.Are you tired of reading comics in short, monthly instalments?
Do you yearn for nice, smart books with spines, dustjackets and no ads?
Are you willing to pay ridiculously inflated prices for hardcover reprints of comics you already own in three different editions, just because the page size in the new version is ½” bigger?
Then this is the thread for you!
They came up via the Google “shopping” tab which makes me hope theyvare the real deal. I’ve gone ahead and preordered the book with them. I got loyalty points for signing up for their news letter so that covered the P&P. I’ll be sure to report back on my experience when/if they fulfil the order.
Reckless: Ghost of You
This is another excellent take from one of the best creative partnerships in comics.
It’s interesting how this kind of tale needs to be set in past to work as it does. It couldn’t be the same in a world of mobiles and internet.
I was thinking about this over the weekend, how much of the Brubaker/Phillips work takes place prior to the 21st century (Criminal, Fatale, Fadeout, Pulp). They probably realize that modern communications and technology don’t mesh well with “noir”.
Nice House on the Lake Vol. 1 TP was enjoyable af.
Didn’t know a damned thing going in but that worked in my favor.
Couldn’t talk about anything as I hate to spoil and would take me too long too avoid things.
Add me to the other people that like and if you trust them, this is a future purchase to you.
There’s never a guarantee you’ll get a deluxe edition, but this is worthy.
Pretty sure this is a 12 issue finite story, and hoping he sticks the landing.
Department of Truth Vol. 2 TP was as enjoyable as the first.
A little disappointing to hear some of you say it takes a dip soon of at least one or more issues, so I’ll prepare myself for that in the 3rd TP.
Ah, I see that the first is 1-5, and this second one is 8-12. 3rd is #6-7, 14-17
Something is Killing the Children Deluxe Edition.
More Tynion, and this guy is pretty damned good.
Read this on a recent trip at a cabin. Can’t get comfortable downstairs for reading with people around, so upstairs in my bed, bottom of a bunk bed.
I like these Deluxe Editions for a lot of reasons, but honestly need to be read in a perfect chair (even then Tynion seems to love the use of two pages, so some things will have problems in the middle as I’m scared I’ll crack the spine). TP’s read easier and not as worried to take on a trip.
Having said that, I really enjoyed that. Just short of saying I loved it, buy that is pretty damned good when you consider 15 issues and you do get a complete story (of an ongoing).
Looking forward to more.
The third TPB of Department of Truth is a completely “Times Past” kind of deal. A collection of stand-alone one offs set in the past, featuring occasional characters from the present day storyline and dropping a few clues here & there of back story. Some of them are entertaining, some are pretty bad. I’d almost recommend you just skip to Vol 4 to be honest, where the main story starts again.
Dealer Alert
SpeedyHen code – £5 off order of +£25.
ENJOY
I just found out you can use this multiple times for separate purchases.
This is… dangerous.
Avengers West Coast epic collection: Vision Quest
This… is not particularly good. It starts with the tail end of Steve Englehart’s run and it’s fair to say he got screwed over by Marvel. He was clearly setting up for longer storylines by bringing Mantis back, among other things, and then has to tidy her away in one issue. He doesn’t even get to wrap up the rest of his threads, as Tom DeFalco comes over and does it for him. Khonshu randomly stops bothering to possess Moon Knight, who just ups and leaves. The Phantom Rider stuff is swept aside. It’s very reminiscent of what DeFalco did when he took over Fantastic Four after Simonson. Mind you, most of what I could remember about Englehart’s plots was from the last but one volume, not the previous, so maybe DeFalco and Howard Mackie had a point. Maybe.
And then buckle up, kids, because here’s John Byrne to explain why everything you like is wrong. I’ve read the last issue of this arc before, in the previous Darker Than Scarlet collection (now the name of the next epic collection which has the bulk of it) and it is not improved for having the preceding ones. Very typical haughty Byrne, as he spends loads of time just undoing previous stories in the most “well ackshully” manner. I mean, having the Vision turn out to not be made from the original Human Torch is fair enough, but Byrne makes such a bloody meal of it and can’t help but throw in lines about “well the Torch is an artificial human but the Vision is just an android” (or maybe the other way around – the distinction seems so arbitrary to be pointless to me) so how could anyone possibly confuse them. Making the Vision a bland (in both visuals and personality) automaton really seems to completely miss the point of the character. His whole deal has always been that, despite being artificial, he’s essentially human. Byrne just craps all over that and to what benefit. He’s made Vision less interesting.
