I Read Comic Books discussion

I seriously can't believe the year is already HALF OVER - apparently starting tomorrow (7/2) we will be closer to 2050 than the year 2000...does that freak anyone else out??

ANYWAYS - what are you reading this month? Anything new coming out you're excited for?

Tell us all about it in the thread below!

As always, if you'd like to see what the IRCB crew is reading, take a peek at the Top of My Pile posts over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ircbpodcast

Today's trip to my LCS.

X-Men #19
Uncanny X-Men #140.5 <--- This was originally part of a $200 Chris Claremont kickstarter that inserts the story into Days of Future Past. BTW, Marvel misprinted the number as #104.5. It also includes #141 and #142.
Bring on the Bad Guys: Green Goblin #1
Godzilla Vs. Thor #1
Absolute Green Lantern #4
The Avengers #28
Birds of Prey #23
Captain America #1 <-- New run from Chip Zdarsky and Valerio Schiti
Immortal Thor #25
Justice League Vs. Godzilla Vs. Kong 2 #2
Secret Six #5
Ultimate Wolverine #7
X-Men: Hellfire Vigil #1
The Sisterhood #1 <-- New miniseries from Ghost Machine

Finally getting into Spawn, just got the first two volumes of Spawn Origins
Also starting the second volume of the hunger and the dust
And almost done with the first volume of Bitter Roots

You can take your time with The Hunger and the Dusk. The 2nd one has been delayed for months. So much so that the rest of the issues are only coming out in the trade. It really irks me because that's one I was buying monthly. Now I'll have to buy it again to get the rest of the story.

I read the first 300 issues of Spawn on a dare for Halloween last year. The compendiums are the way to go if you want to read more. They go up to #250. BTW, the issue Dave Sim wrote, #10, is only available as a single issue. Something to do with how they shared the rights because Cerebus is in it.

Thank you! I will consider getting the compendiums if I find myself really invested after reading the first two volumes of Origins.

I also wanted to mention that I'm starting to read the Greg Pak Storm run. I found a great deal on volume 1 for just $3 on Amazon!

The current Storm run by Murewa Ayodele and Lucas Wernick has been surprisingly good too. I didn't have much hope at all for it but I'm digging it.

Chad wrote: "The current Storm run by Murewa Ayodele and Lucas Wernick has been surprisingly good too. I didn't have much hope at all for it but I'm digging it."

Oh nice! That's good news. Nigerian writers have been super popular recently and it's great to see representation in so many different mediums. Storm is such a badass that I think it must be pretty hard to write a story that is compelling for her that doesn't diminish her character.

I'm currently doing the new Ultimate Black panther (vol.2)
More of the Max Bemis Moon Knight, also vol.2
I didn't love vol.1, but figured I'd finish the run.
More of Phillip K. Johnson's Hulk
and I'm hoping to start in on some of the DC Absolute titles.

MrGlassWontBreak wrote: "Finally getting into Spawn, just got the first two volumes of Spawn Origins
Also starting the second volume of the hunger and the dust
And almost done with the first volume of Bitter Roots"

NICE! Oh man I remember reading it when it fist came out in like 92'? or so and just having my mind blown. Enjoy!

Mathew wrote: "I'm currently doing the new Ultimate Black panther (vol.2)
More of the Max Bemis Moon Knight, also vol.2
I didn't love vol.1, but figured I'd finish the run.
More of Phillip K. Johnson's Hulk
an..."

That Max Bemis Moon Knight is not very good. I can say the current Jed MacKay one is though.

I'm digging PKJ's Hulk.

The Absolute titles are all good. Wonder Woman is my favorite. There's a DC All In Special that you'll probably want to read first. It sets up this new universe. It's a flip book and half of it is an intro to a bunch of the new regular DC books coming out and the other half is a lead into the Absolute stuff.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

I’m on a binge of all things Superman before the movie… started 1 June…

Finished current Absolute that are out
Superman Unlimited

Just read Superman Year One

Currently rereading Superman Birthright
Currently reading Superman American Alien

Up next - reread Kingdom Come and All-Star Superman

Recently finished:
Warworld
Tomasi’s run
Hitman #34
Action Comic #775
Krypto Issue 1
Wade/Mora Worlds Finest run
Superman Red and Blue
Superman Smashes the Klan
Luthor
Superman Kryptonite
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow
Secret Origin

I feel like you may want to read some of Giffen and DeMatteis's Justice League from the 90s just because of the inclusion of Guy Gardner and the Justice League. Guy Gardner certainly seems to be the same jerk from that era. The rest of the team is different though.

Cool thanks! I actually have that from the library too! That and Camelot Falls and The City of Tomorrow…. Running out of time so may skip some rereads and do those instead

Most of my recent reads have been only "meh".

Bowling with Corpses & Other Strange Tales from Lands Unknown. The art is typical Mignola, thus good. But the stories are mostly too short for me to care about. The title story was my favorite.

The Pit by Erik Kriek has nice art that reminds me of Charles Burns, though he's not nearly as good at drawing faces consistently. The story is a rather standard horror.

Final Cut has art by the real Charles Burns, which is nice, but a story that does little for me. Nowhere near as "weird" as the excellent "Black Hole".

Santos Sisters Vol. 1 is a snarky take on Betty and Veronica types as superheroes. Nicely done, but the it feels repetitive.

And finally, one winner: The Mushroom Knight Vol. 2. This starts getting a tad heavy on the "please don't destroy the environment" vibe. But the art and characters remain great. I've already pre-ordered volume 3.

Rating last week’s pulls from the LCS:

Godzilla vs Thor - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️this was a step up from the last one for me. Thought this was fun. Good way to close out these 6 one-shots…. Think this, Hulk, and Spidey were my favorites

JL vs Godzilla vs Kong 2 #2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - this is pure cinematic fun for me. Loved the last series and loved the first two of these

Lady Baltimore #2 by Mignola - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ this was fine. Grabbed it because it was Mignola and enjoyed issue #1, but nothing too exciting in this…

Absolute Green Lantern #4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Really digging this series still, but really like Ewing. Lots of story here


Captain America #1 by Zdarsky ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Classic Cap to me… what I want to see… feel like it set up well for an intriguing storyline. Excited for this… I’m planning to pick up Zdarsky Daredevil for the BOTM read…

Medieval Spawn #3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ … art is fun, but story is kind of meh… this is trending lower for me… honestly may be being kind with 3-stars

Today's trip to the comic book store.

