Whats everyone reading?

[Darren Stephens]

Just started LumberJanes, by Noelle Stevenson. Loved Nimona, and this seems right up the same street. Great stuff.

While I'm on.....does anyone know when the collected Metalzoic is released? Amazon says 10th Nov, Book Depository says March 2016....

[Theblazeuk]

Archie and the Afterlife (and soon to be followed by the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina). Issue #6 where Sabrina the Teenage Witch's origins are unveiled is a work of art.

Riverdale has always been a second-hand cultural reference for me but this is good stuff.

(Lumberjanes is on the list too).

Also read Warren Ellis's Injection - blimey. Wish he'd carry on with one thing rather than flitting about to varying schedules of release, but this was a great Book 1. Worth it just for the montage of the Professors encounters since the Injection.

[Pegasus P Artichoke]

Just finished reading The Martian

Really enjoyed it. Very clever in my opinion but I liked how everything was explained in such a way that it was easy to understand and follow what was going on

Great moments of drama and also comedy I wasn't expecting it to be as funny as it was.

Would fully recommend it

[Colin YNWA]

Archie and the Afterlife (and soon to be followed by the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina). Issue #6 where Sabrina the Teenage Witch's origins are unveiled is a work of art.

Riverdale has always been a second-hand cultural reference for me but this is good stuff.

Yeah I got turned on to this by Link Prime here (I think it was sorry if I've got that wrong) and its great stuff, absolutely great stuff and I have no history with Archie comics at all beyond a very vague awareness. Its just a shame that its so in frequent. I trade wait it digitally... though that will be quite some wait so I might end up just getting the floppies in digital. I think its up to issue 8 now, the trade just covers the first 6.

[Hawkmumbler]

Really, really need to give Afterlife with Archie a try. I adore Fransesco's Black Beetle comic but as that seems to have dropped off the edge of forever I need to get my fix somehow.

[Link Prime]

Archie and the Afterlife (and soon to be followed by the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina). Issue #6 where Sabrina the Teenage Witch's origins are unveiled is a work of art.

Riverdale has always been a second-hand cultural reference for me but this is good stuff.

Yeah I got turned on to this by Link Prime here (I think it was sorry if I've got that wrong) and its great stuff, absolutely great stuff and I have no history with Archie comics at all beyond a very vague awareness. Its just a shame that its so in frequent. I trade wait it digitally... though that will be quite some wait so I might end up just getting the floppies in digital. I think its up to issue 8 now, the trade just covers the first 6.

It was Colin, good memory.
Really good in fact, as the last issue of this published was number 8 in May, so you could be waiting a while for that next trade.
I truly adore it and will never drop it from my pull list, but the shipping schedule has been deplorable.

Not having a dig at Francavilla, but he does seem to produce a huge amount of covers / variant covers for other comics, while only two issues of this have shipped in the past year.

The equally excellent (and unflinchingly dark) Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is no better- 4 issues have shipped in 13 months.

They both share the same writer (Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa), so perhaps he's also a contributing factor to the lateness of both.

I'll add another Archie recommendation; the newly relaunched Archie (Vol 2) by Waid & Staples is 3 issues in, and blowing me away, which is surprising as it's basically a high-school melodrama with zero genre connotations. I just can't gerrinuff of it.
And it's shipped the first 3 issues pretty much on schedule too.

[Colin YNWA]

Really good in fact, as the last issue of this published was number 8 in May, so you could be waiting a while for that next trade.
I truly adore it and will never drop it from my pull list, but the shipping schedule has been deplorable.

You think that's bad you wanna try waiting for issues of Liberty Meadows!

[Pegasus P Artichoke]

Comic wise picked up Unfollow and Clean Room today

Really enjoyed both, certainly two series I shall be following closely

Archie vs Predator was there and Iam tempted to pick that up sharpish as well

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Book-wise, it's Star Wars: Battlefront - Twilight Company, with Star Wars: Lost Stars, The Shepherd's Crown, & BRIAN BLESSED: Dynamite Kid to follow in the New Year!!

Comics-wise, it's Star Wars, Saga, & 2000AD/Judge Dredd Megazine.

[Colin YNWA]

Just finished Brian K Vaughan and Tony Harris' Ex Machina and overall it is quite, quite superb. Quite superb. A wonderful political piece nicely peppered with superhero shenanigans. Wonderfully ploted, nicely realised (on the whole I'll come back to that) wonderful characters. Exciting, interesting, different. Okay so it wears its themes and motfiies so readily on its sleeves that even I got it. You know what thought I bloody loved it.

Okay its not quite perfect but it close. Tony Harris' art is at times excellent, at times so horribly stiff, at times apparently poorly photoshopped (well I'm sure its not that simple but it does seem so). Its a little all over the place, but it served its purpose was better than Greg Lands, so ya know.

