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!
The Trades Thread
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How you do decide what trades to display in your bookshelves. I assume most of you, like me, have a lot of TPBs and HCs; if you’re like me, you have TOO many TPBs and HCs, certainly more than you can fit in your bookcase. So which books make the cut? Do you display your copies of WATCHMEN and KINGDOM COME because they are considered masterpieces? Or do you display your entire collection of THE WALKING DEAD because, well, you f*@#king loved that series?
Personally, I have about three shelves devoted to the books of Mike Mignola, including the Hellboy Library Editions, all the BPRD and Abe Sapien HCs, and various other TPBs, prose paperbacks and hardcovers. I also have half a shelf of Brubaker/Phillips HCs, and another half-shelf of HCs collecting Jack Kirby’s 1970s work at DC. But for one reason or another, my collection of books for other titles that I’m always raving about (Savage Dragon and various WildStorm books, for example) are still sitting in boxes in my basement. I suspect it is because those collections are incomplete, because the publishers didn’t bother to put all the printed issues into TPB or HC format.
Probably overthinking this waaaaay too much, but I’m curious how the rest of you deal with this.
I’ve got two bookcases, which isn’t enough to hold all of them, so they excess are stacked precariously high on top of one of them (along with some trades shoved in on top of the standing books where there’s excess space between shelves). Oh and some overspill space in my TV unit (originally designed for VHS tapes, I think) which also holds my few floppies, as the narrow sections are pretty good for keeping them upright.
I generally arrange by size > character/series > chronological – so all OHCs together, all PHCs (which I’ve been largely trying to divest of) together and then trades and a small selection of digest but then the blocks of each character randomly arranged within those, mainly by what will fit there. I did have all my Epic Collections together on one shelf, which looked pretty good (though a little oppressive, given the trade dress for them has a black background), but they outgrew that, so I split them up by series along with everything else.
As for what gets displayed and what ends up on the stacks… it’s mainly by a) how often am I going to want to reread this? – no sense putting, say, The Nam in the stacks when I find myself going back to it worryingly frequently and b) how good does this look? OHCs always get shelf space, because they look the best, frankly. I’ve got all nine of Dark Horse’s Usagi Yojimob Saga omnibus trades, which would be better off stacked up, to be honest, given how solid and stout they are, but they look so good (and I reread them a lot) I’d rather have them on the shelf than 30-40 normal size trades that don’t look as good. Marvel’s old Premier Hardcovers are all in the stacks, because the black and gold trade dress most of them got stuck with is really bland en masse (and they’re a stable base for the stacks). Anything that’s already faded in the sun a bit goes in the TV unit sections, because that gets more sun, so they might as well take the hit.
Actually, I managed to get a picture of the bookcase with the stacks recently.
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Then I have a to-read shelf:
And also a reading pile in the bedroom.
I have convinced myself this is all perfectly healthy .
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This conversation needs photos, Jerry.
I’ll see what I can do.
Easy peasy Jerry. Build more bookcases.
Easier said than done when your better half has been bitten by the Marie Condo bug.
My shelves are organised by creator, by trim size, by character, chronologically.
So do you display ALL your trades in bookcases? Or are some relegated to a longbox in another part of your home?
I’m trying to decide, for instance, if my copy of ESSENTIAL KILLRAVEN (Marvel’s B&W collection of every Killraven/War of the Worlds story published to that point) deserves to be displayed, or should stay in a box in my basement.
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Oh, I just remembered (thanks to seeing them on Dave’s shelves): Brubaker and Philips have confirmed new printings of the Criminal OHCs – with a new trade dress – along with a third collecting the newer material.
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Yes, I saw that in Ed Brubaker’s email the other day. The new cover he shared for the second volume looks nice. I might have to upgrade to the new editions (that printing error in v.2 has always bugged me a bit).
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I may need to reread Rising Stars at some point. In my memory, it was very, very good at some points but didn’t quite become great in the end. (Plus, the art really wasn’t my cup of tea – too nineties Top Cow.) It’ll be interesting to hear what you say when you’ve read the entire thing.
