What Comic Books Have You Read Today?

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

Report what comic books you have read today--and tell us a little something about it while you're here!

[Chris Fluit]

I read Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #1-15 yesterday.  The series debuted in 2006.  I had pulled it out of the longbox last year, thinking that I might reread some Star War series after I finished my X-Men reading project.  It holds up really well- good pace, good mix of characters, good writing, good art.  Man, I miss this series. 

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Read the second arc in Northlanders, which jumps to the fifth generation in 999-1000. This one was illustrated by Declan Shalvey, whose work I haven't seen before. It suits this series well. I remember Paul Azaceta from some B.P.R.D. stories, so he looked like a reasonable choice, although he's certainly not my favorite of all of the artists who have worked on Northlanders. It is hard to imagine his style working on Spider-man.

Also started the four-part miniseries My Faith in Frankie, which was written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Sonny Liew & Marc Hempel (Carey and Liew were co-creators). It's about a young woman who has a personal god. Helpful with most things in life, but an impediment to romance (jealous god and all that). So it's kind of a light treatment of some of the themes Carey was writing about in Lucifer at the time. The book is structured in short chapters (ten per issue), which helps to pack a lot of story in.

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

I read FF #3 and the Alpha origin comic, which I discovered was mere rehash from Amazing Spider-Man. Still, it moved at a really nice pace. As for FF, I liked this story a lot. I was much more interested in the pop-star girl and Ant-Man than I was with Old John Storm. I was really hoping that they would have ditched the creepy kid students, but it seems they will be more active in this book. I don't like them.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Finished the final Northlanders collection. The third arc is set in 1260, with a tenth generation Hauksson and his eleventh generation son. There are rumblings of a takeover by the king of Norway, and son Oskar pushes his father aside so he can wage war on the other clans. This turns out to be a horrible decision, and it ends with the near-annihilation of the clan, making the entire trilogy the story of the rise and fall of the Hauksson family. The ever reliable Danijel Žeželj returns to illustrate this arc, a splendid choice to end the series.

Also finished My Faith in Frankie, which was a fun read, much lighter than most Vertigo fare. It's basically a romantic comedy, but with gods and demons. The big climax explains the meaning of the title: Frankie has to save her god Jeriven, instead of the other way around.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

It's Monster Weekend here. First up was another Steve Niles miniseries from the IDW Omnibus. Secret Skull is four issues long, with art by Chuck BB. It's about a ghoul who is murdering people before they can commit murder (which is foretold in dreams). At first the identity of the Skull is a complete mystery, but by the end of issue two it's revealed that she is a ghoul (who doesn't know she's dead). The other ghouls are out to stop her nighttime activities.

Midnight, Mass: Here there be monsters was the six issue sequel to John Rozum's first Vertigo miniseries, illustrated this time by Paul Lee. As the title implies, the focus is more on the life of the monsters than famous paranormal investigators the Kadmons. It features the return of the messianic monster Magellan, who the Kadmons encountered in the first series. They barely survived that meeting, and now Magellan means to lead a group of monsters to take over an entire town, murdering all of the human inhabitants.

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

I remember really loving Secret Skull when it came out. So well done. Awesome artwork too.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Finished Secret Skull, which I don't think I liked as much as Wandering Sensei did. I really like the Cal McDonald stories, and I think I miss the character development in that series. Of course Niles set out to write a series of stories there (plus some prose ones which I haven't read yet), so he had space for development. And the Skull story is presented by "Meeednight Pulp," so I'd say I was warned not to expect much depth.

Also finished the second Midnight, Mass. series, which I liked more than I remembered from the first reading. The series was bedeviled by numerous printing and editing errors, which Rozum wrote about on the DC/Vertigo message boards at the time. I'll have to copy his notes into my blog entry for posterity, since I printed out and saved them with my issues. One of them would be useful to know if you're hunting for back issues: some copies of issue #2 had missing pages.

[Philip Portelli]

Finally went to my LCS after a two month absense and got these three TPBs:

Deadman Book Three: collects Boston Brand's mid-late 70s appearances. It could really use a table of contents. Still it reprints the two-issue saga of Batman's Killer Brother! Never thought I would see the day!