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring #1
Archie Meets Jay and Silent Bob #1
Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #2
Absolute Superman #9
Aquaman #7
Transformers #22
Uncanny X-Men #17

Last week's adventures in comics, belated edition.

Blue Beetle Vol. 2: Forever Blue ★★★
The time travel issue with all the little odes to obscure Keith Giffen characters was easily the best issue in the bunch here. Nice little tribute to one of the guys who shaped DC in the 90s and wrote a ton of Blue Beetle along the way. Then Victoria Kord corrupts one of the beetles for her own end. It all feels a bit rushed as the series winds down. Gutierrez's art is interesting, if he ever drew a background he could be pretty good.

The Rabagoo Race ★
This reads more like a sketch book than a coherent story. As static images it's maybe fine. As sequential art... I guess you could call it that. The thing changes from a boat race to a bicycle race half way through and then an ode to his dog which he clearly misses.

The colors look thrown on the page like a Jackson Pollack painting. The lettering is constantly changing fonts and appears randomly on the page. I think the last 20 pages or so are extras. I'm not really sure when the story ends bu the end is back to random boats so I think it's extras. This whole thing is a mess. Has it even seen an editor?

Ghost Circus ★★★
This was alright. It's about a kid who wakes up in a circus but not just any circus, it's a circus of ghosts. He can't remember what happened to him but it's pretty obvious to anyone that has consumed media before. One of the ghosts helps him and it's all well and good. The second half of the story gets weird though when he decides to help the ghost girl and ultimately the whole circus. It feels like two unrelated stories smushed together.

Justice League Unlimited/World's Finest: We Are Yesterday ★★
Going into this, I was excited. Waid's made both of these series very good. It's just too timey-wimey though. Grodd starts traveling through time when so does Superman and Batman. Soon everyone is. I couldn't keep track at what point of time everyone was or even which version of what character was which. DC is clearly planning on this to be a lead in to the their next event in the fall which is just the Omega symbol. I'm sure it'll be some kind of interaction with the Absolute universe.

Titans Vol. 3: Hard Feelings ★
I dropped this book from my pull as soon as Tom Taylor left and I am sure glad I did. This was awful. The Titans bicker constantly nonstop throughout this. Even though they are invited to be part of the new Justice League, they decide to go underground in New York City. Clock King's got some new powers that Layman can't even explain. I still have no idea what they really are. Donna's the new team leader but Dick is nonstop giving her advice. DC's been putting out some great comics lately but sure ain't one of them. The only thing it's good for is lining the bottom of a bird cage.

Small Town Spirits ★★
Some decent juvenile fiction comics about a town in Ireland where monsters visit once a year and the town throws a celebration and holds family games. One family always loses and another always wins. One of the boys decides to change their fate, leaving the doorway for all monsters to come through the gate. I'm sure you can see where this is all headed because there are no surprises.

Queen of Swords: A Barbaric Tale ★★★★
I had just as much fun with this as with the regular Barbaric comic. Yes, there's no Owen talking to his sword, but Deadheart talking to her sword is just as much fun. Corin Howell is a good substitute for Nathan Gooden while he works on the main book. I haven't seen her art in a while and it's always welcome when it does pop up.

Demon Days ★★★
Marvel characters reimagined as oni and yokai (basically Japanese trolls and demons). It's a story of Mariko finding the truth about herself while being pursued by a woman who wants to drink her blood. It's a muddled story lacking any kind of excitement.

Pavil's Mask ★★
A man crash lands into a culture living atop an ancient culture that has flooded. Now they no longer know what the artifacts they find do and can only see 10% of it as the rest is underwater. I saw someone else use the word enigmatic about this book and I think that definitely applies. Don't expect a lot of answers to what's going on. There are a lot of wordless pages full of random panels of villagers just living their lives. The coloring doesn't add anything to the pages and I wish this was just in black and white. The colors are just applied in large blocks (make this half of the panel solid green. Leave the figures uncolored, etc.). It actually distracts from and obscures the art instead of enhancing it.

The Heart Hunter ★★★
This wasn't bad. It's about a cursed kingdom that plops people's hearts out of their bodies and into indestructible jars. At that point every one becomes immortal but also fails to grow. The only way to grow is to find your soul mate but at that point the two of you have to immediately leave or will die. A woman with a broken heart is tasked by the king to take care of a man with a golden heart which is where this story kicks off. The end of this got so convoluted that it made my head hurt. But overall, not bad at all.

Memoirs of a Man in Pajamas ★★★
These shorter strips that Roca did for a weekly gig in Spain are great. The first half of this is 5 stars. The strips are self-deprecating and witty. Once we get to parts two and three though the strips turn more towards politics and social commentary and lack the same punch and humor. The strips are 9 to 12 panels and take a lot of mental oompf to stick with. At 200+ pages that's asking a lot.

Holy Lacrimony ★
I didn't get this at all. It's about the saddest person in the world getting abducted by this weird shapeshifting alien that seems to be wearing the ghost killer mask from Scream. Then he goes to therapy in an alien abduction group. I found the whole thing a waste of time with poor art.

X-Men: Hellfire Vigil #1 ★
Please don't read this and think all of the X-titles are this bad. (Although some of them were and have already been cancelled.) This was hella boring. Where the Hellfire Galas were one shots full of surprises in the Krakoan era, this was a funeral for the era and just plain snooze-inducing. It starts off as a remembrance in New York and then switches to a Dazzler concert in Chicago where she sings a lot and there are multiple pages devoted to her songs (which are absolutely nothing but filler). I think it suffers from having every creative team tackle 5 pages instead of having one writer write the whole thing. Regardless the whole thing is a waste of time and my $8.

