Gene's Bed-Ridden Weekend of Reading Comics!

[delekkerste]

Stricken with both food poisoning and an extremely painful oral infection resulting from an overzealous salsa dancer elbowing me square in the mouth and opening up a big gash last week, I have been laid up in bed for most of this weekend and catching up on my comic reading. Here is what I've read:

 

Captain America (new series by Brubaker/Epting/Lark) #1-6 - GO BUY THIS SERIES!! This is the best super-hero title being published today. Brubaker paces the story well, with good dialogue (unlike the smarmy "I'm so hip" Millar and Bendis kind), a minimum of gratuitous space-filling panels/splashes and keeps the reader on his/her toes with plot twists galore. Steve Epting's art is gorgeous - John Cassaday and Bryan Hitch look like pretenders to the throne by comparison. Epting's version of Sharon Carter would give any of Greg Land's women a run for their money as well. The angles/perspectives he uses are awesome and his art is just ridiculously kinetic and energized. He has vaulted to the top of my favorite current artists list. And how about his awesome Sanjulian tribute cover for issue #6? Meanwhile, Michael Lark's flashback sequences show that he will be an able successor to Alex Maleev on Daredevil - his style is very reminiscent of David Mazzuchelli circa "Born Again". Now, as you may have heard, there is some ret-conning going on with this storyline and a lot of characters are getting killed off - I am usually very opposed to both, but Brubaker is handling it very well, IMHO, unlike the travesties that were JMS's "Sins Past" or Bendis' "Avengers Disassembled".

 

 

Bram Stoker's Dracula by Fernando Fernandez - Fernando who? If you '90s and '00s guys don't know who Fernando Fernandez is or didn't get the Sanjulian reference above, you need to go back and read the old Warren mags (Eerie, Creepy, Vampirella). Fernandez and his pencil & ink contemporaries at the S.I. art agency in Barcelona drew some of the prettiest comic art ever produced during the '70s and early '80s, while Sanjulian produced fantasy, action and horror paintings that some believe are superior to even Frazetta's work. Anyway, Fernandez's version of "Bram Stoker's Dracula" was originally published in 1984 but has just been re-issued by Del Rey. This is among the best comic versions of Dracula you will ever read (it's in color, unlike his Warren art). The art is simply to die for and the adaptation is top-drawer. Definitely worth a look.

 

 

Queen and Country TPB Vol. 1: Operation Broken Ground by Greg Rucka - An enjoyable read for fans of the genre. This was my first exposure to Q&C and I thought it was all right. Good, but not great. Some of the British dialogue sounds very contrived, some of the issues are very small-scale (e.g., whether it's realistic or not, do we really care to follow the exploits of an agency that can't even arm its operatives with guns on their home soil and has to resort to replicas from a toy store?) some of the plots are wafer-thin (e.g., the vendetta against the Russians who attacked them on their home turf). My biggest gripe, though, is the artwork, which is more suited to a daily syndicated ha-ha comic strip than the supposedly grim & gritty espionage world of Q&C. Still, it was interesting enough that I might check out Vol. 2 at some point.

 

 

Twilight X: Storm TPB Vol. 2 #1: Storm by Joseph Wight - This is a manga title published by Antaractic Press that I picked up at the San Diego Con, as I'm open to new things. Basically, the post-World War III world of Twilight X has much of Central & South America being controlled by Neo-Nazis while "Old America" in the non-nuked parts of the U.S. want to reclaim the land now controlled by the Neo-Nazis (most of Europe & Israel have been nuked out). One American, one British and one Israeli special forces operatives and two hot babes, one of whom used to work for a shadowy syndicate who helped bring about WWIII, now link up with the Old America troops in the Caribbean to fight the Neo-Nazis and help re-unite the U.S. Or something close to that. A bold, intriguing concept to be sure and I did enjoy this collection. My only problem is that the writer uses less words per page than Bendis, and so the 5 issues contained in this collection took even less time to read than 5 issues of Ultimate Spider-Man. Thus, I'm torn whether to continue on with this series and buy the back issue trades or not, given that I don't feel there is a great value proposition here.

 

 

The 3 Geeks TPB Vol. 3 - When the Hammer Falls! by Rich Koslowski - I bought the first 2 trades at the 2004 SDCC and picked up Vol. 3 this year. I have to say that I like Vol. 3 the best out of this series. If you're a comic book fan, this series is a great mirror that exposes all the inherent geekiness in the hobby in a good-natured way. It's amazing how Koslowski has developed these characters; you feel like you really know them and care about them. The addition of the crazy German shop-keeper and goth chick in this volume are welcome and the "Thor's hammer" storyline may be my favorite of them all to date. Definitely worth a read for any comic book fan.

 

 

Squarecat Comics Volume 1 by Jennifer Omand - I picked up a copy for the girl I'm dating at Wizard World Philly as it seemed very female friendly. Basically, Omand writes and draws her day-to-day life in pictures, portraying herself as a box-shaped cat, her boyfriend as a bird, their friend Nev as a monkey-clown, etc. I picked up a copy for myself as well and I have to say that, if you have a pen*s, stay away from this! Definitely written for the chicks by a chick. Buy one for your wife or girlfriend, but I can't imagine many guys enjoying this very much. I did also pick up an ashcan copy of more recent material, and that did seem more witty and palatable, but I don't think I'll be picking the next volume up, except as a gift. If you're curious, you can check out the series online at: www.squarecatcomics.com

[Silver Surfer]

