1000 books in 2021 5 5

[Scrooge]

24 minutes ago, ttfitz said:

Would that be the collections from Titan?

Yes, I opted for those since I like paper and also since Collins is curating it himself, I'll trust his ordering choice for presentation, esp. since Ms. Tree had a fairly convoluted publishing history. I have liked her no-nonsense approach to all the adversity she's faced so far in the stories I've read. Though, I will admit that I don't quite recall any strict parallel as her being a female version of Mike Hammer. I'll try to keep that in mind when I start the next volume and see if it cast a different light on the stories.

[Scrooge]

February Count:

Collections: 5 @ various each = 33

I don't know how to give birth! by Ayami Kazama

I had that same dream again by Suminio & Kirihura

Love on the other side by Nagabe

Nori by Rumi Hara

Sneeze by Naoki Urusawa

Comics: 70

Adventureman # 2 - 4

No one's rose # 2 - 4

Spider-Man (2016) # 15 - 21, 234 - 240

Miles Morales - Spider-Man (2018) # 1 - 20

Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) # 11 - 19

All-new Guardians of the Galaxy (2017) # 1 - 12

Magnificent Ms. Marvel (2019) # 16

Manifest Destiny # 37 - 42

Sandman Mystery Theatre # 1 - 2

European Albums: 15 @ 2 each = 30

Alix - Iorix le Grand

Blake & Mortimer - Le Mystère de la Grande Pyramide 2

Carthago - Kane

Comanche - 4 - 5

Corto Maltese - Les Helvetiques

I.R.$. - 1 - 2

John Lord - Betes Sauvages - 1 - 3

Kriss de Valnor - La montagne du temps

Tango - 1 - 2

Yoko Tsuno - La proie et l'ombre

Manga: 22 @ 5 each = 110

Aposimz - 5

Blood on the tracks - 1 - 2

Blue Flag - 4

Demon Slayer - 16 - 17

Dr. Stone - 13

Fly me to the moon - 1

Golden Kamuy - 17

Heaven's Design Team - 1

Hinowa ga crush! - 4

LDK - 15

Moriarty, the Patriot - 1

O'Maiden in your savage season - 8

Parallel Paradise - 1

Silver Spoon - 15

The ancient Magus' Bride - 9

The legend of Dororo & Hyakkimaru - 1

The Promised Neverland - 15 - 17

That's a total of 243 for February.

January - 219

February - 243

------------------

Total - 462

Best Read: Nagabe. Nothing really jumps at me as being the best for February. I will go with the new collection of shorts by Nagabe: Love on the other side. Nagabe's style is in departure from most of the manga reprinted in the U.S. This makes his work stand out on this side of the ocean. He works more with the contrasting black and white than most other manga artist using only black and white. He uses it to great effect when he works in these short stories where he abstains from background to focus our eyes on his character work. That plus he is also his own writer makes Nagabe a strong creator.

Best second act: Adventureman. I thought issue # 1 was a little too much on the nose with its reference to pulp characters. Thankfully, the action kicked in with issue # 2 and it felt far less derivative from then on and ended up being a good homage to the original material. 

Series I didn't know I needed: Heaven's Design Team. I love series that entertain me and also teach me at the same time. In Heaven's Design Team, scientists, supervised by angels, design new animal species. In each chapter, they present 2 to 3 animals with peculiar design solutions to needs for the species to survive in its environment. It's really zoology in manga format. I look forward to the next volumes.

Weirdest Read: Corto Maltese: Les Helvetiques - I believe it is generally considered the weakest of Pratt's Corto adventures. Most of it happens when Corto enters into a book / tapestry while asleep and has surreal encounters with european folklore legends. It's a difficult book to read and I found it hard to find meaning in it. 

Series that I am dropping: The ancient magus' bride. This series is going nowhere fast. All the attraction of the early volumes is now gone; the series is challenging Chise and keeping her distant from the Magus, a fatal move as their interaction was the only aspect keeping the series somewhat interesting. Out it goes. Same with both these after volume 1: Parallel Paradise (in a similar vein as Prison School, not my cup of tea) and Fly me to the Moon (by the end of volume one, no direction is established to the series nor the characters).

