Chad’s
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(group member since Mar 22, 2018)
Chad’s
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from the I Read Comic Books group.
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de Compostela wrote: "About Laura yeees! I read an article about Murders in the Building love her artwork. Would love to have a chance to get her autographed in my book. Did you liked the ones you read? A friend is bringing me Nocturnos from Spain."I gave both of them that I read 3 stars. They were solid reads.
de Compostela wrote: "Oh, where do you read about gn being translated?"You can see all the editions of a book on its book page as long as they have been merged together. There's an area that says "More Editions". I saw there was an edition for Maverick which is an American publisher. That page says the expected publication date is September 30th. That's not always 100% accurate though as it's typically a one time scrape from Amazon and it won't get updated if that date changes.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Haven't read Ocultos but did read Totem and Castaways from Laura Perez. Plus, she did the title sequence for Only Murders in the Building.It doesn't look like the English translation of Heartbreak Hotel comes out until September.
It's not this one Paul?https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
There are 2 Fantagraphic/English versions listed. If it's not one of those and you have the info from the one you read, I can add it. I'm a GR librarian. Just send me a message with the info or a Amazon link or the like if it's all on another webpage and it just needs to be scraped into GR. I'm constantly fixing the graphic novels on GR. They get screwed up all the time from their imports from Amazon.
Today's trip to the LCS.Secret Six #4
Storm #9
The World to Come #1 <-- A continuation of Priest's Marvel Knights Black Panther run with Joe Quesada on art.
Imperial #1 <-- Marvel's summer event from Jonathan Hickman
The Sixth Gun: Road to the Six #0
Ghost Rider Vs Galactus #1
Blade Forger #3
Thunderbolts: Lost #3
Immortal Thor #24
X-Men #17
Absolute Green Lantern #3
Absolute Superman #8
Birds of Prey #22
Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #1
Ultimate Wolverine #6
Justice League Vs Godzilla Vs Kong 2 #1
I've read both Djuna and Mythmakers and thought Mythmakers was better. Mythmakers is not a straight up comic. There are large sections of prose interspersed throughout it.I did not like Return to Eden at all even though I typically like Paco Roca.
Yeah I don't know that Blue Fox ever puts out collections. I had plenty of borrows at the end of the month so I got out all 4 of them and read it in singles.
Last week's adventures in comics.Gatchaman: Only One Earth ★★★
Eh, Joe and Ken get trapped underground by a natural disaster. It's not the best story. The art's OK. To be honest, I'd rather have had Edwards draw this rather than write it.
From the DC Vault: Death in the Family; Robin Lives! ★★
I thought this was an interesting idea but poor execution. Jason lives... a very boring life while he tries to cope with the trauma of Joker almost beating him to death. Then there's the last issue where this goes off the rails in the worst way. I mean, come on. You can do better than that DeMatteis. I think we were better off not knowing what would happen if Jason Todd had lived in the 80s. What we got was much cooler.
Predator versus Black Panther ★★★
It was alright. Some Predators come to Wakanda to try and take vibranium. Random death ensues. This looks like it's on an alternate earth as the Falcon shows up but has never heard of Wakanda before.
Noblesse, Vol. 3 ★★
I think there's a lot that gets lost when this is translated from the web to the page. All of the art looks like it's floating in random boxes in space and it's really difficult to figure out what order to read the panels in. Then there are zero backgrounds in each of the panels so it just feels like random figures floating around and it just breaks any kind of flow for sequential art. The gist is there's a shadowy organization with no name that's making monsters and on the other side is Dr. Frankenstein and his thrall plus some kids who definitely take a back seat in this volume.
I Am Iron Man ★★★★
I thought this was fun. It's five untold Iron Man stories set throughout his long history in honor of his 60th anniversary. Cool art and stories.
Decade: A Dark Horse Short Story Collection ★★★★
Some of Dark Horse's top creators return to celebrate a decade of short stories over there. It's kind of amazing how many of these they no longer have the rights to after publishing their comics for over 20 years. There are comics featuring Concrete, Black Cross, Trekker, Godzilla, Aliens, Nexus, The Mask, Martha Washington, Predator, Grendel, Sin City and Ghost. With creators involved like Frank Miller, Dave Gibbons, Matt Wagner, Doug Mahnke, Steve Rude, Paul Chadwick and more. It's good stuff if you can still find it.
Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 1: Gifted ★★★★★
Still one of my favorite X-Men runs. Whedon nails the dialogue. I love that this is where Kitty and Emma Frost became frenemies. Then you've got all the friction between Cyclops and Wolverine over Jean. Mix in John Cassaday at the top of his game. This go around did make me verklempt that we will never see any more of Cassaday's pages. He was such a terrific artist. And the return of one of my favorite X-Men after being gone for a decade. Just an all around top notch X-Men book.
Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 2: Dangerous ★★★★★
I still think Danger was a really cool idea. The Danger Room that's been around for 30 years has actually been sentient and is tortured by its directives? That's pretty badass. Everything about this arc is just terrific, particularly John Cassaday's art. Whedon certainly has his issues but writing fantastic scripts isn't one of them.
Cthulhu is Hard to Spell, Volume 1 ★★
Fragments of stories about people meeting elder gods. I wish these were longer and more fleshed out. There's not much here to hang your hat on.
Gatchaman: The Solo Adventures Vol. 1 ★★★
Three solo adventures featuring Ken, Jun and Ryu. Ken gets involved in an underground fight club. Jun goes after a motorcycle gang. While Ryu tackles one of Galactor's kaiju. They're all OK.
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight - The Kryptonian Age ★★★
A solid successor to Gotham by Gaslight. This is not a Batman story though, it's a DC universe or Justice League story. These 6 issues are entirely buildup. Calling this the Kryptonian Age, I expected a confrontation with Superman but he doesn't even show up until the fifth issue. It's got a lot of ominous overtones to it reminding me more of The Doom That Came to Gotham. I really like how Wonder Woman was reinterpreted with the Skartaris angle. We'll see how this sticks the landing in volume 2.
