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Post by coke & comics on May 29, 2015 2:59:01 GMT -5
Haven't read Transmetropolitan yet, but I've enjoyed Planetary and some other of his independent work - the unfortunately aborted Doktor Sleepless and Desolation Jones, for example. I tend to stay away from his work for Marvel, as I get the impression his heart isn't really in it, but I made an exception for his Moon Knight series last year and I thought he pretty much nailed it. I'll probably try the Hellstrom series mrp mentioned also, at some point. I see him as a very skilled writer, one of the very best of this current era of comics, who I'd like to see attempt something more substantial some day than the numerous intriguing but rather short little pieces he seems to throw out all over the place. Then it seems like Transmetropolitan is what you're looking for. |
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Post by Icctrombone on May 29, 2015 4:50:34 GMT -5
Let's roll the dice! 3: That's the Spider-Man/X-Men rack 9: A box of Spider-Man comics from Spidey and the Mini Marvels to Venom: Lethal Protector 3: The 3rd comic in the box is... Spidey Super Stories #2 Marvel: November, 1974  That is one sweet Romita Sr. Cover. |
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Post by coke & comics on May 29, 2015 22:14:41 GMT -5
Rack 5: Miscellaneous Box 14: A box of comics separated in my recent reorganizing from the "Marvel" section, featuring Conan-related and GIJoe-related comics. Comic 47... Conan the Barbarian: Death Covered in Gold #2  "Brothers of the Worm" by Roy Thomas and John Buscema Thanks to the Dark Horse Chronicles of Conan series, I have now read the entirety of Thomas' original run on Conan. It had some highs and lows, but on the balance it's certainly earned its place listed amongst the great creator runs on any Marvel comic. I have followed Dark Horse's new take on Conan since its truly excellent beginning in the hands of Busiek and Nord, and had looked with anticipation at Thomas' return to the character, only to be quite disappointed. Much as I'm disappointed by a lot of modern Starlin work. Or the last Moench/Gulacy Shang-Chi miniseries I read, or anything Frank Miller's done in a while, or Byrne's later Spider-Man, or.... Sometimes you just can't go home again. Going from memory, Thomas never left Conan for long after his initial stint. He returned to the main series after a time and there was never too long without a Thomas-penned miniseries or graphic novel or spin-off here and there. And I've read a smattering of his later Conan, but none of it impressed me like the best of his first run did. But this comic from 1998 is more than Thomas' return to Conan. This is Conan by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. Buscema remains and always will remain my favorite comic book artist. This is Buscema's final work on Conan. John Buscema is his own inker here, and he is one of his best inkers, though this is less clear here than in earlier work. Just glancing at a few panels, looking at Conan's eyes, you might think John had never left, and that this was a lost tale he had drawn in the '70s. But it's not quite right. And the issue is in the finishing, the final shape of the faces, outlines not quite crisp enough. I have never read this comic before and seem to be missing the first issue of this three-issue miniseries. If you don't mind me cheating in my own thread, I think I'm going to forestall reading this comic, track down the first issue, then read the whole miniseries and report back. Grade: TBD Next: Not Batman.... |
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Post by coke & comics on May 29, 2015 22:31:04 GMT -5
Rack 4 (DC) Box 23 (Bat-titles from Legends of the Dark Knight to Robin) 235th comic (approximately) Robin #31 DC: July, 1996  "Up to speed" by Chuck Dixon, Mike Wieringo and Stan Woch Around this time, Chuck Dixon was writing a lot of the spin-off Batbooks, and I generally liked them. His Nightwing with Scott McDaniel was excellent. And the first 20 issues of Birds of Prey, which explored a friendship between two people who had never actually met. And on the whole, I liked what I've read of his Robin. I started reading all the batbooks monthly after No Man's Land, as that seemed a good jumping-on point, so I've read all the Robins from NML and beyond, but only a smattering of the early issues. I'd read the whole of the big crossovers like Contagion and Legacy. This issue fits between those. This issue has art by Mike Wieringo. My last entry featured John Buscema and we had Herbe Trimpe not too long ago. That's a lot of talent that's no longer with us. Wieringo was born to draw fantastic stories, great at drawing figures that looked fully articulated and excellent at capturing motion. Combined with his knack for fun facial expressions and all sorts of exotic characters, he always seemed at home with the genre. This issue features Robin teaming up with Wildcat. Robin reflects on how WIldcat once gave Batman boxing lessons. I'm not expert enough in DC lore to know if that was already an established part of the mythos or not. The issue plays around with Robin being unsure if Wildcat knows Batman's secret ID or not. The issue also features some out-of-costume drama between Tim and his girlfriend Ari. The brunt of the issue is a high speed car chase, which is pretty cool. I'd call this a darn good comic. Grade: B Ne xt: ... |
