.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!
I guess it’ll be in the 100 page special just before Christmas, that’s usually when they start a bunch of new stories.
Strange Adventures HC
I recently finished rereading this in hardcover and I liked it even more than I did in singles.
The whole thing holds together really well outside of the monthly schedule, and delivers a genuinely challenging story without easy answers.
But it also feels like a really elegant and easy read – particularly the interplay between the flashback and present day art by Gerads and Shaner. Both deliver great art but the way they’re put together feels even more special.
This is almost up there with King and Gerads’ Mister Miracle for me.
Yeah the effect is surprisingly detailed and the ‘damaged’ parts are all rough-textured. It’s quite well done.
Plus under the dustjacket the HC’s design recreates Adam’s book-within-the-book, which is a cool touch.
I also reread this in TPB today and enjoyed it just as much as I did when it first came out.
I still think it’s Millar’s best series in a long time: a nice, tight, action-packed story with a great hook, brought to life brilliantly through Scalera’s shadowy, angular, dynamic art.
It should be first in line for a Netflix adaptation as it’d make a fun movie.
Today’s reads:
Time Before Time Volume 3
Like with most time travel stories, I’m not keeping track of who’s when and where but this remains a fantastic take on well used ideas.
The Kill Lock
A creator-owned tale from Livio Ramondelli, this was a suprisingly effective tale of convicted robots. You can see Transformers’ influence but this is a very different story, with excellent art.
We Have Demons Volume 1
A new story from Synder-Capullo, this is a good version of the demon hunting genre. It’s nothing revolutionary but it doesn’t have to be.
Usagi Yojimbo: Crossroads
This is another collection of stories that show Stan Sakai doing what he does. Spin great comic stories, with art to match, while making it look so easy.
Reckless: Follow Me Down
Similar to above, this is Brubaker-Phillips showing how to do crime comics. Though, this time, there’s a great surprise towards the end.
It’s a shame they’re taking a break from the series but I also know Night Fever will be worth it.
Despite inflation, DHC’s Library is still excellent value.
The World of Black Hammer Library Edition Volume 4
The two stories here both play out very smartly. Both take an affectionate, deconstruction approach to both the sidekick and teen heroes concepts.
Both have great art, each with a distinct style matched to the individual story.
Tales from Harrow County Library Edition Volume 1
The eight issues, two arcs collected here start off a good sequel. Both have painted art that differs from its predecessor but consistent with it too.
Killadelphia OHC1
This actually does manage to be a fresh take on vampires. Like American Vampire it uses history effectively, but in a different way.
There’s still a vampire hierarchy but this one is more explicitly racist. Turn a 17th century white American who believes they are superior and that stays in the vampire created. What happens when they create black vampires? Nothing good.
Add in some excellent art and it makes for a good OHC. I’ll be nabbing the second, probably out next year.
The Sword of Hyperborea / Hellboy: The Bones of Giants / Hellboy: The Silver Lantern Club
These three Mignolaverse tales have a lot in common. They are what you expect. Each draws well on the wider mythos established. Each has excellent art. Finally, the production values justify the decision to opt for hardbacks and their cost.
A pair of strangely inconclusive books.
Hellman of Hammer Force
For density and quality of content, this is a bargain. It is also, both for the era it was written in and now, quite daring. Spinning stories of a German soldier in WW2? It didn’t lack nerve.
Nor did it lack villains – Nazi commissars, dishonourable Americans, mutinous Germans – Finlay-Day managed to vary the story very effectively.
The collection ends on an odd note. It may be it continued but the original material could not be found. Or it was axed due to the moral panic that fixated on Action in 1976.
Rai by Dan Abnett OHC
The 16 issues collected here are a good continuation of Valiant’s future era. Art is excellent too.
Where it goes awry is its cliffhanger ending for the last issue. It’s known covid did Valiant a lot of damage. So it may be #10 was to be followed up on or was more a forced ending. Either way, with the state Valiant is currently in, it may stay a loose end.
The collection ends on an odd note. It may be it continued but the original material could not be found. Or it was axed due to the moral panic that fixated on Action in 1976.
I’m not sure where the collection ends, but Hellman was indeed a casualty of the Action censorship. At some point in the Russian Front story, the remaining unused scripts were edited to be more “acceptable”, and new scripts commissioned after that point started a new storyline without properly finishing the Russian Front story.
Books Etc has it for £42.82:
https://www.books-etc.com/p/52343656/the-absolute-multiversity-9781779515612
That’s weird, as the co.uk one has it at £57!
