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That’s a great book. I went to a signing at Dave’s local shop (Chaos City) and he was in good form. The entry on Alan Moore I found quite sad. He’s pretty non-judgmental and doesn’t resort to finger pointing but it’s clear that he was hurt by Moore’s actions – leaping to unjustified conclusions and not listening to someone else’s point of view.

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Ben, Dave

Immortal Hulk Omnibus

Got this from Books Etc on Friday and, appropriately, it’s an absolute monster. I’ve read the first 20 or so issues in floppy before deciding to wait for something in this format. What I read was pretty good so I hope Ewing lands the ending.

Batman Peter Tomasi Omnibus

Also got this last week. I’ve read most of what’s in it before but I love Tomasi on Batman so it was well worth the upgrade.

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Ben

It can vary but it’s usually the Saturday before it’s in the shops and indeed the new issue arrived today.

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Chris-S, Vikram

Bailey’s contributions to the Joe Pineapples series have been published. Interestingly the art previewed here

https://2000ad.com/news/exclusive-first-look-at-simon-bisley-s-art-on-new-joe-pineapples-series/

hasn’t appeared.

Pat Mills pisses off even more people.

https://comicscene.org/2022/10/11/pat-mills-faces-fan-backlash-over-ai-art-and-nfts/

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DavidM, Todd

Vikram wrote:

I thought I read that vol 5 (#30) is the last.

I didn’t know that. The last issue seemed to burn through plotlines at high speed so that explains it.

You lucky bugger! I’ve not been able to get a copy and that looks lovely.

Busiek said in the recent one-shot that hardcover omnibii are planned.

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DavidM, Ben

I think it was Rich Johnston who was convinced about Daniel Rigby. Everyone else… less so.

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Martin Smith, Ben

A couple of things about the last two posts, that’s definitely Nicola Bryant not “Tegan” and Lalla Ward and Richard Dawkins separated in 2016. Pedant’s Corner is now closed for the day.

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Ben, DavidM, Martin Smith, garjones

Absolute Swamp Thing volume 3 arrived yesterday and it’s lovely to now have the set. Read the first few issues last night and it really is excellent stuff. Moore writes with an intelligence and imagination that few other writers can even get near. He manages to deal with the topic of an interspecies sexual relationship in a sensitive and thought provoking manner that is never played for cheap laughs and avoids feeling sleazy in any way.

I know the new colouring has upset some people but I rather like it.

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Dave

Talk of the devil

https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/RCA-B0082

 

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DavidM

Volume 4 is due in May I think.

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Ben

He did a few things for Boom Studios and IDW (The Highest House was pretty good) but he’s become a “one book a year” novelist. I knew him a little bit about 10-15 years ago (he used to come into the library I worked at with his kids). Nice guy but I’d guess he’s now early 60s and his kids will now be grown up so he probably is at the “winding down” stage of his career.

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Vikram, Todd

Lucky buggers. No sign of mine though Nemesis The Final Heresies did arrive.

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Vikram

I seem to remember Alan Moore announcing that rather than Kevin himself.

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Todd

I’m genuinely excited about this

Britain’s most controversial comic is back with two of Britain’s most controversial creators!

 

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Bruce, njerry, Sean Robinson, Ben

Just the HC it seems. I avoided more than a cursory glance of the digital edition but the little I saw looked fantastic.

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Dave

I had a nice surprise last night. The Plot Holes by Sean Murphy, that I backed on Kickstarter nearly 2 years ago, has been dispatched. I’d genuinely forgotten about it.

Saw it earlier and loved it. Charlie Cox’s appearance brought an audible gasp from the audience.  Andrew Garfield’s brought a spontaneous cheer and round of applause.

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Ben, Uncle Retrospective

Even in such distressing circumstances he’s a classy guy. What an absolute legend.

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garjones, Rocket, Martin Smith, Dave, Todd, Sean Robinson, Al-x, Vikram, Ben

I haven’t bought it but I saw it in Forbidden Planet the other day. It’s definitely a smaller format than US omnibuses but looked decent enough and I think has content at the end not included in the US edition, though I’ll have to check to be certain if that.

