Chad’s Comments (group member since Mar 22, 2018)

Chad’s comments from the I Read Comic Books group.

Erin wrote: "Not liking pancakes though...how?!"

It happens. My nephew can't stand them.

The last 2 weeks trip to my LCS.

Storm #5
World's Finest #35
X-Force #7
Aquaman #4
Absolute Batman #7
Geiger #13
Incredible Hulk #24
Transformers #19
Ultimates #11
Uncanny X-Men #13
Birds of Prey #20
Absolute Superman #6
Gatchaman #8
Hornsby and Halo #6
Hyde Street #5
Immortal Thor #22
West Coast Avengers #6
X-Men #14
Ultimate X-Men #14
Absolute Green Lantern #1

Last week's adventures in comics, non-April Fool's edition.

Batman and Son ★★★★★
What a terrific beginning to Morrison's run. Teamed up with Andy Kubert, the book looks fantastic too. This is Damian's introduction. I'd forgotten how much of a psycho he is at the beginning, straight up murdering the bad guys before Batman can stop him. That's part of what makes this run so great, the journey Damian goes through over the course of the 7 years Morrison writes Batman.

I will say I straight up hated the prose issue with John Van Fleet's illustrations. Morrison's one of the best comic book writers but his prose is terribly overwritten (that's still the same these days. I tried to read Luda when it came out and it made me want to end things.). I love how he leans into the Ra's al Ghul stuff that most writers steer clear of. The Ninja Man-Bat's are badass. I'm looking forward to revisiting the rest of this run.

West of Sundown, Vol. 1: Out Beyond the Dust N' Dark ★★★
The elevator pitch is the Universal Monsters set in the Old West. It's a bit more nuanced than that though. Yes, there is a vampire, but she's not Dracula. It's just some of the archetypes. A vampire, Frankenstein's monster, a mad scientist, etc. It's solid. I found the dialogue a bit wooden and the story overly complicated at times. Hopefully volume 2 will smooth both of those things out.

West of Sundown Vol. 2: Youthful Blasphemy ★★★
For some reason, this just never lives up to the sum of its parts. I mean, a wierd Western featuring a vampiress, Frankenstein's monster and a mad scientist? And then you add in Dr. Moreau? Sign me up. But it's just OK. The plot is too convoluted. Just too much going on, making it more cumbersome to follow and enjoy.

End After End Vol. 1: At the Moment of Your Death ★★
Five issues in and I feel like it's just getting started. It's about a guy who dies and wakes up in a world of neverending battles. That's pretty much the whole story with very little explanations. There are a lot of flashbacks to his life, but they seem to go nowhere unless volume 2 turns this into some kind of Jacob's Ladder scenario. The art often feels unfinished as well. It goes down that manga road of not finishing faces or backgrounds.

Fearscape Vol. 2: A Dark Interlude ★
I guess it's appropriate that a comic about the evils of sequels stinks since it is, itself, a sequel. This was awful. It just droned on and on while I kept checking the page numbers to see how much longer I needed to suffer through this. Damn, my completist nature!

Death Hawk: The Complete Saga ★★★
Some surprisingly solid space opera. It started out in the 80's, Adventure Comics folded after 3 issues and years later all of it finally came about. Death Hawk is kind of like Indiana Jones set in space. It has a pulp feel to it along with similar twists and turns. You could do much worse than reading this.

Wonder Woman, Vol. 3: The Circle ★★★★
Part of a different era for Wonder Woman. She's lost some of her powers and working as an agent for the Department of Metahuman Affairs as Diana Prince. I like how Gail Simone hits the ground running here. All the stuff with the Amazons and the reason why Hippolyta's personal guard is in prison is all pretty cool. Then we head to space for a unique look at the Khund. Good stuff here. I love the Dodsons' art too.

Wonder Woman, Vol. 4: Ends of the Earth ★★★
Wonder Woman gets jettisoned to another world where she has to team up with Beowulf and some other obscure Bronze Age characters to fight a demon. Then the Queen of Fables comes along to make a cheesy Hollywood movie about Wonder Woman. It's all not bad, but also not Simone's best work. The art is all really good though, from Aaron Lopresti and Bernard Chang.

Wonder Woman, Vol. 5: Rise of the Olympian ★★★★
Wonder Woman gets her own version of Doomsday. It's similar not just in its threat level, but also in how vague her background is, but I guess you're not supposed to think about that. Meanwhile in the background, Zeus is up to some shenanigans that will pay off down the road as he looks to replace the Amazons. I do like how the Secret Society plays in the background of most of DC's stories in the post Final Crisis era. Aaron Lopresti's art is great.

nosferatu : sovereign of terror ★★
An old independent vampire comic from 1991 repackaged and reprinted 30 years later. Like a lot of reprints from that era of independent comics, the transfers aren't great. Neither is the story for that matter. It's about an eternal battle between Count Orlok and a cursed knight.

The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien ★★★★
I'll just start by saying I was in the bag for this book before it was even written. The Chronicles of Narnia was the first book series I became obsessed with and I still remember when I found them at the library when I was 8. Two years later I picked up The Hobbit and was immediately enthralled again. These two series were so formative on my childhood. Then to discover that the authors of both were longtime friends and colleagues? It boggles the mind. I just knew them as the two men who developed my love of fantasy from an early age.

This is not purely a graphic novel. Nor is it strictly prose. I guess you'd call it illustrated text as it has long passages of both. What it really is, is really good. If you like nonfiction and want to read about two men whose visions shaped the 20th century and beyond, this is the book for you.

What If... Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? ★★★
This is a prose novel not a graphic one. It's not bad, although I thought the ending was a little glossed over so it could be part of this larger story of America Chavez being a Watcher. It made this feel like it wasn't a complete story after the build up of this whole book.

The story itself is about what would happen if the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were separated as babies and Wanda was adopted by Peter Parker's family. It works much better than I expected. It hits most of the major bests in Spider-Man's life but now he has a sister. The story is told from her point of view as she learns how to use her powers as the Scarlet Witch while still suffering the many tragedies that occur in Peter's life over the years. After all the build up though, it felt like we just ran out of pages instead of actually ending the story.

Human Remains: The Complete Series ★★★
Huge shrimp monsters are portalling in and destroying any person with heightened emotions. This is understandably causing worldwide trauma as you have to keep calm even as you see people ripped apart right in front of you. Even though this is 8 issues there are some subplots that get dropped before they are resolved. The art isn't all that detailed, sometimes making it difficult to tell characters apart.

