Whats everyone reading?

[Professor Bear]

(a love of Louise Simonson's run on Power Pack is my secret shame).

Dunno why the shame, TB - I always liked the title but I've read the recent trades (with cleaned-up art and colours) and it not only holds up well compared to more contemporary 'young superhero' books like Runaways and Young Justice, it hasn't dated as much as they have despite being over twenty five years old, and the art is amazing, with photorealistic lines combining with the Marvel style of Dutch angles and clear storytelling where contemporary books would plump for some ghastly sub-manga style of characters posing against blank backgrounds while gritting their teeth at each other.
Probably the biggest shock of reading it was seeing the odd elevation of the written word rather than the constant tv and movie references that choke everything 'youth' oriented these days.  I was quite chuffed at figuring out the reference to Anne McCaffery's science-created dragons in the issue featuring Dragon Man, for instance, but the title is dripping with love for the written word, from simply name-dropping books to having issue-long Little Nemo homages that you could see the Punisher-worshipping teens of the late 1980s gnashing their teeth about being "too silly" rather than perfectly capturing the anything-goes mentality of superheroic adventures.
The post-Simonson stuff was often utterly terrible, but Jon Bogdanove had his moments and I'd recommend Power Pack without shame to anyone who loves comics.

Unseen Academicals - I've never had such a slog through a Pterry novel, but this one was unfortunately about footy, a sport for which I have nothing but a deep and heartfelt loathing, so my opinion and the reading experience that informed it may be clouded by that.  A decent enough book, all told, but not one of the better Discworlds.  I suspect it might have been formulated to be better-adapted as a TV special, but to be honest I found those remarkably laugh-free and don't see what might translate from this book onto the screen any better than Going Postal, so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree.

[HdE]

oddly enough, I was having a conversation about Power Paack with the guy who runs my LCS not too long ago.

DEFINITELY adding that to my 'stuff to pick up' list. I adored it as a child!

[TordelBack]

Dunno why the shame, TB

Ah, that's easy to explain - I endured considerable slagging when I was buying it, even from the nerdiest of nerds.  Comics about little kids were plainly for little kids, y'see.  Then when Louise Simonson moved on to New Mutants (after a pretty successful run on X-Factor) and utterly destroyed the book, I began to feel I'd made some terrible error of judgement.  When Liefield and Cable appeared, I knew I'd been championing a monster, and stopped reading Marvel altogether.

[maryanddavid]

I read Batman The long Halloween last night, and its a great read, the first superhero book Ive read in a while. Just one thing struck me, its a chunky book, and I read it in about an hour, most of the pages had only three panels!  Still the art looks great, worth a look if a Bats fan.

David

[Colin Zeal]

Just started Game of Thrones. Only a couple of chapters in but it seems ok so far.

[SmallBlueThing]

Atavar 1,2 and 3, and AHAB. Im partway through atavar 2, and i am LOVING richard elson's art. Also, mixed among these are some telguuths i'd forgotten about, and some very silly terror tales. Great stuff.
SBT

[TordelBack]

NM.

[Albion]

Treasure Island.
I just got an Android phone and this came with the Kindle app so I thought it was about time I actually read it.

[TordelBack]

Yer in fer a rare kind o'treat thar, Albion lad.

[Richmond Clements]

Yer in fer a rare kind o'treat thar, Albion lad.

Yup- there's a reason this book is a classic. I bloody love it.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I read Batman The long Halloween last night...most of the pages had only three panels!

Some people criticise Jeph Loeb for writing Splash page after Splash Page, but when he works with Tim Sale, it really works. Tim Sale is a master at using negative space.With only a few amorphous, tone-contrasting shapes  a coupl'a'dozen carefully placed lines he establishes everything I need to follow the plot. It's bloody good fun too. It's on the list of Comics My Girlfriend Likes, below the first two Buttonmans and Skizz.

I'm about halfway through my anthologies of H.P. Lovecraft.

The shorter stories, that run to about a dozen pages, I enjoy the same way I enjoy a good Future Shock. Just because I might see the twist coming, doesn't mean I enjoy it any less. 

[HdE]

A little update for those following the saga of my slog through 'X Men : The End':

I've been reading a couple of issues' worth of this whenever I get a bit of spare time (which, considering I'm contending with a house full of relatives and a dying grandmother, isn't all that often). Just managed to finish the second mini-series - and to my surprise, I stood back from the last couple of issues and realised 'Gosh... I actually ENJOYED that!'

It's still not what I'd call great, but there's a definite upswing in quality there.

[Ignatzmonster]

Yer in fer a rare kind o'treat thar, Albion lad.

Yup- there's a reason this book is a classic. I bloody love it.

Beats Jekylle and Hyde hands down IMO. My other favorite by him is New Arabian Nights.

Just finished The Anubis Gates. My Brother's been bugging me to read Tim Powers for ages, but fantasy tends to rub me the wrong way so I've been putting it off. Have to admit I quite liked it. I especially approved of Power's putting as much thought and invention into his magic as good Sci Fi authors put into their worlds.

Currently reading Gotham Central Vol 2. Considering it collects 12 issues of the comic it is a steal of a price. When running on all cylinders it's damned gripping; I have a hard time not flipping ahead to see what happens next. I like it when the politics of running a police force and the world of superheroes bump heads or try to compensate for each other. They also do a good job of communicating what it's like to have a professional partner: the strange responsibilities and possessiveness.

[das]

over the last month i have been chugging through 12 years of heavy metal mags won on e-bay....all the 2000's,  a lot of lame tit & ass but here in the middle of it all,
Pat Mill's REQUIEM.
while not as all out shocking as Marshal Law was, it certainly is head & shoulders above most comic anthology capers.

[Colin Zeal]

While I was doing some tidying up over the weekend I had a flick through some of my issues of The Punisher from the early 90s. I noticed that the writer for some issues (the Eurohit storyline) was a Dan Abnett. Would this be the same one who writes for the prog or just a coincidence?