Widely predicted but now official

https://www.doctorwho.tv/news/?article=missing-adventure-the-abominable-snowmen-animation

 

 

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Martin Smith

For those interested in such things (me!) the final Nemesis hardback volume is now up for pre-order. Warning they tend to sell out very quickly.

PRE-ORDER NOW: the limited edition ‘Nemesis the Warlock: The Final Heresies’ hardcover

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Bruce

He is very pro-artist but he has a bad habit of upsetting fellow writers. He must be a nightmare to edit though. You’d think having been an editor (and one who’s admitted rewriting frequently) he’d be more sympathetic.

I agree that it’s more of a gentleman’s agreement. Pat seems to have been less critical of Rebellion in the last few months. I wonder if there will ever be a second issue of Spacewarp?

As rumoured Galaxy 4 has been confirmed as the next animated release.

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Martin Smith, DavidM

If you haven’t got these already, now is the time. It’s only £30 on Amazon which is incredible value. All 5 graphic novels, hardback and with a commentary from Bryan Talbot.

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DavidM, Ben

Read this over the weekend. If you’ve got a strong stomach I recommend it highly. Powell turns in some of his best work, restraining the urge he often has to “cartoon” some of his characters. I was glad it’s in black and white!

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Christian, njerry, Todd

Just seen it and it’s a load of fun. Incredibly violent and the best Margot Robbie has been as Harley Quinn. I even found Idris Elba tolerable though Sebastian steals the show for me.

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Rocket, Todd

Having seen the workload that Moffat was under I think Mark Gatiss is very unlikely to want the job.

I’d have thought that Pete McTighe would be in with a shout as new showrunner.

Seeing it on Friday

[Robbo]

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

 

 

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Robbo.

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Christian

[Robbo]

Volume 3 of The Abominable  Charles Christopher has got a campaign up and running.

 

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Robbo.

Pat Mills indicated that it’s Gordon Rennie but his stories don’t read like Rennie’s.

Neither Nightwing or the new Batman series made it to this side of the Atlantic.

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Vikram

I read Monsters last weekend and I thought it was stunning. It’s horrifying and heartbreaking in equal measure with BWS’s art was as accomplished as you’d expect. If you can squint you can see the bare bones of the original Hulk proposal (the father character particularly) but it moves far beyond that to deal with the potential monster that potentially lies within everyone.

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Dave, lorcan_nagle, Todd, njerry, garjones, DavidM, Will_C

[Robbo]

I read Batman’s Grave HC by Ellis and Hitch at the weekend. I enjoyed it a whole lot more than I expected to from the reviews. The art was as good as I thought it would be but Ellis spun a decent yarn and the relationship between Bruce and Alfred was as good as I’ve read in a long while.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Robbo.

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njerry

My bookplate edition arrived an hour ago – signed by Kev and Al!

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Todd, Uncle Retrospective, Christian

[Robbo]

It looks as though the Cinema Purgatorio collection might finally arrive. Gosh Comics are offering a bookplate edition due the end of March.

https://goshlondon.com/cinema-purgatorio-collection-tp-bookplate-edition/

 

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Robbo.

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Chris-S, Dave

Popped into my local shop today and was surprised to find The Seeds by Ann Nocenti and David Aja came out this week. I hadn’t realised that they decided to forego the last 2 issues and go straight to tpbk. It looks great, as you’d expect from Aja. With Rebellion supplying me with volume 2 of the Trigan Empire and the second hardback volume of Nemesis that’s me set for Christmas!

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Bruce, Todd, Ben, Dave, Will_C

If you enjoyed Meltdown Man then I’d like to point you in this direction.

The Angry Planet (Great Britain and Worldwide shipping)

The same creative team and plenty of fun.

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Bruce, DavidM

I’ve got a shelf that just like that! It’s quite a body of work isn’t it?

