What I Read - Week of August 10, 2009

Watchmen - Chapter 5 - Last week I wrote about how I should take my time and savor each chapter of Watchmen. This week I showed that I have zero discipline. I read all of chapter 5 in one fell swoop. I loved how all the different story lines were laid one atop the other the newsstand, Tales of the Black Freighter, Rorschach, Dan and Laurie, Ozymandias. It very different from chapter 4, in which Dr. Manhattan was the focus. The text piece at the end of chapter 5 about the fictional rise of pirate comic books in the 50s and 60s, which Tales of the Black Freighter was part of, was great. The whole chapter was great, possibly my favorite so far. It was like mainlining crack. I just couldn't stop reading.

I definitely wanna buy the Absolute Edition of this book but I'll probably wait a couple years before doing so.

Phantom Stranger # 21, 22 - Not great but they were fun to read. I didn't bother with the back up stories. I was most interested in the Jim Aparo art, sappy dialogue, and half-baked plot.

Superman: The Bottle City of Kandor - Started to read it last night. The first story (from Action Comics # 242) has some great moments. Loved the art work by Al Plastino, especially some of the facial expressions. Loved how silly and simple some of the science is. Both Kandor and Brainiac make their first appearance in Action Comics # 242. I bought the collection because I love those old Superman and Superman family stories from the 1950s and 60s.

I finished reading the story after having dinner at Mark's Kitchen. The waiter ribbed me for reading Superman. He even went as far as to ask the manager if I would get a Superman discount. I did my best to grin and bear it and ignore his silliness.

20th Century Boys v2 - link - This collection is vindicating my faith in Naoki Urasawa. I can see the story is going to be a slow burn and take its time to develop but I like the direction the story is going in and more importantly I like most of the characters. I like the art too. I especially enjoy looking to see the expression on Kanna's face when she does appear. Quite often I have to go back to look for it because she's in the background and I skip right over her. Kanna is Kenji's niece whom he carries around on his back.

Carl Barks' Greatest Ducktales Stories v2 - link - Another fun read. A nice change of pace but I wouldn't want to read stories of Uncle Scrooge, Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie all the time.

Dunn Loring Comicon 809

I went to a small comic book convention in Dunn Loring today.

I wasn't looking for anything in particular. I didn't want to spend much money so I stuck to the discount bins. I looked through a lotta 1/2 price trade paperbacks without buying any. I did pick up a dozen comic books mostly from the early-70s to early-80s.

Phantom Stranger # 21, 22, 23, 24 - I love the the cover and interior art by Jim Aparo on all four of these. It's funny but I never noticed it before now but looking at the cover and some of the interior art of PS # 21 made think of Mike Zeck's art work.

House of Mystery # 290, 307, 308 - While HOM was normally an anthology book but all of these issues include part of the ongoing I...Vampire story. My interest in this series was piqued by this blog posting. The art on the covers by Joe Kubert are much more to my tastes than the interior art.

Showcase # 104 - This was the only comic that I found in the many boxes that I went through with a WWII story. Its the final issue of this anthology series which normally didn't feature war stories. Once again a beautiful Joe Kubert cover but alas no Kubert art on the inside.

Hopeless Savages: Ground Zero # 1, 2, 3, 4 - I thought this was the first but it looks like its the second Hopeless Savages mini-series. Alas. I'll read it anyway. I almost didn't buy it because it has been collected in a trade but it was so low priced that I couldn't resist.

So in all I got 12 comics for $8. Good deal. Even if the comics aren't great reads I had fun looking through the back issue bins.