1000 books in 2023 2 2

[Ken Aldred]

X-Men : Magneto Testament mini-series 1 to 5

Excellent story about Max (Magneto) Eisenhardt’s experiences as a young teenager under the brutal Nazi regime.

Nothing particularly new here, having read Speigelman’s Maus, and seen numerous documentaries and films, and so on,  but attempts were made to make the story as historically accurate as possible.  No overt super-powers on display here, just a helpless victim whose horrendous experiences strengthen his resolve once empowered to proactively oppose this happening again, after later finding himself positioned as a member of another, soon emergent minority group; mutants.

2023 total = 277

 

[srezvan]

192 books so far.

Star Wars: Tales from the Rancor Pit. Short hardcover frame story. Very meh.

 

[Ken Aldred]

Vampirella Archives Vol 2

(Vampirella b/w magazine 8 to 14)

Fairly patchy. Some okay stories, a lot of filler, nothing really reaching the heights and consistency of EC horror comics. The Vampirella series itself starts off strong with some good stories by Archie Goodwin, the main writer for the classic early issues of Creepy and Eerie, with very nice artwork from Tom Sutton. Other art highlights from Wally Wood, Neal Adams, Frank Brunner, Jeff Jones, Mike Ploog… basically, the top artists in horror comics from this period.

2023 total = 284

Edited July 23, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[cbalroman]

On 7/21/2023 at 1:28 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Good choice.

Still have to work through my Complete Terry Moore digital collection that I got from Humble Bundle last year.

Just finished SIP.  So so good!!

[cbalroman]

633 - 692. Stranger in Paradise vol 3 #31-90

[ttfitz]

On 7/7/2023 at 1:51 AM, ttfitz said:

Update for June, previous total of 317.

House of Slaughter 11-15

Liked this one a whole lot more than the previous arc.

Marvel Team-Up 137-150

Continuing with my run of Spidey titles, finishing off MTU and continuing along with it's replacement in the lineup, Web of Spider-Man. Some memorable issues along the way - Assistant Editor's Month! Debut of the Black Costume! The End of the Black Costume (sorta)! Mary Jane's big reveal! Secret Wars II crossover! The Death of Jean DeWolfe!

Slowly approaching the end point of my Spider-Man reading, don't know what will follow - perhaps pick up some of the DC titles where I left off with the 70s? Or where I trailed off in the 90s? Hey, who knows? As they used to say, Stay Tuned!

New total for the year - looks like 389. Well below where I wanted to be at this point. 

Previous Count - 389. Summary for July:

Amazing Spider-Man 271-282, Annual 19-20
Spectacular Spider-Man 111-121, Annual 5
Web of Spider-Man 10-20, Annual 1

Still working my way thru the copper age Marvels that I haven't previously read (with some I have, just to not skip around). Frankly nothing much jumps out at me when I think back, except for maybe some Peter David work that didn't really grab me like I expect Peter David work to grab me.

Coming up - for long-time readers of my posts in these threads, it's time for the 100 Back Issue a Week Challenge, something my LCS manager does in honor of the Baltimore Comic Con. For the next 5 weeks, I will attempt to read 100 back issues each week. I usually have a theme, and this year I've gone with one done before - characters or titles which debuted some even multiple of 5 years ago. So, if it started in a year ending in "3" or "8", it's eligible. I started last Friday, and will end on the last day of August. Right now I'm repeating some titles (Superman family of books - 1938) from previous years picking up where I left off, and some newer stuff like Invincible and Hellblazer. Other possibles that have some interest in this thread would include LSH and SiP. So stay tuned! And if you have a suggestion, let me know.

New total thru July Spideys: 427

[cbalroman]

693-695. Amazing Spider-man vol 6 #28-30

696. Big Game 1

697. Daredevil vol 7 #13

698. Dark Ride #7

699. Detective Comics #1073

700. Fables #159

701. Fire Power #25

702. Immortal X-Men #13

703. Nocterra - Nemeis Special

704. Parker Girls #8

705. Sandman Universe Special: Thessaly #1

706-707. Walking Dead Deluxe #66-67

708. Void Rivals #2

709. Wolverine vol 7  #35

710-711. X-Men vol 6 #24-25

[srezvan]

Conan the Barbarian TPB By Jim Zub #1 (Into the Crucible)
 

Decent read. A few things plot-wise I didn't love. I'll read the next book in the series, and possibly his new Conan series.