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Sean Robinson, Dave, Ben

Someone asked Pat Mills about the long awaited Simon Bisley painted Joe Pineapples series on Twitter. Apparently Clint Langley has taken over from Bisley after just 2 parts and is working on the rest.

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Bruce

Vikram wrote:

Anyone in the UK seen physical copies of Lazarus Risen #5 on the shelves?

No I haven’t seen it. Looks like it’s been sucked into the Diamond black hole along with the last few issues of Dceased,

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Vikram

garjones wrote:

Yeah all of sudden Waugh went to Ales Kot and Indigo Prime went to Kek-W. A couple of Tyranny Rex strips have come out from different writers too.

I don’t actually know what happened there behind the scenes, if he decided to stop working for them or they decided to stop working for him but it’s been over 2 years since he’s had any work in Rebellion publications.

I’d say the sacrifice in intensity is worth it for what we gain in clarity. Kot is a better replacement for Smith than the rather insipid Rory McConville.

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Vikram, garjones

Yes I got mine last week.

There’s no way you can pick up Deadworld part way through. I think Kek W needs a stronger editorial hand as he has good ideas but they become a mess on the page. He’s given good artists to work with so it’s unlikely the problem lies there.

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Vikram

When I read the Fall of Deadworld collected editions I found them pretty easy to follow. The Order, in the other hand, is incomprehensible.

Will_C wrote:

It’s also worth nothing that Kieron Gillen used thinly disguised Watchmen analogues in Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt to nary a peep from Moore.

It’s like Lorcan said upthread: Moore’s issue is with DC deceiving him to claim sole ownership over his work, not with the idea of artists building off of his work as he built off the work of other artists. The public domain is important because it strikes a balance between creators’ livelihoods and the fact that art belongs to all of us, and that an important function of art is for the artist to examine the stories that have shaped them and their society.

Even for Affable Al it’d be a bit rich to complain about that seeing as Ozymandias was Peter Cannon originally.

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Dave, Will_C, DavidM

They’ve gotten quite poor in the last month or two. Until recently I’ve never had a problem but the last couple of books I ordered took a couple of weeks to dispatch.

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Vikram

It’s definitely a normal deluxe edition. I received my copy from the Book Depository yesterday. The dimensions on Books Etc must be wrong.

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Ben

The first 50 issues of Shade The Changing Man are as good as anything Vertigo published, though it did go downhill after that point. The first 2 series of Bad Company are excellent as well.

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Sean Robinson, Uncle Retrospective

You’re in luck. There has commissioned another run.

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Chris-S, Bruce, garjones, Vikram

I think the intrusive soundtrack sometime obscuring the dialogue was a deliberate and interesting choice.

That pretty much sums up my feelings. I gave up following plot details after an hour and just went with the flow (whichever way it flowed). There were a couple of plot tics at the end that made me wonder if Nolan had watched Moffat’s Dr Who.

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garjones

A second Guardian review gives it five stars. I’m seeing it tomorrow so I’ll soon find out which I agree with.

The Guardian review seems the anomaly. The majority of reviews are good to great.

garjones wrote:

Latest comicsgate title looks good:

Is that the new Milo Manara book?

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garjones, Dave

I couldn’t resist pre-ordering at that price. It’d be rude not too.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Absolute-Swamp-Thing-Alan-Moore/dp/1779502826/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=absolute+swamp+thing+2&qid=1594051317&sr=8-1

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DavidM, Dan, paul f

Dave wrote:

njerry wrote:

I gotta say, I’m very disappointed if the rumors about Mignola and Arcudi are true.

What does this refer to?

There were rumours a little while ago that John Arcudi and Guy David stopped working with Mignola because they felt they were being underpaid, not getting credit for creations, etc.

I got that at the start of lockdown! It’s excellent.

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Sean Robinson, Vikram

To be honest nothing I have read by Ellis over the years made me think he was a nice guy and that could be the reason these revelations didn’t shock me.

