What comic are you reading at the moment.

Fysh

Nothing much this week; still no sign of the 7th trade of Y : The Last Man in Other Realms, so...

Nextwave #5:

There's a lot of excitement in places like the scans_daily community over the sheer over-the-top idiocy in this issue, which managed to make it even funnier than usual. Dirk Anger's orgasmic relationship to deploying weapons like the drop-bears ("Cute cuddly bears...of death?!") or Samuriod Batch #23 made it for me, as well as the little insight into the Captain's childhood. Funny asides and ultraviolence all the way

Squee's Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors:

I've been meaning to pick this up since I read Johnny The Homicidal Maniac. I like Vasquez's artwork, and it is more refined here than in JTHM. Its particular brand of humour is funny (I particularly liked the incompetent aliens ) but I was vaguely let down as I'd been led to believe by a few friends that it was better overall than JTHM. I'd rank them roughly equally as the humour is more fine-tuned in Squee, but I like the overall story in JTHM. Maybe it's because only half the book is about Squee, and the other half is the "Meanwhile" material from the original serialisation from JTHM. Still, it's good stuff. Now I'll probably have to go and buy that Bear TPB if I can find it. (Damnit, I thought I'd kicked that nagging addiction to Slave Labor's minigoth-friendly material! )

Edited to add:
Also, on a Seven Soldiers note (since we're still waiting for the closing issue)...I think DC have inadvertently screwed up in their information leak about the whole "Who will die?" thing by having 6 of the seven soldiers appear in the big reunion at the start of 52 (see here if you want a peek). Ah well, not like I care enough to follow any ongoing books that might appear involving the characters anyway...

DoctorEdgeWild

Finally got around to buying Watchmen so expect that to take up my time for a while! Also picked up DMZ and some other random bits and pieces.

Have been intending to get Watchmen for quite some time and having started it last night, it's already sucked me in!

Fysh

Recent spoils for me:

Bear - Immortal

Picked this up after having glanced at it for ages. At first I thought it was going to be just another SLG Squee-style book with not a great deal to make it stand out, but I was very wrong. The humour in this is fantastic, or at least it is to me. There's a very English feel to it which I liked (partly because it made it easier to get into, given that I lived there for 3 years, and partly because it's a change from american/canadian-set comics) and it's so utterly surreal that I've read it about 5 times since I picked it up. Looshkin the utterly insane cat is Bear's eternal tormentor, and their owner is a complete jessie who tries to just avoid getting involved. It's daft ideas like a story about Looshkin getting control of a black hole and being able to control space time - which is played out first one way and then backwards, so that you can figure out everything that's happened which make this book good. Definitely the funniest book I've seen from SLG's stable.


Y : The Last Man : Paper Dolls

A good read, but it had been so long since my last fix that I had to go back and read the entire series again to properly appreciate this. There's some interesting plot developments here and it seems like the series is about half-way through act 2 in terms of traditional story arc pacing of action/plot/character development. Still a damn fine read, and I look forward to more of it whenever it's available.


Buddha vol 1 : Kapilavastu

The first manga I've read in years, I picked this up on a whim. Book 1 of a series of 8 detailing the life and story of Siddhartha, the original Buddha. The style is much what I expected from manga, but the story is great - an excellent balance of plotline, action, characters and humour. It seems a little simplistic so far, but then again I don't exactly expect War and Peace from what seems to be a commercially-popular manga book. Still, its another interesting series to read.


The Fate Of The Artist

Another random purchase, I picked this up because I was curious about Eddie Campbell's experimentation with design in the story. However, interesting as it is to see him play with different formats for comics (including strips in the style of old newspaper funnies, photo-comics, and illustrated text stories) the whole that they go to make up is frankly disappointing. The idea of stitching together a bunch of differently-styled small comics is a good one, but the individual snippets they deal with don't intersect coherently enough to feel like a satisfying whole by the end of the book; oddly enough, I got the feeling that were there not a heavy sensation of an overarching story, I would have enjoyed the individual snippets more, because Campbell does havea good eye for characters and what makes them tick.

Worth a look only if you're interested in layout and design/style experimentation. I haven't read anything else by him, but from my reading around a few sites it seems that there are better books to read as your introduction to Campbell as a writer.

BrenC

Maus and Transmetropolitan #1

the Shades

On a recommendation from a friend I've picked up the first two Ex Machina trades. Interesting stuff, Vaughan is becoming an intriguing writer for taking different slants on superhero books.

