What did you read - June 2014

[dancj]

Another month...

Please join in!

Greek Street v1: Blood Calls for Blood (reread), v2: Cassandra Complex and v3: Medea's Luck - Decent stuff. Not vintage Milligan for me, but I did enjoy it - and the art was good. The ending was a lot more upbeat than I expected.

JLA (Meltzer) v1: The Tornado's Path and v2: The Lightning Saga - Tornado's Path wasn't great by any means, but it was decent enough and I couldn't see why this run is so reviled. The second volume on the other hand bored me silly. Tedious from beginning to end.

Ten Grand v1 - Decent supernatural story from JMS and Ben Templesmith. Maybe it was the art, but this story felt like it sat somewhere between a Steve Niles and Warren Ellis story - only a lot denser than either. No idea why it's called Ten Grand though.

Halcyon - Fun bit of Superhero stuff from Mark Guggenheim. Not quite as deep as it felt like it wanted to be, but it was a decent little take on its concept.

Lazarus v1 - Distopian (possibly post-apocalyptic) future tale from Greg Rucka and Michael Lark. Intriguing start to the story and great art. I'm definitely on board to see where this is going.

[pmpknface]

I read the latest Fabels tpb. Sad ending. I'll miss this book when it's done.

[dancj]

Message to Adolf part 1 and part 2 - Osama Tezuka political following two boys called Adolf into adulthood. This is a good book and goes to some nasty places. Tezuka's great, but though he deals with serious subjects he always seems to write in a very simplistic style - and chuck in bits of slapstick. Over all though, very good. Appolo's Song is the next Tezuka I've got on my 'unread' shelves.

The Last American - Strange post apocalyptic story from the legendary (all three of them) John Wagner, Alan Grant and Mike McMahon. Fantastic art and a good story. My only issue would be that the story just stops rather than have any real ending.

Batman: Battle for the Cowl Companion - A crap Commissioner Gordon story, a crap Manbat story, a really good David Hine Arkham story - that I already have in the Arkham Unleashed TPB, half a Catwoman/Riddler story which might have been decent if it was finished and a passable Birds of Prey (largely likeable because it ridicules The Huntress's silly costume). That's gone straight onto the 'to sell' pile.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A Graphic Novel - Enjoyable adaptation of the F Scott Fitzgerald story. My only issue here was that they never once even showed his mother even though he apparently had one and they just stopped showing his wife without any real explanation of whether they'd split up or what.

Haunted Tank - Strange story where a squad of soldiers in Iraq are aided by the ghost of a Confederate soldier. Lots of arguing between the black squad leader and the racist ghost - and lots of racial jabs between the members of the squad who have various different heritages (is that a real word?) and lots of racial jabs from the squad toward the Iraqi population. The story isn't 100% successful, but it does try something different and I enjoyed it while it lasted. Henry Flint's art has changed loads since I was last reading 2000AD (15-20 years ago). It's lost some of the infectious energy it had, but gained something else. He's still good.

[torippu]

Forever Evil #7 - What was the ultimate purpose of this series? I think that I am finally starting to miss the old DCU.
Nightwing #30 - As someone who has been reading since Chuck Dixon launched the series in the mid-90s...no, no, no, no, I have no interest in this new direction!

[pmpknface]

I really loved Message to Adolf. Tough to read in parts just because of the content. It's been years since I read Apollo's Song! Can't wait to hear what you think of that. I'm on the kickstarter for Tezuka's "The Crater" and it's long overdue, but should be arriving in the next few weeks.

I read The Boys: Herogasm not too long ago. Whoa, it's been a while since I read vol 1-4 and this really brings me up to what this book is all about! Funny stuff though. Now I can read the rest of the vol's I've had sitting around.

[dancj]

I'm loving the Boys. I've got about two volumes to go.

[Billy Batson]

Nice to see Tezuka getting mentioned. I read his Book of Human Insects and Ode to Kirihito this month both which were good.

I'm loving the Boys. I've got about two volumes to go.

There was a bit of a slump before those but man it really picks up with those two trades.

[dancj]

There was a bit of a slump before those but man it really picks up with those two trades.

I really enjoyed Butcher Baker, Candlestick Maker. The Big Ride was a little heavy on the exposition for me


Onward:
Axe Cop v1 - I had no idea what to expect with this. I certainly had no idea it was 'written' by a five year old. The result is crazy and loads of fun. I'm not sure I need more as it did begin to wear a bit thin towards the end, but over all I loved it.

The Shield: Kicking Down the Door - All a bit meh really.

The Cartoon History of the Universe II - vols 8-13: From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome - Very interesting read from historian Larry Gonick. That said some of the stuff on China and Rome got a little hard to follow with constant successions of emperors replacing other emperors and me being terrible at keeping names straight at the best of times. I liked it enough that I've now bought volume 1.

Brownsville - True life story of Jewish gangsters in the 30s. It's a decent enough read, though I wasn't fond of the art style.

[Billy Batson]

I really enjoyed Butcher Baker, Candlestick Maker. The Big Ride was a little heavy on the exposition for m

Yeah, the Butcher mini was great but I was talking about the main series.