The UK one didn’t have it at all when I checked a few days back.
Really this Books Etc. relaunch has been a bit of a mess, one site is old and functional but missing half their stock, the other is up to date but doesn’t work half the time.
Oh well, lost out on that one but got two other big Marvel Omnibuses from them for far less than they are now going for so probably breaks even.
Dealer Alert
Seven Secrets Volume 3 at Blackwells for £8.69:
So this finally arrived today.
I had debated getting it as I already had the Deluxe HC, but I’m glad I did as this represents a big upgrade.
As well as being oversized compared to even the deluxe version, there are significantly more extras, including a cool pull-out map of the multiverse…
… as well as an entire issue of Quitely pencils for the Pax Americana issue in the backmatter.
It’s maybe Morrison’s last truly great project for DC, and this edition feels like it does it justice.
Been a long time since I’ve bought an Absolute but, when this one arrived, my take was: Worth £53.
Only if you don’t want to read vol 2. It ends on a really weak run of issues that will do it no favours. #17 is pretty good, for Jorge Fornes’ artwork alone, but I think with this book it’s safest to stick to the Martin Simmonds drawn issues and ignore everything else.
Yeah the non-Simmonds issues really diluted DoT for me. I’ve gone from raving about the book to being barely interested enough to pick it up in TPB. They should have just built in some gap months to let him catch up rather than putting out nothingy filler issues.
I just found them pretty rambling and obvious filler while the book waited for Simmonds to return. They got away from the core ideas of the earlier issues and went off down alleys that weren’t as interesting, for me.
It is finally time.
Bat-King Part 1
Re-reading Tom King’s opening bat-trilogy of I Am Gotham / Suicide / Bane and its supporting stories is interesting. In these stories, Gotham is set up as a hellish testing ground for its inhabitants. Fight back hard enough against the fear and you might pass, fail and well, it’s probably not going to be good.
The Monster Men crossover event is an unnecessary disruption, breaking the story flow and the artistic continuity.
Finch and Janin have very distinct styles but they go together well. Some of Janin’s splash pages in the second arc arc are genius. As is his rendering of an in-the-buff naturist Bane.
The final resolution to I Am Bane still doesn’t quite work for me, as Batman practocally shrugs off a beating by Bane to take him out with a single headbutt by virtue of being Batman. Comes across as King going for a cool monent but it doesn’t quite land.
The epilogue Crossroads story is well executed, as the full story of those 237 murders attributed to Catwoman is revealed. King teams up with Gerards, his frequent collaborator, and this two parter shows why they are so good together.
The Button crossover with Flash is perhaps a bigger deal now for King’s Bat-run than Doomsday Clock. It has one of my favourite DC artists on the Batman parts, Jason Fabok and they are superb. The story sees the heroes finding that the world of Flashpoint was both revived and continued. It is notable that the story gives the reader all the info needed to follow it without having read Flashpoint.
Bat-King Part 2
Tom King has a reputation for brutal stories and one source for it is The War Of Jokes And Riddles.
An early Batman story, this sees the Joker and Riddler warring over who gets to kill Batman. What sets it apart is the focus on collateral damage, along with Kite Man’s origin being an individual case of that. For some that origin, with Riddler killing Kite Man’s kid, proved a step too far.
First time around I certainly found it to be a very brutal story, too much so. It also undermined Batman too much. Second time around? The limits on Batman make more sense in the wake of the I Am trilogy. In all his stories King is clearly wanting to get away from the Bat-god version Morrison did. Thus King’s Batman can’t solve everything or everyone.
In that respect King simply makes very explicit what has been implicit. Gotham is a very violent city that racks up a lot of death and damage and harm, with Batman unable to stop all of it.
Of course, this arc would not hit as hard without Janin’s superb art. At a few points in the story, he does pages that show the victims of the war. Who they were, how they died. Which adds to another point – deaths aren’t numbers, they’re people.
There are flaws with trying to be more realistic on a character like Batman. That the Joker and Riddler each take out an entire FBI special forces team strains credibility, but gives an answer to why Gordon didn’t call in help. He did and it didn’t go well.
Second time around I view this arc better than I did, but can’t blame anyone who bailed due to the brutality of it.
Bat-King Part 3
After the series of arcs, King switches gears in the lead up to the wedding. These shorter stories are OK, but none of them really match up to the earlier, bigger stories. None of them are bad but they lack impact.
A large part of the reason for that is that the wedding is not to be. This is a low move by DC and King. A cynical view would be that it was never going to happen, but DC had allowed the Super-family to exist so a married Batman wasn’t so impossible to envisage. Sadly, it all ends as a bait-and-switch.