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Post by berkley on May 29, 2015 22:42:17 GMT -5
Haven't read Transmetropolitan yet, but I've enjoyed Planetary and some other of his independent work - the unfortunately aborted Doktor Sleepless and Desolation Jones, for example. I tend to stay away from his work for Marvel, as I get the impression his heart isn't really in it, but I made an exception for his Moon Knight series last year and I thought he pretty much nailed it. I'll probably try the Hellstrom series mrp mentioned also, at some point. I see him as a very skilled writer, one of the very best of this current era of comics, who I'd like to see attempt something more substantial some day than the numerous intriguing but rather short little pieces he seems to throw out all over the place. Then it seems like Transmetropolitan is what you're looking for. The little I've seen hasn't grabbed my attention for some reason but I'll have to give it a try one of these, that's for sure. But it's pretty old now, I was thinking more of his current and more recent work. |
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2015 14:30:20 GMT -5
Then it seems like Transmetropolitan is what you're looking for. The little I've seen hasn't grabbed my attention for some reason but I'll have to give it a try one of these, that's for sure. But it's pretty old now, I was thinking more of his current and more recent work. This is what I love about Ellis, and not his comics work... This is from his Morning Computer blog thing this morning... It's just gonzo ideas and I am sure somewhere down the line we will see this form the spine of a story arc or a series or a novel from Ellis. He just has a peculiar and interesting way of looking at the world, which is why some of his stuff feels groundbreaking and why so much of his standard super-hero fare can be off-putting for people who are expecting him to bring familiar tropes to their familiar characters. If he uses a familiar trope, he puts his own mad spin on it, but more often than not he is exploring some mad idea through story and characters who usually resonate. The stuff form him I am not enthused with are the ones whose characters don' resonate a smuch with me. Spider-Jerusalem felt too much like a Hunter S. Thompson homage/parody and less like a fully realized character to me, so he didn't resonate for me the way other Ellis characters have. I get others really like Spider, and that's good on them, he just never worked for me. -M edit to add link |
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Post by coke & comics on May 30, 2015 21:49:18 GMT -5
The little I've seen hasn't grabbed my attention for some reason but I'll have to give it a try one of these, that's for sure. But it's pretty old now, I was thinking more of his current and more recent work. This is what I love about Ellis, and not his comics work... This is from his Morning Computer blog thing this morning... It's just gonzo ideas and I am sure somewhere down the line we will see this form the spine of a story arc or a series or a novel from Ellis. He just has a peculiar and interesting way of looking at the world, which is why some of his stuff feels groundbreaking and why so much of his standard super-hero fare can be off-putting for people who are expecting him to bring familiar tropes to their familiar characters. If he uses a familiar trope, he puts his own mad spin on it, but more often than not he is exploring some mad idea through story and characters who usually resonate. The stuff form him I am not enthused with are the ones whose characters don' resonate a smuch with me. Spider-Jerusalem felt too much like a Hunter S. Thompson homage/parody and less like a fully realized character to me, so he didn't resonate for me the way other Ellis characters have. I get others really like Spider, and that's good on them, he just never worked for me. -M edit to add linkThat is awesome. As I said, I loved his introduction to Orbiter so much. When he's writing prose about his love of science, I'm all for him. |
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Post by coke & comics on May 30, 2015 21:49:30 GMT -5