And the annoying thing is that in all the time he spends doing this and erasing Wanda’s kids, he doesn’t actually get around to telling any good stories. He’s bizarrely terrible at juggling sub-plots especially. In his first issue, he sets up Tigra randomly becoming more feral. He drips that across a few issues, has Pym shrink her down to defend himself and then… doesn’t mention it again for several issues. One of the team is miniature and crazy, how are the rest of them just ignoring that?! USAgent is forced onto the team by the government and does next to sod all. Hank and Jan are suddenly acting like a couple again with no build up (and no mention of Hank’s recently recovered, mutated first wife – apparently that Englehart plot was swept away in Solo Avengers). It’s really frustrating.
Perhaps the most interesting thing here is that you can see Byrne’s art really go to shit here. When he comes on the book, he’s not at his X-Men level of quality (perhaps might be if inked by Terry Austin), but it’s perfectly decent, if slightly let down by the inking. And then, across the first ten issues, it all really deteriorates into the scratchy mess that his art has been since. I don’t know if it was for speed or because he didn’t think it worth doing anything better given the inking or because he was trying to match the emerging Image style of Lee and Liefeld, but by the end of this volume, his art’s dreadful.
Actually, the other interesting element of this is seeing the roots of plot elements for WandaVision, which did them much better.
I would quibble ‘ever since’ though as he did some stuff on Angel for IDW about 10 years back and the previews showed a return to being tight and detailed.
I’d love to be proved wrong on that. I think the most recent Byrne stuff I’ve read was All New Atom, which was still messy. Maybe something else since then too.
I’d love to be proved wrong on that. I think the most recent Byrne stuff I’ve read was All New Atom, which was still messy. Maybe something else since then too.
This is an example of the Angel stuff. A level of detail and tightness I hadn’t seen since his 80s peak.
The Image bundles. I think the best thing on there is Astro City and that’s just one volume in the highest price one.
The first Spawn volume is in the $1 bracket and that includes the Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Dave Sim and Neil Gaiman stories, so if you haven’t read them you can’t go wrong for about 80p.
As much as I’m a big Ennis fan I think The Darkness is one of his lesser works and quite forgettable.
I actually just bought the first two Spawn Compendiums (containing #1 – 100) so this Humble Bundle came a few weeks too late for me. I have read a bunch of this stuff before. They’re okay, but much like McFarlane’s Spider-Man, they can be a bit of a slog to read, whilst looking absolutely fantastic.
I already have Witchblade and The Darkness from an earlier Bundle. They’re alright. Some fun stuff from Ennis, and nice art from Turner and Silvestri, but quite a bit of dross too.
Astro City is wonderful. Genuinely. But buy the great Metro Book edition that just came out instead.
That leaves the first 100 issues or so of Savage Dragon. I’m sort of tempted to buy it just for this. But I find I like the idea of Savage Dragon and Erik Larsen more than I like the finished product. I struggle to read more than a handful of issues at a time. I do keep coming back to it though, and 100+ issues in colour for £20 is cracking value.
Yep. Plus loads of other extras. It’s a very special volume.
A good price for it is £46 but you could nab it for £41-42 with the ENJOY code on SpeedyHen.
I finally picked up the fourth and final OHC of Revival recently and so re-read the whole series and then that today.
It holds up really well over all. The third volume suffers a bit from a jarring acceleration of the plot in the middle, but the fourth stays on track as everything starts to dissolve into shit (for the characters, I mean).
Although Em’s reaction to meeting the Amish ninja assassin perfectly mirrored my own to her introduction.
But it’s a pretty cool character in the end, if it does feel a bit like they’ve been shipped in from a concept from a different series entirely.
The series mostly sticks the landing with a decent resolution to the central mystery. It doesn’t quite explain everything why was Jesse Blackdeer involved with the scheme? How did he end up on the CIA payroll afterwards? Why was Dr Borchardt willing to kill her daughter? but it did enough.
Slightly annoying to find the book is about 5mm deeper on the covers than all the other volumes though, so won’t sit flush with them in a bookcase. Yes, I know that’s pretty trivial, but it’s such a weird variance in size to pretty much any Image OHC, not just the Revival ones.
