Monday, March 15, 2010
What I Read - Mar 15, 2010
Oishinbo: Ramen & Gyoza - While reading the final chapter in this series I finally gave up and dropped it without even finishing the book. In theory (at least to me) this sounds like a great series but aside from the recipes I find very little to like in this volume. The stories are predictable, the characters are uninteresting, and the artwork is nothing special. They all seem to be there to serve the purpose of telling the reader about whatever dish it is that is featured. I had higher hopes for this series. I won't be searching for any more volumes in this series.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
What I Read - Mar 13, 2010
Sleeper: Season One - The book is fucking solid. That's what I mumbled to myself after reading #11. I've still got one to go. I hope Brubaker didn't fuck it up there. The follow through and intensity in this series is amazing. Lots of stories begin with an interesting premise but usually, at some point or another the ball gets dropped, something significant gets overlooked, and the reader is faced with a choice: accept,ignore, or call "bullshit". If anywhere this usually happens closer to the end than the beginning.
I love the charge I get putting a book down at a crucial point like the one at the end of #11. I have just made a choice, faced a question with just two possible answers: yes or no; should I continue to read? I answer negatively because I want to save something for this time next week. Granted, there's just the final chapter left to read it would be easy and satisfying to finish the book off now but I've got a feeling that it will be satisfying no matter when I finish it off. So, why not wait, delay gratification and fulfillment. It isn't a piece of fruit; it won't mold or decay before this time week. Moreover it gives me something to look forward to. Even if the end doesn't live up to my hopes for it, I'll still be riding an emotional high everytime I think about what I have waiting for me next Saturday morning.
I love the charge I get putting a book down at a crucial point like the one at the end of #11. I have just made a choice, faced a question with just two possible answers: yes or no; should I continue to read? I answer negatively because I want to save something for this time next week. Granted, there's just the final chapter left to read it would be easy and satisfying to finish the book off now but I've got a feeling that it will be satisfying no matter when I finish it off. So, why not wait, delay gratification and fulfillment. It isn't a piece of fruit; it won't mold or decay before this time week. Moreover it gives me something to look forward to. Even if the end doesn't live up to my hopes for it, I'll still be riding an emotional high everytime I think about what I have waiting for me next Saturday morning.
Friday, March 5, 2010
What I Read - Mar 6, 2010
Oishinbo: Ramen & Gyoza - I was hoping for more than what this book has to offer. The recipes sound tasty and have me wanting to try my hand at making ramen but the stories are fairly bland. The artwork gets the job done but it too is not impressive. I suppose that some people might like these kinds of stories but I'm not one of them.
Sleeper: Season One - This is a good collection. I'm starting to gain an appreciation for Sean Phillips artwork. I'm not there completely, but I'm gettin' there. The story is great; everytime I think it is going to zig it zags. Just two chapters to go. I think I know how it is going to end but I've been fooled before.
One thing that I do like about how the story is told is the use of flashbacks. I especially like how the origin stories have been mixed in.
One more thing, and this is of course without knowing whether this character survives or not, I'm entranced by the complexity of Miss Misery. What would love do to her? How does she deal with that? How would anyone deal with that sort of condition? Of course, then there's Holden, whose hands are just dripping with blood at this point. Sure, he's cut a couple people some slack but still. How could he return to a semi-normal life after all that he has done and said. It just doesn't seem possible. I'm very eager to see where it all winds up and where Season Two picks up.
Sleeper: Season One - This is a good collection. I'm starting to gain an appreciation for Sean Phillips artwork. I'm not there completely, but I'm gettin' there. The story is great; everytime I think it is going to zig it zags. Just two chapters to go. I think I know how it is going to end but I've been fooled before.
One thing that I do like about how the story is told is the use of flashbacks. I especially like how the origin stories have been mixed in.
One more thing, and this is of course without knowing whether this character survives or not, I'm entranced by the complexity of Miss Misery. What would love do to her? How does she deal with that? How would anyone deal with that sort of condition? Of course, then there's Holden, whose hands are just dripping with blood at this point. Sure, he's cut a couple people some slack but still. How could he return to a semi-normal life after all that he has done and said. It just doesn't seem possible. I'm very eager to see where it all winds up and where Season Two picks up.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
What I Bought - Feb 27, 2010
Last weekend I went to a small comic book show near Tyson's Corner, VA. I spent close to three hours going through a dozen or so long boxes of books that were completely disorganized. I was looking for a few things and found some of them. The comic books were $1 a piece. If I was more patient I might be able to find them for less at another show, but it was fun looking.
I bought 13 books for $13:
Superman Annual #11 (1985) - which contains the classic story For the Man Who Has Everything by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the same team that created the Watchmen. I saw the cartoon version before reading the original. I've got to say that my memories of the cartoon are better than what I read in the comic book. Of course, there would have been no cartoon without the comic book. Also, I think I had lofty expectations because of (a) my memories of the cartoon and (b) my memories of Moore and Gibbons most famous creation.