Some of the short stories work well, especially when covering the absurdities of engagements, of who to tell and when.
Another weakness is the artist roster. No one is bad but everyone gets an issue or two so doesn’t get to stand out.
Will the run recover? Guess I’ll soon find out.
Bat-King Part 4
This is a mess.
Despite that I am happy I waited to read this as a block because for those reading it piece by piece? These 35 issues would have felt like eternity. It needed an editorial intervention 20 issues before they pulled the plug on King’s run.
Initially, it’s OK, the Cold Days story sets up an interesting arc that develops at a good pace. Then it gets folded into a super conspiracy, a Flash crossover turns up – oh yeah, King killed off Wally West – and is then followed by the waste of time that is Nightmares.
That leads to Faith and Fallen, which is the big reveal, how the pieces all connect arc. It’s nothing that revelatory or impressive. It also undermines the first 30 issues to no good effect.
Onto City of Bane where the takeover has gone from covert to overt. Where’s Gordon and the rest of real GCPD? King either doesn’t know or doesn’t care. Oh and the US government is just fine with Bane’s takeover.
There’s a load of final fights, Alfred gets offed, but none of it really lands as an epic conclusion. The Bane fight is done, Flashpoint Batcrap gets defeated, Gotham Girl? Gets let off.
None of it has anywhere the focus of those first 30 issues. Nor does it have artistic continuity. Fortunately Janin gets a good few issues but not consistently. JRJR is a skilled artist but not suited to Batman.
The overall impression I have from this is that King is not a long form writer. He’s better suited to shorter, more focused stories. Give him 100 issues and it’s not good for him.
Batman: Killing Time
The draw for me here is far more Marquez drawing Batman than King’s writing. That said, this is a fun six-issue tale with a fragmented narrative that works.
It’s not entirely perfect despite Marquez’s excellent art. Nuri is a walking cliche and it’s hard to buy into the Bat-Cat relationship later given how ge depicts the character here.
Still, this was a compact, good story and the kind that King is best for. Since he’s got Gotham Year One underway, that’s no bad thing.
The best bits of King’s Batman run were the issues drawn by Lee Weeks. The Annual, “Cold Days” and the Elmar Fudd crossover. They were genuinely awesome and mostly stand-alone from the rest of his meandering and far less interesting run.
King’s main problem was he got caught up in the idea of a 100+ issue run, and stretched out maybe 24 issues worth of material beyond the breaking point. It wasn’t entirely awful, but having read it all, there’s not much that I would ever come back to beyond those Weeks issues.
Batman/Catwoman, the pseudo-sequel is a far stronger piece, limited as it is to 12 issues.
King’s main problem was he got caught up in the idea of a 100+ issue run, and stretched out maybe 24 issues worth of material beyond the breaking point.
Very much so. I think he got rather lost in it, his best stuff has all been in mini series (or maybe maxi series, for old duffers that remember in the 1980s a mini was 4 issues, a maxi was 12). There’s some very good work in that Batman run but also a lot of mediocre material.
Also Lee Weeks is probably the most underrated artist in comics, I’ve never seen him do anything other than stellar stuff from Daredevil nearly 40 years ago to his Batman in that run yet he never got ‘hot artist’ status at any time.
Agree 100% on Lee Weeks. It’s shocking that someone so good hasn’t had a bigger impact on the industry.
Has he ever had a sustained run on a book other than Daredevil (imagine following Romita Jr/ Williamson on that book and still managing to stamp your own mark on the character too)?
Maybe Lois & Clark, just before DC Rebirth, but even that was more a mini-series (although it did have a pretty massive impact on the Superman books and DC, I suppose, bringing back the post- Crisis Clark Kent and introducing Jon Kent to the family).
I genuinely wonder why he hasn’t done more. Is he slow? Bored easily? Just not interested? Does he have a big profile outside of comics?
Either way, I love his art. Such a timeless quality to it.
Has he ever had a sustained run on a book other than Daredevil (imagine following Romita Jr/ Williamson on that book and still managing to stamp your own mark on the character too)?
It’s a fair point, he did seem to disappear for a long while, usually that’s lucrative work in storyboards or advertising, either way he is really great and should be celebrated more.
Lee Weeks is one of those comics artists who know, without any flash or gimmicks, how to tell a story with such precision and skill that the reader doesn’t even take notice of the effort involved. Like Michael Lark or Sean Phillips or Charles Adlard, Weeks follows in the footsteps of pioneers like Alex Raymond who “know” anatomy and pacing and perspective and the proper use of black space, and make it look easier than it is.
