Whats everyone reading?

[SmallBlueThing]

Just started reading the walking dead compendium,it's the first time i've read anything walking dead based it's a good ready so far......i wish i'd read it before seeing it on tv

Well i finished the compendium fuck me!!!! [spoiler]how the hell are they going to film anything relating to the governor what a sick twisted piece of shit he was.
I can't wait to see who they kill off (if any different to the book)[/spoiler]

Question???? [spoiler]in the book Lori is shot assumed dead from said shot and yes whilst it look's like she's landed ontop of baby Judy it isn't clear if the baby was hit with the same shot as Lori???[/spoiler]

Kirkman [spoiler]addresses this in the letters page of the latest Walking Dead (#95). Asked why Rick didn't go back to finish off the zombies of Lori and (potentially) baby Judy after the devastating attack on the prison, as he had done for the wandering corpse of Shane, Kirkman replied:[/spoiler]

"I would take [spoiler]Rick's moving onward as a sign of how far he's come since he dug up Shane and killed him. Rick's values have definitely changed, and I would say that the events leading up to and including the raid on the prison basically gave us the Rick we have now. While I'd like to flirt and say there's a chance of revisiting the barren prison, there's a lot going on in this Larger World...[/spoiler]

That, and [spoiler]Rick's smart enough to know that with that many zombies around-- what's left of Lori and Judy (which isn't much) is going to get eaten to the point that it WON'T come back as a zombie. Those two people got devoured, I'm afraid."[/spoiler]

So there, you are- [spoiler]dead deady dead. [/spoiler]

SBT

[klute]

Just started reading the walking dead compendium,it's the first time i've read anything walking dead based it's a good ready so far......i wish i'd read it before seeing it on tv

Well i finished the compendium fuck me!!!! [spoiler]how the hell are they going to film anything relating to the governor what a sick twisted piece of shit he was.
I can't wait to see who they kill off (if any different to the book)[/spoiler]

Question???? [spoiler]in the book Lori is shot assumed dead from said shot and yes whilst it look's like she's landed ontop of baby Judy it isn't clear if the baby was hit with the same shot as Lori???[/spoiler]

Kirkman [spoiler]addresses this in the letters page of the latest Walking Dead (#95). Asked why Rick didn't go back to finish off the zombies of Lori and (potentially) baby Judy after the devastating attack on the prison, as he had done for the wandering corpse of Shane, Kirkman replied:[/spoiler]

"I would take [spoiler]Rick's moving onward as a sign of how far he's come since he dug up Shane and killed him. Rick's values have definitely changed, and I would say that the events leading up to and including the raid on the prison basically gave us the Rick we have now. While I'd like to flirt and say there's a chance of revisiting the barren prison, there's a lot going on in this Larger World...[/spoiler]

That, and [spoiler]Rick's smart enough to know that with that many zombies around-- what's left of Lori and Judy (which isn't much) is going to get eaten to the point that it WON'T come back as a zombie. Those two people got devoured, I'm afraid."[/spoiler]

So there, you are- [spoiler]dead deady dead. [/spoiler]

SBT

Cheer's SBT The walking dead is very new to me i started watching exactly at the last episode of season 1 from there i was hooked,the book's i knew little or nothing about.
The Book about due to s friends recommendation but rather than go down the issue route i've bought the compendium which mean's i'm now ahead of event in season 2 BUT behind in the comic side of thing's  i'm hoping the 2nd compendium will sort that out...i suspect that waiting (if one happen's) for a 3rd compendium will be a longggggggggg wait

[SmallBlueThing]

The second compendium, collecting #49 to #96, is out 'this fall', according- again- to kirkman in the #95 letters page. So probably october.

Glad you're enjoying- i used to trade-wait walking dead, but couldn't stand the gap between volumes so now buy the (now three-weekly) comics. Id strongly advise against waiting for compendium 3- which will take us up to #144!

