Category Archives: comics

comics

Revisiting the Uncanny Un-Collectibles 2014

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In Fall 2010, twenty-eight of my friends and I compiled the Uncanny Un-Collectibles: Missing Comic Book Trades, a list of 52 comic series that deserved to be collected. In April 2012, I revisited the six part bitchfest to see if any of our wishes had been granted. I reported that six of the titles had been collected: Sugar and Spike, the Murphy Anderson and Neal Adams Earth-2 1960s Spectre stories, All-Star Squadron, Levitz/Giffen Legion of Super-Heroes, Flex Mentallo, and Chase. Last year, only two meager additions came out: Rip Hunter and Sea Devils.

How did things fare in 2013?

917491

Phantom Lady – The Complete Fox Collection

Collects Phantom Lady #13-23

Published February, 2013

Scott Cupp wrote:

Sandra Knight, a Senator’s daughter, masquerades as Phantom Lady, a skimpily clad heroine who defined the term “headlight comics.” Wearing little more than lingerie, she attacked crooks with abandon. Her skills were suspect at times as she frequently found herself in bondage situation. Primary artist Matt Baker was an expert at bondage art and brought Phantom Lady into the libidos of teenage boys everywhere. Dr. Wertham cited several issues of Phantom Lady in Seduction of the Innocent. There have been a couple of issues reprinted in Golden Age Greats from Paragon Press, but these were reduced in size and in black and white. There needs to be a good size reprint of all the Phantom Lady stories beginning with Police Comics #1. While Joe Kubert did several Phantom Lady pieces in Police, the truly memorable issues are the Fox issues. Continue reading →

End of the line?

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As you can see there has not been a lot of activity on this blog for a while. I have been crazy busy at work this year and have had no time to record my thoughts on books as I read them.

Is this likely to change in the future? Well probably not immediately as I will be involved in two projects at work that will take up most of my time up until at least August.

So I will post here when I can but it is probably going to be sporadic for the first half of the year at least. For now I will leave you with a graphic of all the comic books I have read this year courtesy of Goodreads (click on the image to magnify):

comics read 2013

Books received 9/17/2013

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Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Explorer: The Lost Islands

Edited by Kazu Kibuishi
Cover by Kibuishi

Promo copy:

The highly anticipated second volume to the critically acclaimed Explorer series, The Lost Islands is a collection of seven all-new stories written and illustrated by an award-winning roster of comics artists, with each story centered around the theme of hidden places. Edited by the New York Times bestselling comics creator Kazu Kibuishi, this graphic anthology includes well-written, beautifully illustrated stories by Kazu (the Amulet series), Jason Caffoe (the Flight series), Raina Telgemeier (Drama and Smile), Dave Roman (the Astronaut Academy series), Jake Parker (the Missile Mouse series), Michel Gagné (The Saga of Rex), Katie and Steven Shanahan (the Flight series), and up-and-coming new artist Chrystin Garland.

The previous volume Explorer: The Mystery Boxes ranked among my top ten graphic novels of 2012.

Explorer: The Mystery Boxes
Explorer: The Mystery Boxes edited by Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet)
Kazu Kibuishi’s follow-up anthology to the award-winning Flight series, Explorer: The Mystery Boxes continues in much the same vein with an eclectic mix of beautiful stories geared toward readers of all ages. While the seven shorts, all centered around mysterious boxes, feature excellent art and superior storytelling, several of the tales excel. The creepy opening contribution “Under the Floorboards” by Emily Carroll, the clever “The Keeper’s Treasure” by Jason Caffoe, Rad Sechrist’s charming “The Butter Thief,” and Kibuishi’s foreboding “The Escape Option” showcase some of the best of the form.

Continue reading →

Graphic Novels received 8/20/13 Top Shelf edition

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Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

God Is Disappointed in You

Written by Mark Russell
Cartoons by Shannon Wheeler

Promo copy:

God Is Disappointed in You is for people who would like to read the Bible… if it would just cut to the chase. Stripped of its arcane language and its interminable passages of poetry, genealogy, and law, every book of the Bible is condensed down to its core message, in no more than a few pages each. Written by Mark Russell with cartoons by New Yorker cartoonist Shannon Wheeler, God Is Disappointed in You is a frequently hilarious, often shocking, but always accurate retelling of the Bible, including the parts selectively left out by Sunday School teachers and church sermons. Irreverent yet faithful, this book is a must-read for anyone who wants to see past the fog of religious agendas and cultural debates to discover what the Bible really says.

