Whats everyone reading?

[Colin YNWA]

Just finished Leo's 3rd arc, or what is available to date of it, of his 'Worlds of Aldebaran' series and it was a little disappointing. It was still a very good comic and he was as good, nah great as ever at creating wonderfully believable and imaginative ecosystems rich with danger. The human story this time wasn't as strong. It felt a little... forced and the religious comparisions too simple and almost trite. The plotting wasn't as tight and compelling as previous arcs have been .

All that said it was very good and I'm very excited about what its set up for the last two books of the series.

HA! Actually in the writing of this it turns out chapter 5 is out... 

[ming]

I'm getting stuck into The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, by Elif Batuman.  So far, so good.

Prior to this was Discovering Scarfolk by Richard Littler, which really was very twisted.  Great fun.

[Tombo]

Just finished Leo's 3rd arc, or what is available to date of it, of his 'Worlds of Aldebaran' series...

HA! Actually in the writing of this it turns out chapter 5 is out...

Don't forget his other two series Kenya which is set on Earth in the 1950's and which may or may not be linked to the Aldebaran cycle (second book out this month), and The Survivors which is part of the series but technically set before any of the main books as it covers what happens to the survivors of the second ship bound for Aldebaran (second book out in a month or two).

[Colin YNWA]

Yeah the first book of Kenya is getting close to the top of the pile. I've not picked up The Survivors but no doubt will be at some point.

[The Adventurer]

Just finished reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Its a very intense science fiction with lots of religious context, meta physics, apocalyptic events, and just plane weirdness. Its structure is that of a series of short stories help together by a larger thread, and the stories vary in theme and structure pretty wildly.

I liked it a lot and plan to head straight into its fallow up, Fall of Hyperion. Since Hyperion ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

[Hawkmumbler]

Oh, so you got the rest of Anatres then, Colin. I seem to remember you only managed to nab the first volume at Thought Bubble.

Anyway, Charleys War is very.....grim, so far. Very grim indeed. I have to read it in small bursts so as not to get to depressed.

[Colin YNWA]

Oh, so you got the rest of Anatres then, Colin. I seem to remember you only managed to nab the first volume at Thought Bubble.

Ha! Well it turned out I already had it, or at least the first 4. I'd just mis-filed them in the big move and hence missed them when checking what I wanted to buy at TB - luckily though I only got the 1st!

[Dark Jimbo]

Anyway, Charleys War is very.....grim, so far. Very grim indeed. I have to read it in small bursts so as not to get to depressed.

There's a certain bit - I think it's collected in the second book - that may just be the three most powerful panels in comicdom. You'll know it when you get there.

[J.Smith]

Anyway, Charleys War is very.....grim, so far. Very grim indeed. I have to read it in small bursts so as not to get to depressed.

There's a certain bit - I think it's collected in the second book - that may just be the three most powerful panels in comicdom. You'll know it when you get there.

I haven't even read the entire series and yet I know the exact three panels you're referring to (and they are in the second volume, yeah). You'll realise what they are and then likely never forget them. Horrifying.

[Tiplodocus]

Oh, so you got the rest of Anatres then, Colin. I seem to remember you only managed to nab the first volume at Thought Bubble.

Anyway, Charleys War is very.....grim, so far. Very grim indeed. I have to read it in small bursts so as not to get to depressed.

Just finished the first volume myself. I read it in Battle and in The Meg but it's still powerful stuff. Art is superb. And Pat's little notes for each episode are just grand.

[ManParrish]

Just re read the whole Charley's War..what an epic milestone story it was

[Jacqusie]

I'm just halfway over The Man in the High Tower by Philip K Dick. It's set in a world where Germany & Japan won the 2nd world war and isn't at all what I expected. Apart from it being wonderfully written.

Highly recommended for a bit of something different chaps.

Si

[Hawkmumbler]

Well thats the first four volumes completed and I know exactly the sequence you chaps are on about. Utterly horrifying seeing Gingers ghost outlined through the Union Flag. Utterly revolting.

[J.Smith]

Mentioned this in another thread but I've been making my way through quite the large pile of Progs. My 2000AD collection began with Prog 2006 but I cancelled my subscription in early 2009 and only resubscribed early last year but in that same year I managed to get a hold of every Prog I missed, including also all of 2005's stuff (my collection of older Progs, roughly no's 110 - 775-ish is another matter entirely!). Just about to embark on Prog 2008 so apart from 2005, not a lot has been new to me thus far, although I do have much better context about certain stories (how Guthrie came to be a walking tin can in House of Pain for instance) and had forgotten about a few.

