.

The story is about a man living a boring, drone-like life in one world. When he wakes up, however, he is in a post-Apocalyptic world where survival is the most important thing. When he wakes up the next day, he's back in his boring existence; and so on, back and forth. He is caught up in not only surviving and trying to figure out if he's insane, but deciding which of the two worlds is actually worse.

It's a great story about the lead character's personal struggle in getting some control over his life, while at the same time is a damn fantastic science-fiction story about a man stuck in two parrellel worlds.

The artwork is very stylized and packed with tension and thoughtfulness.

High recommendation!

This was a review posted by Fat Cramer in the "Random Review Corner" thread that inspired me to purchase The Secret History in trade format, and actually in hardcover at that (I almost never buy hardcover). I thought it was so damn fantastic that it had to be upgraded to the "Any Recommendations?" thread, because this is something anyone who likes good comic books should be buying.

FC's description above lays out the storyline, and I can only add that I think the story-telling and delivery is just so spot-on fascinating and engrossing that I couldn't put the series down. I know there are additional works (in French) and I'm going to go out of my way to start looking to see if they've been translated yet--if so, I'll buy them no matter what the price.

The story combines several types of things I like: historical fiction (real events with fictional tweaks), conspiracy/secret history elements and a bit of Dungeons & Dragons type elements (though highly realistic). There is so much information that it's almost impossible to keep track of it and all that does it just leave the reader wanting more, more, more! Some things are only barely ever hinted at, and you can tell Pecau has so much more he could get to.

The four Archons, as FC mentions, aren't the most in depth characters, though they certainly have firm personalities. But the series *is* loaded with some seriously great characters. Each issue is so damn dense that by the end, you feel as if there was more characterization for some characters than in 40 issues of your local superhero story. The next issue in the trade jumps often 100+ years and you don't see those non-Immortals again, so it's amazing they all still stand out so well in my mind.

The artwork was nothing short of tremendous. Various artists handle it, some I recognize, some I don't, and each individual chapter was amazing.

This was so different and stands out so well from everything else, I've immediately recommended my brother read this immediately before anything else I've recommended him in the past.

Great, great stuff. It was mind-blowingly good and reminded me that if I look hard enough, I can find comic books that hit me in the face like a bucket of cold water and remind me there are no limits to what can be done in this medium.

I finished the series and my compliments for #1 are consistent throughout the entire thing. I highly recommend this miniseries, it was an excellent, fun little series with a great story and amazing art.

I will certainly look for Jen Van Meter in her future series and I'm already locked in to buy whatever Javier Pulido is going to be moving on to.

Hey Ian Lad, still around? Still reading Usagi Yojimbo? If so, I'd love to hear more!

I recently bought the $1.00 Dark Horse #1 of Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse is reprinting #1's for $1.00 which is a no-brainer purchase for me). I think it was the Dark Horse #1, not the actual Usagi #1, which was at another company.

You know, it was really terrific! Stan Sakai does a great job at every tidbit: art, inking, writing, pacing, characterization, providing a complete story while adding to a larger arc. I really was impressed by it.

Sakai does a great job making it friendly to younger readers yet fascinating and impressive to adults.

I just thought I'd mention, in case any of you haven't read thru all the various threads, what I feel are the last best three single issues of all the comics that I've read over the last approximately three months:

Morning Glories #5

Booster Gold #39

Chew #15

I thoroughly enjoyed all three of these books and can't recommend each of them highly enough! Click on each to read my thoughts on each individual issue, if you'd like to know more. (The write-up of Chew 15 is a little less detailed than the other two, but if you read through the thread, I think, you'll get a good flavor for it.)

I think it would be a splendid idea to recommend a book of the month here (or possibly in its own thread if that doesn't seem to redundant). We should never lose sight on how great individual issues of a title can be!

Really, really great idea, Lardy. I think going forward it's definitely something we should keep doing!

At the close of Comic Book Review Month, here are comics I want to recommend to everyone:

Thunder Agents (DC)

SHIELD (Marvel)

Atomic Robo (Red 5)

Mice Templar (Image)

Mighty Samson (Dark Horse) - also check out Magnus Robot Fighter!

Green Hornet: Year One (Dynamite)

Unwritten (Vertigo)

American Vampire (Vertigo)

Incredible Hulks (Marvel)

Morning Glories (Image)

Jonah Hex (DC)

Also always good Walking Dead, Scalped and Fables, and Flash has been very good thus far.

These are what I consider best of the best right now! All are 5 out of 5 star comics, A-rated, home runs.

^Geez, Cobie--way to narrow it down! :rolleyes:

You know Cobie...narrowing down the playing field takes time...

Especially when he has to speel-- err... SPELL...

I recently picked up Axe Cop by Dark Horse, which prints the stories by the brother duo of 27 year old artist Ethan Nicolle and his 6 year old brother, Malachai Nicolle . Yes, you read that right. For the full story, you’ve got to check out this story at CBR on it or this high praise . It’s a feel-good story, certainly, and you can’t help but cheer on the sheer awesomeness of it.

And you know what? After actually reading #1-2, it was really, really great! I had a huge grin on my face the entire time I was reading it and when I put it down I couldn’t wait to tell my wife. Some of it was due to knowing a 6 year old wrote it, but a lot of it was because it was just so damn entertaining. It’s surreal to the Nth degree and all done with great charm. There is no down time and that just heightens the fun. I really loved it.

I highly recommend everyone at least sample this series!

Based on a preview story I got on Free Comic Book Day, I recommend The Intrepid Escape Goat by Brian Smith.

You can read the preview story here.

A fun, all-ages romp with art reminiscent of Bongo Comics crossed with Cartoon Network, maybe. I haven't had a chance to seek out the actual comic, but I will be doing that sometime this week.

The appearance of EG's probable "kid sidekick" near story's end was (no pun intended) priceless.

History of the Marvel Universe #1

Cover date: January 2012

Released: November 2011


Get down to your local comic book shop and pick this issue up before they sell out. Marvel accomplishes in a single issue what DC Legacies failed to do in ten.

It's a nice and succinct overview of the different eras in Marvel's history that makes it all fit together as a coherent whole. It's narrative heavy in a way that works. It reprints tons of classic artwork by some of the industry's best. Highly recommended.

KNIGHT WATCHMAN: SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET

Whatta ya know? There's a NEW comic from BIG BANG COMICS. I feel Gary Carlson's efforts (and those of the various creators he works with) deserve all the promotion they can get. Check it out at the BB site...

http://bigbangcomics.com/


Henry

I bought The Secret History Omnibus over a year ago (at the same time I bought the GDS hardcover, so my order would be large enough for free shipping) on Cramey's and Cobie's recommendations listed above. I often buy trades and stockpile them to read whenever the mood hits. Last week, I finally got to it.

I must say that I'm quite glad I purchased it! This was a sprawling, epic tale spanning a couple of milennia (and much further back in the short prologue that opens it) and features some really detailed, impressive art by a group of artists including Igor Kordey (best known as one of the artists on Grant Morrison's New X-Men run) and Goran Sudzuka (who did some guest art on Y, the Last Man).

I loved all the historical settings/eras, which included Moses's exodus of the Jews, Napoleon's conquest and the beginnings of World War I among others. I'm no historian, so some of the figures and references were over my head, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment. A lot of historical characters got the spotlight, and there were many memorable characters encountered by the four immortal siblings along the way.

Having never gotten into manga, this is really my first venture into translated foreign comics. This was certainly an impressive place to begin.

The Secret History continues to be published by Archaia Press. I've seen that a second Omnibus is already available and that there have been issues published that will likely merit at least a third. The only downside is that with it caught up to the early 20th century already, we may lose some of the exotic quality of the first volume. I definitely lament some of the eras that were skipped over and could have made for good settings. But I'll definitely be getting the next volumes at some point in the near future.

Thrilled you got this Lardy! Even more that you enjoyed it as much as I did. (Huge thanks to FC for spotting this one to begin with).

I'm with you 100% on vol 2, which I didn't realize was out already. I'll definitely buy as the quality was too good to pass up, but I hope it doesn't lose that extra something without the epic-ness of multiple eras within the sprawling history. Hell, I'd be thrilled for even just recurring detailed flashbacks like Lost.

This was my first intro to Archea as a publisher and theyre now on my radar.

Also, I totally didn't connect Sudzuka with the Y: the Last Man guest art. That's where I know him from!

I think I reviewed V. 2 somehwere around here - it covers the two world wars. Volume 3 is due in September - it appears to cover the post-war Middle East crises. There's a Volume 4 out in French, which goes up to the shooting of Pope John Paul II (no publication date yet for English). So the events covered are getting more condensed as we move into our current time.

I suppose this could just keep going on indefinitely, covering current events, but I'd like to see the series go back and fill in some of the historical gaps as well.

People I've shown these books to, who aren't into comics at all, are just entranced with the detail of the artwork. It really is a unique series.

So the surprise hit of January / February for me was Prophet. I had heard the buzz surrounding it and how quality it was, and then was even more curious once I started reading some big names (e.g. Warren Ellis) really complimenting and praising it. So, checking it out for myself, I was totally blown away by how unique the series is, and how interesting and good that made it. This was a fantastic comic! And by issue’s end, I wasn’t sure if it was so much that I wanted to continue reading, or if I just felt compelled to.

Prophet is by Image Comics via Rob Liefield’s extreme studios. It was a major Image comic in the 90’s and the epitome of everything wrong with comics then; but I actually never read any of those stories and don’t really know all that much about it. And I think this relaunched series is exactly for readers like me in that regard, who have no great knowledge or love of what came before. Rob Liefield made a very smart decision in finding some creators with real indie cred and letting them just run with the concept in their own direction. Writer Brandon Graham and artist Simon Roy do exactly that and its really like nothing I’ve seen before.

Prophet takes place at some far point in the future, when the lead character John Prophet has reawakened to find a very alien Earth. And by ‘very alien’, I mean it! It’s almost impossible to describe the contents of what is within without resorting to summarizing, so I’ll just try to focus on the tone of the series. There is an incredible sense of uneasiness throughout, and I felt myself getting continually more on edge. Prophet is a true sci-fi series in every sense, but it is one of the much more visceral ones to come out in awhile. In that sense, its very much like Ridley Scott’s Alien film in that it presents the reality of the situation and shows nature at its most pure and horrifying, and especially when it something entirely unlike anything we’ve seen before. There are moments where I found myself disgusted by what I was seeing but fascinated at how it subtly made sense within a much broader picture of the world Prophet is set in.

The writing and artwork create a steady forward pace that never once alleviates the tension but also does not give you the satisfaction of bringing things to a head. So you’re left feeling anxiety and awe at what you’re seeing, much like the character John Prophet.

I’m pretty darned impressed by this issue. This is a Liefield character and he’s done a pretty bold thing in staying totally out of it; instead we get something really fresh and unique to the comics world. Like I said before, at the end of the issue, I knew I had to buy the next one. Not because I was ready to put myself through that again, but because I feel like I have to know.

So another series by Image has really blown me away! This one totally different than everything else I've been reading: Peter Panzerfaust. Everyone do yourselves a favor and buy this comic. If you've got a soul, you'll love it.

Without giving too much away, here is a brief summary: Peter Pan in WWII. Beyond that, a killer delivery in story telling by Green Wake writer Kurtis Wiebe and artsit Tyler Jenkins. Wiebe instills a sense of the grandiose with the pacing and tone; it has a very innocent feel at times and then a very gritty WWII feel--a dichotomy that works. Jenkins artwork is stylized yet clean and I think he does a great job. It's interesting to see Wiebe's writing with an artist like Jenkins. It might be better than the Greek Wake combo.

