Whats everyone reading?

[Colin YNWA]

[My Bad]
 Yes I did. I'm quite into reading stories with different takes on superheroes atm.
This one is certainly different, it's crazy, it's mad and it's funny, even the take on the old adverts!
I saw an advert for Second Coming which looks interesting so I'm going to take a look at that.

Cool Beans glad you liked it and you can't go wrong with Second Coming as I might whitter about at some point, somewhere!

[BadlyDrawnKano]

I've just finished Jason Aaron's (fairly) short run on Doctor Strange and I liked an awful lot about it, the worldbuilding was strong and it made Strange far less powerful and much more sympathetic. Sometimes the weird are relied far too much on lumps of sinewy flesh, odd eyes and jagged teeth, but as a whole I found it an enjoyable read, and I would have quite liked it if Aaron had stuck around for another ten issues or so.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

So here's some graphic novels/comics I've finished recently
Nailbiter v1 -v8

I remember reading through quite a lot of that but never finished it, did you feel it had a satisfying ending?

I'm currently reading through

Astro City v1 - v17

That's another series I read a fair amount of but then stopped, not because it was bad, just because (as with Nailbiter) I went through a period where I couldn't really afford to buy many titles. I only read the digital copies back then but must get around to starting again from the beginning with the trade paperbacks because I'm very fond of Busiek, and hope he returns to The Autumnlands at some point.

Next up on list to read
Ed Brubaker's Kill or be Killed and Criminal

I've read the first volumes of both and thoroughly enjoyed them, and will definitely be getting more of them soon.

I've just started Charlie's War after picking it up in the Forbidden Planet sale last year, I'm 60 pages in so far and enormously impressed by it, I wish I'd picked up some of the later volumes back then too as when I was in FP a couple of weeks ago they didn't have any left.

[Tjm86]

Continuing on the rather peculiar journey through DC's event stories with Zero Hour.  Dan Jurgens is a writer whose popularity / acclaim I've never fully grasped and this one is no exception.  It's definitely not in the same league as Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Storywise it sort of hangs together if you don't pay too much attention to what is going on and just allow yourself to be dragged along. There are references to what are probably relatively current events in the DC Universe at the time but you're dropped right into the story so if you don't have much familiarity with contemporary plot developments it can be a bit baffling.

Artwise it is about average for DC of that era.  Certainly nowhere near the nadir of John Bogdanove on Superman of that time but when you compare it to more recent stuff or some of Marvel's material of the time it is nothing special

Overall a fairly unremarkable piece of work.  If it something that passed you by then you've definitely not missed anything.  As an example of how to do a 'reset event' that doesn't really matter, it is probably a pretty good example, a bit like a lot of the crossover events that the big two have indulged in down through the years.

TLDR: decidedly sub-par piece of work that is probably a good one to forget.

[Link Prime]

Certainly nowhere near the nadir of John Bogdanove on Superman of that time

With you on the Zero Hour summarization, but I have always had a soft spot for Bogdanove's unusual style.
Certainly the most memorable aspect of that entire Superman era for me.

I'm currently reading the 3rd Astro City Metrobook - "The Dark Age".
This is the first time that the collection has reached a point of all new material for me, and I am blown away by the quality.
Set in the 70's / 80's grim & gritty era of Astro City it's the epic story of two brothers as friends, enemies, on opposing sides of the law and ultimately fighting together to facilitate their singular underlying purpose - revenge.
I have only two chapters left to go, and I don't want it to end. 10/10

[Colin YNWA]

Certainly nowhere near the nadir of John Bogdanove on Superman of that time

With you on the Zero Hour summarization, but I have always had a soft spot for Bogdanove's unusual style.
Certainly the most memorable aspect of that entire Superman era for me.

Oh I'll be commenting on Jon Bogdanove on another thread at some point soon. I really like his work. I mean its not my favourite by any stretch but there's something about it that really appeals and I also thing his Superman work was really nice. The little bits I've seen that is.

[Link Prime]

The little bits I've seen that is.

Just the White Rabbit pages, eh?

Some of his Marvel work is also worth checking out, in particular his short stint on X-Factor.

[JohnW]

Raymond Chandler.
I was surprised to discover that he'd only ever written six novels. I was astonished to find that I own them all.
Murder mysteries and detective stories were never my thing. I get too easily lost, and besides, I don't rarely care whodunnit.
But you don't read Chandler for that. You read for the tone and the style, which you recognise straight way even if you've never read him before.
I ploughed through these in short order, immersed in the sun-kissed seediness and tainted wealth of mid-century Los Angeles. Very little had impressed itself on my memory since the first time I'd read them. The stories are easy to get into but it's hard to distinguish one from the other afterwards.
I took a break a third of the way into The Little Sister. A few days later I picked it up again and found myself asking, 'Who's she? What's that all about? Remind me what's going on here.'
And then, 'Hang on – haven't I read this before?'

