read all of my comics

Joe Kubert Tarzan Vol. 1 – The first entry in this series is so good I want to lend it to my dad (he grew up reading his dad’s old copies of Tarzan and John Carter of Mars). Initially, I had a hard time getting into Kubert’s style, being so familiar with his work on war stories, but eventually I got into the groove. His line work is so dynamic it just kills me, and the Burroughs connection gets me right in whatever gland stores and distributes feelings of nostalgia. Excellent, excellent comics.

After The Cape – I am honestly unsure about this one. The plot – superhero loses everything because of drinking problem and ends up turning to crime to support his family – has potential, and there are moments of family drama and dischord that are really affecting. Reading it, though, I felt a little disconnected from it. I don’t know if it was the art, or maybe that the writing was a little stilted. It wasn’t bad. Just not great. Not sure if I am keeping it.

Unknown Soldier Vol. 1 – This series is REALLY good. It’s a cool Vertigo re-imagining of the Unknown Soldier concept: a pacifist doctor haunted by thoughts of violence that he doesn’t understand, returns to Uganda and becomes traumatized by the war there, transforming into the Unknown Soldier. It’s a good mystery story and a good horror story against the backdrop of an awful human condition. Dysart’s dialogue is great, and Ponticelli’s line is great for both the quiet and the terrible moments. A great, great series.

End League Vol. 1 – Rick Remender’s homage to/parody of the last days of DC and Marvel superhero comics. Sounds like something I’d be all over, but I was really disappointed. It read like a Mark Millar story; depressing, deconstructed, and slightly too-smart-for-its-own-good. I want to see how it ends, but I’m afraid it’s not going to be worth the effort. It’s reminding me of Wanted, and I did NOT like how that one ended. Not keeping it for a re-read.

Batman: Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul – Too many cooks on this project. One story spread over four different creative teams on four different titles, it’s generally not going to be as good as one singular vision. Honestly, I don’t know what the point of this story was: the Morrison stuff on Batman was cool, but the Dini stuff on Detective didn’t jive with it. Nicieza on Nightwing was good, but Milligan on Robin seemed like it was a completely different story. A mildly interesting Batman story, only worthwhile if it ties into the overarching Morrison “Batman RIP” saga. I could probably do without this on the shelf, but I might re-read it.

Superman: Strange Attractions – I’d heard a lot of lukewarm-to-negative reviews of this creative arc; how Byrne wasn’t visually interesting any more and how Simone didn’t understand how to write Superman. But when you take the fact that they were writing around Infinite Crisis plot points into account, what you actually have are a collection of cool Superman stories that really explore Superman’s relationship with the Earth in general, and Lois Lane in particular. I really liked how Simone “got” Lois & Clark’s relationship, and there was some REALLY strong John Byrne art (ably assisted by a handful of inkers) in this story. Some people won’t like it. But I think it’s a keeper.

Lone Ranger Vol. 1: Now & Forever – What a way to do an origin story! I only have the most basic knowledge of Lone Ranger lore, but the way that Brett Matthews put everything together in this story – the Ranger, Tonto, the silver bullets, Black Bart, Silver – was really engaging, and the adventure was fun and exhilarating. Great art from Sergio Cariello, with a great line and an eye for action; not a letdown at all (as it sometimes can be when you have John Cassaday covers). Well worth it.

Speak of the Devil – This was a surprise. I really like Gilbert Hernandez’s work on Love & Rockets – I actually prefer his Palomar stories to brother Jaime’s “Maggie & Hopey” stories. His stories deal with the crazy, dark stuff that happen in a small Latin American town. This, though, was a whole new level of darkness and depravity. Small-town secrets lead to a spiral of sex, death, and horror. Don’t get me wrong: it’s a good story. I just can’t say that I liked it.

Incredible Hercules: Love and Death – Yeah, still love Incredible Herc. Nice art this go-around, and I really liked the Femizon world: Pak and Van Lente obviously gave that a lot of thought, and I honestly wouldn’t mind another story set there. If Marvel did that kind of thing, I mean.

JLA/Avengers – This is the series that gave George Perez carpal tunnel syndrome because he was drawing too many characters. Yeah. It’s the most four-colour, most capes-and-cowls, most George Perez-ian comic there is. I think he drew every Justice League and Avengers character. TWICE. It’s a cool story, but mostly an exercise in fanboy over-excitement and, once again, the opportunity for Busiek and Perez to work with any and every character they ever wanted to. This is for superhero fans ONLY. Seeing as how I am a superhero fan, though, I will keep and re-read this for years to come.

