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What are you reading right now? (September 2024)
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Last week's adventures in comics.The Goon: Bunch of Old Crap Volume 3: An Omnibus ★★★★
This continues the darker turn in The Goon when we saw how the Goon was scarred. Labrazio's back somehow and has created his own Legion of Doom. It's still an interesting story with fantastic art. I just like when there's a better mix of humor and horror.
Gunnerkrigg Court Volume 1 Limited Edition ★★★
Gunnerkrigg Court is a web comic about a mysterious girl who is sent to a Hogwarts type school after her mother passes. Her father has disappeared and while the school is supposed to be based on science there are plenty of ghosts and gods of the afterlife lingering around. It's a fun enough book even if it's short on details through these first 500+ pages. This edition is larger and combines the first 2 volumes of the earlier editions.
Predator: The Last Hunt ★★★
A decent ending to Brisson's Predator trilogy. Theta is back. She's wiped out every Predator she's ever found and now they are on the run. She hasn't seen one in 6 years. Time for a trap. I really liked how Brisson tied this into the original Dark Horse Predator comics.
By Fire: The Jakob Hutter Story ★★
This was alright. It's about the Anabaptists who were persecuted for not believing in original sin. A ruler in Europe chased them around and had them burned at the stake for refusing to believe it. There's lots of filler pages in the art and it shows the group seeing demons in places which seems kind of dumb and subjective for something that is supposed to be a true story.
Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace ★★★
Like most of the Fall of X comics, this isn't great. It lacks focus, floating to a new local each issue. Then it ends trying to somehow tie in the comic version and the MCU version of Ms. Marvel and not succeeding. Also, when did Lila Cheney become stereotypically British?
Alien, Vol. 2: Descendant ★★
It's 13 years later in this sequel to the first story. The little girl has returned now as an adult with her own agenda. All of the crew are little more than cannon fodder. The Annual is just a big wordless fight between traditional aliens and their evolved counterparts. It all adds up to not much. Declan Shalvey needs to go back to doing his own stuff instead of these bland Alien comics. Give this license back to Dark Horse. Marvel doesn't seem to know what to do with it.
Alien: Black, White & Blood ★★★
This book is black and white with red and green thrown in for the colors of blood, human and alien. The anthology itself is OK. I didn't think the main story that continued throughout all 4 books was all that great. It's about an alien queen who gets on a generational ship full of socialists. That last part doesn't really play into things other than how they speak as "comrades". Overall, it's your standard Alien stories with the humans being worse than the killer aliens for the most part.
Aliens: What If...? ★★★
Much better than I expected in that it's OK. Given that Paul Reiser and Adam F. Goldberg (creator of The Goldbergs) were involved it shouldn't be to anyone's surprise that there is more humor than you'd expect. Don't worry. It's an Aliens comic, there is still death. What happens if Carter Burke from Aliens lived and got blamed for the planet being destroyed?
Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games ★★★
This can be more about the history of games than the history of roleplaying games. Dungeons and Dragons isn't even talked about until page 120. It's still interesting. I just didn't need to know about games from a thousand years ago that had little to do with roleplaying or RPGs. I expected this to go more into various types of RPGs which it didn't at all. Dungeons and Dragons is the only one mentioned. If you are already a gamer, this probably isn't going to give much in the way of new information. If you're a novice, this would be a good entry point. Of course, your best way in would be to just talk to someone you know who is into gaming.
Beware the Planet of the Apes ★★★
When I saw this was a prequel to the original movie, I was leery. Why would you do that when you have the 4 new movies to set this in? But it wasn't half bad. It brings characters from both of the first two movies into the story in a way that stays true to the original films. I liked that they brought in pages and panels from some of the original comics as well. That was a neat idea.
X-Factor Epic Collection, Vol. 9: Afterlives ★★★★
This honestly isn't very good. After Peter David left this book was floundering. It begins with a miniseries by Kurt Busiek containing a crossover between Spider-Man and X-Factor. It surprisingly stinks. Then in the main book they are dealing with the Multiple Man's death from the Legacy virus. There's 3 different writers and the writing is all over the place. Jan Duursema and Al Milgrom handle most of the art. I typically like Duursema but this was the time of superhero excess and these pages are so overly busy. There's a Phalanx Covenant crossover and then only part one of Legion Quest. I'm assuming that has its own collection since that was the lead in to how the Age of Apocalypse happened.
