Comment Policy
Offensive, harrassing or baiting comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted at my discretion.
Comment spam will be deleted.
Please leave a name and either a valid web-site or e-mail address with comments. Comments left without either a valid web-site or e-mail address may be deleted. Atom Feed LiveJournal SyndicationLOLcats feed
Thursday, June 10, 2004
This weeks comics
Well, thanks largely to me personally complaining to our Diamond rep about the inexcusability of the "packing errors" we've been getting lately, they emergency shipped some of our missing books to us, so we did at least get the Batman books and the final Global Frequency in on time for our week-end customers.
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man 2004 by Various, published by Marvel Comics:
Wow...I thought the X-Men OHOTMU they did was bad...all this book tells me is that I'm glad I never really wasted my time reading any of the Spider-Man books to have been published over the last 20 years.
Witches #1 by Brian Walsh and Mike Deodato Jr, published by Marvel Comics:
...I only got this because Pete has a thing about magic-based characters, I swear...It's not so much that it's a bad comic. I've seen bad comics before, it's no big deal. It's just so...dumbly bad...that I'm struck speechless by the whole thing.
Identity Disc #1 by Robert Rodi and John Higgins, published by Marvel Comics:
You know, I've liked Rodi's prose novels. I've even liked most of his comics work. But he must have needed to make a house payment quickly, because so much of this book screams out "rush job to try and capitalize on that other book with the word Identity in the title." And doesn't it rather telegraph how the book will end when you use a variation of the set-up from The Usual Suspects as your prologue? Speaking of which, is it asking too much of Marvel books these days that the first few issues of a new series be something other than "prologue" to the action. I mean, take Secret War...two issues in, and what's the most interesting thing that's happened? The characters got on a plane?
Fallen Angel #12 by Peter David and David Lopex, published by DC:
Everybody seems to be talking about this book lately. I've been enjoying it since the beginning. It entertains me. But it's certainly not "complex" or "ambiguous" or any of the other reasons that people have been citing for why it's not selling better. It's not selling better because it doesn't have an "X" or "Super" or "Spider" or "Bat" in the title.
Globabl Frequency #12 by Warren Ellis and Gene Ha, published by DC/Wildstorm:
Late, but worth it for the Ha art. As far as story...well, it's Global Frequency. If you're not familiar with the concept and style by now, what rock have you been living under?
Dangerous #2 by Various, published by Sin Factory:
One story that's rather sweet, and remarkably PG13-Rated for this publisher, and one story that's damn sexy, if a little shakily drawn. Me, I'm just glad someone is publishing porno comics that aren't of the "very, very specific paraphila" or "naked people stabbing each other" schools.
Demo #7 by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan, published by Ait/Planetlar:
The figures in this issue are much more abstract. It's depersonalizing, making everyone anonymous and interchangeable. It's ideal for soldiers. You don't want to think of the enemy as individuals, and you don't want your own soldiers to think of themselves primairly either. Which makes John's inability to shoot to kill all the more striking by contrast. And another interesting detail: the money John brings home is smudged. Bloodmoney, perhaps?
And as an aside, the all Demo rack I put up last week is doing it's job well. We've already sold out of several issues again. Now that it's not just me pushing the book on people, but that scoundrel Mike as well, more people are paying attention.
Idenity Crisis #1 by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales, published by DC:
I'm of two minds on this sort of thing. On the one hand, sometimes I question the use of super-hero characters in more mature stories. On the other, when those stories are done well it can work magnificently. This is off to a good start. We're given a good over-view of several characters, sketched out well without going into too much detail. And unlike most other "all-prologue" first issues, this one carries with it a real sense of urgency. After all, if this series starts out with the death of a major character, and the story is still being set-up, where is it going to go from here? So, like I said, I'm of two minds. Further issues will be neccessary before I can make a definative ruling, but for now I'm leanind towards this beinga good series. Anything further than that is speculation.
And I can't believe they killed the Crimson Fox!
Also purchased and worth reading: Bite Club #3, Fables #26 and Rocket Raccoon. They're all good, but you should have known that already.