Token – My love of Joelle Jones and my fascination for the short-lived Minx series of books meant I pretty much had to pick this one up. And while the story doesn’t speak to me the way it would a younger woman, the art is still fantastic. I’m keeping it purely on the strength of the art.

Popgun Vol. 1 – A great, great, GREAT comics anthology. All kinds of genres and styles put side by side and you just go along for the ride. Definitely worth owning.

Young Liars, Vol. 1 – It is sick and twisted and sexy and horrible and funny. Plus, a good mystery well-told. I am looking forward to reading more of this in the future. Definitely worth keeping around for at least one more re-read.

Incredible Hercules, Vol.3: Secret Invasion – Incredibly fun superhero action, that’s also thoughtful and funny and (usually) well-drawn. Hercules and a handful of Marvel gods (the God Squad) fight to kill the Skrull deities. It doesn’t make sense if you haven’t read any of the other Secret Invasion stories, but as part of a generally-interesting crossover, it really stands out.

Absolute Watchmen – If you like Watchmen and you are wondering if the Absolute version is worthwhile, the answer is DEFINITELY. (Especially if you get it for 50% off like I did.) I got so much out of the art in the oversized form, and the extra materials were great to read. Watchmen is brilliant; Absolute Watchmen is brilliant PLUS.

Batman: The Killing Joke – I read both the “original” version and the re-coloured hardcover release, and I honestly don’t know which one I like better. They’re both very different reads, and each is good in a similar but distinct way. I’m keeping both, but I don’t know which one I’ll re-read first.

Fantastic Four Hardcover, Vol. 3 – Oh my god. I love Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo on this book. I could back up and talk about the Frightful Four story that starts off this collection (some very good work from Waid, Karl Kesel, and Paco Medina), but the only reason I have this hardcover is to complete my Waid/Wieringo FF collection. It may hurt some purists, but they are my favourite FF creative team (with Kesel on inks), and it absolutely pains me that Wieringo will never be able to draw another FF comic. Hell, another comic of any kind, ever. Still: I have this to remember him by, and his work on this series is EXCEPTIONAL. One of the few times an artist has affected me more than a writer. I will hold on to this hardcover – and the two before it – for a long, long time.

City of Silence – Ugh. I love Warren Ellis, and I like Gary Erskine, and I picked this up for $8.50. But after reading it, I regret spending that $8.50. I don’t want to say anything terribly bad about it, but here’s what I was underwhelmed with: “these people are all unlikable and trendy and I defy you not to like and hate them” characterization in the stock Ellis style, late-80s/early-90s coloring, and a story that I didn’t care about. Normally, this constellation of creators would be something that I would be 100% behind; after reading it, I just want it off my bookshelf so I can make room for something good.

Spider-Man Noir – I didn’t expect this miniseries to be very good (a trendy “noir” re-imagining of Marvel heroes), but it actually was. Then again, co-writer David Hine had already won me over with his combination of superheroes and crime, and the Carmine Di Giandomenico is a really interesting combination of Ditko, Romita, and Templesmith. Surprisingly, I really liked it, and am looking forward to the second Spider-Man: Noir series.

Essential Fantastic Four Vol. 1 – Super cheesy and super-dated, but also kind of fun. You can tell that Lee & Kirby (in whatever ratio you’re comfortable with) are essentially making it up as they go along, but watching the characters, the storytelling, and the style change as you go from issue to issue is really interesting. They make little-to-no logical sense, and are sometimes painful to read, but if you were ever a kid who dreamed about something…something fantastic, then you would have loved this. Worth a read, but it would have been even better in colour. I may keep this for a while, but if I start running out of room on the shelf, I wouldn’t have a problem getting rid of it.

I’ve been reading a LOT of my trades lately. I don’t know what it is, but I think I’ve gone through at least three trades or OGNs per week for the past four weeks. I will write mini-reviews for them – and for the ones I read in January – tomorrow some time, when there’s a break from the OLYMPICS, but I’ve been feeling pretty good about my pace, actually. I might have most of them read by NYCC!

