.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’m sure Beyond at least will get an OHC. The OHCs for the first two minis are really smart.
Seems that way. Will likely be a while before we get there though. Murphy wants I do something else in the interim (rumoured to be Zorro).
Seems that way. Will likely be a while before we get there though. Murphy wants I do something else in the interim (rumoured to be Zorro).
I think it’s now more than a rumour, he spoke on Millar’s youtube series about it recently.
Camelot Falls is awfully tempting. Will look great next to my Avengers Forever OHC.
The first issue of Green Hell came out early 2022. The second issue last week, almost a year later. It is Prestige Plus format.
I’ve been rereading these over the past week. What a great series – one of the best of those militaristic ‘superheroes in the real world’ books that were so popular in the early 2000s, with some great, smart, genuinely adult writing from JMS and fantastic art throughout from Gary Frank.
From memory though it’s not worth continuing past this initial 18-issue run. They tried to capitalise on its popularity by relaunching it as a non-MAX all-ages version and it wasn’t the book it once was. They also milked it with a few inferior spinoff series and an Ultimate universe crossover. Typical Marvel. It feels like a real shame that the series petered out as it did.
I’m still tempted to reread those continuations though to refresh my memory.
But it’s a missed opportunity either way as the initial 18 issues only really feel like the first act of what could have been a much larger story. I could read another 100 issues of this MAX version easily.
People give JMS a lot of shit for how his mainstream comics tend to fizzle out and forget that he’s actually a pretty fantastic writer when he’s left alone to get on with it. He seems pretty forthright about not giving a fuck and walking away from things that aren’t working. Which rubs people up the wrong way sometimes. I guess some of that comes from being a “celeb” writer from outside the mainstream comic world. But, to my mind, none of that takes away from just how good a large chunk of his work actually is. Supreme Power is a great example of all of that.
When he sees it through, yeah, can be great.
The problem for me was JMS walked away midway on too many runs on too many books. I got to the point where I had no trust in his delivery. B5 suggests he isn’t really a corporate superheroes writer, that’s OK, not everyone is.
I prefer writers who finish their books.
People give JMS a lot of shit for how his mainstream comics tend to fizzle out and forget that he’s actually a pretty fantastic writer when he’s left alone to get on with it. He seems pretty forthright about not giving a fuck and walking away from things that aren’t working. Which rubs people up the wrong way sometimes. I guess some of that comes from being a “celeb” writer from outside the mainstream comic world. But, to my mind, none of that takes away from just how good a large chunk of his work actually is. Supreme Power is a great example of all of that.
I agree. A lot of his runs that ended badly were as much due to editorial meddling as anything he did, and I respect him for walking away when he’s not in a position to tell a story his way.
Anyway, rereading and enjoying Supreme Power has prompted me to finally check out Rising Stars. I’ve had the TPBs on my shelf for a while now but hadn’t got around to it. So far I’m enjoying it.
It’s been a long time since I read Rising Stars, but I remember enjoying it overall. It suffered from artistic inconsistency, massive delays, and JMS learning the ropes of comics writing. It was also one of those situations where I believe JMS fell out with Top Cow and refused to finish the series for a long time. Although at this time I can’t remember what was at the heart of that disagreement.
Edit: it was a disagreement about the movie rights for the property.
Bat-Tynion
Is this better than Tynion’s ‘Tec run? No. Is it bad? Also no. It’s a good run but not the equal of its predecessor. The main reason for this is this isn’t the ‘Tec book, it’s the flagship of the Bat-books and has to take the lead on events. And it’s those that Tynion finds difficult.
Act 1: Their Dark Designs / The Joker War Saga
Picking up the pieces from the very messy aftermath of Bat-King, this opens well with Batman more vilnerable and isolated. That part works well, Punchline? Really doesn’t and Harley Quinn getting worfed by her feels hollow.
It all builds up to a great finale – the Joker raids Batman’s bank account. That’s not good, but it would have been far worse if Ra’s had done it. As it is Joker just uses his new resources for a sustsined spell of utter chaos and carnage that Batman and his allies slowly turn the tide on.
The big weakness of this act is it cannot deliver on what it talks of, a final Batman vs Joker fight. Not a bad thing given act 3 but the later stort only helps this one so much.
Act 2: Ghost Stories / The Cowardly Lot / The Fear State Saga
The first of these is the best, as Clownhunter and Ghostmaker are good additions to the Bat-world. The annual with Stokoe art being a great story of the former.
The second feels like your standard event prologue story, which it is. What I like most here is there’s no super conspiracy, it’s Scarecrow taking advantage of Joker’s actions for his own benefit.
Peacemaker-01? Ehhh, there’s only one Peacemaker in DC and it isn’t this walking mess
Tynion has some fun with the idea of a silicon valley Tech Bro deciding to make a quick buck out of Gotham and having it all go very, very wrong.
Fear State concludes well enough, with the Omega wrapping up most of the threads Tynion started running.
Act 3: The Joker
Told across three collections covering 15 issues and an annual, this is easily the strongest part of Tynion’s run.
Part of that is due to the focus being smaller and more personal, but it is also more restrained. There isn’t the excess of the Joker War finale having Alfred’s corpse re-animated here.
Tynion also uses the run to look at the DC world outside of the US, positioning overt, flashy supervillains as being a more US-only problem.
Where the run is best is in how it uses the DC continuity, both old and new to explore the Joker / Gordon relationship away from Batman.