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Jason

Yep take away Hitch’s art and you’ve got an average comic. Take Quitely away from Miller’s run and you’ve got a poor one.

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Ben

It goes on in all walks of life and I’ve seen it happen with women and men and the cynical me thinks it’s a facet of human behaviour that won’t change. It’s never as cut and dried as the twitter debate would have you  believe.

There was a reason I didn’t use the word polyamory. It’s clear that he had multiple partners who didn’t know of each others existence.

It still feels like a dig and the last few posts are adopting a particularly didactic tone. The outraged reactions feel to me as if they object to Ellis’s polygamous lifestyle as much as his abuse of position. Personally both go against my own moral position but there you go.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Describing the reaction to Ellis’ actions as puritanical suggest that maybe you should listen to them a little closer instead of falling back on preconceptions.

I’ve been polite in my posts and would appreciate it being reciprocated. Disagree by all means but try not to have a dig at the same time.

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lorcan_nagle wrote:

Robbo wrote:

The more I read about this the less I care. Ellis strung along a group of women who actively courted his attention. They were all adults and everything was consensual. He lied but people tell lies in relationships. It’s not healthy and it’s not right but it’s not a crime. This should all have been conducted in private. The Cameron Stewart case is much more serious and linking the two is disingenous.

I think that comes from a few points for here at least – Ellis has always had a following with Millarworld/Carrier regulars, and we’ve tended to see writers as the primary focus of the creative focus.  On top of that he’s more popular in general here than Cameron Stewart.

Also, Stewart’s misconduct is a lot less defensible than Ellis, so it’s more cut and dry.

I think what troubles me is these reports are portraying him as a kind of sex offender. He’s not, he’s a womaniser. It’s not nice but there are plenty of people of all genders and sexualities who behave in this way without suffering the kind of puritanical censure Ellis has had this week.

The more I read about this the less I care. Ellis strung along a group of women who actively courted his attention. They were all adults and everything was consensual. He lied but people tell lies in relationships. It’s not healthy and it’s not right but it’s not a crime. This should all have been conducted in private. The Cameron Stewart case is much more serious and linking the two is disingenous.

[Robbo]

The stuff I’ve seen goes back to around 2009/2010. He certain my used to refer to a partner and child around that time. I’ve enjoyed a number of Ellie’s books  and read a few interviews over the years and  none of them have suggested that he’s a particularly nice person.

 

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Robbo.

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Todd

To be fair that pretty much sums up my opinion of him. One I’d say about the women he strung along, they may have been unaware of each other but they can’t have been unaware of his wife and daughter.

[Robbo]

Is it so hard to believe that she would use the relationship to get a leg up in her career? You’d have to be pretty naive to think that doesn’t happen, not that I’m saying that’s necessarily the case here – I don’t know and neither do you. West’s statements are fairly nuanced and balanced. She believes Ellis shoulders the majority of the blame but not all of it. To quote directly from her “Warren Ellis is undoubtedly a force for good in comics, and has been for the last twenty years or so. He’s given opportunities, money, and support to marginalised creators in comics and outside it. He’s also done some fucked up things to young women. Both statements can be true.” and also “He doesn’t need to be cancelled or whatever. Instead ask how we get to a point where successful men don’t prey on young women, maliciously or not. A point where those young women see the attention of men like that as damaging and not flattering. How do we change that culture?”
<p class=”MsoNormal”></p>
All industries have an unbalanced power dynamic and there’s always the possibility of someone taking advantage of it. The system needs changing but I don’t see it happening in the short term.

 

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Robbo.

I would agree with that but I’m very doubtful that’s the entirety of the story in Ellis’s case. To be fair Katie West does state she doesn’t want to see Ellis suffer any sort of punitive action more that the system should change which I wholeheartedly agree with. Stewart’s case appears much more dubious and exploitative.

Having read Katie West’s (now deleted) tweets I’m really conflicted about what to think. She accuses Ellis of manipulation but this is an intelligent person who was in their 20s at the time. She may have been foolish in complying but what were her motivations for going along with it?