I highly recommend people pick this up. I was delighted by how much I liked it.

The second issues of both of these series also blew me away! Both were fantastic!

A major surprise for me, which really knocked me off my feet, was Avenging Spider-Man #5. This is probably the best team-up story in years--not just for Spidey but for everyone. Its an amazing done in one full of heart and humor.

Spidey and Captain America have been two mega stars of Marvel for 50 years but they really don't team up that often. After this story, I want them to every few months.

Zeb Wells is a writer that absolutely nails the subtly poignant / laugh out loud funny / superhero action combo and that shows here. And Leinil Yu continues to grow from one of the best artists in comics to something even more amazing.

Buy it. It's one issue and you'll feel good after.

The Massive by Brian Wood, art by Kristian Donaldson (Image) - Issues 1 & 2 out of 3

A great climate catastrophe (origin unknown) has hit Earth, setting off a domino effect of further climate problems, crashing economies and resource wars. Now people are starting to rebuild, but the chaos remains.

The Ninth Wave is an ocean activist group led by former mercenary Callum Israel. They and their two ships survived the catastrophe by being at sea, avoiding the tsunamis, and have remained at sea except for brief forays to what remains of ports for supplies. Now their larger ship, The Massive, has gone missing and a small crew aboard The Kapital is both searching for her and trying to stay alive themselves. Israel and his team are not without enemies... and there's no shortage of well-armed pirates.

There's a lot covered in these two issues. Post-apocalypse Earth, a mystery, pirates and thugs, questions of ideology in a crashed world, human relations, love and loyalty.

All the action takes place in the Eastern Pacific, between Indonesia and Kamchatka, with a visit to flooded (and adapting) Hong Kong. This setting is pretty unusual for a comic book.

The story alternates between present day and immediately after the collapse (the past coloured in sepia tones).

There are also some text pages at the end of each issue giving background information on Callum Israel, his team and his group.

There's a distinct lack of preachiness which tends to accompany stories about environmentalists.

I can't say this would be to everyone's liking, but it really is a well-crafted story - and so refreshing to see a post-apocalypse without zombies, where the survivors are rebuilding their societies.

In old nautical lore, waves come in cycles and the ninth wave is the largest one, then the cycle begins again. There's a famous Russian painting of shipwrecked sailors facing death as the ninth wave approaches. It isn't stated, but I expect Wood took the name for his environmental group from that picture.

I'm really enjoying the Massive. It's a well crafted series from start to finish each issue where no panel is wasted. The premise, with a post-Apocalyptic theme with a nautical mystery bent, is wonderfully unique right now.

I also like reading a "hard science fiction" series to balance out all the more grandiose ones I'm reading.

Highly recommended.

Cobie's recommendation led me to pick up the first two issues of The Hypernaturals, and I'm digging the format, with the 'ads' for the Hypernaturals recruitment, and the in-depth interviews with members of the team at the end of the book, to fill in some characterization and backstory beats.

Thinkwell and Shoal have really fascinating futuristic powers, that lean a little bit in the Authority direction (my powers are a fancy buzz word, and I just do whatever the hell the writer thinks would be cool in this scene), but, so far, better written.

My tastes quite often vary widely from Cobies (no offense, dude!), so I was uncertain what to expect, but it was pretty interesting. I am very much an art snob, so I wish the art was a hell of a lot better, but the writing and the story premise is interesting enough to keep me on for a few more issues.

The Massive, another recommendation from around here, was interesting, but a bit too slow for my tastes. There was a fair amount of info-dump at the beginning, and I feel that, as a reader, I wasn't given any reason to really give a crap about a missing ship, when it's sort of casually mentioned that there's entire continents gone missing. It's like, 'My house burned down yesterday. But I'm gonna write a book about how I also chipped a nail.'

Everything seems to revolve around the ocean, which is sensible, given the nautical nature of the book, with even the storms, etc. being described as being the result of changes in sea temperature, leading me to getting an 'Abyss' sort of vibe from it. Aquatic stuff intrigues me, particularly if it turns out some previously unknown presence in Earth's oceans is behind this (or perhaps even some sort of collective biospheric intelligence of the planet itself?), but this looks to be a slow, slow, slow burn.

Finally read Hawkeye #1.

Fucking brilliant. Damn. I mean: daaaaaaamn.

yes! Its good right! Its just really good. #2 with Kate Bishop is even better ... it seems autobiographical.

and Kate Bishop hasn't been done to potential before #2 so its really exciting to experience.

Yah, I finally read Hawkeye #1 myself the other day. Damn good down-to-earth Hawkeye story with no in-costume action other than the opening pages of Clint falling out of a building. The rest of the issue (other than a hilarious sequence showing the consequences of a normal-guy superhero falling out of a building) was literally Clint going up against his landlord and the fall-out of doing so.

Excellent, EXcellent issue by two of the guys who worked on the late, lamented Iron Fist series a few years ago: Matt Fraction and David Aja. Aja uses a new style for him reminiscent of Chris Samnee's that is just awesome to behold in its simplicity and its detail. And Fraction is just a revelation here as I was beginning to think he could only write utter crap anymore! This is FANtastic!

It's like the Green Arrow comic I've always wanted! Seriously, I've always been fond of both DC's and Marvel's iconic archers. Both have had some memorable runs on various books, including Hawkeye himself on the excellent, cancelled-too-soon Hawkeye and Mockingbird series. Here, it's nice to see Clint down to earth and getting something unique and special done with him.

I sure hope this one has enough eyes on it and won't get cancelled!

Normal guy superheroes have my love. I always imagine how I might react to falling out of a building...and it's usually not nearly as gracefully as comic characters seem to do it. I think I can get evicted with the best of them though! XD

I just finished re-reading my old copies of Shadow Lady (young girl who finds magical eyeshadow that turns her into a scantily clad thief) and for those who haven't read them, I highly suggest doing so. MAN WAS IT FUN. I mean, besides the skimpy outfits and stuff, the plot (as it were) was really perky up until the series got cancelled and the last storyline had to be condensed down into practically nothing. Years of disappointment at my own eyeshadows followed the original reading.

Yay! I loved this book from issue 1 it jumped into my top five.

#2 keeps it up too.

I hope it at least make 4 to 8 issues to get a few story arcs in. I have never been a fan of Hawkeye, and now i think he is just great, and relate to him for the first time ever.

Hawkeye #3 continued to be the best book Marvel has right now while Daredevil is giving it a serious neck and neck run for its money ....

So, hands down the best superhero comic by the Big 2 (and best comic all around by the non-Vertigo Big 2) is Daredevil. There is no debate here: NOTHING by DC even comes close, and perhaps only Hawkeye can compare from Marvel but its too early to be declaring that.

(And I mean that. Nothing by DC, not Batman or whatever, is close).

The major reason is the incredible creative team(s) which is Mark Waid, and lead artist Chris Samnee (with some fill in help). Those two creators are also producing anther phenomenal comic: The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom . This one is also highly recommended.

^ having thought about it some more, I will say I think Wonder Woman may be in this category of 'best of the best'. The #0 issue was a highlight of the last few months and overall it's just fantastic.

anyone besides me reading Roman Dirge's "Lenore"

Its a dark humour comic about a cute little dead girl and her misadventures.

Hawkeye #3




I'd give six but I don't want to break my brand new rating system.

Kate Bishop makes my knees weak.

Masks #1

Dynamite's groovy pulp heroes team-up title takes as its premise a classic Spider story about a fascist takeover of New York, and adds other classic pulp heroes in the mix. The first issue focuses mostly on the Shadow and the Green Hornet (who has come to New York from his native Chicago in pursuit of a criminal), with brief introductions of a not-yet Black Bat and a not-yet Zorro and the Spider himself showing up at the end.

The premise is totally cool, and the book lives up to the awesomeness of the premise. Plus lots of moody-cool Alex Ross pictures.

I give it five collapsing pillars!

Grabbed that one at the store today. From a "glancing at art alone" standpoint it looks terrific!

I LOVE IT!

So after a crazy 9 WEEK HIATUS, I went to the CBS and bought half a G worth of comics to catch up. It's kind of overwhelming that I'm this behind. (Reason: moving)

The first series I started with: Hawkeye, by Marvel. Which says a lot since I had a lot to pick from. It may just be the best comic out there right now.

#3 was absolutely fantastic. Flawless writing and art that is chalk full of character, action, humor and chemistry between Kate and Clint. The perfect done in one to start my catching up and I give it the highest recommendation I can give.

#4 saw my favorite Javier Pulido come on for his arc as artist as Fraction does a two parter that throws Hawkeye into Mardipoor and the global villainy of organized crime. And it's also pretty much perfect.

It's hard to explain just how this series in. The dialogue is perfect. The art is stunning. The writing / pacing / direction is crazy tight.

Hawkeye is more of an Everyman than he's ever been...and yet he's more heroic for it, even when he's acting pretty anti-heroic. He gets beat up, robbed, tricked, etc. Like Bogey in film noir or any good crime protagonist, he is incredibly flawed and vulnerable but is always pushing.

But the very best part of the series is the dynamic between Kat Bishop and Clint. The chemistry is just explosive, providing great scene after great scene. It's worth $3.99 *twice* a month for that!

Elmer by Gerry Alanguilan Slave Labor Graphics

One morning, chickens all over the world woke up with human consciousness and the ability to speak our language. Things got bad after that for the chickens.

Humans freaked out and started murdering chickens everywhere. Some of the chickens - the fighting cocks - fought back, blinding, maiming and even killing humans.

One young man, Ben, who worked at a poultry farm, hid three chickens who he found cowering in his home. He gave them names: Elmer, Helen and Joseph, and helps them adapt to the new world.

This is Elmer's story, seen through the eyes of his son Jake as Jake reads his late father's diary. Jake has his own problems: he's a writer who can't find work, his sister is a nurse and engaged to a human being (a doctor, but human all the same) and his brother has gone all Hollywood.

The story is both funny and thought-provoking. I really felt bad for all the discrimination against chickens yet wondered how I would react if one of them were on my doorstep, asking for refuge. Obviously lots of parallels with human-to-human discrimination and hatred and also makes me think about possible human-to-alien contact - and I did have an uneasy thought about the two chickens in my freezer.

I also wondered if Gerry Alanguilan might have read the Legion story in which Proteans gain sentient rights. Alanguilan's story is much more developed, however. Highly recommended.

FC, that sounds totally offbeat and totally fascinating! Definitely on my list to check out!

I grabbed Manhattan Projects number 1 for a promotional 1$ at the CBS.

Look for it if you're curious! It is one part historical fiction, one part satire with Albert Einstein type characters, and a lot of action and science fiction. The art is good, if a bit sketchy, and is in the style of Frank Quitely ... who I adore. It reminds me of the Authority but without the super heros and the doing good thing. heh heh.

Best new comic find since I started reading Daredevil and Hawkeye.

Can't recommend Manhattan Projects enough. Smart, offbeat, and just crazy fun--science fiction & weird at its best. The series has also progressively gotten better (after a strong start) with each issue having its own "oomph" to make you sit up and take notice.

A 'must buy' for all readers.

