Here’s where we talk about collected editions: TPBs, hardcovers, omnibuses, Absolutes… anything with a spine!
The Trades Thread: volume two
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Just received a pair of high quality hardbacks, Death Or Glory and Ether.
Both also make an effective case for the page range of these volumes being best at 300-500 pages.
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Couple of questions:
All Star Superman: The Deluxe Edition – Hardcover – Jan. 25 2022
this deluxe edition collects All-Star Superman #1-12 and Absolute All-Star Superman.I guess once I assume that line is just stupid, and going by the price it will be smaller than the Absolute, the only question I have is were we expecting something like this?
No dimensions or real details (yet).Seven to Eternity – Hardcover – Sept. 13 2022
The entire SEVEN TO ETERNITY epic collected in one deluxe, OVERSIZED, hardcover edition! The God of Whispers has spread an omnipresent paranoia to every corner of the kingdom of Zhal; his spies hide in every hall spreading mistrust and fear. Adam Osidis, a dying knight from a disgraced house, must choose between joining a hopeless band of magic users in their desperate bid to free their world of the evil God, or accepting his promise to give Adam everything his heart desires. Writer RICK REMENDER reteams with collaborators JEROME OPEÑA (Fear Agent) and MATT HOLLINGSWORTH (TOKYO GHOST) in this giant prestige edition loaded with variant covers, sketches, model sheet designs, raw inks, and script pages — the ultimate oversized format to enjoy this groundbreaking and critically acclaimed series.
Collects SEVEN TO ETERNTITY #1-17Is this good/recommended? I know nothing really.
Tales of the DC Universe: Mark Waid Vol. 1 Hardcover – Jan. 18 2022
This volume collects Superman #114, Adventures of Superman #536, Action Comics #572-576, Action Comics #641-723, Detective Comics Annual #2, Adventures of Superboy #7, Superman: The Man of Steel #58, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Annual #4, Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #2, Metamorpho #1-4, and DC Universe Holiday Bash #1.Huh? Waid did an 80 issue run on Action? I miss something?
Actually my Avatar is from the cover of Action #643 (Perez/Breeding) right after they were weekly, so no.A few other things don’t add up. Intentional bullshit?
Or is this the current state of fact-checking at DC now?1 user thanked author for this post.
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No, he didn’t. That run would have included the Death of Superman, which Waid certainly didn’t work on. It was Roger Stern and then David Michelinie on Action Comics during that run. Wikipedia says he did write #641 and #723. Just not all the issues in between.
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Looks to me then like they used a dash when they should have used an ampersand. The solicit also says it is 400 pages which sounds about right for 19 issues including annuals/specials.
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Neat spots, thanks Sean
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they should have used an ampersand
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Dealer Alert
For anyone wishing to try and obtain it once more, the SpeedyHen pre-order just went active:
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Martini Edition – Last Call – £46.80
Edit – some Amazon fishing, found some new stuff – both due November:
- The Dreaming: Waking Hours – a single 12-issue paperback and that might be it for the line.
- American Vampire 1976 HC
- Plus Nightwing: Volume 1 HC in December.
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Or is this the current state of fact-checking at DC now?
AT&T fired most the DC staff not long ago, so the copywriting is probably being cobbled together by interns or something.
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Yes, there is. No idea how available it’ll be now though.
ISBN is 978-1632158895
This is the non-Netflix trade from 2017.
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It’s vol 4 now.
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Since the Netflix acquisition of MW it seems like they have reworked the titles,is there a trade for the original Legacy vol 2? Everything I’ve seen is Legacy vol 2 containing the original Circle books.
The four Netflix-based TPBS contain the following:
Vol 1: JUPITER’S CIRCLE 1, issues 1-6
Vol 2: JUPITER’S CIRCLE 2, issues 1-6
Vol 3: JUPITER’S LEGACY 1, issues 1-5
Vol 4: JUPITER’S LEGACY 2, issues 1-5 — this was called JL VOL 2 before being reworked for chronology1 user thanked author for this post.
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Thanks everyone, the version Dave posted doesn’t seem to be available in the US. I’d prefer the vol 2 label for consistency with my collection (should have got it when it was released!) and I’m not a fan of the Netflix badge on the book. I might try to find an original, ($50 for a used library copy) but I still haven’t finished the run so even a vol 4 version is better than nothing.
