1000 books in 2023 2 2

[Cat]

On 12/29/2023 at 11:24 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Yup.  Seconded. Cooke was an incredibly talented writer / artist.  Capturing the feel of the Silver Age period superbly, with perfectly-matched artwork.

Exactly. It's just a perfect blend of writer and art, and they just happen to be the same guy. I purchased his Graphic Ink art book to get more of his beautiful art, that was a massive waste of money. Huge gutter loss destroyed any chance of enjoying the beautiful artwork contained within. Such a shame. So if you're ever offered that one, pass on it, sadly. 

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 12/29/2023 at 11:31 AM, Cat said:

Another one I can't remember reading, it's been so long; Hellboy Seed Of Destruction. Not a bad start for the franchise, but far from the best. Verging on a 6.5-7/10. John Byrne's dialogue was not recognisable as John Byrne's dialogue, a massive plus.

That's 1311 for the year starting May 19th.

 I traded last month a copy of Invincible Iron Man #9 raw vf/nm 1st RiRi 

ahem

for that issue raw in about the same condition. 

I still need to send it to CGC, after a long wait of paying bills  

[cbalroman]

986.  Amazing Spider-Man vol 6 #40

987.  The Original X-Men #1

988.  The Walking Dead Deluxe #79

989.  Undiscovered Country #27

990.  Wolverine vol 7 #40

991-1000.  V for Vendetta  #1-10

And done!!  

Reading V as the last set of books for 2023 just seemed right.   Happy New Year everyone!!

[Ken Aldred]

On 12/29/2023 at 5:33 PM, Cat said:

Exactly. It's just a perfect blend of writer and art, and they just happen to be the same guy. I purchased his Graphic Ink art book to get more of his beautiful art, that was a massive waste of money. Huge gutter loss destroyed any chance of enjoying the beautiful artwork contained within. Such a shame. So if you're ever offered that one, pass on it, sadly. 

I have the Absolute New Frontier book. It’s stunning.

[Cat]

On 12/30/2023 at 1:35 PM, Ken Aldred said:

I have the Absolute New Frontier book. It’s stunning.

I still kick myself for not getting that. Does it have the Special in it though? I was told it didn't, but don't see why it wouldn't. 

I've just got the Deluxe Edition, which is fantastic, but it's no Absolute. 

[Cat]

Hellboy Conqueror Worm - this is more like it. Night and day compared to the first volume. With Byrne gone, Mignola comfortable in his scripting abilities the series shines. Good stuff. 

1317.

[Norrin_Radd]

Read The Castafiore Emerald (1962) for the first time.

Recurring character Italian singer Bianca Castafiore visits Captain Haddock and Tintin at Marlinespike Hall (much to their chagrin).  Humorous situations, misunderstandings, and intrigue follow leading to the theft of her prized emerald.  Thompson and Thomson are on the case but Tintin cracks it as usual.

[Cat]

Battlestar Galactica Ghosts 1-4. My favourite BSG miniseries Dynamite ever did, apart from the Pegasus oneshot. A story about a black ops Viper squad intersecting with a civilian ship on the day of the Cylon attack, and how they handle their conflicting needs, plus those of the terrorists aboard. Sounds dinky, but it works. Only let-down is it needs an artist who's better at distinct faces. It's a weakness of Jonathon Lau's, unfortunately. Good read for fans of the show. 

1327

Edited December 30, 2023 by Cat

[Norrin_Radd]

Read Flight 714 to Sydney (1968) for the first time.

An interesting adventure where the team hitch a ride on a millionaire's jet to Sydney only to find themselves kidnapped and back in the clutches of....

Rastapopoulos! (and Allan)

Tintin foils their plot, they rescue the millionaire, and things get rather explosive.

But they are saved with some special help.  Truly an adventure that's out of this world. 

[Cat]

Finished my last book of the year. Dynamite's Red Sonja volume 1, by Mike Oeming, Mike Carey, and Mel Rubi. Really solid Red Sonja story. This totally made me fall in love with the book back in the day. I remember talking via email with Nick Barucci asking if they'd do a hardcover (they did end up doing one, Ltd to 500, and made sure I got one, really nice guys), just chatting about the book. Couldn't do that today. 

1333 and done for the year. 

[Norrin_Radd]

Read Tintin and the Picaros (1976) for the first time.

Tintin, Captain Haddock, and Professor Calculus get drawn into political intrigue when their friends Bianca Castafiore and the Thom(p)son are arrested in San Theodoras for espionage.  They end up teaming up with their old acquaintance General Alcazar and the Picaros to lead a coup d’état in the Latin American country and foil the plot of their old enemy from Borduria Colonel Sponsz during carnival.

This is the last completed Hergé Tintin adventure and so my year of reading Tintin comes to a close (and just in the nick of time).

[rlextherobot]

Took the liberty of starting the 2024 thread, can delete if theres a protocol I've violated.

 

[ttfitz]

On 10/6/2023 at 1:54 AM, ttfitz said:

So looks like that brings me to ... 963 for the year.