Superman vs. Meshi Vol. 3 ★
This quite possible may be the dumbest comic ever written. It starts off with Superman using his super Amnesia kiss to make Lois Lane forget he's Clark Kent immediately after he tells her. Then he does the same thing to Batman so they can have a second lunch. Later on, they do a version of Superman's death where the Justice League eats food from a microwave while Superman is in a coma and they talk about how great microwaved food is. This thing is so dumb. If only negative infinity stars were an option on Goodreads.

Lakota ★★
I wanted to like this but it's just not very good. It's another one of Mark Ellis's projects that was started in the 90's and not finished for 25 years. It's just not very good. It's way too busy with info dump after info dump. It is Jim Mooney's final artwork but he died before he could finish the book.

Lakota: Serpents of Aztlan ★
Unfortunately, just not at all good. This is only about a 30 page comic with the rest just being filler from looks like some very old comics. It's about a Native American hero who fights a bad guy from a rejected episode of Breaking Bad. It's nonstop infodumps and OK art. The writer lives in Ireland and always wanted to write about Native Americans and it shows in how he writes this.

Storm King Comics Dark & Twisted: Death Mask ★★★
The wife and wife creative team of Amanda Diebert and Cat Staggs team up to bring this tale of a mother's justice. When people start getting murdered in elaborate ways out of a movie, the lead detective realizes there may be more to this than just random killings. Not too shabby.

The Changeling: Volume 1 ★★★
Not bad. I don't know if I'll read the rest of it though. It's somewhat convoluted. There's 4 different types of lycans, but they aren't really lycans in the traditional sense. They all appear human except for maybe having a tale and pointed ears. There's some kind of prophecy with this main character that makes her an outcast. I didn't think it was very well explained until the end. Like I said it was OK, especially if you're into 90's manga.

Vagrant Queen, Vol. 2: A Planet Called Doom ★★★
A more complicated plot than volume 1. Had times where I was lost as to motivations but overall some solid science fiction.

One Operation Joker V1 ★★
This could have been funny. Batman falls into the vat of chemicals that made the Joker and reverts to a baby that the Joker decides to raise for "reasons". Then the Joker becomes an overwhelmed dad for the rest of the book and it drags so much. The artwork is good though.

For April Fool's Day I went back and read the Marvel Assistant Editor's Month comics. It was an odd event from back in the 80's where the editors went to Comicon and the assistant editor's took over for the month and did odd things with all the books. Some of them are really fun, John Byrne really got into it with his 3 comics. I found all of these in Marvel Unlimited. This article on CBR www.cbr.com/knowledge-waits-every-mar... has all of the issues listed including the ones not on MU like the licensed comics. There are also some issues on MU where the Assistant Editors joke was pulled if it was just replacing the letters page that month. This article has those missing pages.

Fantastic Four #262 ★★★★
John Byrne inserts himself into the Fantastic Four comic itself for Assistant Editor's Month. He asserts that he's retelling stories told to him by the Fantastic Four and he gets pulled into the trial of Reed Richards for not allowing Galactus to die. It's a cool issue. John Byrne is one of my favorite artists so there's that as well.

New Defenders #127 ★★★
Begins with a short 2 page story with Ann Nocenti having delusions of grandeur now that her boss is out of town and the Assistant Editors have taken over. Then we move onto the regular issue. I'd forgotten Iceman's parents live in Port Jefferson on Long Island which is less than 10 miles from me. The rest of the issue involves the Secret Empire and is kind of boring.

Dazzler #30 ★★★★
This one definitely wins the award for incorporating Assistant Editor's Month into the plot. Whatever Dazzler is going through isn't very good, but then she hitches a ride from editor Ralph Macchio and he takes her to Comicon while all the assistant editors run rampant back in New York. The meta nature of this wins the day.

Daredevil #202 ★★
This Assistant Editor's Month entry was pretty terrible. Basically Tarzan and his two brides come to New York and do strange things. It's all throw away content. Then in the back up story a kid dresses up like Daredevil to give a school report. It's awful.

Captain America #289 ★★★
The cover is the best part of Assistant Editor's Month. It's got an amalgamation of M.O.D.O.K. and Red Skull on it as Moskull and Bernie America saving the day. The main story is a continuation of what had been going on with Cap sent to the future in the 90s. The cover does come into play in the backup story where Cap's girlfriend, Bernie Rosenthal, fantasizes about being Captain America.

Avengers #239 ★★★
Probably the most famous of the Assistant Editor's Month comics. The Avengers go on David Letterman and get attacked. It's OK. The better part of it is probably Hawkeye showing up at Avengers mansion with his new wife, Mockingbird, in tow. And she gets to meet Hawkeye's ex, Black Widow. Yeah, Hawkeye gets around. I do like the cover and how the Avengers are all facing backwards in the corner and the cover parodies the old cover dress of DC. Mike Carlin also takes over the Letters page and it's stupid.

Amazing Spider-Man #248 ★★★★
Well, this assistant editor took Assistant Editor's Month seriously. It's too separate stories. The first is a big fight with Thunderball on Long Island. The second is the kind that pulls on your heart strings where Spider-Man visits his biggest fan.

Alpha Flight #6 ★★★★★
This issue of Alpha Flight is terrific. Not at all surprising since this is John Byrne in his prime. Snowbird is on her own and has to fight one of the old gods. The thing is the entire fight takes place in a blizzard and the panels are completely white. There are still all of the panels, dialogue, narration and even sound effects but no art. I love how Byrne plays it completely straight and doesn't let on that he just got away with not drawing 7 pages of the comic this month. A great start to Assistant Editor's Month.

Uncanny X-Men #177 ★★★★
A good issue with the X-Men getting ambushed by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. For some reason the version on Marvel Unlimited has the Assistant Editor's Month page removed. It wasn't very good anyway so that's OK.

The Thing #7 ★★★★★
My favorite of all the Assistant Editor's Month comics. This is hilarious. The Thing is getting his butt kicked by this cheesy villain, Goody Two Shoes. Then you get to page 18 and you can hear the record scratch and the pay off happens. It's so damn funny. Just genius Mr. Byrne.

Power Man and Iron Fist #101 ★★★
Meh, this was supposed to be part of Assistant Editor's Month but it's just an OK issue where Power Man and Iron Fist are taken out on the first page and Misty Knight and Colleen Wing have to track down a cure before they die.

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #86 ★★★★★
This Assistant Editor's Month issue was brilliant. Al Milgrom comes into the Marvel offices because his art pages have been rejected and then finds out Fred Hembeck is drawing it instead. If you don't know Hembeck, he drew cartoony stuff for Marvel for decades and his art is awful. So Hembeck draws all of the middle pages and they are hilariously bad with spiral knee caps and humongous eyes. The villain is The Fly and he keeps getting sidetracked by garbage. It's a really funny issue.