What I remember about Rising Stars is that it was a really ambitious concept by JMS, but he locked himself into a 24 issue series, which wasn’t anywhere near long enough to tell the kind of story he wanted to tell, so it starts off at a pretty slow burn, but at about the one-third point of the story it starts rushing toward the endpoint, so the pacing is really inconsistent.
I remember reading a lot of articles about JMS’ plans for the series in various places (I think Wizard even did a special or something that included a #0 issue) and thinking that there’s no way he’s going to be able to pull this off in only 24 issues. The story was supposed to cover over one hundred characters and span decades
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It’s partly what spurred me to check out Rising Stars for the first time, and also to reread this, which I just picked up again:
Supereme Power was kind of a reprise of his ideas for Rising Stars, but I actually felt that Supreme Power was a lot better… up to the point where it kind of fizzled out. At least Rising Stars is a whole complete story.
I always saw Supreme Power as a perfect example of how Marvel fucks up everything good it has.
The book was successful, both critically and commercially, so it gets cancelled, restarted with a new #1, watered down to a “PG” rating from the previous “R” rating, peters out quickly, gets saddled with a pointless and destructive crossover with the Ultimate Universe, and is quickly forgotten.
I shudder to think what Marvel would have done with something like Sandman, had it been in their stable.
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Mike Mignola, including the Hellboy Library Editions, all the BPRD and Abe Sapien HCs, and various other TPBs, prose paperbacks and hardcovers. I also have half a shelf of Brubaker/Phillips HCs, and another half-shelf of HCs collecting Jack Kirby’s 1970s work at DC.
When you have the love, that’s enough. No poser shit going on here.
Nice to have that problem, in a way.When you make the move, dinner is on the couch in front of the tv.
A whole room just opened up!
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I’m sure this is old news but a friend just sent me this list of free stuff on Comixology:
It all worked for me through the app.
I’ve not read most of this and would probably have never bothered if I’d had to pay for it but can’t argue with this price point!
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More new arrivals.
Clearly it’s “women with guns” day today.
Both are rereads for me.
I enjoyed Blade Runner in singles and want to refresh my memory of the first story as I read the current second arc.
And I haven’t read the two Richard Morgan Black Widow series collected in that TPB for years, but I remember enjoying them at the time. A great roster of artists too – Bill Sienkiewicz working with Goran Parlov on the first mini and with Sean Phillips on the second.
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A quick Google for me found a few comic shops selling trades online in the UK. Amazing Fantasy, Mega City comics, ACE Comics and a few others.
That’s great, many of them don’t seem to hold much interesting stock, but
ACEAmazing Fantasy is, well, ace and is not one I had found.I’m happy to spend a little more to spend it with a smaller shop.
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Received my copy of Daredevil Love and War Gallery Edition this afternoon. It also contains Elektra Assasin and this must be the definitve edition of either story. Beautiful art on oversized pages (slightly larger than Absolute dimensions). Can’t wait to read these stories again.
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More Black Widow, this time the Waid/Samnee complete collection:
I enjoyed this run a lot, and while it’s a shame it never got a complete OHC like it deserved, I guess this is better than nothing.
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It turns out I do have the omnibus (I’ve got far too many!). The reproduction of Elektra Assassin is much better in the new book – much more vibrant.
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Sara TPB
I finally finished this off today and enjoyed it a lot.
A very character-oriented story about a group of female Russian snipers in WWII, it has a killer opening chapter and an even better final issue that I found surprisingly affecting and which really choked me up. And while the middle sags ever so slightly, there’s some great character exploration in there that builds nicely and all pays off by the end.
This is the good Ennis, basically.
And Epting’s art is great here – with Breitweiser on colours again it’s on a par with their great work on Velvet. There are some hugely dynamic battle scenes and also some nicely underplayed smaller moments where faces and body language really tell the story. Plus the oversized paperback format shows it all off very nicely.