In the final issue of Deadly Class there’s a monologue about endings that felt so auto-biographical. Remender screwed up the ending of Black Science so badly a couple of years ago that it retroactively turned that series to shit. Harsh? Maybe. Doesn’t make it any less truthful. He chooses to do the opposite with Deadly Class though and it is a far better, emotionally satisfying ending as a result. Bad things happen. Not everyone makes it out alive. But, the destination doesn’t invalidate the journey.
Of the three long form books that Rick launched following his Marvel departure, Deadly Class was the one I was least interested in. Yet, it’s perhaps the strongest and most consistent overall.
Credit to Wes Craig and Lee Loughridge for the captivating artwork throughout all 57 issues of this book. On the surface less flashy than their contemporaries, but with impeccable storytelling that really sold this world and the characters that inhabit it.
Great stuff all round. I’ll miss this book.
Same here. Going to be a while though, OHC4 got moved to August!
I envy you guys. If you’re experiencing this book for the first time you’ve got a pretty wild ride in front of you!
The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire – Volumes I-IV
This was definitely worth holding off to read as a set. Although, I wonder if there will be a fifth volume as the series went on to 1976 and the material in Volume IV goes up to March 1975.
Like with Lawrence’s earlier work, Karl The Viking, there’s an intriguing level of ambiguity in the story. On the one hand Trigo and the Trigans are deemed the best side, but on the other, they are running an empire with everything that entails. Having read it I can see an influence on Mega-City One and the Judges in these respects.
Though not the only artist, Lawrence provided the bulk of the fully painted art that set the standard for the series. Art that matches work done 40-50 years later.
Issuing this in OHC size format was a good move, though paperbacks, the compression still keeps the pages readable. As the originals would be broadsheet sized.
In the density of its stories a clear influence can be seen on the later 2000AD. That influence being both doing as much as you can with the space you have and not dumbing down the story.
The quality of the oversized paperbacks is execellent. The paper shows off the art perfectly. There’s new lettering too, the second volume has an extra that shows the original lettering. Volumes one and two have introductions from Lawrence’s apprentices – Liam Sharp and Chris Weston.
All in all, this was a great read of forty odd stories, of varied nature. It is both of its time but has a timeless quality that enables it to jump the years. It is a superb set and well worth buying.
Batman / Catwoman HC
Much like how Batman: The Three Jokers was an odd, outside of continuity answer to a question in Johns’ Justice League run, so is this King’s version and sort of sequel to his Batman run.
Does it work? It depends on how much you like, or do not, the Bat-Cat romance concept. King obviously likes the idea a lot but for myself? It doesn’t really work that well and it is the lynchpin of the entire series. Second is the relationship between Selina and Helena, which is also stereotypical and feels hollow, with Selina being rendered as a conflict junkie.
The art combination of Mann and Sharp is OK. The story does a good job of indicating its time shifts but also acts as a demonstration of why DC doesn’t do much in terms of time passing by.
Should King continue trying to write Batman? With the right story he can be excellent, the early part of his Batman run, plus scattered pieces of it later and Killing Time prove it, but this wasn’t the right story.
Immortal Hulk OHC5
Given Marvel’s tendencies on trades, I was surprised they finished Ewing’s run in OHC format and didn’t opt for jumping straight to a bank-buster Omnibus.
As to the story, it’s accurate to say this title started off as horror but it then went to mix and splice genres left, right and centre. For this final set of issues it has Hulk slowly recovering from his defeats, then it all goes off in the super-sized finale of issue #50.
Does that go the way it is expected to? Well, if a traditional superhero smackdown with revelations and answers was it, no that is not supplied here. Does what is work? I’m not sure about it. I can see what Ewing was going for but it makes for a weird conclusion. One that is very true to the variable nature of the book though.
A good set of reads:
Radiant Red
Part of the Massive-verse this is, like the other books, well executed superheroics. It isn’t reinventing or deconstructing anything, just spinning good stories.
What its stories are built around – and this one is certainly so – is the idea that if a superhero is supposed to be better with the powers they get, then that needs to be reflected in the person too. In that respect the Massive-verse is as much an exploration of atonement and redemption as it is superheroes.
This series also has Lafuente on art, and it’s always good seeing his work.
Seven Secrets: Volume 3
Boom seem to be doing this three volume, short series structure on a few stories – Wild’s End and We Only Find Them When They’re Dead. Clearly it works for them and the teams on the books.
