I Read Comic Books discussion
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What are you reading right now?
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What are you reading right now? (March 2024)
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It's a light buy month for me (Something is Killing the Children v7, Once Upon a Time at the End of the World v1, and Time Before Time v5), so I'm looking forward to digging into some Hoopla reads this month. Not sure what yet though.
Going to start the month wrapping up Sweet Tooth from Feb BotM (omg amazing), and reading Little Monarchs for the 2024 challenge. I also need to read something from the Archie-verse. I’m leaning towards the Harley/Ivy/Betty/Veronica crossover, but open to suggestions from you fine readers!
Shane wrote: " I also need to read something from the Archie-verse. I’m leaning towards the Harley/Ivy/Betty/Veronica crossover, but open to suggestions from you fine readers"That crossover is good. All of the Archie comics Mark Waid wrote are very good. Same thing with Kelly Thompson and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Then there's Archie's horror line which are all really good except for Jughead: The Hunger. Kind of depends on what you are into Shane.
Chad wrote: "Kind of depends on what you are into Shane.."I didn't know Kelly Thompson did a Sabrina run - that's a serious contender! Honestly, I'll probably note all of those for future reference. Josie & the Pussycats and Sabrina are IPs I have interest in from TV, and I'm definitely intrigued by archie horror. If someone says they loved a book, I'm likely to at least check it out. Usually if I just nix a book right away, it's for things like racism or misogyny.
Shane wrote: "Chad wrote: "Kind of depends on what you are into Shane.."I didn't know Kelly Thompson did a Sabrina run - that's a serious contender! Honestly, I'll probably note all of those for future referenc..."
Sabrina is its own thing. It's not based on the TV show from the 90s or even the Sabrina that appears in Archie. It's more like the horror line except it's all ages. There is a Sabrina horror comic that the Netflix show is based off of, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
Then there's a Afterlife with Archie comic that's about zombies. That kicked off the whole genre. There's a Blossoms 666 comic that's kind of a take on Rosemary's baby. Jughead: the Hunger is about Jughead being a werewolf. Those aren't great. Vampironica is fun with Veronika becoming a vampire. There's also 2 Archie and Predator comics that are hilariously gory.
Mod
Little Monarchs is my pick - you'll have to tell us how you like it..no pressure! :)
Last week's adventures in comics.Medea ★★★
A retelling of Medea's story replacing most of the magic with science of the day making Medea a herbalist. It's interesting and portrays her as a complicated character, a strong woman trying to make her own way in a world run by men. Yet, she continues to make plenty of horrible mistakes of her own.
Whistleblowers: Four Who Fought to Expose the Holocaust to America ★★★★
Four powerful stories of people helping Jews during World War II. Each issue is a different story, all are true and important to keep in the zeitgeist to make sure they never occur again.
Blue Book Volume 1: 1961 ★★★
I'm not really sure why this exists. It's documenting one of the more famous cases of alien abduction without really adding anything new. Tynion tells the story mainly through exposition as if he's writing down the details clinically. Where this book shines is the art. I really like Oeming's art here. Using only shades of blue adds to the experience.
Maskerade Volume 1 ★★★
When Kevin Smith and his partner from the Edumacation podcast, Andy McElfresh, got turned down for a DC show, they reworked it into their own comic. (I'm dying to know what character this originally was. The Question, maybe?) It's a revenge story, set in a Gotham like city without a Batman. There's the typical Kevin Smith humor, though it's not quite Jay and Silent Bob level of juvenile for the most part. (There's still a couple of fart jokes.) I do wish the whole story was in one volume. It's only 8 issues. Instead we get 2 4 issue volumes.
Maskerade Volume 2 ★★★
Kevin Smith's and Andy MdElfresh's revenge story featuring someone who is batshit crazy doesn't pack many surprises in its second half. It is fun in a dark version of The Mask way, with a crazy protagonist cracking jokes while murdering people.
Silver Vessels ★★
This starts off pretty good before it goes off the deep end. Three friends go to spend the summer with one of their grandpas and his husband in Key West. They went down there to find a lost pirate treasure. That's when things get goofy. You'd expect it to be lost underwater. For some reason instead it's buried under three Civil War forts that really do exist. Put they are all way below ground and filled with dinosaurs for some inexplicable reason. The first time it happened I thought it was some strange museum display because they didn't seem to move at all until one of the kids took something. The bad guys are these ultra rich guys who wear shark hats. It's just the kind of dumb I've come to expect from Steve Orlando.