New Mutants #11 ★★★★
I love the original New Mutants run and this issue is no exception. The New Mutants are fighting Selene down in South America in an old Roman colony where they found Amara (Magma). Now onto the Assistant Editor's Month portion which is the whole reason I'm reviewing this individually. The letters column has been replaced with a contest to win the assistant editor's socks.

Incredible Hulk #291 ★★★
Was Ann Nocenti an assistant editor on every comic Marvel put out? She's been in at least 3 of these Assistant Editor's Month comics. In this one Bruce Banner shows up at Marvel and talks to Ann about how Thunderbolt Ross is a traitor. It's played completely straight. They also mention how Marvel just puts the heroes actual stories into comic book form. Then most of the story is a look back at Ross's history.

Thor #339 ★★★★★
Still the best run of Thor ever as far as I'm concerned. Walt Simonson just can't be beat. Even though Thor could as this is the aftermath of Beta Ray Bill beating him. It's cool. Read it if you haven't. If you're looking for the page having to do with Assistant Editor's Month it's missing from the copy on Marvel Unlimited.

Uncanny X-Men Annual #7 ★★★★
The Impossible Man shows up and goes on a scavenger hunt stealing stuff from around the world and leaving the X-Men holding the bag. They eventually wind up in the Marvel offices where it ties into Assistant Editor's month. Fun stuff.

I really liked The Adoption as well. And I've got a whole stack of Paco Raca books here from the library including The House.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Batman and Robin and Howard: Summer Breakdown ★★★
A kids book where Damian Wayne's best friend, Howard, knows Batman and Robin's secret and helps out with monitor duty. They discover the park where they play soccer at is slated to be turned into a recycling facility and realize something fishy is going on. It's a bit of a slight mystery but it's a fun enough story even if Batman is a dope.

Spider-Man: Octo-Girl, Vol. 1 ★★★
This is much better than it has a right to be. Doc Ock getting his brain stuck in the body of a 14-year-old girl sounds dumb, but this wasn't half bad. Seeing Doc Ock at the mercy of this girl as they fight over her body was kind of funny.

Quarantined ★★
An OK zombie comic. There's some strange things in it like a bank robbery out of nowhere. I hated the ending too because it wasn't really an ending. There clearly was meant to be more and this probably wasn't successful enough for that to happen. The art is suspect. Zero backgrounds and I had difficulties telling some of the characters apart.

Daredevil Epic Collection, Vol. 19: Root of Evil ★
OMG, this was awful. This was in the era when Matt Murdock faked his death and was running around in an armored costume and living as con man, Jack Battlin. The first arc by the colorist Gregory Wright was some weird thing with Daredevil in the sewers helping homeless people with some cannibals. It's beyond dumb. Then D.G. Chichester and Scott McDaniel do the Elektra: Root of Evil miniseries and whatever good ideas Chichester had in the past were clearly gone by this point. The story with the Snakeroot is pretty terrible. Then we return to the main Daredevil book with a story so bad the writer took his name off the book using the old pseudonym, Alan Smithee, that directors used to use in Hollywood when they were embarrassed about a movie they'd directed because of interference from the studio. I'd love to know who actually wrote it and how Marvel twisted it. This is an era of Daredevil you can safely ignore.

Wonder Woman, Vol. 2: Sacrifice ★★★★
Man, that first issue where Superman and Wonder Woman head to the galaxy's largest mall to find a birthday gift for Batman is just golden. So much fun. Then we go back to the story with the Sovereign. Wonder Woman is in his clutches and he's trying to break her mentally. The issues all take place in her head and she tries to resist and it's all just terrific. Daniel Sampere's art is just >>chef's kiss<<. Then we get to the Absolute Power tie in issues with Tony Daniel on art. The first issue is just OK. Then who knew Robin and Wonder Woman was the team up I never knew I needed. The two of them are really fun together. I'm assuming with volume 3 we'll be back to our regularly scheduled story of Diana's ongoing war with the Sovereign.

Babylon Berlin ★★★★
A noir set in the Weimar Republic era of Germany. This is an adaptation of the first of the Gereon Rath novels about a police detective who transfers from Cologne to Berlin and quickly gets embroiled in a mystery involving a murdered driver and missing Russians along with missing Russian gold. It's good stuff.

X-Men: The Manga: Remastered, Vol. 1 ★★★
An X-Men manga from the 90s now getting an English translation, largely based on the cartoon. It's got a manga slant to it of course. The art is hit and miss depending on who is drawing the chapter. Not bad.

Superman Vs. Meshi 2 ★
This is dumb. Each chapter Superman heads to Japan for lunch and talks in his head about how much he loves the food. He takes various members of the Justice League with him at times. You have to really be into food to find this at all interesting.

Level Up ★★
This lacked focus to me and couldn't decide on what it wanted to be. It's about a college age kid who can't decide if he wants to make a career playing video games or following his father's dream of being a doctor. Meanwhile there's these little angels that clean his house for him. That part was even more out of place.

Wrassle Castle Book 2: Riders on the Storm ★★★★
A fun all ages story about a medieval kingdom obsessed with wrassling. Lydia has had to learn to wrassle in secret because her parents didn't approve so she trained on wrassling bears in the forest. She's in the midst of a wrassling tournament. Meanwhile her older brother has been thrown in jail and will be put to death if she can't receive a boon by winning the tournament. There's also a secret coup taking place by someone high up in the government which is somehow related to Lydia's brother's imprisonment. There's a lot going on but it's a really fun comic.

Pixies of the Sixties: You Really Got Me Now ★★★★
I gotta say, this was better than I expected. In this version of England, Pixies are known but discriminated against, treated like second citizens at best. These two stories are much darker than I expected. One involves some serial killers while the other is about some humans who disappeared. The stories also involve a lot of racism and LGBTQ themes. It's quite good with good art.

Pixies of the Sixties: We Can Work It Out ★★★
Two more stories of pixies living in the U.K. in the Sixties. The stories lean toward the heavier side, both about murders of pixies and the pixies are all treated terribly. The first is about a journalist investigating a murder and finding out she's adopted. The second is about a police detective investigating a pixie dust ring. They're both fine.

We Ride Titans ★★★★
This is a family drama about a family that operates the mech that protects a city from Kaiju. The story is in media res so you only get dropped contextual clues about the larger picture of what's going on but that's OK. It just leaves an opportunity for more stories which I'd love to see. Kit is estranged from her family because her parents are hardasses. But her brother who actually operates the mech is spirally out of control and she needs to come home. The art is really good. The story is interesting. What more can you ask for.