BrenC

Im now on Transmetropolitan #5, This series is brilliant, probably the best I've ever read.

Draco

Nextwave #5:
'No good will come of a robot in a bra'

That is all I have to say. If you don't like Nextwave you're dead inside. Do you hear me? DEAD.

Fysh

Draco wrote:

Nextwave #5:
'No good will come of a robot in a bra'

"Lick my blinky diodes".

Hehehehe, that and the Sergio Aragones issue of Solo are the only thing I've picked up in Other Realms in 2 weeks. Both worthwhile, but I think that I'll be leaving the place alone for a while. Especially when I got the following for 60 euro on play.com:

Sharknife vol 1:

Yeah yeah, I know, I'm ages late to the party. Still. Entertainingly daft (though not quite as inspiredly stupid and funny as Nextwave), some great fight scenes and brilliant artwork, and a wonderfully daft concept. Not sure how many volumes I'd be arsed following this for, but the first volume is definitely worth a look.

24 Hour Comics:

A surprisingly good compilation of 24-page comics, given the whole "made in 24 hours" aspect. I particularly liked Neil Gaiman's entry for the bits where he didnt know how to draw something in particular (I think it was a horse at first) so he drew something else and included a short paragraph defending his right to do so. Repeatedly. Overall, very very good. Though it sets the bar pretty high for anyone (like me) thinking of going along with the idea come october...

Will Eisner's Comics & Sequential Art :

I've been meaning to pick this up since I heard about it. It's very interesting from a drawing and design perspective, and the fact that it was written ages ago just goes to highlight what a visionary Eisner was. It's also a handy introduction of sorts to the spirit, which I might have to start reading just to study Eisner's work more.

Scott Mccloud's Understanding Comics :

I've already read it, but it's another one of those books that's a good reference for design ideas as well as a general history of comics. Whatever you think of Mccloud's ideas, it's an interesting read.

Krazy & Ignazt 31-32:

A compilation of the Krazy Kat strips from 1931-1932 by George Herriman. I don't really know much about Herriman's work, but I first heard about him in the 10th anniversary edition Calvin And Hobbes book since he's one of Bill Watterson's favourite cartoonists. (He's also mentioned in "Masters Of American Comics", where a few fantastic strips were included). It's amazing to read these cartoons, and even more amazing to realise that it's only in the last decade or so that any serious efforts have been made to collect them in books - the artwork is brilliant, the designs are ingenious, and the dialogue just sparkles. Not to mention that the whole series is predicated on a simple premise (the mouse, Ignatz, has a penchant for hitting the cat, Krazy, upside the head with a brick, but Officer Pupp tries to stop Ignatz from getting away with it) which Herriman somehow manages to keep fresh all the time. Even South Park had to stop killing Kenny after about 60 odd episodes, so keeping that going for 15 odd years is pretty impressive.

I'm also growing steadily older waiting for Seven Soldiers of Victory #1 to actually hit the shelves and tie up the whole sorry series, though I'm not confident that it'll arrive before I die of old age. What a non-event that whole miniseries was...

Longshadow

New here, first post. Been reading comics a while now though, and here's some of what I got this week.

Batman Detective Comics
DC
W: Paul Dini
A: JH Williams III
(noteworthy cover by Simone Bianchi)
Was very much looking forward to this, as it's JH Williams' first issue on the series. As upset as I was that he left Desolation Jones, a series to which I felt his art was integral, it's good to see him on a high profile title. It's a self-contained story, something that's becoming more common again, and I couldn't be happier about that. God bless Warren Ellis for blazing that trail with the likes of Fell, Global Frequency and Planetary.
But back to the story. Self contained though it is, it's just a touch dissapointing. The compression of the story to one issue shows terribly in the second scene, where Batman and Gordon simply stand around and spout expositionary dialoge at each other for a few pages. After this though, the story moves nicely, but the real highlight is Williams' art, which, while not given the freedom it was on Jones, still shines, delivering some of the best layouts and action sequences you'll find on the shelves. Great colour too (John Kalisz).


