Whats everyone reading?

[TordelBack]

By nefarious means I came into possession of New Mutants 37.  I'm a New Mutants fan of long standing, it was the first American book I ever bought regularly (having previously sponged off friends and subsisted on annuals, digests, parish sales and random newsagent offerings), and I've hated pretty much everything done with that team since Claremont was replaced by Louise Simonson and later far worse, until the current reinvention (Volume 3, I think), where Zeb Wells did some good work until his replacement by Mike Carey. 

The issue in question is written by our own Dan Abnett (which is why I mention it here) and perennial siamese twin Andy Lanning, and it's actually Very Good.  Abnett and Lanning have got into their considerable stride with the series, and this is a nice character piece where the Devil (and here I'm not clear whether Marvel's 'Mephisto' is actually Satan or 'the' Devil or what, and nor do I care) and poster-girl-for-disastrously-retconned-backstories Magma go on a date, in fulfillment of her part of one of those sorts of deals made during the Fear Itself clusterfeck.  New Mutants has always suffered terribly from being derailed by crossover events in the X-Universe, in the way that X-Factor has not, and it's nice to see one actually giving something back in the shape of an interesting character thread. 

BTW, the X-books have a great set of writers at the moment, Gillen on Uncanny X-Men(the Cyclops team book), Aaron on Wolverine and the X-Men, David ploughing his own furrow on X-Factor and Abnett and Lanning on New Mutants (haven't a clue about the rest).  For some inexplicable reason Gillen was taken off the great Generation Hope, which i believe is now being cancelled.  Shame.

[Gonk]

Having been sick as a dog now for ten days, I've been reading nothing at all- I could barely get it together to read the prog last week, let alone a book. However, I'm feeling marginally better, so am about to start a couple of things I've been meaning to get to: 'The Ritual' by Adam Nevill (which I started as I was becoming ill, but have mostly forgotten, so will be restarting) and on the comics front, 'American Vampire' volume one, by Snyder and King.

SBT

Have you tried "The Glass of Blood" by Jean Lorraine?

http://dedalusbooks.com/our-books/reviews.php?id=00000005&pg=1

[SmallBlueThing]

Have you tried "The Glass of Blood" by Jean Lorraine?

http://dedalusbooks.com/our-books/reviews.php?id=00000005&pg=1

That book looks great! I shall recommend that to certain friends of mine... Cheers.

SBT

[Greg M.]

BTW, the X-books have a great set of writers at the moment, Gillen on Uncanny X-Men(the Cyclops team book), Aaron on Wolverine and the X-Men, David ploughing his own furrow on X-Factor and Abnett and Lanning on New Mutants (haven't a clue about the rest).  For some inexplicable reason Gillen was taken off the great Generation Hope, which i believe is now being cancelled.  Shame.

I must concur - I would be very hard-pressed to think of a time when the writing on the X-titles was as consistently strong as this (with the exception of Victor Gischler on 'X-Men', a deeply purposeless book.) Rick Remender deserves particular praise as probably one of the strongest writers Marvel have - he can be hit and miss, but when he's on form, he's superb. Meanwhile, Kieron Gillen is really establishing himself as a glorious British talent - big ideas, whimsy, eccentricity, sharp dialogue, charm, and all whilst maintaining a satisfying edge to his work. He comes very highly recommended.

[TordelBack]

In the space of a year or two Gillen has moved from "who he?" to "I will automatically read anything he writes" in my personal pantheon.  This began with New Universal (another guilty pleasure born of my teenage affections), then a catch-up read of the glorious Phonogram, and proceeded with his X-stuff, SWORD and the amazingly good Journey into Mystery.  Austerity measures prevent me following him as religiously as I'd like, but he really is that good.  See also: Jamie McKelvie.

[I, Cosh]

I adore Phonogram yet I've never felt the slightest inclination to read any of Gillen's Marvel stuff. What's easily accessible?

I've just finished reading Sinister/Dexter. It has its ups and downs. More of the former, but the current scheduling really works against the way the strip has traditionally operated. The Prog 2012 story had a real Final Hit vibe to it, unfortunately.

[Professor Bear]

In the spirit of the series featuring beings who do not operate within the confines of linear time from which the novel derives, Deep Space Nine: Saratoga is a book which, written about fifteen years ago, still managed to see me coming.  An awful reading experience, I have no idea why I expected anything else but somehow got it into my head that as long as the characters sounded or acted remotely like their tv counterparts it might be a wheeze to give me a break from the Rage novel written in big letters that I cannot for the life of me finish.  They don't, and it isn't.  I wonder sometimes how hard it must be to churn one of these novels out, as fanfiction writers put more effort in than is displayed here, though admittedly whoever wrote this hasn't put in quite as many scenes of Worf and Sisko bumming.

Wasteland Vol 1 and 2, which is disappointing, but not actually bad, it just had me going in thinking it was a book like the Walking Dead but with a nuclear apocalypse instead of a zombie one.  Disappointing that it isn't that, but like I say, on its own terms it isn't that bad, taking a very manga-ish sci-fi story and making it a western comic, though this works against it in some ways, as the inclusion of strange powers and mysterious backstories going back centuries (anime/manga staples) deny it a human face, which is something necessary when you deal with such subjects as slavery and religious persecution.  Those elements also heighten that you aren't reading something about salt of the earth types eking out an existence in the wake of disaster or the breakdown of society, you're reading something that could be a Trek spin-off about one of the made-up alien races they come across in Voyager, the main villain being one guy acting a rotter in one room reinforces that notion further.
Not a classic, but readable.  I could see it being a decent cartoon show.