Continue reading →

All quiet on the western front …

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So it’s gone a bit quiet here again. No good reason just been busy at work and haven’t been reading any comics lately. Not that I don’t have a lot to read. Aside from my big stack of unread books at home I have also been taking advantage of the various sales at Comixology and Dark Horse and have a pile of digital comics to read including complete runs of American Vampire, Transmetropolitan, The Boys, Grendel, Terminal City and many others.

My reading time lately has been taken up with Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth Saga – I have just started the second book Judas Unchained.

I have also been catching up on some TV series I have missed in the last few years such as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Caprica and Arrow.

However, I have recently bought the final volume of Vertigo‘s Hellblazer series so I will try to read that before the end of the month but after that will probably go quiet until after the summer.

Joker/Mask (2001)

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“Wait! Where’s the SWAT team? I don’t see the SWAT team! I don’t even rate the SWAT team anymore.”

Joker/Mask is the collection of a four issue series from DC and Dark Horse. The story was written by Henry Gilroy with art from Ramon F. Bachs and Howard M. Shum. I have not seen the work of any of these creators before but Gilroy is a co-writer on the Star Wars: Clone Wars TV series among other animation series credits. Bachs is a Spanish artist who has worked on a number of Star Wars comics as well as some titles for Marvel and DC.  Shum is a writer on a number of titles as well as an artist.

The Joker decides to go to a museum and blow up an exhibition featuring frowning clown masks. However his day does not go well as the head henchman has sent the other henchmen to the wrong location and Harley Quinn has removed the detonators from all the explosives. But the henchman discovers a mask that gives the wearer a manic energy and superhuman powers. Wearing the mask, the Joker is able to beat Batman severely enough that he is out of action feared dead and the Joker is left free to pursue his insane agenda across Gotham while monopolising the television airwaves. Harley fears for the Joker and enlists Poison Ivy’s help to remove the mask from the Joker before he blows up Gotham for real.

This story features the Joker on maximum overdrive and overkill. Even Harley Quinn finds it hard to continue to love her Mister J and the Joker/Mask has to keep coming up with wilder and more extreme exploits to stop himself becoming bored with how easy committing crime is with super powers. While there is some really good comic moments in this book, the manic intensity of the Joker/Mask combination is sometimes too much for the reader as it is for the characters in the story. With the Joker/Mask as the main character throughout the book, the pressure to come up with gag after gag relentlessly is a perhaps a drag on the writing.

I liked the art from Bachs and Shum. It is very cartoony in style but fit in well with cartoon qualities of the Mask and the manifestation of his powers. There are even some lovely renderings of Poison Ivy as well.

A quick and cheerful read that won’t change your life but is worth a look if you can find it.

Maxwell Strangewell (2007)

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“The bliss of its waters draws all souls. Can you not feel its pull?”

“All I feel is wind and sand up my ass!”

This is a 380 page graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics and was written and drawn by the Fillbach Brothers, Matthew and Shawn. I have read and enjoyed their Roadkill book, also from Dark Horse.

When Anna Gilmour investigates the crash site of an object that falls to Earth, the last thing that she expects to see is a giant, mute, humanoid walking from crater. She names the alien Maxwell and uniquely bonds with it. However, Max is a semi-mythical, powerful being that a lot of alien races want to exploit. The ensuing conflict threaten to consume the Earth and all living beings upon it.

I enjoyed this story but it had a bit of a multiple personality. It started out as a humorous Men in Black/X-files crossover with the Earth populated by many different races all spying on each other waiting for the return of the Strangewell. Then it mutated into an apocalyptic end of the world story as the power of the Strangewell was misappropriated by one delusional member of the alien race to which all accountants belong. Before finally becoming a morality tale on the abuse of power and knowledge. The size of the graphic novel gave the creators time to do this but it did feel like three books at times. Worth a look if you enjoyed Roadkill.

Books received 4/10/13

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Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial

by Darryl Cunningham

Promo copy:

Is hydro-fracking safe? Is climate change real? Did the moon landing actually happen? How about evolution: fact or fiction? Author-illustrator Darryl Cunningham looks at these and other hot-button science topics and presents a fact-based, visual assessment of current thinking and research on eight different issues everybody’s arguing about. His lively storytelling approach incorporates comics, photographs, and diagrams to create substantive but easily accessible reportage. Cunningham’s distinctive illustrative style shows how information is manipulated by all sides; his easy-to-follow narratives allow readers to draw their own fact-based conclusions. A graphic milestone of investigative journalism!

Fascinating use of the graphic medium. More on this later. Continue reading →