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1000 books in 2020
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670 posts in this topic

For anyone who wants a lot of quality Image Comics reading material in one go, there's a brilliant digital comics offer on Humble Bundle.

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166 to 170

Man and Superman and other Stories

An EC collection that I’ve been wanting to get around to re-reading;  stories by Harvey Kurtzman, one of comics’ greatest cartoonists.

Simply masterclass level; varying the tone effortlessly from humorous to dark, fluid figure work, emotive facial expressions, just brilliant story pacing.  I prefer his style here, with its darker, fuller, thicker shading, to the more simplified and abstract style used in his Mad humour stories.

The earlier material is the weakest, using common tropes, but even a story such as “Lost in the Microcosm”, a ‘shrinking man’ story, is really quite involving.  The later stories are excellent, such as “The Man Who Raced Time”, “Henry and his Goon Child”, “The Mysterious Ray From Another Dimension”, “The Last War on Earth”, and “Man and Superman’’ itself.

Classic Atom Age comics.

(22 stories, as agreed earlier = 5 issues)

Edited by Ken Aldred
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Finished this as a break between volumes of the Strain. Silver Surfer: Homecoming. Overall, very "meh." 2.5/5 stars. All the talk of Silver Surfer on here recently prompted me to pull this off the shelf. There was an interesting thread when SS talks with the planet-folk about voting on their future, but it was almost in passing.

 

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On 7/4/2020 at 3:40 PM, Ken Aldred said:

For anyone who wants a lot of quality Image Comics reading material in one go, there's a brilliant digital comics offer on Humble Bundle.

Thanks for the heads up! I've gotten some amazing deals through those bundles. I still have tons of stuff in my backlog!

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Last Friday was our 10th wedding anniversary. We’d been planning on taking a nice trip, but with travel being unsafe right now, we decided to spend a quiet week at my folks’ lake house. And since the beaches and water parks were closed, and it rained a good chunk of the time, there wasn’t much to do except play cards, eat a lot of junk, watch bad tv, and read lots of comics! So, I was able to put a dent in some of my reading backlog.

Blackest Night 10th Anniversary Omnibus –

I read the BN miniseries several years ago, but the story felt very much incomplete and thin to me. So, I was excited to tear into this Omni, which I believed contained the entire series with all of the various crossovers.

And for the most part, it is complete. However, a few of the tie-ins are missing, and I was most sad to find that the Booster Gold issue where Ted Kord comes back was one of those left out of this collection. I’m surprised it wasn’t included, as Ted was one of the superheroes who received the action figure treatment. Seems like if he’d been important enough to immortalize in plastic, his story would have been included here!

Oh well. There’s still a lot of story here. At around 1600 pages, this thing is a real wrist-breaker.

Suffice to say I got a lot more out of the story this time around, and this collection does a very good job of assembling the stories in a reading order that makes sense. The story itself is nonsense, of course, but Johns does a good job with this sort of dumb cosmic superhero trifle. It was all in all a very fun, if inconsequential, read, and hung together very well between the various one-shots, mini series and series tie-ins. It all just kinda WORKS. Not as impressive as Infinite Crisis or 52, mind, but all in all, this is still a pretty fun effort.

After I finished the omni, I had a hankering to read the follow up Brightest Day, and was wondering if they might be reprinting the OOP BD omni in the future. What I found was that they are actually doing another one of those enormous 12 volume hardcover boxed sets for Blackest Night/Brightest Day. A quick look at the contents reveals that once again some of the stories are being left out, which is infuriating! You have TWELVE hardcovers, if ever there was a chance to collect every single thing related to the storyline, this is it!

However, I’ll be still be selling this omni and buying that set. Unlike the Crisis set which had a $500 MSRP (meaning it sold for $250-$300 at most online retailers) this set is only $299 MSRP, so hopefully that means I can pick it up for under $200 when it drops. The BN Omni is already OOP and selling for $100+, so that’ll make up a chunk of the funds.

Recommended for folks who like this sort of overwrought DC fluff. You/we know who we are.

As for the book itself, not sure if it’s glued, but it certainly is TIGHT, lots of gutter loss, and not easy at all to open up and read, which worth noting when a book is this horking huge. Would have preferred that they’d included ALL of the various tie-ins and made this two large sewn volumes as opposed to a single, incomplete doorstopper.

This clocks in at around 61 issues, if I counted correctly.

 

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Next up, the DC Universe Rebirth Omnibus. Now, aside from the introductory Rebirth one-shot, this doesn’t really tell a singular story, and is, instead, a collection of the various relaunch specials that brought Rebirth into being. The quality vacillates wildly between the titles, as you might expect. Some are much better than others. Some stuff, like the various Superman titles, I just skimmed. It makes a good addition to the DCU bookshelf, but I can’t recommend it as a story in and of itself, because, well, it isn’t one.

This one totals up around 31 issues or thereabouts.

