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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I still think Etta Candy is awful,
If Morrison was aiming for a back-to-the-roots interpretation, he got that dead right then. You cringe every time Etta Candy turns up in a Golden Age comic.
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I still think Etta Candy is awful, though. But she has a progressively smaller role in each of the sequels which in my mind makes her the Jar Jar Binks of the series.
I initially wasn’t sure about the way Etta Candy was handled, but I think that’s it’s all part of Morrison trying to be inclusive in his approach and represent multiple types of women (in body type and personality), not just the statuesque and idealised Wonder Woman type. She’s a very different type of woman to Diana or any of the other heroes but I think that’s the point.
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Just a reminder, Morrison uses they/them pronouns now.
My issue with Etta is her dialogue. Almost everything she says reads like an attempted catchphrase. Like in vol. 2 when she punches Dr. Psycho she shouts something like “you deserve a whoopin’, ain’t no lie!” I cringed a lot reading her lines. The “Woo woo!” thing is also really annoying, and added to the feeling that she was from an entirely different book or some lame 80s sitcom.
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Just a reminder, Morrison uses they/them pronouns now.
Oh yeah, I keep forgetting this and using “he” out of habit. It’s not deliberate or pointed.
My issue with Etta is her dialogue. Almost everything she says reads like an attempted catchphrase. Like in vol. 2 when she punches Dr. Psycho she shouts something like “you deserve a whoopin’, ain’t no lie!” I cringed a lot reading her lines. The “Woo woo!” thing is also really annoying, and added to the feeling that she was from an entirely different book or some lame 80s sitcom.
Yeah, she’s undeniably a bit grating. Like something from another era.
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No worries, I didn’t think it was deliberate! I have to remind myself too, it takes time to adjust.
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No worries, I didn’t think it was deliberate! I have to remind myself too, it takes time to adjust.
I have referred to Morrison as “him” in conversation with a friend who uses they/them pronouns and I’ve adjusted to using them correctly with them, it’s always a process.
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I think it’s good to acknowledge the pronoun game isn’t always easy as Will says. I had a friend from my youth transition (male to female) about a decade ago and with all the best intentions have tripped over several times.
When I tell stories of the past to 3rd parties I still hesitate over whether to use the current or past pronouns. I’ll usually take the past path because without going into explaining it all a lot of them can appear strange. ‘Like I went over to his house and we’d play games and records when I was 13 and he was 16’ asks a lot of different questions if I use ‘she’.
She actually came out to me as trans when she was about 22 but took 20 years to actually appear in public as a woman. We weren’t close after I went to college but after that confession which must have been really hard (one mutual friend called her a freak and never spoke to her again) I’d bump into a prematurely balding and bearded man but as it would be in the middle of the shopping centre or somewhere never broached the question of why she was still appearing as male.
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Finally got my copy of this, a real book that exists.
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Ha! Good for you. last update I had on Cinema Purgatorio was “Amazon will let me know when…”
What did arrive in the last 10 minutes was DC’s Who’s Who Omnibus
I buzzed the delivery person into the building (they’re back to bringing it to my door instead of me going to the lobby).
I’m at my door in socked feet. He’s got a larger box in other hand for another resident.
Hands me mine and I grab it one-handed.
I’m unprepared for how heavy it is and it slides through fingers, last ditch squeeze successful in saving my feet.
And this is a toe-killer, no doubt. You’ve been warned.A quick check has it bigger than LSH: 5 Years Later Omni.
But it is smaller than the Garth Ennis Hellblazer Omnibus (that’s a bullet-stopper). -
Just wanted to make sure @davidm knew about this:
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (Tabloid Edition) – Hardcover – 7 Dec. 2021 – Amazon.co.uk link
This tabloid-size masterpiece reprints a classic Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes story by Paul Levitz and Mike Grell in full size for the first time.
Superboy arrives in the future for the wedding of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad only to find a world totally different from the one he is used to visiting. The future is now an armed camp and the Legionnaires insist it has always been that way. With Superboy unable to convince his teammates that something is wrong, the wedding proceeds as planned, only to have the bride and groom kidnapped by the Lunarites. Convinced that the altering of history is the real issue, Superboy leads a group of legionnaires back in time, while the rest of the group attempts to rescue their teammates. Can Superboys team correct the flow of time and save all the future? Includes a 2-page pin up of the entire Legion by Mike Grell and an 8-page feature containing information on each of the legionnaires by Paul Levitz, illustrated by James Sherman and Jack Abel.
