What did you read - 25/10/06

[torippu]

Did I get the date right this time Dan? :)

I've been whittling away at my reading pile the last couple of weeks and here is what I have finished:

Ms. Marvel #4 ~ 8 – I didn’t much care for the Dr. Strange issues as I’ve never really been a fan of the character. Enjoyed the heck out of the CW tie-ins and can’t wait to see more of Arachne. I think that the art from De la Torre took a turn for the better when Jonathon Sibal took over the inking from Jimmy Palmiotti. This book is definitely going on my pull-list now.

Wasteland #3 & 4 – This book is so good! This is normally the type of book that I would apply the “wait for trade” approach to but wanted to support it in singles form so that I would have the chance to buy a TPB/HC in the future. There is so much going on here, with an elaborately thought out world & characters & back-story that the upcoming skip month is going to make for a long wait between issues.

Queen & Country: Declassified Vol. 2 & 3 HC – I’m not sure why I put off reading these for so long but I’m sorry that I did. Both were real good reads, especially the Johnston/Mitten series. Really wish that Rucka would finish the Red Panda arc so that I would have another HC to buy!

CW: Young Avengers & Runaways #1 ~ 3 – A decent story, but I think my enjoyment is hampered by my lack of knowledge of the ongoing Runaways series - I really need to check and see if my library has the digests!

Ultimate Spider-man #101 – Is everyone online poo-pooing this issue? I didn’t think that it was all that bad. I’m still going to wait until the end of the arc before giving a thumbs up or thumbs down rating to the ultimate clone saga.

Sensational Spider-man #31 – More crazy art from Angel Medina. I still didn’t quite get what the purpose of Will O’ Wisp and Scarecrow played in the story. Also, Aunt May taking down the Chameleon? Come on now! I’m still enjoying the heck out of this book, but the ending to “The Deadly Foes of Spider-man” arc was a bit a let down.

52 Weeks 22 ~ 25 - This series is much better read in chunks. I'm still on board but really wish something of consequence would happen soon.

Orbiter - Nice art from Colleen Doran with an OK story from Ellis. For some reason, I was thinking this was the mini-series from Ellis and Chris Sprouse from a couple of years ago when I checked it out of the library.

Trip

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

I circumvent the whole thing by referring to today as 31 Oct 2006. =)

-Augie

[goman]

Light reading week for me. I got through all the books from last Wednesday except for the Daredevil trade, I'll get to that tonight. The big book I read last week was:

Essential X-men Vol 1: Having read these issues for the first time, I can see why people hold the Claremont/Bryne run in such high regard. All the issues are very good, and I espcially liked how while each story was not much more than two issues, each issue lead into the next, very much a masterpiece of serialized fiction. Looking forward to getting into Vol 2, although I now have the last two Cerebus trades to read, Blade of the Immortal Vol 14, the Daredevil from last week, the bulk of Making Comics, and from the look of the shipping list, tommorow is not going to make things easier. Oh the horror of having too much good stuff to read!

[DWEarhart]

Daredevil #90: Tombstone rocks. Get it? Yuh get it?
52 #25: Still ticking.
Ion #7: Still waiting for stuff to happen, but the art improved.
Deathblow v.2 #1 I was a big Deathblow fan back in the day. This was so-so.
Enginehead #1-#6: Another Joe Kelly story that makes you ask, "WHAAA?"
B.P.R.D.: The Universal Machine #1-#5: My faorite story of the series so far.
Preacher: Until the End of the World: My second go around with this series.
Continued Path of the Assassin Vol. 2: Sand and Flower: I'll put this book right behind Lone Wolf and Cub as being that damn good.
Queen and Country Vol. 6: Operation: Dandelion: One of the best books on the market, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

[dancj]

Did I get the date right this time Dan? :)
The format's good, but you put completely the wrong date...

I've read:
Fables v5: The Mean Seasons - I love me some Fables and this was no exception. The first half of the book illustrated by someone other than Mark Buckingham confirms my belief that no-one other than Bucky should be allowed to draw Fables. He's such a talented artist that he deserves to have a mega-succesful comic that makes him a superstar (the way Preacher did for Dillon, Transmet did for Robertson and Planetary did for Cassaday)
Astonishing X-Men v2: Dangerous - This was a fun book. Not the monumentous book that a Whedon book should be, and there's still something I don't like about Cassaday faces, but I did enjoy it. I'd be very interested to see Cassaday finishing someone else's pencils.
Obergeist: The Director's Cut - Another fun book from Jolley and Harris. I like to think of it as Spawn done right. The back cover plugs it as a Horror comic, but only really if you consider old 30's Frankenstein movies to be horrror. There's nothing remotly scary by modern standards.
Ex Machina v3: Fact V. Fiction - Another good volume of this series. Tony Harris's work is good in ways, but his heavy photo-referencing makes it look like a really stiff photo-story.
Captain America v1: Winter Soldier v1 and v2 - Ed Brubaker is one of my favourite writers and this is him on good form. Outside of The Ultimates I've never had any time for Captain America, but this story had me hooked straight away. Great art from Steve Epting too. I haven't seen his work before, but I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for him in the future. Excellent colouring too. As an aside you could really look at this book as Batman: Red Hood done right.

[torippu]

The format's good, but you put completely the wrong date...

