Comic Book Resources

The "Havok and Wolverine" series was originally published under the Epic Comics banner, which had a little in common with the later Vertigo line. I don't think they officially marketed the comics as 'for mature readers', but if the line had continued into the 90s, they might have started to do that. They published creator-owned titles including "Alien Legion" and "Stray Toasters", reprinted creator-owned works including "Elfquest" and "The Airtight Garage", and did a few books with mainstream Marvel Universe characters including Elektra.

The "Havok and Wolverine" story was mentioned in passing in one panel of one issue of "Uncanny X-men", but otherwise ignored, perhaps because the editors realized only a fraction of the "X-men" audience would have been able to see the other book, which was more expensive and had a much more limited print run.

It was a great experiment though, and a very beautiful book.

I've been working my way through the entire Avengers series (for the first time) via reprints and trades. I'm somewhere around 112-113, near the beginning of the Englehart run. Most of it has been interesting from a nerd-historical perspective. From a quality perspective, the series has run the gamut from pretty good to barely readable.

I'm also reading through the early Grant Morrison Starblazer stories from the eighties. Again, interesting, though the quality varies wildly.

In the world of real books, I started the Rig Veda, and since it's made up of nothing but ancient hymns to Hindu gods and is nearly 700 pages long, I'll probably be reading it for the next 2-3 months minimum.

Oh, and "The Well-Fed Writer" about how to do freelance commerical work without dying of starvation.

I finally started reading Blankets, but I am totally not in the proper mental state for this. It's horribly depressing.

...and had each artist only drawing one of the main protagonists if my memory serves me correctly. Great mini though in any event!

Meltdown that is...!

Derek: I didn't realize that was an Epic book. And yeah, even though it was barely mentioned in the regular book, it's still "in continuity"!

You are correct, Chris!

Leafing through old Deadpool. I don't remember his character change from hardcase merc to conflicted almost hero being so explicit on previous reads of Waid's limited series.

A couple of months ago, a began re reading X-Men from issues 360 and 80 (the return of Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler and Colosssus to the team). I´m currently reading issues 444 (Claremont and Davis) 157 (some not so good issues written by Chuck Austen) and about to begin Astonishing by Whedon. Let me tell you, I´ve liked it more the second time. I think some of the Claremont issues are really good. The Casey era is great too, altough maybe a little ahead of its time. And though I didn´t like the Morrison era the first time around, now I think it´s great. X-men is a lot less covoluted when you just reaid straightforward and you ignore some of the x-overs that have had no impact.

I'm reading Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera; thankfully my library bought a new copy since the first they got was misprinted. I don't think I've quite gotten to the meat of it yet.

The St. Louis Public Library book fair was this weekend, and I picked up a ton of great stuff, including a big oversized collection of Paul Pope called The Circus. I just finished George Carlin's When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? which was, as expected, funny and insightful. He kept his sometimes tiresome cutesy language games to a minimum. I started William Hodgart's Satire, because I've long fought to have satire seem more funny to me. I think more exposure along with analysis of what it is is working so far!

I never was interested in Havok and Wolverine because I really don't feel like I need to read more stuff with Havok and Wolverine in it, but Muth and Williams can do some great work. Like you, Greg, I am particularly interested in comics that are well-written, but I can appreciate what is basically equivalent to an action movie with excellent filmmaking.

I was excited to find This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics as Literature by Rocco Versaci at my local library, but I haven't cracked it yet. It appears to be a scholarly examination of comics and came out in 2007. Has anybody heard anything about it?

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Volume 1

Barry Winsdor-Smith's Wolverine: Weapon X

and the 20th Anniversary issue of Empire magazine

Ignition City #2 and Viking #1 arrived in the mail today, so they're on the top of the pile for tomorrow.

Scalped, vol. 4, should also be here later this week.

I'm flipping through the first volume of The Boys from Garth Ennis, and I'm not really impressed. Good art by Darick Robertson, but an overall "meh" story from Ennis.

As for a "real book", I'm halfway through Thirteen by Richard K. Morgan. It's a nice, slow, sci-fi conspiracy story set on Earth in a recognizable 22nd Century. The main character is a genetically enhanced mercenary (a "Thirteen") investigating a string of murders committed by another Thirteen. The story starts a bit choppy, jumping from one character to another before you get too invested, but now the narrative is flowing quite nicely. It's dense, and Morgan spends a little too much time stereotyping Middle America as racist, religious zealots, but it's good futuristic speculative fiction.

Reread Hear the Wind Sing, Haruki Murakami's first book and moving onto another of his... probably Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

Meltdown is my favorite Havok story. The man has the Summers family redheadedwoman problem bad in this one. Great little set of books that I remember very fondly the first time round.

Just read the Raab Union Jack series a few weeks ago for the first time after finding it cheap at the Boston Comic Con. I was plesantly surprised by how decent it was...and it plays nicely with the current Vampire State storyline in the Captain Britain.

the redhead from Meltdown shows up in X-Factor just after the Age of Apocalypse event which starts the whole dumb Havok as a "villian" era.