My only complaint is that this collection doesn’t include the covers of the individual issues, either between chapters or at the back, which is a real bugbear for me with collected editions (I mean, why would you do that, especially with them being such lovely pieces by Epting?).
But I’ll put that down to TKO being new at this. Other than that niggle, this comes highly recommended.
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This is the good Ennis, basically.
I really think the ‘good Ennis’ has been present now for about 10 years. After Preacher he went through his ‘shock’ phase with a lot of swearing, sex and violence and a lack of substance but I think around halfway through The Boys got bored of it.
His war stories have varied from good to incredible, his Fury mini was sublime.
It’s probably a little sad that not enough people are reading it because of his ‘off period’.
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I agree. The last I really saw of that Ennis was probably The Boys which as you say became something more mature by the end.
I’ll be honest, while I can definitely find stuff to enjoy even in his sillier more puerile books (Code Pru in Cinema Purgatorio was a great laugh) I do prefer his more serious and pointed stories, which are usually war-oriented in my experience.
I don’t read everything he puts out so I can’t comment on consistency but certainly when I read his current output I always seem to enjoy it.
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Glad you liked Sara, Dave. I told you the ending was really something.
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Well, it’s Avatar so…
More seriously, Amazon have been doing well at getting trades, they’ve copies of the Batman: Last Knight on Earth HC.
My assumption is Diamond not shipping stuff will affect items across the board.
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BookDepository havebeen keeping me well supplied over the last month. Last week’s deliveries included the second Straczynski Spidey omnibus, the first Hickman X-men trade and Omega Men deluxe hbk. They’ve just shipped the Weird Western Tales omnibus.
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I do prefer his more serious and pointed stories, which are usually war-oriented in my experience.
I just wish he had written, at some point, a serious non-genre work. It’s what Preacher was at its best, when it was just about three people and their fucked-up friendship and love and hate. I would have loved to see an entire series like that from him and Dillon; it’s what I imagine City Lights would have been like.
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There’s a great Hellblazer special he did which is all just set in a pub in Belfast and has no supernatural element.
He’s a fantastic character writer.
Would have loved to see City Lights too but with Dillon’s passing I the chances are pretty much zero.
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McCrea might be a good substitute, if there was ever going to be one. I suspect there won’t though. It’s time has gone, I fear.
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Bargain of the week: after all the recent talk of JMS’ various projects I looked up Midnight Nation to see how much it would cost to get hold of, and found this slightly beat-up copy of the complete collection on ebay.
£2 including postage! I feel bad for the seller as the package shows they had to pay £3.10 just to send it to me.
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Fair play to him or her for following through with a £1.10 loss.
It’s actually my favourite JMS thing, I think others may have better high points but this one actually finishes before he loses interest.
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So, October will see Criminal Deluxe Edition 3 but does that mean you should not buy the Criminal: Cruel Summer OHC out, maybe, in June?
No.
Contents for the October edition are:
This oversized deluxe hardback collects several short stories and novellas from the most award-winning team in the history of comics in a fantastically-designed book full of extras — illustrations, selected articles, interviews, behind the scenes looks, painted covers… and much much more! Collects the SAVAGE SWORD OF CRIMINAL and DEADLY HANDS OF CRIMINAL magazines, the novellas MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES and BAD WEEKEND, and issues 1 and 4 of the newest run of the CRIMINAL monthly series, two full length short stories about the LAWLESS family.
So it syncs perfectly with the June collection.
Other news, currently Jan 2021 sees the conclusion of IDW’s Transformers Phase 2 OHCs, with Volume 12 out.
If they are really going to finish this then there will likely need to be 4-5 Phase 3 OHCs.
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Ah, I wasn’t expecting new things to be up. I tried Amazon fishing yesterday and there was nothing new. Turns out it’s because I’m logged into my account with delivery set to the UK, Amazon is filtering its search results and excluding most of everything.