This is an excellent example of what to do with a villain that cannot be killed off.
Nice review Ben. I fell off Tynion’s Batman run a few volumes in as (like a lot of his work) I felt like it started off very strong but then settled into noodling and wheel-spinning and I lost interest. The early issues were good fun though.
Black Hammer Library Edition Volume 3 Hardcover – Oct. 10 2023
Collects Black Hammer Reborn #1–#12 in a deluxe, oversized hardcover format with a new cover, sketchbook extras, and more!
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INCREDIBLE HULK BY BYRNE & CASEY OMNIBUS Hardcover – Nov. 7 2023
Collecting INCREDIBLE HULK (1968) #468-474, HULK (1999) #1-11, HULK & SUB-MARINER ANNUAL ’98, X-MAN & HULK ANNUAL ’98, HULK ANNUAL ’99 and RAMPAGING HULK (1998) #1-6.
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X-MEN: THE HIDDEN YEARS OMNIBUS Hardcover – Oct. 3 2023
Collecting X-MEN: THE HIDDEN YEARS #1-22, FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #102-104, and material from X-MEN (1991) #94 and AMAZING ADULT FANTASY #14.
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I was thinking of grabbing that sooner rather later for exactly that reason.
I picked this up after enjoying rereading Supreme Power so much. It’s the rebooted non-MAX version of the title, which only lasted seven issues.
To be honest it’s better than I remembered – Gary Frank’s art is as good as ever, and while it definitely does feel like it’s had the edges knocked off a bit, it still feels like a decent enough continuation of what came before.
The biggest problem is the cast suddenly doubling in size – for what was already a slow book in terms of character development, JMS struggles to give a dozen or so characters something meaningful to do. It also feels like the action is a bit more forced and the story about being deployed in the middle east feels a bit more consciously Ultimates.
Then it just ends on a random cliffhanger, never to be continued. Until…
Yeah, I then made the mistake of rereading this continuation too, which starts off pretty average and then goes massively downhill from there.
It’s a weird game of tag for the writers – of nine issues, Bendis writes the first three, JMS the middle three, and Loeb the final three. And it feels like they all have a different idea of what the plot of the book is, so the story gets very disjointed with plotlines that get forgotten or dismissed, and far too many characters from multiple different universes all get crammed into it.
Combined with Greg Land’s weird porn-traced art where characters look different from one panel to the next it all just feels like a big incoherent mess, despite one or two nice little moments.
I’m now wondering whether to move on next to the Chaykin-written 12-issue series that picks up after Ultimate Power, just to see where things go from here. It’s not like it could get any worse.
Arkham Asylum: The Order of the World
This is an excellent Gotham tale. Gotham, not Batman? Yes, Gotham. This is a side story of madness.
The story looks at what happens in the wake of the Joker’s mass murder attack on Arkham Asylum. Where do the surving inmates go? What is the response from Gotham citizens? What is the risk profile? As not everyone in Arkham was a supervillain.
Watters then spins it into a tale of a psychistric doctor trying to find value in her work. She does this knowing that that attempt is failing. Along the way she crosses paths with various Arkham villains, descending further and further into it all.
At the same time Azrael is back and what Watters does with him here has me intrigued for the trade due July. Here Azrael cuts a far scarier figure, and that’s before he brings out the flaming sword.
Art is by Dani, not someone I know but their work conjures up the right atmosphere for the book. A sense of unease, of things bring off-kilter.
Been reading King’s Batman stuff (on amazon unlimited) and while I quite liked it, you can definitely say that long-form Batman stories isn’t what King should be writing. Also, while I usually like that couples dynamics play a big role in King’s stories, The Batman/Catwoman thing felt overly fetishised/too much wish fulfillment.
I did love his Strange Adventures, on the other hand. Played to all his strengths.
There’s an omnibus of Jeff Parker’s Thunderbolts out in December too.
Monster-Sized Hellboy coming in August 2023, for those of you who want all your favorite Hellboy stories in one 1,500+ page book.
To my mind, Ian Edginton is up there with Dan Abnett and Ken Niemand as 2000AD MVPs. They’re producing consistently entertaining stuff on a regular and recurring basis.
It’s a shame, therefore, that Stone Island landed with such a thud. I read the TPB collecting both series in the last few days, and it was one of the few books I have really struggled to finish.
Simon Davis’ artwork didn’t help, to be fair (as I’m not a fan), but the sci-fi horror mashup just didn’t work for me at all.
Relentlessly gruesome, with no subtlety or tension. It just felt excessive and a missed opportunity for something genuinely scary. Truly awful.
Love both of those. I wouldn’t necessarily write them off, Ben. I think both need another series to be published in the comic first in order to fill out another TPB. Brass Sun was three series to a TPB, and Stickleback two, yet both series are on vol 5 in the comic, IIRC. Further TPB’s May still happen.
Ironically I think the 2000AD Ultimate Collection editions have reprinted everything in both series to date. They might be worth hunting down if you’re keen to catch up in the interim.
Ah, that’s good to hear! Because those numbers stack up.
Clearly a duo to keep trade waiting on.
Yeah I think Vikram is right, it’s not a collection problem, neither Brass Sun or Stickleback have been in the prog for ages. According the Bras Sun wiki page the last time it appeared was 2018 – so 5 years ago now.
I doubt in the case of Brass Sun at least that it’s a popularity issue as they did those US market editions as a book they were pushing so maybe it’s a creative problem along the way.
