2012 what are you reading thread

I lucked into a pack of the first six Defenders issues, all alternate covers, at Big Brain Comics in mpls for like $10 or something

xp oh man it's amazing, probably the best arc in his JLA run, which is saying something.

I've never read Morrison's Rock of Ages! New recommendation, I guess

Read the entire Morrison JLA run though, not just that one!

I lucked into a pack of the first six Defenders issues, all alternate covers,

.......alternate covers?

Yeah, shops get a different cover on one of ten copies or something, some sell them as collectibles.

Multiple Warhead, wow.

Warhead(s), natch.

Yeah, shops get a different cover on one of ten copies or something, some sell them as collectibles.

Yeah but surely not on the first six Defenders!


btw Grant’s run is:
JLA #1-15 (Rock Of Ages is 10-15),
- You can read JLA Secret Files & Origins #1 anywhere between #4 and #10, but it’s inessential.
- You can read JLA/Wildcats in the same area if you really feel you need to, but don't come crying to me afterwards.
- It’s totally worth reading Aztek #1-7 before JLA #1, and Aztek #8-10 before JLA #10

Prometheus #1
JLA #17-18
JLA #22-23

DC One Million
- Grant wrote DC1M 1-4 and JLA 1,000,000, but also ghosted/plotted a lot of the others. A decent spread covers
- Chronos #1,000,000
- DC One Million #1
- DC One Million #2
- Man Of Steel #1,000,000
- Superman #1,000,000
- Starman #1,000,000
- JLA #1,000,000
- DC One Million #3
- Flash #1,000,000
- Action Comics #1,000,000
- Adventures Of Superman #1,000,000
- Man Of Tomorrow #1,000,000
- Resurrection Man #1,000,000
- DC One Million #4
- Hitman #1,000,000 is hilarious but not part of the plot.

JLA #24-26
JLA #28-31
JLA #34
JLA #36-41

(#27 is by Mark Millar and is just about OK, #42 is by D Curtis Johnson and is quite good, #35 is by JM DeMatteis and is part of some crossover bollocks, the other fill-ins are by Mark Waid or Waid/Grayson and don’t impact your reading by omission. There are also three pages of Morrison in some New Gods Secret Files & Origins special or something which you can probably live without.)

MULTIPLE WARHEADS is really good.

Don't have the Oni Multiple Warheads, so theoretically waiting for the all-in-one but may change my mind if the shop has shelf copies

MULTIPLE WARHEADS is really good.

Car named "Lenin", cuz it ain't "Stalin".

Is Aztek worth the effort, then?

Speaking of effort, reading the AV Club writeups of Sandman has made me want to delve back in and read the whole run. (I bailed after A Game of You, back when the singles where coming out). Should I dare? Is there good stuff there or just a lot of the usual Gaiman wankery?

A Game of You is kind of its own tributary, it doesn't go any further in that direction. It is also possibly the most interested he gets in recognisable humans.

After that it's a short story collection, a Dream and Delerium road trip (probably my favourite, but I have an unrepresentative fondness for Jill Thompson's art), another collection of stories (and stories of stories, aaah do you see?), a really long unfocused story which should be the grand thematic centre of the book, but where Gaiman by his own admission lost the plot a bit (but there is a lot of Marc Hempel art!) and a v. serious and meaningful coda.

oh i could play a game of you darling
still i'd be so l33t
oh i would still be so 133t

Is Aztek worth the effort, then?

it is mad flawed but if you're reading his JLA run for the first time and not paying for any of it, it's well worth including

a really long unfocused story which should be the grand thematic centre of the book, but where Gaiman by his own admission lost the plot a bit (but there is a lot of Marc Hempel art!)

where did he admit this? it's the best long book of the series imo (mainly because it's the only one with good cartooning) (Matt Wagner single ish is the absolute best bit)

I may have to [citation needed] that, I've definitely seen it but have no idea where - it seemed pretty clear at the time as well, 19 months for 13 issues, not much happening when they did come out, a lot of wait what is actually happening here.

Sandman has some really nice moments, although I'm still unsold on the entire Daniel character arc as set up and acted out.

Sadly, the things that stick with me the most are the most ridiculous Gaiman-esque gothy lines, like the guy from the undertaker realm explaining his first sexual experience with a line like "I spent my seed on a craven skull" or something like that

Game Of You really turned me off at the time b/c it seemed like such a ripoff of Jonathan Carroll's Bones of the Moon.

like the guy from the undertaker realm

^ the worst issue

Predictably, THE ZAUCER OF ZILK is neato in my book. At least the first half.

Remember when Gaiman deciphered the secret of marketing and made Death a cute girl?

hahaha that Hawkeye review is terrible and pretty much misses the point of the series, which is this is basically a madcap book drawn in the style of early 100 Bullets

Hawkeye is a chill bachelor dude, redeemed shady past, has a sweet car. How can you dislike it?