Batman by Grant Morrison Book One ★★★★★
Another new edition of Grant Morrison's terrific but trippy Batman run. This one collects the first 2 trades, Batman and Son and The Black Glove. The first one introduces Damion Wayne to the canon, one of the best new DC characters of the 21st century. I love how he's such a little shit. He's the character you love to hate, at least here he is. He's been toned down over the years. Then there's the issues where J.H. Williams draws. I love the Club of Heroes and how it's kind of like an Agatha Christie mystery. There's just so much fun to be had in this era of Batman.

Final Cut ★★★
I'll just start by saying I'm in the bag for Charles Burns. Black Hole is one of my favorite comics even with taking 10 years to finish. His illustrations are always so gorgeous and just a little off-kilter. This story is a little more straight forward. It's about some kids making horror movies on their Super 8. One of them has some mental health issues and is in love with the new girl. So we have him pining after the lead actress in their movie while they are all drinking in the Northwest. There's just not a whole lot going on in this. It's too many pages and not enough content. All of the illustrations are still terrific. There's just not enough story to accompany it.

The Best American Comics 2016 ★★★★
I think these anthologies are a fantastic way of sampling comics you may have not be exposed to previously and then going to seek those out. Some are great. Some are not. Some will make you really appreciate using professional letterers. My favorites were Adrian Tomine (No surprise there!) and Joe Ollman's about a down on his luck ventriloquist.

Hailey that's an admirable goal but you're never going to catch up. I've been reading Marvel comics sine the 80's and still haven't read them all. You may find a point where you may want to cherry pick some more modern stories. They are very different. Anyway welcome.

Today's trip to my LCS.

Ultimate Wolverine #3
Batman #158 <-- DC also made this in a gigantic edition that's the size of a poster board. Why?
Free for All <-- A one-shot by Patrick Horvath of Beneath the Trees
Thundercats: Lost #1
The Herculoids #2
Absolute Wonder Woman #6
Feral #11
Incredible Hulk #23
Justice League Unlimited #5
Ultimate Spider-Man #15
Uncanny X-Men #12
Wolverine: Revenge #5
X-Manhunt: Omega #1
Godzilla Vs. Fantastic Four #1
Absolute Martian Manhunter #1
A also got an ashcan of Batman #159

Last week's adventures in comics. Work gets in the way edition.

Farewell, My Odin ★★★
It's the Viking versus a wolf boy in this story about the Vikings invading England. It's not bad. I was getting confused about some things until contextual clues helped. Like I thought the bad guy was a bad woman for half the book because he's drawn androgynously. (This happens more than you'd think with manga.) I also would get confused about who the white haired man was because it's in black and white and at some point I guess they die their hair because it's darker. It turns out it's the same person I thought was a woman.

Wrassle Castle Book 1: Learning the Ropes ★★★
A fun all-ages read about a girl who longs to be a wrassler but her parents are trying to force her into politics. Her brother is one of the top wrassler's in the land. When he gets into trouble for an unknown reason, she enters the wrassling tournament to try and save him. I didn't use wrassling nearly as much as it's used in this comic. Still it's a lot of fun.

Trench Dogs ★
An anthropomorphic and almost wordless retelling of World War I. I couldn't follow this at all. It's almost all just random violence set in World War I. The art had all of this same muted color too and wasn't very detailed. I couldn't really follow much of a story at all. Just an all around fail unfortunately.

Palestine ★★★★
This is not an easy read. It's dense. It's packed with story. Some pages feel like walls of text. The lettering is scattered across the page like leaves in high winds. Then there's the horrible stories Sacco relates about all the things Palestinians have went through. It's awful. This book was written over 30 years ago. Yet it still remains relevant to this day as the conflict between Palestine and Israel ebbs and flows, currently reaching new heights of awfulness. This is boots on the ground writing. The kind of thing that really brings to the forefront a conflict that if you aren't living it, seems hard to imagine.

Gatchaman: Galactor ★★
Berg Katse finds out a mob family has infiltrated Galactor. This was a yawn fest. I guess I just don't enjoy Steve Orlando's writing at all.

The InSpectres Volume Two ★★★★
I really like how they took all of these real characters, Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, Agatha Christie, Bram Stoker, etc. and mixed into this fictional story involving Spring Heeled Jack and vampires. It's good stuff.

This week's belated trip to my LCS. Stupid work!

Lunar Room #1-4
Defenders of the Earth #5
Storm #6
Rocketfellers #4
Deadpool / Wolverine #3
One World Under Doom #2
Ultimate X-Men #13
Absolute Flash #1
GI Joe #5
X-Force #9
Exceptional X-Men #7
NYX #9
Avengers #24
Ultime Black Panther #14
World's Finest #37
Detective Comics #1090
Detective Comics #1095
Absolute Batman #6
Space Ghost #11

Last week's adventures in comics.

The Rush: This Hungry Earth Reddens Under Snowclad Hills ★★
Months ago a teenager went to the Yukon to stake his claim in the gold rush. Now his mother follows in his wake, tracking him to this remote outpost where strange things happen and people disappear. I've tried again and again with Spurrier's writing and he always comes at things at such an obtuse angle that I can never follow it. It's further compounded by how much Spurrier loves the written word. I think he secretly wants to write prose. I'm honestly surprised there's any room for Gooden's art with the sheer amounts of journal entries on each page.

The Incal: Dying Star ★★★
An offshoot of the Incal universe about the pirate captain Caimann. He's devolving into a reptilian mutant and the only thing that can hold it back is a rare flower. Meanwhile his crew have all died and live on only as electronic ghosts on his ship. Then there's this weird subplot about a nun that's part of a nihilistic cult at the end of time. This is all fine. I am a fan of Jon Davis-Hunt's art so it all loos very good.

The Blue Flame: The Complete Series ★★★★
A story told in two parts. The Blue Flame has been chosen to defend humanity in a galactic trial to determine if humanity should continue to live or not. At the same time, he's in Wisconsin recovering from a horrible tragedy that happened to his superhero team. It was really good. I do with the ending was a little less ambiguous but I get it.

Money Shot Vol. 4: Money Shot Comes Again ★★★
For the fourth installment of this series, we take on the tech bros. It's not terribly interesting. What was more interesting is that they somehow got permission to use the character of Cherry, an obscure underground character from the 80's who was basically from a sexy Riverdale. What is even more interesting is that Patton Oswalt is working on the next story.