Monica Rambeau: Photon ★★
Monica gets involved in some cosmic weirdness that isn't really explained well or even resolved well. It just seems like an excuse to keep modifying her history for reasons. I did like how when Dr. Druid shows up, he's still a dick. I just don't get why they finally give Monica Rambeau her own book and it's this nonstory.
Murdervale ★★
This was a dumb half baked story about a couple in a rough patch. They go on a road trip and visit Murdervale where they are plagued by some kind of witch. They then keep coming back in 2 sequels. It was just all kinds of poor writing. This was one European comic that probably should have just stayed over there.
Blacksad: They All Fall Down · Part Two ★★★
Part two feels padded out so they could make this two parts. All of the heavy lifting happened in volume one. Still, I do really like Blacksad's anthropomorphic detective.
Whodunnit? ★★★
An anthropomorphic whodunnit. It was kind of odd that one of the characters could see ghosts in this given the rest was more of a traditional mystery. Still it's not bad.
Dark Spaces: Dungeon ★★★
A serial killer takes people and tortures them for years, burying them in torture chambers around the country. They finally get a lead when someone stumbles onto a hatch in the middle of the woods. Now his family may be in danger after reporting it to the FBI. Parts of this are quite good. Other parts felt skipped over in order to fit this into 5 issues. Part of the problem may be that Hayden Sherman is not an artist I really care for either.
Captain America, Vol. 2: Trying to Come Home ★★★
Straczynski's return to comics has been a mixed bag so far. This run of Cap has been kind of boring and this current arc is out there for a Cap book. Cap meets this woman Lyra who is the embodiment of life. Her brother is of course Death who they are at odds with. She has Cap gathering some new mutants for some big battle or something. There's a lot of talking in this without saying a lot. It all kind of gets bogged down.
Void Rivals, Vol. 2: Hunted Across the Wasteland ★★★★
This arc starts slowly but finishes strongly. Our two outcasts are trying to cross a wasteland to escape their worlds. Or course, we are going to see some more transformers characters but I won't spoil who for you. We finally get some shape to what is going on here. Bring on the next arc!
Night of the Living Cat, Volume 1 ★★
This is so dumb and it's played absolutely straight. People are attacked by cats and when they are touched by them, they turn into a cat. And yet, all of the people can't keep themselves from going to pet them because they are so cute? Also, the art is surprisingly good and well-detailed.
Spider-Man Visionaries: Todd McFarlane, Vol. 1 ★★★★★
Michelinie's writing isn't the best but once McFarlane gets turned loose, the book just looks so gorgeous. I love how he puts Spider-Man through all these impossible poses as he's flipping through the air. It gives you a real sense of how lithe and acrobatic Spider-Man is for the first time really. And it only took 300 issues. Plus you have the first appearance of Venom in here. I also love how issue #300 and #301 is the exact same cover, one with the black suit and one with the traditional red and blue. So simple yet so iconic.
Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection, Vol. 18: Venom ★★★★
After a terrible 3 part crossover from Ann Nocenti that goes through the 3 Spider-Man titles, Todd McFarlane enters the picture and his art just makes this book sing. I love that McFarlane put in little doodles where the UPC barcode went for books that were sold on the direct market instead of news stands. It's also refreshing to see McFarlane draw every issue once he takes over without missing a beat. It's always surprising to see how these Image guys who'd maybe put out 2 issues a year stick with a monthly book for years.
Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special #1 ★★★
A petty solid story set during the collapse of worlds during the end of Zero Hour. Jurgens came up with a good way to insert material into the narrative without changing the original story.
Spinal Cord ★★★
A comic about a heavy metal band getting a record deal by travelling through these weird towns where they fight monsters. It reminded me of the video game Brutal Legend.
Goblin Volume 2: The Wolf and the Well ★★★
A solid fantasy adventure for people of all ages. A goblin and wolf have bonded and become friends. The problem is in this realm, there is a large bounty on wolves. After they are saved by an older woman and her troll servant, they go to a school for non-human children where things aren't all that they seem.