 

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Now, for something slightly different, Batman Earth One and Green Lantern Earth One. The only other Earth One title I’d read so far was Wonder Woman, which I enjoyed primarily for Yanick Paquette’s artwork. I found these volumes suffered in comparison. I guess they’re…fine? But do we really need yet another elseworlds-style origin story for all of these characters. They’re slim, quick reads, but definitely suffer from a “why are we doing this again?” vibe. Nothing wrong with ‘em, but they didn’t strike me as anything particularly special, and I’m not sure I’ll be continuing this line. Maybe if I find them cheap.

These are OGN’s, so I guess they just count as a single “issue” each.

 

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House of/Powers of X.

All right, this is more like it! I really dug this. It felt like a perfect companion to Hickman’s Avengers run, which we discussed previously. It has all of the stuff I like about his work. The epic scope, the time jumps, the charts, the graphs, the languages, all of that goodness. Is there anyone in mainstream superhero comics who does a better job of world building? There’s so much detail to dig into. It makese for a very satisfying read.

As always, I think Hickman’s weakness is characterization, as the characters sometimes all have a similar voice, but it’s easy to overlook in favor of the scale of this storyline. What great stuff! The X-Men are once again truly weird and dangerous, and not just another spandex brigade. Top recommendation!

That’s twelve giant sized issues right there.

Dawn of X Vols 1 & 2 –

First of all, I really dig this format idea. Each month a new volume comes out, collecting all of a single month’s issues of the various post-House/Powers X-Men Spin-offs. So Volume one has all of the #1 issues, Vol 2 has all of the #2 issues, etc. I really dig this digest format, and I wish DC would do something similar. I’d love to pick up a monthly trade called “Batman Family” or some such that collected all of the various Batman titles in one paperback volume each month. That would be swell.

As for the contents, as you might expect, the quality fluctuates as each book has a different creative team. Unsurprisingly, I’m most into the Hickman books, X-Men and New Mutants. The others range from “Ok” (X-Force, Excalibur) to “hrm” (Mauraders) to “I barely skimmed it” (Fallen Angels). But, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Even the lesser titles still connect to the overall story. All in all I can’t say that they uniformly live up to the standard set by the preceding mini-series, but I am still interested in the story and am fully onboard for the ride. I don’t buy floppies anymore, but I will keep buying these digest trades as long as they’re putting them out (or at whatever point the quality inevitably slides.) Fun stuff!
 

So that’s 12 more books over all.

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X-Men: Shattershot and Wedding of Cyclops and Phoenix Oversized Hardcovers–

Ugh.

This really was a slog. To me, these volumes represents the X-Universe at its absolute nadir. The ugly 90’s artwork, the Psylocke/Revanche/Kwannon storyline, the Cable/Stryfe/clone/time travel junk, the laborious Rogue/Gambit “romance”, all of it. Just some ugly, needlessly complicated, dumb superhero soap opera junk here.

Some parts are better than others. I was unexpectedly surprised by the Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini-series pretty much solely due to the BWS-esque artwork by Gene Ha. And even the core X-books seem to improve as they proceed. Kubert’s art eventually firms up a bit over time, even if it is still an unfortunate reminder of the era in which it was birthed.

So, not much to love here. They will go on the shelves to keep the collection intact, but should they go OOP and start selling for $$$, these will be pretty easy to let go of (as I did with Phalanx Covenant and some of the other 90’s X-junk that I don’t particularly need to own).

All told that’s about 43 or so books between the two collections.

A side note: while the contents are carp, these are very nice volumes. Sewn binding opens up beautifully, colors are reproduced gorgeously. Very solid collections, insides aside.

And so I think that brings my grand total for 2020 up to 454. Not quite halfway there. Going to have to get moving!

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On 2/10/2020 at 3:30 PM, AlexH said:

I haven't posted much, but I have read the following since my last update:

Spawn #1-26 (minus one issue)  Boy the 90's were bad :devil:

Swamp Thing #1-4 (original series)  I'm surprised I haven't read these sooner. 

Gideon Falls #1-11  Really weird. But a good weird. 

42/1000

Wow, it's been a while for me. Sorry about that. I'm glad to see everyone enjoying the chase. Remember it isn't about the end of the story, it is about the journey there. 

For me, it's been busy in life, but recently I have begun to read more. So with that, here we go:

- Spawn 27-45

- Swamp Thing 5-13 (original series)

- Brave and the Bold #74-91 - love this old series, very campy, but a good campy

- Fantastic Four #1-11 (original series) - Picked up the first two FF omnibus'

- The Pitiful Human-Lizard #1-5 - Cute story about a flawed hero from Toronto. I enjoyed this one. 

