Whats everyone reading?

[Skullmo]

Currently reading You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation! by Fletcher Hanks.

Completely mental and thoroughly recommended comics from 1941.

[Ancient Otter]

Reading my first Elmore Leonard novel, Hombre.

[SmallBlueThing]

Tonight, unless I fall asleep first:

Walking Dead #99
Wonder Woman #10
Night Force #4
Frankenstein, Agent of Shade #10
All-Star Western #9
Spider-Men #1
Cinebooks' Long John Silver 1
XIII #9, #10
Requiem Vampire Knight Volume 5

SBT

[Syne]

Read Algernon Blackwood's The Willows last night. One of those early horror writers who could create a terrifying atmosphere from such simple ingredients (in this case: willows). And so freakin' weird, man, weird in such an alien, harrowing way. Haunting.

[Syne]

Reading my first Elmore Leonard novel, Hombre.

I really enjoyed his Rum Punch, the novel Jackie Brown was based on. Great hard-boiled poetry.

[I, Cosh]

Currently reading You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation! by Fletcher Hanks.

Let us know how that goes. I've had my eye on I Shall Destroy All the Civilised Planets for some time.

[Skullmo]

Reading my first Elmore Leonard novel, Hombre.

I really enjoyed his Rum Punch, the novel Jackie Brown was based on. Great hard-boiled poetry.

Hombre is excellent, Valdez is Coming is similar but even better.

[Mardroid]

Strontium Dog S/D Files 04.

I'm already over half way through and I'm enjoying it. What strikes me, is just how light hearted this is compared to the previous volume which (while also good) was pretty grim in places. And this is no bad thing. I don't say that as a criticism of S/D Files 03. Grim stories are good too. It's just great to have both, particularly when in such close juxtaposition.

Some of the comedy in Bitch had me chuckling out loud. [spoiler]They really poured it on with Ronald Reagan didn't they, making him look somewhere between a child and a, well, cretin. Possibly too strong, but very funny for all that.
"Is it a birdski?"
"Is it a planeski?"
"Nopeski! it's Super Ron!"

Riding on his thermonuclear missile steed no less. Dear me.[/spoiler]

Seeing Durham Red in this strip is interesting as she shows a different side to her character when compared to the other stories I've seen her in. So far that's been the brief snippet in The Final Solution, the comics that came with the Meg a few months back, and the current (rather good) prequel story running in the Prog. (I've yet to read any of the future Red stuff.)

[spoiler]She is a lot more Machiavellian in this, and displays a lot more sauciness and humour in her character. I don't really see that as contradictory when compared to the later written strips though. More a progression of the character. I.e. in the prequel story she's on her first proper job, making her stamp, finding her way. She hasn't become quite as dark and ruthless as she will in the Bitch time period. And I assume she underwent changes after that making her a more relatable, more moral protagonist in the strips where she is the main character. [/spoiler]

Like the earlier rendition of Anderson, I think they should have kept some of that quirky cheek though. It's a fun part of the character. Then again, maybe they did, there's still more to read.  I'm curious to see if she'll turn up again in this volume.  [spoiler]They didn't exactly leave on great terms in Bitch, but I got the impression they were on good terms in the other strips, so I imagine there'll be something unless they just met up again off-stage as it were.[/spoiler] I'm reading The Rammy at the moment. The court-room framework is interesting!

And as for Johnny, anyone who thinks he is very Dredd-like, [spoiler]that catapult target practice shows the difference right there.[/spoiler] Very funny stuff.

[Skullmo]

Currently reading You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation! by Fletcher Hanks.

Let us know how that goes. I've had my eye on I Shall Destroy All the Civilised Planets for some time.

Oh its brilliant! I have 'I Shall Destroy' that is excellent too. But then I like that sort of thing. There have been some excellent collections of early comics out over the last year and more to come. Four Color Fear is one of the best I have read but it is now sadly out of Print.

I have also been reading the Incal by Moebius. This was another great book that was available for a couple of weeks and then went out of print.

And of course Wally Wood's Artist Edition published by IDW which is one of the most amazing books I have ever seen and needs it's own comic room to store it. I really recommend this book to anyone who loves comic art, even at the hefty £150 odd price tag. It has gone into its second printing now.

[Syne]

And as for Johnny, anyone who thinks he is very Dredd-like, [spoiler]that catapult target practice shows the difference right there.[/spoiler] Very funny stuff.

I agree. There's an extremely campy bit at the end of one of the Starlord Strontium Dog stories where Johnny plays a joke on the Gronk and ends the episode in a burst of laughter (admittedly, the camp element is increased somewhat by the polkadot headscaft he's wearing at the time). His character got a lot darker after Wulf departed, but he's still nowhere near as machine-like as Dredd.

[Skullmo]

I think Johnny had a really hard time as a kid which lead to trouble opening up to people. It didn't help that his best friend got killed and probably ocnfirmed all his fears.

[The Bissler]

I recently re-read the S/D files 1-4 and noticed the complete change of tone also. I got the feeling that maybe they wanted to lighten the tone after the grim events of book 3.  I did enjoy some of the humour but did think the Reagan stuff was just too daft.
For my money the second book was the best, but I always suspected it would be since it featured my favourite SD tale, the epic "Outlaw!".  One of the reasons I liked that one best is that there is a good balance between the grimness and humour (as a Glaswegian I always find the Middenface stuff very funny).  The story is very strong, features great villains, and is exciting all the way through.  While there are many more SD stories that I loved, I never felt any were quite as good as that one...

Oh yes, and I've just been given a loan of the complete Y the Last Man.  Read 1st book last night, seems pretty good, intriguing so far!

[Skullmo]

My favourite SD story was the Rammy. I though that was amazing. It was also the last Wagner/Grant SD tale. They made an excellent writing team.

[Zarjazzer]

The Devils Nebula by Eric Brown,strangely old fashioned feeling despite the far future setting.Disparate group have to help the authorities they hate to save da universe, maahhn, from the big bad.

Good fun but some odd character and plot developments that seemed to jar occasionally. Despite that I hope I get to read more of what's left of the crew in weird space. Absolutely storms along with little waffle or mess.

[von Boom]

I read Engineman a while back and really enjoyed it right up until the end. It ended too abruptly and felt the story should have explained a few things better at the very end. Maybe I was just enjoying it too much and wanted more.