Slightly annoying to find the book is about 5mm deeper on the covers than all the other volumes though, so won’t sit flush with them in a bookcase.
Can’t you just pull the other ones out by 5mm?
Slightly annoying to find the book is about 5mm deeper on the covers than all the other volumes though, so won’t sit flush with them in a bookcase.
Can’t you just pull the other ones out by 5mm?
…
Alright, calm down, Dave. No-one asked for good, obvious solutions.
I finally picked up the fourth and final OHC of Revival recently and so re-read the whole series and then that today.
It holds up really well over all. The third volume suffers a bit from a jarring acceleration of the plot in the middle, but the fourth stays on track as everything starts to dissolve into shit (for the characters, I mean).
Although Em’s reaction to meeting the Amish ninja assassin perfectly mirrored my own to her introduction.
But it’s a pretty cool character in the end, if it does feel a bit like they’ve been shipped in from a concept from a different series entirely.
The series mostly sticks the landing with a decent resolution to the central mystery. It doesn’t quite explain everything why was Jesse Blackdeer involved with the scheme? How did he end up on the CIA payroll afterwards? Why was Dr Borchardt willing to kill her daughter? but it did enough.
Slightly annoying to find the book is about 5mm deeper on the covers than all the other volumes though, so won’t sit flush with them in a bookcase. Yes, I know that’s pretty trivial, but it’s such a weird variance in size to pretty much any Image OHC, not just the Revival ones.
I had started that series and last about a year or so. I ended up dropping it as it seemed like it was going to take forever to solve the mystery. It was good but not good enough to keep me hooked.
It ran 47 issues in the end (plus a cross-over with Chew). It does punt the mystery off to the side a bit at times to focus on the ramifications of the situation and the characters, but I think on the whole it doles out enough clues and scraps as it goes along to not feel like it’s unduly dragging its feet.
I agree. I think sometimes it’s hard to tell with Image books where they are going and for how long, especially as quite a few have a ‘mystery box’ flavour to them. You can get strung along – Morning Glories the worst offender by miles.
By the end of it though I think Revival did a good job.
Morning Glories the worst offender by miles.
So say we all.
Spencer looks to have repeated that on The Fix too. Pity, it was a good book.
I have to admit part of me is inclined to hold off until a Volume 2 turns up for new Image series. Not that it guarantees continuance but the number of Volume 1s without any continuation is legion.
I heard Invisible Republic has been cancelled now and won’t be continuing passed vol 3. Which was a bit of a bummer, and doesn’t entice me to bother with vol 2 or 3 irrespective of how much I enjoyed vol 1.
Well, shit. Thanks for sharing the news Vik.
In other, better news, Deadly Class is getting a final 4th hardback next year.
Morning Glories the worst offender by miles.
Worse than The Beauty? Gods that tangented!
The Department of Truth – Volume 3 – Free Country
As fragmented, single issues that get in the way of the main story, I can see how this would be a frustrating experience. As a set read as a block they are far better.
This set of six issues acts as an origin story for the series. One that uses a diversity of art styles and story structures to its advantages.
Decorum
This one has been a long time coming – was it worth the wait? Yes, it was.
This is the most Hickman-style book from him in ages. Diagram exposition dumps? Check. Distinctive design? Check.
But this also goes much further. It weaves those elements in but also mixes up the art style too. Black and white, grayscale, colour, full painted / digital colour. It’s all here.
Told in 20 chapters across eight issues, the story darts all over the place. With a high degree of success, though what Master Morley’s dreams are about I couldn’t tell you.
Above all, this book really celebrates what you can do in the comics medium. It could not be told so effectively any other way.
I used the website Total Cards to preorder the latest Judge Dredd Complete Case Files.
Pros: cheap price, packaged book wrapped in two layers of bubble wrap, in sturdy box, cushioned by significant amount of shredded paper.
Cons: book was bashed on base of spine anyway, arrived a solid five days after estimated delivery date.
I’d use them again but only if i was making a significant saving.
All hail the SpeedyHen!
They’ve just despatched my copy of X-Men: Fall of the Mutants Omnibus!
This means I just need there to be an Uncanny X-Men Omnibus 5 to complete Claremont’s run. Hopefully next year.
