Recent Purchases 7-13
Jul. 13th, 2004 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jkcarrier
BPRD #5: Very creepy and cool, although I'm still not clear on how Abe ties in with the frog-demons. Guy Davis does a great job on the artwork. Still, I can't help but wonder what that extended dream sequence would've looked like if Mignola had drawn it.
DC COMICS PRESENTS BATMAN: Both Johns and Wein turned in clever, tight, Silver Age-y stories, and the art's great too. Infantino and Giella still have their chops. I'm really looking forward to the rest of these one-shots.
THE MOTH #3: American Liberty is totally stealing this book from the star. She's great. The rest of the book is pretty good too... love the big fake-out the Moth pulls on the gangsters.
COMMON GROUNDS #6: Probably my least favorite issue in this otherwise excellent series. Usually, Troy's sentimental streak is balanced out by his smartass humor, but this issue has too much of the former and not enough of the latter for my tastes. The American Pi story in particular is irritating with its shallow, one-sided "debate" on patriotism. Nice art by Kieth, though. I'm still hoping this book gets picked up for another mini-series, at least.
ASTONISHING X-MEN #2: Holy shit. After 20 years, I've been sucked back into an X-Men book. Gorgeous art, intriguing plotlines, laser-sharp dialogue... what's not to like? The scene with Kitty and Emma was intense, and the cliffhanger with Hank... whoa. Outstanding stuff.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #28: What the hell...? Robert Morales goes out with a bang, and a bizarre time-paradox scenario that's pretty far removed from his previous stories. I can't help but wonder if this isn't his response to the people who complained that his Cap stories were too serious and political. It's a shame that this run was cut short, he was doing great stuff with Steve Rogers. Now I hear the next writer is going to go all '80s nostalgia with it... ugh. Color me gone.
X-STATIX #24: Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Best superhero fight scene ever! Milligan has just been brilliant on this entire arc. So naturally the book is ending soon. Damn it, Marvel, you've got some good things going here, quit fucking them up!
HARLEY & IVY #3: Man, you can tell that this story has been in the works for a while... a whole issue of Joel Schumacher jokes? Well, it's still sexy, slapsticky fun.
PLASTIC FARM #6: Starts and ends strongly, with some of those freaky, hallucinogenic visuals that Rafer does so well. But the middle section, with Chester droning on and on about his lousy childhood, starts to bog down a bit. I wanted to elbow Chester in the ribs and say "All right, I get it already, you were unpopular in school. Get on with it!". But that sequence with the Demon Spider Monkey is worth the price of admission by itself.
COMIC EFFECT #39: This is the Julius Schwartz tribute issue, with comments on various books he edited, a review of his autobiography, and even a listing of all the titles he worked on from the '50s to the '80s. Jim Kingman and co. pour a lot of love into this zine, and it shows.
THE UNCANNY DAVE COCKRUM: A nice little tribute, with essays and pin-ups from various comics notables -- everyone from Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, Neal Adams, Jim Lee, on down to others less well-known. It might've been nice to see more of Cockrum's OWN work in here. (They did manage to dig up a piece of Flash fan-art he did back in 1965, which is hilarious!) A great book for a great cause, go out and get one.
EIGHTBALL #23: Wow, this is some dark, dark stuff. Makes an interesting counterpart to the Spider-Man movie... you can almost hear Clowes chuckling, "You like fucked-up teenagers with superpowers? You ain't seen nothing yet, True Believer!" My first instinct is that I didn't like it quite as well as #22, but there's a lot going on here, and it'll take a couple more readings for me to really digest it.
DC COMICS PRESENTS BATMAN: Both Johns and Wein turned in clever, tight, Silver Age-y stories, and the art's great too. Infantino and Giella still have their chops. I'm really looking forward to the rest of these one-shots.
THE MOTH #3: American Liberty is totally stealing this book from the star. She's great. The rest of the book is pretty good too... love the big fake-out the Moth pulls on the gangsters.
COMMON GROUNDS #6: Probably my least favorite issue in this otherwise excellent series. Usually, Troy's sentimental streak is balanced out by his smartass humor, but this issue has too much of the former and not enough of the latter for my tastes. The American Pi story in particular is irritating with its shallow, one-sided "debate" on patriotism. Nice art by Kieth, though. I'm still hoping this book gets picked up for another mini-series, at least.
ASTONISHING X-MEN #2: Holy shit. After 20 years, I've been sucked back into an X-Men book. Gorgeous art, intriguing plotlines, laser-sharp dialogue... what's not to like? The scene with Kitty and Emma was intense, and the cliffhanger with Hank... whoa. Outstanding stuff.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #28: What the hell...? Robert Morales goes out with a bang, and a bizarre time-paradox scenario that's pretty far removed from his previous stories. I can't help but wonder if this isn't his response to the people who complained that his Cap stories were too serious and political. It's a shame that this run was cut short, he was doing great stuff with Steve Rogers. Now I hear the next writer is going to go all '80s nostalgia with it... ugh. Color me gone.
X-STATIX #24: Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Best superhero fight scene ever! Milligan has just been brilliant on this entire arc. So naturally the book is ending soon. Damn it, Marvel, you've got some good things going here, quit fucking them up!
HARLEY & IVY #3: Man, you can tell that this story has been in the works for a while... a whole issue of Joel Schumacher jokes? Well, it's still sexy, slapsticky fun.
PLASTIC FARM #6: Starts and ends strongly, with some of those freaky, hallucinogenic visuals that Rafer does so well. But the middle section, with Chester droning on and on about his lousy childhood, starts to bog down a bit. I wanted to elbow Chester in the ribs and say "All right, I get it already, you were unpopular in school. Get on with it!". But that sequence with the Demon Spider Monkey is worth the price of admission by itself.
COMIC EFFECT #39: This is the Julius Schwartz tribute issue, with comments on various books he edited, a review of his autobiography, and even a listing of all the titles he worked on from the '50s to the '80s. Jim Kingman and co. pour a lot of love into this zine, and it shows.
THE UNCANNY DAVE COCKRUM: A nice little tribute, with essays and pin-ups from various comics notables -- everyone from Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, Neal Adams, Jim Lee, on down to others less well-known. It might've been nice to see more of Cockrum's OWN work in here. (They did manage to dig up a piece of Flash fan-art he did back in 1965, which is hilarious!) A great book for a great cause, go out and get one.
EIGHTBALL #23: Wow, this is some dark, dark stuff. Makes an interesting counterpart to the Spider-Man movie... you can almost hear Clowes chuckling, "You like fucked-up teenagers with superpowers? You ain't seen nothing yet, True Believer!" My first instinct is that I didn't like it quite as well as #22, but there's a lot going on here, and it'll take a couple more readings for me to really digest it.