Midnight Sun
Slave Labor
W/A Ben Towle
I mostly pick up new titles based on their creators, or recommendations, but knowing that there's gems to be occasionally found in the untested waters of them thar indie titles, one has to try new names too, and Midnight Sun was one of these times. I simply liked the look of it in Previews, and so ordered it. And I wasn't dissapointed. Not yet. It's not what I'd call a strong first issue. With 32 whole pages at it's disposal for story, it doesn't manage to pack the kind of punch that a good first issue should, but it was good enough to warrant hanging on until the second issue at least. (Good thing too, I think I've already ordered it)
The art style is wonderful and Ben Towle makes great use of grayscale, so that it doesn't limit, but genuinely adds to the depth of his pages, and the story is interesting, but I felt it blatantly missed the opportunity to be outright intrigueing (interestingly, I could find no credit of an editor on the book..) It's the story of a reporter sent to investigate an airship (it's set when zeppelin meant a balloon, not Stairway) that went missing on an expedition to the North Pole. Outside of this being set-up, Towle mostly spends time establishing his main characters, with the result of the issue seeming a just a little slow.
If in a few issues his writing tightens, this could be a very worthwhile read, completely outside of the usual realm of mainstream (soo-per-hero) comics. Not that there's anything entirely wrong with them, but it's good to see something different.
(Final point to note that just clicked with me now; it seems to have been written for a different size format, as the art leaves a rather wasteful 5 cm horizontal 'gutter' on the page, if you add up the white space on top and bottom of the artwork. Between this and the issues' pacing, I imagine it was originally written as a digest sized OGN.)


Waiting eagerly for:
The Boys Garth Ennis/Darrick Robertson
Pride of Baghdad HC Brian K. Vaughan/Can't remember

(edited to erase shameful examples of poor spelling)

hughsy23

i'm currently reading the marvel civil war series and the related tie-ins

Draco

Let's see, recently there has been:

30 Days of Night
Not a bad vampire story at all, if a little short. The story is of a cadre of vampire descending on a small town in Alaska. Violent, gory and poignant. Templesmiths artwork is great.

Batman #655
I picked this up as Grant Morrisson wrote it. Either he's completely ****ing with my head of I got a misprinted issue that is just the first half repeated twice. If he is, well done as my head is completely melted trying to spot what the **** the difference is between the two sections.

Casanova #2
I'm not sure about this. It's in the same format as Ellis' Fell i.e. comic, backmatter and no ads, which is nice. The story itself is a bizarre super agent type of thing that doesn't quiet gel for me, but I'm not sure why. sure it's cheap enough to try a few more issues of.

Man Called Kev #1
I absolutely LOVE these mini-series. They just appeal to my inner yobbo.

Y The Last Man #48
Now, would anyone care to explain the picture the Israeli wan holds up on the last page? Another back-story issue with a minor twist to it but overall not actually all that interesting.

Fysh

Not a lot for me recently; reckon I'll be doing more online shopping given what's in Other Realms at present...

30 Days Of Night:

After putting it off for ages (and becoming a Templesmith fan in the interval) I finally picked this up. It's a decent vampire story, with a nice premise, but I would've liked to read more - it seemed shorter than I expected somehow. There are sequels out there which I'll have to consider picking up now, but certainly the most interesting story featuring vampires that I've read in quite some time.

The Spectre : Dead Again #1-#3

Picked up out of sheer boredom, this isn't a bad story as such. Covering the period between the Infinite Crisis and One Year Later, it's the story of how the Spectre finds its newest human host. It felt rather hollow, unfortunately - for such an interesting character, there seem to be very few questions asked by the new host, considering this is supposed to be a lead-up to a new ongoing series. Then again, I get the feeling from reading about The Spectre that the character's full potential has never really been explored. Not a bad read by any means, but more forgettable than I'd like.

Draco

Draco wrote:

Batman #655
Either he's completely ****ing with my head of I got a misprinted issue that is just the first half repeated twice.

It was a misprint - which is also most a shame as I wouldn't have put it past Morrison to do it to confuse everyone.

constitutionus

just got the last two trades of "the new avengers". really good read, i wanted to buy this comic when it came out but couldnt afford it cause of the mortgage. great to get it in trade for half the price (not to mention the next trade isnt out till october, plenty of time to save for the book) sentry was a good read but the spiderwoman arc was far more interesting. cant wait to see where this goes

The Freeman

hven't read anycomicssince i've been a kid til a mate threw me watchmen last week(i never read it)its fcuking class!:D

he's gonna throw me a few frank miller and,dark night returns shortly too

can't wait!