X-Men By Jed Mackay Vol. 2: Hostile Takeover ★★★
This is alright but nothing special. Alpha Flight shows up. This new menace 3K rears its head and there's lots of fighting. But MacKay's other comics I've loved instead of just thought was OK. Maybe he's having problems juggling this large of a cast? The art is fine too. That's the best description in every way for this comic so far. It's fine.

The Weirn Books, Vol. 2: The Ghost and the Stolen Dragon ★★★★
I really like these kids comics. They're more in line with like Harry Potter or something I guess as there's a real sense of danger to them. Now this is very much a volume 2 and you want to make sure and read them in order as this bills off of that one. The villain from volume one returns to not only threaten the school but to attempt to drive the life energy of all the kids in the school. There's also a dragon involved and an ending that teases a third book. It's all really good stuff.

Free for All #1 ★★★★
A crazy little one shot from the guy behind Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees. Our cast is all human this time, but just as messed up. This is set in a near future where rich people are put in a lottery where they have to give up half their earnings or fight to the death. It's good stuff. And very violent.

Nick Fury Vs. Fin Fang Foom #1 ★★★
A little story set shortly before World War II. Fury is hired to go to China and find out who is destroying the planes there that the U.S. is secretly supplying to the Chinese while they fight the Japanese. It's not bad and Casagrande's art is good.

Timeslide #1 ★★★★
A new Child of the Vault is destroying pivotal moments in mutant history leaving Bishop and Cable to team up and stop him. Along the way they get glimpses of things comic up this year, like Ms. Marvel travelling through important moments in mutant history. This Steve Foxe guy's pretty good.

Gunnerkrigg Court, Volume 3: Reason ★★★★★
The writing in this volume has gotten tighter and tighter while the Siddell's is quickly developing his own art style, a bit reminiscent of Jeff Smith or Chris Bachalo when he was drawing Death. This volume has gotten darker than the previous 2 while giving us more answers as we're pulled more and more into the mysteries of Gunnerkrigg Court.

Gunnerkrigg Court, Volume 4: Materia ★★★★★
The series begins to take a more adult tone as Antimony spends a lot of time in the forest. There's a lot of world building going on in both the forest and at the Court. We find out a lot about past events as Antimony grows apart from a lot of the other class members. This series just gets better and better.

Today’s trip to the LCS:
Ultimate Spider-Man Incursion #2
Fantastic Four First Steps #1
Fantastic Four #1 by North
Marvel Swimsuit Special
Absolute Superman #9
Action Comics #1088
Supergirl #3
Trinity Daughter of Wonder Woman #2

A couple of my groups are reading Stephen Graham Jones and, given the wealth of his work, I thought that his comic book series Earthdivers would have been a good entry point. It wasn't entirely a good idea, but you can find my reviews here: volumes one, two and three.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Hulk & Doctor Strange #1 ★★
This one didn't do a whole lot for me. Bruce Banner astral projects back in time to his origin as the Hulk to see if he's a bad person or not. Then Aunt May and Agatha Harkness team up in a filler story.

Ghost Rider Vs. Galactus #1 ★
The worst one of these by a large margin. I don't think Straczynski has ever read a Ghost Rider comic because that's not how he works. Of course, Ghost Rider can't give Galactus his Penance Stare. How would that even work? This whole thing is just pure nonsense. Also, Juan Ferreyra, Ghost Rider in no way has bone eyebrows.

Captain America & Volstagg #1 ★★★★
I quite liked this other side of Volstagg and how he's not really the buffoon he's often seen as. Cap definitely takes second stage in this story.

Doctor Doom & Rocket Raccoon #1 ★★★
I expected this would be the best of these team ups Straczynski is doing but it wasn't that. It's just solid. Doom hires Rocket to help him build a time machine that can go back before the big bang. When it happens, exactly what you expected to happen, happens.

DEN Volume 4: Dreams and Alarums ★★★★★
The continuing adventures of Den as he searches for Kath. Some pieces of this are confusing as it's sometimes dreams or the like after long sequences. And Den gets fat. Along for his search for Kath though, he attacks air fighters, meets some fish people and then ghouls. There's still plenty to like. Plus, Den finally gets some clothes.

Vampirella Year One ★★★★
An expanded look at Vampirella's origin. This isn't strictly a Year One as it takes place over several years but it is an origin story of sorts ending off with Vampirella from the 70s. It's good art and I almost always like Christopher Priest's writing.

Public Domain, Volume 1: Past Mistakes ★★★★
Singular Comics has made billions off their character The Domain but it turns out they may not actually own the rights to the character. Enter the original artist and his two sons, one who is a major asshole and the other floats from job to job. Chip Zdarsky does it all in this series, both writing and drawing it. It's cool stuff filled with his humor.

H.P. Lovecraft's The Hound and Other Stories ★★★
Quick adaptations of The Hound, The Temple and The Nameless City. Tanabe's artwork is exquisite. I don't feel these stories carry the same dread though as the originals. These flew by as Tanube removed most of the text in favor of showing us what was happening. That surprisingly didn't always work as well as I expected it to.

Clodagh ★★★★★
This series is great. I can't wait for the rest. It's about a witch who terrorizes the local villages and kidnaps a little girl. Her father and stepmother both go after her separately and her stepmother used to be a badass mofo warrior.

You Have Those Wild Eyes Again, Mooch ★★
I've tried MUTTS before and I think it's just not for me. We have a dog so these should be funny, but it just reads as over the top schmaltz to me.

Grimm Fairy Tales Legacy ★★★★
This was surprisingly good considering I always thought these were nothing but an excuse for a little tna in your comics. It's about a woman who takes over as the guardian of the nexus from her mother fighting monsters from fairy tales updated to a modern bent. It follows a monster of the week format. The art was quite good too. It's good enough that I'm probably going to check more of these out on Hoopla.

Model Five Murder ★★★
Some pretty cool, noirish sci-fi. An android sees another version of itself floating in space while out on a mission and has to work backward to figure out what happened. This is only about 50 pages long so it's a tight story. If it had been fleshed out with a heftier page count who knows how good it could have been.

Lady Hel ★★
Lady Hel tries to get her mojo back after Purgatori beat the snot out of her in Vampirella vs Purgatori. She's lost most of her power and her sister Lady Demon is coming after her now. Eh, I could care less about these characters and now they've introduced a multiverse as well. Ugh!