Product details
Publisher : DC Comics (7 Dec. 2021)
Language : English
Hardcover : 72 pages
ISBN-10 : 1779513356
ISBN-13 : 978-1779513359
Dimensions : 25.4 x 34.29 cmReading age : 12 – 17 years – Edit: TF? I don’t get this abuse on the Canadian site.
Yet it is there on the U.S. site too. Never knew they did that.A well learned and knowledgeable fan should give Amazon “a piece of their mind” to say the least.
LSH reading years are from “old enough to be shown pictures” to “well over 100”.
Not that this Super-fan would be trying to score a deal for themselves.
A donation to thecarrier.net (which does carry a link to the offending site I might add…) will suffice.-
This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by
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This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by .
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That was an almost-unobtainable comic (and therefore a missing part of my Legion collection) for years.
If they had released this two years ago, I’d have clicked “buy” already. But they very recently added the story to the on-going archive hardcovers, so…
The only real selling point of this volume is that it’s in the original tabloid-sized dimensions. But honestly, I don’t think the art is worth the oversized treatment. Grell was phoning it in by this point, and it’s really not all that great.
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The only real selling point of this volume is that it’s in the original tabloid-sized dimensions. But honestly, I don’t think the art is worth the oversized treatment. Grell was phoning it in by this point, and it’s really not all that great.
Obviously someone has hacked into DavidM’s account. Notify security!
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On a similar vein, I was looking at the Uncanny X-Men Marvel Masterworks on Amazon recently – in lieu of getting the ridiculously hard to find Omnibus editions. The Masterworks are $100 collector’s item books. I’m getting spammed regularly about these now asking if I’m looking for something in children’s books 😆
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Just taken delivery of a book I’d completely forgotten ordering.
“In Pictopia” by artists Don Simpson, Mike Kazaleh, Pete Poplaski and Erci Vincent.
Weirdly, the cover doesn’t have the writer’s name. I have no idea who it could be
The blurb on the back says “written by the era’s most adventurous mainstream comics writer”.
Hmm. Nope, no idea
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I mean, what writer would deliberately ask to have his name taken off something?
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written by the era’s most adventurous mainstream comics writer
You know, I was wondering what Chuck Austen was doing lately…
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Just taken delivery of a book I’d completely forgotten ordering.
“In Pictopia” by artists Don Simpson, Mike Kazaleh, Pete Poplaski and Erci Vincent.
Weirdly, the cover doesn’t have the writer’s name. I have no idea who it could be
The blurb on the back says “written by the era’s most adventurous mainstream comics writer”.
Hmm. Nope, no idea
In Pictopia is fun. I have it somewhere in a collection of some of The Original Writer’s other odds and ends.
It’s quite a short story to be reprinted as a separate book in its own right though. Is there much in the way of extra material to pad it out?
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Wow, Blackwells are shipping me my £28 quid purchase of Absolute Swamp Thing Volume 2.
I guess I need to buy volume 1 now
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Wow, Blackwells are shipping me my £28 quid purchase of Absolute Swamp Thing Volume 2.
I guess I need to buy volume 1 now
I wonder what happened with that book. Amazon sent out a load of copies at about £22 too. Maybe the wrong pricing information was supplied to retailers initially or something.
(Anyway, I’m not complaining as I just sold my copy for £100 a couple of weeks ago!
)Personally I just couldn’t get with the new colouring of these Absolute editions. I know some people like these recolours but (as with the Simonson Thor omnibus) it just took the look and feel of the book too far from the original for me to be able to enjoy it.
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random questions, then randomness…
Far Sector Paperback – October 19, 2021 – U.S. link
Issues 1-12. Honestly would have gotten the HC if they went that way first (assumed they would have).
Does this mean they won’t do a hardcover?Captain America Lives! Omnibus Hardcover – Dec 7 2021 – Canadian link
A new printing of the 3rd Brubaker Omni. (Cap. #45 – 50, 600, 601, and Reborn 1-5).
Is this stuff good? On par with the first two Brubaker Omni’s (which I own)? Or skip it?