The Lonesome Hunters: The Wolf Child ★★★
Our two main characters come across a kid that needs help along with his giant wolf mother. It's a strange, roadside attraction story that doesn't advance the story much at all. Crook, of course, makes it look great. But it does leave me wanting another story with more substance.
The Day the Klan Came to Town ★★
While based on a real event, this is a fictional story. It feels a bit hokey. The art makes it look really hokey. Everyone has these oversized werewolf hands. It looks like the man hands episode of Seinfeld. The body proportions are all wrong. The story adds all of these unnecessary asides about where these fictional characters were before they came to America. None of it is explained well. I'm all for bringing the event to life. I just wish the creators had done a better job of it.
The Pull ★
I'm not sure that Steve Orlando and Ricardo Lopez Ortiz set out to make the world's worst manga, but they may have succeeded. The story is incomprehensible. The art is awful. At one point the main character loses his arm and I had no idea until pages later. The art is so filled with explosions and speed lines, I couldn't tell. Just way too chaotic and fugly.
Punisher: The Bullet That Follows ★★
There's a new Punisher in town and he's not very interesting. He's a SHIELD agent who's family was killed. Now he's out for answers. There's just not enough story here. I'm a fan of Pepose's and hate that I didn't care for this, but sometimes it happens.
Algernon Blackwood's The Willows ★★
I know the original story was supposed to have even frightened Lovecraft but I find the writing very dry. It's about two people on a canoe trapped on an island in the middle of a river. Most of it is just imagined and still told through the words. While the art was interesting, a lot of it was still so nameless that made it hard to make out details. It's only 60 pages long and I was still looking to see how much was left.
Scales & Scoundrels Definitive Edition Book 2: The Festival of Life ★★★★
The creative team moved this book over to TKO from Image so they could finish off this series. We start off with a solo story from Durgo, returning home with her brother's body. Then we see what Luvander has been up to, with some nice world building. Finally, Luvander visits Aki and Koro's desert kingdom for a story about someone trying to sow chaos in their country. It's a cool series with some fun art by Galaad.
Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice ★★★
Eddie Ahn's parents immigrated to the U.S. from Korea. Eddie himself moved to San Francisco from Texas for college and decided to stay. He was a community activist before going to law school and starting a non profit. He's also a very skilled artist. I loved the artwork and coloring. The story though wasn't all that interesting and could have been edited down some. I'm a big admirer about what he's doing though.
Revenger and the Fog ★★
This was like watching a low budget 70's action, revenge flick. Revenger's lover is kidnapped by her crazy father and Revenger goes to get her back. The ultra-violent artwork looks like it's going out of its way to make everyone look ugly. The utter lack of backgrounds makes the clumsy art stand out even more.
Noblesse Volume 2 ★
I really don't get how this is popular at all. The English translation is so bad. I can't make heads or tails from the story. The move from Webtoons to traditional print doesn't help either. The panels are just randomly plopped on the page. Supposedly this is about Frankenstein in modern times but he's barely in it.
The Boy from Clearwater: Book 1 ★★★
This is an important and true story about a Taiwanese boy put in prison for 10 years, but it's REALLY long. The first half is about his childhood growing up under Japanese rule, then Chinese after the end of World War II. It's way too long and not very interesting. He's sent to prison for joining a book club in high school. The second half is about his ten years in prison, moved to an island become prison. The style of writing sometimes made it hard to connect as it felt just like a list of facts.
Lonesome Days, Savage Nights ★★★
A werewolf goes after the gang who killed his girlfriend. It's OK. It's got that Steve Niles thing of not trying too hard to escape clichés thing going on. Unfortunately, Kudranski still hasn't run out of black ink. This guy could be a decent artist if you could actually see his art.
Erin wrote: "Little Monarchs is my pick - you'll have to tell us how you like it..no pressure! :)"Just finished - I really enjoyed it. Top 3 things:
1 - beautiful drawings
2 - Educational elements are woven seamlessly into the story
3 - I love that they managed to write a kid friendly post-apocalyptic adventure!
Today's trip to the LCS.Ultimate X-Men #1
Free Marvel Must-Haves -> A free comic that reprints Spider-Man/Deadpool #1, Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #1 and Immortal Thor #2
The Devil That Wears My Face #5
Captain America #7
Avengers #11
Doctor Strange #13
Shazam #9
X-Men #32
Void Rivals #7
Birds of Prey #7
The Spectacular Spider-Men #1
Mod
Here's what folks read on this week's episode:
- Mike: The Last Mermaid #1
- Nick: Phantom Road #1 through #9
- Paul: Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2023-) #1
Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear our thoughts on what we read! Or listen now at https://ircbpodcast.simplecast.com/ep...