Ultraman, Vol. 1: The Rise of Ultraman ★★★
Better than I expected. Ultraman was never really big here in the U.S. It never crossed over like Power Rangers did. But who better to write Ultraman than the writer of Power Rangers and his own Japanese inspired comics in the Radiant Black stuff, Kyle Higgins. I thought he and Mat Groom did a solid job of updating this and giving it a solid footing.
Ultraman, Vol. 2: The Trials of Ultraman ★★★
Surprisingly solid. A comic about Ultraman sounds dumb but putting it in the hands of the Massive-verse and Power Rangers people makes it work. Ultraman and the USP are public now. Yet a large portion of the population think it's a hoax, especially when some rich guy creates fake kaiju. The art's good. The story is fine. What's not to like?
Ultraman, Vol. 3: The Mystery of Ultraseven ★★★
Ultraman has been stolen from Shin and now he's seeing visions from a lost Ultraman. Plus, the evil director operating behind the scenes is brought to light. There's some good stuff here.
The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos Volume 2 ★★★
Volume 2 loses steam as it struggles to find a direction. Some of Tynion's recent stuff is just looking to get to a point. This is one of those. Thankfully, the characters are still interesting and Goodheart's art is very good.
Outsiders 2: Never the End ★★★
A cool start with an OK landing. The stuff with the Drummer and how she tied into Planetary was interesting. Then it kind of all turned into an unclear muddle because DC didn't want anything that would cause definitive changes. A bit of a disappointment after those first 6 issues actually.
Captain America, Vol. 3: Broxton Rising ★★
You know, I was all excited about Straczynski returning to Marvel when this was first announced. I guess you need to be careful what you wish for. This is not very good. Straczynski wraps up this whole life and death thing he's been doing without really giving us any kind of resolution. It all just kinds of floats away. Then he must have been really upset that Donny Cates destroyed Broxton, OK during his Thor run because this turns into a Thor story for the last 3 issues with Captain America and Spider-Man in tow where he works his best to wish the God of Hammers story away completely.
Will Eisner: A Comics Biography ★★★★★
It makes complete sense to give the creator of the graphic novel, a graphic novel biography. I really enjoyed this one. It mainly focuses on his younger years from childhood up to running his own publishing company and then syndicating The Spirit before World War II. The rest of his life is still covered, just not in the same depth. Anyway, I thought this was really informative and brings one of our most historic comics creators to light. Keep these biographies coming NBM!
The Spectacular Spider-Men Vol. 2: Elementary ★★★
The first 2 issues are really the end of the first arc about the Arcadium. Then the last 3 issues are all of the victims of that arc meeting to deal with the trauma of being trapped in their dream worlds. It's all fine, could do with some more excitement in those last 3 issues. Also can't these trades match up with the arcs?
The Spectacular Spider-Men Vol. 3: Strange Love ★★★
I mean, I can see why this was cancelled. It's a bit directionless and low stakes. There's also way too many characters as everyone that comes to this coffee place seems to get time in the comic. Could have been pretty good if it had some stronger plots.
Venom, Vol. 5: Predestination ★★★
There is just way too many things going on in this. You've got Venom teaming up with Toxin and something going on with Alchemax. Then you've got this Flexo character from 1942. Finally Eddie Brock who is now Bedlam floating through time with Dr. Doom and Kang. It's too much. There's no clear arc with these 4 issues. It's just hunt and peck with Al Ewing's randomness.
West Coast Avengers Vol. 1: The Gospel of Ultron ★★★
This is a new take on a dysfunctional group of Avengers. Iron Man is back in his iconic Silver Centurion version of his armor from the 80s. Ultron has joined the team and another version has started a cult. I'm not real sure how that works when Ultron destroyed a whole country back in the Kurt Busiek/George Perez days. War Machine and Spider-Woman are also on the team. So is Firestar and she's a mess after the Krakoa era of the X-Men. There's a 6th Avengers Blue Bolt who is on a work release program from prison. It's interesting, just not perfect. Danny Kim's art is heavily manga influenced with almost no backgrounds. I really hate that trend in comics.
Lunar Room ★★★
It's a supernatural crime book with werewolves, vampires, etc. all shaking each other down to chase after a MacGuffin. Unfortunately, we don't get a complete story here and it's been 4 years so I don't think we'll see any more, even with the coming soon tease at the end.
Drifters Omnibus Volume 1 ★★★
Historical figures get sucked into a fantasy world where elves and dwarves have been subjugated by Hitler. It's a crazy scenario with terrific art by the creator of Hellsing. The writing isn't as good as the art though and Hirano has a dumb predilection with breasts that keeps coming up. Every once in a while it feels like a 12 year old boy is writing the book and just points over at a woman and says "Boobs" and giggles.
System Error ★★★★★
Discovered this as a Hoopla bonus borrow. This review is for all four issues since I don't think it was ever collected. It's quite delightful. It's about a robot that wakes up in a long deserted London and is trying to determine what has happened, along the way he makes other robot friends and enemies. I'm not familiar with Chapman but I loved the art and story here. I hope he goes on to make more comics.
The last 2 weeks of trips to my LCS.Defenders of the Earth #7
Absolute Martian Manhunter #3
Predator Versus Spider-Man #2
Deadpool / Wolverine #5
Absolute Wonder Woman #8
Avengers #26
Batman #160
Feral #13
GI Joe #7
Hrnsby and Halo #7
Hyde Street #6
Justice League Unlimited #7
Ultimate Spider-Man #17
Uncanny X-Men #15
Void Rivals #19
Giant-Size X-Men #1 <-- First of 5 one shots for the anniversary of Giant-Size X-Men #1
Sleep #1 <-- New comic from Zander Cannon
Hulk and Dr. Strange #1
Absolute Flash #3
World's Finest #39
Detective Comics #1097
Exceptional X-Men #9
Incredible Hulk #25
Redcoat #12
Ultimates #12
Superman Unlimited #1 <-- New Superman comic by Dan Slott and Rafael Albuquerque
Last week's adventures in comics.The Kids ★★
This was kind of stupid to be honest. One night infants grow instantly into adults and start hurting people because they don't know their own strength, I guess. For some reason, this neighborhood seems to have 6 billion infants in it that have turned to adults too. I know of only one in our immediate part of the neighborhood. We probably wouldn't even know anything happened if this occurred in our neighborhood. The coloring made it really difficult to tell what was happening in places.