The best series most people aren’t reading: Mind MGMT, by Dark Horse. From the genius mind of Matt Kindt, it succeeds on every single level. It is complex as hell and quirky to the extreme, but at the heart is a strong sense of mystery and fascinating characters. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Krishna: A Journey Within by Abhishek Singh (Image again!)

This graphic novel is without question the most beautiful one I have ever read. Stunning artwork, and very different from western artists. It's expensive - $30 - but worth it as far as I'm concerned. This is one book that's not going to the library donations bin when I finished it.

It tells the story of Krishna (which I didn't know much about) and also has, through Krishna's thoughts and speech, some Hindu philosophy. We are all one with the universe sort of thing, which I love. But it's really the artwork that totally captivated me.

The only complaint is that many of the pages are 2-page spreads and lose something at the seam. I've half a mind to break the spine of the book just to view the artwork more completely. It's too bad they didn't print it as an oversize, but that probably is more expensive and less popular.

Some of the art can be seen at Singh's site.

Those pages are stunning.

$30 for a 300 page book? That don't seem so much. Graphic novel can't have near that many?

OK, so if I were to pick up one new series, would you folks recommend Mind MGMT over Manhattan Projects?

That's tough. For you Dave, knowing your tastes, I think you'd really like them both. I can't really recommend one over the other beyond saying both are absolutey A+ comics right now.

High Crimes #1 by Christopher Sebela and Ibrahim Moustafa (Monkeybrain Digital)

Haskell is a guide on Mt. Everest. He has a sideline - he also collects dead bodies who didn't make it up - or down - the mountain. Rather than lug an unknown corpse down, he chops off a hand, gets the fingerprints to a local cop who IDs them for a price, then calls up the family for a little extortion.

His partner is Zan, a washed-up Olympian snowboarder who's drowning her sorrows in opium and alcohol.

The latest set of fingerprints, when run through the system, triggers an alert to a very shady paramilitary group in the U.S., run by the usual sort of half-insane tough guy. They set off to Nepal with orders to find the body that matches the fingerprints, at all costs.

It's an intriguing opening issue, an unusual setting, promising lots of skulduggery and perhaps some redemption for Zan. There's a potential for the story to degenerate into a gun-fest in the snow, but Zan and Haskell seem to be characters who will rely more on their wits and local knowledge to outrun the spooks who will be chasing them.

Zan and Haskell... The "Oates"s to Jayna and Wally Cleaver's "Hall"s...

Now that you put the association in my mind, I figure Haskell could be Eddie all grown up and rotten.

I just read the first trade of Glory ... Enchanting.

The characters came alive. Can't wait to see what happens next. i love all the creative anime type characters. Riley is already one of my favorites.

I give it a very solid four Atmos'.



I also read the latest trade of Chew Volume Six , Space Cakes

This trade was more scattered than the usual collected volumes but .. it is FUNNY ... and was an emotional roller coaster ... plus Rob Guillory's funny Easter eggs hidden in his ornate pages make for a great comic in themself.

Right now I am missing Amanda Connor's Power Girl:



That made me chuckle.

A hearty recommendation from me to fans of great comics for Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror by IDW. Just a fantastic read all around, and I think fan of the pulpy 1930's will especially go nuts for it.

- written by Roger Langridge, the genius behind the Popeye comic.

- art by J Bone, a phenomenal artist similar to Darwyn Cookie with his own style.

- guest appearances by: Mutt & Jeff! Doc Savages famous agents!! Nick and Nora Charles!!! HP Lovecraft!!!!

Jeepers! I meant to pick this up!

Okay... I just did!

Eryk reading comics digitally is very rewarding!

The first story arc of Ghost has finished. (#4)

I really enjoyed it and will be sticking around. The first story arc has Ghost amnesiac and she finds out who she is in issue #3-4 and how she became the ghost.

I really enjoyed the story telling and the exciting conclusion.

It is not a "OMG I FING LOVE THIS BOOK" but ... I am pleasantly happy with the story, the plot twists, the character development, and the set up for the rest of the series. (which becomes clear in 4).

One of the great joys, is the ordinariness of her companions. Ghost herself is barley super hero, and the characters come of as chuckingly realistic.


Some characters do look a bit too much alike, and one or two issue may be a bit slow but, in general the series is lovely.


The first story arc ends with Ghost defeating the creature[s] that made her this way ... and launches a series where she hunts down all the others.

It was pretty good. nice everything all around.


It seems like there may be more than one ghost series ... Im talking about the latest one:

Things get even more awesome in #3 when the narrator is revealed!

But of COURSE!

I'm behind as usual. Plan on picking this up in TPB. Same with Waid and Samnee's Rocketeer mini. Glad that IDW is doing more with this terrific character.

I've heard MIND MGT described as 'Lost (TV show) for comics'. Apt description?

Was thinking of checking that title out along with Vaughn's Saga.

I highly recommend both Mind MNGT and Saga! Two fantastic, smart comics.

The Lost comparison to MM is a good one in terms of mystery and wonder, though its also more focused on a smaller group of characters and benefits from Kindt's stylized art.

See attached:

I tried and issue of Manhattan Projects and it really didn't grab me. Can't remember the issue #, but it was the one where the scientists from either side of the cold war sit down together. A lot of talking heads and it just seemed a little too proud of itself. Maybe it's not something that lends itself to joining part way through.

Got the first issue of the Killjoys to see what it's like. I'll also see if my local shop has a copy of Mind MGNT to sample.

That was a bit of an awkward issue, (i liked it though) I think it was the culmination of one story and the jumping off point of another ... both of which I enjoyed. It has gotten better and better.


I went back and bought the first issues, while not as good (to me) ... they did help build the story. A lot of the stories focus on one character ... which is different than the story you read ... and can be weird if you don't want to read about one character for four issues but the latest issues have been really good. and MP is like a snowball rolling down a hill.


it is definitely a "talking head" book ... with intermittent issues of bold gory action.

Going to be a tv series.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2474258/

Awesome news!

Got Kill Joys 1 and 2 recently.

The characters sing off the page. The best and only kind of science fiction; set in a dark and dreary future it examines contemporary issues of life and what it means to be human.

Already, one of my top books.

Loved #1... eagerly awaiting #2 with my EOM shipment from DCBS!

Hawkeye 012.

who is a real life train wreck. Hawkeye really is one of the best books out there, it may be my favorite book right now. Even versus Saga and the like.

and Hawkeye #11 was spectacular. yet, #12 kept it rolling!

I think I could give this book five Power Boy stars for its entire run ... and I have no love for Marvel.

^ Haven't read that issue yet, but there's not an issue in this series that hasn't been well above average. I've loved every one.

A book I'm excited about that hasn't been published yet is The Fifth Beatle, a graphic novel about Brian Epstein by Vivek Tiwary. I heard an interview with the writer and he just made it sound so compelling; there's really very little known about the man who was crucial to the Beatles' success. The artwork looks great, too, so I pre-ordered.

Tiwary himself has had a pretty interesting life!

An interview with artist Andrew Robinson and some of the art is at newsarama.

I picked up the TPB of Mind the Gap today ... I read the first issue at lunch but then was like ... nah I need to set aside some time to read this.

The books I'm like now in the comic book format are mostly mysteries or thrillers or sci fi. Mind the Gap has me curioso to see where it is going, and one of the characters I liked from her first few panels. (the good Dr.)

I think the tension of the real life scenarios of the book are what I am excited about, to find out what is going on, who's gonna die and who are the good guys and bad guys.

I thought 11 was pretty spectacular and 12 did not disappoint following a tough act. It's a pretty human story.

There's a Kickstarter project reviewed at Bleeding Cool for a graphic novel about untold Roman history, Amiculus.

It's the story of the last Roman Emperor, a 12-year old boy named Romulus, who was kicked off the throne and disappeared into the unknown.

from the author:
"Nevertheless, when Rome fell on “his watch,” Romulus had to suffer for it. A year after his coronation, Orestes’s partner, Odoacer, a barbarian chieftain, turned against him, destroyed his army, killed Orestes and forced Romulus to surrender his crown in a humiliating ceremony. He was called “the disgraceful little emperor,” a sorry, shameful end to an empire that had ruled half the known world. Too pathetic even to be killed, Romulus was banished, and disappeared from history.

Through all of this, I wondered: what did Romulus have to say about it? Nothing that anyone has ever found. His story occupies a dry, dull couple of paragraphs in most history books, and in it he is a blank slate. We know nothing about who he was, how he was treated by his father, whether or not he would have been happier herding goats or fluting columns than being an emperor. About him, history did not give a shit. The “winners” have succeeded in erasing him almost entirely.

Until now. “Amiculus” is the story of Rome’s fall seen at long last through Romulus’s eyes, and it plays out in truly bloody, violent fashion, the way it was meant to. We get to know how he felt, the role he played, what the stakes were for him, and how, even with the little power he had at his command, he was far from helpless."

I decided to back it and thought other fans of Roman history and secret histories might be interested. For the big bucks, they'll write you into the story, but the usual range of rewards is available for more modest contributions.

Wow, that sounds right up my alley! It's a part of Roman history with few historic sources that is not well understood.

Romulus was a puppet born to play the role he played, and was more "barbarian" than "Roman", and that makes it perhaps even more tragic. For centuries there were legends he would one day return and restore the world to greatness, much like so many other "Returning King" myths (King Arthur, Frederick Barbarosa, etc). The politics going on during his life are highly complex and just crazy fascinating.

I'll take a look and consider supporting it. That is, if I can figure out what kickstarter is and does, and how it works.

I just backed "Amiculus." That sounds awesomely my kind of thing.

Now, if only "Age of Bronze" would come out more than every year or two. Le Sigh.

For how miserably crappy DC Comics is in general right now, Batman '66 is actually kind of brilliant.

I got the second and concluding TPB of GLORY !


I haven't even finished it but it is rip your teeth off good.

I almost bought it but a flip-thru really turned me off with the feaux (?)-3D coloring. Plus, the reviews have mostly been average. I might reconsider....



That's.....good?

Hmm... I'm not actually sure how well it would work it print, but it's making great use of the digital format. It seems to me that it does a good job of capturing the feel of the tv series while also sticking in enough "modern" bits to be entertaining. Plus it felt to me reading it digitally that each weekly installment felt like they contained more material than most of DC's monthly comics these days!

It just doesn't get any better than Velvet #1 by Brubaker and Epting via Image Comics. As good as anything in any medium has been in a long, long while.

I'm in permanently.

I'll second the recommendation, and I'll direct Legion Worlders to my review of it from two Thursdays ago:

http://www.legionworld.net/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=792116#Post792116

Well, what Marvel did for Hawkeye, they may be doing for Black Widow. The smart, intense writing of Nathan Edmondson (of Who is Jake Ellis fame) meets the brain-melting beautiful art of Phil Noto. The result may just be the Black Widow series we've always knew could exist and Natasha has always deserved.

That good, huh? I'll wait for the first Black Widow trade and then see what I think. Thanks, Cobie.

I enjoyed it. I think the trade is probably the way to do it.


I'll get number two for sure, I like Phil Noto's art ...

I wouldn't say I loved it personally. After the first issue I don't really know what's going on. It does seem to be off to a sharp start!

The first issue seems more like a pitch or a pilot to set up the atmosphere of what the book will be like, what kind of personality Natasha has.

and she's tough as nails and smart as a whip.

there's a nice review, with some spoiling, at comics alliance.

I got Black Widow number 2 today, it is rolling along uphill.