[Robbo]

I rather suspect you’re right. Twitter does seem the go to forum for unsubstantiated allegations though. I’m not saying there’s no truth but the burden of proof has shifted to prove innocence rather than prove guilt. Ellis has had relationships with several women in the 20s and a couple have alluded to him promising to help them with their careers , though none have produced any evidence. What Ellis has been accused of is not terribly different to what Leonardo DiCaprio does. The difference being Ellis is fat and beardy.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Robbo.

[Robbo]

I’m increasingly troubled by Trial By Twitter. Cameron Stewart’s actions are morally dubious but not illegal. Warren Ellis appears to have been stringing several women along at the same time. Not particularly nice behaviour but I’ve yet to see anything that resembles “grooming”  on his part. Yet Stewart’s career is now over and Ellis’s is under threat (though I suspect he’ll survive). Brian Wood had similar accusations levelled at him but addressed his behaviour and seems to be making a minor comeback.

The allegations (particularly against Ellis) seem very one sided. One of the accusers says they were in an online relationship which he closed down when he discovered she was developing projects with other creators. It was then she realised she was being used, groomed, etc. Maybe Ellis though he was being used and strung along. There are two sides (at least) to every story.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Robbo.

Vikram wrote:

Has anyone seen copies of the John Byrne She Hulk Omnibus in the wild yet? With Coronavirus delays I’ve lost total track of when this should be out. About now, I think.

My copy arrived from Reed comics at the weekend but it looks as though they have already sold out.

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Vikram

Their Twitter feed is full of people complaining about undispatched products and unanswered emails so I think they’re having an absolute nightmare at the moment. I’m waiting for orders myself but I’m just waiting it out at the moment rather than joining the melee.

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Dave

[Robbo]

Ignore

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Robbo.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Robbo.

They have been hit by a cyber attack and hope to be online this week but I’d guess that’s more likely to be next week now.

garjones wrote:

Can’t wait for this. Williams is hinting at the return of a classic character.

I didn’t expect that classic character!

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Bruce

BookDepository havebeen keeping me well supplied over the last month. Last week’s deliveries included the second Straczynski Spidey omnibus, the first Hickman X-men trade and Omega Men deluxe hbk. They’ve just shipped the Weird Western Tales omnibus.

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Todd

It turns out I do have the omnibus (I’ve got far too many!). The reproduction of Elektra Assassin is much better in the new book – much more vibrant.

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Dan

I didn’t get the omnibus but love war looks the same as my original printing.

Received my copy of Daredevil Love and War Gallery Edition this afternoon. It also contains Elektra Assasin and this must be the definitve edition of either story. Beautiful art on oversized pages (slightly larger than Absolute dimensions). Can’t wait to read these stories again.

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Ben

There was a limited edition hardback available through the 2000AD website but the paperback is available through bookstores (and is in stock on Amazon now).

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Bruce

In some rather surprising news Michael Palin is in an upcoming Torchwood release for Big Finish.

https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/sir-michael-palin-joins-torchwood

It’s a rather touching and emotional tribute to James Robinson’s Starman. Highly recommended

 

It was a surprise as after all the delays it’s due to ship to stores tomorrow.

Peter Cannon Thunderbolt Oversized HC arrived from Amazon yesterday much earlier than I’d expected. Very nice it is as well with a very nice set of extras.

Hmmm I wish I’d flicked through this year’s Klaus before spending £7 on it.

Gosh Comics have revealed that Millar’s secret project is

 

 

An American Jesus sequel.

Doc Frankenstein Post Modern Prometheus HC

This collects the 6 published issues with an additional 65 pages new to the collection that finishes off the story. Of course the draw here is Steve Skroce’s phenomenal art which is showcased superbly in the oversized format. Well worth it.

I thought Moore’s recent retirement talk was bluster but he seemed pretty definite on the Radio 6 interview he did recently.

Is Batman’s beard a reference to Catwoman?