Series that concluded: Silver Spoon: the kids graduate and are facing the challenge of university or the farming industry. It's almost coming out on top but the recent volumes about their final year in high school I thought were a bit better than the final one and O'Maidens in your savage season ended as well. All the girls learned a lot of hard lessons. Growing up is hard. Glad the series ended when it did.

Finally, I caught up with Miles Morales. I had a similar issue to that I had last month with Josh in Kamala Khan's comics: writers need to make up their mind about Uncle Aaron. He is constantly in with the family then out from the family then it's rinse and repeat. Bad / Good / Bad / Good, it's endless and has become pointless. I find that in both Ms. Marvel and Miles Spider-Man editorial want always the same cast of characters around. That leaves little room for our heroes to breathe in adventures away from their usual surroundings. We need these breaks at time to avoid suffocating in the same tropes repeated over and over.

[ttfitz]

7 hours ago, Scrooge said:

Though, I will admit that I don't quite recall any strict parallel as her being a female version of Mike Hammer. I'll try to keep that in mind when I start the next volume and see if it cast a different light on the stories.

This is from the text page in her original starring book, Ms Tree's Thrilling Detective Adventures #1:

[srezvan]

I've read all the Witcher comics, maybe in last year's 1,000 thread. I really enjoyed them. Redundant? Perhaps, a little. But I like the stories, the world building, and I'll never get tired of some person trying to trick Geralt and Geralt basically saying, "Of course I know you're lying, I'm a Witcher." Good stuff. Cartoon coming to Netflix soon too, I think.

 

I got through Star Wars: Tag and Bink TPB pretty quickly. Decent read, especially when you can get it for ~$5 on InStockTrades. Basically, two not terribly bright guys from the Rebellion end up in silly situations that weave them throughout the movies in a way that doesn't impact the movies at all. Some decent jokes, but not laugh out loud funny. Manny Both-Handz may have been the best.

I'm reading the Doctor Doom TPB #1 next.

 

[Raze]

85-97

Swamp Thing 1-13

WOW I really liked this series a lot!! I only got this because Ive always wanted to rad the Alan Moore run but Im getting the Omnibus so I can read everything up to Alan Moores run.

Ive been told I should read Rick Veitchs run as well. 
 

This TPB is available for trade/sale it has HOS 92 and 1-13 of the Wein/ Wrightson run!

Edited March 4, 2021 by Raze

[Savoyard23]

Aquaman 61-63

ASM 238

Detective 403, 428

Squadron Supreme 1-12

I hadn't read the SS limited series in decades, so I pulled them out of the box and it was like binge-watching a great TV show, where one episode ends and you can't not hit the 'Play Next' button.  Even better than I remembered.  I got a lump in my throat at the end.

I wanted to go back and read more about the Squadron, so I pulled out some Avengers - 85-86, and 141-144, 147-149.  Then I read the 'prequel' to the LS in Defenders 112-114 (digitally - thanks, WandaVision speculators!)

Classic Avengers issues, although the Squadron are mis-billed as the 'Squadron Sinister' on the covers of 85, 141 and 147!  I guess if you're trying to sell Avengers comics, it helps if they're fighting someone "sinister".  

They did it right on 148's cover, though.  I guess by then the Englehart / Perez goodness was selling itself.

145

Oh, I forgot about the Squadron Supreme crossover in Captain America 314.  I read that one too.

146

Edited March 5, 2021 by Savoyard23

[ttfitz]

Previous count 137

The Files of Ms. Tree #1

This collects the original storyline, "I, for an Eye" of Ms. Tree from the first run in Eclipse, The Magazine. Her first case, solving the murder of her husband. I knew a number of aspects of this story from the later stories I read, but still pretty good stuff.

Ms. Tree's Thrilling Detective Adventures #1-8

Ms. Tree gets her own title! "Death Do Us Part" and "The Cold Dish" are the Ms Tree stories in this run. Collins and Beatty flesh out the characters thru these two stories, with some good twists along the way. I didn't care much for a different feature in them, The Scythe - a more traditional masked man type story - but the 1-2 page Mike Mist "Minute Mist-eries" were fun.

