Whats everyone reading?

[Dragonfly]

Apologies! Screwed up the last post, it should have just read:

A lot of Richard Corbens stuff needs reprinting, especially this and Den. I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of The Last Voyage Of Sinbad about twenty two years ago for the princely sum of £1.99!! That was in the old Comic Showcase in London which is sadly no more.

[Mabs]

Last night I finished Judge Dredd (IDW) Vol. 2; the book comprised mainly of 'The Long Fail' storyline, the title said it all basically as the story was a huge fail in my opinion. It was really poor, and the artwork was also not my cup of tea. Surely the writer could've made it more engaging, the premise of unruly robots and major electronic blackouts was a nice one, but it was executed poorly. I was hoping this volume would be a tad better than the first one, but it wasn't. I know its tailored for the U.S market, but I just cannot see how someone in the States would find this exciting, it's worlds apart from the Dredd we know and love here in the U.K. But hopefully new readers will start to get the real flavour of Judge Dredd with the Case Files and various collections,  which should be more readily available for them especially after the movie which has perked a lot of people's curiosities.

Mark Waid's Daredevil Vol.5 was a much better read. I always loved the character and especially his relationship with best friend Foggy Nelson. And here it is under the spotlight after we find that Foggy has cancer. Waid's writing is wonderful, and Samnee's vibrant artwork is a brilliant match to the story. Especially those quieter moments when the news is broken to them by the doctor. Chris Samnee potrays panels beautifully, and his action scenes are also a standout. The visualisation of Daredevil's sonar vision is rendered superbly. I absolutely loved Waid's vision for the story; being a fan of Frank Miller's Daredevil I was worried if this more colourful and 'light hearted' tone would work for the character, well I needn't have worried because it was superb.

I also started B.P.R.D Hell on Earth Vol. 6. It's a really enjoyable read thus far, but I'm missing Guy Davis' artwork which had become part of B.P.R.D's definitive vision much like Mignola's work on Hellboy. Not to mention some of my favourite characters are not present, first to go was Hellboy, then Roger and now....damn. 

But I must admit Tyler Crook still does a great job on art duties. I would love to have read this series - the same as Daredevil - from the start, but I found these volumes in my library and I grabbed them without delay. I would love to go back and read both arcs from the start at some point.

[Mabs]

I also started Lone Wolf & Cub Omnibus Vol.2, my word, it is an absolute beaut! Dark Horse have really done the series proud by producing these lovely compact sized softcover collection.

I don't know why it's taken me so long to read this acclaimed series, but it's powerful stuff. From Kazuo Koike's wonderful storytelling and Goseki Kojima's masterful b&w artwork. I finished chapter 1 (The White Path between the Rivers); which deals with our main characters tragic backstory. And chapter 2 (The Virgin and the Whore) which is brilliant. Kojima's artwork really evokes Japan of long ago, with some beautiful imagery and visceral fight scenes. 

I'll be ordering Vol.1 very soon.

[sheldipez]

I know its tailored for the U.S market, but I just cannot see how someone in the States would find this exciting, it's worlds apart from the Dredd we know and love here in the U.K. But hopefully new readers will start to get the real flavour of Judge Dredd with the Case Files and various collections,  which should be more readily available for them especially after the movie which has perked a lot of people's curiosities.

Worth noting that regardless of what us brits seem to think about it IDW's Dredd continues to get critical acclaim from US and that site is missing a bunch of reviews too.

Lone Wolf & Cub really is one of the best pieces of work in the comics medium. Briliant from beginning to end. Not too sure about this forthcoming sequel stuff though; seems totally unnecessary to me.

[Mabs]

I know its tailored for the U.S market, but I just cannot see how someone in the States would find this exciting, it's worlds apart from the Dredd we know and love here in the U.K. But hopefully new readers will start to get the real flavour of Judge Dredd with the Case Files and various collections,  which should be more readily available for them especially after the movie which has perked a lot of people's curiosities.

Worth noting that regardless of what us brits seem to think about it IDW's Dredd continues to get critical acclaim from US and that site is missing a bunch of reviews too.