Supermassive Volume 1: A Massive-Verse Book ★★★
The first three crossovers in the Massive-verse. Be forewarned, these get timey-wimey with multiple universes and timelines. It also helps if you read all of the comics in order and you basically need a roadmap to do that. There's basically a year's worth of each comic between each of these annuals.
She-Hulk, Vol. 3: Girl Can't Help It ★★★★
This may be the breeziest comic you ever read. It's also a lot of fun. Jen is having relationship issues now that she and Jack of Hearts are limited in how they can physically interact. Along comes the Scoundrel to flirt with her while he's stealing from places she's trying to protect. There's not a lot of substance here but I had a lot of fun with it. The book club story for the 175th anniversary issue was a real highlight. Just delightful.
Piecemeal ★★
Someone needs to take Szymon Kudranski's black crayons away. His artwork is always so dark, I can't tell what's happening and that occurs here. A teen finds a brain in a jar in a haunted house and his friends begin to die. That's about the last I could figure out of this story that seemed to start with a solid black page and then carve out minor other dark colors from there.
Drifters Volume 1 ★★★
The next manga from the creator of Hellsing. There's not many details on what is actually happening in this first volume. A warrior from feudal Japan somehow gets transported to a fantasy realm, where you fight either on the side of Drifters or Ends. It's a decent setup. We'll see where this heads.
Drifters Volume 2 ★★★
Drifters seems to be moving along quicker than Hellsing did. Hirano does seem to have a fixation on Hitler as it's hinted at that he's the big bad behind everything here too. I hope that's a red herring. Anyway, historical people from the real world wind up in this fantasy world where everyone is at war. We fixate on these 3 Drifters who are rising the elves up in rebellion.
Drifters Volume 3 ★★★
The art is really good, the story is OK. Hirano's obsession with dumb boob jokes drives me nuts. They are so out of place and unwarranted too. It makes it feel like a 12 year old boy is writing this. I am looking forward to the mechanics of what's going on here with this room that portals historical figures to this fantasy realm. I really hope Hirano can wrap this up properly with only 3 volumes left. I'm used to mangas going on for years.
X-Factor by Mark Russell Vol. 2: Know Your Enemy ★★
This kind of feels like the epitome of a nothing comic. I honestly expected a lot more from Mark Russell than the weak sauce we got. It's not bad, but it's not good either. It's just nothing.
Freddie The Fix ★★★★
I really liked this one and want to see more of this Ninth Circle entry. Freddie the Fix is a fixer from England working in Los Angeles. When a werewolf gets out of control and kills his sex partner, Freddie comes in to make sure it never actually happened. Later that guy he gets sent on a case, one that could get him killed. It's good stuff. Mike Perkins's art fits well with the subject matter.
Crocodile Black ★★★★
A dark story about a kid who goes off his meds and spirals into mental illness and getting in with the wrong crowd very quickly. He keeps seeing this crocodile while reading the journals of an Iraq war vet and spiraling further and further out of control. Don't expect a happy ending with this one.
Nacelleverse Vol. 1: Biker Mice from Mars & RoboForce ★★
I'm not the target audience for this. I have no nostalgia for the properties in this. I was a bit too old for these cartoons. In fact I'd never ever heard of RoboForce and only knew Biker Mice from Mars was a cartoon. This was all some pretty bland sauce here though. These did feel like inoffensive cartoon episodes. There just wasn't much in either story to peak my interest. Dynamite and Mad Cave have both done a better job of furthering their comics based on cartoons.
Johnny Geronimo: Art of Darkness ★★★
Native American crime fiction as a detective on a reservation investigates a series of murders. It's not bad. The lettering is place incorrectly and the font is too small but otherwise this was decent.
Tales of Mother F. Goose ★★★
Mother Goose reimagined as crime fiction and given the R rated treatment. Jack Horner and Miss Muffet are police detectives investigating the murder of Georgie Porgy. It's not bad.
AfterDark ★★★
Four short horror tales. My favorite was Cullen Bunn's tale of last love as a man whose wife has died and he is taking her remains on all the trips they had over the years. The Black Eyed Kids and Jim Starlin generic apocalyptic story didn't do much for me. The last story was a little precursor to the Tales of Mather F. Grimm one shot Tieri and Eisma put out about a serial killer that Detective Muffet of Little Miss Muffet fame tangles with.
The Best American Comics 2010 ★★★★★
One of the stronger years for this series. Gaiman clearly took the message and ran with it. One of the stranger Marvel comics made the cut with Omega the Unknown. Peter Kuper, Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel, David Mazzecchelli, the Hernandez Brothers, Chris Ware, Derf, Robert Krumb, Peter Bagge, Fred Chao, Michael Cho and Bryan Lee O'Malley all made it into this with really good stories. The other thing I noticed in this volume is that I didn't have to skip any stories for poor lettering and I think that was a first.
Roihu ★
Twelve short stories that honestly aren't very good. Not sure if something was lost in translation or if they just didn't make much sense in the first place.
Summer Shadows ★★★★
This was kind of cool. The Talented Mr. Ripley meets Dracula seems very apt. A twenty-something boy heads to Greece after his ex-boyfriend. There's a yacht offshore where people go to party with the rich and some don't come back. It's a slow burn of a vampire story that I dug.
Evil-ish ★★★
A young nonbinary kid wants to be evil and idolizes the Brigade of Shade, an evil group that lives in a castle in this fantasy town. But when they get what they want, will they really be the kind of evil that it takes to be in the Brigade of Shade or did they just think it would look cool?
Get Fury ★★★
Garth Ennis returns to write another Punisher in Vietnam tale. This one has Frank Castle going behind enemy lines to get Nick Fury out after he's been captured by the Viet Cong and sent to the Hanoi Hilton. It's appropriately violent given that's it's a Max book. The story is needlessly complicated though and told third hand in parts, given it a told, not shown feeling.