Let's roll the dice! 3: Spidey/X-Men rack 17: Box of X-titles from Uncanny X-Men through Wolverine 24: Doing some math, we see the 24th comic in the box is... Uncanny X-Men #454  "Chasing Hellfire pt 3: Cardinal Law" by Chris Claremont and Andy Par I'll tell you my dark secret. I stopped reading X-Men years before I stopped buying it. I'm not sure why. I recall about 10 years ago, finding I was just falling behind on reading new comics. I had a short box full of the new comics I hadn't yet read. One day I sat down and read them determined to drop some things. The only comic I didn't enjoy in the entire box though was Wolverine Origins. So I dropped it. But the pile of unread comics grew again. And grew and grew. 2 years later, I read Civil War #1-6, realized my obsession with completing series was juvenile. This was a terrible comic and there was no need to shell out money on another issue. So I didn't buy Civil War #7, or any comic off the newsstand ever again. I switched to trades, focused on the stuff I expected to be excellent and that I expected to actually read. The truth is, X-Men and I have a complicated relationship. I bought it monthly for years, but looking back, at no point in the history of my buying it monthly did it seem any good. I think my first 3 issues, #1-3, were great. And there was an issue or three that I liked here and there. But I read it for like 12 years of mediocrity and I'm not sure why. I finally gave it up early in Morrison's run. The truth is, Morrison's run was probably better than most of what had come before, but it still wasn't very good, and I had reached a point where I was ready to let it go. I don't know if I've read this comic or not. It's by Claremont. But I don't recall if I took notice of this second return to X-Men of his. Nothing about it seems familiar, but I forget things. There is a helpful recap page, which frankly just makes everything seem confusing. There has been apparently a lot of bad guys turning out to be good turning out to be bad turning out to be good lately. The X-Men roster in this issue includes Storm, Rachel Summers, Emma Frost, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Bishop and Sage.. The various factions of the Hellfire Club include Donald Pierce, Sebastian Shaw, Selene, Viper, Courtney Ross, Sunspot and the Cleaning Crew. There is also somebody named Paul. I'm not going to try to identify unnamed characters. I'm not going to try to summarize the plot. I think it's something you roll with. Some of it is familiar. Wolverine kills some bad guys and Nightcrawler questions the morality of it. You'd think the two of them would have grown tired of the discussion by now. And we get a Zatoichi reference. Beyond that, the plot seems to be one of twists and betrayals. Infighting amongst the Hellfire Club and amongst the X-Men, blurring lines. Claremont's odd obsession with making Tessa a major character. Grade: C- Next: I would say we're in the zone... |
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Post by coke & comics on Jun 6, 2015 11:54:30 GMT -5
Roll a 6 Bookshelf 2 Shelf 4: Vertigo books 5th book on Shelf: Collects #23-28 2nd issue in collection DMZ vol. 5  DMZ #24  "Amina" by Brian Wood and Ricardo Burchielli A new Civil War in America. Manhattan as a demilitarized border zone. The reporter in Manhattan trying to get the story of what life is like for the residents. I really liked the concept and I thought the earliest issues were quite strong. I was bored long before it ended. Book 5 is a collection of short stories, each focused on a different character in the story. This issue focuses on a character named Amina. The truth is, I don't recall the details of this character all that well, but it doesn't matter for this issue, which is meant to stand alone. The events and characters of DMZ are here just a backdrop to Amina's story. Her story is about being a young Muslim girl in Manhattan after the events of 9-11, and the toll that racism took on her life, leading to the civil war that forms the backdrop of this series, and the destruction of the Manhattan she knew. The new Manhattan is a hellhole, but it's a far more egalitarian hellhole than the one she lived in before. She's had her highs and lows and a fling with the book's main character, but now finds herself in a desperate situation, acting as courier for wanna-be ganglords. Well-told character story with expressive art by series regular Ricardo Burchielli Grade: B Next: When the lights go out, the shuffle continues. Heck, it just might continue forever... |
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Post by benday-dot on Jun 6, 2015 16:30:07 GMT -5
I'm digging this shuffle Chris. I'm digging your reviews.
I did something similar a ways back, but very low tech. I wrote out the letters of the alphabet in about half inch size squares, then cut out all the squares with the letters in them. I threw the squares in a bag and shook it classic draw from a hat manner. I also did the same thing with the a bunch of the numbers 1 and 2 in their own squares and own bag. In this latter bag the 1's outnumbered the 2's by a factor of about 4 to 1. The 1's represented floppies and the 2's trades. The chances were weighted according to the makeup of my own collection.
