Feb/15 reading

I've started this month by finding an unexpected trove of stellar comics at my local library:

How to Be Happy by Eleanor Davis
Werewolves of Montpellier by Jason
Fair Weather by Joe Matt
Saga, Volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples
and Marzi: a memoir by Marzena Sowa and Sylvain Savoia

What are you reading?

Just finished Seconds by Brian Lee O'Malley (of Scott Pilgrim fame). It was cute, I enjoyed it.

Not reading any comics at the mo - couldn't even make it out to the comics shop yesterday due to car problems (:P). Have been having to make do by entertaining myself with the prose adventures of proto-superhero John Carter in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series (https://www.librarything.com/series/Barsoom).

I just finished Saga Volume 4 which was just as crazy good as the previous ones. I'm also knee deep in a re-read this month (and the months to come since there's 22 of them in just the first series) of the Brian Michael Bendis Ultimate Spider-Man series. I'm starting at the very first volume of the first series, and then I'll move onto the Miles Morales one as well.

Now if only some library somewhere near me would by Battle of the Atom.

I read Hyderabad which was a pleasant surprise. It is an Indian graphic novel and has time traveling rickshaws, stories inside stories and interesting twists in a Twilight Zone way. The artwork is very naturalistic and bold.

Recommended for those who liked Vimanarama and Rogan Gosh.

>1 EnidaV: What do you think of How To Be Happy?

Started reading One Piece, probably the best selling manga in Japan (i think it's ahead of attack of the titans). i tried picking it up a while ago and thought to give it a second chance. kind of fun, memorable characters.

The artwork was spectacular in How To Be Happy and the stories were good too. Not sure I really got little sketches between them.

Speaking as one with zero or possibly negative artistic talent I'm amazed by people like Davis who do comics with watercolours (she does lots of ink drawing too). Brecht Evans is even more impressive because as far as I can tell he uses ONLY watercolours, ie. he's not drawing with ink first, then colouring - he does the whole she-bang in watercolours.

DanieXJ, yes, Saga is brilliant! I've read one other series by Brian K. Vaughan, Y: The Last Man which was pretty good but he seems to have upped his game in Saga. Also the artwork's way better.

>9 DanieXJ: Oh yeah, I love Fiona Staples art.

Just found this group, and I'm so glad I did!

I've got the first three volumes of Saga on deck, as well as the sixth Locke & Key, the first Y: The Last Man, Ristorante Paradiso, An Age of License, and the sixth volume of the Brides series by Kaoru Mori.

10> Yay! for Ristorante Paradiso, i'm a big fan of Natsume Ono
AND welcome to the group!

>10 LauraBrook:
Locke & Key and Y: The last man are awesome!

By the way, Brian K. Vaughan is the executive producer of Under the Dome, after the good work in Lost.

Power to the (comics) people! :)

Checked out the Mark Millar/J.G. Jones Wanted TPB at the library yesterday. Hoping to get to it this evening.

>10 LauraBrook: Don't forget the 4th volume too... just recently-ish came out.

Finished Boxers and Saints the last two days. Better than I expected actually :)

Finished Wanted last night. I thought the big breaking-the-fourth-wall "fuck you" ending was probably the best part of the book, actually; the rest is just sub-Quentin Tarantino/Garth Ennis gangsta crap, and shifting it into the superhero genre doesn't make it any less so. (Nice artwork, though.)

>14 DanieXJ: I'm #12 on my library list!

>15 AnnieMod: Nice to hear! I've checked out Boxers twice now and never opened it up. One of these days...

>17 LauraBrook: try to read both back to back. They really tell one story and the fresher Boxers is in your mind, the easier the connections are seen.

I liked Boxers and Saints, too, and agree with the suggestion of trying to read them back to back.

I'm a big fan of the Saga series. Can't wait for the next one.

I just started the recently-translated The Leaning Girl, which is unusual and very good. I understand it's part of "The Obscure Cities" set of stories that have a big following overseas.

Oh man, I just finished Future's End, Vol. 1 which I thought was confusing at first, but then pretty cool. And wow, Batman Eternal, Vol. 1 which is totally blowing my mind at the moment. Ugh, the pain of reading TPBs from various library sources and not individual issues. Now I have to wait until the library buys the next volumes.

Shoot, the Planetary Omnibus. That was insane of me to try and read it all at once. Shoot. Took me three days (and a ton of hours during those days). It was an awesome, awesome title for sure Warren Ellis is brilliant, but, that was a lot of reading.

I liked The Leaning Girl, which is bizarre and reminded me of Jules Verne. More translations of stories from "The Obscure Cities" reportedly will be coming out.

Now I'm enjoying Greg Rucka's noir Stumptown.

>21 DanieXJ:

I have all the individual TPBs that make up the Planetary Omnibus, but haven't read any of them other than the first one. Thanks for the heads-up - I'll be sure to put enough time aside when I finally get to them!

>22 jnwelch:

Stumptown is hardboiling great!

>23 artturnerjr:

I was fished by Planetary with the secret origin of Hulk. And it only gets better.

>24 apokoliptian: Ha! I agree!

>25 apokoliptian:

Oh yeah! In the preview story, right? That was frickin' great! First comic ever to make the Hulk (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) actually scary.

Just enjoyed The best of Library of Death, which reprints horror strips from the short-lived 1980s UK weekly Scream.

Hooray, the new Love & Rockets "annual" is here! Only 6 months late, but worth the wait. Jaime remains a genius, and the Gilbert stories didn't bug me as they sometimes do.

Just got The Sculptor from the library, but haven't read it yet.

Oh, The Sculptor is really good, edgewood. Look forward to hearing what you think of it.