Reading random comics

[Chris N]

Not quite succeeding in my one-a-day goal. Thursday night, I found my way to Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #6. A long comic, I read only the first story before falling asleep. And last night I had friends over for dinner, Mad Men, and drinks (scotch and old-fashioneds seemed appropriate). After which I basically collapsed into bed. Now it's Saturday morning, and I have a bit of time, but do need to be off to work sooner than later.



This comic has been mentioned in these forums a few times, both for its excellent cover, and the stories. I bought it many years ago. I think it had just caught my eye at a comic convention one day. But, as has happened, I bought a lot of comics at that particular convention, and then failed to actually read them all. Thus I have never read this comic, despite explicitly paying $5 for it because I wanted to read it.

The first story is an adaptation of Behold the Man, by Doug Moench and Alex Nino. I have read the novel and found the adaptation into comic form to be true to it. Next is a prose interview with Bob Shaw, who explains how slow glass works. Slow glass is used in the comic for the framing sequences and gets right to the heart of what I love about science fiction.

It continues in this excellent vein. Old Soldier by Bruce Jones is the story of a man suddenly aged many years, and dealing with its effects on his life. Mind Games by John Allison tells the story of a soldier in 1980 fighting World War III and his encounter with God. Visitation by Don Glut and Reuben Yandoc tells the story of a superstitious town burning a witch, and the alien who visits them.

I only own this one issue. Think I will add the rest to my list.

[adam_warlock_2099]

Ghost Rider Vol. 2 #71
Ivan Velez Jr
Salvador Larroca

Not a particular key issue of any sorts, but a tale of Ghost Rider saving innocents despite their fear of him. Ghost Rider's fighting for the innocents is endangering Danny's ability to continue on with his life during the day. Being late to class and missing class because Ghost Rider is wearing his body out. Snowblind intends to push more competition out of his way of controlling more of the illegal activities in NYC. Meanwhile someone is eliminating many of Snowblind's minions with a MO that makes it look like it's Ghost Rider's doing. The issue ends without a hint of who it is, and neither to do I remember after this long.

[benday-dot]

This comic has been mentioned in these forums a few times, both for its excellent cover, and the stories.

Whenever I see that cover with but a glance (and I own it as well) I see Adam Strange crucified. Must be the colours.

BTW... I am enjoying your reviews.

[Chris N]

Whenever I see that cover with but a glance (and I own it as well) I see Adam Strange crucified. Must be the colours.

BTW... I am enjoying your reviews.

And now that's all I will ever see.

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Today I get Knuckles the Echidna #27, by Ken Penders and Chris Allan (neither of whom am I familar with), with inks by Andrew Pepoy, who I do know.

This is a spinoff of Sonic, a character of great interest to me, as he has done a remarkable job transcending his origins as a video game character. There were once two competing animated versions of Sonic at once. One was very cartoonish and silly. The other was more serious in tone, akin more to shows like Gargoyles. The story of the underground resistance to the robotification of earth. The basic themes there are obvious and common, but they played with them well in a true all-ages feature. This led me many years later to discover the Sonic comic, which I thought to be one of the best children's books coming out at the time. Next to masterpieces like Bone and Courtney Crumrin. I only read a spattering of the then-current issues (this would be circa the turn of the millenium), but mean to go back and read the series from the beginning one day. The early issues seem to be largely available in trade.

Knuckles is a spinoff series I seem to own a few issues of, but have never read one. This is part two of a three part story called "the first date". The story of the issue focuses on Knuckles building up the courage to ask a girl out, which {spoiler!} he finally does in the end. It's a cute issue, even without much context for it. Rather decompressed though, as it's apparently now two issues in a row dedicated to a first date, with the date still not yet occurring. (The Hobbit movie comes to mind).

There is a backup by Mighty the Armadillo, another Sonic character, but one I had never heard of. This is much more stuck in the middle of its ongoing saga, but much more what I associate with the Sonic universe, as a group of anthropomorphic animals find robots are being made to perfectly duplicate their fellow rebels, leading them to question recent events and who they trust. But it is short, picks up in the middle, and ends still in the middle.

All in all, an enjoyable comic. And it reminds me I do want to get around to those early Sonic issues.

Which is what this is about. Reminding me of all the comics I mean to read.

[Chris N]

Scion #8, by Ron Marz and Jim Cheung.

I was into Crossgen when Crossgen came out. The internet is full of interesting articles on what was wrong with the company and what went wrong with the company. Mostly seems to boil down to Alessi being a douche. But, for all its problems, both initial and eventual, there was a sensibility to the comics themselves that clicked with me, and a level of quality I appreciated. Time having passed, I look back on the series and think two great comics came out of it: Meridian and Ruse. Things I haven't read since they came out, but are definitely worth rereading someday soon.

Scion was my next favorite comic of the bunch, followed perhaps by Sojourn. Marz is a capable writer and Cheung's art was excellent. He would become a bigger name with Young Avengers (an excellent series), but this is where I met him. Medieval fantasy, with the mysterious sigil uniting the Crossgen universe being a catalyst to the story, as the main character Prince Ethan is gifted with it, which sets into motion strife and war.

This issue focuses on the villain of the story, Bron, pursuing an escaped slave he fears will join with the underground resistance. Simple enough, and just a piece of a wider tapestry, but I appreciate that the issue has a focus and its own beginning and ending, touching along the way on Bron's cruelty toward those who serve him.

Good issue. Good series. Added to my list of series to read through again.

[thwhtGuardian]

After a pretty hectic couple of days I got to sit down and take this up again.

