1000 Books in 2024 3 3

[AlexH]

On 1/15/2024 at 8:55 AM, AlexH said:

Girls #7-24

Ice Cream Man #1-8 - Best to follow up this reading by seeking professional counselling. It was very trippy.

Rachel Rising #1-3

Total 35

[rlextherobot]

36. Flash #186
37. Sandman Mystery Theatre #19
38. Jimmy Olsen #141 
39. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #1 
40. I Hate this Place #6
41. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #2
42. Duke #1
43. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #3
44. Dwellings #1 
45. Stormwatch #37 
46. Maple Terrace #3 
47. Stormwatch #38 
48. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #4
49. I Hate this Place #7
50. X-O Manowar Unconquered #1 
51. Dwellings #2
52. I Hate this Place #8 
53. Sandman Universe: The Glass House #6 
54. The Punisher Max #25
55. Mister Miracle #4
56. Forever People #5

Quick takes: Jay Stephens Dwellings is a wonderful, quirky indie horror comedy book with excellent cartooning, Supergirl by King and Evely is lovely and free from most of King's writing quirks that bug me, was let down by the end of the second Tynion Sandman mini-series (too pat, felt rushed and lazy), probably gonna drop the Ennis Punisher stuff simply because I'm bored of his stock characters, not as into Skybound Duke as an intro to GI Joe as I am Transformers but I do like art from Tom Reilly, and everything else was reasonably fun. The Fourth World is in a particular sweet spot atm, so very excited to get back to the reread. 

[mrlatko]

I'll participate this year for the first time!  Maybe this will keep me motivated to read something each day.

So far in January:

1-7: Salvation Run 1-7 (Limited.  DC '07):  Many DC Villains including Luthor and Joker are boom tubed to an alien world to get them off Earth and out of our hair.  It is supposed to be a fresh start for them on a safe planet, but turns out to be anything but.

8-13: Villains United 1-6 (Limited.  DC '05):

Luthor has created the "Society" which is a team of many DC villains designed to protect their mutual interests against the DC heroes.  The mysterious Mockingbird has brought together the anti-hero "Secret Six" to destroy the Society.  All heck breaks loose.

14: Godzilla 1 (Limited.  Dark Horse '88):

A volcano awakens the sleeping giant  monster near Tokyo, but he isn't shown in this first issue.  Black and white comic.

Edited January 17 by mrlatko

[Ken Aldred]

On 1/16/2024 at 1:52 AM, Cat said:

Also still not over all the times they've solicited a hardcover reprint of the 1992 JSA series, only to cancel it last minute, every single time. Just release it, it's a good series. Instead they give us the 1991 series, which doesn't hold a candle to the '92.

That's the 10 issue Strazewski / Parobeck series?  One of the most underrated hidden gems of the often terrible early 90s.

[Cat]

On 1/17/2024 at 11:25 AM, Ken Aldred said:

That's the 10 issue Strazewski / Parobeck series?  One of the most underrated hidden gems of the often terrible early 90s.

That's indeed the one, and you've described it perfectly. 

[Ken Aldred]

Avengers 264 to 300

Alpha Flight 39

Avengers vs X-Men 1 to 4

Roger Stern’s stories were a consistently good read, the highlight being the classic Masters of Evil arc, Under Siege, the Super Adaptoid arc, Heavy Metal, co-written with Ralph Macchio, although the ending of that is a bit unconvincing, and finally providing the better of the two Kang stories in this run.  Walter Simonson’s work here wasn’t his best, with his Kang storyline being a desperate hunt which in the end really doesn’t go anywhere significant after the build-up.

The real highlight for me is a long run of artwork throughout by John Buscema and Tom Palmer, which often is really excellent. Strong visual storytelling, great figurework and expressions.

2024 total = 42

 

Edited January 19 by Ken Aldred

[rlextherobot]

On 1/17/2024 at 1:15 PM, Ken Aldred said:

 

Roger Stern’s stories were a consistently good read, the highlight being the classic Masters of Evil arc

Loved this run as a kid and reread it last year while going through a random bout of nostalgia. Was really pleased to see how well it held up, and also how good Buscema's art was at the time; don't know if I really registered in my youth that his detailed, energetic, expressive pencils were such a huge part of that stuff for me. Like, I can picture those scary scenes of Mr Hyde beating the snot out of Jarvis with near perfect clarity, and thats largely because John knew how to make them visually impactful and nasty. 

