Anyway, good luck and enjoy your picks. No worries. I’m not going to make a smart remark.

Oh, and Richard: I got the Hip Flask graphic novel already. Holy crap, it looks awesome. I’ll probably read it tonight. Good call on that.

Optic Nerve’s release party will be the 31st at Rocketship.

Why not one of the history magazines? Alter Ego, Back Issue, Comic Book Artist, something like that. They run all sorts of interesting interviews and retrospectives. I’ve got some pretty fair history game myself and even so, *I* always find something new and interesting.

Or maybe just an industry zine that’s not Wizard. See what our print competition is getting up to.

Here is the code:
DEC063453 LUCKY LUKE I/T SHADOWS O/T DERRICKS TP $9.99

Oh, and it’s a self-contained story too! All Lucky Luke are!

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

It’s not his fault that they put his artist on a couple of other assignments and delayed the book accordingly.

Stormwatch is the very first thing I will read tomorrow. Gage is having fun with his merry cast, and I find it quite hard to put down. Downside is – this seems to be a retcon/backfill issue.

BPRD starts a new chapter. Guy Davis drawing, and MignolArcudi writing, a Hellboyverse story? How can you miss it? (Actually, in my case, because I’ll wait for the trade on this one.)

Besides…it’s fun.

But issue 1 was really fun. Granted, this is coming from someone with a Masters in history and who thinks that Zemo is one of the more interesting characters in comics, but the idea of him shaping his own family’s history and the use of a history student acting as a theorizing narrator is interesting and pretty unique in my mind.

And issue 1 had a fun last page too.

Zemo’s so interesting as a character because you’re taking the nurture vs nature thing to an extreme and contrasting it with the idea of heroism, and whether a character so deeply damaged can understand it. So far, during Fabian Nicieza’s take on the character, the answer has been a tragic no, but with pretty intriguing results.

You also get some of the early appearances by John Smith’s Tyranny Rex (I know Smith never made it over there, but there’s also some lovely Steve Dillon art to look at) and – this should be the clincher – an early Grant Morrison short to fill it out.

“Aside from that, I’d say Thunderbolts #112 for sheer sociopathic glee. Anybody who isn’t having fun with the reboot of this series is missing the point completely, because it’s amazing.”

Missing hell, I’m trying my best to get away from the point, but it keeps coming after me.

As I said after reading the first issue of the reboot: I don’t want to read a comic about supervillains crippling and murdering superheroes, no matter how well it’s done. It just isn’t a place I want to go. I liked the original Thunderbolts because it was about people finding something heroic in themselves when even they didn’t know it was there. Unless Warren Ellis is really taking the long view here, and he might want to let me know if he is, that doesn’t look to be what this series is about. So even though I like Warren Ellis as a writer, I’ll wait until the sensibilities of the series are more in line with my sensibilities as a reader before I hop back on.

I will suggest Blade #7. Why? Because I’ve been enjoying it a lot. I love Chaykins art, and would probably follow him to pretty much any book right now, but coincidentally, this one is actually a lot of fun. So far, the stories have been pretty accessible, and usually stand well as one-shots even as they fit into a greater arc dealign with his past. I am not a Blade fanatic, i only jumped on because of Chaykin, but this series has won me over. Of course, I don’t recall if you have reviewed any of the previous issues of this series. If so, you probably already got a feel for it, and if you didn’t like it, so be it. If you didn’t give it much a of a try though, check it out.

I am NOT going to recommend Buffy or 52. Why? Do i hate them? No, I am a big buffy fan and I LOVE 52… but if you don’t like 52 by now, why bother? Same with Buffy… if you didn’t watch the show, why the hell would you read the comic? Go for Blade #7.

And thank god for that.

Um, saving money HOW? Because it’s not coming out monthly? If that’s your reasoning, your logic is specious.

Or are you suggesting it’s actually cheaper to buy the individual issues versus the eventual trade? I suppose that’s sometimes true, but often the paperback ends up costing the same amount or even a bit less than the issues (especially if you buy the trade at a bookstore that offers discounts).

because, really, who wants to wait two or three months between each chapter of another Whedon serial?

People who don’t care about lateness and don’t mind saving money.

It’s no Buffy.

-Grant
Totally getting Buffy

* * *

A lot of smart people here are voting for that irrepressible Franklin Richards. That’s a great call. In fact I’ll be picking it up myself … and I also think Stealthwise gave you the best reasoning: Even if you don’t enjoy it, you can with a thoroughly clear conscience pass it along to a little brother/sister/niece/nephew/neighbor kid.

But the first book I’ll be reading tomorrow, no question, is 52. And I’ll champion it here because few do, and because it IS a good comic (though not a great one). Of course, my desire to discover what happens next — I’ve been reading it all year and enjoying almost every chapter — isn’t exactly a huge motivation for you to pick it up. I can assure you that recently, every arc’s penultimate climax (or in some cases, seeming conclusion), with the notable exception of the Steel/Natasha/Luthor arc, has been great in terms of dramatic payoff. The feint with Animal Man, and his grabbing of sun-eater powers (just last week!); the Supernova reveal and Skeet’s insatiable hunger; Ralph combining his detective skills, Gingold and the magic tricks he’s picked up this past year; the Sobek-chomps-Osiris surprise … all great stuff.

And there’s this: JG Jones cranks out such gorgeous covers. Tomorrow’s, featuring Black Adam, is no exception. Think of this portrait — a brooding murderous studly Middle Eastern ruler — as an antidote to Miller’s preposterously feminized Xerxes.

Happy purchasing!

Well-written short stories with full characterization that actually resembles real people, and shows it’s characters in an honest light, not a flattering one?

What crap.