This is an excellent conclusion to a series that knew where it wanted to go, to do and was not afraid of ending.
In this volume Taylor wraps up everything, pays off plots set running from the first issue, throwing in various twists that really do change everything, but which also all make sense with the story.
Brink: Book Five
How does Dan Abnett do it? He keeps putting out story after story, every one of them a banger. This one took longer to hook me at the start but once I was past that tipping point….
This volume is a parallel story, which ends as you expect it to – you can see the writing on the wall for the character – but that doesn’t make it bad. As to where it goes from here I have no idea but I’ll be back for the next one.
Catwoman: Lonely City
Wonderfully presented as a squarebound OHC which really shows off Chiang’s work, thus was a delight to read. It’s also great to have this completed, as the release date kept getting bumped.
After King’s super competitive psychopath take, Chiang does a much better version of Catwoman, which shows the appeal of the character. It’s similar to Darwyn Cooke’s take too.
At the same time this also shows up just how much can be done with the freedom of the Black Label line. Chiang doesn’t just do a new take on Gotham but also the various characters. Who knew a well built version of Poison Ivy would work so well? Ivy is still the same character, just looks a little different.
That attention to details really makes this work. From Seliba flat-sharing with Killer Croc, who forgets to flush, to how she crosses paths again with Riddler, Penguin, Two-Face and, in one case, their kid, it all flows brilliantly.
If you have any interest in comics, you have to read this.
How does Dan Abnett do it?
The guy astonishes me, he puts out so much material (add his frequent novels to the comics work) and yet it’s all really good and very varied.
He’s also become pretty vital to 2000ad since Pat Mills stopped churning out material for them.
Some good news, the Rogues trade from DC is a square OHC! Dimensions on the entry suggested it was standard. Might still be going for £15.17 at BooksEtc.
Talking of, they also have the OHC collection Our Encounters With Evil that collects a trio of Mignola graphic novels for £22.45.
A good quartet.
Devil’s Highway Volume 2
For all that it could continue, this feels like a conclusion. A smart take on the serial killer story, this picks up threads from the first story and ties them off. Art is excellent, same as the preceding volume.
Climate Chronicles
A follow-up to Covid Chronicles, this uses the same format – 10 short stories, each highlighting an aspect of climate change. Well worth reading.
Join The Future
Maybe this was intended to be more, as it had a Volume 1, like Kapkan’s other Aftershock book, Lost City Explorers. As they’ve filed for bankruptcy, a single volume it is.
Fortunately Kaplan doesn’t leave anything hanging, preferring to bring his story to a close. In a way this future western is a story of insecurity being covered up with violence and coercion. Which is very true to the genre.
Metal Society
A far future set tale where a robot society revives their long extinct predecessors. What Kapkan sketches out is a tale of one lifeform emulating another, while not knowing why; of individuals versus the group mob; of how the past shapes the present.
Some see the final issue as being too delayed, that its events could have been told sooner. If they had been, there wouldn’t be the understanding of each side that the story needs the reader to have.
Yes, I ordered a big omnibus book from them a while back that was showing as in stock and in the end they admitted they didn’t have it and cancelled the order.
It’s a little irritating as current availability issues mean that sometimes the window of opportunity to get these books is quite narrow, and so dicking around with an order for a book they don’t have is a waste of time.
I’ll be honest, having previously been a regular customer I haven’t shopped with them in some time now. Things seemed to go downhill with the website relaunch.
It’s a pain in the arse and it tends to happen when they get the big omnibuses early.
They still have the best discounts on Marvel omnibuses but you have to wait for your monent. On the Knights of Pendragon omnibus they tried charging £80 a week or so back, it’s now down to £67.50.
But that’s only a couple of quid cheaper than SpeedyHen who now charge £69-70 for the big RRP £117.99 / $125 volumes.
Meanwhile….
Arrowsmith Volume 2
It was sad reading this final work of Carlos Pacheco. Yet that is no reason to avoid it. The story is excellent and wonderfully illustrated. Its only flaw is it needs a continuation – one that I hope Busiek finds a way to do.
Powers: The Best Ever
This sounds like a selected stories collection but is instead the finale to the series! This was slipped out in 2020 too.
It’s an OK, years later tale, one they probably had in mind all along. It allows the story to go anywhere while capping it off whenever the cancellation axe fell.
Powers might be said to be among the most Bendis style books by Bendis, but it also shows how and why this style can work so well.
The Night Eaters: Volume 1: She Eats the Night
A new horror trilogy from the Monstress team, this is a good opener. The story is one of generational schism, of Asian tiger mothers and their kids, along with the more relaxed father. It is to their credit that the story doesn’t rely upon the stereotypes it could have.