If I drew a 1 I would be reading a floppy. Then I drew 3 letters. Say I drew a MTA. I would go to my Overstreet and turn to the comics beginning with an M, next I would turn to the second letter in a word closest to or matching a T. In this case it would be either a S or U (no comics beginning with MT). I would look to the third letter to try and break the tie.
Just checking Overstreet, I see that I was would be faced with a choice between Ms. Mystic (the 80's Neal Adams series from Pacific Comics) and Mutant World (the 80's Rich Corben series). In this case I would read Ms. Mystic since the third letter M in mystic is closer to A than is the third letter T in mutant.
My god I was weird.
One day I realized I had a bunch of books that weren't in Overstreet, so my crazy system wasn't working well. And I was drawing books like Daredevil, of which I had boxes of. So I figured I'd either read 'em all or just pick a random arc. That worked for a while, but then I "rolled" Heavy Metal, which have long continuous serials, and even when one serial ends you invariably find yourself in the middle of a new one. And since I have almost the entire run of HM from the beginning to the 90's I ended up starting from the beginning and moving all the way to the end. And so I did that. Until I fell off the wagon. You see I also found there were lots of comics I was bursting to read my crazy system be damned.
Anyway I spent a long time on HM, enjoying the wild ride for the most part, with various stops and starts, and I never went back to my mad gambling.
Your system is much more disciplined and less prone to straying!
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Post by coke & comics on Jun 7, 2015 4:29:37 GMT -5
I'm digging this shuffle Chris. I'm digging your reviews. I did something similar a ways back, but very low tech. I wrote out the letters of the alphabet in about half inch size squares, then cut out all the squares with the letters in them. I threw the squares in a bag and shook it classic draw from a hat manner. I also did the same thing with the a bunch of the numbers 1 and 2 in their own squares and own bag. In this latter bag the 1's outnumbered the 2's by a factor of about 4 to 1. The 1's represented floppies and the 2's trades. The chances were weighted according to the makeup of my own collection. If I drew a 1 I would be reading a floppy. Then I drew 3 letters. Say I drew a MTA. I would go to my Overstreet and turn to the comics beginning with an M, next I would turn to the second letter in a word closest to or matching a T. In this case it would be either a S or U (no comics beginning with MT). I would look to the third letter to try and break the tie. Just checking Overstreet, I see that I was would be faced with a choice between Ms. Mystic (the 80's Neal Adams series from Pacific Comics) and Mutant World (the 80's Rich Corben series). In this case I would read Ms. Mystic since the third letter M in mystic is closer to A than is the third letter T in mutant. My god I was weird. One day I realized I had a bunch of books that weren't in Overstreet, so my crazy system wasn't working well. And I was drawing books like Daredevil, of which I had boxes of. So I figured I'd either read 'em all or just pick a random arc. That worked for a while, but then I "rolled" Heavy Metal, which have long continuous serials, and even when one serial ends you invariably find yourself in the middle of a new one. And since I have almost the entire run of HM from the beginning to the 90's I ended up starting from the beginning and moving all the way to the end. And so I did that. Until I fell off the wagon. You see I also found there were lots of comics I was bursting to read my crazy system be damned. Anyway I spent a long time on HM, enjoying the wild ride for the most part, with various stops and starts, and I never went back to my mad gambling. Your system is much more disciplined and less prone to straying! I like it. It's just, as a mathematician, I don't accept anything as random unless it takes advantage of either quantum mechanics or chaotic systems or both. The atmospheric noise underlying the entropy at random.org satisfies me more than shaking a bag. |
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Post by benday-dot on Jun 7, 2015 10:38:39 GMT -5
I like it. It's just, as a mathematician, I don't accept anything as random unless it takes advantage of either quantum mechanics or chaotic systems or both. The atmospheric noise underlying the entropy at random.org satisfies me more than shaking a bag. I hear ya. But hey I like to be in control of my entropy.  |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 7, 2015 12:57:39 GMT -5