She-Hulk, Vol. 4: Jen-Sational ★★★
This book is entertaining enough but, good lord, does it lack any kind of substance or storytelling. It's the exact same story that Rowell started with. She-Hulk's romance with the Jack of Hearts. It's cute but it's all just wheel-spinning while he doesn't do anything and She-Hulk vaguely does lawyerly things. No one will even notice the day this stops appearing on the new release wall at the comic book store. It more than likely already has.
The Best American Comics 2013 ★★★★
I've already read a bunch of these at this point but it's still nice to revisit some of these. Terry Moore is always at the top of my reading list even though he's popular enough to not need to be in here. Still Rachel Rising was a terrific series. Then you've got Alison Bechdel, Craig Thompson Colleen Doran, Even Dorkin, Jill Thompson, Faith Erin Hicks, Derf Backderf and Kate Beaton to name a few. Check this out and then check out their books.
Hellsing, Vol. 10 ★★
If your idea of a good comic is just nonstop endless ultraviolence with blood splattered everywhere, this may be the book for you. However, if you're looking for an actual plot give this a pass. The art is good, it could have been half as long if you took out all of the pointless panels of splatter effects though. And it's so spread out, I couldn't really follow what plot there is at all other than good guys win. Hirano's Drifters is much better at this point.
I ended up reading Johnny Geronimo: Art of Darkness. It's a crime noir set on a reservation written and illustrated by Native Americans and published by the University of New Mexico Press back in March.
I typically write Hoopla and let them know when issues are missing because it grates on me too. If it helps the vol. 2 trade comes out in a few weeks.
Last week's adventures in comics continued. Sorry I read a LOT.The Lemonade War: The Graphic Novel ★★
A graphic novel adaptation of the popular book series. It's written for really young readers, under 10. Kids in that demo may enjoy it but anyone older is going to say that this is written for babies. I found the writing pretty juvenile even though the practical math involved was presented in a way that while the math itself isn't too advanced, the presentation was. It was an odd dichotomy. Younger kids really into math will probably enjoy this, others not so much.
The Best American Comics 2009 ★★
I'm surprised at how poor the 2009 volume was. I thought it'd be great given the creators involved. Plus Charles Burns edited it and I love his comics. The best thing in here was Jason Lutes's Berlin and I'd already read it all the way through. I think part of it may have been there were a lot of excerpts in this one and it's hard to pull my interest when you just get 10 pages out of the middle of an entire graphic novel. Fuzz and Pluck in Splitsville did seem interesting. I'll see if I can find that one.
Wolverine, Vol. 1: In the Bones ★★★
Actually a promising start to this new Wolverine series. He's running around in the wilderness on his own, befriends a kid who has been turned into a Wendigo and then there's something taking over people with admantium over. Martin Coccolo's art is really good. I do wish he'd draw more backgrounds and less speed lines though. Time wise, this seems to be taking place right before the From the Ashes era of the other X-Men books which is a bit of an odd choice.
Call Me Emma: One Chinese Girl Finds Her Way in America ★★★
A memoir of a Chinese family immigrating to New York when the author is in high school. It's about how she and her family struggles and it's not like how it is in the movies. There's no real resolution though and it felt like it left me hanging some. She just finished high school and that's about it. I would like to see more about how she came to terms with the differences and went on with her life.
The Lighthouse ★★★
Francisco, a young soldier is fleeing after coming down on the losing side of the Spanish Civil War. He's injured and rescued by an eccentric lighthouse keeper. It's a small story about the power of dreams as the two of them rebuild a boat to one day navigate to a nearby island. The story is only around 50 pages, go read the rest of it yourself. The essay about the foundations of the story was good as well.
Lumine Volume Three ★★
I keep hoping this series will get better. Plenty of other people like it. I feel like it moves at a snail's pace. It's 340 pages and hardly anything happens. The art is pretty good but things definitely get lost in the transformation from webcomic to actual comic with the panel construction. The art doesn't flow from panel to panel. The panels just feel like they are floating in space and not telling a story. Then there's the fight sequences. The last one goes on for about 100 pages and I couldn't be more bored with it. It's just random panels of two wolves fighting one another. The majority are of just the two of them locked up together rolling around. There's no sense of how it's going for either one. I find myself just flipping through those pages as fast as I can because they are completely uninteresting. Kind of like this series as a whole.
NYX, Vol. 1 ★★★
When the From the Ashes X-books were announced, this one instantly got my vote for first to be cancelled. Turns out it was just one of many to get the ax. It's actually not bad. It is unfocused though. It's about 5 young mutants living in New York, Ms. Marvel, Sophie Cuckoo, Anole, Prodigy and Laura Kinney. It's more about them living their lives more than anything else. One thing it gets really right is using the background of New York to bring the book to life. There were several times that I was like "Oh yeah, I've been there." It was really nice to look at a book and not have the backgrounds just be speed lines and other nonsense because artists didn't have time to draw them.
Phoenix, Vol. 1: Orbital Resonance ★★★
When this book was announced I expected a quickly cancelled book, especially when half of the From the Ashes books were axed at 10 issues. Jean Grey in her own series and set in space? Meh. But this wasn't half bad. Jean is still a bit flat as a character. I did like how she's going around saving stars and the like instead of consuming them when she was Dark Phoenix, fully empracing her powers in a positive way. The stories are a bit quick.
Miracolo's art is interesting. There's a distinct lack of backgrounds but it's well hidden by having most of this in space where it can be filled with stars and comets so it doesn't feel like everyone is just floating in a void.
She-Hulk, Vol. 2: Jen of Hearts ★★★
Not bad. Maybe needs to pick a lane between being a rom-com comic or a superhero one. The breaking of the fourth wall seemed out of place, especially since it came out of nowhere and didn't amount to anything either. (Yes, I'm well aware that was a John Byrne thing as well with this character.) Seems to be trying real hard to be a breezy read and it succeeds so that this doesn't really stick with you.