(Seem to remember not getting this for a reason…)Immortal Hulk. They’ve been releasing TP’s of 5 issues, and HC’s of 10 issues (3rd one comes soon).
Set to go to issue # 50. Good chance they’ll do 3 OHC’s of the complete series? Hoping they do as it’s what I’m waiting for._______________________________________
If you’re interested:
Gen 13: Starting Over The Deluxe Edition Hardcover – Jan. 11 2022
Collects Gen13: Lost In Paradise #1, Gen13 #1-5, Gen13 European Vacation #1, Gen13 Backlist #1, Gen13 #0-5, Wildstorm Universe Sourcebook #1, and Gen13: Encore No. 1.Absolute Fourth World by Jack Kirby Vol. 2 Hardcover – Dec 14 2021
HC’s for Rorschach and Strange Adventures both come out Dec. 7th 2021
Excalibur Omnibus Vol. 2 Hardcover – Nov. 16 2021
______________________________________Edit: Then after monthly e-mails to me and other friends in this part of the world from Amazon saying they don’t have a clue about Cinema Purgatorio, we received e-mails this morning they’ve been shipped and will arrive today (mine was waiting for me when I got home at 4:30).
WTF? Same day? All this screwing around had me thinking at least a week after the shipping e-mail.
“Sorry guys. Turns out they were in the one spot no one thought to look, our own warehouse!”
I joke, and do get the fact everything is screwed up. Having it in my hands is the real win, doesn’t matter when.1 user thanked author for this post.
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Immortal Hulk omnibus is years away if it ever happens. If it does, Marvel will sling a $100-150 price tag on it.
They’ve done this before – take 2 $35 OHCs, re-package as $100 Omnibus edition.
If Ewing’s run stays excellent to the end, that’ll be reason to hike the price – see Hickman X-Men, that started with a $60 OHC.
Far Sector – it’s DC, who knows why they do what they do on trades? Not even The Shadow knows.
As to Cap, it resolves Brubaker’s epic arc effectively.
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I’m guessing Far Sector will be like Mister Miracle, Omega Men, etc, where there’s a TPB and then if there’s enough demand they’ll do a hardcover down the line.
Great series though, I’ll be getting the collection.
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I know some people like these recolours but (as with the Simonson Thor omnibus) it just took the look and feel of the book too far from the original for me to be able to enjoy it.
Yeah it’s interesting what a difference it makes. I think if it’s a piece of work you value those original colours are part of the appeal. Like with The Killing Joke it’s probably true that John Higgins’ style is fairly garish with his liking for purples and oranges, Bolland’s new version is technically very good and obviously more in keeping with his vision. I want the Higgins one though.
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Hopefully an OHC if Campbell’s art for it is the same as what he did for Naomi.
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Captain America Lives! Omnibus Hardcover – Dec 7 2021 – Canadian link A new printing of the 3rd Brubaker Omni. (Cap. #45 – 50, 600, 601, and Reborn 1-5). Is this stuff good? On par with the first two Brubaker Omni’s (which I own)? Or skip it? (Seem to remember not getting this for a reason…)
Yeah, this is a good continuation of the previous two volumes. It’s when the series relaunches after Fear Itself (I think it was) as Captain America and a second series that’s initially Captain America and Bucky but just becomes a guest team-up book after the first arc, that I fell out of Brubaker’s cap, but that’s right near the end.
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Just taken delivery of a book I’d completely forgotten ordering.
“In Pictopia” by artists Don Simpson, Mike Kazaleh, Pete Poplaski and Erci Vincent.
Weirdly, the cover doesn’t have the writer’s name. I have no idea who it could be
The blurb on the back says “written by the era’s most adventurous mainstream comics writer”.
Hmm. Nope, no idea
In Pictopia is fun. I have it somewhere in a collection of some of The Original Writer’s other odds and ends.
It’s quite a short story to be reprinted as a separate book in its own right though. Is there much in the way of extra material to pad it out?
There is a sizeable essay at the back by Don Simpson which is probably longer than the story, plus a handful of cover sketches, etc. — I haven’t examined any of it in detail as I’m waiting for a chance to sit down and read it properly.
But even with that it’s awfully thin, not really worthy of being classified as a “book”, it’s not much thicker than a comic. It’s oversized (I think ~ 13″ by 10″) and has card covers, but even with that I think it was vastly overpriced unless you’re a fanatic collector with more money than sense
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Yes I agree entirely. There is an element of revisionism to it all that jars for me.
