Back On Track

Two weeks in a row. Maybe I'll be able to maintain my schedule for a while.

235. Essential Uncanny X-Men, vol. 1 by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Jack Kirby, & Werner Roth. Not Stan & Jack's best work, but entertaining enough. I have to say that I didn't particularly care for the issues that Roy Thomas wrote.
     
236. Secret Invasion by Brian Michael Bendis & Leinil Yu. (Checked out of the library.)
     
237. 20th Century Boys, vol. 2: The Prophet by Naoki Urasawa. I'm really impressed with this series and am looking forward to reading more volumes as they are released.
     
238. Humbug, vol. 1 by Harvey Kurtzman, et al. A collection of a humor magazine from the legendary creator of Mad. (Library.)
     
239. Hikaru no Go, vol. 15: Sayonara by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata. More manga about Go.
     
240. The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang & Derek Kirk Kim. Three great stories. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
241. The Mighty Avengers, vol. 4: Secret Invasion, book 2 by Brian Michael Bendis, Khoi Pham, et al. (Library.)

And now for the movies I've watched in the past few weeks.

• Doctor Who: The Armageddon Factor. Finale of the Key of Time storyline.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gamera vs. Barugon. Thanks to Dave for providing the tape to this episode.
  
• MST3K: Lost Continent. Two words: Rock climbing.
  
• Iron Man.
  
• Firefly. Teena's father really enjoyed watching this series with us.
  
• Serenity.
  
• The African Queen.
  
• MST3K: Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster. Another episode courtesy of Dave.
  
• Up. Pixar does it again. Absolutely amazing. Go see this movie. Go see it now. Very touching.

We Apologize for the Interruption in Service

Having a house guest for two & a half weeks throws routines into disarray. But I'm back now, and I've got a lot of catching up to do.

198. Countdown to Final Crisis, vol. 2 by Paul Dini, et al. This got pretty tedious. The stories didn't really progress at all in this volume. (Checked out of the library.)
     
199. Hal Spacejock by Simon Hayes. Humorous science fiction from an Australian author. Not bad, but not really worth the extra cost that comes with being an import.
     
200. Black Jack, vol. 4 by Osamu Tezuka. More medical manga.
     
201. Jack of Fables, vol. 5: Turning Pages by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Russ Braun, & Tony Atkins. Still enjoying this.
     
202. Eyebeam: Render unto Peaches by Sam Hurt.
     
203. Superman: Brainiac by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank. (Library.)
     
204. Stephen King's The Stand: Captain Trips adapted by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa & Mike Perkins. I haven't read the original, but I quite liked this, and Teena (who is a big Stephen King fan) says it looks amazingly like what she pictures when she reads the novel. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
205. Countdown to Final Crisis, vol. 3 by Paul Dini, et al. The stories pick up again in this volume. (Library.)
     
206. The Savage Sword of Conan, vol. 2 by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, et al.
     
207. Essential Spider-Man, vol. 4 by Stan Lee & John Romita. These stories are remarkably good. Really, I think the only stumbling blocks are when Lee tries to depict youth culture. Solid super-heroics.
     
208. Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator, Joe Shuster. The title pretty much says it all.
     
209. Jurgen by James Branch Cabell. I don't know if I got this, when I first read this book, around 15 years ago, but this fantasy novel seems to be an extended metaphor for a mid-life crisis.
     
210. Notes on Jurgen by James P. Cover. Notes on the mythological allusions in Jurgen. Also, the references to Cabell's other works.
     
211. Johnny Boo: Twinkle Power by Jame Kochalka. Kid's comics. (Borrowed from Teena's classroom.)
     
212. She-Hulk, vol. 8: Secret Invasion by Peter David, Vincenzo Cucca, & Larry Strohman.
     
213. X-Men First Class: The Wonder Years by Jeff Parker, Roger Cruz, et al. (Library.)
     
214. Knights of the Dinner Table Bundle of Trouble, vol. 24 by Jolly Blackburn, et al.
     
215. Freakangels, vol. 2 by Warren Ellis & Paul Duffield. I continue to enjoy the webcomic and will be buying collections as long as they keep publishing them.
     
216. Infinity Inc., vol. 2: The Bogeyman by Peter Milligan, Dom Regan, & Pete Woods. I started out buying the individual isues of this series, but it didn't grab me. But I did want to see where things went after I stopped reading. (Library.)
     
217. The Question, vol. 4: Welcome to Oz by Dennis O'Neil & Denys Cowan. This doesn't feel as exciting as it did when the issues collected here were first published, but that's because in the 80s, this was ground-breaking work. Now that it's twenty years later, I've seen stuff like this before. Still pretty damn good, though.
     
218. FX by Wayne Osborne & John Byrne. (Library.)
     
219. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, vol. 4: Time of Your Life by Joss Whedon, Karl Moline, et al.
     
220. Blazing Combat by Archie Goodwin, et al. Some fantastic war comics from the mid-60's, including some amazing art by Gene Colan, Alex Toth, John Severin, Al Williamson, and others.
     