It does seem a whole lot like Hawkeye ...



pretty awesome.

Q: Are there artists whose work you will buy no matter what title they work on because they are just that good? Examples?

A: Definitely. One such artist is the extraordinary Javier Pulido.

Q: Do you like superhero comics that can be a mix of action, comedy, drama and have enjoyable complicated plots.

A: Why yes, those are the best kinds of superhero comics.

Q: Do you realize that She-Hulk #1 is the exact type of comic book you're looking for?

A: What am I, some kind of fucking idiot? Of course I realize that!

She-Hulk #1. Pretty awesome.

Is this the She-Hulk comic we have all been waiting for??????

Actually, I just joined the queue because...well..everyone else was on it... She-Hulk you say...I have the first couple of Byrne issues somewhere...

Picked up She-Hulk #1 and #2 today.

I read issue one ... and laughed out loud.

read issue #2 ... and laughed out loud again.

I can count the number of times a comic has made me exclaim out loud on one hand, and She-Hulk now carries two of those fingers!



Also, I really like how they do the "last time in She-Hulk" front page.

I've just finished the first 24 issues of Rachel Rising. I had drifted away from reading my pull list for a number of months so I got to catch up with it all in one sitting.

Our story begins with a woman, being watched, crawling from a shallow grave in a gorge. She has a ligature mark on her neck she has no memory of how it or she got there.

So, it could go the way of any number of unsettling crime dramas. But Terry Moore expands on it, escalating events and the scope every issue. The book still has plenty of the great character interaction and comedy moments that made me enjoy Strangers in Paradise in the first place. As usual it's effortlessly mixed in with the drama and fascinating characterisation.

Issue 25 is supposed to be a jumping on point, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Others may have already mentioned the Unwritten (it started publishing in 2009 after all) but I very recently started reading it. It's about the power of story; there's a mystery, a sinister cabal (redundant?), and storytelling has some inventive moments. For example, issue #17 is one of the character's origin story in a choose-your-own- adventure format.

What I've been reading mostly these past two weeks or so, is an enormous tome: From Hell. As I try to complete my Alan Moore reading experience by reading all of his works, I had to finally get around to reading this one. It took awhile, and I'm still reading his 42 page end notes (which is really like 180 pages if printed out single spaced on Word).

To give an idea of what I thought of the series, I'll say this:

To me, there is one VERY CLEAR greatest comic book writer of all time. That is Alan Moore. Many others come close. But Alan is the greatest. He is a true genius, like Picasso or Lermontov or Chaucer. I truly mean that. The man is just brillaint.

And as an extension of that, having read just about all of his work (though not quite all of it yet), I have to say that I think From Hell may just be his single very best. I do have a personal soft spot for V for Vendetta, though. And its hard to choose. But From Hell is that damn good.

It's hard to put into words why, as no words can do it justice. Moore's collaborator Eddie Campbell certainly proves himself to be among the very best artists in the medium, and that helps.

But it comes down to this: Moore understands characters better than anyone. He understands plot and narrative structure better than anyone. His mastery of language in all forms, is second to none. His ability to speak on multiple levels about various things is masterful. And his incredibly intense research into every single facet of life in London in 1888 is just astounding.

The work is brilliant. It has my highest recommendation. There are scenes that are mesmerizing, within. Just mesmerizing.

A creator who may need his "ALL-" thread is Matt Kindt, who IMO has quietly emerged as one of the true new geniuses of the medium. I don't say this lightly. I highly recommend everyone check out any of his works where he is both the writers & artist, creating the entire thing from scratch.

He's best known right now for some DC and Valiant work, which is probably the least impressive things he's done, and also for Mind MNGT, the ongoing series at Dark Horse which is about to conclude soon. Mind MNGT has been terrific and I've enjoyed it immensely, but I suspect it will be even better when read in trades. The reason is that its his original graphic novels that are totally mind-blowing.

I reviewed Revolver earlier in this thread a few years ago (from Vertigo) and will repeat it was simply fantastic, and blew me away. It remains one of the best things things Vertigo has ever produced, and its an OGN everyone should check out.

I just recently read another OGN, Superspy which was produced by Top Shelf. Once again, I was blown away. Kindt layers in so much detail and creativity to his work, and you find that in every aspect of the story. Superspy tells the multiple stories of various spies during World War II--some working for the Germans, others the British, others the French, English or Russian, and many of them working for various governments at once. Each spy has a story that is fantastic and unique, being just odd enough that he or she probably deserves their own movie franchise. They then interact with one another and along the way we get a steady dosage of humor, tragedy, poignancy and excitement. Kindt presents the story with a narrative structure that makes it all the more enjoyable with stories comingling together and happening in a somewhat nonlinear fashion (until about midway when it gets linear to the end). Writing wise, he is among the best in the industry.

And then art-wise, he brings his own unique style which I've fallen in love with. Like so many other greats, his style is at first a little jarring but once you get used to it, you start to enjoy the intricacies of it all. It at first feels "simple"; you then see Kindt is having a blast playing with the different narrative structures of the medium, using all kinds of little tricks, layouts and mis en scene to heighten the experience. He also uses color marvelously--another of his plethora of talents.

Superspy was fantastic and probably the best thing I've read in the last 12 months. My one single bit of advice is if anyone does check it out, try to read it all in one sitting. Your memory will be on point that way and you'll be able to keep track of all the various spies. It would take about 4 hours, as its about 200 pages.

My next reading project will be the other Kindt work I have, Red-Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes, published by Top Shelf as well. I'm very much looking forward to it!

Thanks for that Cobie. I don't try out the OGNs anywhere near as much as I should.

I usually don't either. About once a year I'll do a big buy of about 10 or so OGN / TPB's that I've been meaning to sample although this year I went overboard and got about 20 of them. So often the best stuff in the industry can be found in the OGN's from Top Shelf, First Second, etc.

Has anyone read the "The Power of SHAZAM!" series from the 90's? I picked up this issue from a comic bin at my local used bookstore and it looked interesting.

I do have some of the early issues (got cheaply from a warehouse). I got them for the Ordway art presumably, but they haven't left any lasting impression on me I'm afraid.

NL, I've read Power of Shazam, and while I loved it at the time, I feel it doesn't hold up to re-reads. It's very much of its time, trying too hard to be all things to all readers, and never quite revelling in the shameless absurdity of the whole Shazam thing. The recent Shazam one-shot that ties into Multiversity is much better, as is the late 70s/early 80s Shazam, when it was relegated to backup stories in Worlds Finest around issues 250-280.

Hmm, I guess I'll give the series a go. I've never read any Captain Marvel stuff before and this series is probably the cheapest stuff out there.

I'd like to recommend the Superman's Metropolis Elseworlds trilogy. The three books in the overreaching story were all based on combing DC characters with German Expressionist cinema.

Superman's Metropolis, Batman Nosferatu, and Wonder Woman: The Blue Amazon.

Ted McKeever's art really works for the whole premise because it adds a level of surrealness towards everything, which is fitting considering the movies they're based on.

It works in a way just by drawing natural connections between what already exists in the DCU and movies like Metropolis, the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The only stretch is the Wonder Woman book which, even though it's one of my favorites, is kind of weak because Diana doesn't really do much in this story.

'Stalg, I read these as they came out and found them incredibly enjoyable. While I've always loved Captain Marvel, this is the series that made me care about all the rest of the Marvel family / Fawcett characters. Ordway truly cared about these characters, and begged, borrowed and stole to launch the series, and it shows: he brings he A game with both writing and art.

I'd actually like to read these again. I've read some of the Golden Age and some of the 70's, but they've never been as good as these stories IMO. (The recent Multiversity issue was great, it's just 1 issue).

I think you won't be dissapointed.

I can attest that Ordway does indeed care about these guys. I don't have a lot of issues from Power of Shazam. In fact, off the top of my head, I think I only have three issues plus the prestige format one-shot that started it, but I do think it's good. I managed to find the Annual at Big Apple Con last Saturday, as in the one where Thunder was introduced, and I have a digital copy of the DC One Million issue.

Just, don't buy the Blackest Night issue. Ordway had nothing to do with it beyond the cover and overall it's pretty bland.

I've not read the Wonder Woman Metropolis one. Thanks for the reminder it's out there Sarky.

The sad thing is the creative team had plans for a fourth book involving Green Lantern, Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Aquawoman.

So, hope this is the right place but I have a question: I haven't bought a comic in over a year now, so what one trade do you recommend I buy? My taste tends to be group s over solo stars, I'm not scared off by adult themes, love me sci fi and actually enjoy a densely packed bit of writing. With that in mind, what would you suggest would be the best to go look for?

What's the last thing you really liked?

Ummm other than the Legion, to be honest probably the last thing I really really liked was the first two years of the Authority back in the day, they took super heroics well left of field. I've dipped in and out of quite a few of the big two's groups but never quite gelled with them. Avengers could be fun but didn't have any lasting pay off, ultimate FF was great for a wee while, JLA is very hit or miss, I can't be bothered with the multiple X books since Morrison left and to be honest thought he ran out of things to say after the riot storyline and the art wasn't consistent, New mutants annoyed me as I've spent two thirds of my adult life teaching and have never ever had kids that dreary in any lesson. I have the odd single issue of various others bought on a whim but never stuck to it. I guess I want to read something where anything can happen and it won't revert to the status quo at the end of the arc. Does that help any?

Sounds like you might like....Saga! It's not superheroes, and the writing isn't "densely packed"--but otherwise it seems like it would fit the bill. Lots of people love Saga.

Okay doke, thanks Pal, I've read plenty of reviews that rave about it so will definitely check it out. Thank you!

I also think you'd love Saga, Harbi. It's premise is right up your alley, and both writing and art are as good as it gets in the industry these days. There's also a nice sized ensemble cast, which isn't obvious from reviews and summaries online.

Fab, that's that doubly decided then, Saga here I come.

Thank you both.

Those early Authority books were some of my faves too. But I can't think of anything like it at the moment that is good.

In addition to Saga, I really liked Glory, and Avengers Forever.

Cobie and Lardy got me onto Sex Criminals which I love! But I think what's good now, is not the big super hero books but the narrowly focused stories on one or two characters. Marvel's been doing it with Hawkeye, She Hulk and Black Widow.

Some stuff kinda like Authority I was into:

Irredeemable
The Boys
Powers
Preacher

They've all got tangental takes on the superhero world. (Preacher is on the metaphysical)


Oh! I just picked up the latest East of West, you might find that interesting, it is sort of a mythological tale about the four horseman in the dystopian future.

I've also got started on the Wicked and the Divine which has me hooked but, I have to be in the mood for it, it is a new take on gods in contemporary days. and a murder mystery.

I love a good murder mystery so that' sounds good too. Thank you, I really do appreciate all your suggestions.

I don't want to bury you under recommendations, Harbi, but in the superhero genre, I've long been a huge fan of Kurt Busiek's Astro City! Such great storytelling with a shifting focus on different characters' point of view: heroes, villains, supporting players, average people on the street, etc. So much wonder and such a wealth of great stories! If you decide to try it, start with the "Life in the Big City" TPB.

Okay, will do., I've noticed you mention it before so that'll be number 3 on the list I go looking for at the weekend.

Do you like spy thrillers with kick-ass female protagonists, Harbi? Because Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting's Velvet is as good as that genre gets IMO. There's one trade out already, with the second one coming in the spring.

The first thing that popped into my mind here was the first couple of arcs of the Ultimates.