Marvel 85th Anniversary Special (2024) #1 ★★★
A bunch of random original stories tied together with a Wolverine and Deadpool team-up in the 85th century. My favorite story was Alan Davis returning to Excalibur to give us an untold story.
Mod
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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What the Font?! - A Manga Guide to Western Typeface★★★★
This is a very informational manga about styles of typefaces and the history of certain font families. The information is presented as part of a cute narrative story but there was so much information in this that I took my time reading it.
The Engagement of Marielle Clarac (Manga) Volume 1★★★★★
I've been looking for my next series read on KManga and I might have found it with this. It's based on a light novel and I think that shows (in the good way). The protagonist is basically a renaissance version of a true crime and drama junkie. Her father arranges a marriage for her early in the volume. I was worried this would go from being character-led to trope-led after the fiance is introduced but so far the fiance is a little weirdo (in a good way) just like the protagonist.
Today's trip to the comic book store.Absolute Power #3
Birds of Prey #13
Immortal Thor #15
Incredible Hulk #16
Rook Exodus #5
Scarlett #4
Get Fury #5
Ultimates #4
Archer and Armstrong #2
Exceptional X-Men #1
Recent Highlights:Public Domain, Volume 1: Past Mistakes - I love that this guy works for Marvel
Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon - finally
The Hunger and the Dusk book 2 #2
Saga #68
TMNT: Black White & Green #4
Universal Studios: Frankenstein #1 - also maybe one of my favorite covers of all time
Under the Trees Where Nobody Sees – Love, love, loved it. Dexter meets Richard Scarry.Solar Flare Season 1 Fort Myers – Way better than I expected. You can tell the writing is that of an author starting to find his voice. The art is passable but nothing to write hope about. But the premise is the meat and potatoes of this book. Haick did his research to make sure the science behind the events were plausible…and combining that with hard-right-wing-gun-toting-militia-psycho-men-in-Florida? *chef’s kiss*
Animal Man, Vol. 1 (Lemire) – Love the lean into Cronenberg body horror. The art is great too. Two of my favorite things: Lemire and Animal Man. Interested to see if Lemire’s run is as good as Morrison’s.
KI-6 Killers – I know most people have hated the last few years of Valiant books, but as I’ve been reading through some of them, they aren’t that bad. Yeah, compared to the books up until 2017, they suck, but this was a fun “if MI6 trained ninjas instead of 007s” story.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Vol. 1 – I didn’t hate this book, but yeah, it’s nothing special.
Animal Man, Vol. 6 (Delano) – I don’t know if it’s just me, but I prefer Tom Veitch’s run over Delano’s. The arc where Buddy’s wife goes to NYC and every stereotypical terrible thing “that happens in big cities” happens to her… Yeah, that’s when I was done. Was very close to a DNF on this one. Animal Man is one of the few books that I think suffered from being moved over to Vertigo in the 90s.
Doctor Tomorrow – Another Valiant book from the last few years that I didn’t hate. Not great but entertaining.
Spider-Man: The Next Chapter Vol. 2 ★★★There’s a lot to like, but some bad moments that stick out like a sore thumb. Like Spider-Man questions George Stacey about why he needs to kill Senator Ward. Over and over Stacey says it’s better if you don’t know. Sometimes while the city is falling to pieces.
Spider-Man: The Next Chapter - Vol. 3 ★★★
Spider-Man bounces through his rogues gallery and different corners of the marvel universe while dealing with Mary Jane's death.
Pulp ★★★★
Jamelle Bouie has this quote in his review of "The Irishmen." It replaces the grand drama of mob life with grimey, ordinary reality. That's how I would describe this book.
Xira ★★★
A hyper intelligent Chimpanzee steals a mech suit. Warning, this gets sad.
Black Cloak Volume 1 ★★★★
Meredith McClaren's art is the highlight
Fantastic Four, Vol 5: Disassembled & Fantastic Four, Vol 6: Rising Storm ★★★★
After the Heaven Arc, Waid & Wieringo couldn't possibly top themselves, but these are this worth reading.
Mod
What folks read this week:
- Paul: Wimbledon Green: The Greatest Comic Collector in the World, PeePee PooPoo #1
- Nick: EC Epitaphs from the Abyss #1 and #2, EC Cruel Universe #1 and #2
- Kait: Bea Wolf
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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The Engagement of Marielle Clarac Volume 2 through Volume 5 ★★★★
I've been enjoying this series on KManga. The protagonist continues to be a nerd to finds writing inspiration in every awkward or dramatic encounter. She's made friends with royalty and rescued a few characters.