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Thanks everyone, the version Dave posted doesn’t seem to be available in the US.
It’s aimed for the UK market and the URL will automatically switch to the US one on that link (I tried myself and it took me to .com instead of co.uk). Type in this one with the UK address and it should show. You can order in the US from Amazon UK, and vice versa, and the price is decent but check the shipping cost which will of course be more than usual.
*Text*https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1846533236?ref_=k4w_embed_dp_err&tag=kpembed-20*text*
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Thanks everyone, the version Dave posted doesn’t seem to be available in the US.
It’s aimed for the UK market and the URL will automatically switch to the US one on that link (I tried myself and it took me to .com instead of co.uk). Type in this one with the UK address and it should show. You can order in the US from Amazon UK, and vice versa, and the price is decent but check the shipping cost which will of course be more than usual.
*Text*https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1846533236?ref_=k4w_embed_dp_err&tag=kpembed-20*text*
Thanks Gar, it’s ordered!
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June 16th (next week) will be a pretty good day for this thread:
WORLD OF BLACK HAMMER LIBRARY ED HC VOL 03
and that’s just from Dark Horse!
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I read through the three Criminal Deluxe Hardcovers the past week or so.
Generally, I really enjoyed them. I’d only read the contents of the first OHC before (and even then quite a while ago) so almost all of it felt fresh and new to me, yet at the same time, comfortingly familiar. I love the tapestry world Brubaker and Phillips make through these stories. It’s essentially an anthology series, but one where each new story ties the whole series tighter together, almost.
The third OHC was the most interesting in terms of what it collects (though that’s not to say the stories are necessarily more interesting, if you get what I mean). I thought the magazine specials were really cleverly done – the fact that the gimmick works for the second one without feeling tired sort of proves that. Before I read it, I was a little dubious about My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies being included. I didn’t read much about it when it was released for two reasons: a) I tend to take Brubaker/Phillips on faith and don’t read too much about their upcoming works before actually reading them yet conversely b) the tiny bit I did see about this – a coming of age story – combined with the title and, silly as it may sound, the cover, put me off it a bit. I don’t have much interest in stories that glamourise rock stars, let alone junkie ones, and it sort of felt like something I’d seen done before. So I didn’t know it was directly linked to Criminal, I thought it was just being included here as, well, padding frankly, because it didn’t have anywhere else to go.
It turns out, that’s not true, it’s as much as Criminal story as anything else in these volumes, which makes its original stand-alone release all the more puzzling. Did it really benefit from not having the Criminal name on it, at least somewhere? Is there really that much of a market for crime OGNs that don’t already know about Criminal or would be put off by knowing this was part of it? I enjoyed the story of My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies as much as anything in these volumes – getting to see what happened to the girl from Coward was another nice expansion of the tapestry – but I have to say, I really didn’t like the colouring in it. I found it garish and a bit amateur really, undermining the line art rather than enhancing it like Betty Breitweiser’s does. I can understand why they’ve seemingly cut ties with Breitweiser (at best it’s because she’s busy with her publishing outfit, mentioned in her bio; at worst it’s because of her connection to the whole ComicsGate thing (said publishing outfit features work from various CG “luminaries”) and also why Phillips would want to give his son the shot at the work, but it’s a bit of a misfire initially.
Fortunately, Jacob Phillips’ colouring is a lot better in the subsequent stories, taken from the first four issues of the Image run (but also the expanded release of two of those as Bad Weekend). It does feel he’s trying to hew closer to Breitweiser’s style there, but it works, so I’m not going to question that. Bad Weekend is a really enjoyable story – I have more time comics stories about comics than I do movies about movies, say, I think because they’re so infrequently done and generally less self-congratulatory. I can see why they expanded in a special edition, even though that release as a hardcover was confusing for this Deluxe edition – it raised questions at the time about whether it was going to happen and then the contents for this lists “Criminal 1, 4, Bad Weekend” which, if you don’t know that Bad Weekend is made of issues 2 and 3 suggests that two issues have been skipped here. It’s slightly needlessly complicated and it’s why I won’t be getting the Cruel Summer hardcover and just holding out for a Deluxe Edition v4 at some point in the future (I guess not for a while, as it’d need more material to go with it).