On a related note I saw Pat Mills mention he fancied finishing off his Flesh story and was going to speak to Rebellion so it looks like he didn’t fall out with them (which was being speculated a while back) but just moved on to other stuff.
I’ve been reading Riad Sattouf’s Arab Of The Future, and just got done with the second volume.
I knew his work from the great Esther’s Notebooks, and these offer the same excellent well-observed cartooning, but tell a very different and autobiographical story about his family and his youth growing up between France, Libya and Syria.
It’s maybe a bit obvious to use Persepolis as a reference point but I was definitely reminded of it while reading this, as there’s the same mix of personal life story, well-observed universal family anecdotes, and interesting and educational historical context. Although of the two, I think Sattouf is the more polished artist, with a deceptively simple style that can switch between tones really effectively (the book covers some fairly serious and dark material at times).
Hopefully I’ll be able to find volumes 3 and 4 for a reasonable price, as it looks like they’re already out of print (like volume 2).
And then after that I guess I’ll have to pick up the original French versions of volumes 5 and 6, as it seems like the English translations stop at that point, similar to the English versions of Esther’s Notebooks stopping after book 3. A shame as Sattouf is a really gifted cartoonist who deserves to reach an even wider audience than he does already.
Good to see this omnibus back in print. It won’t be for everyone but if you like the Venom era of Spidey, and art from the likes of McFarlane, Larsen and Bagley, then it’s a great collection that runs from Secret Wars #8 all the way through Maximum Carnage.
If nothing else, BooksEtc package omnibuses very well.
Also, on their Marvel prices, there has been a small fall recently that I hope is both permanent and continuing.
Ordered one from Booksetc. Hope it actually arrives. Not had the greatest luck with them recently.
I got mine from them too, so hopefully that bodes well.
Batman: Detective Comics: Shadows of the Bat: The Tower HC
A 12-part weekly tale built around things go very wrong at the new Arkham Tower, this was a good event story and an effective follow-up to Fear State.
With Batman off the board for the majority of the story, it gives space for the other members of the Bat-family to take spotlight. This works very well.
Art is supplied by a trio of artists with complimentary styles. All are very good, though it would have been nice to have more Reis art.
This is a good finale story for Tamaki’s run.
Life Zero HC
Often the best stories are the ones you don’t know about, the ones other people tip you off to. And it is so here. Published by Ablaze, this is a fresh take on the zombie genre with art by Chechetto.
It’s his art, plus the excellent colours, that really makes the story shine.
The story of a black ops unit on one last job is well known by now, but this still throws in several surprises. The cast is well characterised, you care about what happens to them. And some bad things happen to a few of them.
Those plot bombs are perfectly placed and are detonated at just the right moment. And in the end? The story knows when to stop.
The Lion & The Eagle
“My son is a good boy, the old man told me. He will look after you.”
It might be thought that Garth Ennis would have ran out of WW2 stories by now. Such is the nature of that conflict, however, is that it is more likely Ennis runs out of comic companies to publish them first.
Vertigo, Dynamite, Avatar, Aftershock – for all the way corporate superheroes love to invoke the language of war and violence, actual war comics don’t sell that well. With Aftershock in a bad way, hopefully someone will be around to publish future stories.
This series is about the forgotten conflict with Japan and brings up aspects not talked of. Like how for China WW2 started in 1931 when Japan invaded. It looks at how the alliance between the US and Britain, and even each part of it, was far from united against a common enemy.
Ennis lays it out with his usual skill. Characters are quickly established, placed in terrible situations and then left to it. British, Indians and Gurkhas, behind enemy lines, without the support they were promised.
There’s an excellent pair of prologue and epilogue sections. Where a British and Chinese officer talk of the way things are. The epilogue is especially good, China has gone communist, Japan is occupied, the Cold War in full flow. What was all of it for? It’s become harder to tell years afterwards. Yet Ennis refuses to go the cynical route, Imperial Japan did have to be stopped. The British Empire was no angel to India either. Ennis goes for the details to show how it was and how, if not for how WW2 played out, it could have been.
Holden’s art is superb. He’s called on to depict everything and anything. Gurkhas running rampant through the Japanese, kukris slashing and carnage everywhere. Aerial combat. Quieter, more emotiobal sequences. And the last page of the story is devastating.
The only flaw here is Aftershock’s choice of format. It should have been a hardback, the same as Into The Blue. The paper is, due to the greater page size, a bit too floppy.
Overall this is your usual excellent war story from Ennis and, as usual, you should read it.
Yeah I Ben I would second your comments on the Lion & the Eagle.
I’ve always loved Ennis war stuff but he seems to be getting even better at it as he gets older.
I thought it was terrific and Holden has really developed another tone to his art in recent years, he’s far better at conveying drama and serious tones than he used to be.
SpeedyHen have the Tom Strong Compendium up for pre-order for £34.05:
https://www.speedyhen.com/Product/Alan-Moore/Tom-Strong-Compendium/28948146
I decided to reread Miracleman as The Silver Age is finally being published and it holds up really well, I gotta say. I find it interesting that Moore The Original Writer’s run sorta meanders for half the time and then speedruns through to Bates’ attack on London, but it’s clear that the conclusion was planned well in advance from that one Warrior Special that came out early on and had a framing device of Marvelman and one of the Warpsmiths travelling through time to gather energy for the battle… Anyway, I’ve long said that it’s a shame Watchmen is the 80s Moore Superhero deconstruction that caught on as an influence and not this, as the story is far more radical and at the end positive than Watchmen. The idea of superheroes taking over the world and instilling a utopia is a very interesting one that tends to to get explored properly, or it ends up like Squadron Supreme or The Authority with well-intentioned extremism or some other way to return to the status quo and an admonition to never do big change.
