Sunday, April 03, 2005

Still trying to get caught up.

  1. Talk to the Hand! by G.B. Trudeau. This is a Doonesbury collection. It includes the strips in which B.D. loses his leg in Iraq. (Checked out of the library.)
  2. Ultimate Nightmare by Warren Ellis & Trevor Hairsine. That's not the full title of the book, but the full title gives away a revelation from the end of the book. You'd think somebody at Marvel would know better than to put spoilers in the title.
  3. Starman: Sons of the Father by James Robinson & Peter Snejbjerg, with David Goyer. This wraps up the collections of the Starman comic. (Well, there are a handful of uncollected issues, the Shade miniseries, and some short stories from Showcase. I really hope DC decides to put out another collection.) This was my favorite superhero comic of the past few years, and I'm very happy that the entire run (mostly) is available in book format. I just wish Robinson were still writing comics. He does much better at that than he does at screenplays (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).
  4. Queen & Country, vol. 5: Operation Stormfront by Greg Rucka & Carla Speed McNeil. This series can be damn depressing, but considering that it's a realistic treatment of spies, that's not surprising. Because the artist changes with each storyline, the art quality can vary quite a bit, but they made an excellent choice for this story. McNeil's style works very well for the subject matter, even though it's very different from her own, excellent, series, Finder.
  5. Kingdom of the Wicked by Ian Edgington & D'Israeli. (Library.)
  6. The Punisher, vol. 3 by Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, & Tom Mandrake. More ultra-violence.
  7. Queen & Country, vol. 6: Operation Dandelion by Greg Rucka & Mike Hawthorne. What can I say? I like this series.
  8. Venom vs. Carnage by Peter Milligan & Clayton Crain. I picked this up because I generally like Milligan's writing. Unfortunately, I couldn't stand the art. Also, I don't understand the popularity of Venom as a character, so I wasn't exactly the target audience for this.
  9. Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again by Frank Miller. Not everybody liked Miller's sequel to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Certainly the tone is very different. But I liked it quite a bit, not the least for the digs at Shrub.
  10. My Faith in Frankie by Mike Carey & Sonny Liew.
  11. Dr. Radium Collection, vol. 3: It's Science with Dr. Radium by Scott Saavedra. For some reason, the very first Dr. Radium stories weren't reprinted until volume 3 of this series. Very silly stuff about the power of Science! (complete with an exclamation mark).
  12. Tryx by Matt Howarth.
  13. Shaman King, vol. 5: The Abominable Dr. Faust by Hiroyuki Takei.
  14. Queen & Country Declassified, vol. 1 by Greg Rucka & Brian Hurtt. This is a spin-off of the main series. The spy story here is set back in the 80's.
  15. Spyboy: Final Exam by Peter David & Pop Mhan. And we move from a realistic spy story to a completely ludicrous one. But still entertaining.
  16. Fortune & Glory: A True Hollywood Comic Book Story by Brian Michael Bendis. I felt like rereading about Bendis's attempts to sell one of his graphic novels in Hollywood. The more I learn about the way the movie industry works, the more amazed I am that anything good ever gets made.
  17. Maison Ikkoku, vol. 7 by Rumiko Takahashi. More of the romantic comedy series.
  18. The Book of Ballads by Charles Vess et al. These stories are adaptations of folk songs from the British Isles. Vess's art, as always, is absolutely beautiful.
  19. The Life Eaters by David Brin & Scott Hampton. This is an adaptation & expansion of Brin's novella "Thor Meets Captain America" about an alternate history where Germany wins WWII because they were able to summon the Norse gods.
  20. Sleeper, vol. 3: A Crooked Line by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips. This series is very dark; how could it not be when it's about a man who goes undercover in a criminal organization & is abandoned there when the one person who knows the truth ends up in a coma?
  21. Samurai Executioner, vol. 1: When the Demon Knife Weeps by Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima. By the creators of Lone Wolf & Cub, this series is related to the other. It has more information about execution practices in feudal Japan than you may have wanted to know.
  22. 2 Sisters: A Super-Spy Graphic Novel by Matt Kindt. (Library.)
  23. In Nomine by Derek Pearcy. I've got to refamiliarize myself with this game if I'm going to be running it soon.
  24. Planetary, vol. 3: Leaving the 20th Century by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday. In some ways, this feels similar to what Alan Moore does in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels. Ellis pulls in pop culture references from all over the place (Tarzan , Jules Verne & the Fantastic Four make appearances in this volume).
  25. Point Blank by Ed Brubaker & Colin Wilson. This volume serves as an introduction to the Sleeper series.

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