Well, that and I really don’t like the cover design used for Cruel Summer, My Heroes… and Bad Weekend. Given Phillips can make stuff as beautiful as the new covers for these Deluxe editions, his painted covers for Fatale and much more, those passport photo style covers he’s been doing recently are surprisingly crap (same with the new trade dress for the Image reprints of the Criminal tpbs, which take minimalism to the point of “knocked out in ten minutes with existing art and an overlay layer in Photoshop”). It was interesting to see, in the back matter for the third Deluxe edition that My Heroes… was initially leaning towards having a more noir-y cover, showing Ellie standing on the beach, before it went off towards the one used.
Anyway, the odd bit of colouring and confusion over contents aside, Criminal remains excellent and you should all go out and grab these before they go out of print again.
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I would recommend grabbing Cruel Summer sooner rather than later, for a few reasons.
Firstly, it’s great!
And secondly, if you’ve been enjoying the tapestry aspect of Criminal then you will love Cruel Summer. It’s very much a keystone of the whole saga and fills in some important gaps in character relationships that go all the way back to the very first Criminal arc.
Thirdly, the fact that they’ve issued it as a standalone OHC (which they haven’t done for any of their other Criminal books) combined with the fact that they’re planning to be busy with Reckless for at least the next year makes it unlikely that a fourth Criminal Deluxe is coming soon, if ever.
So yeah, get Cruel Summer. You won’t regret it.
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Seconded, you need Cruel Summer.
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You make compelling arguments and yet… I’m happy to just hold out for a Deluxe v4.
Spotted a few Marvel things Amazon fishing:
“Marvel-verse” trades, which seem like another branding for best of/primer trades for certain characters. There’s one for America Chavez, one for Moon Knight, one for Moon Girl. Tempting to think they’re being prompted by MCU appearances, but it’s an odd trio.
There’s a new edition of Captain America: The Truth coming.
And there’s a Moon Knight omnibus due next February. 1000+ pages. ISBN: 9781302933807
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Guess that tells us when the Disney+ series is coming out.
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I read the first volume of the Boom reboot of Buffy today. I’ve not watched any of Buffy since it aired (and even them I only dipped in and out) but I quite liked this and it feels like exactly the kind of reboot that the current IDW Beast Wars comic wants to be.
It takes the original series and updates it for the modern day, without that feeling too forced or obnoxious. Cordelia for instance is no longer the 90s style alpha bitch but a Gen Z high school queen bee type, which makes more sense for the current era. Xander has some self-pitying incel tendencies while Willow is already out and has a girlfriend.
That latter element is a key bit of contrast to Beast Wars. In that, the writer Erik Burnham has skipped to the end of character development for Dinobot, making him the noble warrior cliche right from the off even though that doesn’t make sense for the set-up of the series, skipping over any actual character growth. Whereas making Willow openly gay from the outset is more about reinterpreting the character for the revised setting of this reboot – it makes sense that she’d be openly gay already given the greater tolerance and acceptance of it these days (especially with her age group) compared to the 90s. And doing that upfront doesn’t take away anything from her character or remove her ability to grow.
The other thing the Buffy reboot does interestingly is mix in elements from later in the series to now: Spike and Drusilla are the main villains, Anya’s shown up. It’s using the familiar elements of the show but mixing them up, doing something new with them and potentially going in different directions with them. Again, in contrast to Beast Wars which has, so far, shown itself to largely retreading the path of cartoon with minor variations.
I was a bit dubious about the existence of this new version of Buffy and while it’s not perfect – it doesn’t convincingly sell Xander and Willow becoming friends with Buffy, let alone slayer sidekicks – it’s fun and I’m interested to see what it does and where it goes next, which isn’t a given for an adaptation of a 24 year old TV show.
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The Abominable Charles Christopher volume 3 has got a Kickstarter campaign. Also includes the first 2 volumes as well. I can’t recommend these more highly
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I read Lake of Fire this evening (much more interesting than England-Scotland, which I’ve had on as background noise). Really interesting book, written, coloured and lettered by Nathan Fairborn (his first work as a writer, mainly a colourist) and art by Matt Smith (not the Dr Who one, nor the 2000AD one). It’s essentially Aliens but in medieval France, but it avoids doing that in a shallow and tropey way. The characters feel authentic and well-realised, with some contemporary prejudices that are convincingly detailed and feel fresh. It’s utterly gorgeous too, both linework and colours. And it does give you cool moments of crusaders fighting aliens.
