Whats everyone reading?

[TordelBack]

An Officer and a Spy, Robert Harris.  A novelisation of the Dreyfus affair, and the living definition of unputdownable.

[Fragminion]

Just re-reading Dr.WHO :The Also People.

[The Adventurer]

Decided to sit down an reread Naoki Urasawa's Pluto. Which is a retelling of the classic Astro Boy story, The Greatest Robot on Earth by Osamu Tezuka. Its a brilliant piece of science fiction that's one part Issac Asimov and one part Watchmen. And at 8 volumes its a very satisfying read that doesn't over stay its welcome.

Its one of the finest comics I have ever read from any continent. After that I'll probably reread The Greatest Robot on Earth, because Osamu Tezuka is a god damn genius.

[Hawkmumbler]

I've been meaning to read more Tezuko really. Got me the first three volumes of Black Jack and LOVE them.

[The Adventurer]

Black Jack's pretty great. So's Buddha. Vertical was publishing most of the Tezuka catalog but I believe they lost the rights and everything's gone out of print. So if you're looking for more Tezuka works, it might be getting scarcer.

[Hawkmumbler]

Bloody hell! They just jumped up in my buy list. Don't want to miss out on them, but even at my current rate i'll have to let some go to ridiculous prices! Oh, student budgets, how I hate thee!

[Hawkmumbler]

Anyway, in other news I just finished two hard backs. One was the first volume of Rat Pack I bought about a month ago in The Works. Like everything from early Battle, it's silly charm is very distinct but it has an edge to it that was missing in Commando comics of the same era. Very enjoyable.

The second was Valentina and the Magic Lantern, which I felt the sudden urge to read after having watched Baba Yaga. It's extremly explicit material so not for everyone but Crepax's eye for style is almost unparaleled in the entire comic pantheon. It's a true shame that very little of his work was or will be translated into English, as the poor sales of this volume have indicated.

[Ancient Otter]

Black Jack's pretty great. So's Buddha. Vertical was publishing most of the Tezuka catalog but I believe they lost the rights and everything's gone out of print. So if you're looking for more Tezuka works, it might be getting scarcer.

Another company are supposed to be the sole publisher of Tezuka in North America now I think, DMP. They've released a few crowdfunded titles  - Astrocat, Unico, Triton and Barbara and they crowdfunded a reprint of one they did earlier - Swallowing The Earth, all before they became the sole licensee. What their plans are future I don't know.  I got Barbara and Swallowing The Earth, very well produced editions. Another company is releasing a Tezuka horror anthology soon called The Crater, this is another crowdfunded one with a very small print run.

[The Adventurer]

So Mark Waid's digital comics venture Thrillbent went to a pay-to-read model this week with the launch of their new iOS app (android coming soon). For 3.99 a month you get full access to everything on the service, and you can buy indivividual DRM-free copies to own. Part of the incentive to subscribe was a 'free' DRM-free PDF copy of Mark Waid and Barry Kitson's creator owned series Empire. So they got me at least for the first month.

Empire was pretty good, I actually wound up shotguning it in one reading session last night (right after putting down volume 3 of Pluto actually) It's one of those "what if the super-villains achieved their goals?" kind of comics. Coincidently I read the Mike Dowling series Rex Royd last week after reading about it in the Megazine. When Red Royd was more about a Lex Luthor type, Empire is more about a Dr. Doom type finishing up his conquest of the entire planet.

I liked Empire, but Waid and Kitson are a pretty solid pair, I adored their run on Legion of Super-Heroes. Apparently they are launching a sequel through Thrillbent (hence why they are giving the original away) I might stick around to check it out.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

The Unlikely Pilgramage of Harold Fry

A quirky tale of a man a crisis, which turns on one gut-punching chapter, into a tragic tale of a man in crisis.
Really well written.

[Tiplodocus]

Green Arrow: Year One
By Andy Diggle, Jock
(OK and a colourist and letterer whose names escape me)

I right enjoyed this - apparently close in tone to the Arrow TV series.  Anyway, it's back to basics retelling of Green Arrow origin.  I've only ever been aware of Oliver Queen as a guest spot in other comics and/or the rather studly young fella that played him in Smallville so this is sort of new territory for me.

Jock's artwork is as dynamic as ever - lovely colours too given a genuinely bleached desert island feel to the proceedings (not sure how it would work in a city environment).

And Diggle's script is equally good fun. I'm sometimes not sure about it veering from grim and gritty (eaten alive by rats) to knowing winks ("stun arrows! I should patent these") to very poor quippery ("Anybody that moves will be turned into a human shish kebab!" - would you really have time to say that when bursting through a door?).  But this does give him carte blanche to tell pretty much any type of Green Arrow story you might want to.  Is that very clever or just someone unsure of tone? I'll plump for the former.

Heh, the last 2 non-2000AD comics I've read have been about archers. What are the chances of that?

[Third Estate Ned]

I picked up these three titles for 30 pence each (!) at a library sale last week.



So far I've read Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art and enjoyed it immensely. It not only opened my mind on ways of interpreting the visuals on the page that I never would have considered, it taught me basic art theory which without exaggerating has completely altered my understanding of visual art. Whereas I might have said before, ah well it's not for me, and

[Colin YNWA]

Wow some great buys there. Understanding Comics is quite superb (as are the follow ups) glad you like it. I'm also a BIG fan of Pete Milligan's Human Target. One of my favourites of his and he's done some beauts.

[Third Estate Ned]

Cheers, (or maybe I should thank the council for selling their library stock) I'll look forward to reading them. I might see if I can get the first Human Target before I read that, as this seems to be the second one.

[Dash Decent]

Chronos Commandos: Dawn Patrol by Stuart Jennett.

WWII.  Both the allies and the axis powers have time travel technology.  GI's, Nazis and dinosaurs.  Nuff said.