Daredevil Epic Collection, Vol. 12: It Comes With The Claws ★★
It's pretty clear reading these issues that Marvel had no idea what to do once Frank Miller left Daredevil. It's a bunch of terrible one-off stories like Madcap (who may be one of Marvel's dumbest characters.) Matt is working as a cook at a diner and there are zero subplots. Then Ann Nocenti comes on board who I have a love, hate relationship with. She has some decent ideas. They are just presented so clunkily that I can't take it. She's definitely at the forefront of a lot of social issues but then she beats you over the head with them with a sledgehammer and awful dialogue. She also keeps putting these dumb skater kids, the Flyboys, in her stories that add nothing. The art is often clunky too. It finally stabilizes at the end with a couple of issues by Rick Leonardi and then John Romita Jr. coming on board with issue #250. Romita's art is really good except for when he draws children. He's never been able to draw kids, even back in the 80s. It's all giant heads on tiny necks.

Barbaric Vol. 3: Hell to Pay ★★★★★
The third volume of Barbaric continues to be badass. Owen is trapped in Hell with an old friend while his friends try and figure out how to get him out. I love that Owen thinks that Hell is just a good time. This series is so much fun and super funny. The Hell to Pay one shot with Nicholas Eames is dementedly hilarious.

Die, Vol. 4: Bleed ★★★★
And so Die ends with the party descending into the Mines of Moria. Seems appropriate. I like how it all gets into why we play games and the like. Good stuff. I like how Gillen pivoted with the ending too to include what was all happening in the real world at the end of this.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi ★★★
A pretty faithful adaptation of the movie for only 4 issues. Some little things may be left out. I'd never suggest reading this first, but once you've already seen Jedi, this is a good refresher.

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years, Vol. 5 ★★★
Given how this was for the most part written before Return of the Jedi came out it's pretty solid. The regular cast of characters are hunting for a rebel spy who has disappeared and has intel they need. Then we get an actual adaptation of Jedi. After that the stories aren't as good as they try and find their footing in a post Jedi setting. It's mostly going to different worlds and trying to talk them into joining the new republic they hope to set up.

Life Sucks ★★★
This is actually a comic that came out about 15 years ago, originally from First Second. Now Fantagraphics is giving it a new lease on unlife. It's about a college age kid working at a deadend job at a convenience job, the twist is that he's actually undead, a vampire. It turns out becoming a vampire isn't all touring from castle to castle, seeming all mysterious and sensual. It's a grind, especially when you don't want to kill anyone. Anyway Dave is trapped working all night in this convenience store and meets this hot Goth girl who longs to be an Anne Rice type vampire and has no idea they really exist. Then there's this piece of crap surfer vampire who is the bane of Dave's existence who just wants to get in her pants. That's the crux of the book. There are some smaller trigger warnings for language and attitudes that have changed since this was originally released.

Blow Away ★★
A good story premise about a nature documentarian in Canada maybe accidentally filming a murder. There's way too much focus in throwing a gazillion twists and turns into the last two issues. I completely lost the thread by the time it was over on who the actual bad guys were. Just too much focus on shock and awe and not enough on good storytelling.

Door to Door, Night by Night Vol. 2: Knocking On Heaven's Door ★★★
Not the most original story, I mean monster hunters have been done plenty of times. There's something about these inept door to door salesmen fighting monsters though that's quite fun. BTW, these takes place during the 80's when door to door salesmen still existed.

Today's trip to my LCS.

West Coast Avengers #5
Gatchaman: Only One Earth #2
Absolute Superman #5
Nick Fury Vs Fin Fang Doom #1
Flash Gordon #7
Geiger #12
Redcoat #10
Transformers #18
Void Rivals #17
X-Factor #8
X-Men #13
Aquaman #3

Last week's adventures in comics.

Yucatan 1512 ★★★
Not bad. It's about some conquistadors attacking Mayans for their gold. Somehow some big mechs get involved. It's cool even without things being explained. The Mayans talked in pictograms which I thought was interesting. Strangely enough, I was in the Yukatan today when I read this.

Sparks Volume 2: Royalty ★
An LGBTQ+ story where almost nothing ever happens. It's all lurid glances and kissing but no story to speak of. In this one the main character goes to the palace where he meets another wastrel satyr and the two of them live a life of leisure while his ex occasionally trains to be the next arch mage. It's all so tedious, LGBTQ+ or not. I can't believe it took a year to make this drivel.

Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures Phase III--Echoes of Fear ★★★
This was OK. It's about these Echo Stones that can amplify a Jedi's abilities but also uses their life force. I really hate how piece meal this high republic era of storytelling is with no road map on proper reading orders and across multiple reading levels and media. It's a real shoddy way to put this all together and leads to needless confusion to the point of not even making me want to bother. Just number the damn books so I can easily figure out what I need to read.

Space Usagi: White Star Rising ★★★★
You could consider Space Usagi, Usagi Yojimbo with a Star Wars skin on it. Star Wars already had a lot of Japanese influences in both the character designs and even the story itself, so these mesh together very well. The second Space Usagi arc takes place directly after Death and Honor and is really a continuation of that story. Gen makes his first appearance in this universe as Usagi and his small team need to infiltrate his ancestral home. There's also a new story with Akemi but that's a bit goofy. If you like Usagi Yojimbo, you're almost certainly going to like this as well. And it's in full color.

Canto Volume 5: A Place Like Home ★★★★
I love this story of the little clockwork man with the huge heart. He never gives up, even against the powerful Shroudless Man who has enslaved the countryside. It all comes down to this as Canto's rebels have a final confrontation with the Shroudless Man and his minions who are too scared to fight back.

Dr. Werthless: The Man Who Studied Murder [And Nearly Killed the Comics Industry] ★★★★
A really well-balanced account of the life of Dr. Wertham, the man who nearly killed the comic book industry in the 50s with his vendetta against them, even testifying before congress on their evils. I think it's ironic that this is a comic book. But this is played straight. It shows the good he did like the fact that he was instrumental in ending segregation in schools. There are also some gruesome stories of insane people that he testified for, so be forewarned. He was a very complicated individual who thought he was never wrong and rarely got along with people.

Eric Powell adopted a bit of a different style for this comic. It's full black and white and he was trying to emulate the pop art style of the time. I think Powell can do no wrong with his pencils. They always look fantastic.

Fierce: The F*cked-Up Fairy Tale of a Fed-Up Princess ★★★
As a King Arthur story, this is a misnomer. If you changed the name of King Arthur to something else in this story, I'd have no idea this had anything to do with that story. There's no Round Table or other nights, Excalibur is never named. Mordred is not in the picture, instead Arthur has two girls and is just a terrible father. It really has nothing to do with that. Once you get past that, this is a decent story on its own though.

