Is anybody else reading Providence? This is Alan Moore's current project, a 12-issue limited series that's up to #11 (thought the twelfth issue may have come out and I missed it).

It's must-read for Moore fans and also for fans of Lovecraft-type horror. It's set in the 1920s, about a journalist who quits his job on a New York newspaper to travel around New England, doing research for a book he plans to write abut legends, myths and obscure religious orders of the region. He finds a bit more than he bargained for.

I saw #10 at the local comic shop and then bought #11 a few weeks later. Since then, I've been gathering the scattered issues one or two at a time through the mail. I'm sort of reading them backwards as I usually order the most recent issues. I have #4, #8, #9, #10 and #11, and the last few days, I've been reading #3, #6 and #7 which came over the weekend.

I'm trying to get caught up on my unread comics since new comics come out today and I've got quite a few old issues of Detective coming along in a few days. But Alan Moore always gives you a lot more than you generally expect from a regular comic! (Which reminds me, I've still never read all the text pieces in The Black Dossier. I've read most of them, but there's still one or two near the end that I always give up on.)

And Providence is no exception! After about 20 pages of the story in comic book form, you get 8 to 14 pages of Robert Black's day book, where he keeps a journal (in cursive) for himself, his thoughts and sometimes he copies extensive passages from occult books. Very interesting! But I have to plan time to read it and make sure I'm somewhere where I can concentrate. I spent about 40 minutes reading just the text part of #6 last night.

I'm trying to get a couple of my friends (who like comics that are strange and seldom read super-hero comics) to read it, but I'm not having any luck so far. They're both a lot more likely to read comics in trade paperback form.

I missed out on the individual issues so I'm going to wait till it's collected, I think I've asked this before and been answered, but what should I read before Providence, if anything? I have the vague idea that there was another book or books that preceded it but can't recall for sure.

Catching up on a lot of modern stuff via trades from the local library while I dally in the 1960s with the stuff I own...

The Good-

Star Wars Vol. 4 Last Flight of the Harbinger-a really fun set of stories, Star Wars in its high adventure mode.

and then a whole lot of Rebirth stuff

Aquaman Vol. 1 The Drowning-really enjoyed Abnett's take on the sea king and the art was passable to good all the way through. Abnett's characterizations are strong, his plotting interesting and believable within the context of the super-powered world of the DCU and he is able to pace his story to keep it interesting over the span of issues it has to fill without anything feeling padded or rushed (or both as some others so in these situations), and he has built an interesting and likeable cast in the first volume. It's not perfect, but it is a good read.

Green Arrow Vol. 1 The Death and Life of Oliver Queen-again solid storytelling via the art, interesting story and decent character work made this an enjoyable read. Some of it felt a little strained, like it was trying too hard, but for the most part it was a solid read that kept me interested throughout and rooting for the heroes. Again, likable interesting cast of characters I could invest in following, solid (if not spectacular) visual storytelling too.


the Meh...

Wonder Woman Vol. 1 The Lies-I am generally a fan of Greg Rucka, but this is not a list Rucka, it's more his B-level work (I felt the same about his previous WW run too, so not surprising). I don't think the way they collected the stories helped here, as they only collected the odd issues with Liam Sharp's art (which is gorgeous btw) not the even issues set in the past with Nicola Scott's work) I thought that the stories were supposed to build off each other to build something bigger than both, but this story felt a little flat and empty, like it was missing something. Of all the relaunches, I wanted to like this one the most, but it just fell a little flat for me.

Superman Vol. 1 Son of Superman-not bad, not great, but a lot of it felt like a stale retread of the Triangle era return of Superman, this time with the kid sidekick in tow. Not a bad read for free, but I wouldn't have paid to read it.

Action Comics Vol. 1 Path of Doom again passable but stale retread of Triangle era Superman but with quasi-heroic Luthor and mystery Clark Kent to try to make i feel new and intriguing. It isn't. Again, passable read for free, but wouldn't pay to read.

Justice League Vol. 1 The Extinction Machines-Bryan Hitch writing his pale imitation of big screen comics as Warren Ellis did them in the 90s with Tony Daniel (Mr. everything I do looks stiff and ultra posed and lacks any dynamism which kills any sense of the wow factor in big screen comics as set out by Warren and Hitch on Authority lo those many years ago, so the art works against the sense of big screen action Hitch was going for. There were glimpses of interesting ideas in what Hitch was setting up but he lacks Ellis' skill (and practical research ability) to give his ideas the verisimilitude they need to work on a comics page, so it all just felt a bit empty and stiff. Not horrible, but not worth having to pay the price of admission.

The bad...

Hal Jordan and the GL Corps Vol. 1 Sinestro's Law-it could have been a decent issue or two, but instead it feels bloated, poorly paced and suffers from inconsistent art because it was stretched to fill in a half dozen bi-weekly issues of a book.

