The Trades Thread

Topic

Attempting to kick off a new version of this as Ben’s one disappeared.

A MW tradition, and the cause of many an empty wallet!

Replies

Dave wrote:

Halo Jones is wonderful. A great shame it was never finished.

Did you ever see the Neil Gaiman interview, where he said, “Alan told me the rest of the story and I cried because he would never write it”?

I think that if I could have one wish come true in comics, it would be the completion of Halo Jones.

Dealer Alert

If you didn’t get this the last time it was available years ago, don’t miss it this time.  It won’t be cheap, but it will be worth the money:

Metabarons Oversized Hardback – Due Feb 2020 – SpeedyHen price £70.35

EDIT: One more:

Daredevil: Love & War Gallery Edition – Due Apr 2020 – Amazon – £23.45

For the size and the content this is a good post-Brexit price to bag for right now.

 

Finished Halo Jones. Wonderful is the right word for it. I liked the final, Vietnam War-esque volume the most of the three, especially the parts set on the high-gravity planet where time is always in flux, but they were all strong. The Glyph chapter Gar mentioned is great–perhaps offensive to some by today’s standards but I think the idea that gender is so hardwired into people’s brains that someone who doesn’t conform to it essentially becomes invisible is a fairly progressive way of examining gender as a construct–and all told in 5 pages!

Yeah it’s a fair point Will that sensitivities to gender identity have changed radically since the early 80s and it could garner criticism for that, that it’s telling a moral message not to follow that path.

To me though it’s very clear the point isn’t to pass judgement on gender reassignment but rather the reading you had of it.

That’s now, I first read that story in 1984 when I was 11 years old and all that struck me then was sympathy for The Glyph for how they were ignored, not having the dominant personalities of the main characters. It’s why it has stuck with me for so many years because that kind of empathy wasn’t what I was used to reading short action strips.

 

What you describe is similar to my reaction to trans characters like Wanda in Sandman and Fanny in Invisibles that I read as a teenager. I’ve since read criticisms of those characters from trans writers, and most of those criticisms are fair, but the positive effect they had on readers like me is undeniable and should be taken into account when looking back. Those books both quite clearly stated that gender is mental and that even Fanny keeping her penis didn’t diminish her identity as a woman. I was not receiving that sort of messaging anywhere else at the time.

With Glyph, I was imagining some readers taking issue with them transitioning back and forth as that very uncommon situation is often used in bad faith by bigots to de-legitimize transitioning. I’d be staunchly against any reading of the chapter saying that Moore was being bigoted, though, because his sympathies are so obviously with Glyph and as we’ve both said Moore’s examination of gender in the strip is quite profound.

Anyone read Beowulf from Image by Santiago Garcia and David Rubin?  It caught my eye and seems to be an oversized format which I enjoy.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1534309195?pf_rd_p=ab873d20-a0ca-439b-ac45-cd78f07a84d8&pf_rd_r=WH0X9V97GBPQRMYW589C

Some time ago.  It’s a good quality volume too.  I enjoyed it for what it was.

Edit: In other news, it looks like the second hardback collection of Southern Bastards has been once more punted to the status of:

Fuck-knows-if-they-will-ever-release it

And

Fuck-those-guys-there-are-other-books-to-buy.

Will_C wrote:

With Glyph, I was imagining some readers taking issue with them transitioning back and forth as that very uncommon situation is often used in bad faith by bigots to de-legitimize transitioning.

Yup and that’s the obvious potential issue I saw too. I think it’s actually a more contemporary reading, especially as the ideas around young people and children and their gender identity has been introduced.

My mother was friendly with the writer Jan Morris when I was young, they are both writers and historians, at the time probably the most famous trans person in the UK. Now I think about it the fact that I knew someone who’d had a ‘sex change’ (as was the vernacular at the time) was probably pretty rare. It was such a bold move in those days and taken at a pretty advanced age that I don’t think the idea that someone like her would reverse the decision really came up (and of course physically reversing it remains pretty much a sci-fi idea).

It would be interesting whether Moore would write it the same nowadays when it is an active topic of discussion to discredit transitioning. It’s easy to see where his sympathies lie but times have changed in how it can be interpreted.

 

Absolute Gotham By Gaslight has been cancelled! Mike Mignola. Batman. Hardcover. This isn’t rocket science folks.

It’s a long time since I looked at Gotham by Gaslight, but wasn’t it really slim? Like, 64 pages maximum, probably more like 48? That would make a really poor absolute volume.

Killing Joke is only around 48 pages I think, and they still did that in Absolute (albeit both colourings of it as well as some other short stories and tons of extras).

It was a 48 pager. They were packaging it with its sequel, which was 64 pages and other appearances by the Victorian Batman. None of those interested me in the slightest. I just wanted the original Mignola story. Annoying.

Dealer Alert

SpeedyHen preorders now active:

• Simone Wonder Woman Omnibus – £34.90
• X-O Manowar, Aric OHC 2 – £26.93

(Probably best read with the Harbinger Wars 2 OHC due in June)

The Wild Storm: Volumes 1-4

This was so much better read as a set.  I got to the end of Volume 2 on the original run and realised I wasn’t keeping up with the story, the trades were too spaced out, better to go the long route and super tradewait.  This series is designed to work as a 24-part epic.  It also has a brilliant level of artistic continuity due to Davis-Hunt drawing the lot.  Recognising the value of that and not going for the crazy speed of double-shipping has really paid off.