The Best American Comics 2017 ★★
A down year for a great series. I don't know why you'd put that ominous 1984 on the cover though if this isn't going to be a bunch of comics about government intrusion and overreach. The highlights here were excerpts from Ed Piskor's "Hip Hop Family Tree", Joe Sacco's "Rent Crisis" and Ethan Persoff and Scott Marshall's look at one of the founders of the Village Voice, "John Wilcock New York Years". There were also a bunch of comics with illegible lettering and those get immediately skipped over. If you give me eye strain, you are not worth my time.
The Other History of the DC Universe ★★
This was a cool idea with poor execution. It's an examination of marginalized heroes of the DC universe whether it be from ethnic group or sexual orientation. This is not a comic book. It's illustrated prose. It's long passages of text with a drawing or two on each page. The main problem though is that it's boring, so boring. It just drones on and on. Each issue takes about an hour to read. The art is really bland. Camuncoli only does the layouts and it doesn't look anything like his art. If anything, it looks like DC cut out old panels from various comics from the last 50 years and used those for the art. The one thing I would have loved to see come out of this is a bibliography of stories they pulled from for each issue. I'd love to go back and read all of the individual stories cherry picked for each issue. I'm sure they would be a lot better than actually reading this bland, boring read.
Last week's adventures in comics..Face Meat ★★★
Some vintage horror from 1960s Japan. These stories were originally printed in men's magazines and come complete with the ads, thankfully untranslated. It's basically Tales from the Crypt with boobs.
Futures End: Five Years Later Omnibus ★★★
41 issues of what may come in 5 years for the third anniversary of the New 52. This would have worked better if it had all told one coherent story. Instead it's just random stories of what could happen but you know never will. Hell, the New 52 itself didn't even make it 5 more years. Most of the bigtime writers skipped this month even leaving it to the lesser guys and it shows. I am tempted to go back and reread the Futures End comic to see if any of it let into these. I honestly don't remember anything but the Batman Beyond stuff from that comic.
The Masked Macher ★★
This is not very good. It's also just weird. It's about a buffoonish actor in the thirties who becomes a wrestler. There he meets other wrestlers, including a woman posing as a man so she can wrestle, a talking bear addicted to drugs and Joe Louis. The book also ends on a cliffhanger and I'd be surprised if this gets another volume. The art is really poor and basic.
Sumo ★★★
This isn't bad, but it's way too short. It's about a washed out football player who goes to Japan to become a sumo wrestler after a bad breakup. I do feel like Pham left a lot on the table when it comes to story.
X'ed Out ★★★★
Like everything else from Charles Burns, this is strange and surreal. We have one story with Nitnit (Tintin spelled backwards) is a warped Alice in Wonderland type world with lizard people working underground and special breeder women that seem to be some kind of queen that will lay eggs or something. (Who knows where that's all headed?) Then we get Doug, an art school kid attracted to a broken photography student with a violent boyfriend that we never actually see. There's a lot hinted at of things to come and Burns's commix tend to carry a sense of dread.
I'm a big fan of Burns's art. A bunch of his random mutants have covered my fridge for the last 30 years. (You used to find cool stuff in Previews in the 90s.) The full color art is really good. This is part of the Last Look trilogy that's not well advertised. It goes X'ed Out -> The Hive -> Sugar Skull.
The Hive ★★★★
This is cool. It's got that typical Charles Burns's nightmarish quality to it as we switch back and forth between Doug talking about his relationship and this weird freakish world with lizard people and breeder women.
Sugar Skull ★★★
A decent but not great conclusion to the Last Look trilogy. (view spoiler) All in all, we see how much the book is like real life, with people ducking their issues. There's some William S. Burroughs stuff in there too, hinted at by his picture in one of the panels. I'm not digging into that though. I'll leave that for those who care to discover.
New X-Men Modern Era Epic Collection, Vol. 1: E Is For Extinction ★★★★★
I still remember when these came out. The X-Men had been languishing for a decade, driven by events and their own popularity even when the stories weren't all that great. Then Grant Morrison comes along and injects all of the weird, snarky, smart writing you could handle. It reads a lot like one of his Vertigo books, just with mutants. We get things like Professor X's psychic twin that he absorbed before birth, wild sentinels, secondary mutations, an impossible pasties costume for the White Queen, humans that think they can climb the evolutionary by stealing mutant organs and a guy with a star for a face. It's a lot of heady stuff. It all works amazingly even with some crap art in there from Igor Kordey. Frank Quitely's art isn't for everyone either although I think it fits here pretty well.
BTW, if you're wondering what the difference is between the Complete Collection and the Modern Era Collection, for the New X-Men there isn't one. Marvel just slapped a new cover on a bunch of the Complete Collection editions and called it a day.
X-Manhunt ★★
The X-books have been pretty good in the From the Ashes era. Well at least until now. This was just a bloated attempt to heighten sales for a bunch of books that are already canceled as of issue #10. At least, that's all I can figure out that's what it is because there's not much story. Professor X escapes from Graymalken so he can go help his daughter in space. Each issue of the crossover, he lies to and pisses off another group of mutants. Professor X has become such a dick that I'm glad he's leaving Earth and I hope he never comes back. Then you get to the end and find out the whole thing is just a teaser for Hickman's Imperium event which makes me just want to ignore it. This is exhibit A in how not to do a crossover.
Batman: Dark Age ★★★★
Mark Russell and the Allreds return to give us a companion piece to Superman: Space Age. You've got the same thing as that book going on with Bruce Wayne growing up in the 60s through the 80s, but retelling his story as an old man in 2030. Things take a pretty different turn for Bruce and how he becomes Batman. I quite liked it. I really loved the ending, especially if you read Space Age first. The Allreds art is as gorgeous as always. I'd buy a grocery list from them if Mike drew it and Laura colored it.
X-Force By Geoffrey Thorne Vol. 2: The Solution ★★
This just wasn't good. You can tell Thorne had to squish all his plans for the book into the last few issues and then the next to last issue was a crossover so he lost control over that as well. So many things in this make no sense or are unexplained, like the whole deal with "Tank". Shouldn't have even bothered to explain it, because I was just left with "Huh?" when they did. I'm sure the 2nd arc in all of these canceled X-books are going to be bad. Issue #10 was also legacy #300 so there's a crap bonus story that takes place around X-Force #25 of the original run.
