Both your answers remind me that while Warren "writes" this, we get issues of Velvet from Brubaker... Brubaker, or the first time since the 70ies when US mainstream comics get a better american wrriter than the british ones!

Seriously, I struggle to find any of his comics anywhere near the level of Bru, or that goes without saying Alan Moore. And yet I find myself buying almost all his stuff. I suspect the constant applause keeps having me wondering what the deal is... I enjoyed the stormwatch stff when it was published, the first two issues of Transmet (then I almost hated what I considered copout plots), liked the first issue of Black Mask (haven't read the rest), Lazarus Churchyard was interesting, Freak Angels entertaining, probably a few more I forget, but really, nothing mindblowing. He's very similar to Mark Millar in that most of his series are hyped because of an initial concept but then lack deep involvment in the plotting. At least, Mark Millar tries to be striking if not efficient, even if he can also be very lazy.

So You didn't get his Catwoman, GCPD, Batman, Captain America?
I think I have the same pattern intended with Ellis as you do, except I often end up lazy about it and buy the whold thing anyways and later get annoyed by it, hahaha!
I also wish Bru wouldn't do anymore mainstream superhero stuff and concentrate on a variety of new topics (which he seems to be doing ), but even in his below standards mainstream work such as Secret Avengers, I must say I can find more than in most of Ellis stuff...

I think the worst mainstream super-hero work Bru has done was his X-Men stuff, with Books of Doom pretty low too. Secret Avengers was ok because it basically worked as super-hero black ops. Point Blank/Sleeper mixed black-ops with crime and used super-hero trappings. Cap was a spy thriller with super-hero trappings. GCPD, Batman and Catwoman were crime books. That spy/black-ops/crime tapestry is where Brubaker does his best work. His personal stuff (like the Fall with Jason Lutes) is also very good stuff. More traditional super-hero stuff like his X-Men run hasn't been as good. He has a pretty wide wheelhouse to work in that play to his strengths and work with or without super-hero trappings. When he goes outside that wheelhouse, the results are mixed and the super-hero trappings tends to weaken the efforts.

Ellis I always find more interesting than good. There's always something interesting in what he does, but he only delivers on the promise of that interest some of the time.

I'll pretty much buy anything Bru does in his wheelhouse, and will at least check out something outside it.

I'll usually check out whatever Ellis does to see what piques my interest, but might not stay with it unless it is one of the ones that delivers on that promise.

-M

I'm playing 'catch up'...and just completed the last 4 issues of Amazing Spider-Man Volume 3.

Haven't gotten to the new ones yet, or the new Spider-Gwen, or in fact almost anything else released over the past couple months or so like Batman 43, 44, 45 or Master Race #1....so I've got a big stack to lounge through when I finally get to it.

I just got caught up to #11 on The Fade Out, going back and re-reading 1-8. Not sure how the plot is going to conclude.

Did anyone catch the subtle reference to the wild Hollywood party by one of the movie producer characters in the comic? Maybe I'm a nurd, but I was kinda thinking that Brubaker might have be doing a little nod towards Fatale's story line in LA during that particular time.

In the ast two days, I read those :

I hate Fairyland #1 & #2
Skottie Young
Minor spoilers
Well... First off, let me state I'm no fan of Skottie Young, but no hater either. So why did I buy the book you might ask? Well, I guess it was a combination of the hype and the theme seemingly well-suited for Young's style. So it kind of starts like a mix of Alice in Wonderland and Little Nemo, but it gets right into business with an odd (stupid?) premise : our main protagonist Gertrude instantly wishes to get back home to the real world and is instantly set up on a quest for a key that will allow her that. A simple eough task, except she's fairly obtuse for an 8 year old and spends decades trying to find it. Becoming an imature angry 35 year old woman in an 8 years old body has caused her to wreck havoc and become the most hated person in Fairyland, so much so that the queen sets to get her assassinated. So it goes and will probably go, spectacular mayhem from Gerty and her jaded Jiminy Crickey flying bug sidekick.
The book is fairly entertaining for its 5-10 mn reading time, effective artwork and striking colors, Gerty is the sociopathic villain you secretly root for since you want to see the outcome of her outbursts. A slight problem is that so far no "good" character have been introduced and the world-mythology remains thin. I'll stay onboard for another issue or two in hope Youg has new tricks up his sleeve and it's not becoming a simple "antagonist of the issue" kind of book, because if it avoids that trap, it has potential, as you can really sense Young is setting loose his craft in a surprising way.

Klaus #1
Grant Morrison & Dan Mora
Minor spoilers
Klaus the trapper does his yearly visit to a city to sell furs and meat, only to find that the city has taken a dramatic tyranny turn. The men seem to be enslave in the coal mines, and kids aren't even allowed to play with stones. An armed force enforcing the "no-fun no-leisure" policy throughout town robs Klaus of his stock as all goods within the city belong to the Baron. He is run out of town and almost killed despite being a major hunk, but saved by his companion white wolf. We then get a glimps of the baron's family, a spoiled and hatefull bunch, with the possible exception of the wife that probably will become Klaus' ally/love protagonist. Finally, we get a psychedelic dream from Klaus from which he wakes up with an arm ache & a ton of toys surrounding him.
Oh my... That was quite atrocious. The plot and characters are amongst the stupidest I've read in a while, just a series of cliché interupted by some Morrison weirdness for the sake of it, really really bad! Thankfully, the art is pretty good, with an obvious manga influence, but in a realistic american way. The coloring is probably the most successfull aspect of the book though, as the mood is mostly coming from it and is fairly effective at describing winter and yet having strong personnality. That becomes obvious in the dream sequence where those colors spectacularly take life.
I have suscribed to it with my LCS, so I guess I'll have to get the remaing 3 issues. Let's hope Morrison planed this for more than Gerty, because I'm also a 35+ years old, but with real life experiences...