Comparing Moore’s Miracleman run’s end to Watchmen you can see that all Adrian did was prevent nuclear war, possibly only for a short period of time, and committed mass murder on an inhuman scale to do so, while Miracleman’s utopia is in order to prevent another mass murder by others, the realisation that life is precious and needs help to reach its full potential. Miracleman’s last moment is one of doubt, but it’s the natural doubt of someone who hopes they’re doing the right thing. I feel like the last scene between Jon and Adrian in Watchmen shows how the latter is thinking too small – the whole “in the end… I did the right thing?”/”Nothing ends” exchange.
And that of course brings me to The Golden Age, which I’ll admit I’ve never been a huge fan of but I liked a lot more this time around. I appreciate that it shows how life isn’t just perfect in the utopia – people still have affairs, there’s a lot of future shock around the changes to the world, but for the most part things are better. I know that the first time I read through it I was a bit frustrated with the vignette-style of storytelling, something I’m also not fond of in Sandman, but I liked how everything came together in the end with the carnival issue and I think that keeping that in mind helped this time.
My readthrough this time was the Marvel reproduction and I’m in two minds about the changes both in terms of recolouring and lettering, and the removal of some racist language from the Moore issues. I’ve seen far worse remasters of old comics and I appreciate that they preserve a lot of the original art in the backmatter, but I also think that smoothing out the language in a book that’s clearly marked as for mature readers is more problematic. It doesn’t hurt the work but there’s much worse racism in early comics that gets reprinted on occasion with little change because it doesn’t use a specific word. A commentary on acceptability and changes to culture over the ages, as you see on say DVD collections of old Looney Tunes cartoons would be a better way to address it. Thankfully that attitude doesn’t cross over to other controversial elements in the books like the graphic childbirth or full-frontal male and transgender nudity at points. I’m very much looking forward to the conclusion of the saga at long last.
Great write-up Lorcan, I agree with pretty much all you said there. I think Miracleman is the more daring Moore work, but that also makes it hard to follow up so I think Gaiman did pretty well considering, although I don’t think his stuff has quite the same ambition as Moore’s run. Haven’t read Silver age yet though.
Also I agree on the remastering/colouring, removing some of the racist and homophobic language from Moore’s run defangs it and makes for a blander read in places. Plus (as with Swamp Thing) I still prefer the vivid older colours, however crude, to the slick modern gradients that in my eyes don’t suit the material.
Silver Age is 4 issues in right now, 2 past where the original run ended. It’s really interesting, issue 4 was a great character piece about one of the first new people to get superpowers in the Age of Miracles.
I was just double-checking the big list of Marvel Epic Collections on wikipedia (to make sure my spreadsheet is up to date – yes, I have a spreadsheet. It’s the best way to keep track of them giving they’re coming out non-sequentially and across about 30 odd series now). A few interesting things of note:
There’s a second Hawkeye volume out soon. It’s basically just a tpb of Solo Avengers (later Avengers Spotlight) which was mostly a Hawkeye solo series with back-up stories featuring other Avengers. It is including the back-up strips, thankfully (I can’t imagine where, say, the Dr Druid one would end up otherwise). I wonder if it’ll stick with Avengers Spotlight after it changes its format and isn’t featuring Hawkeye every issue.
Marvel Two-In-One is getting a second volume at the beginning of next year, a mere six years after the first. It’s skipping one issue, presumably due to rights issues over Doc Savage.
There’s a volume 6 of Ghost Rider out in October, which is the start of the Dan Ketch 90s series. Which is how I learned that the original Johnny Blaze series last 81 issues. 81! I thought it burned out after about 15.
And Marvel is going absolutely ham on its new “Modern Era Epic Collection” concept across this year and next, with releases for New Avengers, Dark Avengers, two for Venom (the Flash Thompson version on), Spider-Gwen, two for Loki (mainly Gillen’s Journey Into Mystery), Guardians (side-stepping a lot of the Annihilation stuff for just AC:Starlord and then GotG 1-12) and Spider-Man/Deadpool, of all things.
Given that the Epic Collections are, almost, evergreens (as much as Marvel is capable of that – they reprint them occasionally at least) hopefully they’ll use this to keep some recent-ish stuff in print in comprehensive trades. Gwenpool would be nice. Venom’s interesting actually, as it shows a clear delineation between the normal Epic Collections and the Modern Era ones, with different numbering (Agent Venom is volume 4, somehow, but there’s already five numbered volumes of non-modern Venom, again somehow).
there’s already five numbered volumes of non-modern Venom, again somehow
And that’s just for 1993.
I’ve been rereading DC: The New Frontier in Absolute over the past week and just finished it tonight.
It holds up great – the historical stuff is integrated well, and the story feels truly novelistic in the way it gradually builds to a head with such a large cast – and Cooke’s art feels as fresh as ever.
It strikes me that between him and Tim Sale we’ve lost two of maybe the best modern artists who were able to capture a classic feel for Silver Age superheroes without it just feeling like a pastiche/homage, retaining their own distinct style but also delivering instantly recognisable, timeless versions of these characters.