He's the new Luke Cage now that Cage has a kid and is all boring and shit

SWEET CHRISTMAS

also that review has a complete and total misreading of the Clint/Kate relationship IMO; at this point, it's basically a brother/sister relationship and any sexual tension is coming from her and so far has manifested as "I cannot believe how inappropriate you are"

now it could TURN into an actual sexual chemistry/unrequited passion thing but at the moment it's much more in the "I recognize you're attractive but no gonna happen" zone, which makes a good amount of sense given the ages of the characters

also I don't think my sporadic dips into the Young Avengers world fully showed me how hilariously awesome Kate Bishop is

Fraction’s worst writing since the cussing dwarf from Iron Man

Fraction needs to have this dude just randomly show up in every comic now to spite that review

Just read the first TPB of Brian Vaughan's and Fiona Staple's Saga, and enjoyed it a lot! Staples' self-coloured art looks great (she's put tremendous effort both to the grandiose sci-fi imagery, and to smaller details like character body language), and it's nice to read a new series that makes it clear right from the start that it's gonna be long and epic in scale... I assume Hazel will eventually become the main character (since she's the one narrating the book), even though it begins with her birth and at the moment focuses on her parents. There are some mildly irritating Vaughanisms present (I get that he likes to write "natural" dialogue, but I don't see why futuristic interplanetary soldiers with wings and horns and magic powers have to speak like 2010s urban Americans), but mostly it feels like the beginning of a great ride. Let's just hope it stays away from the worst Vaughanism of them all, his tendency to kill main characters in his books just for the sake of melodrama.

Too late!

this shit cray

http://royalboiler.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/ike.jpg?w=640&h=490

It looks cray! What is it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transmutation_of_Ike_Garuda

enjoyed the Masters of the Universe: Skeletor origin story way more that I expected.

getting Frazer Irving to do the art makes sense as there's a strong Klarion/Gothic outcast vibe to the story.

I thought the Fraction/Larocca Iron Man sort of ran out of fuel half a lap from the finish line, but I do think overall it was solid, successful work. I took a look at the new series #1 (Kieron Gillen/Greg Land) yesterday and wanted to barf.

Marvel "NOW!!!!!1!" is supposed to be giving loads of people a great spot to hop on the train, but it's giving me a great place to hop off.

I wasn't sold on the art in the new Iron Man by a long way (Greg Land, wtf) but the writing had some potential

Yeah, I will hold off on being all judgey about the writing and general approach to the character until after the 1st story arc ends, but it was a bad sign for me that Gillen wrote specifically to Land's alleged strength -- the nightclub and penthouse scenes with the pneumatic blonde.

haha, true

I couldn't figure out who Land was modeling Tony Stark's appearance on. Half-melted GI Joe?

Sometimes I would swear Land and Dave Sim get together to cut up fashion magazines and divvy up the photo reference. And then do each other's hair and nails.

xp hahahahaha

I don't see why futuristic interplanetary soldiers with wings and horns and magic powers have to speak like 2010s urban Americans

I'm w/ Tuomas--really liked the SAGA tpb. I just tell myself that I'm reading future/alien translated into modern English.

Really loved the Chaykin/Mignola adaptation of "Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser" by Fritz Leiber (whom I haven't read yet, need to remedy this asap!) Fun sword&sorcery buddy comedy, amazing how good Mignola's art was even before he got started on "Hellboy".

I have the White Wolf paperbacks of the Fafhrd-Mouser stories which have Mignola covers and spot illos-- and this is full, mature Mignola we're talking about. Love them.

re saga: i'm not sure but aren't they speaking esperanto?

i'm not so much reading Building Stories as holding it, unpacking it, shuffling it...v slightly disappointed to find that I already have the longest section, in a nicer edition, as Acme Vol 18 - although tbf, that is my v fave Chris Ware comic/fetish object of all time

i also started to read the new charles burns, but realised i cldn't remember a damm thing abt the previous volume, so need to go back and re-read. will prob need to do the same again when the third vol appears.

continue to enjoy the lucky luke and blake and mortimer translations issued by cinebooks who, despite their shortcomings - ugly computer lettering, smaller size albums, censoring some of the material - continue to give the monolingual the chance to finally enjoy some of the greatest comics ever made.

Lucky Luke is pretty rad.

About to delve into the new GODZILLA series.

i bought a buncha stuff at the BK comics festival but am not with power or in my home yet but lots to recommend.
Starting with TRUE SWAMP comp!

still no power? damn dude!

re saga: i'm not sure but aren't they speaking esperanto?

The horned magical race's native tongue seems to be Esperanto, yeah. But there's some kind of translation spell that allows the different races speak with each other, and when they do, they speak like 2010s Americans.

continue to enjoy the lucky luke and blake and mortimer translations issued by cinebooks who, despite their shortcomings - ugly computer lettering, smaller size albums, censoring some of the material

Censoring?

on some of the more 'adult' titles they publish, they have covered up some of the nudity, removed some of the swearing etc (they claim it's been done with the artists' agreement.)

but at least lucky luke still has his cigarette

and Blake & Mortimer and Spirou are still the super-racists we know and love