If Absolute WildCATS is the epitome of 90s superheroes, then this series is a counter-point to that, over 25 years later and it’s so very smart.  If you want to know the answer to the question of what a smart superhero book looks like, this is it.  It has these wonderful swerves and curveballs, where it might set up what, in any other book, would be a big superpower fight, here it all happens in a panel or two; or there simply isn’t one.  Yet, at the same time, there are bigger, more intricate action sequences, wonderfully composed and presented by Davis-Hunt’s artwork, with a lack of sound effects that only emphasises it all.

The one tragedy of this is it ends in such a way that you could a good few books off of it.  Will that happen? No, because DC hate Wildstorm too much.  It’s a minor miracle we got this and the Cray spin-off, but beyond that? I don’t see it happening, which is awful.  Would I say no to an Absolute hardback of this run? If it ever happens, I’d buy it but I doubt it. DC seem to want to bury this.  Again.

Ben wrote:

Will that happen? No, because DC hate Wildstorm too much.

To be fair Ben one of their co-publishers invented Wildstorm.

I think it’s easy to personalise these things but in truth the Wildstorm characters haven’t really sold very well since the days of Millar and Quitely. This iteration ended with #24 selling 11,000 copies, 195th in the chart. I’m sure it’s the type of material that will likely do better collected but they greenlit a sequel which had started to be drawn and Ellis says the artist crapped out on them.

Maybe they could have tried harder to get it back on track but the commercial reality is they can stick Ellis on Batman’s Grave and it sells 4 times as many and it’s the type of thing that will do gangbusters collected (which is a huge point behind the creation of Black Label). I loved this series too but I think in 99% of cases if a book we love goes it’s just a business decision. The ongoing conflict between art and commerce.

 

I could accept it as a simple niche product far more easily if not for the mess over WildCATS, which has the reek of nefarious goings on – were it not for that, yeah, it’s a niche book.

Ben wrote:

I could accept it as a simple niche product far more easily if not for the mess over WildCATS

It’s no question a mess but how much money do you throw at saving a mess when the returns are potentially pretty low? On issues alone 11k is actually a loss, DC and Marvel normally need around 15-18k to turn a profit. It’s lower for Image books that have far fewer overheads.

If any Wildstorm book was selling 100k then they’d be planning a dozen spinoffs and giving Ellis a company credit card.

These are pivotal books for the people here but I just did a little Google and even in the Millar era it just did okay. The Authority was 31st best seller at around 40k, below an Iceman mini series nobody can remember. Okay I’ll concede maybe Mike remembers the Iceman series.

DC don’t hate Wildstorm, especially its founder. They just have to answer to profit and loss columns in their annual reviews.

 

It still comes across as a bit of PR mess, ‘yes, we’re doing this book’… Then ‘er, no, we’re not’. Then again, this is WildCATS, not exactly new territory for it.

Still I’ll take the 24 issues I’ve got, a continuation would be nice to have but it isn’t needed.

Netflix produces and releases a variety of new series that cover a wide range of genres and subject matter, because their audience is large enough that it is worth gambling that each of these shows will appeal to a significant-enough percentage of viewers to make them a successful venture.

DC and Marvel are marketing to an ever-shrinking base of comics readership, the majority of whom (based on sales) want more of the same characters with very little change or development, and who aren’t willing to try anything too different. Can’t really fault them for taking the safe, guaranteed path of releasing yet another Batman or X-men book with high-profile writers and artists, rather than taking the financial risk of, say, paying Mark Millar and Frank Quitely to produce a book featuring obscure or unfamiliar characters.

Ben wrote:

It still comes across as a bit of PR mess,

That I can’t disagree with, it is a mess.

njerry wrote:

Netflix produces and releases a variety of new series that cover a wide range of genres and subject matter, because their audience is large enough that it is worth gambling that each of these shows will appeal to a significant-enough percentage of viewers to make them a successful venture.

DC and Marvel are marketing to an ever-shrinking base of comics readership, the majority of whom (based on sales) want more of the same characters with very little change or development, and who aren’t willing to try anything too different. Can’t really fault them for taking the safe, guaranteed path of releasing yet another Batman or X-men book with high-profile writers and artists, rather than taking the financial risk of, say, paying Mark Millar and Frank Quitely to produce a book featuring obscure or unfamiliar characters.

I agree apart from the ‘ever shrinking’ part. Unit sales have been increasing over the past few years.

The narrowing of what DC in particular sell is  a good point though. Rob Leifeld recently pointed out that they struggle to make a big success of anything that doesn’t have Batman in it.

garjones wrote:

The narrowing of what DC in particular sell is  a good point though. Rob Leifeld recently pointed out that they struggle to make a big success of anything that doesn’t have Batman in it.

I think it’s quite telling that so many of the Black Label books have been Batman titles.

Dave wrote:

garjones wrote:

The narrowing of what DC in particular sell is  a good point though. Rob Leifeld recently pointed out that they struggle to make a big success of anything that doesn’t have Batman in it.

I think it’s quite telling that so many of the Black Label books have been Batman titles.

I think that has as much to do with history.  The Black Label imprint seems targeted at creating somewhat out of continuity, evergreen material.  Traditionally, that has been very Batman heavy at DC.