Last week's adventures in comics.Chernobyl: The Fall of Atomgrad ★★★★
If you ever wondered about what actually happened with Chernobyl, this is a pretty good resource. The gross ineptitude, malfeasance and corruption that allowed this to happen is truly horrible.
X-Men: Hellfire Gala - Fall of X ★★★★
The actual Hellfire Gala is pretty shocking. Turns the Krakoa era on its ear and is all around pretty devastating. I was all hyped about Fall of X after reading this. (Then I read most of it and the miniseries to come were almost all crap. Still this was terrific.) Gotta bring it down a star for the terrible Infinity comics that got inserted here though.
The Secret Voice: Volume One ★★★
A sword and sorcery comic with a messed up superhero in it. He's been left scarred in more ways than what is just covered by his bandages, causing him to lash out at times without even realizing what he has done. Parts of this were interesting. Parts of this were odd.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Reborn, Volume 8 - Damage Done ★★★★
The Turtles are all being pulled in different directions after the bloated events of The Armageddon Game. Meanwhile Dr. Barlow is back causing problems again. It's pretty good stuff.
Cosmoknights, Vol. 2 ★★★★★
Just a bunch of badass women fighting the patriarchy. This picks up right after volume one ends. The girls may have saved a princess but did she want to be saved? I like how everyone has different ideas about what to do to change the politics of the galaxy. Even without the mech fighting in this volume, it's still terrific. Great art, terrific art, characterization and world building. That Hannah Templar knows how to craft comics.
Penultimate Quest ★
This started off decent but by mid way through I had no idea what was going on. It starts off with these people trapped on an island with a never-ending dungeon filled with monsters. It feels like an old-school Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Part way through though it changes to god like beings and all these different worlds and it get really incoherent.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man & The Return of Effie Kolb ★★★★
We're getting a new Hellboy movie this year with Effie Kolb as the villain. I'm hopeful it'll be good since Mignola wrote the script. The original story, The Crooked Man, with Richard Corbin on art is terrific. It's a very cool, hillbilly witch story.
The Midnite Show ★★★★
This is the best Cullen Bunn book I've read in a while. But then again Bunn has made some of his best comics with Brian Hurtt. Yeah, I'm looking at you The Sixth Gun. This is fun. I would have liked to see it be a little more decompressed. It would have been even more fun with 12 issues instead of just 4. It's about old monster movies that are clearly meant to be the old Universal monsters. The movie comes to life and the monsters start killing people.
Grim, Vol. 2: Devils & Dust ★★★★
Things are changing and not for the better now that Death is dead. Jess is really freaked out and resisting becoming the new Grim Reaper while Adira's all in on taking the position. Jess and her friends are on the hunt for a back door to Hell so they can normalize things. This is very much a story in transition. This story is so much better than Phillips's work for hire stuff at DC and Marvel.
The art is so flipping good. The best thing Flaviano's ever done complemented by Rico Renzi's best coloring job. Not only does the art pop, but it has a depth to it, particularly the coloring. These two are doing Eisner level stuff here.
The Flying Ship Volume 2 ★★
Just not very good at all. A manga for kids from the dialogue. The art is in the most generic manga house style. Basically 200 pages of fluff.
Earthdivers, Vol. 2: Ice Age ★★★
We find out what happened to Tawny when she went into the cave. She winds up 20,000 years in the past having to deal with mega fauna and Sulutreans warring through the Americas during the ice age. Tawny can't speak the language and is stuck on both sides of this conflict while she tries to save a boy. It's solid stuff but sometimes the storytelling is unclear, probably due to the different artists on this volume.
Skeeters ★★★
A small town gets attacked by giant mutant mosquitoes. Cheesy, B-Level, SyFy channel horror at its best.
Dune: House Harkonnen, Volume One ★★★★
This is pretty good if you are into Dune. It's pretty much a continuation of the prequel House Atreides with Baron Harkonnen and Rabban sublots thrown in and turns out both have always been completely awful.
Dune: House Harkonnen, Volume Two ★★★★
This is better than I expected even. Good lord, the Harkonnen's are complete bastards, particularly Rabban. I was unsure if these prequels would add much but they are quite good. Having the adaptations done by the writers of the books helps.
The Vampire Slayer, Vol. 3 ★★★
Willow's time as the Slayer comes to a head as we have another go at Season 6 of the TV show, just with Buffy without powers as Willow has them but doesn't really do much with them. It's still all about the magic.