Mugshots ★★★★
A tight crime thriller about a criminal coming back to Brighton when his niece goes missing. There he has to weave in and out from the crime lord he crossed and the Albanians trying to move in and take over t find her. Good stuff right out of a Guy Ritchie film. I like the stylized art from Chris Matthews too.
Big Baby ★★★★
A set of Burns's early comics from the 80s featuring Big Baby who is actually just a weird looking kid. The comic collects all of the Big Baby stories. All of stem from your typical child's imagination getting away from them until parts of the stories do turn out to be real. One of the stories had the kid going to camp. Another one is about the neighbor next door digging a pool while this kid keeps seeing mutants climbing out of the pool at night. In the third story, the kid sees a monster movie and thinks aliens are really attacking his babysitter after seeing a hickey on her. The book is only 100 pages and well worth a read, especially if you are looking to explore some alternative comix.
Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures Phase III Volume 3 ★★★
These are fine. I feel my interest waning though in what has become a very bland series with the High Republic era. It started off so strong too.
Void Rivals Volume 3: The Key to Vector Theta ★★★★
Interesting. We finally get to see how this book fits in with Cybertron and the Transformers. We've also got Cobra-La floating around in a meatship and it actually works pretty well. You can see through here how Kirkman is setting things up to all come to a head in a big crossover. I wonder how far out that is? After reading the letters page in issue #18, Lorenzo is leaving the book at the end of this arc and being replaced by Conor Hughes.
It Happened On Hyde Street: Devour ★★★
This is alright. It's about 3 generations of women who struggle with their weight and the crazy way they end up losing it. It seems drug out for the amount of story it contained.
Paranoid Gardens ★★★
Gerard Way returns to comics for what would have been a Vertigo comic back in the day. It's about an elder care facility that could have been in Top Ten with all kinds of aliens and mutants in it. There's a secret plot to turn it over to a wannabe Mickey Mouse in exchange for immortality. I'd have to like to see more of the backstory here explored but it's fine. I do like Chris Weston's detailed art. I feel like we don't get enough of that kind of thing these days with the influx of manga influenced artists who don't bother with backgrounds at all.
Today's trip to the LCS.Thundercats: Lost #2
One World Under Doom #4
Flash Gordon #9
Captain Planet and the Planeteers #1
Absolute Batman #8
Geiger #14
Immortal Thor #23
Spectacular Spider-Men #15
Transformers #20
Ultimate Black Panther #16
Uncanny X-Men #14
X-Factor #10
Space Ghost #12
Godzilla Vs X-Men #1
Gatchaman: Only One Earth #4
Aquaman #5
Ultimate X-Men #15
Last week's adventures in comics, Free Comic Book Day edition.FCBD: Speed Racer #0 ★★★
I'll admit, this is one I was in the bag for as soon as I knew it existed. Speed Racer was my jam as a kid and I'd seek out the reruns. Then to find out David Pepose and Mark Russell were writing Speed Racer and Racer X, 2 of my favorite writers these days? I put them both on my pull list at my comic book shop before I even left on FCBD Saturday.
FCBD: Post Malone's Big Rig #1 ★★★
Yes, Post Malone wrote a comic book. And it's not bad. It's about demons plaguing a village in the middle ages when all of a sudden a big rig flies out of a meteor and starts running down the demons. Nathan Gooden drew it so it looks great. I hate to say it but I may have to check this out.
FCBD: Amazing Spider-Man / Ultimate Universe ★★★
We get a little story from Joe Kelly's new Amazing Spider-Man run. Then a teaser into Miles's new mini series where he heads to the new Ultimate universe with Incursion. Then there's a little teaser for a future crossover between Spider-Man, Venom and Carnage now that Eddie Brock is Carnage.
FCBD: Mark Spears Monsters #0 ★★★
I may need to check the rest of this series out. It's about an evil clown (The only kind of clown that exists as far as I'm concerned.) who is trying to lure a child into the woods in order to eat her.
FCBD: Marvel’s Voices #1 ★★★
The lead story about Ironheart is the only new story in this. The other 3 aren't even complete stories. They are only the first few pages when a little blurb that they are continued in the original issue. The Ironheart story is Just OK. The other 3 are 6 page snippets so I'd just go read those other one-shots instead so you can read it all. I feel like Marvel dropped the ball here by making most of it partial reprints.
FCBD: Star Wars #1 ★★★
Three stories teasing what's going on in the new Star Wars books that just relaunched this year. The main Star Wars title now takes place after Return of the Jedi. Legacy of Vader is a Kylo Ren title taking place before The Force Awakens. Jedi Knights takes place long before The Phantom Menace. These are a little more promising because it doesn't seem like Marvel can make these nonstop crossovers like the Empire era comics tended to be. Good thing FCBD is right before May the Fourth so I could read it then.
FCBD: Transformers: Worst Bot Ever ★★★★
The Transformers story was surprisingly good. It's a kid's comic (but maybe more all-ages) about the Decepticon Ballpoint. He's an unreliable narrator that can transform into a pen and it's all pretty funny. The 2nd story was for Family Force V which was weird because it's just a blatant Power Rangers ripoff, so much so that I'm surprised Saban isn't suing them over it.
FCBD: Godzilla – The New Heroes #1 ★★
IDW is starting up a new shared universe for Godzilla. That part sounded good since none of these comics really lined up in the past. None of these three books really thrilled me though.
FCBD: IDW Dark – Find Your New Fear #1 ★★★
A new Beneath the Trees series? I'm definitely in on that. The first one was terrific. If you didn't read the original, it's basically Richard Scarry with serial killers. Then Steve Niles has pawned off his 30 Days of Night series on Rodney Barnes. His Killadelphia series also dealt with vampires and it's good but this didn't enthrall me. Then there are excerpts from two one-shots, apparently this is a new initiative from IDW who I thought had abandoned all nonlicensed comics.