That one can be a bit chicken and egg too though. Is the history that way because DC struggle to sell  stuff that doesn’t feature Batman?

Black Hammer vol. 4: Age of Doom Part II – I have to say this was a bit of a disappointing read. The first couple issues are a fun romp through a limbo realm populated by characters from unfinished stories, but it feels a bit too much like an homage to Morrison and Moore stories that do a similar thing. I was wondering if Lemire was going meta because it suits the story or because he wanted to pay homage to some of his favs. It feels to me like the latter.

The remaining four issues return to the central cast and their lives in a rewritten reality. This, too, feels too much like what Morrison’s done in series like Final Crisis and Multiversity. And this whole “Age of Doom” storyline has reminded me too much of Seaguy.

I don’t know, the direction this series has taken since the first 13 issues doesn’t feel in keeping with the unnerving horror of where it began. And the conclusion given to the residents of Black Hammer Farm unfortunately utilizes one of my least favorite sci-fi tropes. It looks like Black Hammer will keep going with different characters but I can’t say I’m interested. The book’s just not something that appeals to me anymore.

Dean Ormston’s art is still fucking great, though.

I agree that the spark went out of Black Hammer a little bit somewhere towards the end. It was still very good but somehow not quite what it once was.

I would never have realised the Seaguy comparison, but you’re right, it’s very reminiscent of that in places.

So do the first 13 issues of Black Hammer work on their own?

I’m pretty sure they lead directly into Age of Doom. Age of Doom is generally well told, though. There’re just a few parts that feel inauthentic to me. YMMV.

Yes and while I share some of Will’s view, it does tread on some more familiar ground, I liked it a lot more than him, the comic still entertained me a lot. I’ll be onboard for the next iteration which with a new start is probably not that likely to repeat the same direction.

I’m expecting a second Black Hammer Library Edition so have held off on reading the first.

Peter Cannon Thunderbolt Oversized HC arrived from Amazon yesterday much earlier than I’d expected. Very nice it is as well with a very nice set of extras.

Robbo wrote:

Peter Cannon Thunderbolt Oversized HC arrived from Amazon yesterday much earlier than I’d expected. Very nice it is as well with a very nice set of extras.

It was due out in September, so your expectations are very low. :)

I pre-ordered it back then, but no sign of my copy yet.

It was a surprise as after all the delays it’s due to ship to stores tomorrow.

I’m tempted to get that despite having the series digitally. What are the extras?

Dave wrote:

I’m tempted to get that despite having the series digitally. What are the extras?

The smell of ink. The feel of paper. The whisper of pages turning.

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Keravin

DavidM wins the internet 2020.

DavidM wrote:

Dave wrote:

I’m tempted to get that despite having the series digitally. What are the extras?

The smell of ink. The feel of paper. The whisper of pages turning.

Old paper has a scent of vanilla and a hint of freshly cut grass because of the lignin.

What if it’s not the pages turning that’s causing the whispering?

Anonymous wrote:

What if it’s not the pages turning that’s causing the whispering?

I thought librarians were not allowed to talk about that with ordinary mortals?

Fantagraphics is doing a pretty sizable sale.  Included in that are several Usagi Yojimbo trades ($4.99/volume).  I was looking to pick up the first book, The Ronin, but seem to remember something to the effect of that might not be the best place to start.  If I’m going to pick up one volume, which is the best place to start?

https://www.comixology.com/Usagi-Yojimbo/comics-series/3226

I’ve got the Fantagraphics UY omnibus at home. In terms of storytelling it’s all pretty solid. It takes a wee while for the art to settle down to the classic/current style. To be honest I’d skip the individual volumes and just get the omnibus!

Bruce wrote:

I’ve got the Fantagraphics UY omnibus at home. In terms of storytelling it’s all pretty solid. It takes a wee while for the art to settle down to the classic/current style. To be honest I’d skip the individual volumes and just get the omnibus!

Say I wanted to spend $5 and not $25?

Sakai is one of those cartoonists whose art style is so excellent that any contemplation of it being worth buying should be a very easy decision to do so.

RonnieM wrote:

Fantagraphics is doing a pretty sizable sale.  Included in that are several Usagi Yojimbo trades ($4.99/volume).  I was looking to pick up the first book, The Ronin, but seem to remember something to the effect of that might not be the best place to start.  If I’m going to pick up one volume, which is the best place to start?

https://www.comixology.com/Usagi-Yojimbo/comics-series/3226

There are previews on Fantagraphics’ site, if that helps. As Bruce said, the series is embryonic for the first couple of volumes, as Sakai learns to pare down his style (the first few issues have lovingly rendered anthropomorphic toads and cows etc, which disappear completely soon). If you really don’t want to start at the beginning, I’d maybe skip to the third digest, which introduces Jei, a recurring villain. Also Spot, a sidekick lizard thing that doesn’t stick around too long. I definitely wouldn’t start after the Dragon Bellow Conspiracy, if you are starting with the Fantagraphics books, because that’s the first big storyline and is referenced a fair few times later on, so you may as well read it before its aftermath.