And today's selection was Action Comics #810 written by Joe Kelly and published in 2003. I know Kelly's work isn't always met with high praise but I'm a big fan of his run on Action Comics, not only because I liked the stories he told but also because it's nostalgic for me as he was the writer on that book at the time when I was getting back into comics again. I was in high school and I had a job at Stop & Shop and a very disposable income that I spent on tons of comics. Previous to this period I only had a meager allowance and so I had to be very discretionary with my budget which meant mainly sticking with just buying Hellboy, back issues of the Ninja Turtles and DC Elseworld stories that fit my fancy, but with a weekly salary that changed in a big way and I found myself buying all kinds of monthly titles and Action was one of them.

This issue in particular stands out as it's a New Years Eve story, there are a lot of Christmas stories, and more than a few that deal with Halloween but to my knowledge this is the only one that does New Years. It's a fun little adventure and one of my favorite comic covers of all time.



I love that classic feel.

[thwhtGuardian]

Perhaps not as random as it could have been as I decided to pull out of my Superman box again, but the issue itself was randomly selected:

Adventures of Superman #500

Part of the Death and Return of Superman story this was my favorite comic as a kid and is still pretty far up there on my list even to this day. I love the story of how Pa Kent goes on an odyssey through the afterlife to find his boy and bring him back, there's something powerful there that just enchants me every time I read it.

And pulling this spurred me on to read some of my other Superman milestone issues so all in all some good reading was had today.

[dupersuper]

This issue in particular stands out as it's a New Years Eve story, there are a lot of Christmas stories, and more than a few that deal with Halloween but to my knowledge this is the only one that does New Years. It's a fun little adventure and one of my favorite comic covers of all time.



I love that classic feel.

It's a great issue, but hardly the only New Years issue. A year or 2 or 3 (1999/2000) before there were several: the Y2K cross over, Superman: End of the Century and the end of No Mans Land in the Batman books (all of which featured Luthor: he was busy that day).

[Chris N]

After a pretty hectic couple of days I got to sit down and take this up again.

And today's selection was Action Comics #810 written by Joe Kelly and published in 2003. I know Kelly's work isn't always met with high praise but I'm a big fan of his run on Action Comics, not only because I liked the stories he told but also because it's nostalgic for me as he was the writer on that book at the time when I was getting back into comics again....

Kelly wrote a great Superman issue where Batman helped him look for clues regarding the disappearance of Lois Lane.

[thwhtGuardian]

hmm, doesn't ring a bell but as he didn't write too many issues I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to find.

[Chris N]

hmm, doesn't ring a bell but as he didn't write too many issues I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to find.

This is what I was thinking of. I have very fond memories of it.

[thwhtGuardian]

I'll have to hunt that down.

For today's pick I give you:

Godzilla: King of the Monsters #22



I don't think I've read this book since I got it. Heck, I don't even remember when or why I bought it. I think I got it in a random lot of comics by Doug Moench five or six years ago but I'm not certain. At any rate it's a team up between Godzilla and Devil Dinosaur so you really cant go wrong, lots of giant monster fun.

[Chris N]

Howard the Duck magazine #1 by Bill Mantlo, Michael Golden, Gene Colan, etc.

Haven't read much Howard the Duck. But I purchased the Essential and will read it someday. I like what Gerber I've read and know I have a lot more to read. My understanding is that the magazine is not well-looked upon, especially by Gerber purists. Because for all Mantlo's strengths and weakness as a writer, he is certainly no Steve Gerber.

This issue isn't great. With art by Golden and Colan, it can't be all bad. And it isn't. But nor is it great. Howard fights a string of villains with some satirical almost-funny points.

[Chris N]

Still not meeting my daily goal. Magazines hurt as they take a bit longer. Howard the Duck was Thursday night's pick. For today, I found Amazing Spider-Man annual 1998 by Tom Defalco and Tom Lyle.

I thought about rejecting the suggestion of the gods of chance as I am involved in a major Spider-Man reading project at the moment. But I'm currently as 1972, so 1998 may take a bit to get to.

For their 1998 annuals, Marvel did a lot of team-ups, often pairing a major character with a more obscure character (perhaps one whose trademark renewal time was near). This issue features Spider-Man and Devil Dinosaur.

A mostly workmanlike issue. It begins with a scientist studying Devil Dinosaur and Moonboy, as activists protest to free the dinosaur. Then a lawyer (secretly Ringmaster) convinces a judge to free Devil Dinosaur so he could join the circus. Ringmaster's plan is to have Devil Dinosaur attract so much attention, crowds, and police security that his gang will be free to rob stores and such. There is plenty of potential in a Spider-Man/Devil Dinosaur story, but none of it is realized here. It is a decent--if overlong--issue, but with little to recommend it.

[Chris N]

As I fell behind, tonight I picked out Astonishing X-Men #10, by Joss Whedon and John Cassady.

Easily my favorite X-Men stories of the last 25 years, these are comics I've read a few times, having bought the issues when they came out, and then later the trades. I find it easier to pick up a trade and reread it, than I do a collection of issues. As of 5 years ago, I stopped buying new comics altogether, and only buy trades. But it's worth the occasional reminder that these comics are published in single issue form and that the single issues are meant to be enjoyed.

Astonishing X-Men, like many modern comics, was very much written with the trade in mind, arranged in nice 6 issue chunks. So issue 10 is part 4 of the Danger story. The Danger Room has gained sentience and wants to fulfill its programming and kill the X-Men. The twist catch is that it turns out the Danger Room came to life many years ago, and only Xavier knew. But Xavier kept it prisoner anyway to continue to use it to train the X-Men. Total jerk move.

This issue is a well-done battle issue consisting of Danger handily taking down the X-Men, then preparing to go after Xavier. Ends on a suitably dramatic note, as Danger approaches Xavier, and Xavier notes that beating the X-Men was easily as its fought them thousands of times, "...but you've never fought me."