Essential Thor Volume 6: More mid 70s magic! John Buscema is, to me, the premiere Thor artist. Yes over Kirby and Simonson though I like all three. But Big John brings so much to the Thunder God, his friends and foes.

Showcase Presents: Weird War Tales Volume 1: I'm going to read this one gradually. Like many books, they weren't meant to be read consecutively. I would still get a SP: Creature Commandos/G.I. Robot book!

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Finally got my hands on a library copy of Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland, which I only read half of to make it last the weekend. I hadn't thought much about the timeline, but it is set during the period that Mister Dark had taken Fabletown, so Bigby Wolf is scouting for a new Fabletown location. Definitely not as free-standing as the previous OGN Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (which was a prequel), although the state of Fabletown is just background to this story. There's a lot of flashbacks to Bigby's experiences during WWII, which was the genesis of the werewolf community he encounters.

Bite Club was a six issue miniseries written by Howard Chaykin & David Tischman, illustrated by David Hahn, with covers by Frank Quitely. It uses a crime family of Miami vampires as a metaphor for the immigrant experience. The story opens with the murder of family patriarch Eduardo Del Toro, and much of the action that follows centers around the inevitable power play that follows. Eduardo's final big surprise is delivered when the family learns that he had named his youngest son Leto to succeed him. Leto has entered the priesthood and been out of contact for a couple of years, so he's as surprised as everyone else.

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

I'd love to see that series collected in one volume.

Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod) said:

Also finished the second Midnight, Mass. series, which I liked more than I remembered from the first reading. The series was bedeviled by numerous printing and editing errors, which Rozum wrote about on the DC/Vertigo message boards at the time. I'll have to copy his notes into my blog entry for posterity, since I printed out and saved them with my issues. One of them would be useful to know if you're hunting for back issues: some copies of issue #2 had missing pages.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

I was a bit disappointed with the art in the Fables book. My guess is that they brought in a bunch of people to help finish up the art, so it was a bit uneven. It was already running so late I wouldn't have minded it being later to give it an even look.

I remember liking Bite Club when it first came out, as well as the follow-up mini

Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod) said:

Finally got my hands on a library copy of Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland, which I only read half of to make it last the weekend. I hadn't thought much about the timeline, but it is set during the period that Mister Dark had taken Fabletown, so Bigby Wolf is scouting for a new Fabletown location. Definitely not as free-standing as the previous OGN Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (which was a prequel), although the state of Fabletown is just background to this story. There's a lot of flashbacks to Bigby's experiences during WWII, which was the genesis of the werewolf community he encounters.

Bite Club was a six issue miniseries written by Howard Chaykin & David Tischman, illustrated by David Hahn, with covers by Frank Quitely. It uses a crime family of Miami vampires as a metaphor for the immigrant experience. The story opens with the murder of family patriarch Eduardo Del Toro, and much of the action that follows centers around the inevitable power play that follows. Eduardo's final big surprise is delivered when the family learns that he had named his youngest son Leto to succeed him. Leto has entered the priesthood and been out of contact for a couple of years, so he's as surprised as everyone else.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

I agree about the art in Werewolves of the Heartland, and I can't imagine how there could have been a rush. The book was in the pipeline for years. I have a sketch of Bigby in my sketchbook that Craig Hamilton drew during HeroesCon 2011, and he said he had been working on it for months already. The story was a bit inconsequential, too: the sort of thing that would have made a good standalone issue for the monthly series.

I enjoyed Bite Club on rereading, although I was struck by a few things that I didn't notice when I was reading it month by month instead of all together. The first is the "Previously, in Bite Club" page that opens every issue after the first. It's a great feature in a monthly, when it's been a month since you read the previous installment. But it starts to become redundant when you're reading them immediately. The second is how little vampirism has to do with the story. It's basically a crime family story, where the family members just happen to be vampires. The illicit drug Plasmagoria is introduced early on, but winds up having a very minor role in the story. I don't remember how much this affects the sequel, but I'll find how when I get to it in a few weeks.

Travis Herrick (Modular Mod) said:

I was a bit disappointed with the art in the Fables book. My guess is that they brought in a bunch of people to help finish up the art, so it was a bit uneven. It was already running so late I wouldn't have minded it being later to give it an even look.

I remember liking Bite Club when it first came out, as well as the follow-up mini