Falcon #1, 4 - I picked these up after recently learning that Christopher Priest (who was recently interviewed by the Dollar Bin and who working as Jim Owlsley) was the writer of this series. I've owned #2 of this four-issue limited series from Marvel Comics for years. I bought it when it first came out because it had a Sentinel on the cover. Need I say more? Ok, I will. I never bought or read the rest of the series but listening to Priest made me want to seek out some of his work. I didn't find #3 in the boxes I was looking through.
Batman and the Outsiders #9-12, 16-21 - I bought #1-8 when they first came out, back in 1983-84. I can't remember why I stopped buying this series. Maybe it will come back to me when I re-read the series, maybe not. It may have been a matter of money, or it may have been that I lost interest in comics around then. I honestly don't know. I was looking to complete my run of the portion of the series that was drawn by Jim Aparo. Unfortunately I didn't find # 13, 14, 15.
On the eBay front I've managed to triple the size of my collection of Golden Age comic books in the past week. I've owned an issue of one of the EC Science Fiction Series for a number of years. I believe I bought it when I was in my last apartment, which means I got it between mid 2002 and late 2004. Last weekend I won an auction for a coverless copy of Star-Spangled Comics # 66. I paid $30 for it, plus another $5 for S&H. I probably paid too much for it. I wanted it for two of the featured characters in the book: Robotman and Liberty Belle.
Then today I won an auction for a coverless copy of Detective Comics #152. This time I'll only be paying $11.49, plus $3 for S&H, a much better deal. Once again I wanted it for the Robotman feature. It would be nice to have a copy with a cover but that would also probably cost me considerably more.
I bought 13 books for $13:
Superman Annual #11 (1985) - which contains the classic story For the Man Who Has Everything by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the same team that created the Watchmen. I saw the cartoon version before reading the original. I've got to say that my memories of the cartoon are better than what I read in the comic book. Of course, there would have been no cartoon without the comic book. Also, I think I had lofty expectations because of (a) my memories of the cartoon and (b) my memories of Moore and Gibbons most famous creation.
Falcon #1, 4 - I picked these up after recently learning that Christopher Priest (who was recently interviewed by the Dollar Bin and who working as Jim Owlsley) was the writer of this series. I've owned #2 of this four-issue limited series from Marvel Comics for years. I bought it when it first came out because it had a Sentinel on the cover. Need I say more? Ok, I will. I never bought or read the rest of the series but listening to Priest made me want to seek out some of his work. I didn't find #3 in the boxes I was looking through.
Batman and the Outsiders #9-12, 16-21 - I bought #1-8 when they first came out, back in 1983-84. I can't remember why I stopped buying this series. Maybe it will come back to me when I re-read the series, maybe not. It may have been a matter of money, or it may have been that I lost interest in comics around then. I honestly don't know. I was looking to complete my run of the portion of the series that was drawn by Jim Aparo. Unfortunately I didn't find # 13, 14, 15.
On the eBay front I've managed to triple the size of my collection of Golden Age comic books in the past week. I've owned an issue of one of the EC Science Fiction Series for a number of years. I believe I bought it when I was in my last apartment, which means I got it between mid 2002 and late 2004. Last weekend I won an auction for a coverless copy of Star-Spangled Comics # 66. I paid $30 for it, plus another $5 for S&H. I probably paid too much for it. I wanted it for two of the featured characters in the book: Robotman and Liberty Belle.
Then today I won an auction for a coverless copy of Detective Comics #152. This time I'll only be paying $11.49, plus $3 for S&H, a much better deal. Once again I wanted it for the Robotman feature. It would be nice to have a copy with a cover but that would also probably cost me considerably more.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
What I Read - Feb 18, 2010
I was really surprised by the last couple issues of X-Men that I read, I'm talking about #10 & 11, not of the current series but the original series, surprised in a good way. I really liked them.
X-Men #10 - In this issue the X-Men travel to the Savage Land and meet Ka-Zar, and Zabu. It is the first Silver Age appearance of Ka-Zar. I think part of what made this story so much fun is how it contrasts to the previous 9 issues. For the first time the X-Men are not fighting a superhuman opponent. Instead, they are on an adventure.
X-Men #11 - X-men are back in the civilized world in this story. Cerebro, Professor Xavier's mutant detecting machine, has located a new mutant who maybe the most powerful mutant of all. The individual turns out to be The Stranger, who isn't a mutant but an alien. Professor X and the X-men unsuccessfully try to get to the Stranger before Magneto does, but it turns out that there is a price for Magneto to pay. The twist at the end (which I won't give away here) was a nice touch.
X-Men #10 - In this issue the X-Men travel to the Savage Land and meet Ka-Zar, and Zabu. It is the first Silver Age appearance of Ka-Zar. I think part of what made this story so much fun is how it contrasts to the previous 9 issues. For the first time the X-Men are not fighting a superhuman opponent. Instead, they are on an adventure.