Bea Wolf★★★★
This is a retelling of the epic poem Beowulf from a kids' perspective. The neighborhood kids have to protect their treehouse from the grumpy neighbor, Grindle. The writing picks up the same alliteration and acronym patterns from the original poem so I feel like a parent would need to assist any young kid who tried to read this. The art is very imaginative and I enjoyed seeing the "armor" the kids wear as well as their piles of "treasure."
Breath of the Giant★★★★★
Two kids are on a journey to find giants to try to bring back their late mother. They're also moving through the stages of grief on this journey, wondering if the myth of the giants' powers are even real, and meeting other characters along the way. There was an additional antagonist in this story that I thought wasn't necessary but otherwise I really enjoyed this.
Stone Fruit★★★★
An emotionally difficult book about imagination, mental health, self-awareness, and family. I liked the variety in the amount of coloring done in different panels. There seemed to be some correlation to how genuine and engaged the subjects of the panels were. I also liked how the people looked more animalistic when they were playing with the kid in this story.
Swallow Me Whole★★★
An unsettling read about someone experiencing puberty, first love, grief, and mental illness. This feels like it ended in the middle of the climax of the story. I feel like there's meaning in the way this ended that I'm still processing.
Last 2 weeks' adventures in comics. Sorry, went to Las Vegas for a work conference last week.X-Men Epic Collection, Vol. 17: Dissolution & Rebirth ★★★★
This is a time of the X-Men in transition. It's the end of the Australian Outback era. The X-Men get scattered, mostly through the Siege Perilous. There's some great stuff to be found in here. Psylocke gets a makeover to become an assassin with a psychic knife. (I still don't understand how she became Asian though.) One thing I had missed in past reads, Psylocke predicts where all the X-Men wind up after going through the Siege Perilous while undergoing brainwashing by the Hand. Destiny bites the dust even though her visions continue to pop up for decades. The first appearance of Gambit. Even if it's not the most focused stories at times, it's still a great time to read the X-Men. Plus Marc Silvestri and Jim Lee draw most of the issues so the book looks fantastic.
Godzilla: War for Humanity ★★
This was not very good at all. The story seemed to take place back in the 70s era of Godzilla movies. It was terrible. The art while quite detailed couldn't get human proportions correct. It looked like a bunch of little people with limbs and heads larger than their bodies.
The Sunny-Luna Travelling Oracle ★
Wow, this is one of the most boring things I think I've ever read. It's some alt future where the Heartland of America is like the 1930's. There's this travelling duo who are looking for someone. Then there's a girl in this town that really likes books but I guess this other woman is giving her banned books but that's never mentioned until the end. This whole thing is unfortunately a slog with a story that only comes out at the very end. I think it's meant to be a dig at totalitarianism but it's written so poorly that I'm not really sure.
Feral Volume 1 ★★★
The creators of Stray Dogs are back, this time with animals infected with rabies. Our three main cats are house cats taken away by animal control when they crash in the woods. From there, they are on the run from rabies infected animals as the story plays out. This is actually an ongoing book so don't expect an ending here.
Captain Universe: Power Unimaginable ★★
A bunch of random stories where normal people in the Marvel universe get the Captain Universe powers for a short time. Marvel didn't have the rights to the Micronauts when this came out so Captain Universe's first appearance isn't here. Nor are the issues of Spider-Man when he got the powers.
Beirut ★
This trilogy of stories about Beirut makes no sense without knowing the history of the city in great detail. If it had footnotes, they'd be as long as the actual book itself. The storytelling is extremely fragmented, really just little snippets. The first story was written 20 years before the other two and it shows. The artwork is rudimentary and the lettering is atrocious.
The Immortal Thor, Vol. 3: The End of All Songs ★★★
It may be time to drop this title from my monthly pull. It's just not very exciting, entertaining or interesting. Thor wins some more runes in this one. Yawn.