[Colin YNWA]

I've just finished reading Sinister/Dexter. It has its ups and downs. More of the former, but the current scheduling really works against the way the strip has traditionally operated. The Prog 2012 story had a real Final Hit vibe to it, unfortunately.

Just finished mine a few days ago too (wittering about it elsewhere). I thought it was remarkably consistent as a whole once it got going until the recent stuff. 'The War of the Moses' is a fantastic read badly served, as you say, by it's scheduling.

[TordelBack]

I adore Phonogram yet I've never felt the slightest inclination to read any of Gillen's Marvel stuff. What's easily accessible?

Sadly a lot of Gillen's Marvel stuff is tied up with Unending Crossover Madness, making it all the more remarkable that he manages to tell solid, complex stories with believable characters (most of the time).

I'd like to point you to his ongoing run on Thor, which turned into Journey Into Mystery, which features some art from our very own Richard Elson (who should be hard at work on more Kingdom instead, or failing that Marauder).  However, this is mostly part of the Siege and Fear Itself crossovers, but Gillen's stuff is collected in the Thor Ultimate Collection  (http://www.amazon.com/Thor-Kieron-Gillen-Ultimate-Collection/product-reviews/0785159223) ,and then in a couple of collected volumes of Fear Itself: Journey into Mystery, which I haven't seen yet.  And they wonder why no-one buys comics any more.

Easier to manage, although it will require some patience with X-Men stuff, is the very fun S.W.O.R.D. run, collected as X-Men: S.W.O.R.D: No Time To Breath, which is basically Beast defending the Earth in an orbitting Men in Black setup, and is pretty self-contained and should have run forever instead of a handful of issues.

Finally Generation Hope, a spin-off from the (-deep sigh-) Mutant Messiah X-Book 'event', which is a very engaging attempt at a new 'getting the band together' book for a new generation of teenage X-Men.  Also fairly self-contained, and as fresh a piece of writing as you're ever likely to see with the word 'mutant' in the brief.  I think there's two collections of this out now, and it's well worth a look. 

I won't recommened the core X-Men stuff, because it suffers from the most appalling art you're ever likely to see, and really struggles to recover from deep continuity and requirements of linewide editorial fiat.

None of this is high art, but it is nice to see that you can write superhero books in one of the big universes and still do something cohesive and enjoyable.  Although the comparison is probably unwelcome, and the outcome in no way as spectacular, it's reminds me of the magic Moore was somehow able to shoehorn into DC.   

[SmallBlueThing]

American Vampire volume one, by scott snyder, stephen king and raphael alberquerque.

I get what they're trying to do, and certainly the story's structure and potential reach throughout american history is something i fully support. However, i found it a confusing mess, with characters i couldnt tell apart, lousy art and vampire cliches by the jugular-spurt. This seems to have been written as if the past few years (twilight, true blood, underworld, etc) were the only vamps ever written, and therefore skinner sweet were something dangerous and new. Well, he's not. He's every pre-twilight 'savage' blodsucker, only played by brad pitt- which almost destroys the point of what they were trying to do.

It also heavily shadows moore's run on swamp thing in places, only again being less effective.

Im glad waterstones only had volume one in paperback, and that i didnt get it and two in hardback, as had crossed my mind. Very much doubt i'll bother with the next one. It's sure as hell no Scalped.

SBT

[Professor Bear]

Sadly a lot of Gillen's Marvel stuff is tied up with Unending Crossover Madness, making it all the more remarkable that he manages to tell solid, complex stories with believable characters (most of the time).

It might just be me, but Gillen also seems to be the clean-up man for these crossover events, taking utter turds and turning in gold bars.  His sidestories for Fear Itself and Siege offered up ideas for how illogical storytelling was actually something that all along (like Loki secretly being the "voices" Norman Osbourne was hearing in his head during Dark Reign and Siege rather than their being a cliched version of insanity) perhaps wasn't particularly original as stories or plot twists go, but did at least make a sprawling disconnected mess seem like they had it planned all along and weren't just throwing shite at the wall safe in the knowledge their readers were a comfortable mix of morons and a captive audience.  Of course, I suspect that Gillen has simply made more of an effort than his more well-known co-workers have - sad, then, to see so little of it is acknowledged in the main crossover books, if not actively contradicted shortly thereafter.

It's sad to see him so happy with being spoonfed poop over at Marvel, as I'd like to see him do something creator-owned in the superhero milieu.

[Karl Stephan]

Judge Dredd  - Complete Case Files 10
Stickleback – England's Glory
Shakara – The Avenger
ABC Warriors - Hellbringer

I want to get started on Nikolai Dante next. Peaple have been recommending it like crazy...

[Davek]

Read the New Adventures of Hitler from Crisis magazine (thanks to some forum generosity) yesterday.  I thouhgt it was good and an intersting take on Hitler's 'inspiration'.  Surprised there was apparent controversy on its release - dont think it does anything to glorify Hitler 

[TordelBack]

Offendables gonna be offended.

[Dark Jimbo]

Surprised there was apparent controversy on its release - dont think it does anything to glorify Hitler 

See, you've naively (but reasonably) assumed that the folks causing the hue and cry had actually read it. Which, of course, they hadn't. 'Hitler? In a comic? On a slow news day?! The world must be alerted!'