Similar concepts to the Authority - check
Superheroes - check
Wide screen action - check
same art team - check?
Doesn't revert to the status quo - check

I had no idea that the other Ultimate books were set in the same universe (I thought they were all their own thing). You can almost get away with the second volume of Ultimates without anyone else showing up. I think vol 1 is stand alone.

I also quite liked it's take on the avengers, although mileages may vary considerably here.

Thanks FL, Velvet will be no 4 on the list. I read a lot of spy thrillers so that sounds great.

I have the trade of the first two Ultimates stories Thoth, totally loved it until Hank got nasty with Jan then it kind of lost it's appeal. The art is lush though. I tried the Ultimate XMen too and it was okay then it got really 'meh' really fast as the writer tried to get too clever at twisting canon to fit their new world IMO. That said I picked up the trade that introduced Longshot and Spiral about two years ago at a car boot sale; again the art was great but the rest kind of bugged me, especially emo Dazzler.

Yay! at least I was in the right ballpark with the recommendation (apart from the Hank thing that will haunt him forever).

I had zero interest in the other Ultimate books, although I quite enjoyed the Thor mini. That's about the only Thor I've ever read so I've no comparison between that and the regular books.

Looking at my pull list, I could do with a cracking superhero book too. Invincible doesn't have that team magic and Astro City is good but also focused.

For crime related titles, I'd always pick Stray Bullets, although the first issue of Velvet had that spy thriller feel that perhaps you're after, as Fickles said.

Did anyone read Nextwave from Marvel by Warren Ellis?

I'm thinking of trying it.

I read a couple of early issues - full of itself and with main characters that are so much better than anyone else in the book - i.e. overly smartassed. I think it ruined Captain Marvel as a character for me too. Annoying enough it got punted into a different universe. Earth self indulgent.

Other than that, you should give it a try

I was thinking I liked the characters and it's supposed to be funny ... and not in continuity. so I thought I might give it a chance ... but ...

Also highly recommend Velvet and Astro City!

I bought Saga book 1 today, am half way through and loving it!

EXCELLENT! So glad to hear you are!

So glad to hear it Harbi! It gets better and better as it goes too!

I was getting Saga and Velvet, enjoying both when I got fed up with the DC nonsense and dropped monthlies entirely. Just not worth a long drive across town for a couple books so I'll probably on-line the novels. Need to get the last Fables novels and I think I'll order the novels for the years I have pamphlets so I can create a Fables bookshelf.

Also considering getting the Astro City. I got the first one on a half price shelf while traveling and have since got a few from the libraries. I like the world he's created and the person on the street approach.

Purchased a remote mouse for my lap-top so now I can sit it on a little side table in front of the lazyboy, satisfy my ADHD rocking away, while reading free kindle books in large font, changing pages using the remote. Now all I need are remote headphones to listen to music while reading because I'm kind of limited by the cord length-vision combo. My best focal range is about 6 inches further than the head-phones will let me place the table.

Yeah I know, its pathetic. Gets worse. When weather gets warm, I'm thinking I can make a tray that will unfold and fit over the tub so I can watch, read, eat and soak at the same time.

One of the best things I've read lately is The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire, published by Top Shelf. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Lemire is somewhat of a big name in the comic book industry these last few years, though his mainstream work is a combination of hits and misses. His indie work, however, is almost always excellent. The Underwater Welder, a true indie piece, stands out as his masterpiece thus far in his young career, as it is simply astounding from start to finish.

Lemire does everything here: writing, art, colors, and he is at his best when he has total control over the whole product. He provides a staggeringly emotional story that pulled me in within two minutes and held me by the nose throughout the whole thing. I found myself outright tearing up and venturing into actual crying while I was on a seriously overcrowded airplane high up in the air where anyone could have seen me. (And being ruggedly handsome, crying is not a good look on me).

The intro by Dameon Lindolf calls it "the best episode of Twilight Zone you never knew should have existed" and that's an apt intro, because Lemire does a fine job laying the ground work for a very eerie and highly emotional piece. I feel any type of description of the plot--other than saying it stars an underwater welder--would possibly give something away, and that I cannot allow myself to do.

I recommend it be read from start to finish in one sitting. It's powerful, and its a reminder of how great the OGN format can be when done right.

I admit Lemire had kind of lost me these last two or so years with his DC work and such. But this was good enough to make me give anything he does a good look.

A kajillion out of a kajillion stars!

Alright, buddy--I just ordered the book you recommended in the previous post and used my $8.03 eBay Bucks coupon to help pay for it! If I don't love it, you owe me $2.32!

Not only will you love it, but you'll owe me $0.02, which is the recommendation fee I charge in this thread!

Right. I've ordered this. It better be a kajillion...

I hope it doesn't set off my fears of enclosed spaces, depths and being blinded wearing welding apparatus...

So....did anyone read the Orion series by Walt Simonson? I never really tried it, having never been much of a New Gods fan, but I love Walt. But there's this Orion Omnibus just out, and In-Stock Trades has it half off this week. Should I...?

I read it as it came out, and remember enjoying it quite a bit. If you're a Simonson fan, it's got all the things we love about Walt in there: epic fantasy, action to the Nth degree, a grand scope, and usage of many different characters.

At the time it came out, it wasn't among my very favorite series, but it was one I looked forward to reading each month and was sad to see go.

The New Gods are a concept that many people get wrong all the time. I think both John Byrne and Walt Simonson were very good at getting it right (just like they did on Kirby's FF and Kirby's Thor in the decade before). The whole era that started with Byrne midway through the 90's New Gods, continued into his Jack Kirby's 4th World and then finished with Simonson's Orion was pretty good.

I wished I remembered more of it but it's been almost 15 years.

Go for it, Lardy. I love Simonson's Orion run. It starts out with the standard New Gods spectacle but with Simonson's unique twist on Kirby's vision (it's worth noting that Simonson is the only creator to have tackled all three of Kirby's masterworks -- Thor, FF, and the Fourth World -- and come up aces each time.) Then, after the first dozen issues, it becomes much more offbeat and character-driven, Simonson stretching his muscles and proving they're more to him as both an artist and a writer than his exceptional sense of dynamics.

Or, to put it another way, I own the Orion run and I'm still getting the omnibus!

Is the run new reader friendly? I've never ready any of Kirby's New Gods work before but I do dig Walt Simonson's work. Is there a lot of continuity I would be missing out on?

I think it would be fairly accessible to a Fourth World novice.

I'd recommend reading Kirby's Fourth World run (collected in four omnibus volumes), but with serious reservations. A lot of people love it unconditionally, but personally, Kirby's dialogue made me wince and I found it rather lacking in structure.

I've just recently finished the first Volume of the 4th World Omnibus, I'd already read the fourth and am about to begin the second.

"So that's where that came from," has been a fairly constant thought as I've read. From the art style to characters to concepts, so much of it has been incorporated into Legion and DC over the years, reading the Omnibuses has been enlightening.

I got them from the library, I'd have to imagine Atlanta would have them also.

I wouldn't know what is meant by "structure" but I agree the dialogue takes some getting used to, not to mention Kirby's generous use of generational colloquialisms. You dig?

I know this is a recommendation thread and not a place for reviews but wanted to say I finally got the Wicked and Divine tpb, Sex criminals tpb and the hardback books 1 - 3 of Miracle Man at the weekend after all the suggestions that were kindly given and the reviews on other threads and they are all excellent! I'm so grateful for the suggestions and in fact this site which gave me the impetus to go into my local independent comic shop to get them.

Sex Crims is one of my very favorite books on the market right now, Harbi--very glad you liked it and would love to hear some of your thoughts! Also, curious to find out whether the rest of Saga Book One measured up to the "so far" enthusiasm you expressed about it a few posts ago.

Yes, and in addition, I'd be interested to know what you thought of Velvet, Harbi.

I read Sex Criminal on monday and it made me laugh, it was so inappropriate and subversive and sweet in equal measure -in particular, Jon stealing from his local sex shop at 15 was hilarious! I know that if Ol (my son) could have frozen time at that age its guaranteed that's exactly what he would have done. I'll defintely look for the second tpb once I've caught up with the rest of my list.

The MiracleMan hardbacks were certainly an eye opener, though I imagine when they were released in e 80's they must have been outrageous! I did choke a little at how expensive they were (£26 each) given that half of each book was just reprints of the original pencils and inked pages. Still, I have em now and am very happy with them.

The wicked and divine was a very interesting concept that certainly got me hooked, I kind of expected the story to go where it did but there were a couple of surprises along he way, like Cassandra being trans.

As for Saga, it was amazing! Possibly my favourite of the lot actually, ive retread it several times now and each time I find something new to be amazed by.

I spent over £90 on Saturday on just five books so that was my lot for now - my budget was originally £50, oh well, i spemt more on saturday than i have in probably 3 years on comics.

And it felt great!

Next time I'll search thoroughly for Velvet though this time I didn't see it Fanfie, in fact I'll ask the shop assistant to order it if they don't have it in stock.

Thanks again guys and girls, it feels great to be excited by comics again.

Okey-dokey. Hope they're able to get a copy for you, Harbi.

And I just did a search and found something out -- the second Velvet trade is due at the beginning of June.

Yay!

Looking for recs on the following as I consider buying the TPBs:

Lumberjanes
Guardians of the Galaxy by Bendis
Marvel's current Darth Vader series

If anyone's read any of the above, I'd appreciate your impressions of them!

Lardy, I haven't read "Darth Vader", but I've been following the "Star Wars: Shattered Empire" 4-issue mini-series, which will function as a bridge between the movies "Return of the Jedi" and "The Force Awakens". I'm quite enjoying it. Greg Rucka, whom I've never had time for in the past, has really impressed me here; he should do more all-ages stuff. The final issue is supposed to come out next week.

ICYMI in my Pile O'Trades thread, I wanted to make sure you check this one out....

Last week I read Locke & Key Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. I'd been hearing about this series for years, so I'd been patiently eBay-stalking the entire 6-volume set for a good while. I finally won a lot for a very good price a few weeks ago. Based on this first volume, I'm really glad I did!

Joe Hill has quite the pedigree, him being the son of horror legend Stephen King. To this point he has authored three novels and a number of short stories, including one anthology collection of them. It's hard for any child of a famous person to distinguish him or herself in the same medium that made their parent famous. On top of having the material succeed on its own merits, there's the inevitable comparison to what the parent has done. King has done very little work in comics, so Locke & Key is a fine way for Joe to distinguish himself from his famous dad.

You know, at first blush, there are a lot of elements in this story that seem pretty "been there, done that" especially in the horror genre. Hill uses a lot of familiar horror cliches--a mysterious, supernatural house, a creepy girl in a well, a family stricken by tragedy and unable to run away from it--to name a few that come to mind. Of course, you can argue quite successfully that every basic story has been told before. The difference is the execution, and I feel Hill does so nicely here.

To me, this story is successful for the same reason that I typically find success in stories versus ones I don't care for: Joe makes me care about the characters. A lot. The story features three siblings at its center, and you really get to know a lot about them through the course of the story, especially as you learn how the tragedy that initiates the story has affected each of them. The other characters are well-done as well, even the most monstrous of them.

I'd say that's one strength that Joe shares with his father. As well-hailed as Stephen King is as the master of horror, I've always felt that he would never have attained his success without his gift for crafting memorable, relatable and flawed characters. All of those elements are on full display in Locke & Key. If you can convey all of that with characters, chances are you will win my admiration and devotion as a storyteller.