The character designs are sometimes weird and offputting. I honestly had a hard time who was supposed to be human and who wasn't because of it. Everyone just looks kind of Muppety. The story itself is about a princess who runs away because her shitty drunk of a father is determined to marry her off to a disgusting old baron and she runs off with her dad's magic, talking sword.

Nullhunter Volume 1: An Olympos Saga ★★★
Some decent sci-fi opera. I think I'd rather Walsh drew this as well as write it though.

Where Monsters Lie Volume 2: CULL-DE-SAC ★★★★
I actually liked this more than volume 1. Maybe because it focused on fewer characters. Anyway the story of this secret society of serial killers continues with a mix of dark humor and ultraviolence.

The Liminal Zone, Vol. 2 ★★★★
Four more twisted, short stories from Japan's master of horror. I liked the one about the clockwork quite a bit but they are all solid.

The InSpectres Volume One ★★★
A bunch of real historical figures like Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle start up their own Scooby Gang to investigate some murders. It's actually pretty cool. It does end on a cliffhanger but there is a volume two.

Incredible Hulk Epic Collection, Vol. 24: The Lone and Level Sands ★★★
The last volume in Peter David's epic Hulk run is pretty lackluster. It was all messed up from the return of all the characters who disappeared during Heroes Reborn. And then David soon left over creative differences. Adam Kubert's art in this first half is good. After David left, Joe Casey and Javier Pulido try and pick up the pieces. It's kind of terrible. Casey does a really poor job of characterizing the Hulk. First he's completely silent when it's established that he has his own distinct personality. Then he suddenly is just an extension of Banner with no differences in personality at all. It's poorly done. And speaking of poorly done, Javier Pulido's art isn't very good either, especially his faces. It's all bad enough that the book gets cancelled 474 issues in and then handed off to John Byrne and Ron Garney for a fresh start with a new #1 after this ends.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Song of Glory ★★★
Some solid Viking comics that also serve as a prequel to Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

Championess ★★★★
A made up story about the first female boxer. Almost nothing is known about her other than she existed. Here she's mixed race in London. Her half sister is in severe debt from their mother getting sick and in danger of being sent to debtors prison. Because the main character is half Indian, no one will give her a job so she takes up boxing to make ends meet and get her and her sister out of poverty. It's a compelling story. The art's solid. The lack of backgrounds can be distracting at times but otherwise pretty good. I really liked the story even if we don't really know how much of it is true.

Door to Door, Night by Night Vol. 1: A World Full of Monsters ★★★
Every once in a while Cullen Bunn makes some solid horror comics. This is one of those times. It's about a group of door to door salespeople who rove from town to town. One day they pick up a woman to go with them who is an honest to goodness monster hunter and once seen they can't be unseen. Now they come across the supernatural in most of the towns they visit and can't turn a blind eye.

Die, Vol. 3: The Great Game ★★★★
Good lord, this series is dense. Most of it is spit out through lots of exposition disguised as dialogue. And yet, I'm still digging it. I do feel like it's going to take multiple reads to digest it all. Stephanie Hans's art is still fantastic.

This week's trip to my LCS.

Blade Forger #1
Secret Six #1
Herculoids #1
West Coast Avengers #4
Absolute Wonder Woman #5
Detective Comics #1094
Gatchaman #7
Hornsby and Halo #4
House of Slaughter #30
Justice League Unlimited #4
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #7
Ultimate Spider-Man #14
X-Men #12
Birds of Prey #19
Hyde Street #4
Immortal Thor #21
Spectacular Spider-Men #13
Ultimates #10
Uncanny X-Men #11
Space Ghost #10
Thundercats #13
Captain America and Volstagg #1

Last week's adventures in comics. (Belated edition due to just returning from Mexico.)

Daredevil Epic Collection, Vol. 18: Fall From GraceAnimal Pound ★★
Good lord, these D.G. Chichester comics are bad. The plots are so muddy I was lost as to motivations of why things were happening. The Fall from Grace storyline is particularly dumb even though it leads to lots of changes. Everyone's after some lost virus that can change the physical abilities of whoever gets it. It's all real murky. Elektra returns for the first time since the Frank Miller days. Matt fakes his death and takes on a new identity as a con man. Karen Page is both fighting and "lost" in the world of porn. I don't really get this subplot at all especially once Matt is "dead". They basically dropped Foggy from the book so why not Karen as well. The second story is a team of cybercriminals working for Hydra called System Crash. I couldn't even tell you what they were up to. Cyber characters never make for interesting stories, especially not ones written in 1994.

I am one of the minority that really likes Scott McDaniel's art. It's the only reason for hard core DD fans to read this.

Star Wars: Darth Maul - Death Sentence ★★★★
It turns out Nightwing was not the first book that Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo worked their magic on. This hidden gem features the return of Darth Maul and his brother Savage Opress to the Clone Wars era. They are on a planet where the natives are about to be burned alive by the conjunction of three suns and think Darth Maul will be their savior. Yeah this is good stuff, especially for this era.

Star Wars: Clone Wars, Volume 3: Last Stand on Jabiim ★★★
A bunch of Jedi die in a hopeless cause while Obi-Wan is thought dead and Anakin is on his own. It's alright.

Raymond Chandler's Marlowe: The Authorized Philip Marlowe Graphic Novel ★★★
Adaptations of three Chandler short stories. I think something was a bit lost in these adaptations as the motivations can get a bit clunky in places. I'd say read the originals first, then the adaptations if you hunger for more.

Latina Superheroes: Jalisco & Santa ★★
I found the first story about Jalisco to be much better than the 2nd story about Santa (not to be confused with Santa Claus). Jalisco's story is about women in this town going missing. Jalisco meets some other women who help her train to fight back against the people that took her mother.

I didn't know what was going on in the 2nd story. It was about a border town and an election. There were a bunch of people who wore luchador masks and they were some kind of stand in for white people I guess? They thought they were superior and those who didn't wear them were some kind of mongrels. None of it really made any kind of sense and I was completely lost. Kudos though for making diverse comics about women with an all female creative team.

Orisha, Volume 1: With Great Power ★★★
A West African influenced manga. A boy gets the power of an Orisha buried in his chest and is pursued by the rest of the Orisha because of some vague prophecy. It's not bad. Bit underdeveloped maybe.

Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker ★★★★
This is a simple concept that's been done several times before but when it's done well? Well go ahead and do it again. Anyone that's ever played a role playing game has fantasized about actually getting sucked into the world and living that life out. It's just the nature of the beast when you're having that much fun. In this case though, these teenagers lose 2 years of their life and not all of them make it back. Then, 25 years later, after living in the real world, they get sucked back in. Like I said, it's a simple concept. I mean, this is basically a darker version of Narnia. The story is dark. Stephanie Hans illustrations are of course, gorgeous. I don't think you need to have played RPG's to enjoy this. Maybe you just get some additional Easter eggs. But I could be wrong. The reviews are divided among my friends, but I loved it.

Die, Vol. 2: Split the Party ★★★★
Everyone gets a chance to show they are flawed characters in volume 2. Then there's a bombshell about how the world of Die came about and I thought it was pretty clever. The series itself is dense. It's not a flip through this quickly and watch the fights type of book. It takes work and there's a lot to pay attention to, but I'm up for the challenge.

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Clone Wars, Vol. 2 ★★★
I never found many of the Clone Wars comics all that interesting. The cartoon? Sure. These comics not so much. It's mostly just random Jedi getting killed off while Palpatine tightens his grip on the Republic. The shining star in this collection is the Darth Maul miniseries by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo. Yes, long before their terrific Nightwing run, they made this nifty little miniseries that brought Darth Maul back with these cool robotic legs and his brother, Savage Opress, in tow as well. I thought this was really good and it makes the Clone Wars comics look even worse in comparison.

Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures Phase III--Crash Zone ★★
A big nothingburger of a volume. Crash and her team have been killing off Nihil who were involved with starting the war on Corellia. They find a joke of a Nihil who says he can kill Marchion Ro. It's all just pretty poorly done and the art is poor. These High Republic books have just turned into a big disappointment.

Survival Street Volume 2: The Radical Left ★★★
The adult version of the muppets from Sesame Street are back. They're fighting corporate greed as freedom fighters in the near future of America. There's not really a central story that keeps it from being great. It's still solid though.

What If... Marc Spector Was A Host To Venom? ★★★
This is actually a prose novel. I'm just not a fan of how Marvel has changed the What If concept. It used to be how a small change like if Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four would diverge the Marvel time line. Now it's just any story not taking place in the 616 universe. This starts off pretty confusing. There's multiple Moon Knights running around from different universes. Then Venom from yet another dimension is put up to find the psy-fon by some big bad and takes over one of the Moon Knights. I do like how each chapter is from one of Moon Knight's multiple personalities or Venom. The story is just OK though. Really kind of only for Marvel diehards like me.

Sisters of Sorcery: A Marvel: Untold Novel ★★★
Another prose novel taking place in the Marvel universe. The obscure magical women of the Marvel universe band together to take on Clea’s mom Umar after she takes over the Dark Dimension. Clea, Margali Szardos, Holly LaDonna and Talisman must make their way through a bunch of magical realms to overthrow Umar the Unrelenting. It’s not bad.

There's No Time Like the Present ★★★
This was one very strange book. It’s about a couple of British introverts obsessed with nerd culture. It’s a slice of life story with the addition of the Ultranet, an internet that allows you to access media from the future. At a certain point people from the future start traveling back in time. We jump to when these nerds are old men. I really liked this part of the story. Then we jump ahead to the far future where things get pretty weird. It’s pretty solid stuff overall though.

7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga ★★★★
The story takes place across 7 generations of this family but we don't visit every generation in the story. It's about some indigenous people in Canada. A young man has tried to take his own life and his parents tell him stories of their ancestors' hardships coming from the perspective of the Indigenous. The father's story about he and his brother was the most heartbreaking and something that used to be very common then with whites forcing the Indigenous children to go off to schools where they were forced to forget their heritage and live as white people while doing all of the manual labor. The stories are just heartrending.

Andrew wrote: "Hi! - I'm new here, would somebody please be able to explain how this works? Do I just try to read some books that fit the theme of the month? :)"

That's exactly how it works Andrew. Then feel free to come here and talk about what you read. There are other threads where you can talk about what comics you are reading this month in general or ask questions.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Animal Pound ★★★★
An updated Animal Farm for our current political system. This is set at a pound instead of a farm but picks up a lot of the same beats until the animals are all led astray by a charismatic and foolish dog. I'll let you draw whatever conclusions you will. This is Tom King so don't expect a happy ending.

Wingborn ★★★
This series is one I think kids will get a kick out of. I have some issues with the art, mainly the coloring being too dark, making the panels hard to see. The ending was different. I think there will be another one, but it could end here on a bit of a downer too if sales don't warrant another book.

DC Finest - Batman: Year One & Two ★★★★
This is more than just Batman: Year One and Two. It's all of the Batman comics published for the first year after Crisis. There's some great stuff in here. Alan David draws the majority of the Detective issues and then he leaves Todd McFarlane takes over. Max Allan Collins of Ms. Tree fame (If you don't know what that is, they are really good detective comics with a female, tough as nails protagonist.) writes most of the regular Batman title outside of the Year One issues that Frank Miller wrote. Alan Moore writes a crazy Clayface 3 story for the Detective Annual in here.

This thing is a monster. This was my first trip into DC's Finest line. It's DC's answer to Marvel's Epic Collections. It's 640 pages so you definitely get your money's worth.

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Empire, Vol. 7 ★★★
This starts off real strong with the two Boba Fett miniseries by Tom Taylor. Those would be 5 stars. But then this falls off a cliff. The rest of it is pretty much trash which is a real shame.

Star Wars: Empire, Vol. 1: Betrayal ★★
Cool idea but poor execution. It's about a group of moffs and admirals who want to see a change at the top of the Empire. They don't trust the Sith and are looking to take out the Emperor and Darth Vader. This was really hard to follow though. There's too many characters involved and the scenes would flip back and forth between each panel to multiple battles. I couldn't keep any of it straight or keep track of who was on what side.

Star Wars: Underworld - The Yavin Vassilika ★
Jeebus, this was awful. The art was some of the worst I've seen in a Star Wars comic or any comic for that matter. It tried to make the book look like some kids' cartoon. I couldn't tell what was happening most of the time, it was so overly busy. The story didn't really make much sense other than every roguish character in Star Wars trying to get a macguffin. I like a lot of Dark Horse's Star Wars output but this should have stayed collecting dust on a shelf somewhere.

The Innkeeper Chronicles: Clean Sweep The Graphic Novel, Volume 2 ★★
This was pretty much plain awful. This 2nd half of the adaptation needs a bunch of diversions to keep the page count up. The story is just all over the place. The art is terrible. Just go read the book instead.