As to what is going on, with horror stories, it’s better to say as little as possible. I liked how it wound up, this opening tale concluded while laying seeds for the next volume.
It’s the first series plus all the one-shots and tie-ins.
Hopefully there’ll be a Death Metal Omnibus at some point.
It’s a 700 page or so book.
Once & Future v.5 TPB: The Wasteland
I really enjoyed this final collection. It brings the whole story together very well, packing in tons of great twists, some brilliant cliffhangers (and resolutions) and a nice sense of closure and completeness to the whole thing.
Plus Dan Mora’s art is fantastic – the series as a whole has really benefited from his distinctive, angular designs and Tamra Bonvillain’s vivid neon colours.
Even the lettering serves the book really well, making potentially confusing scenes clearer and adding some life to proceedings.
My only real criticism of this final arc is that there’s almost too much going on – the breathless pacing makes it feel like Gillen was cramming in twenty issues worth of story into six, to wind the series up at #30 rather than beyond.
And while that’s a slight shame, it doesn’t detract too much from what has been a really fun read overall.
Today I reread this for what must be the first time in about a decade, and it was just as good as I remember it.
Millar’s blockbuster script is constantly dynamic and engaging and packed with ideas and great setpieces, and JR jr’s art is excellent throughout.
If Disney+ had any sense they’d work up a TV version of this now that they’ve got the X-Men back. The episodic nature would work great for a miniseries and they could have lots of fun with MCU cameos.
Plus I also love that final concentration camp-set one-shot issue with Kaare Andrews. A perfect little cherry on top of a great run.
Overall I think it’s a good example of how you can be inventive and original within the framework of company owned superhero books. Not sure we have many Big Two books at this level today.
News just in:
Lazarus OHCs 1-3 reprints 28 June 2023.
Lazarus OHC4 due Q4 2023!
I’ll get the 4th HC but I’ll probably just end up waiting to read it until the series wraps up in the 5th. So around 2027 then..Its a great series, but the scheduling has been horrendous.
Yep. Just a final 12 issue run to go. It is one of my all time favourite books. I adore this series. But, man, the scheduling of Risen went so far off the rails it’s not even funny. I know there were extenuating circumstances for the creative team, and that all takes precedence over the events of a comic book, but it was such a scheduling disaster I can’t see how it won’t have impacted the book.
Prodigy: Volume 2: The Icarus Society
If you read stories for tales of deadly jeopardy or risk for the lead character, this isn’t the book for you. If you don’t mind about that lack then this story of an exasperatingly smug smartarse oursmarting other exasperatingly smug smartarses will work fine.
This was easily Millar’s best work in ages. The story allows him to have fun with history while telling a story of rich bastards messing up the world, with a load of humour on top. Art is good too.
This is comic fast food at its finest. You don’t need to read this, it isn’t revolutionary, but it is fun, disposable entertainment.
It also lacks the unpleasant edge to the characters in both King of Spies and the first two volumes of The Magic Order.
At the start of December I made an early New Year’s Resolution to finally clear out my TPB to-read pile. Took two months, but finally did it.
About 6’4″ of comics. A lot of stuff I’d read before, but lots of new things too. I liked most of it!
Reread this today after enjoying the other Millar Wolverine book so much recently. It really holds up. McNiven’s art is great and the story unfurls really nicely with a fun remix approach to the Marvel Universe.
This will go nicely next to the upcoming FF omnibus (that also contains 1985) given the way all the stories tie together.
Jesus, Paul, that’s one hell of a pile!
I really hope you didn’t want to start with anything at the bottom.
At the start of December I made an early New Year’s Resolution to finally clear out my TPB to-read pile. Took two months, but finally did it.
About 6’4″ of comics. A lot of stuff I’d read before, but lots of new things too. I liked most of it!
Christ almighty!..I’m so easily distracted and such a slow reader, that it takes me a week of two just to make my way through a decently sized hardcover..My to read bookcase will never be clear.
My to read bookcase will never be clear.
Which is as it should be. Always.
Looking forward to Absolute Superman For All Seasons. As I have the original comics I’ve missed or skipped it in hardcover twice now. It didn’t feel like it warranted the upgrade, but the Absolute edition looks gorgeous.
This is my favourite piece of their work (closely followed by Spider-Man Blue). I’ve even pre-ordered it from Forbidden Planet to reduce the risk of missing out.