Archie Horror Presents: Terrifying Tales ★★★★
7 of the Archie horror one shots get collected. They get better once Archie Comics finally figured out 3 stories in a 20 page comic makes for crap stories. The last story, the Madam Satan one, inexplicably ends on a cliffhanger. Why would you do that in an anthology? It makes no sense.
Ava'S Demon Vol. 2 ★★★
Our main characters are trapped on a cargo ship for the length of this. Time for 300 pages of exposition dumps. Some of it was fine. Some of it dragged like you wouldn't believe.
Somna ★★★
A gorgeous looking book about a neglected wife during the Salem witch trials. She's having erotic dreams where she's visited by a demon. Tula Lotay illustrates the dreams while Becky Cloonan does the reality parts. The story does where you'd expect it to from there. It was fine but not sure why it got all the Eisner love.
Hunt for the Skinwalker ★★
An adaptation of the 2005 "nonfiction" novel. It's a supposedly true story about a ranch in Utah that is plagued by a skinwalker. A bunch of cattle mutilations happen. Gateways into other dimensions. You mention it and it's all in there but with no proof.
Alexandro Jodorowsky's Screaming Planet Vol. 1 ★
I don't know what this was supposed to be but what it turned out to be was a bunch of shitty stories that made zero sense. It has that old world sci-fi vibe of just random things happening with some stupid message about society that doesn't really say anything.
Birds of Prey, Vol. 2 ★★★
The team gets sucked into a portal that keeps flipping them through little made up pocket dimensions. It's a good way to use a bunch of artists without looking like the artists can't keep up. The story is just alright though.
Deprog ★★★★
Some modern noir with a queer bent. The main character works as a deprogrammer for cult victims. She grew up in a cult herself and has dealt with a lot of trauma. A femme fatale hires her to get her brother out of a cult that sounds a lot like the one she grew up in. Along the way, we visit lots of BDSM and steamy explicit same sex scenes.
Codename: Action Volume 1 ★★★
A new spy and an old one teamup in the cold war era spy thriller. Dynamite slips in some of their characters of the era like the Green Hornet and The Spider. It’s decent but I enjoy their Golden Age stuff more.
The Night Never Ends ★★★
A bunch of twenty-something idiots break into an abandoned house where satanists then try and kill them all night. The art isn’t great but the story is alright.
Mob Psycho 100, Volume 1 ★
This was f%cking terrible. The art looks like someone rich’s nephew who can’t draw drew it. The story and translation makes little sense. It feels like comics made by two twelve year old boys who got a participation trophy. How does this make it 16 volumes, it shouldn’t have made it 16 pages. I don’t care if it’s the same person who did One Punch Man. This is awful.
Memorial ★★
An alright comic about a woman who has lost her memory. One day she comes across an old curiosity shop and things get nutty in the standard way these types of stories seem to go these days. It's fine but nothing special.
Assassin's Creed Dynasty, Volume 1 ★★
An OK Assassin's Creed manga set in China. It's real unclear what's going on at the beginning. I'd love to have seen more of an introduction. I've played the games and this should be a series that is easy to adapt but this makes me maybe think otherwise.
The Thing on the Doorstep Part One ★★★
An adaptation of the Lovecraft story told in three parts. A man enters an asylum and shoots his best friend in the face at which point we flashback to their lives growing up. One seems to be a loner, the other getting married and having a child. Just as it gets on a bit of a roll it ends.
Ace of the Diamond, Vol. 1 ★
Another crummy sports manga. I love baseball. I watch games multiple games a week. I could barely finish this. It's boring. There's not much of a story and what is here is muddled. It's about a junior high pitcher whose team gets farther than they expected in their final year of the school's existence. Then he gets recruited by a big high school for sports in Tokyo. That's pretty much the plot in this first book. Plus, there is lots and lots of slapping for some reason.
Deja Ross Speaks to Freaks ★★★
A middle school aged girl goes on a cross country vacation with her family. While on vacation she meets an urban legend and decides to interview them along he way to show how they are mistreated. However, no one else knows they are real until a dusty old prospector gets wind of that's she's doing. It's a decent Middle school aged book but it is clunky at times.
