Whats everyone reading?

[Dark Jimbo]

I have no objectivity concerning that first Age of Reptiles series. I read it as a 8 or 9 year old, serialised as a back-up strip in the Jurassic Park comic, and it was pretty much the best thing I'd ever seen. I lost hours (days?) of my young life poring over those drawings. I got the Dark Horse omnibus last year and it's lost nothing.

[judda fett]

I just received delivery of Doctor Who Dragon's Claw which is a panini collection. I got it for the reprint of Junkyard Demon with art by Mick McMahon, large size and B/W as originally presented. Very happy with it and loads of lovely Dave Gibbons art.

[ZenArcade]

Ok 2 good recommends and it's done as a collection by Dark Horse. I'm there dudes!

[sheldipez]

I have to admit that I've never heard of Age of Reptiles before but it's now been moved to the top of my wishlist.

[Hawkmumbler]

Despite all my childish whinging I can testify that the first book of AoR is indeed very good. It's of it's time though im sure someone with a lower zoological pedant meter than my own will find it more timeless thann I.

[Dark Jimbo]

A panel from AoR:



There are three series collected in the omnibus and the first (from which this taken) is aces. For me it's a bit of a case of diminishing returns after that as the art increasingly heads away from the hyper-detail above to a looser, cleaner style and the narratives have a bit less focus and have fewer clearly defined 'characters' (but ColinYWA and Tordelback disagree with me on that, so you might too).

[Mabs]

Prophet Vol. 3: Brothers.

An awesome series, one of my favourite titles right now.

[Mabs]

Oops, I meant to say Empire...

[Dandontdare]

Brit by Robert Kirkman, drawn by Tony Moore & Cliff Rathburn, coloured by Val Staples. Lighthearted although extremely bloody, and good fun. Brit is an invulnerable super soldier who owns a strip club and saves the world from all kinds of monsters and aliens. Don't go looking for ineternal world-consistency opr any deep meaning, just enjoy the punching and quipping.

Also, finally got around to We3 byGrant Morrison and Frank Quitely - I can see how this attracted so much praise it's a great little story. The art, while being as good as you'd expect from FQ, occasionally tries to be a little too clever for its own good sacrificing clarity for style; but overall I'd definitely recommend it.

[GrinningChimera]

I just finished reading all of the collected SinDex books. Which sucks because I was really enjoying them. Same with Transmetropolitan

With that said, is there anything anyone can recommend I look at next that has a similar kind of world as those? Otherwise reality might start seeping back into my life, and I wouldn't want that happening.

[I, Cosh]

I was aware of the name Karel Capek, but never been inspired to seek out any of his work. I stumbled across The Absolute at Large in an old anthology and now I'm kicking myself for this lapse.

It's a [lazy national stereotyping alert] Kafkaesque take on a Man in the White Suit style satire with a rich vein of dry wit running through it. The basic premise is that an engineer has invented a machine capable of completely breaking down matter and releasing all the energy contained within. This is set to revolutionise industry except it turns out that God really is present in everything and breaking the bonds of matter just releases bits of him/it. With hilarious consequences which Capek chases down some pretty interesting and entertaining avenues.

I know it doesn't make sense as it's just imagination in search of a suitable metaphor and unconstrained by chains of what we did invent, but I'm always inordinately impressed with things like this or We, where the technological aspect of the story (obviously the least important) is treated in a sufficiently abstract way that it doesn't really seem dated to a new reader a century later.

The intro does indicate that this was heavily edited for this edition but I will definitely be on the lookout for more.

[sheldipez]

The English translation of Metro 2034 was finally released last week, so been reading that. Catching up with the return of Hunter at the moment. I don't know if anyone has read the original Metro 2033, but it's a great claustrophobic, apocalyptic, sci-fi, horror novel. I just made that sub genre up 

[SmallBlueThing]

After months of not reading anything at all, no books, no comics, no cereal packets, no nothing, in the last couple of weeks I've
caught up with over a year's worth of the prog and the meg, the last four months of walking dead and superior spidey, swamp thing and long john silver volume four.

I'm sitting here at work with kingdom vols one and two to read this afternoon and have a hot date with a a comfy sofa and Arthur c Clarke when I get home tonight. Thank fuck for anti-depressants!

SBT

[Skullmo]

I think the prog counts as an anti depressant

[Dark Jimbo]

As we near the end of February, I thought I'd briefly retrospective everything I've read so far this year;

Mr Pye - Well it ain't Gormenghast, but then, what is? Once you stop expecting anything of that ilk from Mr Peake, this is a lovely little fable that's quite unlike anything else I've ever read (perhaps more like Gormenghats than I thought, then). Also very, very funny.

Tarzan of the Apes - My first jaunt with Mr Burroughs. I've never had any particular interest in his most famous character, so was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It's also surprising how little I actually knew his story (as opposed to thinking I knew it inside out, given the pop-culture saturation Tarzan's had last century.) There's an awful lot to like here, and I can easily see why this book spawned so many sequels. Will definately seek out some of those. Burroughs may not be much of a prose stylist, but he's one hell of a storyteller.

The Death of Grass - Absolutely top class British post-apocalypse action. It has something of a slow start but once the inevitable happens and society crumbles the situation goes downhill so rapidly the whole thing's pretty breathless. And by Jove is it bleak at times! The reserved, stiff-upper-lip prose and attitudes of the characters wrongfoots you into expecting something from the 'cosy catastrophe' end of the genre, and then the book wows you at every turn wih just how ruthlessly pragmatic the new status quo is. Recommended.

Judge Dredd Restricted Files 3 - Surprisingly good overall for what should be a collection of filler material. Maybe even edges it over RF2. Some real little gems in there that I'd never really heard of before, and nice to see Walter for the first time since Necropolis, although Pete Milligan/Shaky Kane's effort was one almighty WTF moment.

Judge Dredd: The Taxidermist - Very enjoyable slice-of-life-in-the-Meg tales, although Return of the Taxidermist is truly something special. One of the very best Dreddworld tales I have ever read.

Judge Dredd: Mechanismo - Ultimately a little too open-ended (I suppose that won't be a problem once I've picked up Case Files 21) but an enjoyable little saga. Nice to finally see what the Mechanismo did that was so terrible. The first installment was undeniably the best (helped in large part by Colin Macneil's luscious, luscious art). Some cracking lines, too, as when Dredd is informed while arresting a perp that the robot judges have gone haywire again. Dredd - 'That old Mechanismo working overtime again!' Perp - 'I can't help the way I am, judge! I got hormones!'

BPRD: Pickens County Horror - A bit of an odds and sods collection, but of pretty high quality overall. James Harren is an almighty, almighty talent, to the extent that I'm no longer missing Guy Davis. Still felt a bit lightweight; I'm looking forward to getting back to the main thrust of the story next book.