Stricken with both food poisoning and an extremely painful oral infection resulting from an overzealous salsa dancer elbowing me square in the mouth and opening up a big gash last week, I have been laid up in bed for most of this weekend and catching up on my comic reading. Here is what I've read:

 

Captain America (new series by Brubaker/Epting/Lark) #1-6 - GO BUY THIS SERIES!! This is the best super-hero title being published today. Brubaker paces the story well, with good dialogue (unlike the smarmy "I'm so hip" Millar and Bendis kind), a minimum of gratuitous space-filling panels/splashes and keeps the reader on his/her toes with plot twists galore. Steve Epting's art is gorgeous - John Cassaday and Bryan Hitch look like pretenders to the throne by comparison. Epting's version of Sharon Carter would give any of Greg Land's women a run for their money as well. The angles/perspectives he uses are awesome and his art is just ridiculously kinetic and energized. He has vaulted to the top of my favorite current artists list. And how about his awesome Sanjulian tribute cover for issue #6? Meanwhile, Michael Lark's flashback sequences show that he will be an able successor to Alex Maleev on Daredevil - his style is very reminiscent of David Mazzuchelli circa "Born Again". Now, as you may have heard, there is some ret-conning going on with this storyline and a lot of characters are getting killed off - I am usually very opposed to both, but Brubaker is handling it very well, IMHO, unlike the travesties that were JMS's "Sins Past" or Bendis' "Avengers Disassembled".

 

My favorite read the past 6 months by far. This series has the feel of a GA spy novel, just great stuff.

[Jayman]

Stricken with both food poisoning and an extremely painful oral infection resulting from an overzealous salsa dancer elbowing me square in the mouth and opening up a big gash last week, I have been laid up in bed for most of this weekend and catching up on my comic reading. Here is what I've read:

 

This sounds like the start of a Newt Samson story...

[delekkerste]

After I posted this, I caught up on reading my Ultimate Spider-Man issues up to #78 (still have the past few issues to read). I'm actually not sure that it's out-and-out "bad" - I think it may just be that it's dumbed down for a junior high and high school audience. I can see that if I were 13 again that this series might be a lot more fun than reading it now. In fact I'm not really sure why so many people are still buying it - I wonder, if the first issue were worth $5 instead of $100 or whatever, whether or not so many "adult" readers would still be picking up this title. I think the fact that the earlier issues are among the more valuable Moderns out there has suckered people into continuing to buy this series thinking that it's "collectible" in the monetary sense. Because, frankly, I can't see a lot of mature adults actually enjoying the soap-opera of 15-year olds that takes up half of each issue or Bagley's faux-Manga version of Mary Jane with her eyes as big as saucers, three-quarters of the way up on her face.

 

I think this title is going to get the axe from me after the current storyline. I think it's fine for the kiddies, but it's not what I'm looking for any longer in my comic reading, not when there's great stuff out there like the above-mentioned Brubaker/Epting Captain America series, which clearly is being targeted at a more grown-up audience.

[uclapeterg]

Stricken with both food poisoning and an extremely painful oral infection resulting from an overzealous salsa dancer elbowing me square in the mouth and opening up a big gash last week, I have been laid up in bed for most of this weekend and catching up on my comic reading. Here is what I've read:

 

Captain America (new series by Brubaker/Epting/Lark) #1-6 - GO BUY THIS SERIES!! This is the best super-hero title being published today. Brubaker paces the story well, with good dialogue (unlike the smarmy "I'm so hip" Millar and Bendis kind), a minimum of gratuitous space-filling panels/splashes and keeps the reader on his/her toes with plot twists galore. Steve Epting's art is gorgeous - John Cassaday and Bryan Hitch look like pretenders to the throne by comparison. Epting's version of Sharon Carter would give any of Greg Land's women a run for their money as well. The angles/perspectives he uses are awesome and his art is just ridiculously kinetic and energized. He has vaulted to the top of my favorite current artists list. And how about his awesome Sanjulian tribute cover for issue #6? Meanwhile, Michael Lark's flashback sequences show that he will be an able successor to Alex Maleev on Daredevil - his style is very reminiscent of David Mazzuchelli circa "Born Again". Now, as you may have heard, there is some ret-conning going on with this storyline and a lot of characters are getting killed off - I am usually very opposed to both, but Brubaker is handling it very well, IMHO, unlike the travesties that were JMS's "Sins Past" or Bendis' "Avengers Disassembled".

 

My favorite read the past 6 months by far. This series has the feel of a GA spy novel, just great stuff.

 

Is it really that good? I dropped it when they were late for some of the early issues.

[october]

 

The 3 Geeks TPB Vol. 3 - When the Hammer Falls! by Rich Koslowski - I bought the first 2 trades at the 2004 SDCC and picked up Vol. 3 this year. I have to say that I like Vol. 3 the best out of this series. If you're a comic book fan, this series is a great mirror that exposes all the inherent geekiness in the hobby in a good-natured way. It's amazing how Koslowski has developed these characters; you feel like you really know them and care about them. The addition of the crazy German shop-keeper and goth chick in this volume are welcome and the "Thor's hammer" storyline may be my favorite of them all to date. Definitely worth a read for any comic book fan.

 

That's a great series and a lot of fun. I met Rich at Chicago last year and he is a really nice guy. For those of you curious about the comic, Mile High has some of his stuff up to read....

 

http://www.milehighcomics.com/storytime/geeks/goingcon/page1.html

[delekkerste]

Is it really that good? I dropped it when they were late for some of the early issues.

 

It's *that* good. I'm not even a Cap fan, and this is now my favorite series!