Cretaceous ★★★
A wordless comic set in the Cretaceous Era. The story floats from dinosaur to dinosaur as they all struggle to eat or be eaten. It's a cool but quick read.

Dead Weight: Murder at Camp Bloom ★★★★
Imagine Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys put on some weight and get sent to fat camp. Four campers uncover a murder and determine they can't trust any of the counselors. Don't worry the fat camp junior detectives are on the case. A fun, all ages mystery that is inclusive and LGBTQ+. Maybe we'll see another case next summer.

Death Sentence Vol. 1 ★★★★
Definitely channeling some elements of Strikeforce: Morituri here, just without the aliens with balls on their chins. Three people get an STD that gives them superpowers along with a death sentence in 6 months. But what happens when 2 of the 3 people are a barely disguised Russell Brand and Pete Doherty? Well, we get one guy who goes completely out of control, a fuckup drug addict rockstar and an artistic girl with acid sweat. It's cool stuff. It is also very adult.

Death Sentence Vol. 2: London ★★★
Not as focused storywise as the first volume where you had three leads get the Gplus virus and ultimately go after each other while making a mess of London. Those characters fade to the background some. Verity still has a decent size role, but now the Americans have come on the scene to try and steal a cure while various random subplots ensue. The introduction to the complete edition says this was all planned but it doesn't really like that was the case.

Death Sentence: The Complete Collection ★★★
Strokes that Strikeforce Morituri itch at least in concept. People gain super powers but will die in 6 months. At least that's the idea, even though none of these people ever seem to get to that point. the first arc is pretty cool, focusing on three GPlus carriers, two of which are clearly based on Russell Brand and Pete Doherty, both are complete assholes to put it nicely. After the initial arc, the story loses focus and by the end still doesn't really have any resolutions. It's worth a read on hoopla, I will give it that. That ending just really wasn't an ending though if you ask me.

Primer: Clashing Colors ★★★
The sequel to Primer from a few years ago which I loved. This I thought was just OK. Primer really wants to join the Teen Titans from the cartoon. I actually think that was part of the reason, the writing wasn't as tight. Trying to put this more in the DC universe but also not by making changes to the Titans history puts it in kind of a no man's land. The other thing I didn't like was the change in artists part way through. Gretel Lusky's art is a lot of fun. Nicoletta Baldari's artwork left me wondering what was happening in the action sequences. I had the hardest time following them. It's still not bad. Just not the lovefest I had with the original book.

Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters Vol. 2 ★★★
This thing moves so fast you barely have time to take any of it in. Any other comic would turn a single element in this into a 6 issue arc. Here it only takes one. Jonna gets forced into an underground fighting ring battling kaiju. By the next issue she's free. The stinger at the end of issue #8 was interesting. Looking forward to reading the final trade. Good thing I have it here.

Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters Vol. 3 ★★★
This reads better straight through. Don't worry all 12 issues will probably take you 30 minutes. It seems to be written as if displaying a child's imagination. It's wordless for long passages but you do get answers on where these kaiju are from and why Jonna is different. The art is terrific.

Frankie and the Creepy Cute Critters ★★★
A nice kids comic about Frankie, a fairy with bat wings. She moves to a new town where all of the kids are traditional fairies and think she's scary. After going through the woods and seeing some of the other animals like snakes and opossums that try to be scary, she is able to fit in as well.

Frankie and the Beastly Bog Song ★★
Hmm, this seems like a redux of Frankie's first book. She and her mom head outdoors where she finds more animals she's afraid of until she finds out the truth about them. If this is all Boyle has to say, she's already said it.

Grimm Fairy Tales presents Day of the Dead ★★★
Pretty good art but the story meandered. A couple of voodoo practitioners are trying to force this woman and a man named Talisman into becoming the King and Queen of Pentacles. It gets monotonous in places.

The Idris File ★★
This was an odd one with some fugly art. It's about a kid and his mom who go to a small town in Wales where she gets a job as a housekeeper. This kid is odd and meets a ghost and Nazis but the story isn't that interesting and the art is real ugly.

This week's adventures in comics continued. (I read a lot by and in the pool in the summer.)

Captain America: Red Menace, Vol. 2 ★★★★
Cap and Agent 13 are headed to London baby. Lukin's operating in the background with the Red Skull trying to take over his mind. Meanwhile, Bucky's in the background watching over everyone. It's a cool teamup with Spitfire and Union Jack. Brubaker does a terrific job of the more quiet moments. Epting's on art so you know this book is looking terrific.

Civil War: Captain America ★★★★★
While the real events of Civil War were happening between Captain America and Iron Man over in the main book, we get some one off stories here. They are good too, just smaller. I really like the Winter Soldier one shot focusing on Bucky but all of it was what you can always expect from Ed Brubaker.

Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America ★★★★
It was pretty clever to set this up as the five stages of grief. There's plenty of good moments here as the various heroes of the Marvel Universe realize that Cap is gone. Well done.

The Death of Captain America, Vol. 1 ★★★★★
Wow, this one really packs an emotional punch. You should read Civil War first though to know why Captain America has been arrested. The title does give it away. At the time, this came out it was a big deal, up there with the death of Superman. Even the regular news picked the story up. The rest of this volume is the rest of the cast trying to figure out what really happened that day while the Red Skull and his cronies run circles around them. It's all really good spy story type stuff. I'm honestly a little surprised at this point that Brubaker hasn't tried to write a novel. That's what a lot of his stories read like.

Daredevil, Vol. 5: Out ★★★★★
Matt gets outed in the paper as Daredevil. This is just excellent writing. Bendis does dialogue so well and every scene in this is enthralling. This is one of those runs you hand to people when people say they don't get Bendis's appeal. This is peak era when he really could do no wrong.

Chad wrote: "Last week's adventures in comics.
... These flew by as Tanube removed most of the text in favor of showing us what was happening. That surprisingly didn't always work as well as I expected it to. ..."

Doesn't really surprise me. I don't like Lovecraft very often, but when I do, it is the style and word choices tat make it work, not just the story.