FCBD: I Hate Fairyland – Once Upon a Time Special ★★★★★
Revisit the last 10 years of I Hate Fairyland while getting a glimpse of things to come. Fans of this book will be happy to see this because the series returns with episode #41 in June!
FCBD: ThunderCats / The Powerpuff Girls #0 ★★★★
This should be dumb as hell, but I liked it. And apparently there's more so I'm going to have to pick up the rest of this crossover now, dammit.
FCBD: Power Rangers / VR Troopers #1 ★★
I'll start by saying, I'm not really into the Power Rangers that much. I was too old when they originally became a thing. But who better to get to draw a story about the dog that hangs with this group of Power Rangers than Trish Forstner, the artist behind Stray Dogs. Still, this isn't going to convince to pick up a Power Rangers comic.
FCBD: EC Comics Presents Blood Type #0 ★★★★
Nothing new here but still some fun, dark stories. Oni Press got the EC license last year and has been publishing these dark, macabre stories from some great creators. These are some fun anthologies in the Tales from the Crypt vein.
FCBD: Red 5 Comic Adventures #1 ★★★
This was fine. It's 3 entries into new Red 5 comics. The first is Snow Monkey. It's standard superhero fare about a teenage martial artists who inherits the abilities of her ancestors.
Something Beyond the Petrichor is about a girl and her stuffed animal after acid rain destroys most everything.
Enigmatown is a cool premise that was kind of boring. It's about a real boy who is turned into a doll, kind of the opposite of Pinocchio.
FCBD: The Phantom #0 ★★
This was fine. Nothing original though. Just the Phantom in the jungle. This story has him going after some poachers. The Phantom has never really done much for me. That trend continues.
FCBD: Diablo – Dawn of Hatred #1 ★
I haven't played Diablo in a very long time, since Diablo III so I can't speak into how this uses the latest expansion that it pulls its name from. I can tell you that this story doesn't really work on its own. I could barely tell the characters apart and wasn't at all interested in what was going on here.
FCBD: Conan – Scourge of the Serpent #1 ★★
Titan's version of Conan hasn't done much for me even though it's still Jim Zub writing it. The lead story is about a seventeen year old Conan becoming a thief. He's real stealthy in his loin cloth. Then there's this odd thing Zub is doing to try and crossover some of the other Robert E. Howard properties including a character from the 1930s. It seemed a bit dumb and forced.
FCBD: Fantastic Four / Giant-Size X-Men #1 ★★★★
The Fantastic Four story was great. Some alien kids summon them to another dimension and puts them in a pickle. The dialogue and art are great. Apparently having Humberto Ramos on art though requires a new #1 now.
The Giant-Size X-Men story was pretty bland. If you haven't heard, Ms. Marvel is traveling through time to big moments in X-Men history in 5 one shots. I may wait for these to hit MU after reading this.
There's a 3rd story written and drawn by Chip Zdarsky. It's pretty good but check it out yourself.
FCBD: Energon Universe Special 2025 #1 ★★★★
The most exciting part of this was the first appearance of Matt Tracker from M.A.S.K. in the Energon universe. I honestly didn't think they'd bother but always thought M.A.S.K. was awesome. The rest of it was just kind of OK.
FCBD: DC All In / Absolute Universe #1 ★★★
The Superman Unlimited side was better than the Absolute universe side. Superman Unlimited at least teased what's happening over in the Superman titles. The Absolute side was pure fluff.
FCBD: Critical Role/Black Hammer ★★★★
One of the better FCBD entries this year. The Critical Role story is funny. They go to dinner theater and I loved the hell out of it. The Black Hammer story is probably only going to appeal to fans of that book. I've read it all and still had problems remembering some of it.
I read some of everything, Angelina. Just read some Charles Burns comics today.
Today's trip to the comic book store.Los Monstruos #1
Absolute Green Lantern #2
Absolute Martian Manhunter #2
Absolute Superman #7
Birds of Prey #21
Gatchaman #9
Ultimate Wolverine #5
West Coast Avengers #7
X-Men #16
Secret Six #2
Secret Six #3
Justice League: The Atom Project #3
Justice League: The Atom Project #4
Justice League: The Atom Project #5
Storm #7
Storm #8
Last week's adventures in comics.X-Men, Vol. 1 ★★★★
The Krakoan age is over. Now Cyclops's band of X-Men are using a Sentinel factory in Alaska as a base. New mutants are suddenly popping up that are older, having left puberty behind long ago. The story is moving pretty slowly, especially since they are now publishing 18 issues a year. The art is pretty good, although Stegman has adopted a cartoonier style here.
Kirby's Lessons for Falling [in Love] ★★
I liked Gao's first book but this one was a miss for me. It's a queer YA romance comic about a girl who is a top rock climber. Her dad passed away when she was young and she's grown up in a tight knit church so she hasn't told anyone she's gay. When she breaks her arm, she's forced to take an elective and joins the newspaper where she is assigned to the astrology column with a quirky, punk girl. There's way too much time spent on astrology and tarot that had me completely check out of this. I also have my doubts about how accepting a Texas church would be about gay members as well.
The art looks really rushed and unfinished. I couldn't tell who was who most of the time except for Bex whose punk hair cut made it look like she had a lamb sitting on her head.
X-Men: The Manga: Remastered, Vol. 2 ★
This was just plain awful. Most of the art is terrible. The best chapters are only passable. If you're older than 7 or so, you're probably going to say this was written for babies. The dialogue and story are written so poorly. You can tell zero effort was put into this and they just wanted to push it out due to the success of the cartoon. It also ends mid-story which is annoying for an omnibus.
Saint Catherine ★★★★
This is how you write a 350 page graphic novel. I was never bored. I was always engaged and just wanted to keep on reading. It's about a twenty-something living in New York. Her mother has always guilted her about going to church and she's never missed a mass. If you know any Catholics from the Northeast, this is a very common thing. Just ask my wife. The first time she decides to skip mass to spend the day with her boyfriend, something happens and she may be possessed by a demon. I'll leave the rest of the story up to you to find out what happens.