Enola Holmes: The Graphic Novels: The Case of the Missing Marquess, The Case of the Left-Handed Lady, and The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets ★★★
Graphic novel adaptations of the first 3 Enola Holmes novels. Enola is the younger sister of Sherlock Holmes. She's in London solving crimes while hiding from her 2 older brothers who think she needs to go to finishing school after their mother's disappearance. The mysteries can be slight but I got the feeling this is for younger audiences while the movies are more all ages. The art was highly stylized but it did grow on me.
Today's trip to my LCS. (2 weeks of comics since I was away last week.)X-Factor #2
Galactor #2
Fire and Ice #3 <-- Took 10 months for this to come out. Get with the program Bill Willingham.
Cheetara #3
Transformers #12
Uncanny X-Men #2
Ultimate Black Panther #8
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2
Geiger #6
Captain America #13
Death in the Family: Robin Lives #3
Jonny Quest #2
Space Ghost #5
Gatchaman #3
Wolverine: Revenge: Red Band Edition #1 <--- For some reason the red band version was almost a month behind the regular one.
Avengers #18
World's Finest #31
Destro #4
Incredible Hulk #17
X-Men #4
Mod
What folks read this week:
- Mike: Godzilla: Skate or Die #1 and #2
- René: Fire Force - Tome 17
- Danny: DC vs Vampires: World War V (2024-) #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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Rust Vol. 2: Secrets of the Cell ★★★★★
I enjoyed seeing more of Oz and Jesse this volume. We learn more about Jet Jones and Roman's father. This is a great second volume with great characters. It ends on another cliffhanger. I definitely expect to finish this series.
The Engagement of Marielle Clarac (Manga) Volume 6 ★★★★
I continue to love Marielle. I was unsatisfied by what the antagonist in this volume said his motivations were, especially considering how much his actions effected the characters. I think there's only one more volume in this series.
Lullaby of the Dawn, Vol. 2 through Vol. 4 ★★★★
For the most part I really enjoy this series. It's a romance between a supernatural guardian and a human with a mysterious healing power. The worldbuilding has a lot of mystery and is well-paced. There are some moments of jealousy or religious oppression that were uncomfortable. Volumes 3 and 4 really expand the world.
Drowning Love Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 ★★★
Again with uncomfortable supernatural love. This series follows a middle school girl as she moves to the country and meets a boy who's a bully or a god or just a moody pre-teen...unclear so far. She did some modeling in Tokyo and that subplot gets uncomfortable. The mysteries in the small town are really compelling and are keeping me reading.
Border Crossings: A Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway ★★★★★
This follows the creator and her husband as they take a trip along the Trans-Siberian Railway, which stretches from China through Mongolia and across Russia. I don't know much about daily life in any of those places and the creator did a great job of including details about food, fashion, transportation, and some culture. This book is very journal-like, including the script-like writing, which was hard to read at times. I organized this onto my "comics" shelf on Goodreads but calling it a highly illustrated memoir might be more accurate. There was quite a bit of text but it still only took me a few hours to read it.
So glad you're enjoying "Rust", I've been a big fan of it for a while now.
Last week's adventures in comics.Houses of the Unholy ★★★
Any collaboration between Brubaker and Phillips is worth a read. I just don't think this was one of their best. It's about the satanic panic that took place in the U.S. in the 80s. (I still remember being forced to watch the videos in church. It introduced me to lots of great music like The Cure which is probably not what they were going for when they made us watch it.)
Natalie Burns rescues people from cults. (The opening is excellent.) But when she was a child, she was part of the Satanic Six, a bunch of school children who faked that they were being taken and molested by a cult. Soon, an FBI agent arrives informing her that someone is murdering the six of them and takes her along on his investigation to protect her.
The premise is good. The execution is bogged down by two many flashbacks that all do the same thing.
Pathways: Chronicles of Tuvana Volume 1 ★★
A web comic that seems more concerned announcing each character's gender and sexual preferences than telling a good story. It's about a very conservative and secretive country that wants to keep other countries from exploring some shared ruins that may contain links to their gods. That whole part wasn't very clear. There's a whole lot of characters and I had a hard time keeping them and their sexual identities in mind, mostly because I didn't care.
Bloodshot ★★★
Valiant gets in on the prose novel game. It's a variation of the Valiant universe. Bloodshot is now a teenager and his dad is the original Bloodshot. He meets up with Generation Zero from the comics after getting his mind wiped and it more or less adheres to the comics from there except for the end. It was alright. It's not the best thing Van Lente has written, but nor is it the worst.