Silver Age is 4 issues in right now, 2 past where the original run ended. It’s really interesting, issue 4 was a great character piece about one of the first new people to get superpowers in the Age of Miracles.
Like you, I’d recently read the Miracleman omnibus in preparation for this coming out.
I’d picked up some issues through the years and read those, so I’d only read parts of it before so it was a glaring hole in my Moore ‘completion’
I’m trying to grab a cheap copy of The Golden Age on EBay now that I’ve realised the chronology from Moore to Gaiman, but I’ve been picking the singles up of The Silver Age and putting them aside for the meantime.
Good to know that it moves to new material pretty quickly.
Was it this that Buckingham redrew completely, for the issues that have been published already, or am I thinking of something else?
Silver Age 1-2 are redrawn, yeah. There’s layout comparisons in the backmatter, a lot of it is different page composition, changing the flow of the art from panel to panel. It’s quite interesting.
Silver Age 1-2 are redrawn, yeah. There’s layout comparisons in the backmatter, a lot of it is different page composition, changing the flow of the art from panel to panel. It’s quite interesting.
Thanks.
That’s a really interesting approach and it’s a reassuring indication that they are ‘all in’.
I’m going to have another scour of eBay just now for a cheaper copy of Golden Age so I can get onto these.
American Jesus: Volume 3 – Revelation
This is one of those series that looked like it’d never be completed. Now that it is? It’s an interesting finale.
Two-thirds of it is Millar’s usual provocative ticks, but the final third? That’s where it shines. It’s not a new idea for him, as the Authority dealt with the pervert Doctor in a similar way, but it is more forgiving than that one was.
Which is what this series all comes down to in the end. Ideas of forgiveness, growth and understanding.
Valerian and Laureline: Where Stories Are Born
This is a fun little satire on entertainment, both those who make and those who consume it. In the 28th century the story supply is running and chaos results. Cue a cross time caper to correct it all.
Christin and Augustin make for a good creative team. It all flows well and knows when to conclude.
Judge Dredd: Regicide
A very fitting title for an excellent collection of stories. Turns out there’s a 2018 trade I missed, but the way they set this up means it doesn’t matter that I don’t have it.
There’s some brilliant moments in these stories from the very fitting final resolution, to Dredd showing an Orlok clone that he isn’t the original, to Dredd literally ordering a mind-frelled squad of Mechanismo robots back to reality through sheer force of personality, having carved through a couple of elite assassins. It’s all very, very fun.
Now to nab that missing collection.
I’m going to have another scour of eBay just now for a cheaper copy of Golden Age so I can get onto these.
They reprinted the Marvel version of Golden Age in TPB recently, there’s an edition from October 2022 available on Amazon at cover price.
Personally I might wait until all the Gaiman stuff is done and get the inevitable omnibus.
Not sure it’s for everyone but I picked up Tom King and Elsa Charretier’s Love Everlasting volume 1 off the strength of the first issue.
I think it’s quite ambitious from King and it’s going to divide readers but I thought it was great.
I’ve certainly not read anything quite like it before.
I like how he varies the structure of the issues, I found his approach kept things from getting stale and made each issue its own thing. Issue 4 was a particular highlight although I enjoyed all of it.
It’s best diving in cold, which is what I did in the first issue so I wouldn’t want to say too much about it.
Elsa Charretier’s art is terrific. It evokes Darwyn Cooke here and she’s a much better storyteller here than in November, where at times I struggled to work out what I was looking at.
I tend to find King’s non-superhero work to be far better – will give it a look.
The Lonesome Hunters Volume 1
I’m always a bit sceptical of first volumes, so many creatir owned series never go further but Crook feels a more reliable bet. This is a new horror story, of vengeful churches, evil magical magpies and ancient mysteries.
Crook tells it well – the visuals are excellent, the characters well sketched out and the story events flow right.
Roll on Volume 2.
The Kill Lock: The Artisan Wraith
A continuation from the first series, this one is every bit as madly ambitious as the first one. Like with that one, Raimondelli knows it he might not have the opportunity to keep plots running so he starts, developes and concludes them fast.
As such, this feels much closer to the density of a 2000AD book than a US monthly. While the pace is fast, it isn’t so fast so as to feel rushed.
A whole lot of stuff goes down here, with sn ending that leaves the door open for more. It’d be a shame if there isn’t, hopefully there’ll be a third volume of this.
The Metabaron Book 4
For years it looked like this book would not happen. It was to be done by Ribic, which clearly fell apart, so instead Woods takes on the art role. It’s interesting seeing his work outside of superheroes.
As to the story, it’s the usual macho-macho world of violent bastards that is the Jodoverse, and the Metabaron’s attempt to escape it. This was expected to be the final volume but it looks like it might be continuing.
Naomi Season Two HC
The only weakness in this volume is the heavy handed referencing to Bendis’ Justice League run. Bar that it is a lot of fun, well-suited to Bendis’ style with Walker preventing it getting to much so.
Like with the first one, the star of the show is Campbell’s art. It is brilliant. Since seeing his work in Far Sector I will buy anything he does.
A Season Three? Yes please.
@ben Campbell is the new Superman artist on the ongoing just launched with a new number 1, written by Joshua Williamson
I feel his art was a bit more ‘stripped back’ in the first issue than some of his previous work but it’s still very good.