I see DC are back on their bullshit. Started doing trades of Arkham Knights, bigging up that it was the first Batman series launched a woman on the creative team (fair enough). First collection: #14 – #24
Still, their new run of Nightwing: Supercop by Devin Greyson trades actually lines up with where they bailed on collecting Chuck Dixon’s run previously, which is a hell of a surprise.
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Oh, also, doesn’t the contents of the Criminal Deluxe 3 mean there kinda is no point in buying Cruel Summer, if you want/have the Deluxes, as the contents of it will presumably just be in any 4th volume?
Not guaranteed and I think they’re a bit too savvy to try that on. They know they get a better response by not doing that.
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People really care about this stuff.
Erik Larsen released 11 TPBs of his Savage Dragon series collecting his original mini and the ongoing series up to issue #58; those books were numbered volumes 1 through 11. Then he skipped ahead to volume 15, collecting issues 76 though 81; no sign of volumes 12, 13 or 14. Then he stopped releasing TPBs for a few years, until he began issuing collections again with issue #139 up through #240. With these trades, however, he stopped numbering the volumes and just gave them titles based on the contents. Very frustrating to me as a Dragon fan and collector, but I’m not losing my shit over it. I just do what I can to support the book in any format so that Larsen can continue publishing it.
I’m also a fan of Criminal, and I proudly display my Deluxe Editions 1 and 2 alongside the smaller, more colorful collections of Bad Weekend and My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, as well as the oversized magazines Deadly Hands of Criminal and Savage Sword of Criminal. I don’t care that the formats are not uniform; all that really matters is having all the Criminal stories available to read again and again.
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A few recent reads:
Blade Runner 2019: Los Angeles
When I read this in singles I enjoyed it well enough – certainly more than I expected to enjoy a licensed comic like these (which are often mediocre, let’s be honest). But rereading it in TPB, I really loved it.
It just gets everything right. The general tone is a wonderful sci-fi noir that evokes the first Blade Runner movie without leaning too heavily on it – it would have been easy to distract readers with cameos and references to the film, but they mostly don’t fall into that trap here, and when common elements do crop up it’s because they’re directly relevant to the story this book is telling.
The plot is compelling and smart, with a few clever bits of misdirection and twists that you feel like you should have seen coming, which are the best kind.
Lead character Ash is a great protagonist, smart and cynical and world-weary in her own way, but also with a secret that’s very different from the obvious “is she a replicant?” route while still playing with related ideas. She’s immediately sympathetic and has a great sense of attitude that comes through in Andres Guinaldo’s art as well as the writing.
And that art is just great in general – there’s detail here that sells the world of Blade Runner well (whether it’s the neon-lit dank streets or the slick spinners and cityscapes), but also a looseness and dynamism here that feels like it owes a lot to manga. Faces are always expressive and tell the story well, and the general high standard continues throughout.
Also, the extras in this TPB are pretty great (and better than some higher-end editions). While the story is presented as a continuous whole without breaks between the four issues (as originally published), all of the covers are collected at the back, along with a host of variants, cover roughs, sketches and even a couple of pages of Guinaldo’s tryout art.
I picked this up from Amazon for just over seven quid, and at that price it’s a steal.
Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules
This is one of those fun concepts that feels like it never quite lives up to its potential. Presenting the idea of the ‘real’ Fantastic Four – a group of characters in the 1950s that Lee and Kirby supposedly used as the basis for the FF – it’s more slice-of-life drama than superhero epic, but the drama just isn’t quite gripping enough to make it all worth it.
All of the characters end up feeling like fairly familiar archetypes – the aloof professor, the neglected and repressed housewife, the directionless and impressionable bullied teen, and the rough-around-the-edges big lunk of a boxer with a taste for the women.
It ends up being the structure of the book that’s the most interesting thing about it – the whole story is set over a single day, and each of the four issues is told from the point of view of one of the lead characters. Which works fairly well, with things culminating in an eventful and somewhat farcical evening dinner party (that also features a couple of familar faces from real life).