I’ve bought Superman for All Seasons in HC, then upgraded to the Deluxe HC, and even then I might have to go for the Absolute. It’s a beautiful book in ways that go beyond the visual, but the art definitely warrants the oversized treatment. Maybe the best ever Loeb/Sale collaboration.
June: Wonder Woman Historia HC
This will be well worth picking up too, the art is gorgeous.
This is my favourite piece of their work (closely followed by Spider-Man Blue).
Talking of which, did you see there’s a Gallery Edition of that series on the way? A decent price for such a giant book.
I hadn’t, but that is tempting too. I do have all four of their “colour” books in OHC already so I might just stick with those.
. I do have all four of their “colour” books in OHC already so I might just stick with those.
Same. These gallery editions are nice though.
Amazon listings can be very unreliable. Probably just a glitch at their end.
Did we know about this?
The Nice House on the Lake Deluxe Edition Hardcover – Oct. 17 2023
Everyone who was invited to the house knows Walter—well, they know him a little, anyway. Some met him in childhood; some met him months ago. And Walter’s always been a little…off.
But after the hardest year of their lives, nobody was going to turn down Walter’s invitation to an astonishingly beautiful house in the woods, overlooking an enormous sylvan lake. It’s beautiful, it’s opulent, it’s private—so a week of putting up with Walter’s weird little schemes and nicknames in exchange for the vacation of a lifetime? Why not?
All of them were at that moment in their lives when they could feel themselves pulling away from their other friends; wouldn’t a chance to reconnect be…nice? In The Nice House on the Lake, the overriding anxieties of the 21st century get a terrifying new face—and it might just be the face of the person you once trusted most.
Collects The Nice House on the Lake #1-12.
Print length – 400 pages
ISBN-10 – 177952157X
ISBN-13 – 978-1779521576
It’s definitely a season finale rather than a conclusion.
Public Domain: Volume 1
This is a very, very sharply fun examination of comics and companies, of how the latter treats the creators of the former, especially where superheroes are concerned. It’s also a great example of Zdarsky’s skills as a writer-artist.
The only thing I’m uncertain of is if there is enough here to continue the story but happy to see where it goes.
That Texas Blood: Volume 3
This excellent crime series continues to be excellent.
This volume is built around a serial killer turning up in a blizzard. The story starts, builds and concludes well with excellent art.
And it’s the art that boosts this particular volume. How hard is it to draw snow? It isn’t easy and there’s a lot of it in this story. At the same time there are some heavy emotional hits that are conveyed by silent sequences that are very effective.
The Incal: Psycho-Verse
A prequel to The Incal, this works both as an intro for those new to it and a reminder for those, like me, for whom it’s been a while.
After a few quiet years its also good having Humanoids back. This is the first of a series of Incal stories told by others with Jodorowsky’s go-ahead. Russell and Paquette spin a tale of world destroying nuns, while placing the characters for where they need to be.
Well worth looking at regardless of if you’ve read The Incal or not.
Batman: The Batman’s Grave
This series got hit badly by the revelations of Ellis being a crapbag in his personal life. Yet, this is work-for-hire so Elis was already paid and it has Hitch on art, who was the bigger draw for me.
For the most part, this is a well told story and one where Ellis is smart enough to let Hitch tell it via silent sequences. The only flaw in it is the Ellis didn’t know how to end it so the final pages fall flat.
I’ve been reading Lone Wolf And Cub recently, I only managed to get a few early volumes when the current translations were printed but got the lot in a Kazuo Koike Humble Bundle a couple of years ago and decided to plunge in late last year. I’m jut about at the halfway mark and it remains phenomenal. While the ongoing story is meted out in dribs and drabs there are chapters of incredible intensity, such as a direct confrontation between Itto Ogami and his arch-enemy Retsudo Yagyu which leaves both injured, the story’s strength frequently lies in the individual stories of loss, duty, honour and revenge.
One that struck me incredibly began with a woman doing essentially a strip show which runs afoul of the Yakuza. The man running the show bargains with them and agrees to do the show at a gathering of gangsters where there’ll be drinking and gambling and they want entertainment. The gangster sent to lean on them decides to have sex with the woman and we discover that she’s got an intellectual disability and the man running the show has to coax her into sex by beginning the show again. It’s only at this point that Itto appears in the story, partaking in the gambling – but even then he remains passive and we discover that the Yakuza who set up the gathering burned the man’s house down, scarring him horribly, killing his child, and breaking his wife – the woman doing the show – mentally. He enacts a bloody revenge and at this point Itto kills the man and woman – paid his assassin’s wage to bring the bloody saga to a conclusion. He’s got barely three lines of dialogue in the entire chapter, and the morality on show is so utterly alien to modern Western sensibilities, and it’s fascinating to me.