The Transformers G1 Definitive Collection has recently been extended for 20 issues, primarily to finish off IDW’s epic. But, I hear they are also doing a three volume set of Generation 2 too. Vol 1 contains the GI Joe lead in story before Vol 2&3 reprint the Furman series. To those that are familiar with the material how essential or not is the GI Joe story? I’m only really interested in the Furman stuff so was planning to skip it. Will I be hopelessly lost if I do?

Vikram wrote:

The Transformers G1 Definitive Collection has recently been extended for 20 issues, primarily to finish off IDW’s epic. But, I hear they are also doing a three volume set of Generation 2 too. Vol 1 contains the GI Joe lead in story before Vol 2&3 reprint the Furman series. To those that are familiar with the material how essential or not is the GI Joe story? I’m only really interested in the Furman stuff so was planning to skip it. Will I be hopelessly lost if I do?

It’s been a while since I’ve read either, but the GI Joe stuff just has Megatron put back in circulation and a bit of action with some Autobots. Hama’s approach to writing TFs is quite different to Furman’s and the two series completely diverge in continuity as soon as G2 starts anyway. So I think you’d be fine without it.

Cool. Thanks, Martin.

How large is too large for a collection has been a topic of some discussion – should a single volume really go past 1,500 pages lest it become unreadable due to be too unwieldy?  Equally how large a page size can you have before big is too big?

The answer to the latter question can be found here:

X-Men: Jim Lee XXL

When it cites these dimensions, it isn’t kidding:

Monster Trim Size: 13 5/8′ x 21 1/4

35.6 x 3.6 x 54.7 cm

And yes, it is absolutely huge – but it is also, just barely, still readable.  You need a good chair or table, but it works.  And for the primary aim of this? It is perfect for showing off Lee’s X-Men work.  Looking at this it becomes very clear why, for years afterwards, Lee’s style was being followed by so many.

I can’t say I’d buy another one of these, it is easily a one-off purchase but a very worthwhile experiment.

Dealer Alert

The SpeedyHen preorder for the Batman: White Knight OHC has gone active.

At £24.28 for a RRP OHC at $49.99 / £44.99, it’s a very competitive price.

 

RonnieM wrote:

Say I wanted to spend $5 and not $25?

Then you’re shit out of luck!

The second volume Samurai is probably a good shout tho. The first volume is an “odds and sods” collection as far as i can tell but Samurai is the first volume that has the classic simplified art style and it serves as an origins story too. Itd be a better way to gauge if its worth while diving into the rest of the volumes too

Bruce wrote:

The second volume Samurai is probably a good shout tho. The first volume is an “odds and sods” collection as far as i can tell but Samurai is the first volume that has the classic simplified art style and it serves as an origins story too. Itd be a better way to gauge if its worth while diving into the rest of the volumes too

Thank you. That was the piece of information I was trying to remember.  I thought the proper start to the series was actually the second volume.

…and purchased.  We’ll see how the high esteem of this series holds up.

Does anyone know if there’s an active Speedyhen discount code right now?

Recent Alan Moore reads:

The Bojeffries Saga – I liked this more for Steve Parkhouse’s cartoony, Edward Gorey meets Ralph Steadman art style than Moore’s writing, which is pretty directionless and not that funny. Still, the first story or two are appropriately eerie and have a general feeling of wrongness to them that I found pretty unsettling. I wasn’t a fan of the last storyline that has the Bojeffries clan at each other’s throats on Big Brother. It felt too mean-spirited. The oblivious, good-natured werewolf uncle was my favorite character.

D.R. & Quinch – Aside from Tom Strong (whose characters Solomon, Svetlana-X, & Timmy Turbo made me laugh out loud regularly), this is Moore’s funniest work. The titular duo’s total disregard for other lifeforms mixed with their 80s mall-kid style of talking is just hilarious. And Alan Davis getting to draw crazy aliens and explosive mayhem is a formula that will never disappoint.

Skizz – Basically a darker take on E.T., where the government wants to exterminate the stranded alien rather than help him get home. This is pretty by-the-books for Moore but, typical of his work, it’s executed masterfully, with true heart and a great cast of working class residents of Birmingham, England who rally to help Skizz evade the cruel forces after him. Similarly to the Bojeffries Saga, though I was most impressed by the art: this time by Jim Baike. He renders gritty back alleys and council estates with the same eye for detail and simplicity of style as he does alien starships and the unique, well thought out kangaroo-based design of Skizz himself.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. IV: The Tempest – Being the touted final comic book of Alan Moore, this had a lot to live up to. Does it hit the mark? Not really, no. But it’s still an entertaining read. As usual with the post-Black Dossier League stories, Kevin O’Neill’s brutal, batshit art style is the real standout. Though I have to say, this is probably the most exciting League book since the first one, with tons of action, a diverse range of comic styles that run the gamut from newspaper strips to photo-comics, and a look at plenty of cool fictional characters and worlds, this time mostly from future-set sci-fi stories and Silver Age superhero comics. Unfortunately the story yet again makes Mina’s League (which by this point is just her, Orlando, & Emma Night) observers for the most part, rather than actors in the plot.