The Vampire Slayer, Vol. 4 ★★★
This probably should have ended at 12 issues. These last 4 feel very tacked on. It's a weak arc with Drusilla. The problem with just rehashing past characters with all of these stories is that you instantly remember how much better the series was than these comics.
The End of the Fucking World ★★★
Charles Schultz draws Natural Born Killers.
MythSpace: Ignition ★
I was excited to read some new comics using Filipino mythology. However, changing the creatures to different races set in space kind of ruined it. Now it's just your standard space adventure instead of a supernatural story.
Fall Through ★★
The art's cool but the story is hard to follow. The panels don't always align to tell the story coherently and the lettering is all over the place. It made it real difficult to figure out the reading order. The lettering also sometimes ran along or got so small I couldn't read it. Lettering is one of those things you only notice when it's bad. The crux of the story is about a small time punk band on tour in the 90's. Often struggling with basics like finding a place to stay while on the road because they can't afford hotels.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Jennika ★★
Oof, this was the worst TMNT book I've read in a while. Starts off with a reprint of Brahm Revel's backup story of Jennika's past from TMNT Universe. It's impossible to follow. There's a voice over from Splinter about the history of ninja while the art flips back and forth between two stories alternating with each panel. One is Jennika spying on the Turtles while she was still part of The Foot Clan. The other is Jennika's past. To keep it straight I had to read it three times, just focusing on one of the stories at a time.
Then we get to the main story. All of the criminals she associated with in her teenage years have been mutated and suck her back in to a stupid search for a cure for mutation. I didn't like it at all. Jennika is very weak-willed in the story and doesn't assert herself at all.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Volume 22: City At War, Part 1 ★★★★
The creative team continues to keep TMNT fresh and exciting. Karai has returned from Japan and attempts to take back the Foot Clan setting up all out war between all the various factions running around New York. After some dishonorable moves, it becomes an all-out sprint to save one of the cast members lives as they are constantly pursued by Karai and the EPF. This series has consistently been great.
Mod
Books mentioned in this episode include:
Smile
Shadow of the Batgirl
A Guest in the House
Speak: The Graphic Novel
The Incredible Nellie Bly: Journalist, Investigator, Feminist, and Philanthropist
Anaïs Nin: A Sea of Lies
Women Discoverers: Top Women in Science
Why She Wrote: A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers
Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy
Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear our thoughts on what we read! Or listen now at https://ircbpodcast.simplecast.com/ep...
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Clubbing★★★★
This was a murder mystery with a supernatural theme. I enjoyed the double usage of the title "clubbing" as a reference to both the goth scene and the golf course influences in this story. The main character was haughty but not to the point of being unlikable. This was published by Minx, a YA imprint of DC comics that seems to only have last for a year or two back around 2007.
Buzzkill★★★★
This story is violent and bloody but has a whole lot of heart. It's ultimately a story about recovery, trying to be good, and what that means in this situation where the hero's powers come from drinking. I'm glad this was only one volume. If it had continued I'd be tempted to continue it, but the amount of gore and alcoholism was a lot to take.
Pacific Rim: Tales From Year Zero★★★★★
I really enjoyed these connected short stories about characters we know from the Pacific Rim movie. These stories add to the depth and complexity of those characters. I really liked a new character they created for this comic. I can definitely see reading more Pacific Rim comics and I appreciate that the creators built out more of that world in comic form.
Kait, if you liked Buzzkill, The Paybacks is set in the same universe. Characters from both books show up in Cates's Crossover book too.
Big trip to the LCS today. My wife is going to kill me when she sees how much money I spent.Abbott 1979 #5
Avengers: Twilight #4
Fables #162 <-- Probably the last ever issue with Bill Willingham's falling out with DC.
Fall of the House of X #3
House of Slaughter #21
Immortal Thor #8
Wolverine #45
Transformers #6
Helen of Wyndhorn #1 <-- New Dark Horse comic from Tom King and Bilquis Evely
Batman / Dylan Dog #1
Outsiders #5
Ultimate Black Panther #1
Ultimate Black Panther #2
Thundercats #2
Unknown Heroes Anthology #1 <-- 2 of the guys working at my LCS have a story in this so I felt I needed to support this Kickstarter.
Unknown Heroes Anthology #2 <-- They got a bunch of physical copies for the store. They have a new book hitting Kickstarter on April 1st if anyone is interested.
I picked up Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy from the library yesterday - it’s been on my list, and I, excited to also get to hear you folx talk about it on the show this week!