I enjoyed that first issue a lot more than I expected to
Trade dress for the Modern Era Epic Collections.
Impressive that they’ve managed to come up with something even more boring than the normal Epic Collections.
Just got my copy of the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl omnibus. Absolutely massive book – collects all 58 issues of the main series, plus the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe OGN and a handful of tie-ins, like the prequel to last year’s podcast.
It includes all of the letters pages and Previously Ons too, which is a nice touch, and all of the solicitations are collected at the back.
Some Blackwell-fishing for Image books:
Big Game due Dec
Moonshine OHC due end of October! Unexpected, not cheap but probably worth it.
There’s going to be Complete Invincible Library 4, over a decade after the third volume that was out in 2011. That also took aged to come out. Kirkman does a lot of crappy shit.
Rucka’s new series The Forged is out in Sept, no sign yet of Lazarus OHC4.
DC fishing at Blackwell’s:
Aug:
– Batman: One Bad Day: Ra’s Al’Ghul
– Batman; The Bat-Man of Gotham (aka Zdarsky HC2)
Sept:
– GCPD: The Blue Wall
– Gotham City: Year One
– Batman and Robin Eternal Omnibus
– World’s Finest HC2
Oct:
– DCeased Deluxe
Nov:
– Poison Ivy HC2
Dec:
– Nightwing HC4
– Dark Knights of Steel HC2
While they continue gutting Comixology of anything good, Amazon have decided to put Book Depository out of its misery.
It’s been a shadow of what it was since Amazon bought it in 2011 but still sad news.
That’s a shame, I still shopped with them from time to time (I just bought the latest Arab Of The Future from them as nobody else had it.)
While they continue gutting Comixology of anything good, Amazon have decided to put Book Depository out of its misery.
It’s been a shadow of what it was since Amazon bought it in 2011 but still sad news.
Yeah, it’s been several years since I’ve bothered with it, but I understand its free international postage was handy for some.
I wonder if Abe will go the same way, if Amazon are cutting/consolidating services.
Judge Dredd: Nobody Apes the Law
As you might expect, this is a collection of monkey tales old and new, including an effective prologue to the recent Regicide collection, Krong Island.
It’s exactly what you expect and very fun.
Love Everlasting Volume 1
This is an intriguing first volume and the art certainly shows off a Cooke influence. Which is excellent if you have the skills to pull it off and Charettier does.
The one weakness I can see in this is a temptation on King’s part to spin it out too much. This volume works fine for an opening but the next volume needs to supply some answers. And, since this is an Image book, there needs to be a next volume.
The Dead Lucky Volume 1
This is the latest Massive-verse title and with it there’s a clearer sense of what these books are about. Namely damaged people, superpowers and recovery.
On the art, all of the books have their own style but there’s a consistently bold use of colour in all of them. It is very effective and makes for a very distinctive look.
Smart art, smart writing – this is looking good.
@ben
the good thing is the next set of issues of love everlasting have been coming out so hopefully won’t be too long a wait for the next volume
That’s reassuring to hear.
Hasn’t been that many but I do have a good number of Volume 1s that never got to Volume 2.
Romulus, Assassination Nation, Bonehead, and more. Although, those aren’t as bad as the ones that got going and then didn’t conclude, like Copperhead and Redneck.
For that one, the way they issue it as a nice, big hardback to really show off the art, I can wait.
Decorum Deluxe HC
I’ve been reading this over the past week and just finished it tonight. I’d been interested for a while but had put it off as I’d heard the book is a bit wild and not that coherent, and Hickman is not a personal favourite writer as to me he can feel a bit stilted and mechanical.
But I kept seeing pages of art that looked pretty good, including the cover of this deluxe HC. So I thought I’d give it a shot.
I shouldn’t have delayed, as this is one of the best comics I’ve read in a long time.
It’s a story about assassins and godlike beings, set in a vast eclectic sci-fi world that’s full of interesting concepts and which feels like it could support any number of spinoffs exploring avenues that the story touches on throughout. I don’t usually like the term world-building as loading a book up with detail isn’t always a good thing – it can feel a bit mechanical, and detail doesn’t always mean interesting detail – but it applies here as this is some of the best sci-fi world-building I’ve seen.
But to the book’s credit, it keeps things pretty focused on its core story, which is initially about a young courier from the lower classes who is inducted into a secret society of female assassins and is trained in their ways – but then expands to include a wider cosmology and galactic power struggle that ends up drawing in the group of assassins into a plot of universal significance.
It’s the kind of book that is full of ideas that are just electrifyingly exciting and feel fresh – and in a world of endless reboots and remakes and rehashes, it reminded me just how powerful it can feel to enjoy something brand new that can surprise and delight you in all new ways, and can’t fall back on familiarity or nostalgia as a lazy crutch.
And I haven’t even got to the really good bit yet, which is Mike Huddleston’s art. Honestly, the guy is a genius and with this book alone he jumps up onto my list of all-time favourites, mixing a number of very different styles (not just within the same issue, but often the same page) without ever losing a feeling of coherence. Some style-switching artists can feel jumbled or gratuitous, but here there’s a real sense that every different art style – scratchy black and white, fully rendered painted stuff, Kirby pastiche, greyscale watercolour, unlinked sketches, abstract geometry – is chosen because it’s the absolute best way of conveying that particular moment. And with a high degree of consistency in terms of character design between all these different styles, you never lose track of who is who or what’s happening in the story.