Then there's the end. Well there's two endings the superhero  action ending which is quite superb and then the ... oh well better spoiler this ... [spoiler]slightly rushed politics will alienate and currupt you, oh and you leave where you come from you change... [/spoiler]second one that while interesting and quite bold felt a little unnecessary and tacted on to me. Still nothing was spoiled and yeah I really enjoyed this.

REALLY looking forward to this Y the Last Man nonsense now!

[I, Cosh]

I quite liked Ex Machina but the damned library never got the last couple of collections. Must try and get round to checking out the ending sometime.

There now follows a lengthy post concerning the complete first volume of Uber by Mr Kieron Gillen and some art dudes.

This is partly a cautionary tale about the dangers of Comixology and its damnable sales. Just before going on holiday recently, I bought the first six issues and quite enjoyed them. Naturally, I snapped up the remaining 20-odd while they were still 69p each and read the whole lot the same week.

It's a bit flat but not without its own merits. For those who don't know this is another take on the idea of superhumans fighting WW2. The main twist being one of style rather than story, in that they are presented, very clinically, as a new technological development, on a par with the bomb. With the German version unleashed just as the Allies are closing on Berlin, this completely changes the tide of the war. From then on, far more of the focus is on the arms race around that technology than on the individual superhumans.

If that sounds a bit dry, then you've already figured out the biggest problem with the series. Large parts of it take place in labs or strategy rooms. We're given lengthy recaps of operations and advances, all while Gillen ties himself in knots trying not to show us any glamorous superhero punch ups. We see most of the action through a handful of superhumans and backroom staff on each side but there are very few actual characters in the series. The Russian sniper Maria and the mysterious Stephanie are the only ones who are allowed to rise above expositors or cliches.

Naturally, I kept reading anyway. Partly as I'd already paid for it but also because there is something compelling about the directions the main thrust of the narrative is taking.

Gillen's notes in the afterword are usually the best thing about a given issue. They are frequently more interesting and thought-provoking than the story which has come before. Although it's entirely possible that's just down to me being too thick to grasp some of the themes and subtext until he explains them to me. There's a lot of good chat about the background to the current series (inspiration, reference sources, discussion about the real historical events influencing a given episode: all that good Garth Ennis stuff) as well as writing in general. Where I find it most interesting is when he starts to get into the ethical considerations of writing something like this (alternate history but including real people and events.) Not least because I find it a bit baffling that people would get worked up about some of the things he mentions, e.g. any representation of the Nazis is glorification, so it's quite revealing to see him try to balance both sides.

Anyway, just about worth a read, but probably not worth buying.

[Proudhuff]

Anyway, just about worth a read, but probably not worth buying.

Harsh, but fair.

[Link Prime]

Anyway, just about worth a read, but probably not worth buying.

Harsh, but fair.

I quite liked the premise and Gillen's writing, but just couldn't get past the artwork. Think I gave up around issue 7 or 8.
Agree that Gillen's notes at teh back of each issue were very entertaining.

[Colin YNWA]

Anyway, just about worth a read, but probably not worth buying.

Harsh, but fair.

I quite liked the premise and Gillen's writing, but just couldn't get past the artwork. Think I gave up around issue 7 or 8.
Agree that Gillen's notes at teh back of each issue were very entertaining.

Same here dropped it around that time. It was pretty good but the art killed it for me (are you listening War Stories) and dragged it down enough that an okay story wasn't worth giving more time. Shame as the premise was great and Gillen clearly knew his stuff and had done some pretty smart thinking.

[Apestrife]

Re-read Preacher the other day. Been a while. Must say, I was amazed how often I still found myself laughing over how utterly insane it is. I remembered most of it, but it didn't help one bit when the cannibal wants Starr to "wupp" or how things went for Tulip's dad. But there where also big emotional moments, even in Arseface's story (especially the 'Nobody cared'' moment). It really achieved alot more than I remembered. Much more than just being a 90s Texas Western with a series of inventive shocks and Braindead (the film) splatter. Alot of heart in all that blood and gore.

As for today, Multiversity. The deluxe hardcover one, cover to cover. And wow. Felt like it had injected my soul with coffee and cream after I finished reading it. Everything from all the duality stuff to hitting me over the head with positivity, there are so many things that really made me smile and think. Everything from "? and !", "Empty is thy hand" to Captain Carrot's "What power trumps over sheer absurdity?". Not to mention details like the nazi comic book burning or the american president declaring "in comic books we trust.". Amazing book ! As I'm off to sleep, I'm hoping I'll get to dream about boarding a ship made out of frozen music, traveling between comic book universes