I finished Gail Simone's New 52 Batgirl run yesterday. It was pretty good, especially regarding the ending of that run. I know I'm super super behind on superhero comics, but I got to the party late and there's just so much to read.
Eli wrote: "I finished Gail Simone's New 52 Batgirl run yesterday. It was pretty good, especially regarding the ending of that run. I know I'm super super behind on superhero comics, but I got to the party lat..."The new 52 stuff is pretty good. I mean, can you go wrong with Gail Simone? The Batgirl of Burnside stuff to follow that is terrible. It's very twee.
Chad wrote: "Eli wrote: "I finished Gail Simone's New 52 Batgirl run yesterday. It was pretty good, especially regarding the ending of that run. I know I'm super super behind on superhero comics, but I got to t..."Yeah, I for some reason have already read Batgirl of Burnside vol 1 and it was not good. But yes, Gail Simone is awesome. Any fav New 52 runs you would recommend? I only plan on reading two more before moving on to Rebirth, but I don't mind adding more if I haven't read some you recommend.
Eli wrote: "Any fav New 52 runs you would recommend?"Snyder and Capullo's Batman run.
Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang's Wonder Woman.
All of Geoff Johns' stuff. Green Lantern, Aquaman, Justice League, Forever Evil. That Green Lantern run actually predates the New 52. I guess in space the New 52 didn't take effect. Just start when Geoff Johns fixes Hal Jordan a few years before and move forward.
The companion Green Lantern Corps book is good too.
Batman and Robin by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. These guys worked on Green Lantern Corps too.
Francis Manapul's art on Flash and then Detective Comics is just terrific. The art may be better than some of the stories actually.
Scott Snyder did a very good Swamp Thing book.
Ditto, for Jeff Lemire and Animal Man.
Those are off the top of my head. I'm sure there are some others I'm forgetting. I'm read all of it good or bad through my library and DC Infinite. There is also a ton of garbage in the New 52 era.
Chad wrote: "Eli wrote: "Any fav New 52 runs you would recommend?"Snyder and Capullo's Batman run.
Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang's Wonder Woman.
All of Geoff Johns' stuff. Green Lantern, Aquaman, Justice..."
Nice to be on the same page. I think I read Justice League first, then Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, first two Animal Man, just finished Batgirl. My plan was to read Superman Action Comics next, then the Flash, and then move to Rebirth. I tried Green Arrow since I love him, but hated the writing and probably the art too. Oh, I did read everything but the last volume of Batman & Robin (my library doesn't have volume 7 unfortunately). I'll check on Swamp Thing at my library and see if I can add that to my plan before moving on.
Thanks a lot for the detailed post!
New 52 era Green Arrow is real bad. Have you read the 80s stuff from Mike Grell and later Chuck Dixon? It's solid. And I really like the stuff Judd Winnick did before the New 52 started. I enjoyed the Kevin Smith and Brad Meltzer stuff too. The Superman comics from the New 52 weren't great either, even with Grant Morrison writing one of them for awhile. The books are plagued with a ton of crossovers that are put together terribly in the collections. You have to read the event collection to get the whole story. The collections for each individual comic will only have a quarter of each crossover so you have no idea what's going on. They also did this weird thing where Superman and Lois were never together and he hooks up with Wonder Woman instead. They do this whole character assassination on Lois. Then Rebirth happens and they do this whole "These are not the droids you are looking for" thing and hand wave it all away. The current Superman books are really good though,
Last week's adventures in comics.X-Men: Hellfire Gala (2023) #1 ★★★★
Basically 80 pages of the X-Men getting f***ed (and not in a good way).
Fall Through ★★
The art's cool but the story is hard to follow. The panels don't always align to tell the story coherently and the lettering is all over the place. The crux of the story is about a small time punk band on tour in the 90's. Often struggling with basics like finding a place to stay while on the road because they can't afford hotels. Nate Powell has done better.
We Kill Monsters ★★★
Two mechanic brothers get attacked one night by some kind of creature. One of them gets infected by the creature and grows a monster arm. That creature was only the beginning and the monsters keep coming in this small town. It's pretty predictable but it's fun.
Neozoic ★★
A series with a ton of potential. It's set in a world where dinosaurs never died out and humans live in a walled city. There's another race of albinos (who are evil, I guess) and a girl who can control the dinosaurs with mind powers. My problems are that the storytelling isn't very good and neither is the worldbuilding.
Rivers of London Vol. 11: Here Be Dragons ★★★
These little bonus comics for the Rivers of London novels are pretty good. This one is better than the previous one. It's about a wyvern attacking London. Along the way the fae and Jimi Hendrix gets involved.