SBT

[SmallBlueThing]

The original fourteen issue run (plus preview freebie) of marv wolfman and gene colan's 'the night force'.

Yes, volume one- despite what the indicia confusingly says.

Ive always been fond of marvel's 'tomb of dracula', having read the weekly uk reprints back in the day and liked the cartoon movie at the time- and i remember the young me very much enjoying their next gothic go (this time for dc) when it came out. A reread reveals it's mostly still rather splendid, although the first seven and a half issue storyline does drag in places and relies a little too much on science fiction elements that colan has trouble with. His siberian research facility and turbo escape capsule end up looking like the daleks' city on skaro circa 1963 and a flash gordon spaceship respectively. There's also too much reliance on what i think may have been a new printing process in 1982- where some of the art is printed in one colour, without black lines, to enhance its 'ethereal' nature. Here we have pages and pages of fully (cont)

[SmallBlueThing]

(cont) inked people cowering from orangey demons that, to my eyes anyway, make the pages lack that usual colan beauty. And my grud, when he's on a roll he's good.

The second story- #8-10 is better, and is in fact genuinely quite eerie. It's the one with the sealed tenement possessed by the alien octopus thing that eats the bodies of the dead, with all the suicide and threatened rape you'd not expect in a pre-vertigo dc newsstand comic.

Everything about 'night force' is pure pulp- from the dialogue to the situations. It' a bit purple, like much of wolfman's work, but im loving it so far.

SBT

[Trout]

The Devotion of Suspect X, I mentioned it previously on this thread, turned into a little gem.  More a police procedural than a gripping thriller, as we knew exactly who the killer was at the start.  The genius of the book lay in its ability to pull the carpet out from under the feet of the reader with twists and turns, especially towards the end.  Well worth the read and it is pretty short.  Is all Japanese fiction like this?       

I just started this the other day. I'm not sure if it's my sort of thing, but I'll stick with it. Thanks for mentioning it!

[the 'artist' formerly known as Slips]

The Devotion of Suspect X, I mentioned it previously on this thread, turned into a little gem.  More a police procedural than a gripping thriller, as we knew exactly who the killer was at the start.  The genius of the book lay in its ability to pull the carpet out from under the feet of the reader with twists and turns, especially towards the end.  Well worth the read and it is pretty short.  Is all Japanese fiction like this?       

I just started this the other day. I'm not sure if it's my sort of thing, but I'll stick with it. Thanks for mentioning it!

Its exceptionally slow at the start and Im not sure if the author does characters as such.  Compared with the tome like Game of Thrones where characters get a real chance to breath and grow, this is a claustrophobic tightly plotted book, but its really worth sticking with to the end.  The last couple of paragraphs are very clever and rather suprising.   

In retrospect it might actually be better as a film or TV show.  With Characters more recognisable and stand out...
(I think there is a film)   

[dweezil2]

I must be going for a bit of a phase at the moment because I'm hitting U.S comics with a vengeance!

Any road up, here goes:

Bulletproof Coffin- Shakey Kane pulp insanity and gloriously addictive.

Fatale- more pulpy goodness with a noir/Lovecraft twist.

Saga-compeling space opera and universe builder, a bit like babylon 5 with more bonking.

Saucer Country-great alien abduction/UFO conspiracy tale.

The Boys-still enjoying Ennis subversion of the genre, not many more issues to go!

Jennifer Blood-Al Ewing's deliciously bonkers gore fest, equal parts funny and blood drenched-The Punisher in a G-String.

The Ninjettes-more Ewing mayhem. More gouged eyeballs and decapitations than you can throw a soggy stump at.

[Frank]

The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. These are the only books one of the guys at my work has ever read and he's desperate to talk about them with someone else. They contain every fantasy cliché I can think of and the prose is full-on Jeffrey Archer-he wiped his nose with all the assurance of a man who'd fought his way up from the wrong side of the tracks and adjusted his hat as if to say "yes, I was educated at Oxford, gaining a double first"- awful.