Reset #1-4

So, for many years I got my comics mail order from a friend of mine who ran a small new comics business, and you would put together your order each month using software written by a brilliant programmer with the initials "TTF." My friend did a pretty good job running this business, but occasionally there might be a mistake such as a book you ordered getting missed, or one you didn't getting included. So as I was sorting thru my comics recently, I came upon Reset #4, looked at it and thought, "Oh, Jack must have sent this to me by mistake." But then I found issue #3 - and I checked my orders, and I had ordered all 4. I have no idea why, as it isn't a title I would generally buy, I'm not a fan of creator Peter Bagge (by which I mean I hadn't read anything of his, not that I had negative feelings toward him), and even when I read the Diamond description there was nothing that made me say, "Oh, yeah, that sounds good."

Anyway, so I have no idea why I bought it, but I was curious enough to go ahead and read it. I liked it well enough - that is to say, I'm not upset I spent the money on the book, but I'm not tearing thru the comics.org listings to find everything Peter Bagge wrote, either. 

Batman '66 Meets The Green Hornet #1-6

After Reset, I was too lazy to look for a new title, so I went ahead with the stack of "Batman '66 Meets..." that I had pulled out before. And I'm glad I did - this was everything I wanted in the Batman '66 series but didn't quite get. Kevin Smith really delivers - the zany Batman series stuff on the Bat side, the more serious Green Hornet stuff on his side, and lots of fun action from the villians, including ridiculous death traps galore. Plus, Alex Ross covers! What more could you ask for in a '66 series?

So, the running total hits ... 148

[ttfitz]

9 hours ago, Savoyard23 said:

Oh, I forgot about the Squadron Supreme crossover in Captain America 314.  I read that one too.

Haha, I was ready to ask if you read that one, too, and there it was at the bottom!

When I read that mini-series a couple years ago, I was quite annoyed at that Cap crossover, as I don't generally collect Cap and didn't have a copy. Mini-series like that should really be self-contained!

[Savoyard23]

5 hours ago, ttfitz said:

Haha, I was ready to ask if you read that one, too, and there it was at the bottom!

When I read that mini-series a couple years ago, I was quite annoyed at that Cap crossover, as I don't generally collect Cap and didn't have a copy. Mini-series like that should really be self-contained!

I had the same thought as I was reading it.  Especially since an event significant to the plot of Squadron Supreme happens in Cap 314.

I think it's a justified foul on Gruenwald, although the idea was probably to boost sales of the Squadron rather than Cap.  At the time I was annoyed for the opposite reason to you - I was a Cap reader, but wasn't buying the mini-series and it felt like a waste of an issue, being dipped and out of another story.  Heh - I guess it piqued my interest enough for me to find it in the back issue bins eventually.

The Gruenwald Cap run is really good, though.  It used to be a fun and pretty cheap run to collect, though I don't think that's the case anymore as some of the books are newly 'hot'.

[piper]

On 2/20/2021 at 1:05 PM, piper said:

175

Doctor Aphra 30-40

Black Magick 12-16

Immortal Hulk 39

Strange Academy 5

190

Scarlet Witch LS by James Robinson (15 issues)

It just seemed fitting after finishing Wanda Vision last night. I really enjoyed it. They managed to move the character forward after all the House of M nonsense without doing a complete retcon. I liked the art too.

Highly recommended!

[piper]

59 minutes ago, Savoyard23 said:

I had the same thought as I was reading it.  Especially since an event significant to the plot of Squadron Supreme happens in Cap 314.

I think it's a justified foul on Gruenwald, although the idea was probably to boost sales of the Squadron rather than Cap.  At the time I was annoyed for the opposite reason to you - I was a Cap reader, but wasn't buying the mini-series and it felt like a waste of an issue, being dipped and out of another story.  Heh - I guess it piqued my interest enough for me to find it in the back issue bins eventually.

The Gruenwald Cap run is really good, though.  It used to be a fun and pretty cheap run to collect, though I don't think that's the case anymore as some of the books are newly 'hot'.

The Omnibus might be a cheaper way to go now.