Lovecraft has always struck me as a little like radio drama: you have to draw on your own experience and imagination for the visuals. Which is not always a good thing, as his “indescribable” and the like tends to paralyze such effort.

a.g.e. montagner wrote: "A couple of my groups are reading Stephen Graham Jones and, given the wealth of his work, I thought that his comic book series Earthdivers would have been a good entry point. It wasn..."

I really liked I was a Teenage Slasher and Only the Good Indians by him… his last one, Buffalo Hunter Hunter didn’t do it for me… didn’t know he did comics

Rating what I got at the LCS

Ultimate Spider-Man Incursion #2 ⭐️⭐️
This will be my last of these… cool idea, just didn’t land for me

Fantastic Four First Steps #1 ⭐️⭐️
This was fine, but just not much happened… best part for me was the retro adds

Fantastic Four #1 by North ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Now this I loved… grabbed me right from the star… action, cool scenes, story pulled me in… going to find the beginning of his run

Marvel Swimsuit Special ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Is what it is… some cool shots in swimsuits.

Absolute Superman #9⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Still liking this run

Action Comics #1088 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Waid does early Clark well… really enjoyed this

Supergirl #3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Feels like a throw back to silver age hijinks… this is ok

Trinity Daughter of Wonder Woman #2⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
And this I just love… the humor hits, the situations are fun, if you’ve liked this run, this is another stellar entry

I went back and got the Superman Treasury 2025 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
So glad I did… great story, but Redondo’s art in this format was 🤌

Machiavelli wrote: "... Fantastic Four #1 by North ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️..."

I enjoyed that one, too. I don't often read superheroes, but I think North did a nice job.

"... I really liked I was a Teenage Slasher and Only the Good Indians by him… his last one, Buffalo Hunter Hunter didn’t do it for me… didn’t know he did comics ..."

Prose writers trying their hand at comics can go sideways, so I wait to hear whether others like it.

I've only read his short Night of the Mannequins, and it was fine. I don't normally read horror, but when I find something randomly in a little-free-library I am compelled to read it.

Yesterday's trip to my LCS. They finally have Dynamite comics again after Dynamite had a few months battle with Diamond where Diamond quit paying for their comics and Dynamite had to find a new distributor.

Giant-Size House of M #1
Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe #1
Bring on the Bad Guys: Abomination
Absolute Batman #10
Absolute Flash #5
World's Finest #41
Deadpool Wolverine #7
Detective Comics #1099
Exceptional X-Men #11
GI Joe #9
Herculoids #5
Imperial #2
The World to Come #2
Predator vs. Spider-Man #4
redcoat #13
Space Quest #2
TMNT #10
Thundercats #16
Ultimate Black Panther #18
Aquaman - Shark Week #1 - A free comic from DC and their corporate overlords at Discovery / WB

Ed wrote: "Machiavelli wrote: "Prose writers trying their hand at comics can go sideways, so I wait to hear whether others like it."

It often doesn't work. I have I Was a Teenage Slasher here to read so we'll see how that goes. I think Joe Hill is someone able to do both. Same thing with Neil Gaiman before he killed his career by getting caught being a creep. Ta-Nahisi Coates's Black Panther bored me to tears. Peter David has written a ton of comics that I loved and some good books. Chris Claremont wrote some books in the 90s I dug. Alan Moore and Grant Morrison's prose is not at all good IMO. Chuck Palahniuk wrote Fight Club 2 as a comic and it was one of the worst comics I've ever read. Duane Swierczynski is someone I enjoy in both prose and comics. Greg Rucka has written several novels I really like and his comics are terrific. Max Allan Collins has written Ms. Tree and Road to Perdition plus over 50 books and everything I've read of his has been really good. Those are all I can think of off the top of my head.

I started a thread in another group about writers of both novels and comics.
In which Stephen Graham Jones's Earthdivers was actually mentioned! In his case I don't think he's written other comic book series.
Thanks for adding names to the list.

Harry Harrison is best known as a science fiction writer, with a long string of novels, but he both illustrated and wrote comic strips and books early in his career. Unfortunately, I have never seen any of the latter that I recollect: but he made frequent use of pseudonyms, and some work wasn’t credited.

If you want more, I can get you more. I've got about 100 original prose novels featuring comic book characters in my office. I guarantee there's some comic book writers in there. I know Jim Butcher wrote a Spider-Man novel and he has a bunch of original Dresden Files stories he did with Dynamite including an OGN. And I just thought of Michael Jan Friedman who wrote a bunch of Star Trek novels and wrote Darkstars for DC among others. He even wrote a prose crossover between Star Trek and the X-Men called Planet X.

Also, this may be helpful to you. It's a list of original prose novels featuring comic book characters I put together a few years ago separated by publisher. Feel free to add to it if I missed anything. Sometimes they slip by me but I have a strange fascination with them and have read a LOT of them. There are definitely both regular writers and comic book writers listed.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/3285...

You mentioned Joe Hill - you read Locke and Key? That’s high on my list and if you say it’s good too will try and get it

im reading a few books im getting back into the scott pilgrim comics and the sao progressive novels, also reading international best selling other Quan Millz This Hoe Got Roaches In Her Crib

Machiavelli wrote: "You mentioned Joe Hill - you read Locke and Key? That’s high on my list and if you say it’s good too will try and get it"

Locke and Key is fantastic. My favorite horror series of the 21st century. I've read it all through 3 or 4 times now. Hill's 2 stories he did for DC are good too, Plunder and Basketful of Heads.

Basically every single comic with or about Venom in chronological reading order!
I’ve read a bunch so far this July, currently I am on - Venom: Lethal Protector

I’m not even much of a fan of Spider-Man or Venom, I was just really enjoying those Amazing Spider-Man issues lately, especially the ones featuring Venom.

That's quite the undertaking Kat. I hope you found a list to make it easy. He's had 6 gazillion different series.