- Elephant Men #1-39 - rereading this series. It is making more sense reading back to back than it did on a monthly basis

143/1000

That's it for now. I will try to participate more frequently

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On 7/6/2020 at 12:58 AM, F For Fake said:

Now, for something slightly different, Batman Earth One and Green Lantern Earth One. The only other Earth One title I’d read so far was Wonder Woman, which I enjoyed primarily for Yanick Paquette’s artwork. I found these volumes suffered in comparison. I guess they’re…fine? But do we really need yet another elseworlds-style origin story for all of these characters. They’re slim, quick reads, but definitely suffer from a “why are we doing this again?” vibe. Nothing wrong with ‘em, but they didn’t strike me as anything particularly special, and I’m not sure I’ll be continuing this line. Maybe if I find them cheap.

These are OGN’s, so I guess they just count as a single “issue” each.

 

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I agree.  They didn't really offer much new. Green Lantern started out with a different angle, but once he joins the Corps it's a little same-old.

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I finished the Strain trilogy (still a prequel to go, which I'll read later). Good ending, but it was definitely rushed. I'm sure the book has a lot more detail, but it was a good ending to an interesting series.

Randomly picked Incredible Hulk #404 - Hulk and Juggernaut vs. the Avengers. I love the Juggernaut. I think I bought this from the mall, off the shelf as a kid. Nothing Earth-shattering going on here.

 

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171 to 182

Young Avengers 1st series, 1 to 12

Really good series. Nice art from Jim Cheung.  Well thought out twists on the characters' identities, powers, and how they fit into Avengers history and classic Marvel storylines.  Occasionally choppy story progression, particularly noticeable in the last issue.

Edited by Ken Aldred
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Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1. Got this recently in a trade. I've always liked the character and greatly disliked the portrayal of him in the Batman movie. This was not what I expected, but it was an interesting origin story. I read the Knightfall novel many years ago, and I may read that again sometime, then Vengeance of Bane Part 2. This brings me to 134 for the year.

 

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183 to 185

Young Avengers Presents : Patriot, Stature and Hawkeye.

All good stories.  Makes a nice, quieter interlude, focusing more on character, before going back to the more action-intense main series.

Edited by Ken Aldred
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291-294

Joker Killer Smile 1-3

Batman Smile Killer One-shot

Overall I liked the story and art, but I fell like its been done before (I dont know why) its a cool psychological thriller. The Batman book is an epilogue to the joker story and takes things further and it ends what a question mark! I did like the ending but I would like to see more of this book.

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186 to 195

Young Avengers 2nd series Children's Crusade 1 to 9, plus one-shot 

Good story, but with padded-out fight scenes towards the middle, and again some muddled choppiness to the scene progression.

Although done several years after the first series, it feels like a direct continuation of the formula; teenagers resembling core members of The Avengers, but actually being related to Avengers in other ways that are not always immediately apparent.  The first series examines the actual connections, the real parentage of the characters, and, despite Civil War and Secret Invasion intervening, the second series just picks up its unfinished plot threads, tying them into House of M.  Nice art from Jim Cheung in the main series and Alan Davis in the one-shot.  As well as ethnic and religious inclusivity, the series has also had a lot of praise for its liberal attitude towards the relationships of the team members.  At the end, the story formula has really run its course and a fresh approach is needed, and the next series is a necessary new direction.

Worth a read.

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On 7/5/2020 at 7:00 PM, F For Fake said:

House of/Powers of X.

All right, this is more like it! I really dug this. It felt like a perfect companion to Hickman’s Avengers run, which we discussed previously. It has all of the stuff I like about his work. The epic scope, the time jumps, the charts, the graphs, the languages, all of that goodness. Is there anyone in mainstream superhero comics who does a better job of world building? There’s so much detail to dig into. It makese for a very satisfying read.

As always, I think Hickman’s weakness is characterization, as the characters sometimes all have a similar voice, but it’s easy to overlook in favor of the scale of this storyline. What great stuff! The X-Men are once again truly weird and dangerous, and not just another spandex brigade. Top recommendation!

That’s twelve giant sized issues right there.

Dawn of X Vols 1 & 2 –

First of all, I really dig this format idea. Each month a new volume comes out, collecting all of a single month’s issues of the various post-House/Powers X-Men Spin-offs. So Volume one has all of the #1 issues, Vol 2 has all of the #2 issues, etc. I really dig this digest format, and I wish DC would do something similar. I’d love to pick up a monthly trade called “Batman Family” or some such that collected all of the various Batman titles in one paperback volume each month. That would be swell.

As for the contents, as you might expect, the quality fluctuates as each book has a different creative team. Unsurprisingly, I’m most into the Hickman books, X-Men and New Mutants. The others range from “Ok” (X-Force, Excalibur) to “hrm” (Mauraders) to “I barely skimmed it” (Fallen Angels). But, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Even the lesser titles still connect to the overall story. All in all I can’t say that they uniformly live up to the standard set by the preceding mini-series, but I am still interested in the story and am fully onboard for the ride. I don’t buy floppies anymore, but I will keep buying these digest trades as long as they’re putting them out (or at whatever point the quality inevitably slides.) Fun stuff!
 

So that’s 12 more books over all.

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If the House/Powers of X needs a new home, let me know. Ive herd it a good read...same with the Kelly Jones Batman..

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