The biggest and worst revisionist re-colouring was the reprint of Adventure Comics #247 where they recoloured a random Caucasian background Legionnaire figure green, to make it look like he was Brainiac 5.
The implications of this on continuity are huge. As we all know, Brainiac 5 joined the Legion at the same time as Supergirl. If Brainy was there in Adventure 247, it means the Legion invited Supergirl to join them before they invited Superboy, the very person who inspired the whole damn Legion in the first place. But because of that recolouring, some fans now accept that as canon. The whole idea is preposterous, and I will fight it till my dying day. It’s a colouring blunder, not a retcon, ok?
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Why is grandpa Simpson so angry with Light Lass’s symbol?
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There’s a 600-page omnibus collection of Bryan Talbot’s Grandville out in August: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grandville-LInt%C3%A9grale-Complete-introduction-Rankin/dp/1787333035/
Beware the Badger! The acclaimed steampunk series from graphic-novel pioneer Bryan Talbot explores an alternate art-nouveau world populated by intelligent animals, a human underclass, and wondrous technology. Within this rich fantastical milieu, the relentless Detective-Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard pursues shadowy death squads, psychotic killers, dark political conspiracies, ruthless crime lords, and bloodthirsty cults through the streets of London and the center of the greatest empire on earth, the Belle Epoque Paris known as Grandville.
Grandville L’Intégrale collects all five Grandville novels in one deluxe hardcover volume accompanied by voluminous author notes never before in print.
*WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY IAN RANKIN*
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If you don’t already own Grandville – it’s fucking excellent!
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Was going to edit my post to say that I will send out a well detailed e-mail to my like-minded friends, but then I remembered I wanted to share what you guys have done.
It might be on a small scale, but your positive reviews have resulted in multiple sales.
Things like Monstress and Black Hammer have sold 3 copies of each OHC they have (possible more after next X-mas).
Dept. of Truth is on their lists, Mister Invincible was a hit and could go outside of our group for x-mas presents (that can be given to anybody).
There’s tons more. And even if they don’t own a copy now, it’s on their minds.But the quick, right away, 5 copies sold and happily received was Slaughterhouse Five.
And not a present or gift.
5 separate people each went and bought a copy with their own money and each glad they did.
Well done!Just wanted everyone to know it’s appreciated.
(and I may be taking more credit than I let on, but for a little bit I get to be one of the cool kids. Feels good.)7 users thanked author for this post.
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Hellblazer: Volume 2: The Best Version Of You
Oh, now why did they axe this? Yes, yes, low monthly sales and all that but this was a book from goddamn Vertigo, the company that more than any other raked in the sales from trades.
The bigger tragedy is this could have continued to run, it had all the fuel in the tank. It had Constantine being the usual bastard he always was, albeit an interesting one. It had a damn good support cast, does anyone not like Nat?
And yet it all ends here. And it does end well, it does tie up a lot of what it had running, with some very sharp comments on Brexit and Johnson running across the entire run, but, dammit, this could have ran for so much longer.
Still very much worth reading, despite it’s being limited to only two volumes.
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Esther’s Notebooks v.1
I’ve been reading this lately and enjoying it, an English translation of the first volume in a popular French series about a 9-10 year old girl, based on weekly interviews with the author, each of which serves as the basis for each single-page strip.
It’s funny, well-observed stuff served by some great cartooning skills in a deceptively simple style which really brings the characters and their stories to life.
I started reading it with my daughter (who’s 10) and she found it very relatable – and loved the swearing, of which there is quite a bit! There’s a lot of subtle, often quite mundane detail in here that really rang true for both me and her and gave us quite a few laughs – but there’s also some more thoughtful and serious material in there too.
We haven’t finished it yet but so far it’s been very enjoyable stuff. I’ve already ordered book two which is due out in a few months, and I hear that Sattouf’s Arab Of The Future series is well worth a look so might check that out too.
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but this was a book from goddamn Vertigo
DC Black Label, we no longer know of this Vertigo you speak of.
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Meant to mention this earlier, as this:
the Garth Ennis Hellblazer Omnibus (that’s a bullet-stopper).