Awesome. After I finish my Fantastic Four binge before the movie next weekend I’ll grab Lock and Key

Machiavelli wrote: "Awesome. After I finish my Fantastic Four binge before the movie next weekend I’ll grab Lock and Key"

When you finish the main series and move onto the collections of one shots and short stories, take a look to see what's in the collection. IDW has put out 6 or 7 different editions of them and almost every one is the same except for a 7 page story for instance.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Batman Vol. 5: The Dying City ★★
This was awful. Everyone felt out of character. It also felt like Zdarsky just gave up and phoned this in. Zdarsky's a really capable writer and this is one of the worst things he's written. Just one dumb thing on top of another.

Captain America Modern Era Epic Collection, Vol. 2: Death of the Dream ★★★★★
Ed Brubaker's Cap run continues to be the defining run for the character. Even lesser arcs are better than the majority of Marvel's output today. This epic collection dips into Civil War and tackles Captain America's death that follows immediately afterwards. I remember when this originally came out and it was a big deal that even made the mainstream press. And it wasn't just a gimmick. It's a good story with terrific art by Steve Epting and Mike Perkins. If you ever plan on reading one Captain America run in your life, I'd make it this one.

Search and Destroy, vol. 2 ★★★★
The artwork is great. The story is simple at this point. The main character is trying to reclaim all of her body parts that were cut off her and given to other people. She continues to get them back but is surprised how much weaker she is, now that she is reclaiming them.

Paradise Court ★★★
Your typical slasher story that you've read before. Four college kids go to visit an old friend in a remote gated community over Spring Break. Then people start dying off. It's not bad, just not original either.

Dead Space: Salvage ★
Just completely awful. I've played the games and still couldn't tell what was happening in this. The art is terrible. Some of the worst art I've ever seen. Then someone made the decision to put all the lettering directly on the art instead of using text bubbles. I couldn't read a lot of it because the text color was too close to the color of the artwork. This whole thing was a big fucking mess.

The Michael Moorcock Library Elric: The Balance Lost Vol. 1 ★★★
All of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champions get together for this multiverse spanning adventure. It's not just Elric, Hawkmoon, Beck and Corum also get equal screen time. I'm not sure that every set of characters needs a multiverse but this one did at least exist before a lot of the others.

The Black Knight ★★
A public defender gains the same powers as Marvel's Black Knight and fights rival Russian mobs. The leader of one of them is immortal and trying to kill off all the male heirs of the other one. They keep the story pretty simple. Don't expect answers to anything. Just a lot of fighting by a girl in armor but because it's Zenescope there is no armor in the middle of her chest at all, all the way down past her belly button. It looks ridiculous and makes no sense.

Spree ★★★
The world has ended. Only the mall is left. Now it's generations later and the clans are nonstop at war. When a leader's son is framed for murder, he and a woman band together to discover the truth. Not bad. Don't think about the logistics or it all falls apart. But if you just go with the premise it's an interesting story.

Grimm Fairy Tales: Age of Camelot ★★★
This was alright. Not as good as the last volume, Legacy. The Camelot stuff was odd. Really only Merlin, Morgan Le Fay and Mordred get much screen time. Skye Matthews seems to take a backseat in this too which I found odd. For some reason when the Knights of the Round Table they get Iron Man type suits of armor instead of mystical ones. Seemed out of place for this world but whatever. Also, having King Arthur only appear as a very minor character in the return of Camelot is an interesting choice.

Daredevil, Vol. 6: Lowlife ★★★★
Daredevil continues to kick butt. He's still dealing with the media wondering if Matt is actually Daredevil or not. He gets a new love interest, a blind girl named Milla. She can tell that he's Daredevil though so that could be interesting. The main impetus of the arc is about the Owl trying to move into Hell's Kitchen selling Mutant Growth Hormone. The Owl has never been the most threatening villain but I like what his henchman are doing here trying to set him up like the Kingpin. I really like Bendis's writing here.

Daredevil, Vol. 7: Hardcore ★★★★★
The Kingpin starts making his moves to retake New York City and Daredevil's not having it. I really like how this escalates over this story. Getting the guest artists to come in and help illustrate the big fight at the end of issue #50 was a nice touch as well. Great stuff.

Green Lantern: War Journal, Vol. 1: Contagion ★★★★
John Stewart is back on Earth taking care of his mom who suffers from dementia. He's left the Green Lantern Corp after it was taken over by the United Planets (who it turns out are now a bunch of dirtbags). This Reverent Queen has come from another universe and is after John Stewart because in this other universe he kept her at bay. Good stuff so far. Montos's art isn't bad either.

Battron: Before the Chariots ★★★
It's Dec 1944. The Allies have launched a huge offensive to enter Germany but it's went poorly. A bunch of men have regrouped in a small French town with the Nazis lurking in the area. It's good stuff from one the people who worked on The 'Nam for Marvel.

The Adventures Of Spawn Complete Collection ★
Jeebus, this was awful. It's a Saturday morning cartoon version of Spawn. Spawn's still married to Wanda and Cyan is his daughter. His suit was just given to him and he teams up with Redeemer to fight, Cy-Gor, Overkill and a few others. This thing is packed with exposition for something that is supposed to be for kids. All that exposition doesn't say anything either. This was a failed webcomic and should have just stayed that way.

Hildebrand: Valkyrie ★★★
A woman in England becomes a warrior and travels to Rome with her father fighting misogyny along the way. It's a little wordy but the story was interesting.

Descent into Dread ★★★
Caliber returned with this horror anthology. It's pretty good. All of the stories are written by two people with a rotating cast of artists. It also has 4 Frankenstein stories set in an apocalyptic future.

Time Grunts - Volume One: The Monsters Within ★★★
At the end of World War II the Nazis have developed time travel leaving one platoon in the area to try and stop them from changing the past. The mutant experiments were a weird diversion. This is not half bad. We'll see how the 2nd half finishes it off.

Time Grunts - Volume Two: Last Call ★★★
Volume 2 has our troop of World War II grunts following the Nazis to the past to stop them from changing the outcome of the war. The ending feels like the book stopped before the story was over though.


Caliber Presents ★★★
It was cool to see Caliber came back with a new anthology series. Negative Burn was really good back in the day. This is a bunch of small time creators telling short stories so the quality is mixed. I think Joe Pruett was the only creator I recognized. Still, known or not, there's some good stories in this.