[Ken Aldred]

On 1/17/2024 at 9:37 PM, rlextherobot said:

Loved this run as a kid and reread it last year while going through a random bout of nostalgia. Was really pleased to see how well it held up, and also how good Buscema's art was at the time; don't know if I really registered in my youth that his detailed, energetic, expressive pencils were such a huge part of that stuff for me. Like, I can picture those scary scenes of Mr Hyde beating the snot out of Jarvis with near perfect clarity, and thats largely because John knew how to make them visually impactful and nasty. 

Yup. With time I appreciated his artwork more and more. Same for Palmer’s inking. Two of the greats.

[rlextherobot]

On 1/17/2024 at 1:42 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Yup. With time I appreciated his artwork more and more. Same for Palmer’s inking. Two of the greats.

My buddy Matt has been pals with Tom Palmer Jr. (of Wizard Magazine's Palmer's Picks fame) since they were kids, and has lots of stories about being over at the Palmers while Tom Sr. was working on this era of Avengers, including his lovely painted covers. 

[Cat]

Reread something I haven't read in decades, since it came out, and that was Infinite Crisis. Being an event book, I had questions, such as how would it hold up? How lost would I be? Is there a basic story in the first place? Well, yes, there is a basic story, even if it feels somewhat lost at times, and even at counterpoint to what the Trinity are doing compared to everyone else. But a story cna he salvaged, and I remembered a bit more than I thought I would about comics of the time period, making it a much easier read to slip back into. 

If I really wanted to read it again, I'd spring for a modern collection with Countdown To Infinite Crisis included, among other tie-ins, to give me more info about what's going on on each page, but what I read, which was just the deluxe hardcover released right after the series had finished, still held up okay, I guess. Worst case scenario there were some great art pieces by Jim Lee, George Perez, and Phil Jiminez. 

7 more issues to add to my count. Wobbliest read so far. 

[AlexH]

On 1/16/2024 at 10:38 AM, AlexH said:

Ice Cream Man #1-8 - Best to follow up this reading by seeking professional counselling. It was very trippy.

Rachel Rising #1-3

Total 35

Rachel Rising #4-11

American Gods #1-5

Spider-Boy #1

What If #31 (1982)

Total 50

Edited January 19 by AlexH

[srezvan]

I'm starting the Dawn of X TPB run, with a few breaks in between.

• X-Men (2019 Marvel) #1 - I liked it
• X-Force (2019 Marvel) #1 - pretty good
• Marauders (2019 Marvel) #1 - slow start, but I like the idea
• Excalibur (2019 Marvel) #1 - never liked Excalibur and still don't
• Fallen Angels (2019 Marvel) #1 - very average
• New Mutants (2019 Marvel) #1 - interesting twist on the characters, looking forward to seeing how it goes

20 comics so far this year.

[Norrin_Radd]

Read Usagi Yojimbo volumes 11 (194 pages pages from UY 7–12, Usagi Yojimbo Color Special: Green Persimmon 1, and stories from Usagi Yojimbo Roleplaying Game and The Art of Usagi Yojimbo 1).

More good stories including the return of the villain Jei.

[Rockyjo3]

Justice League Dark #22-29 - I liked it overall, will probably read it again someday. 

Detective Comics Annual #5

Spider-Man and Batman (1995)

Darkseid vs Galactus The Hunger

Golden Age Secret Files #1

Last Days of the JSA Tpb - Have really been wanting to read more JSA lately, will probably read JSA The Golden Age next

[mrlatko]

On 1/17/2024 at 3:15 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Avengers 264 to 300

Alpha Flight 39

Avengers vs X-Men 1 to 4

Roger Stern’s stories were a consistently good read, the highlight being the classic Masters of Evil arc, Under Siege, the Super Adaptoid arc, Heavy Metal, co-written with Ralph Macchio, although the ending of that is a bit unconvincing, and finally providing the better of the two Kang stories in this run.  Walter Simonson’s work here wasn’t his best, with his Kang storyline being a desperate hunt which in the end really doesn’t go anywhere significant after the build-up.