Is indeed a monster book but is also apparently a very hard to find, rare bastard of an Omnibus – I got lucky and nabbed a copy for half price from BooksEtc.
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Amazon have volume 1 available here:
I have the original two hardcovers published through Marvel’s Icon imprint; I’m tempted to buy the new versions so that the cover designs match Vol 3, but then the Cruel Summer HC doesn’t match either cover style, so I guess a uniform look isn’t really that important.
I’m in exactly the same situation. The only reason I can think of to upgrade is that there’s a minor printing error in the original volume 2 that cuts some dialogue off in a couple of panels, but I’m not sure I can be bothered to upgrade just for that and the new covers.
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I didn’t get any of the previous editions, so I’n hoping to get hold of the new ones. I’ve got orders in, but who knows if they’ll pan out.
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The OHC Neil Gaiman Library hit below £25 on Amazon, which seems the only cheap option going for it.
It is, as usual, a quality volume. Will be fun re-reading Murder Mysteries and A Study In Emerald in this format, plus the two others I don’t know.
Will be grabbing Volumes 2 and 3 when they hit the right price point.
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Volume 2 is out, Volume 3 due 12 May.
Generally for RRP £44.99 / $49.99 items, £25-28 is a good target range.
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Just finished EXTREMITY by Daniel Warren Johnson. WOW!!! Now THAT is how you do comics. And just 12 issues too. One of my new favorite series, the fearless ending cinched it for me.
If you enjoyed Wonder Woman: Dead Earth then definitely check this out. It’s another post-apocalypse story but this feels more like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind than Mad Max, although it is very violent. But like Miyazaki, DWJ wants to imagine a world without the endless cycle of violence begetting more violence, and the pacifist culture he creates in vol 2 is what elevates this book to the heights of his other masterpiece, Dead Earth. Nothing is easy in this book. Everything is earned. And DWJ’s mastery of craft, both art and writing, means the story is a nonstop thrilling adventure. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
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Yes, Extremity is wonderful – probably my favourite of his books along with WW Dead Earth. A great story that deals with some weighty themes and doesn’t try to offer easy answers, all set against a great sci-fi/fantasy backdrop. It deserves a nice complete HC at some point.
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DWJ has yet to beat Murder Falcon for me.
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Gillen’s “Once and Future: The King Is Undead” is great fun. It does absolutely everything right in the way it treats English myths and fantasy and, you know, the whole modern monster-hunter thing. And it’s like a great action flick, it hits the ground running from the first page and doesn’t let up. I’m very much looking forward to the next volume.
I hope somebody very clever at amazon or Netflix grabs this. It has everything.
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I love the bit in that where the demonic Arthur looks at the EDL ‘Britain for the Britons’ lot and goes “you are Saxons”.
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Even though it’s a silly idea, Murder Falcon is my favourite book of his. The end makes me cry, every time.
I’ve ordered that but I’m afraid it’s lost in the mail.
Gotta wait a few more days though until I can claim a refund.1 user thanked author for this post.
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Rereading the masterpiece that is DC: The New Frontier and deciding that I must end my boycott of Before Watchmen to buy the Minutemen miniseries Darwyn Cooke did (which is packaged with the Silk Spectre mini he wrote).
I replaced my old two-volume set of New Frontier with the current edition that includes the Justice League special. The full story of the Batman/Superman fight in that is superb. Love how Wonder Woman factors into it. Darwyn Cooke just did not miss.
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Okay, in Omnibuses I did not expect to see: Knights of Pendragon Omnibus.
I did enjoy the original 8 or 9 issues – and loved the moody art.
But if I recall the quality and style tailed off quickly and they were knights-in-robot-armour superhero and quite boring soon after. Anyone have different memories.I always hoped to see Erskine produce the same style of art and story telling again, but other than a disappointing Ellis mini, I never found any.
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I’m hoping it sells enough to convince Marvel to do a Captain Britain & MI-13 OHC / Omnibus.
That I would buy. Pop in the Spitfire one off and the Wisdom 6 issues and ooooh yeah.
I am kinda surprised that there’s no UK Marvel comics riding on the back of X-of-swords but I guess there is no Marvel UK anymore.
its funny that Paul Grist’s current work is as far from his roots to at the mo
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From the new DC solicits:
STARMAN COMPENDIUM ONE
Story by James Robinson.