Morning Glories the worst offender by miles.
this is by the same guy that did this,
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Right? yep. He has been on the no-read list with Bendis and King.
Bendis and King do have some good stories to their credit – Spencer could have done that but decided to leave his series hanging.
Bendis and King do have some good stories to their credit
Hard agree.
It is a manner of taste when it comes to Bendis and King for me. I just do not like the way they write.
King of Spies
Hmm, masterpiece the books says, I don’t think I agree. Oh, it’s a good enough read but Millar’s written better. This is more in line with his other, provocative works. With a dash of Pat Mills style rage against the world thrown in.
The bigger draw for me was Scalera, whose work I enjoy a great deal.
The problem with the book is wider than the book itself. I think I’ve lost my taste for the “old violent bastard seeking redemption” story.
Stories where you don’t care about any of the characters, stories that are about their destruction have their place. Get Carter is a cold bastard of a film for instance. But do I still want that kind of story? After reading this one, I don’t think I do as much as I used to.
preorders now active for:
Reckless HC 4 – £15.92
Perhaps you meant book 5? I just found out today, but here’s a link to the story I missed from Mar. 9th (@ Screen Rant)
Follow Me Down: A Reckless Book Hardcover – Oct. 18 2022
The FIFTH BOOK in the best-selling Reckless series is here!
Bestselling crime noir masters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips bring us another original graphic novel starring troublemaker-for-hire Ethan Reckless.
In the wake of the 1989 earthquake, Ethan takes a trip to San Francisco to search for a missing woman. But almost immediately he finds himself going down a path of darkness and murder in her wake, in a case unlike anything he’s faced before.
FOLLOW ME DOWN is the most intense of the Reckless books so far, and yet another hit from the most-acclaimed team in comics, creators of PULP, MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES, CRIMINAL, THE FADE OUT, and KILL OR BE KILLED. A must-have for all Brubaker and Phillips readers!
Not if we’re talking SpeedyHen, their preorders only go active 2-3 months before release so it would be HC4.
In Forbidden Planet in Newcastle they had a shelf of heavily discounted Marvel Omnibuses — price stickers marked down from £100+ to £39.99. multiple copies of King Kull, FF vol 2 (only) … I forget the rest to be honest, but if this is a company-wide policy and not just this one store over-ordering, it might be worth popping into your nearest and having a look.
Batman: Reptilian HC and Batman: The Imposter HC
I read a couple of new Batman HCs over the weekend – one of which I’d been looking forward to for a while and one of which was more of an impulse buy.
Batman: Reptilian is one of those books where I picked up the first issue and decided to wait for the collection rather than follow it monthly. And I’m glad that I did, as there probably isn’t enough in each individual chapter to make it feel like a substantial read in singles, but overall it comes together quite nicely as an atmospheric horror-oriented Batman adventure.
Ennis provides the kind of Batman you’d probably expect from him – tough and hard-edged with a mean sense of humour – and Liam Sharp offers up some stylised, moody, painted-style art that feels a little Simon Bisley and a little Dave McKean.
While it starts as a bit of a murder mystery it ends up in more X-Files territory, but Ennis makes the story work and adds some nice weird details that give it a nicely creepy vibe throughout. Worth a look if you like Batman stories at the darker, weirder end of the spectrum.
Meanwhile, Batman: The Imposter is no less dark but is in much more grounded territory – in fact, the Batman that it reminded me of most of all is the one of the most recent movie (and to a slightly lesser extent the Nolan films).
This is a “realistic” urban Batman, and on top of that he’s a version who doesn’t have his usual voices of reason to help him keep things straight (Alfred and Jim Gordon are both very deliberately taken out of the picture here) and who often threatens to cross the line of reasonable vigilante behaviour – especially once a fake Batman appears on the scene and starts murdering people in Gotham, which is a decent hook for the story and provides a nice whodunnit-style mystery that runs throughout.
Interestingly though, much of the story is told not from Batman’s perspective but from the point of view of the cops – particularly detective Blair Wong, a well-conceived new character who serves several purposes in the story and provides a refreshingly competent and very likeable foil for both Batman and Bruce Wayne. She’s the kind of character that I could see turning up in the movies and her realisation is probably the high point of the book.