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much more interesting than England-Scotland
You could have been reading a blank piece of paper and this would still be the case.
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I’m halfway through this first collection of Tynion’s run and enjoying it. The Batman run it reminds me of most is Hush – a fairly light mystery plot that’s basically an excuse to have Batman fight through loads of his rogues’ gallery and show off some nice art. It isn’t reinventing the wheel but there are some cool moments and there’s a good page-turner quality to it. (Plus a great United Underworld reference!)
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Got an ISBN for that book Martin? It’s not easy to find in search engines with just the title.
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Yeah, that one.
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From Dark Horse September solicits:
FRANK MILLER’S SIN CITY VOLUME 2: A DAME TO KILL FOR (FOURTH EDITION) TP & DELUXE EDITION HC
Frank Miller (W/A/Cover)
The new trade edition is presented at original size with new wraparound cover art.
The Deluxe Edition includes a cloth-covered slipcase with foil stamping and printing, an oversized hardcover with a soft-touch matte finish, spot gloss, and foil stamping, and a matching portfolio features a deluxe print of new artwork by Frank Miller.
As an added bonus, each volume’s slipcase has a different letter from the logo, placed on the front cover in such a way that alone it looks like a splash of red wrapping around the slipcase. But when all seven volumes are together it is clear that the grouping spells out “Sin City.”
216 pages, $25 (Deluxe, $100), available on Nov. 24.
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I’ve bought and rebought Sin City so many times over the years, but that (along with volume 1) is still quite tempting. Not sure I’d want to commit to eventually have the full set but the first few Sin City books are fantastic.
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Some recent reads:
Rick Remender’s pseudo-trilogy of Uncanny X-Force, Secret Avengers, & Uncanny Avengers – X-Force is the strongest but they’re all very enjoyable. Remender’s great at tapping the more bonkers tropes in superhero comics for these huge epic storylines: alternate timelines, dystopian futures, space gods, Life Model Decoys, etc. It was interesting reading these after catching up on Hickman’s X-Men work because Remender uses a lot of the same ideas: humans advancing their bodies and minds with technology, conflict between man and machine, Otherworld, Apocalypse and a secret group of Horsemen. Hickman’s take is better but Remender does a good job and it’s interesting seeing a less hard sci-fi, more action-oriented take on these ideas.
Justice League International vol. 2 (collects JLI #18-30 & JLE #1-6) – Just fun comics, with great art by Kevin Maguire, Ty Templeton, & Bart Sears. Although the amount of sexual harassment humor is a bit much; it’d be one thing if it was just Guy Gardner doing it but they’ve even got Blue Beetle and poor Wally West sleazing on their female teammates.
Miracleman: The Golden Age – Probably Gaiman’s best writing aside from his Sandman books. I really hope this gets finished someday, although I’m not holding my breath. Mark Buckingham’s art is great. Each story is drawn in a different style depending on mood and characters: avant garde, children’s book, newspaper strip-esque caricature, etc. The Andy Warhol story and the first one about the people climbing Miracleman’s pyramid to ask favors of him are my favorite. It’s a wonderful idea to do these short stories focusing on how Miracleman and his allies’ technological and cultural advances have impacted ordinary human beings. All of the stories are quite moving.
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I really hope this gets finished someday, although I’m not holding my breath.
I’d really like to know what happened there. Marvel were all gung-ho, started the reprints in various formats, had Gaiman and Buckingham on stage announcing their enthusiasm for more and then it all just fizzled out.
I agree it’s really strong work too. Buckingham is like a chameleon with a different style for each mood and the short story structure they came up with was actually the prefect response to a pretty impossible finale to follow. Superhero wins the epic battle, transforms the world completely into an utopia, seemingly.
When the conclusion is huge the the next step works if it is small and personal.
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A few recent reads:
Batman: Their Dark Designs HC
This was a fun kick-off to Tynion’s run that provides an almost Hush-like opportunity to race through encounters with loads of Batman’s biggest villains as well as providing an interesting mystery subplot with a masked character pulling all the strings, all depicted with gorgeous, dynamic art.