221. The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, vol. 8 by Eiji Otsuka & Housui Yamazaki. (Library.)
     
222. Booster Gold, vol. 2: 52 Pick-Up by Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz, & Dan Jurgens. (Library.)
     
223. Spider-Man 2099, vol. 1 by Peter David & Rick Leonardi.
     
224. MPD Psycho, vol. 6 by Eiji Otsuka & Sho-U Tajima. (Library.)
     
225. Manhunter, vol. 5: Forgotten by Marc Andreyko, Michael Gaydos, et al. The final volume of this series. I'm sorry it's gone, but it did get a longer run than a lot of comics do.
     
226. Fallen Angel, vol. 6: Cities of Light and Dark by Peter David & J.K. Woodward. This pretty much has to be the final volume of this series unless it moves in a drastically different direction.
     
227. 20th Century Boys, vol. 1: Friends by Naoki Urasawa. I was really impressed with this manga about a group of childhood friends & their lives as adults. I will definitely be buying this series as it comes out. There is some real emotion in this story. (Library.)
     
228. Creepy Archives, vol. 2 by various. More horror comics. (Library.)
     
229. Showcase Presents Superman Family, vol. 3 by various. Awesomely stupid comics featuring Jimmy Olsen & Lois Lane.
     
230. MPD Psycho, vol. 7 by Eiji Otsuka & Sho-U Tajima. (Library.)
     
231. Bite Me!: A Vampire Farce by Dylan Meconis. Collection of a webcomic about vampires during the French Revolution. I have to say that for the most part the humor didn't work for me.
     
232. Silver Surfer: Requiem by J. Michael Straczynski & Esad Ribic. Pretty good story about the death of the Silver Surfer. I'm assuming this was never intended to be a part of continuity. Even if it was, it'll be undone pretty damn quick (if it hasn't been already). (Library.)
     
233. Kaput & Zosky by Lewis Trondheim. (Library.)
     
234. Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! by Scott Morse. (Library.)

I'll catch up on movies next time.

Back on Track

Still no Amazon links. I'm not convinced it was an innocent mistake. Plus, allowing Amazon to become a monopoly is not a good thing.

186. Superman: Camelot Falls, vol. 1 by Kurt Busiek & Carlos Pacheco. Read this a while ago, but it took volume 2 long enough to come out that I decided to reread this first. (Checked out of the library.)
     
187. Creepy Archives, vol. 1 by Archie Goodwin, et al. Horror comics in the EC tradition. Pretty formulaic, but well constructed stories. Plus some fantastic art. (Library.)
     
188. Necronomicon by William Messner-Loebs & Andrew Ritchie. More Lovecraftian than most comics inspired than HPL. And it's written by a comic creator who deserves to get more work.
     
189. Templar, Arizona, vol. 1: The Great Outdoors by Spike. I picked up this web comic collection at this year's Stumptown Comics Fest. I liked this, and it seems to have promise, but there's not actually a lot going on in this volume. It's scene-setting, not story. I need to read more to really form an opinion. Fortunately, you can read it online for free!
     
190. Superman: Camelot Falls, vol. 2 by Kurt Busiek, Carlos Pacheco, & Jesus Merino. And here's the second volume. I like the concept here: That civilization naturally rises & falls, and Superman, being an alien, has unnaturally forestalled the next fall. And by doing so, the force behind that fall is growing so that when the next dark age comes, it will be so dark that humanity will be destroyed. (Library.)
     
191. Showcase Presents: Ambush Bug by Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming. Silly, silly comics. Lots of goofiness.
     
192. Sandman Mystery Theatre, vol. 7: The Mist & The Phantom of the Fair by Matt Wagner, Steven T. Seagle, & Guy Davis. More great comics about the Golden Age Sandman.
     
193. Ars Magica: Realms of Power: Faerie by Eric Dahl, Timothy Ferguson, & Mark Shirley. Michael's running an Ars Magica campaign, and I'm playing a magus from House Merinita, so I'm reading up on their specialty: faerie.
     
194. Choice Comix: Sid Love by Terry Toledo. Another Stumptown purchase. Choose your own adventure. This has an interesting twist in that certain choices give you "audio endings." You can go online & listen to a song about that ending. Or something. I haven't actually done it, so I don't know for certain. I guess I should bring the book to the computer & look up the URL.
     
195. Starman Omnibus, vol. 2 by James Robinson, Tony Harris, et al. Yay! Another big collection of the best superhero comic of the 90s. And this edition includes all the issues, short stories featuring supporting characters, and the prose stories from the letters page.
     
196. Air, vol. 1: Letters from Lost Countries by G. Willow Wilson & M.K. Perker. Magical realism (sort of) & an acrophobic flight attendant.
     
197. Eyebeam: Teetering on the Blink by Sam Hurt. The high level of surrealism may be why this comic strip never really took off. I like it, though.

And a few movies:

• Doctor Who: The Stones of Blood.
  
• Doctor Who: The Androids of Tara. An awful lot of Doctor Who adventures are titled "The X of Y", and Y very often is something like "death" or "blood."
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Beginning of the End.
  
• MST3K: Robot Monster. Oh, this is an awful movie, even for MST3K.

