Comments on: What I bought – 18 June 2008

By: lauren

lauren — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:46:09 +0000

I did not read the Allende novel, and I have enjoyed the Zorro issues as they are.

I think violence against women was really only featured in 2 issues of the 4, and since there are action sequences as well ,it probably works out to only 25% of the total story so far at least as far as I remember it.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:28:11 +0000

I gotta say, Bruce Jones’ Checkmate is a major disappointment.

Er, not that I expected any better from him. I learned my lesson a while back, dropping that OMAC miniseries less than halfway through (i.e. as soon as I knew it sucked and could stop preordering it) and avoiding the War That Time Forgot, no matter how good the premise.

This is Checkmate without any of the intrigue, drama, excitement, manipulation, or characters that made the series so good. And then you wonder why it’s even Checkmate at all. Why not just give him another crappy lowselling miniseries named Chimera, or something? Simply put, he’s stripped out all the stuff I liked about Checkmate, and not given us anything good to replace it.

If his run is a finite, short one, I’ll stick it through for the sake of keeping my run complete. But if he’s on long term, (like, longer than the Chimera storyline), than I’m out, albeit reluctantly. I hate dropping such a great title, but sometimes it’s just not feasible to outlast a bad writer. Sigh.

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:08:33 +0000

Tim: I’m going to start buying Scalped in single issues next month. This was the final issue collected in the third trade, so I figured it’s a good time to start getting them in individual issues, as I’ve enjoyed the trades a lot.

Greg: I remember you mentioning that Wagner is adapting the Allende novel, but since I haven’t read that, I wasn’t sure what was Allende’s and what was his. The first arc is 8 issues, so it might work a bit better, but as far as I know, it’s ongoing (although I’m not sure about Wagner’s involvement after the first arc), so we’ll see where we are at the end of the eighth issue.

By: FunkyGreenJerusalem

FunkyGreenJerusalem — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:41:02 +0000

I met Jon Sommariva of Gemni at Sydney’s Supernova con on the weekend – nice guy – and picked up the first two issues and picked up an A3 sized print of Spiderman that he did (got it all signed) that I’m planning to frame.
Got quite a nice style, and if the amount of business he was doing is anything to go buy, going to be quite popular.
I’d say some of the storytelling in Gemni could use some work, but it does have quite a good flow of energy to it.

By: RAB

RAB — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:02:31 +0000

I never really followed his work before, but Sam Kieth must be one of the bravest comics creators around. My Inner Bimbo may or may not be literally autobiographical, yet either way it feels deeply confessional — like he’s really putting his own inner landscape out there for us all to see. The basic premise is something that practically invites pointing and snickering from the peanut gallery, so it took a lot of guts to do the book at all. Then add to that the highly subjective, daydream-logic approach of the storytelling, and…well, it may have left us scratching our heads in places, but it’s staying true to the core concept of the story (one man’s troubled inner dialogue) even at the cost of losing some readers. But I stuck with it because the characters were engaging and I wanted to know more about them. The book really impressed me, and like you I’m looking forward to rereading it in order to wrap my head around it.

By: Kelson

Kelson — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:38:31 +0000

I’ve also been a big fan of Faerber’s work since Noble Causes began. Though I hate to say I missed Gemini #1 when it came out, and only picked it up 2 weeks ago, and I’ve been too busy to read the first issue. Must…make…time…to read.

By: wwk5d

wwk5d — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:33:02 +0000

I think PAD deserves credit for adapting X-factor to all the external changes foisted on him by the rest of the X-line. Between Decimation, losing Leila in ‘Messiah Complex’, and the forced removal of Wolfsbane, I think he definitely made the most of what was given to him. I hope the new direction works, because this is easily one of the better titles Marvel is producing today.

By: Kirk Warren

Kirk Warren — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:11:22 +0000

Really going to miss Catwoman. I felt the story with Thief was a little rushed and the fact he ended up being a nobdoy and no real threat after so long wasn’t great, but the way Catwoman dealt with him made up fro any shortcomings I had. Would have been nice tos ee Hellhound, Selina’s old archnemesis (although, I think he’s dead, but that doesn’t stop anyone these days), be revealed as the Thief (he looked athletic and capable in his “costume” back before Salvation Run), but, like I said, it all came out nice in the end with Selina’s delicious revenge.

By: TimCallahan

TimCallahan — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:47:17 +0000

Scalped and Hellblazer were the two best books of the week. Ghost Rider was just fine, but you missed out two examples of Jason Aaron awesomeness!

I’m also enjoying Pfeifer’s wrap-up of the Catwoman plot threads. He’s been a great writer on this book, and I don’t know what he’s working on next, but DC should not let him slip away. The Lopez boys are wonderful, of course, and I’d like to see them on a higher-profile book.

I think Rasl is pretty great, as you probably know, but I can see why you haven’t latched onto it yet. It’s still building a world, slowly. I think we’ll be able to tell by issue #5 whether or not this book is the real deal, or just Smith trying NOT to do Bone.

Also, your Gemini and Ghost Rider pics are flip-flopped, as I’m sure you already know. Just sayin’.

By: Greg Hatcher

Greg Hatcher — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:55:38 +0000

Well, the balance is beginning to shift just a bit, with more Zorro-riffic action in the present and less flashback, so Iâ€™m happy. Except for the fact that once again, we go to the well of violence against females to inspire the hero into action. Why is that the only thing that makes people want to fight injustice? Itâ€™s such a clichÃ©, and itâ€™s annoying, because Wagner is a better writer than that.

Well, I mentioned this before, but the flashback stuff is all lifted beat-for-beat out of Isabel Allende’s novel. Each issue so far is basically this mixture– flashbacks = Allende; Zorro action = Wagner. I don’t know why Mr. Wagner is adapting it so slavishly. Perhaps it’s a condition of the licensing rights.

I enjoyed the Allende novel a great deal but even so I’m starting to get a little irritated with it in this comic too, mostly because if this is a limited series of six issues (I think it is) it’s paced in such a way that it will end when he finishes the Allende material. So really there’s nothing new for me here at all except the action set pieces.