There’s also a bit of a pessimistic feel to the work that doesn’t quite square with other Moore stories in this vein. Like Promethea and Providence before it, LOEG ends with a metaphysical apocalypse, as the realm of the imagination consumes conventional reality. It makes sense because after LOEG catches up with the present day, there’s nowhere left for it to go but the purely fantastic. But there’s a running theme throughout The Tempest that stories of the fantastic limit human imagination by making our wildest ideas and heroic potential manifest in fiction rather than reality. I don’t necessarily agree with that, and it’s an odd angle to take considering Moore’s past metafictional work. It feels more like a jab at corporatized superhero comics that for some reason he applies to genre fiction as a whole. I don’t know, maybe I’m reading it wrong. But on first read it comes off as too much of a sweeping and bitter generalization.

Will_C wrote:

Recent Alan Moore reads:

D.R. & Quinch

Skizz

I listen to the podcast Space Spinner 2000 which has its two american hosts reading 2000AD from the beginning. They collect their weekly coverage of classic stories in compilation episodes. They’ve ones for Skizz and DR + Quinch. The podcast isnt the most polished but their enthusiasm for these stories shines through. Might be worth a listen given how you enjoyed both strips.

Collection 21 – D.R. & Quinch

Collection 19 – Skizz

I like Dr & Quinch and Skizz a lot. I think Moore’s sense of humour is underrated and I like his more comedic stories as much as his serious ones.

I liked Bojeffries but not quite as much as those. Also, that last story you mention was produced a long time after the earlier strips which I think accounts for its different feel. I agree it’s not as good as the rest.

By the way, if you liked Jim Baikie it’s worth checking out his First American stories with Moore in the ABC Tomorrow Stories anthology series.

I find Bojeffries very funny but it is very specific British humour. Very much like Alan Bennett or Victoria Wood where a colloquial turn of phrase raises a smile.

I can understand how it wouldn’t really work outside that context compared to the broader comedy of something like DR & Quinch.

Skizz is funny in that Moore was told to rip off ET. In those days films took 6 months or more to reach the UK from the states, the editor had heard the hype about ET and said ‘do something like that’ with none of them having seen any of it at all. Baikie does a follow up series that he writes and draws which actually isn’t bad.

 

 

I didn’t realize that about Skizz, that’s pretty funny! Moore certainly did a good job with such a vague prompt. I forgot to mention that the version I have includes Baike’s two sequels, I agree they’re pretty strong. He does an admirable job of fleshing out the alien society Skizz comes from.

Dave wrote:

By the way, if you liked Jim Baikie it’s worth checking out his First American stories with Moore in the ABC Tomorrow Stories anthology series.

I have those, but unfortunately Tomorrow Stories is one of the few Moore comics I don’t like (aside from Greyshirt and Jack B. Quick). First American felt like a hokier version of the MAD Magazine strips I grew up on, which were already pretty hokey to begin with. I think Moore’s good at humor but it works better for me when it’s coming from the characters rather than outright gags.

I agree though that Baike’s art is good in it. I also really like his Vigilante two-parter with Moore, that’s an underrated gem for both of them.

Speaking of Greyshirt, have you read Rick Veitch’s Indigo Sunset? It’s well-worth checking out if you haven’t, it’s one of the best examples I can think of another writer riffing on Moore. Like a lot of the ABC books, Indigo Sunset plays around with different styles of comics and includes written portions (excerpts from an Indigo gossip rag). Each issue is split into 4 sections: a 1-page B&W strip that sets up the central mystery, a flashback to Greyshirt’s years as a criminal, a present-set Greyshirt story where Veitch teams up with another artist or writer (Dave Gibbons writes a funny one), and then a newspaper excerpt. It’s ingenious how all the story strands thread together, Veitch really rises to the challenge set by Moore.

No, I always meant to check that out but never got around to it. I’ll have to track it down.

Dealer Alert

Now active at SpeedyHen:

Wicked + Divine: Year Four Deluxe Edition – £34.36

Spider-Man: Life Story

This was an interesting if ultimately not that great read.

The core premise is quite novel – what if Spider-Man started in 1962 but then aged in realtime? – but it doesn’t ever really do anything meaningful with it, instead ending up as a remix of some of Spidey’s best-known stories from different eras (each issue covers a different decade) with Peter Parker ageing through them all.

There are some twists on old favourites and some novel re-combining of established ideas in new ways that made me think of stuff like Old Man Logan.

But in the end the book’s long timeframe ends up working against it. Inevitably the snatches of Peter’s life that we get to see end up feeling like edited highlights, without the close continuation and strong issue-to-issue throughlines that made Spider-Man such a great soap opera comic. And potentially interesting ideas like the debate around Vietnam involving Cap and Flash end up getting overtaken by events and effectively dropped, when they could have sustained (and benefited from) far more examination.

Ultimately it’s just too much to try and cram in an entire life across 50+ years into just six issues, especially when you’re also trying to tick off homages to all the best-known Spidey stories at the same time.

The redeeming factor is Bagley, who’s as good here as ever – but even his great art can’t bring clarity to a story that’s such a mishmash of so many different ideas, all jostling for prominence, that it collapses under its own weight.

Over My Dead Body

A few years back there was a neat little crime book by Faerber and Guglielmini, Near Death.  It lasted 10 issues and had two trades.  For all intents and purposes, this is a third volume with a re-brand.

Does it deserve a shot? Yes.  The central concept of a hitman who has a near death experience that convinces him to try to atone for his bloody past is a good one, but it also helps that Faerber lets the story flow – plots start, develop, end, but in ending start new ones running.  It is a bit weak in its conclusion, but does leave the door open for another tale.