Rack 5: Miscellaneous Box 14: A box of comics separated in my recent reorganizing from the "Marvel" section, featuring Conan-related and GIJoe-related comics. Comic 47... Conan the Barbarian: Death Covered in Gold #2 "Brothers of the Worm" by Roy Thomas and John Buscema Thanks to the Dark Horse Chronicles of Conan series, I have now read the entirety of Thomas' original run on Conan. It had some highs and lows, but on the balance it's certainly earned its place listed amongst the great creator runs on any Marvel comic. I have followed Dark Horse's new take on Conan since its truly excellent beginning in the hands of Busiek and Nord, and had looked with anticipation at Thomas' return to the character, only to be quite disappointed. Much as I'm disappointed by a lot of modern Starlin work. Or the last Moench/Gulacy Shang-Chi miniseries I read, or anything Frank Miller's done in a while, or Byrne's later Spider-Man, or.... Sometimes you just can't go home again. Going from memory, Thomas never left Conan for long after his initial stint. He returned to the main series after a time and there was never too long without a Thomas-penned miniseries or graphic novel or spin-off here and there. Actually Roy was gone for about ten years. Ten long, sometimes unbearable years! This last hurrah for the Thomas-Buscema team is worth reading if only for its historical significance, C&C; it's certainly a better send-off than the last issue of Conan the savage, published a few years prior, where John had also inked his own work but in a very lackadaisical way. I believe that John did this project to pay for a planned trip to Italy. That's great motivation, and the artwork in these three issues looks pretty good. The story is not my favorite, however, and the re-use of Jenna as a character creates a continuity problem, since this seems to be the second time Conan meets her "for the first time" after the events of CtB#11. What's more, the blonde has turned to a redhead. A funny piece of trivia about the miniseries' title is that it contains a typo: "Death covered in gold" was meant to be "Death carved in gold", but after the first issue was published it was a little late to change things. |
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Post by coke & comics on Jun 7, 2015 13:48:14 GMT -5
Let's roll the dice! Rack 5: Miscellaneous Box 9: Lady Justice through Red Star 180: Reaching past the halfway point of the box, we get... Nocturnals: The Dark Forever #1 Oni: July, 2001  by Dan Brereton Dan Brereton is an artist I should know better. I like artists who have their own style, and she sure does. I like artists who have their own creation that they draw. I would like to read every major creator-helmed work like Nocturnals and Nocturnals is one of the most noticeable omissions, I think. I know Brereton best from a couple Batman stories. A brief glance at wikipedia tells me I am coming in somewhat in the middle of the Nocturnals saga, though at the beginning of this miniseries. There's an original miniseries and a couple one-shots as the comic jumps from Malibu to Dark Horse to Oni. There seem to be out-of-print collections I may need to look into. The inside front cover fills me in on all the characters in what seems to be a supernatural gangster tale (reminiscent perhaps of The Goon): Doc Horror, The Raccoon, Halloween Girl, Starfish, Firelion, The Gunwitch, and Polychrome. Just from the bios, all the characters have great designs and interesting origins, but terrible names. The first issue establishes the characters and their relationships and sets up a couple of conflicts which will take us through the miniseries. It is driven by style and atmosphere. Brereton has one hell of a vision. It's anchored by a focus on the relationships between its supernatural protagonists, but hamstrung occasionally by clunky dialogue. Definitely worth checking out and definitely something I should have read long ago. Grade: B+ Next: I know you're waiting on the edge of your seat for the next spectacular review, but don't worry: we'll be back... |
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Post by coke & comics on Jun 7, 2015 14:21:58 GMT -5