Otherwise though, the story suffers a little from the same problem I had with the recent movie – it’s just a little too serious and dark, to the point where it isn’t really that much fun as a reader.
I don’t know Mattson Tomlin from his previous work, but this has the feel of a gritty cop drama more than a superhero story, and there’s very little levity or sense of escapism here to relieve the oppressive feel that hangs over everything.
Andrea Sorrentino and Jordie Bellaire’s art is very good though – the book is worth a look if only for that. While it’s not as stylised or fantastical as some other takes on Batman and his city have been, it’s a decent conception of a modern, realistic Gotham with some nicely brutal action sequences and some arresting images that stick in the mind.
I read Invaders: Complete Collection v1 recently. I’d read a bit of the series years ago in the previous collections (Invaders Classics) and wasn’t that taken by it. Confusing stories and ugly art as I remember it. But this time around, in this Epic collection sized beast, it really grabbed me.
Not that I was entirely wrong in my original assessment. Some of Roy Thomas’s stories are pretty weird, like the one early one where the Invaders end up fighting pseudo-Germanic gods who are really some aliens that a Nazi has sort of brain-washed and remodeled. It’s odd. But generally, the series does a good job of giving a slightly revisionist take on the Golden Age, with less racism (although there’s no Japanese characters at all so far, so who knows how they’ll turn out) and more super-villains, which was his stated aim (along with a tonne of self-indulgence, as you might expect from Roy Thomas doing Golden Age characters). And that aligns with what I wish the Golden Age had been.
And the art is kind of ugly. Pencils are almost entirely by Frank Robbins, who has a slightly deranged style. Very high action, but the characters very frequently look like they’re on the edge of having a hysterical episode. This is tamped down a bit by the first inker, Vinnie Colletta, but once he’s replaced by Frank Springer, it really kicks into gear. I can see why I didn’t like it last time, but I kinda dig it now.
A pleasant surprise this. Hopefully I can find the second volume for a reasonable price some time.
A quartet of recent reads:
The Magic Order Volume 2
After King of Spies I considered cancelling the preorder but it’s Immonen, the man always does good work. But the same cannot be said of the story he’s required to polish.
I had a look at the reviews, which were praising this to the skies. Why they did I don’t know because this isn’t great. It feels like Millar doing a “how’s it going fellow kids”. It’s bad, it’s not pretty and it doesn’t work.
Magic Order 3? Another story of one bunch of bastards screwing over another bunch of bastards? Nope. There comes a time when a writer no longer does it and that is certainly so with Millar for me.
Primordial HC
The creative partnership of Lemire and Sorrentino is becoming one of my must buy indicators. It doesn’t matter if I don’t entirely understand the story or its conclusion. It’s always an intriguing experience.
Like with Gideon Falls, I can’t tell you what happened at the end, yet neither do I feel cheated. Onto The Bone Orchard!
Batman: Reptilian HC
I have been wondering if I’m growing out of Batman stories. But if this is any indication what I was after was better Bat-stories because this one is superb.
It’s also a great example of hiw the Black Label books should work. This story could not be done as a mainline story. The character bodycount is sky high for instance.
Separate to this is Sharp’s glorious painted art. It’s amazing to look at and DC should have issued this as an OHC. Oh well, it is DC after all.
Really looking forward to reading Sharp’s upcoming Starhenge – probably early next year.
The Sarge Volume 1
British war tale? Check. Restores material? Check. Very compact storytelling? Check. Garth Ennis intro? Check. Quality production values? Oh yes.
This was a fun, good read – hopefully there’ll be a volume two.
Marvel have always seemed to put out trades because they have to. They don’t care that much about them in comparison to their competitors.
Currently they are going all in on Omnibuses, whacking up production to a degree that will overload their audience’s spending ability. They are putting out multiple Omnibuses monthly.
Talking of….
Dealer Alert
For anyone after the Excalibur Omnibus 1 there appears to have been a stealth reprint recently.
BooksEtc are getting copies for £58.87. It will sometimes display as out of stock, so keep an eye on it.
This arrived today:
It’s a nice oversized hardcover collection of all six issues of Murder Falcon, as well as the previously uncollected Skybound X short story, along with all the covers (including variants) and a great sketchbook/original art gallery section too.
Fingers crossed we get something similar for Extremity eventually!
