My Thanksgiving Weekend Reading - 2006 Edition

[dEnny!]

The holiday's are a great time of year for me to catch up on some reading, this year was no different.

Astonishing X-Men Volume 1 HC by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday - honestly, I'd only read the first story arc from this amazing creative team and it was a treat rereading those stories again I was a little harsh on Whedon's early scripts, didn't seem like he was pacing them or writing them for comics, but for television and there is a difference. Upon further review his script was tight, "You beast," notwithstanding and the occassional line that just doesn't work for me, "I can't even sheathe," and "sheathe it," come to mind. No one really uses that term Joss. Oh and because I'm a picky fanboy, if you have someone offscreen talking to Emma Frost and then reveal the ENTIRE Hellfire Club, can we really know which person she was talking to since there were four of them? Especially when the line said by the Black King doesn't really go with the lilnes of unseen narration? Because that is who I assumed she was talking to.

Cassaday's art is absolutely stunning and Whedon could not ask for a better collaborator. I have to disagree with BKV, I think Gifted was the better storyline, but it's hard to top the Kitty/Colossus moment, just the whole feel of that initial story was amazing. I look forward to reading Year 2.

4: First Family by Joe Casey & Chris Weston - From the strength of Avengers Assemble I picked up Casey's latest Marvel story. I really enjoyed this story, I thought this story complimented the FF stories of old. Weston's art works well with Casey's story and I'd recommend this to anyone looking for an interesting story about the FF and their origin.

Now does anyone know if the villain, Stahl, in this story related to the Stahl character in Ennis' Fury story?

DOWN by Warren Ellis & Tony Harris/Cully Hamner - I was very disappointed in Top Cow's Best of Warren Ellis collection. Down was a let down, I don't know what I was expecting, but I was expecting more, this story lacked depth. I never got into the character or world Ellis created. And the back-up Tales of Witchblade story was bad, just plain bad. I'm not sure if it is Ellis or you can only do so much with this character who's stories I never could get into. If you are thinking about buying this...I'd recommend passing and check something else out. Ellis' Scars is a far superior story.

Strangers in Paradise Volume 1 Pocketbook by Terry Moore - I finally got around to starting SiP, the Pocketbook's are such a great value and a great way to get introduced to this series. I actually own all 5 volumes so I'm really looking forward to this journey as Volume 1 was excellent. From the first mini-series to the ongoing series Terry Moore has created an amazing book with three dimensional, living, breathing characters. I started this book last night and was done by noon today. I highly recommend this series.

[Schroedingers Cat]

I had a 5 day weekend for the Holiday and managed to get a good amount of reading done:

Love the Way You Love, vol 2 - really enjoying this so far. I wish it was bi-monthly, instead of quarterly.

12 Reasons Why I Love Her - interesting way to tell the story. Liked it quite a bit.

100 Bullets, vol 9 - every time I pick up one of these trades, I have to read it straight through - it's such a good read, I cant put it down.

Showcase Presents - Superman, vol 1 - just started reading this today and it is exactly what I was hoping for - goofy, fun, entertaining stories.

The Fortress of Solitude - only about 50 pages in so far and it's really well done. It is bringing back lots of memories from my youth.

Comics - picked up a 3 week pile of comics from the LCS on Wednesday and killed them in 24 hours.



Up next:

A Dangerous Man - Charlie Houston
1001 Nights of Snowfall - Bill Willingham
The Everlasting - Jamie S. Rich


Jim

[Eric Williams]

New X-Men Omnibus
Good Lord....where do I even begin? I had a MARVELOUS time reading this lethal weapon of a graphic novel. The characters were extremely well-portrayed, the ideas were fresh (and I would have liked to see them develop a few more), and although the art was constantly rotating, there were some beautifully-drawn issues by Frank Quitely, Ethan Van Sciver, John Paul Leon, and Phil Jimenez.

It's hard for me to pick a "favourite arc" because honestly, they all had their ups and downs. My least favourite would have to be Assault on Weapon Plus, simply because by the end, Chris Bachalo's art was very muddy and difficult to understand, which gave the story a beating. I'll have to read it again just to know what was actually going on.

On the whole, I loved it. It made me completely re-consider my views on the X-Franchise, and I feel bad for Marvel that they've lost this brilliant writer to DC. A great investment, and I kind of want to read it again.

[Andreas]

Astonishing X-Men Volume 1 HC by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday ...

Oh and because I'm a picky fanboy, if you have someone offscreen talking to Emma Frost and then reveal the ENTIRE Hellfire Club, can we really know which person she was talking to since there were four of them? Especially when the line said by the Black King doesn't really go with the lines of unseen narration? Because that is who I assumed she was talking to.

Well, you're a good observer, but there's not much in this book that happens coincidentally, especially when you have two excellent storytellers such as Whedon and Cassaday. The next volume is even better.

4: First Family by Joe Casey & Chris Weston - From the strength of Avengers Assemble I picked up Casey's latest Marvel story. I really enjoyed this story, I thought this story complimented the FF stories of old. Weston's art works well with Casey's story and I'd recommend this to anyone looking for an interesting story about the FF and their origin.

Now does anyone know if the villain, Stahl, in this story related to the Stahl character in Ennis' Fury story?

I could be wrong, but I thought the villain was Casey and Weston's version of the Mad Thinker.

I haven't read much of his work for Marvel, except this one and IRON MAN: THE INEVITABLE (with beautiful art by Frazer Irving). Joe Casey sometimes tends to lose sight of the emotional core of his stories, meaning they could be so much more powerful. I loved his four (five) series for Wildstorm.


MONSTER by Naoki Urasawa:
I began to read MONSTER by Naoki Urasawa, which is a thriller with elements of horror about a gifted young Japanese brain surgeon working in Germany in the late 80s/early 90s, who sacrifices his career to save an orphan boy rather than a powerful politician, only to find out soon that doing so may have been a terrible mistake. Urasawa not only captures the German character quite well, but also makes great use of the collapse of East Germany in the time after the reunification. It's a manga series told in 18 volumes (the sixth volume should be out next month in the US), and so far each chapter managed to send chills down my spine.

Andreas