That’s despite the story being pretty wacky and not always 100% clear at times, especially in terms of the finer detail. The broader fantastical cosmic/religious stuff escaped me a little, but ended up feeling very like The Incal for me – even when you’re a bit baffled by something new and unexplained that comes along, you still get the gist of its significance and you have to trust that it will all come into sharper focus as the story progresses. Which here, thankfully, it does.
I don’t want to say much more about this book because so much of the fun of it is in seeing what turns the story takes next, but suffice it to say that I haven’t felt as enthused, even evangelical about a comic in ages. It’s reminded me why new, fresh stories are so exciting and has made sense of a lot of the feeling malaise I’m getting when it comes to many of the long-running franchises these days, where there’s often nothing left to say and it’s an endless cycle of repetitive diminishing returns.
This book is the opposite of that: a bold, imaginative, original new vision that benefits from fantastic art and some solid writing – and thankfully relatively few trademark Hickman infographics, most of which are either quick and digestible or used for comic relief here.
I really hope there’s more to come (the very end of the book teases a sequel) because it feels like there’s so much more potential there to explore the world of what is the best comic I’ve read in ages.
Bitter Root OHC1
Having greatly enjoyed David F Walker’s team up with Bendis on Naomi, decided this was worth a punt. The short answer? More than worth it.
Alongside the 16 issues collected, it has a substantive set of extras: Introduction, afterword and mini-articles, interviews and more that draw out what the series means from a black perspective. These cover culture, society, history and politics, how could they not?
As to the story, in some respects it won’t be new – a family of monster hunters, used to dealing with the supernatural. The rest of the world has limited knowledge of what is going on. So far, so standard, what changes this picture?
First, the family is black. It is a majority black cast of characters. Second, the setting – 1920s Harlem. Both of these aspects fuse in how the story shows the characters to all, heroes and villains, be living in the shadows cast from and the traumas inflicted by the violence of 1919 and 1921.
Over the last few years there has been more reporting and media coverage on the Tulsa massacre, especially around its anniversary. I hadn’t, until reading this, known of the 1919 Red Summer.
This gives an extra dimension and sharpness to the horror edge. These characters know the world is out to get them, it’s already tried to take them out…Twice.
Art is clear and kinetic. There’s smart use of colour and structure. Double pages are used effectively.
The quality of the book also shows off the art to the max – oversized, glossy, thick paper with binding that lets the book open up, inviting you to read it.
For all this collection stands well on its own, it does have a one in its title that suggests there could be more. The last issue collected does a good time jumps, suggesting many stories still to be told. I hope they do get to tell those and, a few years on, I get to read the second omnibus collection.
While they continue gutting Comixology of anything good, Amazon have decided to put Book Depository out of its misery.
Very sad. Used to love Book Depository for its international free shipping. After the Amazon purchase the last order I made 3 out of 4 books failed to arrive and unlike before they refused to refund, saying Royal Mail were to blame and as they had no tracking of orders it was just tough shit (previously they refunded one missing book).
I stopped using them after that.
Competition departments really need to look at these giants buying competitors and then eventually shutting them down.
I’ve read some of those AWA books, the new creator-owned imprint that’s run by Axel Alonso, as they’re available on my amazon unlimited subscription thingy.
The Resistance (Stratczinsky’s thing, with Deodato) was pretty good, but kind of a retread of Rising Stars. I don’t know, it’s a pretty good read, but there’s really no reason to recommend it to anyone who has read Rising Stars and Supreme Power. (I read the first one, also the second one (Uprising) and the “Moths” book.)
Fight Girls by Frank Cho was a great little hunger-games-like scenario with some added spy twists thrown in. It’s a very nice self-contained story, and Cho’s art shines on this. Again, not quite brilliant, but very good.
Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal – Okay, this one was awesome. Garth Ennis in full 2000 AD taking the piss sci-fi action mode, with gorgeous art by Goran Sudžuka. That’s the one I’d really recommend from this line. Just an awesome fun old-school Ennis romp.
Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal – Okay, this one was awesome. Garth Ennis in full 2000 AD taking the piss sci-fi action mode, with gorgeous art by Goran Sudžuka. That’s the one I’d really recommend from this line. Just an awesome fun old-school Ennis romp.
This is the best AWA book I’ve read.
I don’t know if Not All Robots is available, but that’s quite fun too.
Not All Robots is superb.
I read through Young Justice the past couple of weeks, finishing with the (semi-)recently released final, sixth trade.
First off, we should all take a moment to appreciate that DC actually finished off a trade run of a 90s series. I genuinely can’t think of another, except for chunks of Batman and maybe JLA things, that has actually been completely collected without gaps or rebranding of anything.
And it’s especially good because Young Justice is great! Mostly. The series suffers a little after Sins of Youth, where it starts to lose a bit of momentum and feel slightly listless. This isn’t helped by getting dragged into loads of cross-overs and line-wide events – Our World At War most notably, also World Without Young Justice, which is led more by Impulse’s solo series and isn’t particularly good – which the series bobs along the waves off, making for a slightly disjointed, fragmented read (“We’ve got to go to Apokalips to rescue Steel!” Steel is never seen again). Another problem that the series has throughout its run is really sub-par 80 page specials by creative teams other than David and Nauck.