But in the end the story feels a little bit underwhelming, a bit so-what. It feels like it doesn’t have much to say about the FF other than a few broad character traits, but without that connection it doesn’t feel like there’s any reason for it to exist altogether. On its own, without the likenesses, it just wouldn’t be a story worth telling.
I have to give credit to the creators and Marvel for taking the ‘true life’ concept so far though – the book’s foreword is written as though these were real-life figures who really did inspire the creation of the FF, and the backmatter is filled with fake emails, interviews, book references etc. to support it.
Between this and The Sentry it feels like there was a real taste for fake “discoveries” from early-era Marvel in the early 2000s.
Midnight Nation
This was a book that I picked up dirt-cheap with no expectations and ended up really enjoying. It’s a fairly simple story concept – a man undertakes a journey across America with a mysterious guide to reclaim his lost soul, with his eyes opened to a world of lost un-people who fell through the cracks of society – but at 12 issues it doesn’t outstay its welcome and it builds to a solid and emotionally-satisfying climax.
Also, Gary Frank’s art is really strong here – even when the conflicts and enemies faced throughout the book are pretty repetitive (I got a bit sick of seeing the same evil minions the whole time, with little variation in design), he brings it to life well and in plenty of painstaking detail.
There’s a slight tinge of 90s-style Image comics to it – women are curvy and big-lipped, men grit their teeth and throw punches, and there’s a lot of slightly pompous religious imagery thrown around – but at its heart this is a decent story, and one I could see making for a good TV series if they ever chose to adapt it.
Like Blade Runner, this TPB presents the story as a continuous whole without chapter breaks, and collects the covers at the back. But unlike Blade Runner, I could feel the issue breaks a lot more strongly here – especially when one issue begins with repeated information from the end of the last – so I wonder whether a more traditional presentation would have worked better. It’s a small complaint about an otherwise decent collection though, with a nice afterword and also a bonus “#1/2 issue” story included here.
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A couple more recent reads that I picked up digitally:
Sharkey The Bounty Hunter
This is a light sci-fi romp about space criminals and bounty hunters that’s in a very similar vein to Millar’s recent Space Bandits, albeit with a slightly more attractive (to me) artist in the form of Simone Bianchi.
Or that’s how it starts, anyway – it feels like Bianchi loses interest at some point as the quality of the art takes a noticeable downturn quite early on in the book, with a reduction in detail that’s really jarring, and big thick ugly lines coming in to replace the finer linework (which returns in occasional panels and pages, making you miss it even more).
I don’t like shitting on artists as I know how much time and effort goes into making a comic, but it’s no exaggeration to say there are pages here that look like unfinished layouts have gone straight to colours.
Like I say, it wouldn’t be so bad if this were a consistent stylistic choice throughout the book, but it’s uneven and the occasional flashes of artist brilliance make you wonder what’s missing elsewhere. At least Bianchi’s trademark page layouts remain intact.
Other than the art this is enjoyable enough stuff, built mainly around big action setpieces – albeit fairly cliche-ridden and shallow in characterisation, and strewn with swearwords that feel like they just don’t don’t belong, (seemingly included to make an all-ages book into a ‘mature’ title). So a modern Millar book basically.
If you liked Space Bandits you’ll probably enjoy this, but I don’t see myself ever returning to it again.
Prodigy: The Evil Earth
I wonder how this book came about. Partly it feels like the ‘good’ answer to Millar’s Nemesis, with an impossibly smart hero that’s always thinking three steps ahead. And partly it feels like a repository for a load of random set pieces that didn’t make it into other comics, all tied together (eventually) by a thin plot about an inter dimensional alien invasion.
It’s a breezy, quick read that doesn’t really ever feel like it achieves any real drama or jeopardy due to the central concept of an essentially infallible character who you know can never really be outsmarted or outwitted by his opponents. But the art is nice enough and the action is suitably wild and over-the-top.