Currently they are going all in on Omnibuses, whacking up production to a degree that will overload their audience’s spending ability. They are putting out multiple Omnibuses monthly.
The quality of Marvel omnibuses has also dipped lately. The paper is so thin that you can see a lot of bleedthrough from the other side of the page, especially when there’s a fair amount of white space. Which is poor for what should be a premium product.
I would hope it isn’t permanent, I was listening to Ed Brubaker speak recently and say supply chain stuff is really messing with comics. He said the last Reckless book had lower quality paper stock because that was all that was on offer and then the printers added 50 cents a copy to the price out of the blue he just had to soak up.
I would hope it isn’t permanent, I was listening to Ed Brubaker speak recently and say supply chain stuff is really messing with comics. He said the last Reckless book had lower quality paper stock because that was all that was on offer and then the printers added 50 cents a copy to the price out of the blue he just had to soak up.
Yeah the current paper shortages/costs are likely part of the problem. It’s hit a few Kickstarter projects that I’ve backed too, leading to very long delays. Printed comics are really struggling with it at the moment.
But then at the same time, you have to wonder if it’s worth putting out a supposedly high-end book altogether when the pages look like this:
Picked up this new gallery edition hardcover of Weapon X recently, and have hugely enjoyed reading it through again. The art has been remastered and the colouring dialled down so it’s not as bright and more closely matches the original issues. And it looks fantastic.
I didn’t love this when I first read it, but over the years I’ve come to appreciate it as one of the best things Marvel has ever published. This also features a few bonus BWS Wolverine bits and pieces too, so a nice collection.
It’s also gigantic – around twice the size of a regular comic.
There are loads of original art scans in the gallery section at the back too, which look incredible.
Surprise omnibuses from Marvel for 2023:
Peter David Hulk Omnibus 5
Maestro Omnibus
My copy of The Bone Orchard: The Passageway OGN has arrived.
It is a very nice hardback, now I just have to work up the nerve to read it.
I do wonder, with costs going up, if we’ll see more standard size HCs over OHCs. If the quality is high, I’m no longer minding the smaller size. The Reckless series is a good example of how to do them too.
I’m currently reading Thor: Heroes Return omnibus, which is (the start of?) Dan Jurgens run.
These are not good comics.
There are some good ideas in here – a pantheon of dark gods that have conquered Asgard, a different take on Thor having a human alter ego by him having to assume the identity of man who died on sidelines of a battle with the Destroyer – but none it comes together well. The Dark Gods are empty ciphers with bad designs, the bigger story of them having conquered Asgard and enslaved everyone but Thor doesn’t entirely make sense (Asgard was already abandoned and in ruins when Thor unwittingly freed the main Dark God guy), Thor having to be Jake doesn’t have enough depth and the art, by John Romita Jr, is largely pretty terrible.
And yet, despite all that, I really love the general feel and aesthetic of these comics. Well, late 90s, post-bankruptcy Marvel in general. The computer colouring that had stop trying too hard to show off, the back to basics feel of most characters status quos after the disruptive mid-90s, even the Comicraft fonts (I even used an id app to get the name of the main one – Meanwhile). It just really appeals to me, even when part of pretty rubbish comics like these.
Bone Orchard Mythos: The Passageway
Ultimately I found this a bit disappointing. I think it starts well and creates a decent atmosphere and sense of creeping horror, but it doesn’t build towards a satisfying ending.
I feel a bit like I felt about the same creative team’s Primordial – a load of weird shit is intriguing up to a point, but I feel like (especially in an OGN like this) you ultimately have to deliver an ending, and there’s not enough sense of that here for me.
A shame as I really quite enjoyed the FCBD issue.
I’m two-thirds into the Thor: Heroes Return omnibus now and it’s gone from being bad to just infuriating. Specifically the end of the long running plot about Jake Olsen, Thor’s human alter ego.
Olsen is introduced in #1 as a dedicated paramedic, torn between his fiance and his work, who ends up dying to save a woman trapped under a car due to a supervillain battle. Thor is, for reasons not worth going into, forced to take up Olsen’s life.
