Over six months ago, I did a blog entry listing listing my Previews order for that month. While the follow-up posts I meant to do reviewing the books never got written (best of that month: 100 BULLETS, BONE: CROWN OF HORNS, FINDER: MYSTERY DATE, KANE 3, PERSEPOLIS 2, SUSPENDED IN LANGUAGE and URSULA), I thought it'd be fun to do another post summarizing my latest order.
Yes, this is comic book stuff. I am a geek. Nerd. Whatever.
Naturally, it's taken me so long to get going on writing this that I've already turned in my Previews order and tossed the catalog in the recycling bin, so I'm going off my withered memory and whatever I can Google up.
86 VOLTZ: DEAD GIRL - I confess, I don't have the highest hopes for this. I'm not expecting it to be True Art or a landmark achievement. However, I really like Oeming's art -- he's the artist for POWERS, which I really like, whenever TPBs make it out. Anyway... the ad copy isn't very clear, but since that didn't deter me from promising to fork over $6 for a copy, I can't bitch too much. It sounds something like a girl, brought back to life with a lightning bolt, with a bad case of amnesia and a grudge match with a witch and her... evil fetus? Evil fetus? Right.
100% TP - I said this the last time I wrote about Paul Pope, but it bears repeating: His art is unlike anything else I've seen in comics, and I think it's a fantastic style. 100% is a black & white science-fiction romance multi-story arc extravaganza. I was looking at my copies of the issues a month or so ago and wondering if DC was ever going to get around to issuing a TPB for this. And here it is.
FABLES: THE MEAN SEASONS TP - To sum up for those who haven't heard of it, FABLES is the story of fairy tale characters who have been chased out of their mythic lands by The Adversary (true identity unknown) into the real world, where they live in exile in New York City, hoping for a return some day to their homelands. It's a lot of fun, and sort of retro-nostalgia. All the characters from your childhood, rejiggered to be something you can read about now that you're all growed up, at least physically.
FILLER GN - More crime noir type stuff that I enjoy so much. The main character is filler. He stands in the police lineups as one of the control group. And then, all of a sudden, he's picked out of the lineup. And like that, it's off to the races. The writer and artist team from TEENAGERS FROM MARS, and the artist also did the two COURIERS books... which I don't think anyone reading this besides me has actually read. So, hey, I'm talking to myself here.
It looks like I'll be ordering Black Diamond when that comes out. ::sigh:: Same publisher. That's how I ran across the ad.
FLIGHT VOL. 2 FLIGHT VOL. 1 was a full-color anthology with all the pieces having something to do with the theme of flight. I hadn't heard of any of the artists. I ordered it anyway. Sort of a gamble. It was fantastic. Now, vol. 2 is coming out. I've actually heard of some of the people. I've seen the awesome cover. I've read the pretty preview (image-heavy page behind that link, in case you couldn't guess). I can't wait to get my hands on the actual book.
HIPIRA: THE LITTLE VAMPIRE I'll do the short version. It's a story about a young vampire, by the author of AKIRA, done with a style reminiscent of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Penny will be read stories like no other kid her age. Well, aside from the kids whose parents allow them to come over to our house more than once.
MAGE VOL. 1: THE HERO DISCOVERED TP - I couldn't believe there wasn't a good web site for MAGE that didn't blow the end of the story, or have a crappy purple background, but the Web has turned to shit in the past few years. Anyway. This collects the first arc of Matt Wagner's semi-autobiographical-except-for-the-wild-fantasy-parts series, MAGE. I've wanted to read the whole series for about, oh, eight years. The first 'collected' edition was in a series of six 40 page booklets about five years ago that were really, ah... not up to the caliber I was looking for. I emailed Matt Wagner and asked if there were plans to issue a real collection of the series, and he wrote back saying, essentially "Not until we sell out of the current printings!" So, five years later... I guess he lives okay off the money from the GRENDEL collections.
NEGATIVE BURN WINTER 2005 - NEGATIVE BURN was an anthology that came out from now-defunct CALIBER COMICS, and is apparently on the comeback. I always feel a little squirmy ordering an anthology, because it's by default a mixed bag. However, the list of names attached to this has me ready to give the first new issue a try.
NEOTOPIA POCKET MANGA VOL. 3 TP - Again, I couldn't believe there wasn't a good web site for the NEOTOPIA series, but the Web sucks. In summary (Karen, let me know if I get anything wrong), NEOTOPIA is a series about a girl whose uncanny resemblence to the princess or duchess or something is taken advantage of by the princess/duchess/whatever by having the girl take the royal's place in her boring lessons, while she flits around doing whatever she wants. And then there's a kidnapping... it's a really great, young adult type series, with talking dolphins and sort of bat creature pilots and a faerie that's... right about when Penny's nine or ten, I think she'll really enjoy this. Or think I'm incredibly lame for thinking she'd like it. One of the two.
NIKOLAI DANTE: THE GREAT GAME - The first NIKOLAI DANTE collection was just a hoot. I even got Liz to read some of it, and she thought it was funny, too, so I'm not out on my own. Nikolai Dante is a womanizing thief who gets accidentially bonded to a bioweapon, and reluctantly adopted into the Romanov clan that rules a futuristic Russia. I'm hoping for more of the same.
PLANETARY: LEAVING THE 20TH CENTURY - New PLANETARY! It's been a dog's age since the last collection came out, it seems. Finally... I can't wait to see what I've missed.
PROMETHEA BOOK 4 TP - I need to re-read the PROMETHEA trades we have in-house. I've completely forgotten where they left off. PROMETHEA started out looking like a bit of a Wonder Woman knock-off, but Alan Moore quickly threw everything all topsy-turvy, and the book became a stage for him to show off some of the most innovative page layouts and plots that I've seen in a while. And the story is pretty damn gripping, too.
QUEEN & COUNTRY VOL. 7: OPERATION SADDLEBAGS - Yet another book that doesn't have a good page. Tara Chace is a British secret agent. She doesn't live a James Bond life. The plots in this book get bleak and bleaker. The weak link in the series is that they get a new artist with every story arc, and I'm never quite sure how I'll like whoever's handling the chores when I get a new collection. I have high hopes, though, because I know that I'll love the writing.
RISING STARS: FIRE AND ASH TP - J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of BABYLON 5 started this series, oh, years ago. And then about three issues from the end the series stopped being published, because of some rancor between JMS and the publisher (Top Cow). Things eventually got ironed out, because the last issues finally came out, and here's the last collection. I had really, really high hopes for this, and I don't know if it's going to live up to them, but I'm glad I at least won't be left hanging forever wondering how it was supposed to end.
SAMURAI EXECUTIONER VOL. 5 - Manga from the same writer/artist team that did LONE WOLF & CUB, this is about about the samurai's sword tester and executioner, Kubikiri Asa, or Decapitator Asaemon. It's more crime and punishment oriented than LW&C was, with a much more gruesome and vile cast of characters (a fair number of which don't survive to the end of the volume they're introduced in). This reminds me, since the start of the new year, the manga I get, and only the manga, has arrived at the comic store shrink-wrapped, and with a mature readers sticker on the cover, under the shrink-wrap. Did some new law get passed when I wasn't paying attention? Or is this just preparation for what the Republicans might get up to soon?
Posted by Matt at January 30, 2005 09:20 PM