Amusingly, I had EXACTLY the same reaction.

It was good. And then I just stopped caring.

-d

p.s.
Thanks for the King City recommendation. I'll keep an eye out for it.

By and large, it seems there's a prejudice against ongoing series that aren't brand new - Jack of Fable made the top 100, ferinstance, while Fables didn't. Also notice the lack of ongoing Manga series. Same deal.

As for the Nightly News: I'm as stumped as you are. It seemed to get good reviews all 'round.

I liked it quite a bit, and it made Greg Burgas' best-of list.

I've been leary of buying it for that reason, although it's not like I got most of the ones in the first two minis.

McK
I think that may in fact be the absolute worst reason for not reviewing a comic, considering the new editions are presented in a much larger size than any other prior edition of Popeye.

Geez...

I dunno. I just had a really strong adverse reaction to the density of all those strips. (And it really did give me a headache.)

Maybe it I can weasle my friend into letting me borrow it for a month and read a little bit every day it'd be easier.

Da Fug
I felt kinda guilty about it, but I skipped over them in both the second volume and Black Dossier. Black Dossier is OK but seems to be aimed at people with far more British sensibilities.

Black Dossier popped up at the library yesterday, and I can tell I'm missing a lot of the references. Makes me feel dumb. The 3-D section is pretty awesome, though.

J to the AAP
Don’t really agree with you on that one, I thought it was as much about the uncle who adopted him as the kid himself. They have a very dysfunctional relationship do to no fault of their own really, which is kinda tragic. The kid needs to grow up but the uncle needs to embrace his new life to make it work. This happens in an organic non-weepy way, with a strong positive ending imo.

Huh. I didn't look at it that way at all. .. That's probably a better interpretation than mine. I'm still not sure that the uncle was given a distinctive enough character to really pull it off. If he had been given some character traits that weren't necessary for the plot, I would've liked the book a lot more.

(Although maybe I was a little harsh.)

If you don't want to read on the toilet, you could always wait for Dark Horse's edition of the Great Outdoor Fight. I think it's scheduled for later this year.

I think that may in fact be the absolute worst reason for not reviewing a comic, considering the new editions are presented in a much larger size than any other prior edition of Popeye.

Of course, I am sure your statement was just sarcastic, but if that's your reason not to read Popeye you're really missing out on what is one of, if not the, greatest comic strips in the history of the medium.

Comic strips may not be your thing, but Popeye is more humor/adventure/social criticism than anything else...

"Tales From the Farm just moved…. so…. slowly, and so intently towards bringing us to the central “kid grows up” moment that there wasn’t any room for much actual story."

Don't really agree with you on that one, I thought it was as much about the uncle who adopted him as the kid himself. They have a very dysfunctional relationship do to no fault of their own really, which is kinda tragic. The kid needs to grow up but the uncle needs to embrace his new life to make it work. This happens in an organic non-weepy way, with a strong positive ending imo.