Blake & Mortimer: The Secret of the Swordfish Parts 1-3

Reading this story some 70 years after its publication in 1950 is an interesting experience.  While some of the depictions of the various characters and races would get some criticism if written now, there’s nothing that malign here either.

The main characters’ relationship now would likely be termed a bromance.  Jacobs though isn’t interested in that, instead going for a close friendship between the two.  Does it work? Yes.  It’s a tale of nefarious villainy in the East only stopped by the derring-do of brave men.  Women characters?  Er, very, very few, if any.  Comics like this really do function as a window into the world as it was.

Is this the comic for you?  Not if you don’t like a wordy style, there’s times when a word balloon will fill an entire panel.  Even so, second time around this seemed to flow a lot better and it’s going to be interesting to see how the story flows chronologically, through the Jacobs albums, onto the Van Hamme, Sente and Dufaux successors.

I had given up on this ever coming out but now it is, 29 September 2020:

Speedyhen have just put my copy of the Lucifer Omnibus 1 in the post!

Black Hammer/Justice League: Hammer Of Justice

Bit of a cheat this one, as the collection isn’t out for a couple of months, but I recently bought the issues in a Comixology sale and read them through.

And I’ll be honest, while I wasn’t expecting great things (buying it mainly because of my enjoyment of Black Hammer) this was actually pretty good.

That’s because Lemire uses the concept not to offer an empty, by-numbers team-up story – in fact, the team-up doesn’t really happen until very late on in the book.

Instead, he uses it as a new way to explore the characters – mostly the Black Hammer characters, but some of the Justice League too – by putting certain characters in the shoes of others and seeing how they react to their new situation.

I won’t spoil any of the big moments, but there’s some solid character work here as well as a proper old-fashioned superhero/villain plot, and every one of the characters gets their own little scenes to shine.

If you’re a fan of Black Hammer, don’t dismiss this as I almost did, as it’s a very worthwhile companion to the main series. And if you haven’t read BH before, this is a fun introduction to the characters that could serve as a decent gateway into Lemire’s Black Hammer universe.

Treasury of British Comics line up for 2020:

The Best of British: Treasury of British Comics announces 2020 collections

Thanks Bruce, good to see a second Trigan Empire for Nov, along with second volumes for Black Max and Thirteenth Floor.

The Hugo Pratt and Ian Kennedy war books are buys for me. Tempted by The Trigan Empire too.

The only concern I have on Trigan Empire is whether it’ll still work shrunk to OHC size because the original material was designed for much larger pages and I have a copy of the Tales From The Trigan Empire that Hawk issued a few decades ago.

Meanwhile, in a baffling but welcome move, SpeedyHen have put my copy of Batman: Black & White Omnibus in the post! It’s crazy how their supply chain sometimes works.

Was Trigan Empire originally done that large? My brother used to get ‘Look and Learn’ where it first appeared and I remember it being rather standard UK comic size, like 2000ad or whatever.

Unless Hawk blew it up, yep.  Their model was collecting and issuing the material in its original format.  They did the same with Dan Dare.

Need to talk to my LCS about getting those Trigan Empire collections.

Lawrence’s art will be a revelation to those who have never seen it.  Also be good to read the entirety of it.

I remember Look and Learn being bigger than other British comics (at least in the 70s), by maybe an inch each way. But I don’t think I still own one that I can measure, so take that memory with a pinch of salt

But assuming they have done a decent restoration job, the Trigan Empire will be an essential purchase at any scale.

I hope they correct the typo on Simon Furman’s name before they print Vigilant.

The one that seemed most interesting to me, oddly, is Concrete Surfer. I’m up for reading a Pat Mills story about skateboarding.

DavidM wrote:

I remember Look and Learn being bigger than other British comics (at least in the 70s), by maybe an inch each way.

My curiosity had me see if there were any good comparison images online, there was one showing it at the same size as comics like Victor and Tiger but this one shows it shrunk over time, the ones on the left definitely in a bigger format. So it looks like both answers could be correct, Trigan Empire started back in the 60s although it was still running in the late 70s/early 80s when my brother got Look and Learn so a volume 1 could well be reprinting the larger size.

 

I reread RASL which holds up very well. I probably liked it even more this time than the first time. I love that about a fifth the book is a history lesson on Nicola Tesla. Back when it came out I only knew of him from his cameo in The Prestige and so I found it very informative and interesting. Unlike Bone’s epic scope, RASL takes place over the course of a few days, although Smith’s pacing, which somehow manages to be breakneck and decompressed at the same time, makes it feel nearly as epic. Plus, I love just about any story that features parallel universes.

I also read another minor Alan Moore work: A Small Killing, with art by Oscar Zarate. It’s about an ad man in America who returns home to small town Britain on his way to Russia to pitch a campaign for a soft drink. As he gets closer and closer to home, he has flashbacks to his idealistic young adulthood and childhood, and has to reckon with the status-obsessed cutthroat he’s become. His sanity also begins to unravel as he keeps seeing a strange young boy everywhere he goes and starts thinking the boy is trying to kill him.

