Sunday, September 16, 2007

No Inspired (Or Even Uninspired) Post Title Today

  1. Once in a Blue Moon, vol. 1 by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, & Jennifer Quick. A rather nice little set-up for an on-going series of graphic novels. Too bad there's no sign of any further volumes.
  2. Monster, vol. 9: A Nameless Monster by Naoki Urawawa. The thriller manga series continues. (Checked out of the library.)
  3. Civil War: Front Line, Book 1 by Paul Jenkins, et al. The more comics from Marvel's Civil War I read, the less I like it, and I didn't have a high opinion of the cross-over before I began. And yet I keep checking the books out. Train-wreck value, I guess. (Library.)
  4. Manhunter, vol. 3: Origins by Marc Andreyko, Javier Pina, et al. It took a while for this comic to grow on me, but I'm glad I gave it a chance, because now I really like it. I hope it returns from hiatus soon.
  5. Strange: Beginnings & Endings by J. Michael Straczynski, Samm Barnes, & Brandon Peterson. A retelling of Dr. Strange's origin that doesn't seem all that necessary & that doesn't add much to the character. Eh. (Library.)
  6. I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks. Bizarre comics from the golden age. These stories read like something written by a grade-schooler, but there is an undeniable energy in the art. And often the stories pull you along by their sheer strangeness. For example, in one story the hero, Stardust, transforms the bad guys into rats & then summons cats to chase them out of the city & into the sea. There most of them drown, but Stardust rescues their leader & restores his human head & then drops the man-rat off at FBI headquarters for interrogation. Weird, weird stuff. (Library.)
  7. Dragon Head, vol. 7 by Minetaro Mochizuki. (Library.)
  8. The Legend of GrimJack, vol. 7 by John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake. The final volume of John Gaunt's adventures. I've said this before, but I am so glad that this series is being collected. I can't wait for the next volume.
  9. Negative Burn Summer 2005 by various. So-so anthology.
  10. Ms. Marvel, vol. 1: Best of the Best by Brian Reed, Roberto De La Torre. I've got a quibble about stories in Marvel Comics. If the events of the Civil War crossover were triggered by an explosion that killed 600-some civilians, shouldn't there have been at least some reaction to events in this comic, in which an army base and a town of 3000 people were wiped off the map? (Library.)
  11. Wet Moon, vol. 1: Feeble Wanderings by Ross Campbell. I like Campbell's art style, but I hated the story, which is full of late-adolescent/early-adult angst & drama. Bleh.
  12. Batman: Detective by Paul Dini, et al. Batman comics written by the person behind Batman: The Animated Series? Yes, please. I especially liked the Joker story that finishes up the volume.

2 comments:

xire said...

Didn't care for Wet Moon either, although i kinda thought that maybe it was just lead up to the main part of the story. I ended up getting rid of it.

Paul Karasik said...

Thanks for the kind words about my book, "I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets: The Comics of Fletcher Hanks".

Readers unfamiliar with Hanks work may want to slide over to the BONUS page of my website for a slideshopw of a full length Fantomah story that does NOT appear in the book:

www.flketcherhanks.com