But the series does pick up again later, when it brings in Snapper Carr and The Ray and does a really fun leadership election storyline. It’s end comes not as a series being put out of its misery, but one that was back in its groove being unfairly curtailed. You get the feeling that David knew the end was coming and was able to orchestrate a finale, yet everything still ends up feeling somewhat rushed, with a really frenetic final five pages that has to hastily wrap up everything. (Ironically, I think this was fairly concurrent with the sudden, rushed ending to Captain Marvel, too).
I don’t know if it’s down to the general improvement to computer colouring that was happening at the time or Nauck’s art having evolved a bit or due to the surprisingly nice matte(ish – almost eggshell really) paper stock used for just it, but the final volume of Young Justice looks absolutely gorgeous. I kept finding myself lost in the vibrancy of random panels and pages, especially ones with Slo-bo and Impulse, who Nauck has an incredible knack for making look charismatic as hell (which is no easy feat for Impulse. Some artists just cannot get his hair down right at all).
YJ ended in 2003 and really, it was already a relic of a different era by that point. It was a product of a time when Green Arrow was Connor Hawke, Green Lantern was Kyle Rayner, The Flash was Wally West, there was a general sense of a next generation of heroes progressing through DC and a sort of youthful vibrancy to things. This was diminishing as the series went on, as the nostalgia driven Silver Age restoration movement gained momentum through the company, mainly through the work of Geoff Johns (who would put his stamp on most of these characters in his Teen Titans series almost immediately after, where he completely ruined Impulse by turning him into a knock-off Kid Flash). I suppose it was inevitable they had to go too, to make way for nostalgia-driven Teen Titans but its still a shame.
I read Dark Crisis: Young Justice. It’s not bad, to be fair. Much more in tune with the original series than Bendis’ run was. It had great art and Bart, especially, had some great moments.
The story is very meta though. On so many levels. It would be easy to argue that it was a “spit in the eye” of the long time fans who want things to go back to the way they were. It could also be a criticism of the industry, event storytelling, and editorial edicts as well. It’s all those and more. Your enjoyment of the book will very much depend on how much problem you have with potentially being the bad guy of the story.
Fitzmartin is not a bad writer. She’s clearly still learning the ropes of the medium, but she writes well and has a good grasp of the characters. But, much like Devin Grayson on Nightwing back in the day, she thinks that she knows these characters better than anyone else and that they are subservient to her whimsy.
There are very few writers on the corporate superhero comics who are legitimate bigger than the characters. Fitzmartin isn’t one of them.
But, clearly, by saying that, I am part of the problem. With my toxic masculinity and basement dwelling, stuck in the past, nostalgic view of the world. 
About the only other 90s series DC finished the trades for I can think of is Hitman.
And it was years between them issuing volumes 1-4 then finishing off with volumes 5-7. They did finish it though.
About the only other 90s series DC finished the trades for I can think of is Hitman.
I have no idea why this isn’t a TV show yet. “From the creator of the Boys” take out the bit where Green Lantern gets raped and bosh! Cash everywhere.
Hawk The Slayer
Do I know the film? No. Does it matter? No. I bought this for four words – Garth Ennis. Henry Flint. That’s a creative pairing I can’t say no to.
The book also gets the reader up to speed on what happened in the film, then spins its own tale, including a very neat take on resurrection.
Flint’s art is excellent, whether it be quiet, character sequences or battles and carnage. The story rattles along at a good pace and concludes well.
It’s nothing revolutionary, it’s not the most stunning comic you’ll ever read, but it is a damn good time.
Simon Pegg’s intro references Spaced.
Hawk The Slayer
Do I know the film? No. Does it matter? No. I bought this for four words – Garth Ennis. Henry Flint. That’s a creative pairing I can’t say no to.
The book also gets the reader up to speed on what happened in the film, then spins its own tale, including a very neat take on resurrection.
Flint’s art is excellent, whether it be quiet, character sequences or battles and carnage. The story rattles along at a good pace and concludes well.
It’s nothing revolutionary, it’s not the most stunning comic you’ll ever read, but it is a damn good time.
Yeah I thought Ennis and Flint did a really good job of this little oddity, like you say it’s a lot of fun.
Ennis has hit that point of his career now where he is churning out hit after bit, it’s very impressive and he’s in a great place creatively.
As much as I love his earlier stuff, he’s really matured as a writer and a bit like John Wagner he’s one of these odd cases where he only seems to get better as he gets older.
As much as I love his earlier stuff, he’s really matured as a writer and a bit like John Wagner he’s one of these odd cases where he only seems to get better as he gets older.
A good comparison. They are guys really at the top of their craft (even if Wagner is semi retired by now). It’s not work that’s necessarily pushing boundaries as they once did but the storytelling is so good.
Angry Garth > Wartime Garth > Funny Garth > pretty much anyone else
Yes it is. The group of writers they have on Dredd is very good. Williams, Niemand and Carroll in some kind of rotation mean the strip is always very strong.
I just finished volume four of The Arab Of The Future, the last volume of the six ‘graphic memoirs’ that is available in an English translation.
I really love this series – Sattouf has a really compelling life story with lots of personal twists and turns, and also some interesting intersections with historical events in the Middle East.
He’s also got a great eye for detail, both visually and in terms of characterisation, and I love the way his deceptively simple style brings the story to life (including a smart use of colour to indicate different locations and other aspects).
I’d love to see English translations of the final two books too, but it doesn’t look likely at the moment, so I’ll probably track down the original French versions.