Fysh

I picked up The Originals (softcover) and Fables Volume 6 : Homelands at long last over the weekend, and will probably pick up Can't Get No during the week.

The Originals:

I liked this, the whole futuristic/retro thing worked well for me. Gibbons' artwork worked perfectly for the story, which makes up for its generic nature by showing the gang and characters involved in just the right amount of detail. Have to say that I'm glad I didnt shell out for it in hardback though.

Fables Vol 6:

I've been waiting about a year to get a copy of this, courtesy of the apparent mix 'n' match approach to orders and renewals in Other Realms. It didn't disappoint at all; from the story of what Jack gets up to in Hollywood, through the story of Boy Blue's mission in the homelands and the true identity of the Adversary, it's all as engaging and well-written as ever. It's nice to have another ongoing series to follow that matches the quality of 100 Bullets while being a completely different kind of story.

spooydermot

right haven't posted in ages so heres my last month or so's reading:



Superman for all seasons
Just a really nice, well presented story, theres nothing revisionist or anything like that, and I love the way Clarke Kent just looks like an over grown farm boy in it.



Wolverine Origins (the ongoing series)
Really beginning to wonder if this is going anywhere at all





Wormwood: Gentleman corpse issues 0 and 1

very nicely digitall painted, looking foward to seeing how this progresses

The Boys #1
Not a lot happening in the first issue apart from introducing the main character as basically a bit of an 'ard b@stard, but seeing as it's written by Garth Ennis I have no doubt that it impress.


Preacher: War in the Sun

my on-going (and very enjoyable) quest to finish the prescher series, the temptation is to go out and buy the whole lot....hold me back


Transmetropoliton: New Scum

See above (o:


Corporate Ninja #2 - #3

Neither are as good as the first issue , but still quite original and worth a look. Pity about the unpredictable release dates...



Transformers: Infiltration #6



Ghost Rider #1 and #2
Reading this off the cast of Garth Ennis's GR series.

Fysh

Nextwave #7:

Presumably you know the score by now. READ THIS, IT'S GREAT! I love the multiple pervy jokes Ellis somehow got away with sneaking into this issue. And the Captain's little chat about choosing his name...

Can't Get No:

Picked this up on a whim, and really enjoyed it. The absence of dialogue and sound effects makes the visual story a lot more compelling, and the whole story is weird enough to sustain multiple readings.

Tree

Bear vol 2: full of little gems like "it is believed that happiness was a by product of the invention of butter"

about to start Singularity 7: shiny shiny shiny scifi where most of the world has been affected by nanites and only seven ppl appear to remain unaffected

bombidol

Young Avengers - Pretty good so far, hard to get into the avengers in anyway after reading The ultimates which was amazing.

Man called Kev - savage so far. Ennis is king

Wanted - Mark Millar is god (slightly above king)

Aztek - This is pretty disapointing. I was thinking that Grant Morrison and Mark Millar would be a combo made in heaven. but its just not working at the moment.

Wolverine Origins. This is pretty poor in fairness. I love Dillions art usually but this seems pretty bad. I dont think hes cut out for superhero stuff.

fragile-ghost

hmmm, by comics do you also mean manga??? im reading th manga flcl. its really weird, and sumtimes nigh on impossible to understand . i used to read ultimate x-men, but it got a bit tedious so i gave up.:(

i love comics!!:D

galactus

I'm a long time Kirby fan but never read any of the New Gods. until I came across a free download from a naughty site presenting free copies of copyrighted stuff which can be bought in collected editions.

Sorry guys, as per the charter I dont want to see discussion/linking to sites providing full copies of comics. For those interested in the New Gods series, the original stories have been collected in TPB format by DC and they should be easily available in stores (well, Other Realms has been known to have them in stock, which generally indicates that it's straightforward enough to get hold of them). More info on the collections themselves can be found here. ~Fysh

spooydermot

Astonishing X-Men 16
Its a pity this is only coming out every 2 months, its a really enjoyable story but the long wait is a bit of a drag.


wolverine 45 (civil war)
nice to see a bit more of the stamford srory being played back into the Civil War story.

new avengers 23 (civil war)
iron mans a dick

Preacher: Salvation
I am so addicted to this series, its fantastic, only 2 books to go.

the Shades

hmmm... I went to buy 2 comics and came out with 5. Hope I'm not falling back into old habits. I generally buy comics just for the artist these days so maybe that can keep me on the right track.

