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[B]Hellboy Library Edition 4[/B]. Fun stories, drawn by a variety of artists. The one that I did not enjoy as much is the one with the ghoul reciting poetry. The old-style English poems were a bit hard to follow for a non-native speaker (especially a very tired one ;))
Overall, the stories did not do much to push the main narrative forward but I did really enjoy the world building.
In my reading order, [B]BPRD Plague of Frogs Volume 1[/B] is next. I already read through what I think are the first two TPBs worth of material with various stories which were not all written by Mignola. They were very enjoyable nonetheless. Interestingly, I have read somewhere that it took them a while to get the team dynamics right but I had the idea that the characters were great right from the start. There was even a story in there by some guy named Geoff Johns. You may have heard of him ;)
I've now reached the first issue of the Plague of Frogs proper and will hopefully start on it tonight.
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[B]BPRD Plague of Frogs HC 1.[/B] I already mentioned the one-off stories in my previous post, but yesterday I read the Plague of Frogs series proper, which was really great. This book is a lot of fun and I understand why so many people praise it. Can't wait to see what's in store next and already started on the second volume yesterday.
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The Valiant by Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt and Paolo Rivera. A flawless superhero crossover with the most wonderful art.
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[B]BPRD Plague of Frogs HC 2[/B]. In one word: amazing! I did not expect that I would ever care about a character who is basically a humanoid made of herbs and blood and animated by Liz' spark (Roger the Homunculus). But these characters are really great. Curious to see whether the series keeps up this quality. What I find a true feat is how little elements, little seeds that Mignola planted over the years now start to bloom and weave into the story. I am now reading everything in one go but to consider that between some of the seeds planted and their actual exploration a decade passed by in real life is quite astonishing. This interconnectedness also makes me miss Hellboy less because there is always a tie to his story.
This series is shaping up to be even better than Hellboy although it may not be fair to compare the two as they tell different kinds of stories and I am already looking forward to read more of Hellboy exploring folklore and myths.
Can't wait to start volume 3 tonight after work.
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[QUOTE=batnbreakfast;5033285]The Valiant by Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt and Paolo Rivera. A flawless superhero crossover with the most wonderful art.[/QUOTE]
Are you doing a Valiant universe read-through? I plan to do that as one of my next projects but first I have about 30 Hellboy universe books to go :)
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[QUOTE=Foxy;5033351]Are you doing a Valiant universe read-through? I plan to do that as one of my next projects but first I have about 30 Hellboy universe books to go :)[/QUOTE]
No, I tried to get into Valiant once and stopped reading but not because I didn't like what they put out. Right now I reread only the odd trade I already own not planning to collect any new stuff. In this instance I read The Valiant (a name for a crossover) for Lemire and Rivera which are constantly amazing. Hellboy is never a bad thing to waste time on;)
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[QUOTE=batnbreakfast;5033375]No, I tried to get into Valiant once and stopped reading but not because I didn't like what they put out. Right now I reread only the odd trade I already own not planning to collect any new stuff. In this instance I read The Valiant (a name for a crossover) for Lemire and Rivera which are constantly amazing. Hellboy is never a bad thing to waste time on;)[/QUOTE]
Ah I see. I had read the first deluxe of X-O Manowar by Venditti and thought it was great. I have a bunch of the deluxe editions as I bought a lot when they were still affordable to read later, so I will do that at some point. But first Hellboy and the rest of the Mignola universe , indeed a great way to spend time :)
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[B]Rover Red Charlie,[/B] four out of five stars. I would've given it a higher rating, but there were two scenes in it that made me really uncomfortable. I'm going to refrain from stating what those scenes contained here, but anybody who's read this comic will probably know what I'm talking about.
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[B]BPRD Plague of Frogs HC 3.[/B] This series is shaping up to be one of my all-time favourites. Epic scope but with so much love for the characters. Fantastic!
[B]Hellboy Library Edition 5 (Darkness Calls / The Wild Hunt)[/B]. Wow, what can I say - I would have never guessed that Hellboy's story would get so epic. So many small seeds that Mignola planted over the years come to fruition and he brilliantly weaves a lot of the stand-alone stories (or rather, previously though of as stand-alone) into the larger narrative. Fantastic. Can't wait to see the continuation in Library Edition 6 (The Storm and the Fury / The Bride of Hell).
But first I have some other Mignolaverse stuff on the reading order list. At the moment almost done with BPRD Plague of Frogs HC 4, but I needed to take a break as the HC crapped out on me. I've glued it last night so hopefully I can continue to read tonight without it falling apart again.
According to the reading order, after that it will be a lot of different stuff, Hellboy Weird Tales, Witchfinder Omnibus 1, Lobster Johnson, BPRD 1946-1948 etc. Maybe I will ignore that and read the Hellboy LE 6 first.
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Rogue Planet 1-2: Interesting. I like these kind of Sci-Fi storys.
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[B]BPRD Plague of Frogs HC 4[/B]. Managed to repair the HC and finish reading last night. Amazing. These are three consecutive 5-issue mini-series in a row that continue one plot, i.e. the conclusion to the Frog war. While it is a satisfying conclusion, it also leaves some threads dangling so that we want to know what happened to certain characters.
So glad I finally read this! Next up on the reading list is Hellboy Weird Tales, which is an anthology series that also collects two Mignola stories that are in-continuity, one about Koshchei the Deathless and one about the Baba Yaga. Looking forward to that, also having Hellboy drawn by the likes of P. Craig Russel and JH Williams III.
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Strange Adventures 1
This could be a good one from Tom King. He is hit or miss.
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Blake and Mortimer-The Time Trap.4/5.
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Strange Adventures 2
Yes, I am in.
The Kill Lock 5: Another great issue. I am looking forward to the final.
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[B]Hellboy: Weird Tales Omnibus[/B]. What can I say, the first two stories (the only ones that are "in-Universe") by Mignola are great as usual. But then we get a mix of everybody and their grandmother having a go at Hellboy. The stories are all short and range from the good to the bad to the completely incomprehensible. This actually quite thin book felt a bit like a chore. I really put off reading for most of the week as most of the stories did nothing for the world building.
So yesterday evening I finally finished it and could start on the Sir Edward Grey - Witchfinder Omnibus 1. Started out great - looking forward to reading more tonight. Glad to be back in Mignola and trused co-writer territory.