[JohnW]

Will Eisner, Life, In Pictures
I blow hot and cold when it comes to Eisner, and I only bought this one because it was there in the bookshop and because I was being self-indulgent. I have to say, though, that I'm glad I shelled out for this. It's another satisfyingly large hardback collection, matching the two I already have, and it collects The Dreamer, The Heart Of The Storm, and The Name Of The Game.
The first story recounts the birth of the comics business in 1930s New York and Eisner's part therein. The second one (which I haven't finished yet, but am finding most engaging) is straight biography/autobiography, telling the tales of his parents' struggles on arriving from their respective Old Countries and young Will's upbringing in the '20s.
As always, I find the dialogue a little hackneyed and heavy-handed, but it keeps the story moving right along. The art is what you come for though. You don't need me to tell you that Will Eisner could tell good stories with pictures.
Also, if it's ethnic stereotypes you want, then look no further. His neighbourhoods are populated by swarthy Italians, bestial Irish, and the most Semitic Jews you ever saw – all emoting and gesticulating like nobody's business in the service of the narrative.

I think you have to be in the mood for Eisner, but right now it seems that I am.
As I say, I've not even finished this, but I've already hauled the Contract With God and New York collections down from the shelf for a reread.

[Richard]

I've just finished reading my first Raymond Chandler novel, The Lady in the Lake. I'm not really into murder mysteries either, and I was indeed only reading it because I like the writing style and dialogue. ("I don't like your manner, Mr Marlowe." "That's alright, I'm not selling it.")

I doubt I'll read another, but I'm glad I read that one, and it has made me more interested in watching the films based on his work.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

Somebody gave me a complete set of Chandler's books a couple of decades ago, and I read and enjoyed The Big Sleep, yet I've never have the urge to go back and read any of the other five and I can't quite explain why.

[PsychoGoatee]

Cool to see some Chandler talk! The Big Sleep rules for sure, incredible book. The movie is cool, love Bogart, but the book is for sure a lot better naturally. And you lose that cool narration in the movie.

Murder My Sweet (Farewell My Lovely) 1944 is a cool movie that keeps narration in there so we get some of those classic zingers. The Long Goodbye (the 70s Elliot Gould film) is awesome, though I hear very different from the book naturally.

I've got the other ones on the shelf, but The Big Sleep is the only one I've read so far.

I heard his last one Playback is a big drop off, did you find that? And any fav few out of the bunch?

[GoGilesGo]

And any fav few out of the bunch?

The High Window is my fave Chandler, the prototype Marlowe taking a job then wising up to the fact the person paying him to investigate a crime is at least as dirty as the target.

Best movie adaptation is Murder My Sweet. Powell was excellent in most things he did, but was never better than this.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

I love the Elliot Gould version of The Long Goodbye, it's one of my all time favourite movies. And I know this divided a lot of readers but Matt Fraction includes him in his Hawkeye run, and I really enjoyed the audacity of it all, though I can understand why some strongly disliked it.

[Tjm86]

... and finally reached the end of Final Crisis.  I say finally because of the time spent wading through 52 and Countdown to Final Crisis.  After the bafflement I felt reading Infinite Crisis the first time, I figured it was worth working through the prequel material.

Taking Final Crisis as a piece on its own, it's a bit difficult not to be distracted by Morrison's 'go to' plot devices.  A borderline omnipotent multi-dimensional creature wants to recreate reality in his own image?  Teams of heroes and villains pulled together from across different dimensions?  Is it just me, or is this the plot of Zenith?

That said, it is told with panache.  Can't fault the artwork either.  It hangs together quite nicely and you could probably get away with reading it without picking through 52 or Countdown.

Treating it and Infinite Crisis as linked stories works quite well too.  One of the nice things about 52 is the fielding of characters that don't often get much attention.  With the 'big 3' (Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman) out of the way, so much more rests with players that would to a large extent be consider B or even Z listers.

Countdown does see the return of the big 3 but not to a massive extent.  There is also a growing focus on the antics of the Monitors as well as Apokalips.  So it is really only towards the end that they come into play.  We also see nods towards Identity Crisis so there is quite a bit to unpack.

Overall it's not a bad read, whether in isolation or as part of the larger whole.  Personally I felt it worked better being familiar with Identity Crisis and the other pre-Infinite Crisis series. 

They do suffer from repetition though.  Big-bad-multiversal threat ... all got to gang together ... bit of a deus-ex ending ... Other than that, they are slightly above a lot of the output of the Big Two (Marvel and DC).

TL:DR - fairly standard multi-dimensional scrag match.  Decent artwork.  Links to Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis. Final Crisis works well as a standalone.