There’s another one in the volume I just finished, where a Ronin turned teacher slaughters his way through a lord’s retinue and kills the lord for his harsh and immoral exploitation of the land. The peasants found the Ronin’s wife and child dead – though suicide and realise that he’s undertaken this violence to save them from being killed in an inevitably rebellion. He’s arrested and because of the lord’s behaviour he’s given the right to commit suicide following a period of house arrest. During this time he encounters Daigoro, Itto’s young son in the garden, they play together and the Ronin realises Daigoro only comes when it’s sunny out, so when he’s given approval to commit seppuku he chooses to do so on the next rainy day. On the following sunny day Daigoro pokes his head through a hedge, doesn’t see the Ronin and from off-frame we hear Itto call him, and he leaves. The story ends here. It’s incredibly powerful and while there’s some nobility to the Ronin’s actions, I feel that Daigoro’s perspective being in the story is to show the pointlessness of it. The story is very careful to give enough room for interpretation and doesn’t seem to make a judgement either way. It’s fantastic storytelling.
A book about comics rather than a TPB, but this arrived today:
Feral and Foe
Another banger from Abnett and Elson. This one is high fantasy and is a lot of fun. Some of the jokes don’t always land but a lot do.
Rogues
This Black Label tale is a good showcase for the imprint. A superpowered spin on ‘the one last job’ tale, it works well. Art is OK but has a bit of a grab bag of artists on the final issue.
Suicide Squad: Blaze
This is an Ennis-level superhero deconstruction story that hits everything it aimed at. At the same time there is a smattering of sharp satire. Think of Spurrier’s Hellblazer run and the same is here.
The version of Waller depicted is very close to a UK right-wing schoolteacher turned politician, but due to that, even if she deigned to notice something as common as comics, would have little in the way to object. If anything she’d likely like Waller’s outlook and policies!
The superhero examination is based around the idea of superpowers being uncontrollable. Along with a side of governments and militaries being really, really stupid while believing they’re being so smart and realistic.
Campbell’s art is superb and well matched to this pitch black tale of self-inflicted armageddon.
Really wasn’t sure what to expect from this one, but it’s an great little book.
Really wasn’t sure what to expect from this one, but it’s an great little book.
Spurrier’s voice really worked for me on that one. A really entertaining story that goes places you don’t necessarily expect.
Two good Library editions from Dark Horse:
Our Encounters With Evil
A collection of short stories of supernatural extermination and punishment, this was a fun read. It’s independent of the wider Mignolaverse titles but I wouldn’t rule out a crossover or link-up in the future.
Art is OK. It’s very much on the cartooning side of style and it does what it needs to.
Blackwood
This manages to be a riot of fun and a fresh take on the very well-used magic school story. It does this with a good set of characters and a wry sense of humour.
At the sane time the art is bold with a great use of colour.
The combination makes for a very fun read.
Ascender
Granted, I was expecting a lot from this as its predecessor Descender was superb. It also has one of the most devastating follow throughs, all the way to the end, of any story going.
Even so, it still smashed it out of the park and into orbit. The new characters meshed perfectly with the older, returning ones. There Nyguen’s glorious watercolour art style.
Above all, it is a story and sequel with an amazing sense of balance. Of exactly how much to screw things up with a new enemy, but of how to enable the heroes, old and new, to be active in opposing it. Of where to set the challenges and setbacks, ups and downs. And it knows when to bring the curtain down.
Do read Descender before this, but don’t miss this either.
In advance of Beyond the White Knight’s conclusion this week, I thought that I would finally get round to reading Batman: White Knight Presents Harley Quinn. I bought the comics back in 2021, but life got in the way, and I never read them until now.
Set in Murphy’s Batman universe, shortly after the events of Curse of the White Knight, this series by Katana Collins, Matteo Scalera and Dave Stewart is a wonderful little side story. Fitting seamlessly into that world, you never feel like this is a fill in. It’s that good.
I’m not familiar with Collins prior work, but this was really well written. With humour and personality.
And, the art by Scalera and Stewart holds its own against Murphy’s. It helps that they share a similar aesthetic style, but there are some gorgeous visuals throughout.
If anyone skipped this for the lack of Murphy’s involvement (he only co-plotted this chapter) I would recommend rethinking that decision. This was great.
Yeah I’ve picked up all the White Knight stuff, even the spinoffs, and the Harley mini was pretty good. The art in particular is very nice.