I said I’d eventually get to this, so I might as well just do it and stop making a liar of myself. Here are the comics I read for December (aside from the Geek Brunch ones):

Lone Wolf & Cub Vol. 1-3 – I love Lone Wolf & Cub. Mostly because I love samurai adventures and comics and good storytelling, and LW&C fits all three criteria to a T. Depending on your mood, you can burn through one volume in a half-hour or read at a leisurely pace and be done in an hour or an hour & a half. And they’re very re-readable. I have quite a few volumes sitting on my shelf, and I don’t see myself getting rid of them any time soon.

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 3 – Loved the first two volumes of this series, and while Vol. 3 wasn’t quite as good, but it’s still a collection of cool stories, exploring the FF’s adventures in the negative zone, Annihilus’ attempts to destroy the positive AND negative matter universes, and tying up a loose end from Stan & Jack’s run. My biggest complaint is that the last three stories in the collection are really poorly reproduced: splotchy and hard-to-read. Still, though: fun FF comics, some of the best.

Tales Designed To Thrizzle Vol. 1 – LOVE. EVERYTHING. ABOUT. THIS. From Twain & Einstein to The Amazing Nut Bra to Snake & Bacon and beyond. Really twisted humour and great design to boot. More people should read it!

So in the midst of the play, comics reading fell off a bit. But last Monday I took the day off, and my friend and I had Geek Brunch 2. We got Eggs Benedict from the New York Bagel Cafe, and read a lot of comics. I got through the following: Mysterius The Unfathomable #1-6 (VERY good!); Madame Mirage #1-6 (not great but better than I’d anticipated, not a bad deal for $12); Legends #1-6 (1980s DC comics drawn by John Byrne, so pretty good); and Asterios Polyp, an OGN by David Mazzucchelli which was BRILLIANT and EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT. Even if you think you don’t like comics, this is almost a master class on the subject.

That was a lot of reading, it’s true, but I still have a lot to get through. Maybe over holidays I’ll read more, make a giant page of mini-reviews, and fire those off by 2010. What? Stranger things have happened!

Seriously, since when is reading and having fun this hard?

So the whole Geek Brunch thing didn’t work past one weekend, and I keep acquiring comics faster than I can read them. But I have a new plan: I’m going to have a stack of ten trades/story arcs out on my desk at once, as a reminder; when I finish one, I’m going to write about it on AllConsuming, and then every couple of weeks I’m going to post a summary on here, with an additional rating: Permanent Collection, Possible Re-Read, or Jettison. That way I can hopefully become more accountable for my own reading habits as well as proving to my lovely wife (who doesn’t understand comics at all) that yes, I can get rid of comics. Sometimes. Maybe.

Let’s hope this new new plan works out okay…

I went over to my friend’s place on Sunday morning and we did nothing but read comics and eat breakfast for 2 hours. I thought I would be able to get through a lot of comics then, but I only re-read my Final Crisis (a recent series that broke my brain the first time through). Next month, though, there will be another brunch, and I will PLOW through those babies!

I’ve also started reading 5 trades/series of single issues over the past 2 weeks, thanks to my new system, so that’s going well too. Some (limited) progress, finally!

So, my 10 trades in 30 days plan didn’t work, and another plan for my friend and I to get together and do nothing but read comics for an afternoon didn’t fly either. I’m getting a little frustrated in my inability to get a good start on this goal, so I’m putting my foot down. I’m going to have a legitimate, serious plan, with a suggested timeline and a number of short-term goalposts, by the end of next week. Then I’ll take it from there. But considering how many new comics I got over Christmas holidays, I’m going one better: until I make this timeline and make some serious progress on it, I will buy no more back issues or trade paperbacks. I’ll still buy the new weekly stuff, because I’m still addicted, but I’m not going to make this goal any harder than it already is.

On one of the comics forums I frequent, one of the members suggested a reading challenge: read 10 collected editions or graphic novels in 30 days. I have more than 10 unread comics on my shelf, so I figured I should sign up. So that’ll help towards this goal.

(As for single issues, though…I need to work harder on it…)

According to my collecting software, I have nearly 3100 single comic issues. According to my ListsofBests, I have approximately 90 unread trades/hardcovers on my bookshelf. I thought a good challenge for myself would have been to get this all done by December 1 this year, because that way if I don’t like something I can give it away as a Christmas exchange or sell it and try and get Christmas money. That means that I would have 158 days, which I’ll round up to 160. That means that I would have had to read 20 comics a day and slightly more than two trades every three days. That is NOT enough time.

BUT. If I read a minimum of 8 single issues per day, plus a trade here and there, I will be done in a year. I will try to keep to that schedule. And try and get as many done as I can by December.