[piper]

13 hours ago, piper said:

190

Scarlet Witch LS by James Robinson (15 issues)

It just seemed fitting after finishing Wanda Vision last night. I really enjoyed it. They managed to move the character forward after all the House of M nonsense without doing a complete retcon. I liked the art too.

Highly recommended!

197

Red Sonja (2019) 1 to 6

Red Sonja: Lord of Fools

A friend in the boards lent me my first sword and sorcery comics to read which is ironic with the amount of fantasy novels I read.

I quite enjoyed my first taste of this genre!

Edited March 7, 2021 by piper

[piper]

10 hours ago, piper said:

197

Red Sonja (2019) 1 to 6

Red Sonja: Lord of Fools

A friend in the boards lent me my first sword and sorcery comics to read which is ironic with the amount of fantasy novels I read.

I quite enjoyed my first taste of this genre!

204

More Sword & Sorcery!

Red Sonja (2019)  7 - 12 and Halloween Special 

[srezvan]

Doctor Doom #1-5 (TPB)

It was alright, I guess. I was going to stop, but it ended on a cliffhanger, and I liked how it was going near the end. I guess I never paid attention to Dr. Doom using magic and this story has some elements of magic and other things that I don't like, but I won't spoil them here.

 

I'm not sure what I want to read next, but I'm thinking one of these:

• Y the Last Man run
• Invincible run
• Northlanders run

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by srezvan

[ttfitz]

6 hours ago, srezvan said:

It was alright, I guess. I was going to stop, but it ended on a cliffhanger, and I liked how it was going near the end. I guess I never paid attention to Dr. Doom using magic and this story has some elements of magic and other things that I don't like, but I won't spoil them here.

If I'm remembering correctly, it was experimenting with magic that caused the accident that scarred his face.

[ttfitz]

21 hours ago, srezvan said:

I'm not sure what I want to read next, but I'm thinking one of these:

• Y the Last Man run

I vote for this one - my daughter and I read Saga last year and really enjoyed it, so it would be good to hear what you think about his earlier work.

[Scrooge]

1 hour ago, ttfitz said:

22 hours ago, srezvan said:

I'm not sure what I want to read next, but I'm thinking one of these:

• Y the Last Man run

I vote for this one - my daughter and I read Saga last year and really enjoyed it, so it would be good to hear what you think about his earlier work.

The choices were:

• Y the Last Man run
• Invincible run
• Northlanders run

I've read Y and Northlanders but never Invicible (my local library does not have the trades or compendium). I agree: I'd go with Y the Last Man as well. A good maxi-series and the early part of the run is why we all fell in love with Vaughn's writing. The mystery is explained a little wonkily but the road to it is so pleasant that you'll give him a pass on it. I believe it holds up better than his Ex-Machina series

[piper]

2 minutes ago, Scrooge said:

The choices were:

• Y the Last Man run
• Invincible run
• Northlanders run

I've read Y and Northlanders but never Invicible (my local library does not have the trades or compendium). I agree: I'd go with Y the Last Man as well. A good maxi-series and the early part of the run is why we all fell in love with Vaughn's writing. The mystery is explained a little wonkily but the road to it is so pleasant that you'll give him a pass on it. I believe it holds up better than his Ex-Machina series

Invincible is very good too.

I have a soft spot for Ex-Machina but agree Saga and Y are superior.

[srezvan]

1 hour ago, piper said:

Invincible is very good too.

I have a soft spot for Ex-Machina but agree Saga and Y are superior.

I'm the biggest jerk ever. Earlier today I pulled Saga off the shelf to start, which wasn't even on the list! I'm going to put it back and grab the Y Omni! I didn't start Saga yet, so don't judge me too harshly.

[ttfitz]

3 hours ago, srezvan said:

I'm the biggest jerk ever. Earlier today I pulled Saga off the shelf to start, which wasn't even on the list! I'm going to put it back and grab the Y Omni! I didn't start Saga yet, so don't judge me too harshly.

Who could judge you harshly for reading Saga?

My daughter got a recommendation from a friend of hers, then she got me going on it, and we burned right thru the series. We both agreed the pandemic was good for Vaughan, because otherwise he'd have to deal with two angry people at a convention demanding, "When you gonna do more Saga, dude?!!???!!??"