This is not to say that there is nothing fresh and interesting in Locke & Key. I think the concept of Keyhouse is rife with potential of which the surface is barely scratched here. I can easily see how we will get five more volumes potentially loaded with twists and surprises. And I certainly liked what we saw here.

Even better, though this is part of a longer series, we get a fairly complete and satisfying story that stands alone pretty well, even as it clearly sets up further developments. There's an immediate threat to the volume that echoes some of the more thrilling horror movies, and that threat is more or less resolved by the end. I don't know if subsequent volumes are that satisfying on their own, but I really admired that element in this one.

Locke & Key is blessed in its entirety with the same artist, Gabriel Hernandez, who I felt did a pretty awesome job here. His work reminds me of two other artists I've enjoyed, Steve Dillon and Steve Pugh. And I also perceive a smidge of Kevin Nowlan in there--something about the eyes and the line, I think. But Gabriel is his own artist; those are just the nearest comparisons I can make. He tells the story very effectively and conveys a lot of emotion in those eyes and the body language. Very good job on the design of the house and keys and some very nice special effects when needed. Great job on backgrounds, as well.

So what you can expect from "Welcome to Lovecraft" is a solid, deftly illustrated horror story occupied by believable and sympathetic characters that will draw you in. It is both satisfying on its own and gratifying in that you know there is still much more story to come. Though I have them all, I choose to read each volume intermittently, so that I can savor the experience and look forward to more of the story when the mood strikes for some time. I give this book a very high recommendation!

I'm picking that one up as well, Ficque, even though I doubt I'll read it terribly soon. As for the Vader series, it has going against it that it's written by Kieron Gillen, who (along with Rick Remender) I tend to avoid on sight. I can't help being curious, though, especially as the main Star Wars series (written by Jason Aaron) is so good.

Ah, okay.

Thanks for the plug for the main Star Wars book, Lardy. I've been eyeing the first trade. Your thumbs-up has nudged me closer in its direction.

Re: Locke & Key, I'm sure it's a well-crafted book, but I'm just burnt out on horror tropes, no matter how well-executed or how well-characterized. I'll still go back to the exceptional stuff, like Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, from time to time, but overall, I've moved on from horror to other genres. Thanks anyway.

Based on your rec, Lardy, I'll definitely get around to checking out Locke & Key. It's been one I've been curious about for awhile and this will push me into that direction.
Also, sorry for not responding to this earlier. In regards to Bendis GOTG, all I can say it is the most "Bendis-y" of all the Marvel things he's written lately and very much in the style he used on Avengers. For anyone who did not enjoy his Avengers, it would not be my first choice to recommend (as opposed to say, All-New X-Men, which I thought you should definitely try). Then again, it isn't derailing a beloved franchise like his Avengers run did...so perhaps that will take a lot of the sting out of it.

I guess that's all a long-winded way to say I'm not sure. I liked it well enough but it was never my favorite comic book. I'm definitely glad I got it though, as I like the modern day GOTG from Annihilation to the present, and this series did a good job capturing the sense of humor and fun of the movie.

Enjoying Bendis' All-New X-Men, but I bought the GotG arc where he shit all over DnA's THANOS IMPERATIVE just to fit his bringing back Pete Quill and Thanos...

I hope so! We haven't been reading much of the same things lately in terms of GNs/TPBs, so I'd like to have more things to talk about with you!



Sounds like it's at least worth a look. Oddly enough, DnA's version ended up growing cold for me because the characters were too flat and there were lots of fake-out deaths. Loved the movie, though, so maybe Bendis' book might actually be more of what I'd like.

I've read All-New X-Men Vol. 1 (issues 1-5) recently. Enjoyed it and found it surprisingly accessible! Only complaint is that it was decidedly lite on the original X-Men! (I assume that improves moving forward.)

Two series I loved from the start:

Twilight Children by Cooke and Hernandez is fascinating so far and if for no other reason than its two masters showcasing their craft.

Paper Girls was everything I ever thought I wanted from a Brian K Vaughn / Cliff Chang team-up with the sensibilities of an 80's action movie starring young kids (a la E.T., Goonies, etc.). Just about perfect.

Is PG a new VERTIGO launch also? I missed the solicits... BKV and Chaing are an intriguing combo. I'm getting Twilight Children and Gail's Clean Room already...

Is PG a new VERTIGO launch also? I missed the solicits... BKV and Chaing are an intriguing combo. I'm getting Twilight Children and Gail's Clean Room already...[/quote

Paper Girls is Image, I think.

Anyone remember reading Camelot 3000? Seemed like it was a pretty big deal back in the early '80s. Seems worth getting at a bargain price at the very least for the Bolland art.

It sounded cool based on its Who's Who entry.

I love Camelot 3000. I dare say it's the best thing Brian Bolland has worked on, even better than the Killing Joke.

Yeah, I saw the hardcover for it marked down a lot on In-Stock Trades, and it sparked a memory of its popularity. Seems like no one ever talks about it at all on the interwebz, just the usual suspects of the '80s--Moore & Miller, etc.

Well worth it for the art alone.

Yeah, I agree. Pretty great and groundbreaking for its era. Read it when I was in my teens in the late 90's and it definitely held up then. Bolland's art is mesmerizing.

Loved the first appearance of Merlin in that series.

"Who disturbs Merlin, son of the Devil?"

The exploration of the Knight who reincarnated as a woman (Tristan?) was also interesting, and was, as far as I can remember, possibly the first mature and lasting exploration of transgender issues in a comic (unlike the various Silver Age one shot 'X turns into a Y for a day!' silly stories).

After seeing Excalibur, I always read Merlin in the accent shown there.

I love Camelot 3000. Mike W. Barr is one of the most underrated writers of his generation, IMO.

Thanks for the feedback, folks! Just won an auction on eBay for the Deluxe Hardcover. Only 9 bucks including shipping for a $35 book!

Just shows how off the radar the book is nowadays. IST offered half off, and several other eBay listings for it are lower. Sounds like a steal!

Congratulations, Lardy. Happy reading, and I hope you write a review.

(Also hoping you review Avengers Omnibus Volume 2.)

Read the other week about him getting canned as a DC editor due to him coming out in favour of Finger getting a credit on Batman.



$9! Jillikers! That's a total bargain. Well done.

Yeah, that guy was classic.

"A dream, to some. A nightmare, to others!"

I read that he was cast, not only because of his ability, but because his prior relationship with Helen Mirren ended badly. The director thought that having both of them would bring extra tension to the film. It certainly adds an undercurrent to their scenes together.

So yesterday, I read Locke & Key Vol. 2: Head Games. Before I get into it, let me remind you of my recommendation for volume 1......



I'm very happy to say that I loved the second volume as much or even more than the first! Joe Hill continues to enrich the great mythology he introduced so well in Welcome to Lovecraft and keeps me enthralled with a continued deft hand at characterization that hooked me so well in the opener.

Just as the first volume featured one of the mystical keys as a central plot point, this one highlights a new key that was hinted at in Vol. 1's closing pages. In fact, this one is a lot more crucial to the goings-on in Head Games and is, in fact, the driving force behind the events unfolding within.

I won't spoil what this key does (though the volume title gives somewhat of a hint), but I absolutely loved the concept and especially how delightfully it was presented early in the book. In fact, I literally laughed out loud a few times as we see Bode, Kinsey and Tyler Locke explore its usage. Then, we go from humor to horror as we see how the villain of the series (for lack of a better term) exploits the key for his own sinister ends.

Really, Hill pushes more and more outside familiar tropes with this volume and shows how original and what kind of legs his concept really has. We start to delve more into the hidden background of the Locke family and learn more about some tragedies in the past that helped shape the present. But we don't learn everything as there are more pieces of that puzzle to be revealed in subsequent volumes. And as cool as the keys are that have been revealed before, it's hard not to be excited about those hinted at or still to come.

If there's any downside compared to the first volume, it's that this one is admittedly less of a complete story than that one was in and of itself. To me, that's no detriment, as I already own the rest of the series, but it could be a turn-off if you require more resolution. Even so, I think the concept of this new key and what we learn about its use is highly satisfying food for thought even as the characters keep it all grounded.

Before I forget, though, the opening chapter, billed as an "Intermission", is itself a really awesome standalone story that bridges "Welcome to Lovecraft" and "Head Games". It centers around a private school professor who suspects our villain's secret, and we go on the journey with him. It has a beautiful beginning and ending that elevates the story to a work of art even as it features unspeakable horror. If I could, I would offer this story as Exhibit A to anyone who'd like to try Locke & Key. Terrific work by Hill and Rodriguez!

Gabriel Rodriguez continues to shine as series artist. The conceit of this volume's central key is both macabre and wondrous, and Rodriguez really pulls this dichotomy off extremely well. This is all in addition to his great work on the characters and settings. He really is a great match for Hill's strong scripts.

Overall, what this one does is it heightens my excitement for the concepts and my interest in reading the rest of the story even more. And I can't see what more you could want from a finite series of volumes with a definite beginning, middle and end! I'm definitely stoked to read more!

Monstress #1 was about as good an opening issue of a comic book as I've ever read. Anyone looking for something new and great they can be a part of from day 1, here is your chance. It's too hard to even put into words all the things that are part of it. All I can say is buy it. Trust.

I just returned the "Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment" trade to the library. I loved it! Mike Mignola fans would be doing themselves a great disservice by skipping this just because it's Marvel, while Roger Stern's script might be the best he's ever written for any publisher. This story is solid proof that Marvel characters can work with a Vertigo-esque approach (or, in this case, Proto-Vertigo, as the original graphic novel was published around 1989.) There is plenty of bonus material, including a great Marvel Age interview with Stern.

Three new books I'm liking:

Huck by Mark Millar & Rafael Albuquerque
Superman: American Alien by Max Landis & Tommy Lee Edwards.
Titans Hunt by Dan Abnett & Stephen Segovia. It's good to see the classic Titans again...except they don't remember each other yet.

Huck and Superman: American Alien have similar premises with the hero living in a small town where everyone knows about his powers and accepts and protects him. We see Clark Kent as a young boy dealing with flying powers he can't control, and later as a normal 17-year-old struggling with his responsibility to help when deranged killers attack Smallville residents.

So Marvel just put out an edition in their Masterworks series collecting the entirety of the Champions series, including guest appearances in other titles. It's 100 bucks, but In-Stock trades has it for half off this week.

I've never read Champions and have heard many derisive references to it along with a trickling of people who seem to adore it. I've always personally been curious about the particular character mix and have wanted to see what the deal was.

So....is it worth the 50 bucks as a treat for myself for my upcoming birthday, or should I totally skip it as a waste of my time and money?

Lardy, I think this Champions thread could be of some help to you:

http://www.legionworld.net/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=825344&page=1

My own two cents in a nutshell is, no, it's not worth all that money, even with the nice John Byrne art. The team doesn't really gel, and most of the stories just aren't that good.

My favorites right now are:

Paper Girls (by Vaughn and Chiang) It's like Stranger things on Netflix but even better.

Unfollow, like the Lost tv story but with lots of action. Lots of quirky characters.

Empress, It doesn't get more exciting than Miller and Immonen. I'm addicted. Lots of cliffhangers make it hard to wait a month! It reminds me of an action version of Saga.


My previous favorite Deadly Class

The Vision; buy the Vision trade of the first six issues and if you aren't hooked it must be because you are dead. It is the best thing I've read since Saga.