Unlike Hush though, there’s actual resolution here, and a sense of the story being fully thought through: as such, I’m looking forward to the follow-up in Joker War to see how all of the pieces fall into place.
Cla$$war HC
This is one of those comics that even without checking the date you can place in a certain specific era.
The early-2000s vogue for politicised and militaristic superhero stories – most famously in stuff like the Authority and later the Ultimates – also produced this interesting six-issue story from Com.X, which was not only the book that broke Rob Williams into comics but also gave us a few issues apiece from Trevor Hairsine and Travel Foreman.
As a story, it feels somehow quaint by today’s standards – a little overly serious, with political commentary that strives to be poignant and cynical but is a little too blunt and surface-level (the president literally has the word “LIAR” burned into his forehead at one point).
For all the scenes of superheroes hovering menacingly outside the White House – and later, interfering in US military operations in South America – there isn’t much real engagement with the politics of what’s going on, and all of the in-fighting between the superheroes feels like stuff you’ve seen before.
That said, the art is very nice, even if the switch between Hairsine and Foreman is pretty jarring due to their very different styles.
A Disease Of Language
I only picked this up recently after overlooking it in the past.
Eddie Campbell adapts for comics a pair of Moore’s spoken-word performance pieces. It works better than I expected – both pieces feel a little like stream-of-consciousness poems (covering a lot of themes, but particularly mortality and memory for The Birth Caul and history and creativity/consciousness for Snakes and Ladders) – and Campbell’s illustrations help crystallise their ideas and tether them to something more tangible.
The Birth Caul especially is a really moving, bittersweet piece that I found quite affecting in places, taking in the entire scope of our lives and drawing out some fairly profound truths.
Plus there’s also a long text piece at the back where Campbell interviews Moore, which is both illuminating and entertaining.
Well worth a look.
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No worries. I’ve been meaning to get around to it for a while, but I’m always a little wary of these books that are adapted from other works as they can sometimes be a bit weak. This one delivered though.
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Also Transformers IDW Collection Phase 3 v2 out in March next year. 9781684058778
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Bog Bodies
This was a good read. A nice little self-contained crime/noir tale about very human gangsters and hitmen with some snappy, fun dialogue and some interesting twists and turns.
The art style is very thick and heavy and helps create a dark, oppressive mood. And the denouement works well and had me flicking back through the book to re-examine earlier scenes from a new perspective.
It’s not hugely original – it reminded me of a few similar stories (particularly In Bruges, oddly enough) – but it’s a good yarn, told well. And at just over £6 on Amazon at the moment it’s not a pricey investment.
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Bog Bodies
This was a good read. A nice little self-contained crime/noir tale about very human gangsters and hitmen with some snappy, fun dialogue and some interesting twists and turns.Image released a similar-format OGN in the past year that had a similar vibe: WRITE IT IN BLOOD by Rory McConville and Joe Palmer. You should check it out if you haven’t already read it.
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In Bruges
Fuckin’ Bruges
(’tis tradition)
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I read the 24 issue Marvel Godzilla over the past few days collected in the telephone book sized black and white Essential collection. It’s a lot of daft fun but very heavy in the amount of 70s dialogue. It never quite gets above the level of ‘quite silly’ no matter how crazy the situations Godzilla finds himself in (two issues involving cattle rustlers being the max level of silliness).
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Is Godzilla for or against the cattle rustlers?
Yes.No.
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Thor by Aaron Omnibus!!! – totes getting
Hickman’s Inferno hardcover!!?? – I mean, I guess so – I’m hoping that the hickman hardcovers will tell the long story
But… Knights of Pendragon Omnibus????
I do have the first 10 issues or so under my desk and they were possibly a better continuation of Moore’s Captain Britain than Excalibur was,
(shame it was blocked from using those characters as they wanted, but it turned to trash pretty quickly right)</p> -
But… Knights of Pendragon Omnibus????
Buy it now, and watch its value increase tenfold once the MCU film is announced.
(Of course you may have to wait 25-30 years until Marvel finishes producing films for all their other characters and finally concede to make a KoP feature — but it will be worth the wait!!)
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Nevermind
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Nevermind
What? thinking about what you’ve just said, and then correcting yourself?
I’ll have none of it, good sir!