I just stumbled on this, thought you might like it!

http://policeauctions.com/members/?Action=ActiveAuctions&PageCategory=COMICS

I'm currently trying to get through Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I've read the first book maybe once? I've tried to get through it multiple times but keep losing interest).

I've also got a ton of books from the library to get through: something from Hurwitz, Ellison, Huston, Elmore Leonard, mostly crime stuff.

What's funny about Meltdown is how Muth & Williams provide such crazy visuals to a rather mundane story (although different from what was in X-Men at the time). I kept expecting some real left field stuff, but... not so much. Beautiful art, though.

Meltdown is almost the opposite of Gerber & Sal Buscema's Defenders or Morrison & Case's Doom Patrol: standard comic book art in service of whacked-out stories.

I didn't mind Raab's Phantom comics, and I don't think I've ever read anything else by him. Which work in particular gave him such a bad rep?

Finally read Brubaker and Fraction's Immortal Iron Fist last week - I enjoyed the first trade enough, but it was the second volume that really won me over. It blew my mind so often that the relatively restrained third volume was necessary just to give my brain time to heal. But then Fraction pulled out that great twist on the last few pages of issue 16, and my mind was simultaneously blown again and disappointed I'll have to read Fraction, Brubaker and Aja-less comics to find out what happens next.

Also got around to Transhuman (which was brilliant - Nightly News is next on the pile), The Goon Vol 2 and The Left Bank Gang, which was every bit as wonderful as I expected.

@ Dan Felty: I read that Rocco Versaci. I thought it was another version of Understanding Comics, but with more words. I liked it ok though.

As for what I'm reading, the trade Jack Staff: Everything Used to Be Black and White, which is a whole boatload of awesome that spins out characters and situations that started out as a Marvel Comics pitch.

Also, I've been leafing through the latest issue of Back Issue magazine, a spotlight on superhero sidekicks. It has articles on Teen Titans, Flash and Kid Flash, Power Girl, LSH, Nova, The Archies, the TV Captain Marvels from the 70s, and Firestar. Lots of fun stuff there. I really like those TwoMorrows folks' work.

And I was reading book of Twilight to see what all the hubbub was about. I've been stuck on the last 150 pages for about a month now (I just can't get enthused to read it), so I went to Wikipedia and found out how it and the whole series turned out. I'm glad I read at least part of the series, but jeez, I kept thinking, get to the point already!

And thanks for the Mental Floss info. I've seen some material from them collected in books and it always seems very cool. It's good to know there's a regular way to get it at home

I just reread The Infinity Gauntlet, mostly because my wife got me Hulk Visionaries: Peter David vol. 6, and TIG takes place immediately after. Hey, there's a lot of "Cool Moments" in that story which would hope would make the "Year of..." list someday.

I didn't post anything last week because I'm still reading 2666 (I'm about a third of the way through part 5, only 200 pages to go!), but it's due at the library tomorrow, so if they don't let me renew it, I'll probably have to move onto another book soon.

Havok & Wolverine - Meltdown is definitely one of my favorite X-Men stories from the 80's, mostly due to the gorgeous artwork. I got the fourth issue as a present from a family friend during high school and managed to get the rest of the issues for around $1.50 or less each at various conventions. I remember seeing an original hardcover trade for it (before it was repackaged as a Wolverine trade) in a used bookstore a few years ago, but it was something like $60, which I was understandably reluctant to pay.

Rohan: Raab isn't a horrible writer, he just seems to write boring stories. He wrote the Excalibur mini-series where Brian Braddock took Roma's job, which was dull. I'm not sure if he has a "bad rep," so to speak, but I, personally, don't think he's all that good.

Just got done with Fables: War and Pieces. Man, what a disappointment. So Fables has pretty much lost all sense of urgency by way of a story that didn't have any either. What a letdown. I am no longer convinced that the series will ever have a satisfying ending. Too many Happily Ever Afters = boring.

Also just finished Blue Pills which I enjoyed. In the non-comics department, I'm reading Blank Spots on the Map that's about the geography of government black projects. Pretty good so far. Haven't cracked a bunch of other stuff.

I subscribe to the metal_floss blog feed and sample the posts and quizzes quite frequently.

Reading :
( Old series stuff)
1.Justice League International Vol. 1 to 4 because I grew up with the series in the 80s and Loved the unique action, intrigue and buddy style atmosphere Giffen framed around it .

3.Power of Shazam, Countdown Vol. 1 to 4, "I can't believe its not the Justice league" and " Formerly Known as The Justice league" series mainly bacuse I I AM SIMPLY MADLY TRULY IN LOVE AND OBSESSED WITH MARY MARVEL (I see Jaimie Alexander as Mary Marvel in real life)

2.Grant Morrison's entire run on JLA, andJack Kirby's entire 4th world books from New Gods to Mister Mircacle because Grant Morrison and Jack Kirby are gods.