^ Yep, Vision is very good!

You've all encouraged me to order the Vision trade! I read the first issue and, while it was promising, it was just too uncanny valley for me. It sort of wierded me out.

Just finished the 1st Vision trade this week. It's really good. Super creepy but smart about it. I'm now looking forward to the next volume in December.

Regarding "Vision," several months ago I glanced at the first issue, and it just wasn't my cup of synthetic beverage. But, then, I've always been contrary that way.

Seriously, though, the amount of acclaim it's getting from Legion Worlders, from my chatroom friend Matt, and from just about everyone and everywhere else (combined with the fact that it will turn out to be a done-in-one 12-issue arc, what with King having signed up as a DC-exclusive creator,) I will probably end up giving it another go once the whole thing is collected.

I'm definitely getting Vision whenever I can. I've been eBay stalking it for a while, but it always goes for more than the In-Stock Trades price. So it'll probably be on an eventual IST order I do.

Okay, I've shilled for the first twenty-five Mike Carey issues of Hellblazer (175-200) many times over the years.

Now I feel that it's finally paid off. At the end of May 2017, DC's ongoing reissues of the entire Hellblazer run will reach Volume 16 and the start of the Mike Carey Era!!

I beg anyone who's not read any of Carey's Hellblazer issues, please, please, please don't let this trade pass you by. Nor the next one, Volume 17, which should end with issue 200. This is Hellblazer the way I always *wanted* it to be back in the 1990s. I think Carey strikes the perfect balance between crowd-pleasing drama, Easter eggs (deviled Easter eggs?) for the continuity buffs, and genuine scares. The only Hellblazer run that rivals Carey's in my mind is Andy Diggle's (230-244 and 247-249, with a 2-part fill-in from the estimable team of Jason Aaron & Sean Murphy), and that one felt prematurely truncated because of Diggle's foolish decision to sign up with Marvel.

In fairness to Diggle, and for the sake of critical objectivity, I have to give fair warning that Carey's final 15 issues of Hellblazer only prove that, unlike Diggle, who quit too soon, Carey did not know when to quit. So avoid Volume 18.

Also avoid Volume 19, which I calculate will mostly consist of Denise Mina's brief run.

Then Volumes 20 and 21 should manage to fit in all of Diggle's run, plus the Aaron 2-parter. Almost as essential as Carey's first 25 issues, IMHO, and almost as highly recommended by me.

Trust me, if you decide to read the upcoming Hellblazer Volumes 16-17 and 20-21, you won't be sorry!!

HAWKWORLD

3-issue Prestige Format limited series

Originally published in 1989

TIMOTHY TRUMAN: Plot, dialogue, layouts, and pencil art

ENRIQUE ALCATENA: Ink art

SAM PARSONS: Color art



Of all the post-CoIE reboots that DC Comics did in the 80s, Tim Truman's Hawkworld was the most controversial, the most misunderstood, and, sad to say, the one that most often gets overlooked by later generations of fandom. That's truly a shame, in my opinion, because I think the Hawkworld mini-series (and, I stress, *only the mini-series* -- more on the ongoing towards the end of this review) holds up *one trillion* times better in 20/20 hindsight than John Byrne's Man of Steel, George Perez's Wonder Woman, Mike Grell's Green Arrow, Green Lantern by Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen, and need I even mention Fr*nk M*ll*r's sequential-art sins committed on Batman?

Because even though Truman was roughly the same age as most of the other people involved in the DCU reboots, he came from a far different branch of fandom -- the Angry, Disenfranchised, Anti-Establisment 70s Youths raised not only on spandex spectacles (if at all), but also on Joe Kubert's Sgt. Rock & Viking Prince & Enemy Ace & Hawkman, Alberto Giolliti's Turok Son of Stone, Don McGregor's Black Panther & Killraven, Doug Moench & Paul Gulacy's Master of Kung Fu, and the best, most psychedelic, and most challenging of the underground "comix" from both that decade and the one immediately before it. When Truman was attending the Kubert School, the only other students with simpatico tastes could be counted on one hand: Steve Bissette, John Totleben, Tom Yeates, and Rick Veitch, all of whom went on to become creators who brought their off-the-beaten-path sensibilities, fully intact, into the comics mainstream.

Truman was no exception. Instead of pouncing on the first available corporate IP, he earned his Hawkworld gig the hard way -- drawing for gaming companies to pay the bills, while finding himself far more in tune with the indie publishers of the 80s, particularly First (for which he drew and co-plotted the cult favorite "Acid-Noir" series Grimjack), and Eclipse (for which he wrote and drew Scout, one of comics' few post-apocalyptic scenarios of the 80s that remains scarily plausible today, even if some of Truman's educated guesses at which countries would do what, and which ones would still be around after the fire, were not quite on the money; Truman also edited and co-plotted Eclipse's 80s iteration of Airboy, transforming the gee-golly kiddie adventures of the Golden Age original into a sort of "A-Team-With-Monsters" which, for better or worse, put Chuck Dixon on the comics map -- and before anyone objects, I reiterate what I've said in the past: Dixon's a talented writer with a big mouth, whose politics seem off-base even to a lot of his fellow conservatives, let alone to moderates and liberals.)

Above all, Truman was (and still is) a comics creator whose talent is matched only by the extra thought & effort he puts into even his paycheck jobs. So by the time DC offered him the big brass ring in the form of the Hawkman reboot, he was ready, eager, willing, AND enough of a business-savvy realist to know going into the project that creators can only push the envelope so far with corporate IP. And that's what makes Hawkworld so remarkable from a modern perspective -- it's not as gonzo or as violent or as subversive as Truman's indie work, yet readers familiar with his indie work will immediately recognize that, despite the superhero/science-fiction accoutrements, Truman does not compromise one iota on his convictions, or on his opinions on mature, complicated Real Life topics:

- Class warfare? Check.

- Institutionalized racism? Check.

- Inter-galactic (read: international) warmongering? Check.

- Colonization as glorified rape and pillage? Check.

- Hypocrisy and cover-ups from the closely intertwined government and military? Check.

- The disenfranchised on the streets making hard, sometimes deadly, and often no-win choices just to keep themselves alive?

- Generals, politicians, and the rest of the ruling class in their glass towers, high on drugs, spirits, and the most depraved forms of decadence? Check.

- Outsourcing? Check.

- Loss of previously sacrosanct tradition and culture? Check.

Admittedly, that's one hell of a lot of stuff to pack into only three double-sized installments, and if Hawkworld could be said to have any real flaws, it's that, while the first two-thirds are impeccable, the final third feels a bit truncated, as if Truman was determined to squeeze in everything he wanted to say, regardless of whether or not the story would lose some of the depth and substance of the first two-thirds. But even with its horror-movie-ish climax, and a perfunctory ending (possibly editorially mandated over Truman's wishes?) which too blatantly sets the stage for the ongoing series, Hawkworld nevertheless emerges as a near-masterpiece. Everything that fans loved about the Silver Age Hawkman is still there -- winged space cops swooping from dizzying persepcitves, action aplenty, operatic vistas of outer space -- but something extra, something special, had been added to the mix. Unfortunately, many readers at the time were too distracted by what was on Hawkworld's grimy, edgy, challenging surface to appreciate that it was the closest to The Best of Both Worlds that a mainstream comics reboot of an all-ages superhero could ever hope to deliver.

Truman was taken to task for showing his protagonist, Hawkman-in-the-making Katar Hol, as deeply fallible, drug-addicted...



Years later, in an interview from the mid-late 90s, Truman plainly stated that all he was trying to show through his portrayal of Katar Hol was that, in his words, "heroes aren't created instantly by seeing a bat fly through the window." In that same interview, he also claimed that, in the immediate aftermath of Hawkworld, many fans on the convention circuit had been verbally abusive towards him, some even threatening him with physical abuse!

And, unfortunately, things would only get worse from there with the Hawkworld ongoing series. Despite the pedigree of co-plotter/scripter John Ostrander -- who'd been Truman's frequent collaborator in the 80s, most notably on Grimjack, and a good friend -- and despite Truman himself sticking around long enough to co-plot the first several issues, I've always regarded the ongoing as a qualified success at its best, an abject failure at its worst. I felt, and still feel, despite not having re-read the ongoing for many years, that the ongoing preached shallowly to the converted where the mini-series made its best effort to show both sides of difficult topics; that the personalities of Katar/Hawkman and his partner, Shayera/Hawkwoman, so complex and shaded in the mini-series, quickly degenerated in the ongoing into Good Cop-Bad Cop caricature and cliché; and that the alien-cops-on-planet-Earth setup failed to jell into anything satisfying or plausible, even by superhero comic standards.

Thus, I was not at all surprised when I learned a few years ago that Truman's original concept for the Hawkworld ongoing was to have Katar and Shayera land on Earth circa 1940, and to chronologically retell the Golden Age and Silver Age stories with the same respectful-yet-modernized approach which had worked so well on the mini-series. DC, in their infinite wisdom (HA, HA) vetoed Truman's proposal, and forced him and Ostrander to set the ongoing in the present day.

That editorial mandate, in turn, led directly to the infamous, much-debated Hawkman continuity fustercluck, and the beginning of the end for not just this iteration of Hawkman, but, IMHO, for every subsequent one as well, including even the much-lauded Geoff Johns/James Robinson/Justin Gray/Jimmy Palmiotti run in the mid-2000s. No offense to the many people who liked the Hawkworld ongoing and the 2000s reboot, but I, quite simply...did not. The kindest thing I can say is that I loved Kendra Saunders, the 2000s Hawkgirl, and regarded her as a diamond amid the dreck surrounding her.

In the end, what I feel we're left with is a really good, solid graphic novel in the tale told by the Hawkworld mini-series (which was thankfully reissued in trade a few years ago, for new generations to discover, and earlier generations to reassess.) Truman's integrity and work ethic paid off creatively thousandfold, and I'd be remiss not to mention the equally industrious efforts of Alcatena and Parsons. The latter's coloring is especially noteworthy, in that it's far more sensitive and nuanced than, and nowhere near as garish as, the majority of the deluxe-format comics of that time; if I had to make an equitable comparison, the only one I can come up with on the spot is Tatjana Wood's coloring on the justifiably celebrated Swamp Thing run by Alan Moore...and most of Truman's artist/creator friends from the Kubert School. I think that says it all about the level of quality we're talking about here. Just my opinion, of course, but I hope at least some people reading this review will be inspired to find out for themselves.

I have daddy issues. Here, in a forum where I feel safe, I can freely admit that. My dad and I had issues. He was an alcoholic and would keep me at arm's length with his propensity to rage over the least little things. While he served with the Navy, he seemed like he was never there during my childhood, and when he was there, I often wished he was back out at sea. My parents never divorced, but I often wished they had. In some ways I had to be the adult in my family as conflict was a constant, and peace of mind was at a premium.

But, you know what? I loved my dad. Very much. Nearly 12 years ago, cancer invaded my dad's brain, and though the signs were there, I was in such a state of denial that when it took him, it was too late to hash it out with him. It's my biggest regret.

This brings me to Jeff Lemire's The Underwater Welder, an OGN from Top Shelf recommended nearly two years ago in this very thread by Legion World's own Cobalt Kid. I read this 200-plus pager in one sitting last night and really connected with it. I don't think it's a spoiler at this point in my post to say that the title character is dealing with his own daddy issues, both with his father and his own impending fatherhood.