Abbott: 1979 ★★★
It's now 1979. Elena Abbott has been through the ringer fighting the Umbra for 6 years, who has possessed her lover among others. Elena's at her rock bottom as she has to stiffen up and fight back. There could be more story here. It's a bit stretched out to go 5 issues and could have used some side plots.
The Atonement Bell ★★★
St. Louis is a terrific place to set this kind of spooky story. I grew up there and there's a ton of creepy folklore in the area to keep you awake at night. The story is about a boy and his mother who come to St. Louis over the holidays to visit her sister and nephew. While there they become the target of a coven that's been in the area for centuries. Good art, good story.
Transformers, Vol. 1: Robots in Disguise ★★★★★
So excited about this. It's the same premise as the original cartoon but at the same time it's its own thing. A long time stalwart of the cartoons kicks it almost right off the bat. It's really good.
Code 45 ★★★★
I thought this was pretty good. It's about a woman who gets a job working in the subway system in Montreal as a driver. When she gets transferred to the night shift, she starts seeing strange things about a dragon in the tunnels and none of her coworkers will talk about it.
The Quarry ★★★
A short story about a teenager and the ex-girlfriend of his brother who are trying to cope with the loss of his brother on their first Christmas without him.
Star Trek: Year Five, Book 2: The Wine-Dark Deep ★★★
Volume 2 was just alright. It had some goofy stuff in it like Mr. Sulu instantly falling in love with a fishperson. It was just bizarre even if you insert modern sensibilities into the story. They seem to be trying a little too hard to tie everything into previous episodes as well.
Star Trek: Year Five, Book 3: Weaker than Man ★★
Too much reliance on the original episodes. In fact, I'd recommend watching the whole series again before reading these. I'd rather see some stand alone new stories, instead of the return of Gary 7, yet again and Harry Mudd.
Trve Kvlt ★
Who would have thought a comic about fast food workers and Satanists could be this boring but this creative team has managed it. Everyone in this book suffers from verbal diarrhea. The dialogue just drones on and on, page after page. This one character is all gung ho about working at fast food. She loves it and loves to talk about it for pages and pages. There's a ton of reused panels to make the book even more monotonous. Nothing like seeing the same panel repeated 9 times while a character talks about the technical details of working at a religious themed McDonalds ad nauseum.
Yellow Cab ★★
I'm not real sure why Chaboute decided to adapt this story into a comic. It's really dull. It's about a French filmmaker who decides to become a cab driver in New York in order to gain material for a new project.
The War of the Worlds: Infestation ★★★
Not bad for an independent comic from the 90's. It takes the premise that the martians weren't killed by germs at the end of War of the Worlds but continued to ravage the planet. What's left of humanity is struggling to fight back.
You Wish ★★★★
Avery and her father live alone in the middle of nowhere running a gas station. Then one day she finds a magical lamp and everything changes. A terrific all ages adventure with fun art.
Mod
Here's what folks read:
- Mike: I Heart Skull-Crusher! #1
- Brian: Demon Wars: The Iron Samurai (2022) #1 (Demon Wars: The Iron Samurai
- Danny: Black Cloak Volume 1
Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear our thoughts on what we read! Or listen now at https://ircbpodcast.simplecast.com/ep...
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Mooncakes ★★★★
This was a re-read for me. I picked it up at a comic shop knowing I already loved it. I love the natural flow of the world building in the story and the inclusion of the main character's hearing aids.
Snotgirl, Vol. 1: Green Hair Don't Care ★★
I've had Snotgirl on my to-read list for years and I've heard people reference it multiple times since then. The protagonist and her friends feel like they're intentionally written to be stereotypes, which I don't find interesting. This volume ends on a cliffhanger and I feel like there's at least one hallucination happening in this story, and that makes me want to keep reading to figure that out.
The Tea Dragon Society ★★★★★
This is another re-read for me that I picked up to own. I love all the characters and their backstories. I love the themes of found family and mostly forgotten arts. I remember this series as a whole, not per-book, and I'm going to have to pick the rest of them up.
Sunshine: A Graphic Novel ★★★★
This is Kate's pick for the reading challenge this year. Rating books like this is always a struggle for me because they're not always fantastic reading experiences but the stories are insightful and important. I liked the relationship the protagonist develops with a family throughout the story, although I got tired of one character's type of humor. I related to how one experience can redirect the decisions you make throughout life.