Out of the stuff I'd never read before, I think the first - and far better - Mandroid book is pretty amazing. Completely depressing, comparable to Alan Moore's Neonomicon in that regard, but really, really good. My other two highlights of stories I read from 2005 would have to be Sinister Dexter: And Death Shall Have No Dumb Minions... and the second book of Savage. The former has actually made me appreciate later series' a great deal more. It still has a lot of really generic short stories and filler one-off's but Death is an example of why it's not a totally bad series to still have around. Incidentally, I forgot how good Malone is, a surprising wee tale that's even better with the benefit of having read Death beforehand. Hear that the series hit a real high as the duo move to Generica (which I also didn't realise was where Malone's set, so there ya go) so I'm quite looking forward to all that.

As for Savage: damn, but that ending was killer. Although I'd already Slaine: Book of Invasions in hardback, I can't decide what scenes I liked better: Slaine visiting Niamh one last time with a heart-breaking last panel, or the way Savage kills the Volgan president and the female antagonist, not to mention half a restaurant. Great, great stuff, those two. Quite a while to go until I read Savage I've never read before but I have A.B.C. Warriors: The Volgan Wars to tide me over in the meantime, which I'll happily read again. Just finished the second book with the amazing General Public jokes.

Anyway, I've also been taking this opportunity to read the paperbacks collecting series' I don't have all of in Progs in the order of Caballistics Inc., Button Man, Shakara and Indigo Prime. The first and third of those are pretty good but the other two have been amazing. Not quite sure how I feel about the fourth Button Man book with the context of the other three to be honest, especially with Frazer Irving (with Fiona Staples of Saga on colours - who knew?) taking over from Arthur Ranson. Although a terrific artist in his own right, Ranson's incredibly realistic details and storytelling finesse (Harry staring down Crow, telling him that he will be sorry, gave me chills) made the first three books really special on top of some great scripts by Wagner. Not sure everyone will agree in regard to the story or characters but hell, I loved the whole series. Not quite sure how it all fits in to a comic like 2000AD but that Harry Exton sure is a frightening fella and the game he's caught up in makes for one really enjoyable action-packed read. Definitely going to have to get my hands of A History of Violence now, that's for sure.

Lastly, I only just finished the earlier collection of Indigo Prime stories. Those mini-stories sure were weird and, if I'm being honest, think will read better whenever I get round to reading the Progs they're in, especially because I'm to understand that Indigo Prime agents make an appearance in a few other John  Smith series' of that time. But regardless of all that, Killing Time is fucking brilliant and well worth buying that collection for alone. It's funny - I mentioned how Pat Mills' second book of Savage came with a few shocking moments towards the end but that's nothing in comparison to Killing Time's conclusion. Think my conscious is going to be wrestling with the decision of which is better between that tale and Cradlegrave. Two masterpieces though, that they are. Can't wait to read Edmund Bagwell's two illustrated series' later on now, although they now have a lot to bloody live up to!

And that is that. Now that I've read all those I'm going to continue reading all these damnable Progs. I'm skipping some series' that I've read already, only re-reading the ones that continued and finished, or are still ongoing, after I cancelled my subscription in the past. It's been a blast. Can't wait to get to 2009 since that's where, only a mere few weeks after I foolishly stopped buying the Prog, shit really hits the fan, Dredd's world undergoing some more significant changes as new and amazing glorious series' come and go.

[radiator]

Just finished Miracleman Book 2: The Red King Syndrome. It's way more mental and grisly than I was expecting, frankly - shockingly so at times. Quite baffled and perplexed to see full-frontal, graphic childbirth depicted in a superhero comic from the early 1980s, for one thing.

Enjoyable overall, but coming to it totally cold it feels a bit... slight(?) for Alan Moore - I guess because it was serialised in very short episodes? Just feels like there's a lot of meat and characterisation missing somehow - the two principal characters especially appear to exist in a vacuum, never really interacting with anyone else, and we don't really get a lot of context for their relationship or the wider story so it feels very small-scale. So far the sum of Miracleman's 'adventures' has been two showdowns with villains that were threatening his wife. It's also a bit heavy on extreme gore and implied sexual violence. Why do I get the impression that a young Mark Millar read this? It's also, I would say, a little... dated in it's presentation of a black character. Well-meaning I think but a little cringeworthy nonetheless. I also had to skip over one of the bonus stories that was so heavy on wacky made up alien slang that it was doing my head in.

It's very readable - obviously, it's Alan Moore - and I'm definitely placing an order for book 3, but so far it doesn't really live up to the legend that has built up around it - it feels quite sketchy, like Moore is still very much finding his voice and flexing his storytelling muscles. I don't know how anyone could seriously claim that it represents a stronger body of work than something like (the infinitely more accomplished imo) Watchmen or Swamp Thing.

It's also a nice surprise to see art contributions from John Ridgway and Steve Dillon among others.