X-men Civil War 2: In some places drawn out and dull but interesting ending.

Wonder Woman 2: Really not sure about this one, nice art by Dodson but some of the storyline is just trash.

New Avengers 23: Bought simply because Coipel is a god. Story wasn't bad either although one 2 page spread was a little confusing in it's layout.

The Flash 3: I'm a fan of the Flash in general, not happy about Bart mysteriously aging 4 years BUT the book is interesting so far. Although it's always sad when a guest artist does an art job that's 60 times better than the regular penciller. Yay Karl Kerschel! The art this issue is gorgeous.

Justice League of America 1: Brad Meltzer is one of the few writers I'd buy a comic for, that said some of this was drawn out and tiresome. Might make more of an impact with seeing the team in action and flashbacks to them being chosen, but some nice insight on Red Tornado and interesting developments with his character. Ed Benes is also a good artist, not so sure about him adding more lines to look more like Lee, but he still knows how to keep things moving along.

77

A back log of 2000AD all from the late 80's. Hundreds of them. Bliss. A mate had crates of them.

constitutionus

astonishing x men 16

really good read, im loving what joss is doing with wolverine. his fight with beast was hysterical at times. praying to god to save him from the moose
even the odd one liner " he ate most of my leg but it grew back so that was good".
i'll be honest some of its baffling though, how can there be two of a certain someone? in fairness kitty even notes this. and just how is the mutant whos meant to destroy the breakworld capable of doing it. the individual just doesnt seem to have the raw power to do so. still this is just small quibbles, cassidys art is gorgeous as usual and particularly in the fight scene with emma. im not a huge fan of kittys but wheadon writes her well and cassaday makes her emote even when shes not really doing anything in fact the only person that looks better is emma (though cassady seems to be having a field day with "five year old" logan, this is some of the best stuff in it. i never thought i'd see logan protrayed like this and its amazing how long its took someone to do it)

in fact the only thing that bothers me is they only have one more storyline left before they leave the book. it really leaves me in a quandry cause ive been collecting XMEN since the 90's and inheireted my brothers collection of uncanny going back to the 70's and this is the only book i collect now. i cant see myself collecting to book after them (if they even continue the book without em) and for the life of me i dont see myself going back to uncanny or the adjectiveless one again (dont like the teams) . this could turn out to be the last X book i get

the Shades

Read Carey's run on Uncanny with Chris Bachalo, have a feeling it will be worthwhile.

Fysh

Hellblazer : All His Engines

I've been waiting a while for the softcover of this. DC said they were only doing the hardcover to tie in with that god-awful Constantine movie release, but as expected it was a lie. Now, the cover blurb on this has Gaiman saying that this is "the quintessential Constantine story". Which is meant as a compliment, but it doesn't really work as such. I've been a fan of John Constantine for several years, mostly through the trades (though why they haven't released a trade of the Fear Machine story is beyond me), and by now it feels like it's obligatory for John to get acquaintances killed, get himself called a complete bastard by at least one female character who sees his negative qualities for what they are, and John playing it cool in the face of pants-browningly-scary monsters.

Don't get me wrong, these things have all been done in past stories and they've worked well. But you have to worry about a John Constantine story in which there's significantly more character development going on with Chas than with John. I start to wonder whether anything of interest is going to be done with Constantine any time soon, as judging by the recently published trades DC seem happy to relegate him to the supporting characters rota...

The Bunker

An odd little Australian indie comic, this. Artwork is good, though not especially distinctive. But this is very much a character story, and it works well as such. It's about two neighbours whose previously close friendship finds itself stretched by the onset of puberty and the emergence of unrequited attraction. There's some clever characterisation in here and some poignant moments. Worth a read.

Fell #6

Ah, Ellis. I have to struggle to remind myself that he's written stuff I haven't liked. And Templesmith's artwork...well, I want to steal his brain so I can make stuff that looks that good, put it that way. Another fine little story with everything seeming to be just perfect. I hope this series goes on for a long time.

Undergod

Just read first collection of Preacher, first issue of Civil War. Hugely impressd by both. I'm saving up for more Ultimates collections.

ThenComesDudley

Reading Garth Ennis new one The Boys, I’m a fan of his stuff and this one makes me laugh with the usual violence and sick humour. It also has a character that looks an awful lot like Simon Pegg