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Chad, I think it was you who mentioned that you enjoyed Berlin. I didn't particularly like the first volume but I keep thinking about the story. I ended up getting the omnibus from the library. It's a brick but I plan to read the entire thing (probably slowly).
kaitlphere wrote: "Chad, I think it was you who mentioned that you enjoyed Berlin. I didn't particularly like the first volume but I keep thinking about the story. I ended up getting the omnibus from the library. It's a brick but I plan to read the entire thing (probably slowly)."Yep, Berlin was me. I think it reads pretty well with the whole story in front of you. It is a tome.
Today's trip to my LCS.Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees #4
World's Finest #25
Cobra Commander #3
Invincible Iron Man #16
Justice League Vs. Godzilla Vs. Kong #6
Nightwing #112
Resurrection of Magneto #3
Titans #9
X-Men Forever #1
Hey guys, I have some recommendations to leave here, I reviewed them all, check them out:Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham (2023-) #1
https://oredatorb.blogspot.com/2024/0...
Batman / Spawn (2022) #1
https://oredatorb.blogspot.com/2024/0...
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1–2022
https://oredatorb.blogspot.com/2024/0...
Last week's adventures in comics.When the Lake Burns ★★
While the art was solid, this story was stupid. Kids decide to see if a legend is true when a local lake in the woods catches fire. They've heard anything put in the fire turns to gold. When they test it out find out everything just burns, they just keep burning more and more things, including things like their skateboard (and ultimately much worse). These are the dumbest kids ever put to paper.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Jennika II ★★★
This is really 2 3 issue stories by two different creative teams. The first half is by Brahm Revel who made the first Jennika miniseries and it is terrible. Poory story. Terrible art.
Ronda Pattison and Jodi Nishijima do the 2nd story and it is much better. Jennika gets involved with a woman who was mutated and her human son. The problem being that Jennika killed the kid's father when she worked for The Foot.
Star Trek: Year Five, Book 4: Experienced in Loss ★★★
An appropriate ending to this series with the Tholians and Gary 7. I'm not at all down with Gary 7's whole deal but I really liked Bright Eyes and how they affected the Tholians.
Edenfrost ★★★★★
This was excellent. It's about a young brother and sister who have to go on the run after their parents are killed. It's set in Ukraine after World War I. They are Jewish and being chased by some soldiers. What the soldiers don't know is that the kids can summon a golem. The art is outstanding. A love finding these kinds of gems in independent comics.
Grim, Vol. 3: Lust for Life ★★★
The team goes to Hell in order to get back Marcel while some bigger concept is unleashed. It's a bit more unfocused and scattered than the first two volumes. Flaviano and Rico Renzi continue to do the Lord's work on art.
Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book Sixteen ★★★★
It was so nice to have Fables back even if it took 2 years for the 12 issues to come out and with Willingham's falling out with DC, we probably won't see any more (at least from this creative team which is the reason it was so good.) This is mainly about the Cubs, Bigby and Snow's children as they become adults. There's a new big bad that acts more or less like Prince Brandish, just less interesting. I do wish we at least got some backstory to flesh him out more. Some other old favorites are along for the ride as well, along with some new characters. It was really nice to visit this world again.
The Heart That Fed: A Father, a Son, and the Long Shadow of War ★★★★
The memoir of a Vietnam vet and how his time there affected the rest of his life, written and drawn by his son. It's very interesting.
BRZRKR: Bloodlines, Volume 1 ★★
Two stories of random civilizations that Keanu wiped out with his bloodlust. First he fights Cthullu in Atlantis and it's ridiculous. Then he destroys another ancient civilization by being the world's biggest dummy. There's one part where he hatches from an egg and I was just wondering WTF.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Jennika--The Fifth Turtle ★★★
This is a mixed bag of comics featuring the newest Ninja Turtle, Jennika. It contains the story in the regular comics about how she transformed from a human into a mutant. It also includes the two solo Jennika miniseries of middling quality. It goes like this. The comics by Brahm Revel are terrible. Everything else is good.
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Beauregard Lionett ★★★
Not bad but could have used some more pages to flesh this out more. Was her father's business actually failing or was she just trying to grow it? They didn't really show much of her father not listening to her either. Just her sneakily doing her own thing regardless of the consequences.
Mangilaluk: A graphic memoir about friendship, perseverance, and resiliency ★★★
An Inuit man talks about his life. First abandoned as a baby, then being sent away to a school by a family who seemingly no longer wanted him. It's a REALLY sad read about a man who has lived all his life without being wanted or loved.