The Best American Comics 2008 ★★★★
I thought Lynda Berry picked a great collection of the year's comics. It's comics from the Bush era so the Iraq War does play a part in some of the stories. There's stuff in here from Alison Bechdel, Derf, Rick Geary, Matt Groening, Jaime Hernandez, Jason Lutes (Berlin is terrific. Go read it.), Seth, Chris Ware and Gene Luen Yang. Lots of good stuff to sample here and then go out and find the whole thing.

The Best American Comics 2014 ★★★★
Scott McCloud and I must be on the same wavelength. I thought this year's group of comics was terrific. I really liked how he organized everything and gave a little intro to each group of comics. Plus in addition to the usual suspects like Los Bros Hernandez, Adrian Tomine, Charles Burns, R. Crumb, Chris Ware and the like, there's also Raina Telemeier, John Lewis and Brian K. Vaughan.

Son Chasers ★
This was real bad, especially the art. It's about the son of Hitler saving the president. All of the characters look like zombies with white skin. I couldn't tell them apart unless they were wearing glasses or something. Give this a pass.

Fighters: Dark Match ★★
This was OK. It's about a guy with powers who the FBI forces to join a crimefighting ring that turns out to all be scripted like wrestling. There becomes a lot more to it with creating new powers for them and some other stuff. The double and triple crossing got so complex that I lost the thread of who was up to what about halfway through and wanted it to end.

John Carpenter's Tales of Science Fiction: Interference Pattern ★★★
This was a cool idea dealing with real world physics questions and I liked how this played out. It just got a little too out there and open-ended at the end for me.

Mississippi Zombie ★★
Little nothing stories of zombie attacks in actual Mississippi towns (not sure if that last part matters but the forward mentions it). These were not very good.

Stalag-X ★★★
This was... OK. A prison ship is attacked by the Krael and survivors are taken to their prison colony, Stalag-X. Humans are being experimented on in a VR world to infect them with the dark ripper that takes away their leadership? It didn't make any sense really. And it takes a LOOONG time to get there. Then the shit flies in the last issue and there's a cliffhanger, but I'm not sure how much I care about reading the next volume. The pacing of this is really off. The art isn't anything special. Also included is a 30 page prose story about what happened to Deacon before she appears in the story.

The Case Files of Harlan Falk ★★★
A crisis negotiator for monsters. I think I would have liked this a little better if it was lighter in tone. The main story has Falk dealing with a kid whose imaginary friend killed his parents. His negotiating with zombies at the beginning was much more fun.

White Knuckle ★★★
I didn't love the art but the story was solid. It's about an old serial killer who was never caught and keeps an eye on the kid who got away. Thirty years later he befriends the woman and her son. Things begin to spiral from there.

This week's trip to the comic book store.

Thundercats / Power Puff Girls #1
Captain Planet #2
Void Rivals #21
Absolute Martian Manhunter #5
Absolute Wonder Woman #10
Blade Forger #5
Batman #161
Feral #15
Geiger #16
Hornsby & Halo #8
Rocketfellers #7
Justice League Unlimited #9
Uncanny X-Men #18
Storm #10
West Coast Avengers #9
Space Ghost Annual #1
The Sixth Gun: Battle for the Six #1

Will have to read Brubaker Cap and Bendis Daredevil…

My highlight this week was Solomon Kane by Zircher… The Serpent Ring - 4 issue arc… the art was literally stunning in it, landscapes, animals, people, details all so good.

And Ryan North’s run on Fantastic Four. Just loved it. So much fun to me in those issues.

I’ve now started Hickman’s FF, so we will see how that goes… Council of Reeds seems interesting , but was a slow start, but so far I like Waid better than Hickman and North better than Waid, but plenty more left of this so we will see…

My LCS stash this week - Batman #161, Absolute Wonder Woman #10, Absolute Martian Manhunter #5, Exquisite Corpses #3, Fantastic Four Fanfare #3, The Curse of Sherlee Johnson #2, Savage Sword of Conan #9, Criminal - My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies TP

Hickman's FF run is my favorite run on the book. I really like what he does with the Council of Reeds and the school. Lots of cool heady concepts that work really well with FF. Waid's run is good too. I also liked the Claremont/Pacheco run and of course John Byrne's is a classic. I'm hit and miss with what North has been doing.

Just got to the Council of Reeds… seems like a great set up… why I gave Hickman some time… he does do kinda slow setups with huge world building sometimes it seems to me but can be really great.

North felt very character focused and somewhat episodic… felt like a tv show almost… new episode what will they be in, but grabbed my attention quickly and put them in some cool situations… and pulled on the feels as well… and some stories went multiple issues but nothing was super long… I could see how it isn’t everyone’s favorite but for me it’s kinda simple and light and like grab my popcorn for a fun trip… but for sure to each their own… Hickmans feels like he’s building something huge, so getting happier with it the more I go….

Last week's adventures in comics.

Daredevil Modern Era Epic Collection, Vol. 3: Out ★★★★★
This collects volumes 5-7 of the Marvel Knights era run. It's terrific. Matt is outed as Daredevil in the newspaper and he bobs and weaves to deny it while taking on the Owl and the Kingpin. One of the best runs in DD's history.

Slaughterman's Creed ★★★★
This is one messed up story and it's incredibly violent so be forewarned. It's about this hitman for the mob who butchers people. He decides to help his next victim when he sees she's pregnant. That's all you get though. Anything more will just hurt your enjoyment of this.

Farscape, Vol. 5: Red Sky at Morning ★★★
A new race attacks Pilot's home planet and the crew of the Moya has to team up with some Peacemakers to stop them. It's a solid continuation of the series.

Farscape, Vol. 6: Compulsions ★★★
Grayza, leader of the Peacekeepers, is selling guns to the Frennij, the new race that is trying to take over the area. Crichton and the Peacekeepers who have deserted are trying to stop it.

Farscape, Vol. 7: War for the Uncharted Territories - Part 1 ★★★
The Kkore are kicking everyone's asses. The Peacekeepers finally get all their factions together just in time to get decimated as well. Things are not looking good at all as this ends.