Lone Wolf & Cub really is one of the best pieces of work in the comics medium. Briliant from beginning to end. Not too sure about this forthcoming sequel stuff though; seems totally unnecessary to me.

Well, er, clearly I was wrong. U.S readers do seem to like it which is good, as any sort of exposure to Judge Dredd is fantastic news, and hopefully some of the newer readers can move onto the more 'harder' stuff later on! It's just personally, I didn't enjoy it. Hopefully Judge Dredd Year 1 (which I've yet to read) should fare much better.

[Hawkmumbler]

Another lover of Lone Wolf and Cub here. Amazing series.

On an off tangent, is it wrong that I really want to read Amethyst: Princes of Gem World from DC. It looks so stupid and cheesy I just can't say no. That Showcase collection looks quite hefty and classy for a tenner as well....

[Professor Bear]

Lone Wolf and Cub is essential reading in any format.  That is all.
The Amethyst Showcase is a solid slab of fun 1980s cheese, though it's a bit more molest-y in the early issues than I would like, and being in black and white you don't get the full effect of the cover that has a huge erect purple serpent rising up between the legs of the terrified female protagonist to stare intently at her boobs, which is a simultaneously hilarious and profoundly disturbing image to use on the cover of a comic aimed at children, though a comic aimed at children may arguably not have a 13 year-old girl tied to a giant tiger and being molested for a full issue, either.  Oh DC, it's not just a recent thing, is it?  You were never right in the head at all...
It goes without saying, too, that it's an out-and-out fantasy series despite starting off on Earth, and after the main series finishes there's a Superman team-up and a less interesting second series, but it's still well worth a gander even if there could have been a bit more of the character's adventures on Earth for a bit of variety and to get away from the royal politicking stuff.

Just caught up with the last issues of IDW's Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm, which is great fun despite technically qualifying as fan-wankery thanks to centering a common nitpick of the original film [spoiler](why didn't seasoned astronauts recognise Earth's stars, moon or seasons?)[/spoiler], and the final issue rushes a bit too much to wrap it all up in a bow so the comic lines up with the films, but there's a great symmetry to Milo's distaste for apes calling back to Taylor's first appearance in the original film.  Personally I could have done without "ape will not kill ape, except when they do, but then they don't again until they do, then they don't talk about it, but they do it again anyway" malarky, and the artist could have worked a bit harder to give his apes some personality or character, as it gets really hard to tell them apart and it looks like he works from a limited number of photo references in many places as the chimps only seem to have around three facial expressions.  Still, I thought this was great fun and I say that as someone with not much interest in any of the other Apes comics from over the years.

[TordelBack]

Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature.  Even though I came into this having already reached essentially the same conclusion, the scale of Pinker's analyses and the enormity of his findings means that no non-fiction book* I have ever read has lifted my heart like this one. 

I'm not halfway through yet, but if you haven't, you owe it to yourself to read this.  Go out and get hold of a copy now, time's a wasting and there's hope to be seized.

That said, Pinker makes some odd choices about how he opens the show: the same kind of unnecessary insensitivity about religious belief that Dawkins employs (although without the same contempt), with the same likely outcome that many of the people who most need to read this book simply won't, while the converted will just nod along learning nothing new.   Equally, he's a bit flippant about how he handles the biases implicit in archaeological and anthropological data, so that even though the vast weight of evidence gives every indication that his conclusions are sound I can see academic hackles raising.  Maybe when you have reached at the very top of your disciplne, maybe you no longer have to worry.

A wonderful thesis all the same.


*Except maybe Chris Tilley's Material Culture and Text: The Art of Ambiguity, but that was long ago and far away, and besides, the wench is dead.

[Ancient Otter]

Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature... I'm not halfway through yet, but if you haven't, you owe it to yourself to read this.  Go out and get hold of a copy now, time's a wasting and there's hope to be seized...A wonderful thesis all the same.

But for the layman like, say myself, who is far from a academic heavyweight like, say yourself, would you recommend this book?