Incredible Hulk Vol. 3: Soul Cages ★★★
The Hulk searches for a way to remove Charlie from the cursed doll she's trapped in. Meanwhile he makes Bruce Banner's life miserable while there's lots of body horror and monsters. Not much plot advancement in these 5 issues though. The Blood Hunt one shot could have just been a regular issue if you hadn't told me it was a tie in to Blood Hunt.
Batman: Justice Buster, Vol. 1 ★★★
A generic armored Batman runs around Gotham. He has some A.I. he relies on called Robin. The Joker in this iteration is more like Red Hood, he's a vigilante that kills the bad guys. He looks pretty stupid though. Right now, the story is very unfocused. Plus, the Justice Buster is actually the Batboat which I thought was weird
Scoop Vol. 2: Buried Leads ★★★
Scoop volume 2 picks up where volume 1 left off while delivering it's own mystery. I thought the mystery was a bit weak in this one, about who murdered some guy's wife. A lot of the fantastical stuff takes a back seat and I can imagine you'd be confused when the alligator men from volume 1 show up. Still the time travel story from volume 1 is lurking in the background and looks like it will rear its head again in volume 3. I do think this is a fun series and I'm looking forward to volume 3 with that ending.
Geiger Volume 2: The Nuclear Knight ★★★★★
This book looks so freaking good. Gary Frank is such an outstanding artist. In this volume, we get a 2 issue origin and then the first 6 issues of the ongoing Geiger series (finally). Geiger is roaming the countryside like David Carradine in Kung Fu righting wrongs and looking for a cure to his radioactivity. He's accompanied by his two headed dog Barney and a well-meaning but kind of useless knight he's inspired to be better. This book instantly goes to the top of my pile each time it comes out. Just terrific stuff.
Ghost Machine #1 ★★★★
Little teases for all of the new comics Geoff Johns is putting out with his Ghost Machine imprint at Image. Good stuff. You should check it out.
Transformers, Vol. 2: Transport to Oblivion ★★★★
Daniel Warren Johnson's takeover of the Transformers continues and he continues to excel. Jorge Corona has taken over on art though and I don't think it's as good. There are times in the action sequences where I couldn't tell what was happening. It was just too busy. I'm still not clear where Cliffjumper ended up at the end of issue 12. He's there and then he's not unless he just blended in with Optimus. It was interesting seeing Shockwave in charge of the Decepticons though. Good stuff!
Drafted: An Illustrated Memoir of a Veteran’s Service During the War in Vietnam ★★★★
A memoir from Rick Parker, longtime letterer and cartoonist for Marvel comics. He's written and drawn his first comic, about when he was drafted during the Vietnam War after flunking out of college. Somehow he never got sent overseas, getting transferred from base to base all across the U.S. It's a story about how naive and dumb he is as he entered the Service, like pretty much everyone is at that age. How he fumbled through 3 years in the military. It's really interesting.
Madman In Your Face 3D Special ★★★
A tour de force of storytelling with these 2 reprints in 3D. The fist one had Allred's art style change in each panel as he keeps changing art styles. Neither one of these stories are all that great, but that art? Chef's kiss.
X-Ray Robot ★★★★
Like a lot of Mike Allred's stuff, it's very trippy. Deals with time travel and alternate dimensions. The Allred's make interdimensional travel really sing with their inventive art. I love the little easter egg thrown into issue #4.
Madman Library Edition Volume 6 ★★★
This is kind of the tangential Madman volume. It begins with some of Allred's earliest work. These two anthologies that are presented in a way that's very confusing. One of the stories eventually turns out to be an early, less refined version of Madman that is more about the G-Men from Hell. There's also a confusing vampire story and a story about a guy who is reliving his life. He's a young child through all of it even though he's drawn as an adult. It's kind of dumb. Then there's a 3D special that is just 2 earlier issues in 3D. A Mr. Gum short. And then X-Ray Robot which just came out 3 years ago. It has a Madman cameo at one point but it is it's own story which I quite liked. This volume is really only for Allred fanatics though (That's me!) and definitely not where you'd go to start checking out Madman.