Farscape, Vol. 8: War for the Uncharted Territories - Part 2 ★★★
The war against the Kklore continues with the remnants of the quadrant in hiding. This is pretty good stuff. It would have been cool to see this as actual episodes.

Farscape, Vol. 9: War for the Uncharted Territories - Part 3 ★★★★
This whole thing feels like an unfilmed season of the show. Great stuff and a nice capper to all these comics.

Farscape: Scorpius Vol. 1 ★★★★
This fills the gap between Scorpius's exile and his return working for the Kkore in War for the Uncharted Territories. It's really good.

Farscape: Scorpius Vol. 2 ★★★
Nice backstory on Scorpius's rise to power with the Kkore. It's a good companion piece to War for the Uncharted Territories.

Daredevil: Ninja ★★
Proof that not all of Bendis's Daredevil run was golden. This is a pointless turkey that feels half baked. The art and coloring make it look like a bad Saturday morning cartoon.

Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary ★★★
Jennifer Blood's daughter continues her war on crime by going after rival white supremacist gangs. Not bad even if that cover is. Robert Carey's art is solid too.

Purgatori: Hell And Back ★★★
Dynamite has brought in the Chaos characters but I'm not sure if Purgatori is in the same universe as Vampirella here or if that comes later. Anyway, Purgatori has lost her powers and needs to return to hell to take them back from Lucifer. It's alright. What I don't get here is Dynamite is OK with extremely graphic violence but only sexual innuendo. While I'm not asking for it here, it seems oddly prudish when people are getting beheaded right and left.

Daredevil, Vol. 3: Wake Up ★★★★
Bendis's first work on the regular Daredevil book with David Mack in tow before Alex Maleev comes on as the regular artist. A very serious arc about a joke Daredevil villain, Leap Frog. Leap Frog is missing, his son is disturbed just repeating the same things over and over. Ben Urich is investigating this instead of covering the Kingpin's trial like he's supposed to. The story moves slowly and it's probably stretched out more than it should be but David Mack makes it all work. I don't think I've seen another artist who can work in this many different styles. (If you like this, make sure and check out his creator owned series, Kabuki.) He does everything from children's drawings to photo realistic. It's pretty incredible.

Savage Red Sonja: Devil in the Sand ★★★
Red Sonja goes looking for a ruby in the desert that is said to be cursed. She gets it and then finds out there's a scepter that is supposed to make it more valuable. It's a decent story. The art isn't very good though.

Delphine ★★★
A modern day retelling of Snow White from Prince Charming's perspective that I didn't pick up on for a long while. It just seemed like this weird story about a guy taking a bus to try and find his old girlfriend and then getting constantly used and abused along the way as he hitched rides and got lost in the forest. I do think this is some of Sala's best art. I like the sepia toned look quite a bit.

Grave Robber's Daughter ★★★
This feels almost like an unmade episode of The Twilight Zone. It's got that same vibe and lack of reasoning why these strange things are happening. A woman's car breaks down and she walks to this town that is deserted except for some creepy clowns and some teenagers at the circus in town. Things get more stream of consciousness from there. It's not bad but the story does feel rushed.

Daredevil, Vol. 4: Underboss ★★★★★
The beginning of Bendis and Maleev's epic run on Daredevil. The Kingpin is blind now and showing some weakness. Enter a new brash mobster that finds out that the Kingpin knows who Daredevil is and declared him off-limits. This is really well done. I love everything about this, even when I know what's coming after reading it while it was coming out.

Disney Villains: Hades ★★★★★
Just a ton of fun and the best of this Disney Villains series yet. Hades gets a burr on his butt about not being invited to the Gods' brunch and puts a team together to steal the golden fleece before Jason and his brotastic Argonauts can. This is just what comics should be, entertaining.

Miss Fury: Joy Division ★★★
A good homage to the first woman to create the first female superhero. It's a real dark story with Miss Fury going behind enemy lines to bring a war criminal in who was running a concentration camp. They also forced Jewish women to work in brothels for the soldiers stationed there. Pretty harrowing stuff.

007 Book Two: For King and Country ★★★★
Great story. Much better art than the first volume. It's great to see Bond back where he's supposed to be, at the top of the spy genre.

Draculina: 90 Hours in San Francisco ★★★★
This gets timey-wimey and alternate reality and Priest's out of order storytelling sometimes adds to the confusion but making it just 6 issues has it all working out in the end. Draculina and her alternate reality tween self are sharing space in this universe, switching back and forth via a cursed candle. Yeah, it sounds a bit much but Priest makes it work and it ties in with all of the Vampirella comics he's been writing so if you're into those, you will certainly enjoy this. Sta. Maria's art is crisp and clean too. I dug it.

Pantha: The Blessed and the Accursed ★★★
This version of Pantha seems stand alone even though it says she's spinning out of Sacred Six. Something is killing off the old gods and Pantha's curse is apparently the only thing that can stop it. It's a strong beginning but a weak finish. It feels like this was supposed to be a longer story and it had to be cut short. The art is this is pretty good. The one thing that drove me nuts is that the main covers all showed Pantha as a blond when she's of Egyptian descent and portrayed as such throughout not only this comic but every other comic she's ever been in. How could no one catch that?

Nyx Vol. 2: Family Matters ★★★★
Surprisingly good with great artwork. Nyx is forced by her father, Chaos, to help raise her siblings. So she scatters them across time and shows up once a week to make sure they haven't turned into monsters. I didn't expect this to have as much emotion and pathos as it did.

Jennifer Blood Vol. 2: Blood Debt ★★★
Jennifer Blood teams up with a dying hitman to go after a bunch of gangsters. It's not bad but it could have used some meat on the bone of this story.

Today's trip to the comic book store.

Bring on the Bad Guys: Loki
X-Men: Age of Revelation #0
Incredible Hulk #27
Flash Gordon Quarterly #4
Space Quest #3
Speed Racer #1
Thundercats: Lost #4
Ultimate Spider-Man #19
Ultimates #14
Justice League: Dark Tomorrow Special
Spider-Man Vs. the Sinister Sixteen <--- The last of these J. Michael Straczynski one shots.