650 pages of that shite in the first book alone, but I don't want to dampen my neeghbur's enthusiasm for reading by telling him the whole truth. So far in our discussions, I've managed to stick to ambiguous banalities like he keeps things moving along, doesn't he and I can't believe they killed him!, but I don't know if that'll suffice for another two or three thousand pages.

Some of you are critics of one kind or another; how do I talk about this pile of wank without hurting his feelings? And how do I discourage him from taking up any more of my reading time with his next discovery? I'd thought about giving him some Umberto Eco or James Joyce to plough through ...

[The Legendary Shark]

Give him something good that he'll enjoy - "If you thought that was good, wait until you read..."

[Professor Bear]

Saga-compeling space opera and universe builder, a bit like babylon 5 with more bonking.

The "space opera" tag, I suspect, will sink this for a lot of people, as it's less Star Trek and more Final Fantasy (it even has FFXIII's Long Gui in one splash sequence).  It also answers the long-asked question "what does a Telebug's cock look like?"

[Albion]

I seem to be reading just comics at the moment and recently it's been the books I got from the Cinebooks table at Hi- Ex. My first from them and very good they are too.

I got.....

Crusade - Book 1
I'll start with the worst of the bunch. It wasn't bad but the story just didn't grab me as much as I had hoped it would. Nice art but I don't think I'll get any others of this series.

The Chimpanzee Complex - Book 1

Absolutely loved this and I will be getting the other two books soon. Fantastic sci-fi story, well told. The artwork is great but somehow not quite to my tastes. A little too realistic if you know what I mean.

Long John Silver - Books 1- 3

Loved these too. Great storytelling, excellent characters, stunning artwork and I really can't wait for book four to come out. I got all three as I had heard these were great and I wasn't disappointed.

Western

A one off story set in, you guessed it, the wild west. Lovely art again with some very nice double page paintings inbetween the story. Really enjoyed this.

Aldebaran - Book 1

More sci-fi. Another great tale with some very nice artwork again. The dialogue didn't feel quite right at times but that may be a translation thing. I enjoyed this and it makes me want to get more to see what happens next.

This was the book that fell apart as soon as I read it. I emailed Cinebooks about it and got a very quick reply and a replacement was sent to me very quickly. Well done Cinebooks.
Apparently the wrong adhesive was used on these so be aware of this if you think of buying it as you may have the same problem. A new batch is being delivered in May that should be OK.

[judgefloyd]

Princess of Mars has an Ayn Randish bit about how having things in common leads to moral decay, so don't do it. 

[Third Estate Ned]

Just read the Rebellion trades for Judge Dredd Origins and the Chief Judge's Man. I'd really been looking forward to Origins to find out how it all started but I was left a little disappointed by it. That's not to say I didn't enjoy reading it, but I felt the tone of the Cursed Earth sections jarred against the retellings and so the pace was a bit inconsistent. I suppose long-term readers don't need to be explained certain things again, so a certain amount is assumed known and not dwelt on. I don't know, I just felt unmoved by it.

At the same time, I love Kev Walker's noirish artwork in this and Mandroid (which I read at Christmas). I can't believe it's the same artist who painted ABC Warriors back when I read the prog. Why the dramatic style change?

I really enjoyed the Chief Judge's Man. Maybe because in contrast to Origins the story unfolded as I read but especially I loved the varied, quality artwork throughout. Colin MacNeil's brightly coloured MC1 will always be my favourite, giving to me the right sense of a vast, future urban space but with dark, hidden corners. You could say Origins is a more original (no pun) story than Dredd pursues and confronts an almost unbeatable enemy, but the visual atmosphere of MC1 won it for me.

Next read: the Final Solution.

[radiator]

I believe Kev Walker changed his style to speed up his working, though he has said that the deceptively simple linework  can take almost as long as his superdetailed old stuff, as its quite a demanding style to draw in.