The real highlight for me is a long run of artwork throughout by John Buscema and Tom Palmer, which often is really excellent. Strong visual storytelling, great figurework and expressions.

2024 total = 42

 

I took those 80s Buscema Avengers for granted as a kid, not realizing that Big John was getting up there and near the end of his stellar career.  What a massive talent he was!

[mrlatko]

15-19 - Godzilla 2-6  (Limited.  Dark Horse '88):

Reminded me of the Godzilla Minus One film in theaters now!  Nothing groundbreaking, but a quick, enjoyable anime read.  No other monsters, just Godzilla.  They translated it into English from the original Japanese.

20-21 - Moon Knight 1-2 (Marvel '80)

Read some of these as a kid.  Was always kind of obsessed with the great Sienkiewicz covers.  The interior art is very good also.  He's still doing his Adams impression, at least early on.  1st issue is an origin story, and 2nd book is a story about a slasher who is murdering homeless on the streets in Mook Knight's New York neighborhood.  Not really comic book kiddie fare.  Reminded me of Miller Daredevil.  Doug Moench likes the dialogue!  You definitely got your 50 cents worth with this guy's writing.

Edited January 20 by mrlatko

[Cat]

Just finished with The Nail Deluxe Edition. I'm absolutely batty about this one finally getting a nice Deluxe Edition, not because the stories are that great, but because Alan Davis' art is just gorgeous. I could just sink into that all week. But the stories are fun enough too, with the first being a lot stronger than the second. The Nail is one of the 3 things that actually got me into DC. The first was buying Kyle Rayner GL comics off the rack, the second was ordering this when it came out in tpb in 1998 from this little-known American bookshop called Amazon (it sold nothing but books, online! I didn't know if it'd last long, but I loved the idea. I had to borrow my mother's credit card as I was still a minor), and finally, the fateful day at a second hand toy store when I had some trade-in credit and got interested by this interesting looking DC Direct figure of a guy named 'Hourman'. They had both a robot version and a dinky looking human version. Somehow the dinky human version was the one that called to me. That was my start down the JSA line, and the rest is history! 

Anyway, The Nail is a decent read with beautiful Davis art. The first one poses the question of 'what if the Kent's hasn't gotten to Superman first?' and follows it through, ala the famous poem (and my personal favourite) The Nail, or 'All For The Want Of A Nail' as some may know it. The second is a follow-up, but doesn't pose a direct question to the reader, it's more simply a follow-up to the universe, giving it a second look, where waves are still being felt. 

Recommended. 

6 issues added to my total, bringing me to 142.

Next up is Brit volume 2. I'll be honest. I'm feeling in more of a DC mood right now. Will that affect how I feel about Brit, which had a first volume I wasn't overly-enthused about anyway? Let's find out together! 

[Ken Aldred]

On 1/20/2024 at 5:37 PM, Cat said:

Anyway, The Nail is a decent read with beautiful Davis art.

Perhaps read his Superboy's Legion next ?

[Cat]

On 1/21/2024 at 4:09 AM, Ken Aldred said:

Perhaps read his Superboy's Legion next ?

I haven't read that. Thanks, that's going on the list! 

[Cat]

Well I'm back already. Didn't take long to read Brit volume 2 at all. It was a much better, more enjoyable read than volume 1. I only have 1 criticism, and that's a general Invincible universe one. This is the THIRD evil Director/assistant Director of the GDS we've had. At what point does that become an overused trope? 3 times feels like at least 1 too many to me. But it was still a fun read besides that, so I won't judge it too harshly. 

That takes me to 148 for the year. 

Next up, a full reread of my favourite Image book, Dynamo 5!!*

 

*I did reread volumes 1 and 5 near the end of last year, now I've got my hands on all my books, so I can do a full reread. I'm very excited. It's such a good comic. This is what good comics should be. 

Edited January 20 by Cat