The book has been described as, "the best episode of Twilight Zone you never knew should have existed". In a way, I think that description doesn't do it justice and actually kind of minimizes what the book does. There's a supernatural quality to the story's central events, but there's certainly evidence that quite possibly nothing supernatural happens at all. Part of the brilliance of the book is that this aspect is left open for interpretation. But what it's about more than anything is a man struggling with a huge loss in his life and his own feelings of guilt over it and how it's crippling his own life moving forward.

All of this revolves around his daddy issues, and it connected with me hugely because of the similarities to my own. The father's job as a sea scavenger feels similar to my own's career with the Navy. Both were alcoholics. Both had conflicts with our mothers. Really, some of the scenes felt like they were taken from my life. Being alone in your room while listening to every shouted word of conflict between your parents. Walking into a bar to try to pry your father away from his addiction. Just feeling let down by your parents in big moments.

It all felt very real, and I don't think you have to have had some degree of a traumatic childhood to relate to and feel what Lemire is doing in his story. I think, in any reader, he evokes some real characterization and makes you feel empathy for what is going on as the story and flashbacks unfold.

If you're unfamiliar with Jeff Lemire's art style, it may or may not be a deal-breaker for your enjoyment of this story. His art has a surreal quality, the nearest comparison I can make is to some of the illustrated children's books you may have read growing up. Maybe not so much the ones that you can name readily, but the ones that peek in and out on the edges of your memory. The scratchy faces. The impressionism. The suggestion, if not the absolutely on-spot rendering. That's what Jeff Lemire's art evokes. Often, that's not suitable for most comic stories, but I think it absolutely works here in a story that plays off on fuzzy childhood memories and feels more like the children's book for adults we never read more than some Twilight Zone episode.

I don't know if Underwater Welder is for everyone, but it was most definitely for me. And if you are looking for something that is much more than cookie-cutter comics and has some humanity and mystery to it, I don't think you will be disappointed. And if you, like me, have daddy issues, there's probably some bonus content in there for you.



I guess I owe ya, pal!

I'm so, so glad you finally got around to reading it! From our various personal conversations over the years, I had a feeling (perhaps more of a hope) that you would connect with the Underwater Welder, and I remember distinctly that when I finished it, I couldn't wait to recommend it here on LW, hoping you'd see it and buy it.

It's a pretty masterful piece of art, touching on a difficult and human topic in such a great way. It's definitely made Jeff Lemire a "must-watch" creator, even if some of his non-creator owned / writer-only work doesn't compare to the high level of quality of UW.

Wow, if this book made you think of what you knew of my daddy issues to some degree, this just proves how well you know me.



Definitely. It has me thinking about getting his Essex County, which is what he made his name on. UW was imperfect but really brilliant for those imperfections as much as it was for its perfections.

I was thinking also as I read it about what a great, srtful movie it would make, though I'd fear most filmakers might miss the point.

Yeah, it's a topic we've talked about over the years (including a great story you've told about your Dad reading one of your old comics when you were a kid). I perhaps didn't know just how well it would connect with you, but it definitely made me think you'd want to read it.




I've also thought about checking out Essex County, which people have raved about for years. Haven't done so yet, but its on my radar too. I also never checked out Sweet Tooth, probably because it just didn't "look" like it was for me, and now I'm second guessing that decision.

A fun, and thought-provoking web comic by some locals I know. It's called Superbutch. I'll let the title character describe herself for you:

"At my job, I pretended to be White. At home, I pretended to be straight. And with my friends, I pretended my parents weren't rich, because I wanted them to think I was tough and streetwise."

http://superbutchcomic.com/comic/chapter-1-page-1/

The story flashes back and forth between 1988 and the 1940s. Our heroine is the classic combo of crimefighter and "girl" reporter. It's humorous, done in a loose watercolor style that makes it very "down-home" and touching, too: even with the serious overtones about identity and disguise referred to above.

There've only been a few pages posted so far, but I'm staying tuned in to see where it goes.

L'Histoire Secrete, vol. 25-33, by Pécau & Kordey

I got impatient waiting for the translation of the next volume(s) of The Secret History and got them in French, two omnibus collections and one individual volume. Bit of a slog, and I missed some of the slang, but well worth the effort.

These are beautifully rendered, complex stories of deep conspiracy through the ages.

The brief summary of the story premise: "Since the dawn of time, Dyo, Reka, Aker and Erlin - the four Archons who headed the Four Houses - have fought each other to control the fate of humankind. While Archons have risen and fallen, the world continues to change and time remains their constant antagonist."

Volumes 25-28 cover 1987-1994: Iran-Iraq war, Bosnian war, Aristide/Haiti, drug cartels, Chernobyl. The next omnibus, Volumes 29-32, deal with some Tibetan cult operating in Switzerland (based on a true story? I don't know), the Bush presidencies, 9-11, sinkholes (they're not what you think!), the culmination of Erlin's grand plan and Reka's downfall.

The story of the four Archons seems to end with Volume 32, but the creators are putting out further publications, filling in stories from the past. Volume 33 (a stand alone volume) tells the story of Jesus and the flight from Herod, with the four sibling Archons heavily involved.

These two collections, in addition to the Archons, feature two characters throughout the stories: Bob, a hippie-like CIA operative and O'Neill, a straight-laced FBI agent. Their presence throughout these tales provides further coherence, linking the various events.

That's a super brief summary. The stories are mesmerizing and will certainly merit a second reading. If your French is passable, get out your dictionary and take the plunge into The Secret History!

The latest volumes sound really fantastic! Too bad my French is terrible--I'll have to wait for the English translations.

I can't wait to see the Jesus / Herod story! I was hoping they might be able to return to the past a bit at some point. There's so much potential and the way they fully develop the past (regardless of what era) is incredible, almost a blueprint for other historical fiction creators who either don't go deep enough or get stuck in the ennui.

Volume 17 is now available from both online and old-fashioned booksellers.

Yeah, I have one.

Secret Weapons by Valiant. I think it is on issue 4. I've only managed to wrangle a couple.

It's very much like the X-Men used to be, and that's not just me saying that. A super human weapons program decided to go defunct and murder all of its less useful/weaponized super humans. They go on the run. The most kick butt character is a woman that can talk to birds. There's a guy that can teleport things to him but he dosn't have any control over what he summons. AND there is a guy that can turn to stone. (Stone Boy ... so its like the Legion of Substitute Heroes as well ) The characters have to make the most of their not very useful powers to defend themselves while on the run. We get to see them get better at using their powers which reminds me of the old X-Men comics when they would be clever with their powers, like Storm would slick the ground with ice instead of throwing a hurricane at someone. Also,these super humans are not very popular with humans and police either and they are a stand in for all sorts of minorities and underdogs.

One of the more weaponized super humans tries to help them and take them under her wing. She is like the Engineer and Computo wrapped up in one.

There is a Super Adaptoid or Fury like creature that the company that made the super humans is having hunt them down and kill them.

It's cool, arts pretty good too.

There is an extended preview (you have to scroll down a bit)


Secret Weapons 1 Extended Preview

Once again, Lardy has steered me right! I got a really good bargain on a deluxe edition trade collecting the first 11 issues of Scalped, a series that Lardy promoted in this forum with even more passion than he usually gives in his posts about comics he considers exceptional.

A lot of other people on the web have termed Scalped as being "The Sopranos on a Native American reservation," but even though it's meant as a compliment, I think it sells the series way short of its true quality.

I was never into the Sopranos, or any other TV series about the sordid underbelly of modern America. I couldn't even get into "Breaking Bad," quite honestly. Yet I ate up this Scalped collection like a full tray of fry-bread fresh out of the oven. And make no mistake, this series is NOT for the faint of heart! Writer Jason Aaron (who has gone on to become the Marvel Universe's greatest creative asset) interior artist R.M. Guera, with the always-wonderful Jock as cover artist, are unflinching in their depictions of one Native American community as the ultimate disenfranchised in these supposedly united states. To briefly revive the Sopranos comparison, the character who looms largest in this story, activist-turned-entrepreneur-slash-crime-lord Lincoln Red Crow, is more of a Vito Corleone figure than a Tony Soprano figure. He is extremely intimidating, yet also insulated in the dirty business that he runs, dealing with criminals of all stripes, including the worst criminals of all, politicians (my favorite line comes towards the end of this volume, when Red Crow is conferring with a corrupt Native American political liaison, and the latter quips, "Welcome to the white man's world.") Yet nobody in this microcosm of the so-called free world is without sin, and Red Crow's pragmatism, orneriness, and tenacity come pretty close to making him the closest thing to a character I felt like rooting for. Certainly more than the nominal protagonist, Dashiell Bad Horse, a shaven-headed sh*t-kicker with a bad rep who finagles his way into becoming the leader of Red Crow's goon squad (read: the tribal police.) Bad Horse feels to me like a concession to win over a wider audience, all toxic masculinity and sourpuss attitude. But, if that's what it took to get this story told, then so be it.

My favorite characters other than Red Crow are: Dino Poor Bear, a restless teenager who has fathered a baby daughter out of wedlock, and whose poorest-of-the-poor extended family, sickly in mind, body and soul (with the possible exception of the family's steel-willed elderly matriarch) depend on his meager earnings as one of Red Crow's janitors; and Diesel, who is possibly Aaron's most sublimely inspired creation in this ensemble -- on the surface, he's a white-guy-gone-Native-American who throws violent fits every time somebody calls him that, always punctuated by his belligerent assertion, "I'm ONE-SIXTEENTH KICKAPOO!" Yet even Diesel proves to have a poignant, messy backstory that raises him far above the comedy-relief caricature that a lesser writer than Aaron would settle for.

On a personal level, Diesel resonates deeply with me. And that, I feel, is the quintessence of what Aaron has achieved here -- at any given time, in any given part of the world, one community is at the rock-bottom of society's ladder, and paying the price for it. The varied ways that that community's people deal with these seemingly insurmountable odds proves that there are no rigid categories like "good" and "evil," and that modern society's ever-more pitiful and nauseating attempts to simplify the world into something they can control expeditiously are doomed to a cycle of horrifically bitter (yet often darkly hilarious) failure.

I can't wait to read the remaining four-dozen-or-so installments of Scalped.

Thanks, Lardy!

I told Fick this privately when she PMed me a link to her review via Facebook, but it bears repeating: Scalped may very well be the best comic published in this young century to this point in my opinion. Just reading the above review makes me long for and miss it so much! Such a deep, resonant and character-rich work that should be experienced by as wide of an audience as possible. That's why I wish it would get made into a high-quality, faithful TV series, which would stimulate interest in the source. Plus, it's a story that has something important to say about Native Americans.

She hits on the strength of this series--its fascinating, multi-layered characters. There are many to follow across Scalped's 60 issues, and every one of them has a journey that will take them (and you) to unexpected places.

Dash, it's true, can come off as kind of a caricature, but he's a genuinely angry character, who has let his frustrations govern him. I don't think he ever becomes the most interesting character in the book (that is probably always Red Crow, imo), but he does grow and become much more 3-dimensional as the series progresses.

Diesel...definitely more than he appears to be and has a very crucial role to play in the cast and in the series. Fick's angle is a very valid take on his character. Another take is he's a man that very much needs to be defined by something and latches on to what he has. None of this is meant to belittle his claim on his heritage, but it is a part of his character flaw.

I'm gonna have to re-read Scalped in the next few years!!!