*Except maybe Chris Tilley's Material Culture and Text: The Art of Ambiguity, but that was long ago and far away, and besides, the wench is dead.

[TordelBack]

But for the layman like, say myself, who is far from a academic heavyweight like, say yourself, would you recommend this book?

I'm far from an academic, although I am now sliding ever deeper into heavy weight territory: and I'd recommend this book to anyone with the vaguest interest in humanity, history and the role of the peculiarities of human consciousness in understanding the world.  It's very good.

The wench bit is a paraphrased quote borrowed from a Marlowe quote in an Inspector Morse book, and later from Sandman.  Don't mind me, too much cider, not enough sleep.  One of my bad days.

[Ancient Otter]

I'm far from an academic, although I am now sliding ever deeper into heavy weight territory: and I'd recommend this book to anyone with the vaguest interest in humanity, history and the role of the peculiarities of human consciousness in understanding the world.  It's very good.

Have you read Jared Diamond's new book, The World Until Yesterday?

The wench bit is a paraphrased quote borrowed from a Marlowe quote in an Inspector Morse book, and later from Sandman.  Don't mind me, too much cider, not enough sleep.  One of my bad days.
[/quote]

When is too much cider a bad day? The next day. I thought better to ask then google the wench is dead.....

[TordelBack]

Have you read Jared Diamond's new book, The World Until Yesterday?

Not yet, although I do mean to.  If it's anything like his previous stuff it'll be quite a contrast with the Pinker.

[Professor Bear]

I think Pinker runs the risk of dredging up the spectre of disagreement he had with Robin Wright over conclusions drawn in the latter's Nonzero, but also borrows liberally in execution and intent from Howard Bloom's Lucifer Principal and Global Brain while sadly replicating many of those works' most glaring faults - as you noted - and veering towards almost anecdotal evidence - though I'll grant you this could just as easily be viewed as an attempt to reach beyond the traditional non-fiction audience of academia and appeal directly to the Oprah Book Club crowd of which I am probably a paradigm.
Personally, I just like that someone is using big words to prove what I've been saying for years: things are not as shit as they used to be.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

Have recently read Double Star. So this is what peeps mean when they say that you read Robert A. Heinlein for the characters.

Sure, there's a dash of that Libertarian twaddle that RAH! RAH! RAH! was a bit keen on, although he deploys it in a manner that leads to a real kicker  that's not a million miles from Frederik Pohl.  This boy also found it a bit lacking in the Sense Of Wonder Department. Possibly due to Heinlein's (a) having created the toys of Campbellian Golden Age consensus SF & (b) his initial, unfulfilled intention to sell this novel in the mainstream licherry market.

But Robert Abitkeenonmarktwain gains points for having the chutzpah to consider science-fiction (as Americans typeset in those days) worthy enough to carry an campaign trail drama.

Surprisingly rather enjoyed this one

[TordelBack]

Personally, I just like that someone is using big words to prove what I've been saying for years: things are not as shit as they used to be.

This, and thrice this.

The heavy use of anecdote or near-anecdote does seem odd, and I suspect you are right about this being an attempt to draw in innumerate numpties like me, but they are offered only as relatable context to reams of numbers, of orders of magnitude that any quibbling over more than the details is pointless: many of his graphs documenting the decline of violence have to be logarithmic just to fit them on the page*.  I can't find the actual graph I want online, but here's his homicide rates in western Europe.  Check out the vertical axis:



No amount of suspicion about the particulars of the source material is going to change the fact that we're comparing small fractional variations around 1 in 100,000 deaths at the right against 50-100 per 100,000 on the left.  Yeah, bitch - magnets!   

Also, if anyone has doubts as to how much fun this book is, it contains the following quote from Geoffrey Hughes:

"The days when the dandelion could be called the pissabed, a heron could be called a shitecrow and the windhover could be called the windfucker have passed away with the exuberant phallic advertisement of the codpiece."

So much for improvements. 

If I ever own a boat, I shall call her Windfucker.  In private. 



*Although this can also be a statistical trick to conceal disproportionately small number of data points in the high numbers by compressing them in the vertical axis.  But it isn't.