Another Skipped Week

Distracted by The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (I finally started playing it again), I didn't leave time enough for updating. I didn't get much read anyway. See you next week.

Surprise!

A day sick at home means I get to update sooner than I expected.

(No Amazon links this time, or in the future unless they fix the ranking fiasco. See here for an explanation of the situation if you are unfamiliar with the situation.)

174. Why I Killed Peter by Olivier Ka & Alfred. Autobiographical (semi?) comic about the writer's childhood, when he was molested by a priest. (Checked out of the library.)
     
175. Danger Unlimited by John Byrne. This holds up pretty well. It's a shame Byrne didn't continue it. (I assume the problem was low sales, not a lack of interest on his part.)
     
176. Wolverine: Logan by Brian K. Vaughan & Eduardo Risso. Pretty good story, but much too expensive. There's no way the collection for a three-issue series should cost $20, not even if it is a hardcover. Not when the issues were the Marvel-standard 22 pages long. (Library.)
     
177. Emma, vol. 8 by Kaoru Mori. The main character's story reached her "happily ever after" in volume 7, but the creator is obsessed with Victorian England, and she continues to write & draw stories about the supporting characters.
     
178. New Mutants Classic, vol. 4 by Chris Claremont, Bill Sienkiewicz, & Steve Leialoha. Some fantastic art, but Claremont's writing quirks are on full display here. Oh, the angst!
     
179. Countdown to Final Crisis, vol. 1 by Paul Dini, et al. I know the DC editors didn't do their job, and this story has nothing to do with Final Crisis. And I've heard that the whole thing is pretty much a train-wreck. But I had to see it for myself. (Library.)
     
180. Madame Mirage by Paul Dini & Kenneth Rocofort. Anatomically improbable cheesecake art and a fairly standard revenge story. (Library.)
     
181. Sardine in Outer Space, vol. 1 by Emmanuel Guibert & Joann Sfar. Cute kid's comic. (Library.)
     
182. The Death of Captain America, vol. 3: The Man Who Bought America by Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting. This is still great.
     
183. Narbonic, vol. 6 by Shaenon Garrity. The final volume of the fantastic web comic. It's amazing how far in advance Garrity planned out this comic and how many little details pay off months & years after they were introduced. I'm looking forward to seeing her at Stumptown this weekend and telling her how much I like her work.
     
184. Little Nothings, vol. 2: The Prisoner Syndrome by Lewis Trondheim. A collection of Trondheim's blog sketches. Little slices of life, often quite funny. If I could read French, I would read them as he posts them. (Library.)
     
185. Powers, vol. 12: The 25 Greatest Dead Superheroes of All Time by Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming. Still going strong.

A couple of movies since last time:

• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Warrior of the Lost World.
  
• MST3K: Outlaw.

Chances are a lot of MST3K movies will be showing up here in the near future. Right now we've got a device that can copy from VHS tapes to DVDs, so we're making the most of it & converting the MST3K episodes Teena taped off the TV.

And the Streak Is Broken

Easter & family commitments kept me from updating today. See you next week.

This Is Getting to Be a Habit

I'm sure I'll break my streak soon enough, but here we go with my fourth on-time update in a row.

162. Myth-Taken Identity by Robert Aspirin & Judy Lynn Nye. I remember enjoying the early Myth Adventures books quite a lot. This was disappointing. Not really bad, but not nearly as funny as I remember the others being, and the plotting was pretty week.
     
163. Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka 002 by Naoki Urasawa. The second volume holds up to the first. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series as it is released in English.
     
164. Green Lantern: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis. Expansion & retelling of Hal Jordan's secret origin & planting seeds for Johns' next big Green Lantern event. (Checked out of the library.)
     
165. Conan: The Blood-Stained Crown and Other Stories. By Kurt Busiek, et al. More Conan comics. (Library.)
     
166. She-Hulk, vol. 6: Jaded by Peter David & Shawn Moll. I wasn't sure I was going to buy the collections of Peter David's run on She-Hulk, but when I checked this out of the library a while back, I decided I would start picking them up.
     
167. She-Hulk, vol. 7: Here Today... by Peter David & Val Semeiks. And here's the second collection.
     
168. Cthulhu Tales, vol. 2: The Whisper of Madness by various. Pretty good horror stories. (Library.)
     
169. Anna Mercury, vol. 1: The Cutter by Warren Ellis & Facundo Percio. Big, over-the-top action.
     
170. Narbonic, vol. 4 by Shaenon Garrity.
     
171. Justice League International, vol. 1 by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, & Kevin Maguire. Fun super-heroics. One of the bright spots from DC in the 80's.
     
172. Bookhunter by Jason Shiga. The adventures of the Library Police in Oakland in 1973.
     
173. Narbonic, vol. 5 by Shaenon Garrity. I got through two volumes this week. Only one to go.

Movies & DVDs

• Doctor Who: The Ribos Operation. The first adventure of the Key to Time story arc.
  
• Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet. Part two. Written by Douglas Adams, and bits of his humor made it through to the final version, despite massive cuts to the script.