I can never remember how these things worked - I just used the most recent ship date for new comics...

Great art from Steve Epting too. I haven't seen his work before, but I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for him in the future.
Epting's been around for years...I think that he started on the Avengers back in the late-80's/early-90s and then worked his way through a bunch of the X-books, over to DC with a run on Aquaman and then joined Crossgen where his artwork jumped to another level. He's a solid storyteller who deserves all the accolades he is getting for his art on Captain America. I'm completely convinced that the Epting/Perkins team are a big reason why this book is so good. Don't get me wrong though, it begins with Brubaker, but if Marvel would have paired him with the wrong type of art team, I'm not sure that I'd still be reading the book.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

The first time I saw Epting's art was in an AVENGERS storyline back in the very early 90s, I think. I also think Bob Harras was writing it at the time. ::shudder:: Loved his art then, but he disappeared from my radar quickly after that. Thank goodness for CrossGen! =)

That reminds me -- I have the AVENGERS DVD. I should try to find those issues on there sometime. . .

-Augie

[pmpknface]

I finally read the JUSTICE vol 1 HC. Amazing stuff. I'm in for vol 2.

Can someone answer this for me - I want to read my new FABLES HC, but will I spoil anything because I'm a tpb reader of this title? I've only read thru vol 7 and that only covers up to #47.

[goman]

pmpknface: The Fables HC doesn't really spoil anything going on currently, although it does bring an added dimension to a couple of the current storylines, specifically two characters. Mostly it just fills in some information that has been hinted at or spoken about. You might want to wait until after the next trade comes out just to be sure, but I don't remember any spoilers. It is excellent, so deffinetly pick it up at some point. It'd be interesting to find out your reaction from reading it first and then reading the current issues.

[pmpknface]

Oh I've got it already! I just haven't taken the plastic off it yet. I'm just not sure if I wanna wait until 12/20 to read it! I imagine it's like the Annual issue from a few years back.

vol 8: http://www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=6236

Thanks goman!

[goman]

You should be okay to read it now. Some of the stuff I'm talking about ties into events from past issue 51. It's a lot like The Last Castle, where the info colors current stories, but is not nessesary to understand those stories. Tear off the plastic and read it, if only for the James Jean story. The last page of the HC is really good too! Mental note: Reread Fables from the beginning.

[pmpknface]

Mental note: Reread Fables from the beginning.

This may ba a good canidate for the next Pipeline Book Club...

[torippu]

This may ba a good canidate for the next Pipeline Book Club...
This is a good idea as I have just started reading Fables (read issue #1 in the $0.25 issue that was released a couple of weeks ago) and my local library has the first 4~5 volumes.

[goman]

I'll second that as a good idea, especially since I have no desire to add Promethea to my read list, but I already own all of Fables.

[pmpknface]

Hahahahaha.....

I've got all the Promethea vol's AND the Fables books. Really? No interest? Do you like Alan Moore's work? I loved FROM HELL and of course there's the WATCHMEN, but Promethea does some really amazing things in storytelling. If they did an omnibus of if I'd really have to consider buying it, and not only do I not buy those editions at all, but I have them in HC already.

Oh - and just to make sure I don't get too far off topic I've also read:

- the first few parts of Hiroaki Samura's OHIKKOSHI
- SPIDER-GIRL #1
- BLADE #2
- CABLE / D-POOL 33
- CW X-MEN #4
- CLAWS #3
- REX MUNDI VOL 2 #2
- UNION JACK #2
- X-FACTOR #12
- X-MEN #192
- SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #31
- CAPTAIN AMERICA #23
- DAREDEVIL #90
- HEROES FOR HIRE #3
- NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE #9

AND the new Previews a few times (gotta prepare for Saturday!)

[goman]

I don't have anything against Alan Moore. I've got Watchmen and it's about time to read it again. I love LoEG, and almost cried when Black Dossier was delayed. I've got the DC works of Alan Moore trade. I just have never had that much interest in promethea from what I've heard about it, and I've got a huge pile of books waiting to be read, I don't think I can afford to add another series. I think it's just that I never think to buy it when I've got extra money, and I always find something I'm more interested in, such as catching up with the Blade of the Immortal trades. I guess I'm just not enough of a Moore fan to buy it. I've never read From Hell or V for Vendetta but I think it's the art in both of those that has turned me off. Plus, From Hell is a weighty tome, and I'm sure I'd have to commit a lot of time to reading it.

And, to get back on topic, I read the Brubaker Daredevil trade, and loved it. I'm undecided on whether I prefer Lark or Maleev, although Lark probably has better action scenes. Can't wait for the next trade.

[dancj]

I just have never had that much interest in promethea from what I've heard about it, and I've got a huge pile of books waiting to be read, I don't think I can afford to add another series.

Fair enough. TBH, some people love Promethea so much that they are blinkered to the possibility of other people not liking it. For me it's probably the least of his ABC comics. It basically flips back and forth between really entertaining Superhero stuff which I love and lectures on magic which bore me to tears - I'm approaching this Promethea round of the book club with a certain amount of trepidation over those magic bits.

[pmpknface]

We'll get into this as we get through each volume, but I like the "magis bits" more than most of the hero stuff in the titles. But that will make for interesting conversation. To each his own! ;)

[pmpknface]

I started a new thread for Nov '06:

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?p=3981368#post3981368