Been a while since my last update. Here's how I finished out the year:

Invincible 85-90

Continuing to enjoy this title that I've been reading with my daughter.

ASM 290-292
Web of Spider-Man 29-30

With these issues, I believe I caught up to the point I started regularly following the Spider-Man titles back in the 1980s.

Superman earth One 1-3

J. Michael Straczynski's take on the Superman story, some good stuff, as is usual with JMS.

Legion of Super-Heroes 284-296, Ann 1,3

With Keith Giffen's death and all the tributes mentioning it, I decided to reread The Great Darkness Saga. Some great stuff there, he will be missed.

Ms Tree Vol 3 (issue 9)
Ms Tree Vol 4 : Deadline (10-17)

Picked back up with this title since Vol 5 has now been released. Max Allan Collins does some great work with this detective title, highly recommended if you go for that sort of thing.

Order and Outrage 1-4

Jim Starlin's latest cosmic epic gets off to a good start. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Danger Street 1-12

Bring back a number of obscure characters (and some not so obscure), mix in a little story, and some snappy dialogue, and you get a decent series.

Maskerade 5-8

Kevin Smith  managed to píss me off with the first "4 part series" by not providing even a little bit of an ending; decided to give him 4 more issues to take care of things, and he did a decent job of it.

Plot Holes 1-5

Clever premise with a good execution (not always the case) made for an enjoyable series. I'd read more of this crew and the setup, if it came out.

Dark Knights of Steel 1-12
DKoS Tales from the Three Kingdoms 

Back in the day this would have been called an Elseworlds, bring some familiar faces into a different situation and see what happens. Pretty good job with this one, although I'm kinda mad that I didn't figure out what was going on sooner (figured out the basics, but not the particulars until way later than I should). Recommended for the DC Comics fan.

So, looks like my final tally is .... 1033 issues for the year.

So as far as the thread goes, that makes it 

But for my personal goal of 1500 this year, a little bit 

See you in next year's thread!

Edited January 3 by ttfitz

[ttfitz]

On 11/14/2023 at 9:17 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Definitely an example of a great 90s comic.

One of the best. Hard to find a bad Busiek book, to be truthful.

[ttfitz]

On 11/16/2023 at 9:43 AM, Ken Aldred said:

Bullet Points 1 to 5

Quite a good What If? story, although Straczynski overcomplicates it with a lot of exposition about the behaviour of bullets, when it’s basically that by moving any agent of change in time and position you’re likely to see differences in the resultant butterfly effect. One-liner, not page after page of it.  Nice art from Tommy Lee Edwards.

Oooo, I forgot all about this title when I was looking for JMS reads. Although searching my purchase files show me ordering issues 1,2,3 and 5...... (ooops)

[ttfitz]

On 11/29/2023 at 3:08 PM, F For Fake said:

Human Target 10,11,12 - FINALLY got to see how this story wrapped up. Loved loved loved the whole thing. Smallwood's art is terrific, and the story is engaging and fun. Of course, I'm a longtime, die-hard JLI fan, so it's fun to see those characters portrayed through a more contemporary lense. Looking forward to revisiting this, hopefully in an Absolute format, as the art certainly warrants it.

This really was great, wasn't it? Very fun, despite how it ends up.

[ttfitz]

On 12/1/2023 at 11:23 PM, Djedi said:

007: For King And Country 5-6

I didn't pick this title up, but all those Linsner covers came damn close to getting me to.

[ttfitz]

On 12/8/2023 at 9:33 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Final Crisis : Legion of Three Worlds 1 to 5

Pulled out some more George Perez comics, really excellent in places.  With such a large cast involved, the to-and-fro between the different fights was a bit confusing at times. A later scene seemed quite reminiscent of the final battle in Avengers Endgame to a degree, and Geoff Johns uses a similar idea about observing worlds within a comic page that I read earlier in the year in Grant Morrison’s Animal Man run. 

Thought about reading this during my Legion Anniversary reading, but wasn't sure whether it would work without having read Final Crisis or the DC universe in general around that time period. You have any thoughts on the matter?

[Ken Aldred]

On 1/3/2024 at 4:17 AM, ttfitz said:

Thought about reading this during my Legion Anniversary reading, but wasn't sure whether it would work without having read Final Crisis or the DC universe in general around that time period. You have any thoughts on the matter?

I read it as a stand-alone story. You should be fine.

[BA773]

So here we are, my first year on the hobby end with a total of a bit more than 50 issues, i started my collecting quest in the beggining of the year but not really read before june. I Finish 2023 with my first meeting with Superman in " the sinbad contract" stroyline, a little filler story, however pretty good and approaching real society problem (racism) so that made a lot of sense for me. 

I started 2024 with an absolutely amazing issue! Superman vol 2 #49, the first part of four of a story that i already love, I'm not going to reveal the whole plot but will make you want to read it: 

" what is that red Kryptonite who Luthor s got from mr Mxyzptlk? how could it have steal the powers of the man of steel?!"

 

Edited January 3 by BA773