Again, characterisation is thin and there’s a lot of cliche comicbook stuff you feel like you’ve seen before, and again it’s mainly about the action setpieces. But as a switch-your-brain-off-and-enjoy-it romp it’s an okay way to pass the time.
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I couldn’t get past the first issues of Space Bandits and Sharkey the Bounty Hunter. They felt like mid tier Adult Swim cartoons. They felt very superficial and lacked any type of depth. There was not enough substance to make me want to continue.
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Yeah, I feel the same.
I still have the new Kick Ass and Chrononauts series to read after my digital spree a couple of weeks back – it’ll be interesting to see whether those fair better with the established foundations of the earlier series to build off.
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They felt like an interesting mix of US comics and 2000ad Sci-Fi.
I can see that comparison, although my first thought in the case of Space Bandits and Sharkey – as well as Empress, come to think of it – was Saga. They’re all outlaws-on-the-run planet-hopping stories about small groups of relative innocents tangling with bounty hunters and nasty authority figures against a colourful backdrop of wacky aliens and outrageous soap-opera concepts.
Millar has always been open about being a commercially-minded writer and it wouldn’t surprise me if there was an element of consciously going after that Saga audience.
I do wonder whether short-run limited series are inevitably going to come across differently though – whether part of the appeal of Saga is the saga aspect and its long-running soap-opera nature.
It’s hard to develop the same kind of depth and attachment to characters in just a handful of issues, and Millar’s books don’t seem to be going for that character aspect anyway, the emphasis is more on crazy ideas and spectacle (which is maybe where the comparison with 2000AD’s short stories is felt.)
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Not sure if a link to a Facebook post works, but if it does here’s a piece about Atlas At War, which all right-thinking comic fans should be ordering.
A third page from the forthcoming ATLAS AT WAR collection, which features 50 stories from the 1950s digitally restored…
Posted by Allan Harvey on Isnin, 11 Mei 2020
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I do wonder whether short-run limited series are inevitably going to come across differently though – whether part of the appeal of Saga is the saga aspect and its long-running soap-opera nature. It’s hard to develop the same kind of depth and attachment to characters in just a handful of issues, and Millar’s books don’t seem to be going for that character aspect anyway, the emphasis is more on crazy ideas and spectacle (which is maybe where the comparison with 2000AD’s short stories is felt.)
This is how I feel about almost all standalone miniseries. The vast majority of these three-four-five-six issue miniseries are ultimately slight works and forgettable. They’re basically just movie and tv pitches that are subsidized by fans. I think Warren Ellis started this with his “Pop Comics” a few years back, and the format was picked up by Morrison and Millar. The only one of these that I think told an actual good, memorable story was “We3.”
My buying habits have changed so much that I’m really only getting things that I know I’m going to want to re-read five years from now. And it’s really on ongoing series with a lot of “meat” to them (like Walking Dead or Saga) that interest me unless it’s something by someone like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, or Garth Ennis. Moore and Morrison are basically mandatory reads for me. Ennis, it’s on a case-by-case basis.
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A few more recent reads in digital.
Kick-Ass: The New Girl
Ok, after being lukewarm on those two Millar books above, this is much more like it. In the space of just one issue this book introduces a brand new character, makes her immediately sympathetic, establishes that she’s a capable fighter and tactician, gives her some interesting personal drama and a reason to pursue the superhero life, and launches her into it.
Oh, and it’s accompanied by some of JR Jr’s best art in a while, with his highly dynamic and detailed pencils enhanced by digital inks and colours from Peter Steigerwald that really bring out the best in his style.
Patience Lee is a world away from the previous Kick-Ass, Dave Lizewski, and it makes for a welcome change. I enjoyed the hapless slapstick comedy of the original Kick-Ass, but changing gears like this makes a lot of sense, and her personal life feels more fully realised than most Millar characters.