Green Lanterns Vol. 1 Rage Planet-I think the pairing of Jessica and Simon has the potential to be a really interesting team, but not
in the hands of Sam Humphries here whose characterization of Simon's anger and Jessica's anxiety is so ham-fisted and one note it actually became painful to read, and the plot felt like something recycled from (or worse a rejected idea from) the Green Lantern animated series from a few years back where the Red Lanterns were the big bads almost every episode, worse, like HJ & he GLC, it was about 1-2 issues of plot stretched out over 5-6 issues so it felt choppy, empty and at times dull.

Batman Vol. 1 I am Gotham -As stiff, posed and undynamic as Tony Daniel's art is, David Finch's art is worse in those areas, and on top of it everyone has lockjaw from clenching their jaw in a constipated look all the time. I've heard good things about Tom King's work, but this story is just bad on so many levels from unoriginality, to gaping plot holes, to tinny sounding dialogue that no real person would ever utter that just destroys any interest or believability in he characters. Duke Thomas was the only character who had a likable voice and a decent part in the story (this was my first exposure to the character). For all his flaws in being unable to stick the ending in any story he wrote, Snyder at least had interesting beginning and middle's (often aided by Capullo's work), King's story here felt like all the uninteresting middle parts glued together awkwardly without a beginning to get you into it or an ending making it worth enduring. Worse, his Batman just wasn't interesting or integral to the story.

The Flash Vol. 1 Lightning Strikes Twice-just what we need, more speedsters because it seems no one can do anything with the Flash except do stories featuring more speedsters. It's been done before better and it's on the verge of being done to death (if it's not already there), worse Joshua Williamson's cast is uninteresting and unlikable for the most part and the biggest sin is that the art feels static and dull, a cardinal sin in a book about The Fastest Man Alive built on dynamic super-speed action. Reading the book was like sloughing through a pool of molasses and not worth the effort.

For the most part, the first volumes of the Rebirth trades show more promise than the specials did (I read all of them in the omnibus and most of them were lacking in either story or new content that wasn't rehashed from previous stories mashed up with something form the new52 in a desperate attempt to make it feel fresh. Some of the initial trades have some glimmer of hope and some decent stories in them, some are just bad comics though. I've got another half dozen or so Rebirth trades lined up to read form the library, so we will see how those go...

I plan on keeping up with Green Arrow and Aquaman at least so far, and will give Wonder Woman a little more time before deciding if I want to continue to follow it. That's 2 more DCU books than I was interested in following before Rebirth, but it's still not living up to all the hype and gushing I have heard about it.

Generation Zero #1-#8

After being so incredibly fed up with Dysart's Harbinger (which I read more for the Renegades than Harada's maniacal dreams of an en masse Psiot uprising), Van Lente's take on the new coke renegades felt funny, inspired, and all-together charming. The story takes place in Rook, Michigan, which is experiencing something of an economical boom thanks in part to Jason Poole. However, something isn't quite right and a girl named Keisha loses her boyfriend who was starting to get a bit suspicious of Poole. So Keisha contacts "Generation Zero", a group of weaponized Psiots that played a very crucial role in Valiant's "Harbinger Wars" some years back, to try and help her put the jumbled mess of puzzle pieces together

Animalia and Cloud have to be my two favorites of the group, Animalia can transform into any kind of beast her mind can imagine (most of them being ones that she's seen on tv, like in cartoons) and Cloud can read/manipulate people's minds (kind of has that carefree, bubbly, naivety that's reminiscent of Starfire from Teen Titans)

I haven't seen anyone else mention DC's spiritual successor to the 80's DC Challenge, celebrating Jack Kirby's 100th birthday with Kamandi Challenge.

Like the aforementioned DC Challenge, it has a round robin of creators with a different creative team each issue.



I'm excited that it will be exploring Earth-51 (Kirbyworld).  As you can see, besides Kamandi, we'll also be getting some New Gods, O.M.A.C., and however the lady is on the right in blue.



It's been a fun read, and similar to the excellent Kamandi feature in Wednesday Comics from a few years back.

I'd be surprised if someone picked this up and didn't like.  Lots of rollicking Kirby fun with a 2017 twist.

The creative roster includes

Dan Didio, Keith Giffen & Scott Koblish
Dan Abnett and Dale Eaglesham
Peter J. Tomasi and Neal Adams
Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti
James Tynion IV and Carlos D’Anda
Bill Willingham and Ivan Reis
Steve Orlando and Philip Tan
Marguerite Bennett and Dan Jurgens
Keith Giffen and Steve Rude
Tom King and Kevin Eastman
Greg Pak and Joe Prado
Rob Williams and Walter Simonson
Gail Simone and Ryan Sook
Len Wein and José Luis García-López

D'oh !

That was the thread all hyped up before it released.

I'll re-purpose my previous post to the proper pre-existing thread.

Where would I be without the giant green dinosaur mrp ?