X-Men #11 - X-men are back in the civilized world in this story. Cerebro, Professor Xavier's mutant detecting machine, has located a new mutant who maybe the most powerful mutant of all. The individual turns out to be The Stranger, who isn't a mutant but an alien. Professor X and the X-men unsuccessfully try to get to the Stranger before Magneto does, but it turns out that there is a price for Magneto to pay. The twist at the end (which I won't give away here) was a nice touch.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Big Books
I own two Marvel Omnibuses: The Uncanny X-Men Omnibus (collects Uncanny X-Men #94-131, Annual #3, Giant-Size X-Men #1) and The X-Men Omnibus (collects X-Men # 1-31). Prior to buying them I thought they were a great idea. I was fixated on three advantages that I perceived when comparing Omnibuses to Marvel Masterworks:
There are a couple other classic Marvel series that I want to read that have been released as part of the Masterworks series: Amazing Spider-Man and Thor. There is a Spider-Man Omnibus (possibly two) and I've been toying with the idea of getting it but now I'm leaning much more heavily (no pun intended) toward buying the Masterworks instead, one volume at a time. There is no Thor Omnibus, as of yet, and I was holding out for one but now I don't think that I will bother; I'll get the Masterworks instead.
- The cost per page, each Omnibus contains the equivalent of 3 or 4 Marvel Masterworks, for the cost of 2 or less.
- The page size is a little bigger so the images are a little bigger than they are in a Masterworks.
- The Omnibuses include the letters pages and other other bonus materials that the Masterworks do not.
There are a couple other classic Marvel series that I want to read that have been released as part of the Masterworks series: Amazing Spider-Man and Thor. There is a Spider-Man Omnibus (possibly two) and I've been toying with the idea of getting it but now I'm leaning much more heavily (no pun intended) toward buying the Masterworks instead, one volume at a time. There is no Thor Omnibus, as of yet, and I was holding out for one but now I don't think that I will bother; I'll get the Masterworks instead.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
What I Read - Feb 13, 2010
Powers v12 - Well, I'm finally all caught up on Powers, more or less. I've now read all the stories that have ben collected. All that remains are the few issues of the current series that will presumably be collected some time in the near future. It might be a good idea to give it a rest and read something else instead. That said, I still say that this is an awesome series. This, the final chapter of season/series #2 was no exception and it certainly leaves me wanting for more stories about Walker and Pilgrim.
Sleeper: Season One - I've now read 4 of 12 chapters in this collection. I can't deny that I like it but I'm not ready to call it a classic just yet. Maybe that's because I had extremely high expectations going, possibly due to all the praise this series gets. Maybe that's because when I compare it to other so-called classics that I've read in the past year it doesn't measure up to the best of them (Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knights Returns) even though it does surpass at least one of them (Kingdom Come). Maybe that's because I'm not as enamored by Sean Phillips artwork as some are. It works but I'm just not crazy about it and I'm still getting used to it. Maybe I'll grow to appreciate it like how I eventually grew to appreciate Michael Lark's artwork on Daredevil during Ed Brubaker's stint writing that book. But maybe not, after all my recollection is that I appreciated Lark's artwork from the get go and just developed a deeper appreciation for it as the series progressed. By comparison, Phillips's artwork on Sleeper seems muddy but that maybe the colorist's doing. Then again maybe my head is so into following the story that I haven't the time or desire to focus on the artwork or give it the attention it deserves. I am enjoying the story. It's keeping me guessing and isn't predictable in the least bit, or at least not so far. I like the way Ed Brubaker is layering in back stories, a little here and a little there.
Sleeper: Season One - I've now read 4 of 12 chapters in this collection. I can't deny that I like it but I'm not ready to call it a classic just yet. Maybe that's because I had extremely high expectations going, possibly due to all the praise this series gets. Maybe that's because when I compare it to other so-called classics that I've read in the past year it doesn't measure up to the best of them (Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knights Returns) even though it does surpass at least one of them (Kingdom Come). Maybe that's because I'm not as enamored by Sean Phillips artwork as some are. It works but I'm just not crazy about it and I'm still getting used to it. Maybe I'll grow to appreciate it like how I eventually grew to appreciate Michael Lark's artwork on Daredevil during Ed Brubaker's stint writing that book. But maybe not, after all my recollection is that I appreciated Lark's artwork from the get go and just developed a deeper appreciation for it as the series progressed. By comparison, Phillips's artwork on Sleeper seems muddy but that maybe the colorist's doing. Then again maybe my head is so into following the story that I haven't the time or desire to focus on the artwork or give it the attention it deserves. I am enjoying the story. It's keeping me guessing and isn't predictable in the least bit, or at least not so far. I like the way Ed Brubaker is layering in back stories, a little here and a little there.
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