4.Prince of Persia The Graphic Novel because I love the games trilogy (Sands of Time, Warrior Within and Two Thrones) its based on.

5. Secret Invasion: Avengers The initiative # 14-19 for the skrull butchery courtesy of The Skrull Kill Krew

Current Stuff:

1. JSA,Simon Dark, Flash Rebirth, Battle for the Cowl (JASON TODD WILL BE BATMAN), THOR, IRON MAN, Astonishing X-MEN, Guardians of The Galaxy, War of Kings, Thunderbolts, Deadpool (only for magnum opus arc. He's actually my favourite character but the current series writer sucks ass), Dark Avengers and Secret Warrirors.

Your comment is interesting. Other than Ben Raab, though, who else do you consider a poor writer? Would it be easier to name the better writers?

Ben Raab is a name I never thought I'd hear again in serious discussion. I never thought he was a particularly good or bad writer but I found his run on Excalibur extremely boring, although initially I was more interested in buying it for Salvador Larocca's art. Raab did handle Pete Wisdom reasonably well though - he's the sort of character(like John Constantine), who to me works best when handled by British writers. No offense being meant , I hasten to add.
anyway currently reading Essential Fantastic Four Volume 7, a battered almost unreadable copy of Dark Horse Heroes Omnibus vol 1, and Classic era of American comics by Nicky Wright- a history of comics from the Golden age through to Seduction of the Innocent in the mid 50s

I thought I had posted last week. Guess not. Anyhoo, this week I'm reading Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche. Also I have some more Love & Rockets to read.

Just finished the latest Daredevil trade "Lady Bullseye" which I enjoyed and began "Operation Rebirth" by Waid & Garney trade last night.

Then it's onto Book 3 of the Assassin's Trilogy by Robin Hobb. Highly recommended. Keeps me busy especially as I read quite slowly!

I'm about a hundred pages into Katherine Dunn's Geek Love which I found out about through the AVClub's book club (it's about the kind of geek that bites chickens' heads off). I'm enjoying it--the first chapter is truly masterful and the second chapter turned everything I thought the book would be about on its head (and contains a jaw-dropping strip club scene).

I tried to read Hitchhiker's Guide straight through a few years ago and couldn't do it. I find that if I read them at a pace of about one per year, I really love them and laugh a lot. There are more good jokes per page than anything else I've read (except perhaps Gaiman's novels, which are obviously strongly influenced by Adams).

"Iron Man: Armor Wars," an old-ass trade I found at the library. Really impressive how well the 90's cartoon condensed the story while retaining the emotional core (and of course, trimming a lot of unnecessary dialogue). Also "Empire," which is more disturbing than I remember.

Real Book: Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn, as per the AV Club's upcoming book club feature. (www.avclub.com)

There was a lovely nod to Wolverine' s Meltdown Hairdo in an issue of Uncanny X-men that came out a few months after the EPIC mini finished...

I think it was the Boys Night issue (Outback X-men era) but I'm not sure as the last time I read them was when they actually came out...

He's standing in front of the mirror, gelling his hair right out, when Storm walks past and asks what he's up to...

I think he says something like "Nothing, just messing around..."

I’d love to be reading more but 100 Bullets ended, Young Liars is no more, Criminal is on hiatus, and the Vertigo Crime line is only just gearing up. Sure, Scalped is still going strong and Daredevil — and Daredevil Noir — are good for a quick fix but where else to turn for great reads in the crime comic genre? Any advice?

Writer I currently hate : Neil Gaiman

I found Detective Comics # 853 part 2 of "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" story arc distateful. I found Gaiman's halfbaked approach towards Batman's disembodied state utterly displeasing. A batman who doesn't have an established predisposition of an Afterlife is simply unacceptable. Crap like he's bullshit allegorical sandman series.

Books i'm currently reading are :

Leaf By Niggle containing tolkien's essay regarding the nature of true Fantasy stories.

Morgoth's Ring

Windswept hOuse

Zombie survival Guide by Max Brooks

sgt. pepper and Jeff: That's odd that you're both reading Geek Love. I love that novel - it was completely not what I expected, and that was a good thing.

Crime,

You should definitely seek out Fell by Warren Ellis & Ben Templesmith. It only lasted about 10 issues but it was pure gold. There's definitely one trade out.

Also, maybe take a look at Darwyn Cooke's Spirit. It's lighter in tone (although not always) than the books you mentioned but it may sate your crime fix. You should definitely pick up Cooke's upcoming Parker graphic novel in the summer

I thought Fell was still ongoing...

Just HUGE pauses between issues...

Meltdown is, to this day, the only x-man related comic my wife not only picked out of my collection and read, but also talks about when she is talking about comic books.

I'm just over halfway through 'Optical Allusions' by Jay Hosler (author of the excellent 'Clan Apis' and 'The Sandwalk Chronicles') and oddly enough I'm enjoying the non-fiction prose parts of the book more than the illustrated parts. I already know most of the science about genetics, evolution, cell reproduction, etc. but it's presented in a very clear, straightforward way.