By the end of this first volume there’s a sense of having been told a complete story while still leaving elements open for the future, but given that Millar and JR Jr both leave the book after this opening arc I’m not sure whether to pursue it. Either way the relaunch was worth it for this story, one of Millar’s best in quite a while.
Chrononauts v.2
I enjoyed the original Chrononauts mini a lot, but was unsure whether losing artist Sean Murphy from the equation would hurt the book. That, combined with the odd release model of dumping all the issues on a single day, set alarm bells ringing enough that I waited for a cheap digital sale to check it out.
I shouldn’t have worried though as this is another enjoyable romp that’s almost as much fun as the first series.
Yes, it would have been nice to have more Murphy art, but Eric Canete is a decent enough artist who retains some continuity with the look of the first series by aping some of Murphy’s artistic tics, without it feeling like a straight imitation.
And the story is just as silly and fast-moving and fun as the first series, this time dealing with a utopian/dystopian future in which our heroes have to find their place. The characters are paper-thin and it’s all fairly predictable stuff, but when it’s done with this much charm (including a laugh-out-loud gag about the teenage mutant ninja turtles) you can’t complain.
Hit-Girl In Colombia
I can complain about this though, which is as mindlessly violent and shallow as you’d expect from a Hit-Girl series and doesn’t have the sincerity or depth of the new Kick-Ass or the flair or charm of Chrononauts to save it.
I’m in that seeming minority of people who thought that the original Kick-Ass series took a downturn when Hit-Girl stole the spotlight, and so I originally avoided this, only checking it out after being so pleasantly surprised by the new Kick-Ass.
But I shouldn’t have bothered. You could write the plot of this four-issue mini on the back of a beer mat, and all the Colombian gang cliches are present and correct here. Even the big over-the-top action sequences don’t land, as the art is too loose and cartoonish to make anything feel tangible or meaningful.
I can heartily recommend the new Kick-Ass and Chrononauts is well worth a shot, but I’d leave Hit-Girl on the shelf.
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By the end of this first volume there’s a sense of having been told a complete story while still leaving elements open for the future, but given that Millar and JR Jr both leave the book after this opening arc I’m not sure whether to pursue it. Either way the relaunch was worth it for this story, one of Millar’s best in quite a while.
I think you might be pleasantly surprised by the 12 issues that follow from the new creative team Dave and they are not done yet.
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I also really liked Kick Ass – The New Girl vol 1, although I haven’t read any of the follow up material. Hit Girl was pants though. Really disappointing.
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The second volume of Hitgirl is by Lemire and Risso. It’s a fun little tale.
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Have you ever read Long Halloween, Al? That’s another long Loeb story with loads of the big Bat-villains.
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Also has Sale on top form on the art.
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Easier said than done when your better half has been bitten by the Marie Condo bug.
Just build a trapdoor under a crafting table and dig out a basement. This message brought to you by an excessive amount of Minecraft.
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Any other good writers on Batman without getting weird?
Scott Snyder’s run on Detective Comics just before the Nu52 was really good. His later stint on the main book was a bit hit and miss but that run, collected as ‘Black Mirror’, is excellent.
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Any other good writers on Batman without getting weird?
Morrison’s run is something quite special, but it’s a big sprawling epic and quite a long-term investment.
And it’s fairly weird.
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if even I say that about a modern comic then it must be good
Or outdated.
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if even I say that about a modern comic then it must be good
Or outdated.
That’s what I said
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Ennis. War. Sold!
PJ Holden on art is a bonus too. He was talking about this book on the recent 2000ad podcast.
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This quarantine has me wanting to order and read trades and omnibuses to pass all this down time.
I wanted to order the omnibus of Claremont/Byrne Xmen run, but decided against it because I read the entire run several times and therefore ordering the book would be redundant and gather a lot of dust. The same went for Grant Morrison’s run on the Xmen, already know the story inside out and so on.