 

Like another board member, I'm reading through the Adventures of Tintin series in order, starting with Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. Wikipedia: "It was serialised weekly from January 1929 to May 1930...Hergé later expressed embarrassment at the crudeness of the work...Critical reception of the work has been largely negative, and several commentators on The Adventures of Tintin have described Land of the Soviets as one of Hergé's weakest works."

I think that summary is accurate. It's not a fun read in any way.

[srezvan]

I decorate my home office with comics and other stuff. I love it. I have a spinner rack in my office where I occasionally swap in and out items. I have an X-Men column with some of my favorite covers. For a while now, I've had Uncanny X-Men 141 and 142 in the rack (Days of Future Past). A classic story with iconic covers.

My nine-year-old daughter noticed them recently and started to ask a bunch of questions...do the X-Men really die? What happens to Wolverine? Is Storm okay? And so on. She's familiar with the X-Men. We previously read the entire Age of Apocalypse story arc together (~40 issues). She's watched the awesome X-Men Animated Series and the X-Men Evolution Series. So X-Men are not new to her, but these covers grabbed her.

So I offered to read them to her. She liked the story. We'd stop and talk about character backstories and answer questions that come up. When the story was done, she kept asking questions. I formulated a plan for the next morning. I got out the Gerber photo history and started showing her X-Men comics, describing different storylines. She started to write down issues of Uncanny X-Men that she wanted us to read. Then we talked about newer issues, like the Jim Lee issues. She said no. Then we talked about Powers of X, and she said yes. Then we talked about Ultimate X-Men, and she said yes. I asked again about the Jim Lee era, and she said no again.

Later in the day, a new thought came to me. She wanted to start with Uncanny X-Men #101 because of the Phoenix story arc, but I explained that she would be missing a lot of backstory. I was able to convince her that we should start with Giant Size X-Men #1 and just keep reading until she wants to stop. So I ordered an omnibus from Amazon that arrived the same day. And that night we started reading Giant Size X-Men #1. Honestly, this is a dream come true - we read X-Men together every night, then I read Tintin after getting the kids to bed.

 

 

Here's the original list my daughter made before settling on the omnibus:

[ttfitz]

Previous count : 427

Week 1 of the 100 Back Issue a Week Challenge is in the books! For my first week, I read the following:

Invincible 36-51

I've been reading this along with my daughter, and since it fit with my theme (20th anniversary) I continued for this Challenge. Excellent as always, with a lot of new plot twists being introduced here. Highly recommended (series started kinda slow, I thought, but picked up around the 2nd TPB issues)

Action Comics 420, 429
Superman 258,263,267,269
Lois Lane 98-112, 114-137
Jimmy Olsen 126-130, 131-139, 141-163

Went straight thru with the remaining Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen I hadn't read before, and just picked the random missing book from the known-read issues from back in the 70s/80s. Not much to say - I never was much taken with the Kirby Fourth World stuff, and these Jimmys didn't change my mind. Might be all I read of the Superman titles (85th anniversary), as I'm not sure where I might pick up without duplicating stuff I've already read.

Hellblazer 1-3

This is a title (25th anniversary) my son has been interested in, so we thought we'd start reading it (even though I later realized the character of John Constantine was introduced three years earlier and didn't really fit). I've been enjoying it so far, a very interesting character.

Up next - JMS!

So I guess that makes it 527 for the year.

[srezvan]

205 comics so far this year.

GI Joe 21B was a disappointment that added nothing useful to the original story.