Today's trip to the LCS.Uncanny X-Men #3
X-Force #3
Wolverine: Revenge #2
Eternal Warriors: Last Ride of the Immortals #1
Eternal Warriors: Last Ride of the Immortals #2
Feral #6
Outsiders #11
Titans #15
Ultimate Spider-Man #9
Predator Vs. Wolverine #2
Thundercats #8
Defenders of the Earth #2
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Last week's adventures in comics.Cruel Summer ★★★★★
You could consider this the last volume in the Lawless saga as we finally see what happened to Teeg and Ricky. Teeg continues to be piece a shit. But now he's in love for the first time. His son feels threatened and she's a piece of work herself. It's Criminal after all, there are no good guys here.
The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn, Vol. 1 ★★★★
This certainly evokes Hellboy and I mean that in a good way. There's no big right hand of doom that he uses to beat down the occult but this person with a floating skull for a head doesn't need it. He thinks things through a bit more maybe and there's a lot fewer pages of fisticuffs. That's not to say it's boring because it's certainly not. It just has a different aesthetic.
Father and Son Issues: The Secret History of Spider-Man ★★★★
This was just terrific. Ever wondered about the lives of John Romita Sr. and Jr. and their days working as artists for Marvel. If so, this is the book for you. I didn't realize Senior worked for DC for several years at DC drawing romance books before moving to Marvel and becoming THE Spider-Man artist. Or that Daredevil villain, Typhoid Mary, was based on JRJR's ex-wife. Then there's cool things like JRJR breaking a Guinness world record by drawing sketches for 48 hours straight. (Man I wish I could have gotten one of those.) The book also devotes a large part to Virginia, Senior's wife of 60+ years and how she also worked at Marvel until they both retired. I love this inside baseball look into comic book creators.
Batman and Robin 1: Father and Son ★★★
Batman and Damian Wayne team up again as they try and get closer as father and son. Damian is forced to go to high school while Bruce attempts to be more of a father figure. Damian's annoying attitude has been toned down along with the humor that occurs out of this. Simone Di Meo and Nikola Cizmesija handle most of the art and it's OK. The nonstop crazy angles start to annoy me and the panel layouts are REALLY hard to follow.
Don Coppola ★★★
Surprisingly not as good as Ameziane's comic about Quentin Tarantino's career. This mainly focused on Coppola making the Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now. Some passages like those about Coppola's Dracula was completely in prose which I hate to see in comics. Mainly there's just not any new or interesting information in this.
Canto III: Lionhearted ★★★★★
I love this story of the little clockwork knight with the does not quit attitude so much. In this third volume, Canto has determined he needs the help of their former slavers in order to defeat the Shrouded Man and seeks them out. Meanwhile, the Furies are looking for them as well to make sure that doesn't happen.
UFO Mushroom Invasion ★★
This feels dated because it was written in the 70's. It's about alien mushrooms that land on Earth and start growing on everything. I thought it was kind of stupid and very boring.
The Agent ★★★★
This combination of spies and magic has been done before but I thought this was done well with great art. The story is a serious take on spies with a magic bent mixed in.
Old Gods & New: A Companion to Jack Kirby's Fourth World ★★★★
This was a really cool companion piece to read after reading all of Kirby's Fourth World comics from DC in the 70s. It covers how Kirby had grown dissatisfied with Marvel, how the Fourth World characters were originally intended to be the New Gods to replace Thor and the Norse Gods after Ragnarok. It goes into how Kirby's enthusiasm to create something new at DC and how it soon turns into disappointment as editorial cuts most of it after a dozen issues. It touches on how once he returns to Marvel the Eternals were meant to be the Fifth World and the stuff he did at Pacific Comics in the 80's was a thinly veiled return to the Fourth World before a new regime at DC decided to make things right by bringing Kirby back for the Super Powers toy line allowing him to recoup some of that lost money for creating so many terrific characters. If you want to learn your comic book history this is the book for you.
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I Read Comic Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Axe Cop, Vol. 1 (other topics)Fire Force - Tome 17 (other topics)
Rust Vol. 2: Secrets of the Cell (other topics)
Godzilla: Skate or Die #1 (other topics)
The Engagement of Marielle Clarac (Manga) Volume 6 (other topics)
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What are you reading this month? Have you been reading for the reading challenge? Catching up on Books of the Month? Tell us all about it!
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