I feel nostalgic for the 80’s comics and just might get the omnibus of Byrne’s FF. (I know all about Byrne, but I digress…) Thing is, the omnibus is costly and up there, but some sites like ebay sell it at a discount. Hey, with over 1,000 pages, I feel in some instances you get what you pay for.
So between Long Halloween and the ominibus, that should keep me busy for a while.
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The Byrne FF omnibus is well worth it I think. Good choices!
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The first Byrne FF collection is actually free right now on Comixology.
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The first Byrne FF collection is actually free right now on Comixology.
Went onto Comixology for that. Came away with that and over 250 Scooby Doo comics.
https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2020/05/14/zoinks-dc-offers-more-than-250-scooby-doo-comics-for-free
Found that and a ton of other stuff via the below Twitter account.
Everything listed during May works. Downloaded the lot, even the Barb Wire stuff!
Looking forwards to the Scooby Doo Team Up book. I remember someone ( @davidm ?) singing its praises.
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I feel nostalgic for the 80’s comics and just might get the omnibus of Byrne’s FF.
Thing is, the omnibus is costly…Got you covered Al.
Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus Vol. 1 – Amazon.com
$78.99 U.S. ($125 regular)
It’s a good buy, hope you get and enjoy.
Why FF by JB vol. 2 is taking so long to be back in print is beyond me (no way I suggest bucking up $267.89 U.S. for that).
On that note, why won’t DC re-issue the Absolute Sinestro Corps War?
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Why FF by JB vol. 2 is taking so long to be back in print is beyond me (no way I suggest bucking up $267.89 U.S. for that).
The people waiting for Alpha flight classic VOL 1 to be reprinted agree
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I remember someone ( @davidm ?) singing its praises.
Yes
Best DC comic of the decade.
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Read Alan Moore’s Albion a few days ago. Well, I say Alan Moore’s but it was only plotted by him and actually scripted by his daughter Leah Moore and son-in-law John Reppion. I didn’t realise that was the case when I bought it (my own stupid fault as their names are there on the cover). I still enjoyed it but instead of getting something with a bit of heft to it it was more of a romp than anything. It was fun spotting the few classic British comic characters I knew but I can’t help but feel I’d maybe have been more into it if I actually had any strong feelings towards them.
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Dealer Alert
Couple of SpeedyHen preorders have gone active:
Batman: Matt Wagner OHC – £25.11
State of play online:
- Some good offers can be got from Amazon / BD
- SpeedyHen look good for DC, Image, DHC and IDW
- BooksEtc look good for Marvel
As usual, shop around though.
Been a small price rise on SH’s preorder prices of around £1 for most items, but even with that, they are still very competitive.
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Apologies if these have been posted.
The Batman’s Grave: The Complete Collection – Amazon.ca , couldn’t find on Amazon.com
Hardcover – March 30 2021
A man was murdered, and the Batman is in his head–and he knows how it happened. All he has to do now is survive his own deduction. Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, one of the most legendary creative partnerships of the modern age, reunite in this tale about life, death and the questions most are too afraid to ask.
Collects The Batman’s Grave #1-12The World of Black Hammer Library Edition Volume 2
Hardcover – February 23, 2021
An expanded look at the past and future of Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston’s Eisner Award-winning Black Hammer universe, with two complete series drawn by Wilfredo Torres and Matt Kindt!Far in the future of Black Hammer, a collection of superheroes, inspired by the legendary heroes of Black Hammer Farm, must band together to save the planet from an authoritarian regime.
During the Golden Age of superheroes, an elite Air Force crew called the Black Hammer Squadron bands together to combat the Nazis, a host of occult threats, and their ultimate aerial warrior the Ghost Hunter.
Collects The Quantum Age and Black Hammer ’45 in a deluxe, oversized hardcover format with a new cover, sketchbook extras, and more!
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There’s so much stuff free on Comixology at the moment that it can be hard to pick out the best of it, but you can’t argue with the entire first Hellboy trade.
https://comixology.co.uk/Hellboy-Vol-1-Seed-of-Destruction/digital-comic/2255
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