My Riot ★★★★
I really liked this. But then again I was the same age as Valerie when this took place in 1991 and it really brought me back to that age. Even though I'm not a girl I liked where this headed and the subjects it touches on. It's about a high school ballerina trying to keep her weight down so she can perform in Swan Lake. Then she goes to see a local rock band with a new friend, becomes completely enthralled and decides to start a band. That becomes her new focus as she begins to discover there's more to life than she initially knew. There is some triggering things that were real both back then and now. Struggles with smoking to keep weight off and struggles with body issues and not handling it properly. But there's also acceptance about who she is as she gets into her band more and more and I get that.

Generation X Classic, Vol. 1 ★★★★
I thought this was better than Lobdell's normal X-Men stuff. Maybe he just enjoys writing about younger mutants maybe? Full of great art and good stories. I really dig Chris Bachalo's stuff in here.

Essential Judge Dredd: Origins ★★★
For a book called Origins, I would not consider this a good jumping on point for Judge Dredd. It's about the 100+ year history of how the Judges came about. To be honest, It dragged in parts with the pages and pages of exposition. The story taking place in current time was much more intriguing. Still, it was cool to see the creators of Judge Dredd return to tell this story, especially now that Carlos Ezquerra has passed away.

Song of a Blackbird ★★★★★
Just terrific. It's about a young woman in Amsterdam and her grandmother. Her grandmother gets sick and finds out she's not biologically related to her siblings. The young woman, Annika, begins to research these prints that her grandmother owns and finds a story about the Resistance against the Nazis in World War II. The story begins to be told in two time periods, one about this young woman who resisted as a printmaker and helped her grandmother when she was a child. The other is the current story about Annika trying to rediscover her grandmother's past while also trying to find a donor match for her grandmother's leukemia. The two stories eventually dovetail perfectly into one another.

The art was really interesting. In the flashback scenes during the war, van Lieshout took actual period pictures of the buildings and then drew her characters on top of them. It was a really interesting way to immerse oneself into the time period.

While the story itself is fictionalized, all of the characters are based on real people. The last 20 pages are so delve into the real characters everyone was based on.

Little Monarchs ★★★★
A near-future, dystopian, all-ages comic that doesn't hide any of what that might entail. All of the bad stuff is there, just maybe not presented in such a way that a middle schooler or older couldn't read it. In 2101 most of humanity is gone after 70 years where the sun's rays kill people. Elvie is 10 years old, living with an adult woman scientist who has created a temporary cure that allows them to be out in the daylight. The cure revolves around monarch butterflies. While they are trying to find a permanent cure, they migrate kind of like the monarchs, harvesting what they need while avoiding people. The beginning of the book is written from Elvie's point of view and sometimes includes her observation in her journal as prose. It can be a little much at times but you can also skip some of it if it loses your attention. I thought the rest of the book was kind of great.

Fire Starters ★★★★
A story of racism and history of intolerance towards the indigenous people of Canada. It's about 2 First Nation teenagers who are left to take the fall when someone sets a gas station on fire even though they had nothing to do with it. It kind of reads like a morality play.

Nemesis: Rogues' Gallery ★★
Did we really need a third volume of nihilistic Batman? This was so uninteresting. BTW, how is Nemesis not dead after Big Game? If nothing else, Hit Girl would have for sure put a bullet in his head instead of letting him live, paralyzed or not. Anyway, Nemesis makes a comeback and gets a paper thin evil Robin for a sidekick.

Circle of Death (The Shadow #2) ★
This is actually a prose novel but it's about The Shadow so I included it. The longer this book went on, the worse it got. The Shadow is so overpowered that I don't even know why they bothered to make this. Not only does he have the power to cloud men's minds, he can turn invisible even to cameras which makes no sense. He's 10,000 years old, can shapeshift into any kind of animal and instantly control the abilities of that animal as is he's lived his entire life as an owl for example. The impetus for the plot keeps changing as if it has ADHD. I had a hard time believing this was a James Patterson book, it's so bad.

Orcs in Space ★★★
To be honest, I expected more when I saw Justin Roiland was involved. Rick and Morty is one of the funniest things I've ever watched. This was just OK. It's more for younger readers and if you're a 10 year old boy, you'll probably love this. Otherwise, this play on Star Trek where 3 dumb orcs steal the Enterprise gets old pretty quick.

Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters Vol. 1 ★★★★
A really fun, all-ages comic about a family who gets separated when kaiju appear in the area. A year later Rainbow is looking for her missing family. She finds her sister, Jonna, in the wilderness living feral and apparently super strong. I really like how Samnee tells this story visually for the most part. It reminded me of his series Fire Power in that regard. Just really good stuff. I immediately put the rest of the series on hold at the library.

Soul Taker ★★★
A story about an immortal psychic vampire who is hunted by the Venatori, an ancient Catholic sect of warriors. I've seen a variation of this story a lot of times before. It's fine. I hate how it ended in the middle of the story though. With these new titles from smaller publishers you need to have a series of well-defined arcs in case of cancellation so you have a complete story. This ending was pretty frustrating.

Into the Sun (The Underfoot #2) ★★★
This 2nd volume felt like it skewed more to younger readers. It's still exciting but egads, there are a lot of characters to follow. These smart hamsters start off on their heels trying to figure out what's happening as the wasps and iguanas reveal their plans (somewhat). I do hope we see more as there is clearly meant to be more and this is left in media res.

Dimwood ★★★★
Richard Corben's final work. It's a tale of gothic horror. Corben died before he could quite finish it, leaving Jose Villarubia to color the final 20 some pages. It's about a woman who returns to her ancestral home after her mother's death. We soon find out there is a monster roaming the countryside killing people. It's solid stuff and unlike a lot of artists later in life, Corben never lost a step in his art. It still looks the same as it did 50 years ago.

You're Not a Real Dog Owner Until… ★★★★
Dog owners are going to identify with this book a LOT. If you're not a dog owner, I'm not sure why you'd be reading this in the first place. There were certainly pages where I just said to myself, "Yup!"

Daredevil: Fall from Grace ★★
This should have worked much better than it did. It features the return of Elektra for the first time since the Frank Miller days. But the storytelling is really obtuse, especially between issues. Every time a new issue starts it felt like I was missing pages.

I do the same Ed and we get 15 a month. Plus I sometimes use my wife's borrows as well when I run out.

Our library is very well funded as well. I can't remember the exact number on my last property tax bill but it was over $500 which I'm cool with. I use the library all the time and I think it's a terrific resource for people in the community.

Yep, I know they pay per checkout and it's not insignificant. A think it was a couple of bucks per checkout so I always make sure and read anything I take out.

Hush would be a good one to read Jessica. Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee took over Batman for a year around 20 years ago. (God, I can't believe it was that long ago.) It stands alone. The two are coming back to do a sequel to it next month.