Almost immediately we learn that Olsen’s partner, Demetrius, is crooked, selling drugs from the ambulance and hospital on the side. We learn this from a panel showing him exchanging a bag for an envelope of cash to someone in a car and another panel with a thought bubble where, learning that Jake hasn’t died, he laments losing his “perfect patsy to pin this dirty business on.” A few issues later, the hospital notices that drugs are going missing and that it tallies with Olsen’s shifts. Set-up for a classic misunderstanding plot where Thor has to try and get himself out of trouble despite not knowing all the facts himself (he took Olsen’s life with no knowledge of it), discover his sort of best friend is corrupt etc
Except, for some reason, Jurgens completely screws up his own sub-plot. It’s strung along for a bit until Demetrius is revealed to be an undercover cop. That could still be spun into him being a corrupt one, but apparently he’ s undercover to investigate the missing drugs (yet this would have had to have started months before the hospital even noticed). And it turns out, despite him *being shown selling drugs* he’s on the level. And, contrary to all evidence we’ve been presented of him, it turns out Olsen was actually stealing and selling drugs from the hospital.
It’s like they swerved to the most shocking and unexpected resolution not realising it’s unexpected because it’s absolutely stupid and contradictory.
The Gods on Sunday Morning – an Astro City OGN!
It’s from the Astro City creative team, but seems to be its own thing:
Immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Meet Manny, an ancient, near-forgotten god living in a crummy motel in L.A. It’s not much of a life, for him or the other forgotten gods he meets for breakfast every Sunday. But something’s brewing, something that will change the gods’ destiny forever…or end it.
The award-winning ASTRO CITY creative team brings you their first original graphic novel, a contemporary fantasy that does for mythology what ASTRO CITY does for superheroes.
Sounds very American Gods-y. I’m interested.
I missed that detail! Even so, still sounds well worth checking out.
On a different note, despite online listings having it as paperback, next month’s, Pulp: The Process Edition is an OHC.
I’m still on the fence about that. I’d normally be all over a Brubaker-Philips OHC, but for a story that’s only 72 pages, I think, it’s a high price. I’m not sure I’m that interested in process stuff to warrant the price tag.
I’m definitely picking it up as it’s a creative team that I rate highly enough to make all that process stuff fascinating. It definitely feels like a just-for-fans book though.
On a related note, Nightwing: Fear State arrived. So the trades will go v1, FS, v2.
Mine too, though I was slightly annoyed as the Amazon listing says it’s 84-88 and the annual, but it’s only 84-86, the annual, and they’ve thrown in an anthology story written by Tini Howard (sigh).
I can’t really complain due to the price I got it for – £11.06, but really want to see how the single image issue that is #87 works.
Ah well, December it will be.
Although the second Son of Kal-El HC will be out by then too – it might sync up neatly.
This was another enjoyable volume of Once & Future – the story is still fun and moves quick, and Mora’s art is great (with Bonvillain’s colours getting more wild and vivid than ever in this arc).
But I do feel a little bit like the book is spinning its wheels without a huge amount of forward progress – I feel like we’re seeing signs of the story being stretched beyond its natural lifespan just to keep the series going.
That said it’s still an entertaining read, it just feels a bit like it’s going in circles. Hopefully the character who shows up towards the end here will shake things up a bit.
I thought I read that vol 5 (#30) is the last.
In what looks to be a very crappy move Marvel appear to have changed the just released Jane Foster: Valkyrie from an OHC to a standard size paperback while keeping the price the same!
I’ve queried it with SpeedyHem but the ISBNs match, so I suspect Marvel of foul play.
The big problem here is that they’ve done this on this one, what other items, advertised as OHC, are they going to change to paperback on the sly?
Edit – It was not solicited as an OHC, but the presentation that it was went everywhere and did not change to match.
Still a mess. I suppose, in the end, I’ll gamble on the next few OHCs and hope they are OHCs. There’s not many now.
Picked up the two Parker Martini Editions for £42 apiece courtesy of Speedyhen and ENJOY.
I’ve already read the first volume previously, so I’m looking forward to Last Call in particular.
Last Call hits particularly hard on an emotional level, while also being a great looking book.
My copy of The Legend of Luther Arkwright has arrived.
It is an excellently produced volume, all the better to show off and match to the art within it.
Also have a couple of DC Black Label OHCs plus the second Nocturnals Library Edition.
I am sad to announce the passing of the Speedyhen ENJOY code. It was taken from us too soon.
