What Did You Read - January 2013

[dancj]

New month, new year, new thread...

Fantastic Four: The Resurrection of Nicholas Scratch - The final volume of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's run. It ended with a bit of a whimper for me. The whole series had the occasional attempt to do something a bit deeper than the standard superhero comic, but always fell short. Not bad by any means, but nothing special.

Green Lantern: Secret Origin - Decent stuff. Geoff Johns doing the kind of thing he does best. Good art from Ivan Reis.

Vigilante: City Lights, Prairy Justice - Really story and art wise, this just didn't work for me at all. The art had occasional flashes of Tim Sale-esque potential, but I think that was more down to the colouring than anything else. Mark Chiarello was the one saving grace of the book. Very good colours thoughout and beautiful covers. He's not a name I'm familiar with, but I'll notice him in the future on the strength of this.

The Batman of Arkham - What do I start reading on Christmas Eve? Something short enough to finish the same day so I can move on to the new pile of books I'll be getting for Christmas! This is a good old prestige format Elseworlds where Bruce Wayne/Batman is in charge of Arkham Asylum and is devoted to healing all of the criminals he catches as Batman. Good stuff.

Saga v1 - The first of my Christmas haul. So far so good. A good bit of space opera and some nice crazy concepts thrown in there - and good art from an artist I've never heard of. One interesting thing to note is that Vaughan has obviously deliberately gone out of his way to include things from our world like mobile phones - and whether or not you can get a signal, and mentions of high-school. I'm not ready to hail it as a classic yet, but it's already way better than Y the Last Man.

[pmpknface]

I really liked Secret Origin. I've owned Saga since it came out and STILL haven't read it. Hell, I have a copy of Saga #1 and never took it out of the B&B it came in.

I'm very behind in collections, but I did read ASM #700 yesterday! I'm excited for what is to follow! I also just got in MESSAGE TO ADOLF today and Warren Ellis's new novel GUN MACHINE so I'm looking forward to both of those.

[dancj]

, I have a copy of Saga #1 and never took it out of the B&B it came in.

Ooh - I haven't looked, but I bet you could sell it and buy the TPB and come away with a profit!

[pmpknface]

Yeah, I've already got the tpb. Haven't cracked that either. I just may be able to get $50 for the #1! Hhhhhhhmmmmmmm..........

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

I think "Saga" will read best in the trade. I liked the first issue, but didn't feel like I had the tone of the series fixed in my mind until about the third. Getting to read all six issues in one book gives you a better chance at "getting" the series, if you know what I mean. Then you'll love it.

Next issue is due out this coming Wednesday, too!

-Augie

[torippu]

I really liked Secret Origin. I've owned Saga since it came out and STILL haven't read it. Hell, I have a copy of Saga #1 and never took it out of the B&B it came in.

I got issue #1 the day that we met at Excalibur Comics in PDX all those months ago, read it, think I enjoyed it, have bought the subsequent issues but haven't read any of them. I'm thinking that I may make the switch to trade.

Trip

[torippu]

Ooh - I haven't looked, but I bet you could sell it and buy the TPB and come away with a profit!

I've got 2 copies of #1...is the first issue selling for a lot?

[dancj]

I've got 2 copies of #1...is the first issue selling for a lot?

It looks like it's mostly selling for £20-£40 here in Britain.

I've recently read (all from my Christmas presents):

Bulletproof Coffin v2: Disinterred - This was all good, and had some crazy brilliant moments. That said it never quite hit the heights of volume one - but that would be practically impossible as volume 1 was one of the best things I've read in years.

The Boys v8: Highland Laddie - Good stuff. It has some harsh reviews on Amazon, but maybe that's because it's a big change of pace. It helps a lot with this volume if you're familiar with the old weekly British comics - The Beano, The Dandy, Beezer etc.

The Nao of Brown - Glinn Dillon was quickly becoming one of my favourite artists when he promptly disappeared from comis 15+ years ago. In the time since then his art has only improved - and this book is beautiful. The story is good too. Not really my type of thing as I'm not big on the whole touchy-feely spiritual stuff, but it's done well and even if it wasn't the art would make it all worthwhile. I'm a little uncertain at the end. I'm not sure if it was deliberately ambiguous, but spoilers:

I'm not 100% sure whether the father of her kid is Gregory or the guy who runs the toy shop

end of spoilers

Avengers: The Children's Crusade - I loved Young Avengers and this book had a huge buzz around it. I'm not sure if it's a difference in the quality of the book or a negative effect from the hype, but I found this book a little disappointing. Not bad by any stretch - but it didn't grab me the way Young Avengers did.

[pmpknface]

As I posted in the other thread - Wanna make some easy $? Sell your Saga issues! Last night I sold my copy of Saga #1 for $60 shipped on the CGC boards. It was posted for 6 minutes. Collectors are DYING for these issues!

Here, take a look at the thread it sold in:
http://boards.collectors-society.com...08#Post6312008

[pmpknface]

I've recently read (all from my Christmas presents):

Bulletproof Coffin v2: Disinterred - This was all good, and had some crazy brilliant moments. That said it never quite hit the heights of volume one - but that would be practically impossible as volume 1 was one of the best things I've read in years.

Avengers: The Children's Crusade - I loved Young Avengers and this book had a huge buzz around it. I'm not sure if it's a difference in the quality of the book or a negative effect from the hype, but I found this book a little disappointing. Not bad by any stretch - but it didn't grab me the way Young Avengers did.

I felt the same way about Bulletproof Coffin 2. Issue #4 was crazy and it was overall a fun read but not nearly as cool as Vol. 1.

I liked Children's Crusade. If nothing else it's beautiful to look at! And the endgame was good, in that we get Wanda back and then there are a few other cool things that happen. Actually, some of that fallout continues into the new FF #1.

[dancj]

I liked Children's Crusade. If nothing else it's beautiful to look at! And the endgame was good, in that we get Wanda back and then there are a few other cool things that happen. Actually, some of that fallout continues into the new FF #1.

It wasn't bad by any stretch. If the same quality of book was done with DC characters I might well have loved it - because I'm a bit more invested in the DC characters. There are Marvel characters who interest me, but X-Men and Magneto's family aren't them.

[pmpknface]

Last night while watching Duke get KILLED by Miami and then UNC getting a win at home ( ) I finally read SAGA vol. 1 and then started FAIREST vol. 1. Both were good. I like SAGA, and the way the story is unfolding is a lot of fun. I bet creating a whole universe is a blast when you make up all the rules. I'll keep reading in tpb form for now. FAIREST isn't exactly what I thought it was going to be but it's a lot of fun. Jiminez's art is unreal. Hope to finish this one up this week.

Then I can tackle the other 20 HC / tpb's I've got laying around.