Art by Tony Harris, Wade von Grawbadger, others.
Cover by Tony Harris.
When the original Starman’s old foe the Mist continues an old vendetta, Jack Knight is forced into a role he’s spent his whole life denying: Jack will have to pick up Starman’s Cosmic Rod. Soon Jack finds himself flung into a life he never wanted for himself…but it just might be his destiny! Watch Starman go up against the Mist, the Shade, and even Captain Marvel! Starman Compendium One collects Starman #0-42, Starman 80-Page Giant #1, Starman Annual #1-2, Starman Secret Files #1, Showcase ’95 #12, Showcase ’96 #4-5, The Power of Shazam! #35-36, and The Shade #1-4.
1,448 pages, $59.99, available on August 17.
I already own the HCs, but hopefully they get the whole series in paperback this time.
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It’s no exaggeration to say that this is one of my most anticipated releases of the year.
This didn’t disappoint. Having been slightly concerned that all the panel-breaking, page-manipulating trickery might have been exhausted after volumes one and two, I was just as blown away by this as I was by the first couple of volumes.
There’s just so much innovation here, so much creativity with the comics page, that it makes other strips seem quite boring and mundane in comparison.
I’ll share a few examples as it’s really the only way to explain what makes the book so brilliant.
This story is about a postal worker who creates a device to let her do her job more quickly:
In terms of how this affects the page, it effectively creates a second panel layout (in blue) over the top of the main panel layout so she can make multiple actions in one moment. The other characters see doubles of her when this happens (and on the bottom row – when one of her panels covers multiple regular panels – they perceive her as a flashing image).
This next one is part of a strip where they visit the real world and they appear on panel-shaped objects. It’s all done with photos of real painted images on streets and buildings and must have been a huge undertaking to put together:
Finally, this one might be my favourite of the lot. It’s a story where a policeman is helped to solve a crime by the ghost of his dead wife. She’s included as an image made by a transparent gloss effect – so in some lights she’s more or less completely invisible (as she is to the characters)…
…but if you hold it in the right light so that the spot gloss reflects, you can see where she is and how she’s influencing the story.
There are loads more great ideas in here too that do some equally creative things through slightly less flashy means, but still really open up what you can do with the page.
It’s inspiring stuff.
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Are UK editions of Marvel omnibuses a new thing? I don’t recall big HCs from Panini before.
I think so. Given the dubious build quality of their trades (especially early on), I’m curious to see how it turns out. I can see a DC scale mess-up coming out of it.
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Panini’s first UK trades had a tendency to fall apart. However later ones I bought were perfectly fine so they seemed to have ironed out the problems. With that in mind though I can understand a little wariness if they are trying out a new format for the UK.
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Panini’s first UK trades had a tendency to fall apart. However later ones I bought were perfectly fine so they seemed to have ironed out the problems. With that in mind though I can understand a little wariness if they are trying out a new format for the UK.
Coincidentally, I just bought a copy of what I think was one of Panini’s first UK TPBs, E is for Extinction, from 2002. It’s still held together fine, though they do have an annoying thing where it’s about 2mm shorter than a standard TPB, and the spine text goes the wrong way, so that it seems upside-down.
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They’ve got the name of the book wrong too. The spine text going the wrong way was always weird (a European thing, I think) but I’m not quite sure why they decided to slap a generic X-Men logo on New X-Men.
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They’ve got the name of the book wrong too. The spine text going the wrong way was always weird (a European thing, I think) but I’m not quite sure why they decided to slap a generic X-Men logo on New X-Men.
This was before the idea that you’d put out a bunch of TPBs collecting all of a run; it was just considered another X-Men collection, like X-Men: Dark Phoenix or X-Men: Days of Future Past. I don’t think Panini ever printed any UK collections of the rest of the Morrison run.
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It’s different in different countries. In Sweden the text on the spine of the book is aligned in the correct way. (So that you can read it if the book lies flat with the front up.) I seem to recall that in Spain it is completely random, but I’m not sure.
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Resident Alien Omnibus v.1
As mentioned in the Watching thread, I picked this up after enjoying the TV series (about an alien disguised as a local doctor in small-town America) and enjoyed the comic too, but in a different way.
It’s an interesting comparison to the TV adaptation, in that the TV version has taken some elements and preserved them well (the concept, the key characters and the setting) while changing others quite a bit.
