Savage Sword of Conan Volume 4

Essential Iron Fist and Power Man Volume 1

Have dug out all of Fraction’s Invincible Iron Man issues too but it’ll probably be next week before I get to them.

“In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switerzland they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.” (The pedant in me forces me to point out that the cuckoo clock is a German invention)

I guess when you have the illegitimate son of a pope ruling half the Papal States as a tyrant, suddenly the Reformation is so much more understandable.

I really enjoyed the first Annhilation series and while the second was good, I felt the villains weren’t as threatening as the Annhilation Wave. The Star Lord mini was some of the best comics in a very long time. I have to agree with the statement that Marvel handles these cross overs better, not saying there hasn’t been ANY continuity errors, but it just feels more cohesive. So I’m there for War of the Kings and all the tie-ins. Here’s hoping Darkhawk comes out as strongly as Nova and Star Lord have.

Just finished the first Terra Obscura volume last night (which helped me realise I’ve been getting Project Superpowers just for the sake of getting it) and am moving along to the first Young Liars trade tonight.

Next up is Berlin vol. 2 (library didn’t have vol. 1. BOOOOO!).

!!!

YES I totally agree, Tomine’s work is hard, though rewarding, to get through; you feel for (or relate to) the characters so much that the experience is draining. If you liked that collection you definitely should get “Summer Blonde,” I enjoyed that collection even more…if by that point you become an official fan, buy “Scrapbook: Uncollected Work,” filled with tons of great mini comic, album covers, and sketches he’s created over the years; if you’re an aspiring artist yourself, I recommend his “32: Stories,” Optic Nerve zines he did in high school and early college, fascinating look at a developing artist.

@Rohan Williams

Seaguy may be my favorite Morrison comic…reads exactly like an old, open, beautiful poem from antiquity…I think I’ve reread that series more than any other of his. “What qualifies a butterfly to be a hero anyway?”…” I flew from the earth to the moon on one big breath.”

–Thanks for the Deitch suggestions everyone.

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Will Eisner’s Invisible People – Probably the best thing in the New York hardcover, IMO.
Seaguy – Quickly became one of my favourite Morrison comics ever.
Superspy – Fucking brilliant.
Waid’s FF – Started strong, fell apart a bit towards the end, but that last issue was great.
JLA Deluxe Vol. 1 – I missed out on the Asmodel story when I was a kid, so it was a revelation.
The Umbrella Academy – It’s unfair how good this was, really. It out-Morrison’d Morrison, while remaining totally ‘comprehensible’ at all times. I shouldn’t have put off reading it based on my dislike of a band.

Reading:
Busiek’s Avengers Assemble Vol. 1 – An interesting companion to Morrison’s JLA, if only to demonstrate the Pixar/Dreamworks effect in play.
Millar’s Superman Adventures – Once you get past the first few issues of the first digest, it’s some of Millar’s best. Wished the digests included his last two issues, though.
Gotham Central – Hit a snag while I wait for Vol 4 on backlist, but yeah, this is solid detective comics.
Kirby’s Fourth World – Up to the third omnibus; this is some crazy shit. Neal K, prepare to be blown away AND disappointed, sometimes in the same issue.

As for what I’m reading, um, The Nicomachean Ethics I guess. Yeah, Uni’s back.

Anyway, you asked a question; so here’s what I’m reading this week:

Sleepwalk And Other Stories by Adrien Tomine, my first experience of his work. It’s better than I expected, but still getting on my nerves quite a bit. We’ve all (or at least most of us have) been through failed relationships, or been in that situation where someone else doesn’t return our feelings for them. It’s horrible, and depressing. Guess what? Reading about it is horrible and depressing too!

The stories that deal with other subjects are definitely better, and a couple of them are outright brilliant. So I’ll persevere with it.

A Life, In Pictures by Will Eisner- I can’t recommend this enough. It’s absofuckinglutely awesome.

Oh, and a tie in novel to the Bones TV series by Max Allan Collins. Entertaining enough.

In addition to my books above, as far as novels go, I am reading “Boomsday” by Christopher Buckley

Wonderful author, most would know him as the writer of “Thank You For Smoking”

Boulevard of Broken Dreams from Pantheon focuses on Waldo the Cat and his animators. It’s very good.

I’m continuing my reading of all Vonnegut’s works. I just started God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. I thought Cat’s Cradle was a little bit disappointing.
I’m also reading David Crystal’s By Hook or By Crook: A Journey in Search of English. It meanders as much as the title suggests and then some.

In comics, I just read through:
Death: the High Cost of Living–it was nice to get more Sandman, but this was squarely middle of the pack compared to the rest of the series
Too Cool to be Forgotten–Alex Robinson does character really well, but it seems like this book is too slight to examine anyone besides the protagonist. Very good, but I wish there was more!
Ghost World–No wonder this gets so much love! It’s a very complex, understated work.
We Are on our Own–WWII memoir by woman forced as a little girl to leave her home in Hungary. Good.
Little Lulu–Dark Horse has put out a whole bunch of these in thick digests. They really are fun books, but are about as minimally rendered comics as I’ve ever seen. Yes, I totally got it because Alan Moore sang the song on The Simpsons!
Amelia Rules! vol. 2–What an enchanting series by Jimmy Gownley! Kids that are funny, exciting, endearing, and occasionally snot-nosed punks! Gownley aims to bring a comic strip sensibility to comic books and succeeds admirably. These comics would make great presents for all sorts of readers, kids or not!

On the docket:
The Fixer by Joe Sacco–set in Sarajevo during the war, I found out this existed when I saw it on the library shelf.
Blackjack vol. 1 by Osamu Tezuka–Buddha was excellent, so I’ll start in on this series.
Signal to Noise–Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean–OK, I’ll try it!
Chance in Hell by Gilbert Hernandez–I’ve only read Sloth and a few pages of Love and Rockets. Time to get in on Los Bros.
American Splendor: Unsung Hero–this appears to be biographical stories of soldiers. Pekar’s method of storytelling gives off an intimate, purposeful feeling when doing autobiography, but when cover other subjects feels like a bit of an info-dump. We shall see!
Pistolwhip: The Yellow Menace by Matt Kindt–the first Pistolwhip volume had wonderful art and Kindt’s distinctive rhythm. I’m always surprised by how much straightforward action is in his stories.

Have a good day.
John Cage

On a different note, I’m making my way through Essential Captain America vol. 4, which contains most of the Englehart issues. It’s good stuff.

I finished Fool last week. It wasn’t as good as most of Moore’s other books. The story lost its sense of fun about 2/3 of the way through.