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Just read the first Department of Truth trade, based on all the recommendations here. It was really, really good. The idea that belief shapes reality is one that has been popping up in quite a few comics, I think – it’s all over the Sandman, and Carey’s The Unwritten is very similar to Department of Truth (only it deals with literature and not with conspiracy theory) – but it’s one I am still fascinated with and Tynion is clearly exploring it in some very interesting ways. And obviously, the issue of conspiracy theories and how they influence society is one of the big, important topics right now. The first arc takes the protagonist to some interesting places; they’ve already introduced a lot of ambiguity as to who the good guys are in this, and I’m looking forward to finding out more about the Black Hats and the Department.
I also re-read the first book by Tynion that I’d read some years ago, Memetic. It’s a great idea and very well-executed, but it’s a bit of a shame it was only a four-parter. That concept could’ve carried a much longer series, I think. (The basic concept being that there’s a meme, a cute lazy sloth meme, that somehow makes people feel really, really good when they look at it so it gets shared a whole fucking lot, but twelve hours after the first time you’ve seen it, it does something to your brain and you turn into a rage zombie. There’s basically a virus coded into the picture that takes over your system, so it’s kinda Lovecraft updated or the Snow Crash virus in the social media meme age.)
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The idea that belief shapes reality is one that has been popping up in quite a few comics, I think – it’s all over the Sandman, and Carey’s The Unwritten is very similar to Department of Truth (only it deals with literature and not with conspiracy theory) – but it’s one I am still fascinated with and Tynion is clearly exploring it in some very interesting ways. And obviously, the issue of conspiracy theories and how they influence society is one of the big, important topics right now.
Yes – it’s one of those great ideas that is both quite timeless and universal but also quite specifically relevant right now.
The Sandy Hook issue was gut-wrenching, I thought.
I also re-read the first book by Tynion that I’d read some years ago, Memetic. It’s a great idea and very well-executed, but it’s a bit of a shame it was only a four-parter. That concept could’ve carried a much longer series, I think. (The basic concept being that there’s a meme, a cute lazy sloth meme, that somehow makes people feel really, really good when they look at it so it gets shared a whole fucking lot, but twelve hours after the first time you’ve seen it, it does something to your brain and you turn into a rage zombie. There’s basically a virus coded into the picture that takes over your system, so it’s kinda Lovecraft updated or the Snow Crash virus in the social media meme age.)
Sounds a bit reminiscent of Ring too.
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Dealer Alert
Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire Volume 3 at BooksEtc for £12.86.
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A few recent reads.
Batman: Joker War HC
This was ok, but like the first Tynion collection it felt a bit one-note and samey throughout. But it’s a decent big epic Joker story with some nice character moments and solid art. I did feel like I missed some of the significant story moments that were farmed out to other books though. Definitely an argument for keeping all of a story in one title.
Batman: Ghost Stories HC
I think this marks the time when Tynion new he’d be on the bat-books for a longer haul than just up to #100, and you can feel a sense here of a more thoughtful approach and more considered ideas around Batman and his supporting cast. The Ghost-Maker is a slightly bland and cliched character but it allows for a story that robustly challenges Batman’s ideas without rubbishing them, and it ends in a satisfying way that more superhero stories should end with. There are themes of regret and redemption here for multiple characters, of learning and growing and becoming a better person, and combined with the back-to-basics approach to Batman it made for a satisfying read.
Write It In Blood OGN
I picked this up on recommendation from Jerry and was glad I did. It’s a good companion piece to Bog Bodies, both about slightly inept goons in criminal gangs who are navigating the consequences of their mistakes in a desolate and unforgiving landscape (both literally and figuratively). It maybe lacked a bit of substance in terms of the plot – it’s essentially a bunch of characters dancing round each other as a result of largely off-panel events, before building up to a bloody climax – but it’s good for what it is.
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A few recent reads.
Batman: Joker War HC
I see DC have found all the neon green ink they forgot to use for the reprint of Underworld Unleashed.
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Really? It’s been a while since I read it now, but I don’t remember feeling like that at all. Unlike now, I was only reading the main Batman title at the time. Are there any specific moments that you can recall? Not being facetious. Genuinely curious.
Yes, for example there’s a whole subplot involving Lucius being kidnapped and tortured that we are then told has been resolved with him being rescued off-panel in another book.
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At some point I will get to reviewing the complete Joker War, check out the McConville recommendations too. But there is other stuff to read first.
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