Overall it’s a solid story but it kind of felt like Moore’s attempt at a literary comic in the vein of Gaiman and McKean’s Violent Cases or Mr. Punch, which both feature return trips home that contrast childhood idealism with the cold realities of adult life. He doesn’t quite nail it. It’s a little weird seeing Moore take on someone else’s style (even if it was subconscious) and falling short of it. Still, I enjoyed it for the most part, and while Zarate’s linework isn’t really to my liking his watercolors are gorgeous.

I’m with you on A Small Killing. It never quite resonated with me.

Marvel Omniboos news for Oct-Dec 2020:
Just titles only:
– Excalibur – starting the Claremont run
– New Mutants – ditto
– Uncanny X-Men Volume 4 – this can only be one thing, right?
– War of the Realms – Logical with Thor OHC4 out in May
– Incredible Hulk Volume 2 – might pick up the first one that’s out soon as it is being continued
– Cates’ Cosmic – 50-50 on this one

Dealer Alert

Just went looking for this and oh:

Incredible Hulk Peter David Omnibus 1 – Books Etc – £55.07

Some great finds at a comic shop near my doctor’s office that I don’t usually go to:

A trade collecting Moore/Davis Captain Britain, the “Jaspers Warp” saga. I also bought an old collection of Davis & Jamie Delano’s run called Captain Britain: Before Excalibur. Both were 25% off.

And they were having a 2-for-1 omnibus deal so I got Simonson’s Thor and BKV/Alphona Runaways for $125 total.

Did Moore write anything else for Captain Britain? It’s hard to tell what the volume I got collects because it lists the US series that reprinted Jaspers Warp (X-Men Archives #2-7), not the original British issue numbers.

Will_C wrote:

Did Moore write anything else for Captain Britain? It’s hard to tell what the volume I got collects because it lists the US series that reprinted Jaspers Warp (X-Men Archives #2-7), not the original British issue numbers.

This page has a breakdown of how the X-Men Archives issues correlate to the original issues. It sounds like #2-#7 would cover all but the earliest stories.

If you want all of it I think this TPB covers it.

Will_C wrote:

Did Moore write anything else for Captain Britain? It’s hard to tell what the volume I got collects because it lists the US series that reprinted Jaspers Warp (X-Men Archives #2-7), not the original British issue numbers.

That covers it all. Dave’s link is telling porky pies a little bit, the material in X-Men Archives #1 is written by Dave Thorpe and not Moore. It’s okay, quite different and Thorpe fell out with editorial and quite over some political content they didn’t want and Moore was brought in to salvage the situation. I wouldn’t go back and find the Thorpe stuff, the interesting parts of that story are what Moore does at the end.

The British issue numbers are a nightmare anyway as the story went over 3 different anthology titles. It was only after Moore left that Captain Britain got his own book again (and that’s the Delano/Davis stuff). That is worth reading though, I was revisiting those stories via Marvel Unlimited this week and it’s amazing with the 10 page format how much story and ideas they get through.

A fun bit to look at as well, during the Moore/Davis run on Captain Britain Alan Davis gets enough work to give up his day job. Between episodes the work becomes a lot more polished, closer to what we’re used to with his US work.

garjones wrote:

That covers it all. Dave’s link is telling porky pies a little bit, the material in X-Men Archives #1 is written by Dave Thorpe and not Moore.

Ah sorry, just quickly looked up a link that had the equivalent issue numbers.

I’ve only ever read it in TPB form so didn’t know off the top of my head exactly where Moore’s run began.

Ben wrote:

Dealer Alert

Just went looking for this and oh:

Incredible Hulk Peter David Omnibus 1 – Books Etc – £55.07

I reckon there will need to be 6 or 7 volumes to reprint the whole run, Ben.

Thanks, @davewallace and @garjones! Good to know I’m not missing anything.

I just flipped through the Simonson Thor omnibus and had the wind taken out of my sails a bit. It’s all been digitally recolored, and to make matters worse the credits list the main original colorist as Christie Scheele, who’s probably the best colorist out of the 80s after Lynn Varley. I’m still happy with my purchase but am feeling pretty annoyed with Marvel’s collections department right now.

I’ve tried a couple of times with that Thor omnibus but the recolouring (as good as it is for what it is) really takes me out of it. I would much rather have seen them stick to the original approach. I feel similarly about a lot of modern recolouring jobs. These books are of their time and updating them in that way rarely works.

Heh, yeah, how long was that run – 200-300 issues?

It’s about 140 issues of the main book, plus annuals, specials, crossovers and mini-series. If they get that far they’ll probably also include his return to the title and other more recent tales too. 200 is probably not that far off in total.

Since Omnibuses are now racking up 40-50 issues at a time, say 4-5?

Recent reads:

Operation Overlord

Published in translated form by Rebellion, this collects four the six albums in the Glenat series.  Unfortunately, while the art is excellent the story it is asked to tell is pretty weak and confused.  I never had a firm grasp of the various characters and each album seems to assume a certain level of knowledge about D-Day.

If anything these four albums show up the skill needed to tell war stories that are accurate to the true material but also work as stories.  This is something both Mills and Ennis are able to do with very deceptive ease, but there’s nothing easy about it and this collection demonstrates it.