 

Tintin in the Congo. The second book in chronological order. This story didn't age well. It's even hard to find this book, and many of the reprints don't even advertise this book. Unfortunately, this was the "updated" version. Originally, it looked like Tintin screwed out a hole in a rhino's back and dropped in dynamite, which exploded part of the rhino everywhere. The rest of the story was unchanged. Artwork is much better than the previous book, but the story was not engaging. Horrible depiction of characters by our standards today.

[Ken Aldred]

Tales Designed to Thrizzle 1 to 8

Definitely worth a read if you want some surreal, inventive, random humour.

How can you not like the hard-hitting, no compromise buddy cop duo, Snake ‘n Bacon?

Literally a snake and a rasher of bacon.

2023 total = 292

Edited August 12, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[ttfitz]

Previous total of 527 for the year.

Week 2 of the 100 Back Issue a Week Challenge

First up, the continuation of reading with my kids from last week, which includes:

Hellblazer 4-7
Invincible 52-69

A little bit of an old classic, and a newer one. Good readin' there.

Supreme Power (2003) 1-18

So, yet another take on the Squadron Supreme - who are themselves a ripoff homage to the Justice League which in ordinary circumstances might bring a "meh" response. But these aren't ordinary circumstances, this is some stuff from Joe, your friend and mine the legendary J. Michael Straczynski! And if you don't know that means the stuff is really really good stuff, you don't know Joe. Speaking of "good stuff" from JMS, I give you a very good year for Joe's Comics, 2013, with:

Protectors Inc (2013) 1-10
Sidekick (2013) 1-12
Ten Grand (2013) 1-12

If I need to say more than "JMS wrote 'em" to get you to read 'em, let me know.

Velvet (2013) 1-15
Incognito (2008) 1-6

Some stuff from another favorite of mine, Ed Brubaker. Velvet is an excellent spy story, and one of the most beautiful comics I've read in a long while. Incognito gives us a mashup of the pulps and superheroes of the 30s, some really good stuff. Recommended all around.

Finally:
Superboy 184, 188, 190, 191, 193
 

Picking off the last few issues of Superboy that included a Legion of Super-Heroes story, before the LSH took over the title entirely. Next week, the Waid incarnation of LSH..

That gets us to 627 for the year.

[srezvan]

Not quite as bad as the previous volume. I have such fond memories of the Tintin cartoon growing up, and I really enjoyed the more recent CGI movie. I'm hoping these get better soon.

 

[srezvan]

215 comics so far this year. Pretty low for me, but partly because of the types of books I'm reading.

Adventures of Tintin Cigars of the Pharaoh - maybe the best so far? This is #4 in the series. Still not great, but I'm still hopeful that these get better as the story progresses.

 

We've finished the first 6 comics in the omnibus. Started the 7th already. My daughter is really enjoying it, with a few audible gasps when the X-Men are in danger. She's also inspired to wear a Storm costume at our next comic show. Good times.

[ttfitz]

On 8/12/2023 at 9:34 PM, ttfitz said:

That gets us to 627 for the year.

Last week we hit 627....

Week 3 of the 100 Back Issue a Week Challenge has been completed! For this week, these are the entries:

Hellblazer 8-9
Swamp Thing 76-77

Finished off the first Hellblazer collection, looking forward to reading more of this.

Incognito Vol 2 1-5

Finished off the last of the Ed Brubaker books on my list for the time period in question. Not as good as the first series, but still worth a read.

LSH Vol 5 1-50

Couldn't decide where to pick up in my Legion of Super-Heroes reading, finally settled on the Mark Waid (and then Jim Shooter) run - the "Eat it, Grandpa" iteration. I remembered I had started this one way back when it came out, but hadn't finished. So, the beginning was Waid, so it was excellent. I'm thinking that from now on I will just use "Waid" instead of a superlative - "That book was really Waid" or "Not as Waid as some things, but still pretty Waid." Save some time. The Jim Shooter portion was okay, but not really Waid - the stuff he wrote in Adventure Comics when he was 14 was much more Waid.

LSH in the 31st Century 1-20

This one was based on the cartoons, which I haven't seen but want to. It wasn't too bad, a little too .... cartoony, but what can you do?

