Various US comics

[Oddboy]

Hi folks.
I got through the post yesterday my first delivery from my new US comics subscription (curteousy of Comicana.com).

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I got:

Hellblazer #188
but I haven't read it yet.

Human Target #2
Good stuff - continuing to enjoy this, glad I discovered it last month!

Smax #2
Smax & Toybox from Top Ten are off in Smax's homedimention - reveals Smax's Dragonslaying background. Brilliantly funny & disturbing at the same time.

The Losers #4
Improvement on the last issue - the Losers were *actually* losing for most of this issue, although they get the upper hand again near the end.

Y: The Last Man #15(? or is it #14?)
Haven't read it yet.

But also worth noting is the advert for the new Angel series so for the benefit of those who haven't seen the end of the latest Buffy & Angel series here is some more

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Spike is definitely in the new Angel series - so he's not as SPOILER disintegrated dust as we thought he was.

[Tex Hex]

Y:The Last Man

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Well the Astronauts crash land and...well, its not called the last man for nothing...

There is a pregnancy too. Will it be a boy!? Have to wait and see.

Some of the recent episodes have felt a bit tangential. I hope the next story arc has a bit more focus to it w.r.t. Yorrick and his quest.

[Dudley]

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More "casting sides" emerged Friday for "Angel" 5.1, (the episode series mastermind Joss Whedon begins directing on Thursday). Some revelations:
* The major plotline for the episode, titled "Conviction," involves a very guilty criminal named Fries who threatens to unleash something capable of destroying every living soul in California -- if the new Angel-run Wolfram & Hart can't engineer a "not guilty" verdict for him.
* Cordy's old pal (and Spike's former rebound girlfriend) Harmony is working for Wolfram & Hart as a secretary (or something), fetching coffee for clients and the like.
* Lorne busies himself by making all of Wolfram's employees sing for him. Angel intends to sack the most evil.
* Handsome Wolfram science-guy Knox is back, still trying to do everything possible to make Fred happy in her new job.
* Following his meeting last episode with the White Room's "conduit" (the big cat, one assumes), Gunn elects to undergo a mystical medical procedure designed to enbiggen his brain. The bigger brain comes in handy almost immediately.
* There's no sign of Spike in the sides. One assumes if he turns up in the opener at all, it will be a brief appearance, and likely at episode's end. (Whedon has stated that Spike will be re-introduced in 5.1, but what he's doing there won't be explained until 5.2.)
* Willow's girlfriend, Kennedy the vampire slayer, will not visit Angel, according to writer-producer David Fury.
* No one ruled out the possibility of Lilah's return.
* There appear to be tentative plans to extract Cordy from her coma, but they're contingent on Charisma Carpenter's availability.
* However Spike comes back (ghost, human, vampire or toaster), he'll still have his soul.
* Spike's return will be "long and complicated."
* The show will indeed deal with at least one of the many vampire slayers Willow created in the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series finale.
* The fifth season will lean more toward "stand-alone" episodes.

[Pyroxian]

 and any of you chaps with Broadband can probably download it off the newsgroups (alt.binaries.multimedia.buffy)

I've watched the first episode and it's pretty good - not the best Angel ever, but definitely not the worse. I've got Ep 2 on my hard-disc at the moment but not watched it.

Of course, I'm not sure when I'm getting the next few episodes as I've moved house and Telewest neglected to inform me that I needed to get written permission from the landlord to install a cable connection (didn't need it 3 years ago, grrr) so I'm going to have to make another appointment for installataion once I've got the permission form filled out :(

    'Home-Internetless' Steve :'(

[Marbles]

Smax is ace.

[petemaskreplica]

I'm buying Smax and Human Target too, and highly recommend both. I'm following Last Human too, but getting the TPBs rather than the comics.

Odd, have you read the 2 earlier Milligan HT books? I've got the collection of the 5 issue miniseries (which is also very good), but I haven't tracked down the later one-shot tpb yet.

[Bart Oliver]

Trouble with most American titles is that I race through them in 15-20 mins and then have to wait a month for the next installment.*

That said there is some fair quality produce around at the moment.

Human Target- Good to be reading Pete Milligan again.

Sleeper- Picked up a couple of copies- 6&7. Not quite sure what's going on. Bit like finding a flick on tv that's already started that, inspite of missing the begining still holds your attention. Interesting developments in Sean Phillip's artwork.

NYX- (Yawn) yet Another Xmen spin-off. Got this purely for Josh Middleton's artwork; Fresh, fluid. Don't think I'll continue to buy though.


B.


*Re: script subs on this site, something about taking a US story at 20 or so pages and try telling it in 7-8 pages..

(for arguement's sake) 7 pages a week x 4 = 28 pages a month in 2K

vs.

22 (more or less) pages a month in a US title.

Pacing is everything I suppose.

[Oddboy]

Petemask,

I haven't found them. I looked (they were both supposed to be reissued last month, but they were not to be seen.

Might give Amazon a look see.

[JamieB]

I've SEEN Angel eps 5.1 and 5.2 and am pleased to confirm that they are, in fact, rather ace. VERY big with the funny, too. 5.3 tonight! (Thank you, broadband!)

J-Bo-1

[JamieB]

The 5-ish miniseries is the Biukovic one, right? That is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. Not quite as keen on 'The Final Cut', which should be out in paperback really soon if it isn't already, but it's still pretty good.

J-Bo-OR-IS-IT?-1

[JamieB]

Sleeper trade, "OUT IN THE COLD", collecting issues 1-6 is slated for December release.

SLEEPER "season 2" starts next year.

J-Bo-1

[ukdane]

Odd, I've just ordered a mass of hard-to-find graphic novels from a US company, (which means paying by Credit Card, and then paying Duty when they arrive) They have the Human Target trades (and the first sereis as single issues IIRC) My trade is just waiting to clear customs, and will be here tomorrow, as I've just paid the ?30 fee to clear them.

"What's the shop called" I hear you cry
see below.

Now don't y'all go ordering comics that I want.


Incidentally, they also have a numeber of 2000ad graphic novels, but none of the rarer ones.

I like the fact that they'll let you know when stuff you want becomes available.

It took less than a week for my order to arrive.
Here's what I bought:
Cerebus vol. 14: Form & Void
Death: At Death's Door
Human Target: Final Cut
Metal Hurlant issue #  3
Metal Hurlant issue #  6
Negative Exposure: Fear and Loathing in Kokonino World
Scarlet Traces
The Metabarons: Alpha/Omega

Link: http://www.marsimport.com/index.php" target="_blank">Mars Import

[Oddboy]

Amazon has Final Cut.

Anyone know what the other one is called?

[JamieB]

Unsurprisingly, it's called "Human Target" :P

Peter Milligan / Edvin Biukovic. Might well be OP now, though.

J-Bo-1

[Art]

BTW are you reading X-Force (or X-Statics as it is now)? Its Marvel superhero stuff but its stuffed full of Milligan goodness.