The show is a lot more darkly comedic and bloodthirsty and gets a lot out of the alien’s antagonism towards humankind, whereas the comic is calmer and quieter and nicer-natured all round, more gently charming, with the alien acting as a freindly, stabilising presence in the town. I got a stronger sense of the comic playing with parallels with immigration and integration than I did with the TV show, which takes a more generic Hollywood bodysnatcher approach.
It’s the right choice for the TV show to play up Tudyk’s talents but I liked the comic version too, not least the way it makes a lot out of Parkhouse’s fairly underplayed and matter-of-fact art, which works well in contrast to the fantastical situation being depicted.
And interestingly the comic adopts a lot more of a mystery-of-the-week format compared to the single ongoing and more character-oriented/soap opera story of the TV show, when you might expect it to be the other way around.
Anyway I saw that the next couple of books are just £2.50 on Comixology at the moment so I’ve snapped them up to continue the story.
Not that this physical book was expensive – this softcover collects the first three arcs (of six) and is good value at under £15 for around 300 pages.
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Does the comic have his search for his ship and Linda Hamilton’s organization?
The search for his ship isn’t part of the comic’s story (in the comic, his mission is not the same as it is in the TV adaptation) but there is still a similar military organisation keeping tabs on him and trying to track him down. At this stage (three arcs in) that’s still an unresolved subplot though.
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Reckless vol. 2: Friend of the Devil is another great entry in Brubaker/Phillips’ years-long hot streak. A great mystery, a disarmingly tender romance, the main character is even cooler this time out, and the ending is brutal. The last line is my favorite closing line of any of their books.
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I do like Brian Azzarello and Ed Risso. The deluxe hardcover collection of their various Batman work is on sale for £11 from HMV at the moment. Free shipping for orders over £20. U.K. only, I think.
https://store.hmv.com/store/merchandise/graphic-novels/batman-(1)
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Talking of big hardbacks, at £20, it’s a little pricey but Aliens: Dead Orbit is worth it!
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Not surprisingly, my Swamp Thing Absolute 2 order has been cancelled by Amazon UK. I had it pre-ordered months in advance, but I guess they had sold out whatever their allocation of the print run was almost immediately at the stupid low price. Amazon US still has copies, but at basically full price.
Same here. Blackwells has an interesting, but unlikely price/delivery date
Rather than fund a full priced copy, I’ve been looking if I could put cash towards an affordable top 10 Absolute… nope is the answer :) I’m happy to pay some £££ but £300 is toooo much.
It took almost four months, and will probably take another month to get here, but my €31 copy of Absolute Swamp Thing Vol. 2 was finally dispatched from Blackwells!
I had mostly given up on it, so a nice surprise.
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I got a copy for £48 back in 2013!
I’m happy for you
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Superman: Up In The Sky
Sadly, this was a bit of a dud. There’s some nice moments in this but to get to them? Er, yeah, that’s where the problems come in.
Kubert’s art is pretty good throughout and I like the structural of telling a 12 part story over six issues, so how does this go wrong? Enter Tom King, who clearly subscribes to the school of heroes only winning a little after lots and lots of suffering. And, as it went on, I got more and more numbed to it. The solution to any and all problems? More or less “I’m Superman”, which is a deja vu moment, where did I see that before? Oh yeah, Bane beats the crap out of Batman and is then dropped with one punch because? “I’m Batman”.
The other problem is while King was trying to cram as much as he could into these 12 twelve done-in-half-an-issue stories, reading it as a set shows up how fragmented and disjointed it is as a whole. It jumps all over the place, it tries to use the DC mythos in the way Batman: Universe did but it just doesn’t manage it. I liked the resolution, I liked some of the moments along the way, but not the road to get to them. It was all a bit too, well, a bit too Tom King
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Sorry it didn’t work for you, Ben.
Totally recognise the fragmented nature of reading all 12 issues, back to back – I said much the same when I reviewed it originally. But, taken individually I thought all 12 vignettes were really nice (with some better than others). The Batman fight issue being particularly memorable, but I liked the boxing match, the Sgt Rock story, and others. The fact that Clark was willing to do all of this for one soul really resonated with me – it reflected the ideal of Superman that lives rent free in my head.
And, I loved Andy Kubert’s artwork for the series.
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