The art is wonderful. It's got this soft and clean feel to it with subtle colors. I really enjoyed it. Now I need to see if Anna Meyer has worked on anything else.
Batman, Vol. 4: Dark Prisons ★★★
Better than the last couple of volumes, but that isn't at all difficult. The Zur-En-Arrh nonsense finally ends. I hate it so much. For some reason Vandal Savage goes from prison to police commissioner during this. It's one of the dumbest things to slip past a Batman editor's desk in a while. This finishes up with some Absolute Power tie-ins where Batman and Catwoman have to find a Mother Box. Then there's two backups, one for Harley Quinn, the other for Birds of Prey, both written by the writers of those two books. Why are they not in those collections instead? They make zero sense here.
X-Men: Raid On Graymalkin ★★★★
The two main X-Men teams meet up for the first time back in Westchester where their former home has been turned into a private mutant prison. This was better than I expected. Yes, they fight but they actually gave them a good reason for doing so. Professor X returns but not as you'd expect. I wish the 2 main artists were able to do more of the artwork but that's the kind of thing that happens when you suddenly go bi-weekly.
The Immortal Thor, Vol. 4: The Son of Thor ★★★
I gotta admit, this Thor run isn't doing much for me. The main story here is Thor fighting a bunch of old school, now second tier villains all at the instigation of Dario Agger. Then Thor's son from an alternate future comes in and he looks enough like Thor that I had problems telling them apart. I think part of the reason I'm not connecting with this is the old-timey language the Asgardians have reverted to.
Jan Bazuldua's art isn't as polished here as I've seen in the past. It's letting Matt Hollingsworth do the heavy lifting filling in the lack of details and backgrounds with his colors. I know Bazuldua can do better.
Ultimate X-Men, Vol. 1: Fears and Hates ★★★
We'll see how this goes. Momoko seems to be doing her own thing rather than setting this in the same universe as the other Ultimate books. But I'm sure it's just that this is the only one set in Asia. It's about Armor as she finds out she is a mutant. Then other girls start appearing as mutants as well. I'm not really sure where this is headed. The bad guy speaks in riddles from the shadows. I have no idea what's happening there and the way the lettering is for the character makes it extremely difficult to read.
He Lost His Keys in Space ★★
This was an exhausting read because the main character is the worst. He's the most awful person you've ever met, completely self-absorbed, being a satire of the worst of Americans. The premise is that he's been a diplomat to other planets for the last dozen years and realizes he left his house keys on one of the planets he visited. He returns to each planet and we see how badly he effed up each one, leaving his coworkers to clean up his messes. This took a while to read, just because I could only stomach 10-15 pages at a time. I get that it's satire but this was like staring at Fox News for an entire day nonstop. It's like being trapped in a barbershop. I could only do it in bits and pieces before being overwhelmed.
The Science of Ghosts ★★★★
I haven't seen Lilah Sturges's name on a comic book for awhile so when I saw this as a Hoopla Bonus Borrow I decided to check it out and I'm glad I did. It was really good. It's about a transgendered woman who is a forensic parapsychologist and used to work as a forensic psychologist for the police before she transitioned. She gets involved in a mystery of two generations of the same family who were murdered in their house and were the heirs of a firearms company. El Garing's and Alitha Martinez's black and white art is exquisite, so detailed. These days that really stands out to me with so many artists going the manga route of no backgrounds at all.
Catboy ★★★
This originally appeared as a webcomic on Vice. It's a series of strips about Olive, something of a homebody and recently graduated from art school. She wishes on a shooting star that her cat could be her roommate and Henry transforms into a cat/human hybrid. The two of them become best friends and Henry is often more cat than human, still wanting to eat birds or play in an empty box. Some of it is pretty funny like Henry ends up getting a better job than Olive and doesn't know what to do with all the money.
Storm, Vol. 1 ★★★★
I gotta say, this was much better than I expected. It's a little decompressed but cool. I'm looking forward to seeing where Eternal Storm goes.
Hellsing, Vol. 9 ★★
The art in this is excellent if you look at just a panel at a time. However as sequential art, I couldn't tell at all what was happening. It's just nonstop fighting between random people. Maybe if the whole series came out at once and I could read it straight through, it's be different. To me this read as just a bunch of random people getting dismembered and turn apart amidst swirling effects in every panel and the occasional terrible dialogue like "I will kill you until your die."
Deadly Beloved ★★★★
Ms. Tree started as a comic strip back in the early 80s, morphing into a comic that spanned 3 or 4 different publishers. They are terrific. Michael Tree is a badass private investigator whose husband also is named Michael Tree and they both work as P.I.s. If you haven't read it and enjoy comics, Titan Comics recently collected the entire run for the first time and they are excellent.
This is an updated version of that since it was written 25 years later. The concept is exactly the same. It just doesn't fit into the continuity of the comic. Ms. Tree as she prefers to be called because of the pun is relating a very personal case that has taken place over the last year to her therapist. It's good stuff.
Kingdom Come ★★★★★
I've read this several times over the years since I picked it up off the LCS shelf in single issues back in 1996. It still holds up as one of the great DC books. I still remember how shocked we were that Alex Ross was coming to DC to make a DC version of Marvels, but that's not what ended up getting made. It's this cool possible future where superhumans fight nonstop and they don't care at all about the collateral damage to normal humans. This sets up separate factions led by Superman and Batman about how to deal with the mess.
Alex Ross's art is glorious. It's so freaking good. I love all the little Easter eggs he packs into the backgrounds, especially during things like a visit to Planet Krypton (and why doesn't this place exist in real life? DC is missing a golden opportunity.) I'll find myself just staring at each panel, trying to figure out what little gems Ross has dropped in the backgrounds of a panel.
The edition I read this go around is the 20th anniversary deluxe edition and it's packed with additional goodies. Character designs and commentary from Ross from the main to the most minor characters. All of the promotional art. Toys and statues. Annotated guides to all of the Easter eggs. A list of comics that came out after Kingdom Come that reference things that could lead into that future. I can't think of anything additional I'd even want to see.
Ooh! Now I'm more interested in it.