Invasion 1984

As does this killer of an epic invasion tale from Wagner and Grant.  It remains amazing the sheer amount of stuff that Battle got away with.  There was Charley’s War, Darkie’s Mob but also stuff like this where all the usual invasion tropes are absent.   A bunch of characters that survive the slaughter? Just about but it’s a small, small group.  A heroic fightback against the alien adversary? Nope.  Final improbable victory with parts of civilisation still standing? Forget it.  In the space of 150 pages a whole load of epic shit goes down and the final victory?  Is pretty damn hard core.  Involving releasing a worldwide superbug that kills both human and alien save for those humans vaccinated against it. There’s also some quite neat little observations, like a landing gear crushing a car and its driver.

Blake & Mortimer: The Mystery of the Great Pyramid Parts 1-2 / The Yellow M

The first is a very 1950s style story of western rationalism being confounded by eastern mysticism.  So rendered it sounds more awful than it is, the story just about works but you can pretty much guess where it is going from the start.

The second acts as an effective follow-up and also demonstrates the value of reading these stories in published order rather than the one Cinebook opted for, which fractures it all.

What each has in common with the others is that they are tales of derring do, of good men foiling villains and their nefarious plots without ever having to morally compromise in the process.  Jacobs does like a very wordy, word balloon still but it still rattles along well enough to be a good read.

Moore/Davis/Delano Captain Britain was a very satisfying read, even if some of Delano’s writing was pretty opaque in places, a problem I also had with his Hellblazer run. But the madness of the ideas and Davis’s deft linework and genius character designs were more than enough to carry me through the rough patches. Moore’s writing on the Jaspers’ Warp Saga was very strong for a writer new to superheroes, and it was fun to see him introduce ideas he would revisit with more depth in later work like Watchmen (outlawed superheroes), Supreme, and Tom Strong (countless alternate reality versions of a superhero working together).

Mister Miracle

I grabbed this on sale digitally before my trip to Bali last year, thinking it’d be a good holiday read. I read a few issues/chapters before bed a few nights, usually after a few drinks and thus maybe wasn’t in a state to pay enough attention.

I kind of hit a wall in the book book I was reading this year so figured I’d return to Mister Miracle from the start; it’s won all those awards and it was so praised.

I think I’m 2/3 through by last night and still kind of scratching my head. The art is great, and there are interesting character moments but I’m not really sure what I’m reading here. Is it the kind of thing that clicks at the end?

Probably not, the weirdness of the dreamlike mix of the domestic stuff with interplanetary war is really the appeal. It seemed to work for most but didn’t click with some.

Andrew wrote:

Mister Miracle

I grabbed this on sale digitally before my trip to Bali last year, thinking it’d be a good holiday read. I read a few issues/chapters before bed a few nights, usually after a few drinks and thus maybe wasn’t in a state to pay enough attention.

I kind of hit a wall in the book book I was reading this year so figured I’d return to Mister Miracle from the start; it’s won all those awards and it was so praised.

I think I’m 2/3 through by last night and still kind of scratching my head. The art is great, and there are interesting character moments but I’m not really sure what I’m reading here. Is it the kind of thing that clicks at the end?

Maybe you don’t have a soul.

It’s a bit of a meditation on depression and life on the other side of that mixed in with some perfect superhero metaphors.

I’ve got the final issue/chapter to read tonight. It just feels very piecemeal at this point instead of a cohesive story.

Dave wrote:

Well, this is a lovely looking book.

As beautifully designed as you’d expect, and really chunky (and good value) at 20 issues.

While I was initially disappointed at the decision to place all the covers at the back, the reasoning and explanation given here makes sense. And at least there are plain blank pages to signpost the issue/chapter breaks.

While there’s a nice afterword here from Brubaker and some cool illustrations from the individual issues’ text pieces, there isn’t anything more here in the way of extras. It’s better than nothing, but it would have been nice to have a bit more commentary and/or art process stuff.

Then again, this book already feels like it’s bursting at the seams as it is. The comic is the main thing, and it’s very nicely presented here.

I finally finished working my way through this reread, and I’m now wondering whether it’s their best work. There are so many layers to it and all of them work.

It’s an unusually playful writing style for Brubaker – all the time-jumps and tangents he goes off on are very well handled – and Phillips’ art has never looked better. That’s partly due to Breitweiser’s colours, which are beautiful (although I do like what Jacob Phillips is doing on Criminal now). And partly due to the decision to do so many full-page illustrations with plain text narration down the side. These are some of my favourite pages in the book, and it made me realise how much I’d enjoy an illustrated novel from the pair.

Plus, I picked up more on all the weird Spider-Man nods this time around.

(There are loads of parallels once you start looking. MJ is his girlfriend and Aunt May is his mum. Flash Thompson is his old school buddy who became a soldier. Stan and Steve – both named Stan and Steve in the book! – appear and Steve makes a reference to objectivism. The red mask of the outfit evokes Spidey, especially the Raimi prototype costume. There’s a bit about wealth and accountability that’s a riff on power and responsibility. And obviously the whole young male secret vigilante power fantasy is like a dark take on Spidey. Plus, more obviously, they do homages to the costume in the bin and the cover from ASM #50.)

So I was just checking Amazon.ca and found
The World of Black Hammer Library Edition Volume 1
It didn’t say what it was collecting though.
I’ll pre-order it anyways.
Released on September 8th 2020

I’d presume some of the minis, like Sherlock Frankenstein and Doctor Star.

Aye, it includes Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil, Doctor Andromeda and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows, sketchbooks, and the tantalising More.

What is Doctor Andromeda?