Eve of Extinction ★★
This has all of the nuance of a video game plot. Actually, most video games these days have better world building. The rain turns men into mutants. That's the breath of the storytelling. Now a mom, stepmother, and their daughter have to survive through a rainy Houston night.
Batman/Superman: World's Finest Vol. 4: Return to Kingdom Come ★★★★
First up, Mark Waid and Travis Moore show us the first time Batman and Superman met. Then Waid returns to the world of Kingdom Come with Dan Mora in tow. It's many years earlier in both the world of Kingdom Come and Superman's and Batman's career. They finally find Thunder Boy from volume 2 on Earth-22 and look to find him. But they also find the threat of Gog.
DeadEndia: The Divine Order ★★★★
This series is just insane. It's got a lot of Adventure Time and Rick and Morty in it without the meanness of Rick and Morty. Just the insanity and fun. The world has been divided into 13 worlds with the demons being the good guys that the humans are helping and the angels continue to separate planes of existence. All the while the good guys are trying to finally fix this world.
The Witcher, Vol. 8: Wild Animals ★★★
This is one of those stories where no one's really in the right and Geralt is caught in the middle. He washes up on this island and gets stuck between two factions. One thinks that all life including animals and monsters should be treated like humans. The other is the opposite.
Operation Sunshine Volume 1: Blood Run ★★
I didn't realize the guys from The Last Podcast on the Left wrote this. Even David Rubin's always terrific art couldn't save this turkey. It's something about vampires and there's two kinds and they are going to steal something. Reading this is like reading something that was translated into Russian with Google Translate and then translated back into English.
Canary ★★★
This starts off pretty strong as a weird Western where random people across the Old West are doing awful things out of nowhere. The main character is a marshall popularized in the pulps. He wears this kerchief with a design on it that I didn't know what it was supposed to be until it was finally called out that it was a coffin. He is called to bring a geologist back to Canary where he used to live, to check out a mine that's went deeper than any other. It's all a slow burn for the first 4 issues. Then the last 2 feel like we missed about 6 issues. There's all of a sudden this supernatural element as things spin out of control and none of it is explained well. It felt like going to see an old movie and they missed one of the reels.
The Cull Volume 1 ★★★★★
This was terrific. It's about a group of friends who go out in the middle of the night to "make a film". In reality, they've found a portal and think that the little brother that is missing may have went through it as well. Mattia de Iulis does a fantastic job of making this alien world look alien. It very much has a Stranger Things vibe to it crossed with The Mist.
The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos Volume 1 ★★★★
I do like this take that fits in with some of the classic movie monsters. Making Christopher Chaos a burgeoning mad scientist works for me as well. I could use some more world building around this. I'm still not sure what's going on with the bad guys or why the other people in this have powers. Still it's a lot of fun.
Wonder Woman, Vol. 4: Revenge of the Gods ★★
Good lord, this book is an exercise in frustration. It's starts with part 2 of the story started in the last volume with more of Hera's nonsense. Then we get two Revenge of the Gods tie ins which make zero sense without reading that miniseries. The last two issues are jam issues having to do with everyone dreaming. Everything about this is crap. You can't bring in Tom King soon enough.
Today's trip to my LCS.The Goon: Them That Don't Stay Dead #1 <-- Powell has moved his Albatross Funny Books over as an imprint for Dark Horse.
Batman: Dark Age #1 <-- Mark Russell and Mike Allred's followup to Superman: Space Age
G.O.D.S. #6
Duke #4
Incredible Hulk #10
Rise of the Powers of X #3
Ultimate Spider-Man #3
Wolverine #46
X-Force #50
Zorro: Man of the Dead #3
Mod
Here's what folks read on this week's episode:
- Mike: Dutch #0 through #2
- Paul: Pine and Merrimac #2 and #3
- Kait: City of Secrets
Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear our thoughts on what we read! Or listen now at https://ircbpodcast.simplecast.com/ep...
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Brass Sun ★★★★
I had added this to my to-read list in 2014 or 2015. I didn't realize until I got it from the library that it was published by 2000 AD. It reads like something by Moebius but less abstract. I enjoyed the pace and breadth of the worldbuilding. This world feels like something that could have a whole lot of side stories based in it. This collected volume is missing the 2 last two parts, unfortunately. The story isn't finished in this volume but it leaves off on a high note after wrapping up an arc.
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Books mentioned in this topic
City of Secrets (other topics)Brass Sun (other topics)
Pine & Merrimac #2 (other topics)
Dutch #0 (other topics)
Snotgirl, Vol. 1: Green Hair Don't Care (other topics)
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