Legion Secret Origin 1-6

I was going to go onto the New 52 version, thinking it would be a new start (the stuff between Vol 5 and then was a little too all-over for me to pick up) but when the first few pages had references to characters who had died who I hadn't even heard of, and talk about Flashpoint, well, I passed. But the companion Secret Origin seemed safe, so I read that, and enjoyed it.

LSH Millennium 1-2
LSH (2019) 1-12
Future State LSH 1-2

So, in trying to decide what Legion to read, I had the following conversation with my LCS manager (and creator of the Challenge), Troy-David:

Me: So will I be annoyed reading the Bendis version?
Troy-David: Probably
Me: As annoying as Five Years Later?
TD: Yes, but for different reasons

Yeah, he pretty much nailed that one.

So, if you are counting along with me, that makes 101 for the week - I've got a headstart on next week!

Next up - I move from 1000 years in the future to 90 years in the past (a Maybe-Prize to anyone who figures out what my next book is!)

That gets us to a grand total of 728 for the year.

[rlextherobot]

This morning's pre-work reads:

World's Finest (2022) #17 and #18 by Mark Waid, Dan Mora and Travis Moore 

This is consistently my favourite ongoing title issue over issue for a lot of reasons. Firstly the art is top notch, Mora produces consistently at a very high level and Tamra Bonvillain may be the best colourist working right now. Secondly, Mark Waid keeps the tone light, the pace quick and the adventures thrilling. It feels like a classic Batman Superman romp every time out, and I didn't know I wanted that so badly until I had it in my hands every month.

Knight Terrors: Zatanna #2 (2023) by Dennis Culver, David Baldeon, Rain Baredo

Bought this for Doom Patrol tie-in reasons and wasn't too impressed tbh. Baldeon's storytelling isnt great, with far too many confusing sequences where it's hard to tell what's happening, and the actual content of the two issue story could have just as easily been an 8 page backup. 

[Ken Aldred]

Catwoman 29 to 32, Annual 2021

Quite an average Batman Family story.  Ram V’s done much better.

2023 total = 297

 

 

[rlextherobot]

Ms. Marvel (1977) by Chris Claremont, Jim Mooney, Joe Sinnot

Picked this one up off of a random stack of Bronze age stuff I recently picked up to peruse before work. It's a bit thin in terms of stuff actually happening (MODOK captures and tries to brainwash Carol, Carol escapes), but it does have some fun purple dialogue in the Claremont tradition, and a very weird dream sequence where Ms. Marvel makes out with a sexy MODOK. Not amazing or anything, but scratches that 70s Marvel itch. 

[rlextherobot]

Unstoppable Doom Patrol #5 (2023) by Dennis Culver, Chris Burnham, Brian Reber 

I have generally enjoyed this introduction to the latest incarnation of the Doom Patrol, but the pacing of the 7 issue (?!) mini-series has been a little weird. This late in the game and we still haven't developed much of the plot elements introduced in the first issue (an alliance between various classic Doom Patrol villains), and still seem to be setting stuff up. Thing is we've only got two issues left before the mini-series is over, and no guarantee there will be a follow-up. Thing is I like the way they've integrated the team into the broader DC Universe, and the intriguing pulls from Doom Patrol of all eras they've woven into it. I just want to feel like I got a story and not a bunch of issues establishing the team for a story that never comes. There's still two issues to go, and I still really dig the art, so I have hope for things to land. 

The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix (1994) 1-2 by Scott Lobdell, Gene Ha, Al Vey, Terry Austin, Kevin Somers

Picked this up off of my to-read pile and kind of regret it. I originally kept it from a stack of books I bought as part of a collection because I was vaguely interested in the premise (Scott and Jean raise Nathan into Cable in the far-flung mutant ruled future) and the Gene Ha art. Come to find it's early Gene Ha, who is good but doesn't quite have it down yet, so the storytelling and panel layouts are a bit confused, and there's an endless amount of Lobdell dialogue to wade through. I'm not sure if I'll read the rest of it, and may just read the Wikipedia summary. I have better comics to spend my time on.