It's a pain to store but I blew $300 on that large Crisis box. I had to have it. It does look great in person.
I cancelled the Crisis on Infinite Earths box set as I believe this is just ‘too much of a good thing’, so I ended up buying these instead:
I’m sure it does, but I cancelled that part of my previous order. I just don’t think I could make my way through it.
I just reread this last week. I'm also working my way through the Loeb/Sale Batman collaborations. JohnK
Very nice. What do you think of it? I’m currently reading (and re-reading in some cases) Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. I have the Absolute Editions of those Batman Loeb/Sale graphic novels (The Long Halloween, Dark Victory and Haunted Knight), but I haven’t got around to buying Catwoman: When in Rome, but to my understanding is it’s out-of-print and quite expensive.
I'm reading Legion of Super Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga for the first time...and I'm not enjoying it. We'll see where it goes, but considering it's spoken about with fairly high praise I'm not at all into it.
I am reading "Avengers West Coast:Vision Quest Epic Collection". This is a collection of comics from 1988-1989. I bought these comics at the time as a 12 year old and just looking at these covers again brings me a warm feeling of nostalgia. I don't think I've re-read these issues in 30 years (even though I still have them in a box in the closet and could easily retrieve them). This book has been released to coincide with the "Wandavision" television program, which utilizes certain elements of this story. John Byrne provides story and art and I think it's some of his best work. However, in typical Byrne form, a disagreement with the editor-in-chief leads to his abrupt exit from the book mid-story, which is a drag as he was cooking with gas on this one. He easily elevates what I considered a relatively mediocre series with C-list Avengers (apologies to Hawkeye) and immediately turned it into something I anxiously anticipated month after month.
It is a great read, but it works better when the story unfolds piece by piece on a monthly basis rather than just reading it all at once. One negative of the trade paperback is that the cover contains a massive spoiler for the story (when originally released it was a big mystery who was seeking out objects of power). Paul Levitz, the writer, was known for his very long subplots that would sometimes take a year to play out. He would also have several subplots running at the same time and would advance them bit by bit in each issue. An example of this is one involving Shrinking Violet being replaced by an imposter, it was done so subtly that it was easy to miss (I did) until it was revealed.
Just finished Transperceneige (Snowpiercer). The one pictured collects together the first three volumes. I love the movie and TV series so I wanted to see how much was actually taken from the books. Not much really - the books explore other stories and characters.
Daniel Plainview wrote the following as part of a post: I think the Creative Team is the most important factor in the success of a series, and even what is considered a C-list character has potential in the right hands. An example of this is the 1980s Justice League series, which was supposed to be a return to the glorious days of the classic Justice League of America with the return of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, due to events going on at the time none of the big names were available (although Batman's Creative Team did let them to use him in the Justice League). With most of the big guns not available, they created a Justice League consisting of, addition to Batman, characters at the time considered second and third-string (Mister Miracle, Doctor Fate, Doctor Light [Kimiyo Hoshi], Green Lantern [Guy Gardner], Captain Marvel, Blue Beetle, Black Canary, and The Martian Manhunter). The Creative Team took those characters and made it a massive hit via the writing/art (Kevin McGuire is an outstanding artist), which is some of the funniest I've ever read (the "fight" between Batman and Guy Gardner is considered one of the greatest fights in Justice League history...and one of the funniest). Aquaman is the same way. When he is written well he is an outstanding character. One of my favorite Aquaman stories is "American Tidal" where 1/3 of San Diego sinks into the ocean, and Aquaman takes on the task of protecting the people (most of whom had become water breathers) and helping them adjust to a new life underwater. Likewise with The X-Men. Despite their popularity now, at one time they were considered Marvel's C-List Team, so little thought of that they went to reprints so they didn't have to spend money for new stories. It wasn't until Giant X-Men #1 and a creative team which included Len Wein, Christ Claremont, Dave Cockrum, and John Byrne that X-Men became a massive hit.
The Clone Conspiracy #1 I’m not ashamed to say I only bought it because the backup story has art by Ron Frenz thats reminiscent of Romita but in a more modern context. Unfortunately this was the only story he did for this series. But I would love to see him do a late 60s, early 70s inspired Spider-Man series in the future.
For those interested in graphic novels, Drawn & Quarterly is having a major sale the next two days, 40-60% off everything. I'm picking king up Julie Doucet's Complete Dirty Plotte. D+Q Warehouse Sale! – Drawn & Quarterly
I'm waist-deep in a stack of Silver Surfer comics circa the early '90s, a run of #23-#82 plus some of the Infinity and Resurrection titled titles with some crossover Fantastic Fours and others. Very trippy and fun! I never read these at the time as I'd pretty much given up mainstream type comics around 1986-87 completely. I'm just going to start #76.
Kabuki - Omnibus Vol 1 I am not a big comic book reader but I have loved this series since it first came out and have read it several times.
I'm reading an old trade of the "Contest of Champions" mini-series with my daughter. Last week we read Jeff Smith's new "Tuki" book.