Let's roll the dice! Rack 3: Spidey/X-Men Box 6, full of Spectacular Spider-Man comics Rolled 283. Reaching just before the end of the box... Spectacular Spider-Man #218 Marvel: November, 1994  "Back from the Edge part 2: When monsters roam!" by Tom Defalco, Todd Dezago, and Sal Buscema It's a bit of a confusing time to be reading Spider-Man. I'll try to fill you in. Up until this point, the four titles read pretty well independently of each other, each doing their own thing. Amazing Spider-Man (ASM) was the main book, most likely to have other titles feel its after-effects. The "Parents Saga" was mostly centered in Amazing, and came to an end in the 3-part Lifedeath running from Amazing #386-388. This marks the end of independence amongst the titles. We then get a 4-part saga called Pursuit, running through Spider-Man (SM) #45, Spectacular Spider-Man (SSM) #211, Web of Spider-Man (WSM) #112, and ASM#389. This series simultaneously serves as an epilogue to the Parents Saga and a prelude to the Clone Saga. And begins the story of Spider-Man going insane. Now, a story spread across 4 titles with as many creative teams was never a good idea. And whoever decided to make that the norm for the Spidey titles should be tarred and feathered. Brand New Day had a much better idea. Rotate the creative teams, but let each tell an entire arc. Here, everyone tells a small piece of an arc, and at best you have arcs with some good and some terrible pieces. Especially when the writing ranged from J.M. Demateiss to Howard Mackie. And the art sometimes included Bill Sienkiwiecz inking Sal Buscema. I was never convinced these two were a good fit, but it makes a unique-looking comic, which is jarring when the next chapter is Mark Bagley. The story of the decline of Spidey's sanity is told in parallel arcs, Shrieking in ASM 390-393, Beware the Rage of a Desperate Man in SM#46-49, Typhoid Attack in SSM #213-214, The Predator and the Prey in SSM #215-216, Live and Let Die in WSM #113-116, and a couple one-shot stories. Now, Shrieking gets a lot of flack. Something about Spider-Man making a web cocoon for himself, then going around angrily shouting "I am the Spider" seemed off to people, and it is off. The story has a lot going for it. Demateiss is a good writer, Bagley a good artist. And I think there are ways in which it's a good story. It's just not a good Spider-Man story. With Kraven's Last Hunt, Demateiss told a good story featuring Spider-Man that didn't fit into the mold of what one might consider a Spider-Man story. But the character on display was still the Peter Parker we know. This... isn't. "Live and Let Die" on the other hand really is on the shortlist of worst Spider-Man stories of all time. We then get another 4-part crossover spread across all the titles, Power and Responsibility, running through WSM 117, ASM 394, SM 51, and SSM 217. This is the true opening arc of the Clone Saga. The other issues were prelude. Here, an insane Spider-Man meets his clone, and history is made. These issues also have a backup story recounting the early days of Ben Reilly, retelling the original Clone Saga from a different perspective. Then the titles diverge. WSM and SM follow the adventures of Ben Reilly for the next 4 issues each ( The Exile Returns and Web of Life), while ASM and SSM follow the adventures of Peter Parker ( Back from the Edge and Web of Death). Then the Clone Saga starts to get confusing. He's the clone; no he's real; no, he's the clone. No, here's the skeleton of the clone. Okay, I'm real but I'm retiring. You're Spider-Man now. Okay, I'm unretired. I'm Spider-Man again. Okay, I'm the clone. No, you're the clone. No, he's the clone. You see, I was lying the time I told you I was lying about the thing I was actually not lying about! Wait, I thought High Evolutionary revealed there were no clones back in the Evolutionary War. Well, you see... For this review, we focus on chapter 2 of Back from the Edge, in which Peter Parker unflips the insane switch that got flipped a few issues earlier and now is fine. This 4-part story features the writing talents of J.M. Demateiss, Tom Defalco, and Todd Dezago, and the artistic stylings of Mark Bagley, Sal Buscema, Larry Mahlstedt and Scott Hanna. I'll just leave this here. Let's see. Puma now seems to be a Lizard-type, where his animal self has taken over. Thomas Fireheart is gone and only the Puma remains. And Peter Parker is gone and only the Spider remains. See the parallels? "Parker is gone! I am the mask.. I am the spider!" There actually is a cool image to accompany that phrase. Sal Buscema has Spider-Man partially silhouetted in front of the shadow of tree branches, which creates the illusion of him having extra legs like a spider. I do like Sal Buscema. Nocturne is injured, and Spider-Man reluctantly helps her. It's not clear how. He decides she needs medical attention, but doesn't appear to get her any. And then she seems okay. There's some side stories with a dying Aunt May visited by Aunt Anna, Mary Jane reconciling with her sister Gayle. Scarlet Spider and Daredevil randomly swing by at points. Grade: C- Next: Assemble! |
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