Based on various recommendations, I have taken my recent gift certificate bounty and cast it upon the waters at Amazon, leading to the purchase of the Sleeper trades (Volumes 1 and 2) and Seaguy and The Filth as well. I'd already spent my cash on Eric Shanower's Age of Bronze Vol. 1 and so Vol .2 was a no-brainer.
Unfortunately, I ran out of money at this point, so Jim Ottaviani's Fallout and Two-Fisted Science had to go on the hold pile, as did Dave Gibbons' The Originals and I'm mulling over sticking Fallen Angel on there as well.
Expect me to comment on these, my catch-up reading, as I get caught up. As always, any suggestions for added stuff for the hold pile is cheerfully solicited.
Posted by Matt Rossi at January 25, 2005 10:11 PM
Upcoming, standalone collections...
Conan v1 by Busiek and Nord
It's a Bird (softcover) by Seagle and Kristiansen
Stray Bullets v1 by Lapham - I think he's shuffling the trades a bit so that the breaks fall in a different way.
I picked up Sleeper 1 and was mildly unimpressed; it'll be in the next Curmudgeonly Comments, probably three weeks from now.
Greg - I was told that Sleeper 1 was underwhelming without Sleeper 2, which is why I grabbed both. Still, I won't be surprised if I like it or if I don't, I figured I'd take the risk. Really, it's the Shanower that's the prize as far as I'm concerned.
Ralf - I may pick up Stray Bullets. I remeber reading the individual issues a while back. Conan doesn't do it for me as a comic - I own the original stories (Just picked up Shadow Kingdoms, a great collection, as well as the new Del Ray releases) and once you've read those a lot, Busiek and Nord just don't make it. (Even Thomas and Windsor-Smith pale. Don't ask me abour Robert Jordan's ham-handed pastiches.)
Anyone have an opinion on Bachalo's 'Steampunk' series with, I think, Joe Kelly?
I tried SLEEPER twice and asked myself "This is what the comics blogosphere is going ga-ga over?"
Seaguy was fun but WE3 is even better, Quietly turned in some of the most beautiful, bloody, violent art I've seen in some time.
Those Conan DelRey re-releases are amazing reproductions of the pricey Wandering Star versions. I'm looking forward to the Bran Mok Morn, too.
I bought the first 8 - 10 issues of Steampunk + then lost interest in the last few. Interesting concepts, dialogue was a little cryptic w/a mixture of slang from different eras, but Bachalo's art really detracted from the storytelling. I eventually decided it wasn't worth the effort.
Currently reading DC's "New Frontier" + like it, especially the design elements. Next up are the first 2 Samurai Executioner books.
I was underwhelmed by SLEEPER 1 as well, but nothing I've ever read by Brubaker has ever really impressed me. His writing style and my reading tastes don't seem to coincide for whatever reason. I've given up on him except sitting through GOTHAM CENTRAL arcs waiting for the Rucka issues.
What I'm antipating now is the first GRIMJACK trade. Never read any, but I was a big fan of Ostrander on Suicide Squad and Hawkworld.
Does anyone have an opinion on JON SABLE, FREELANCE?
I collected all the issues of Steampunk when they came out, and generally liked it. I'm a fan of Chris Bachalo's art, although it gets pretty muddled in this series (and most of the stuff he's done in the last few years). The writing was pretty good, although, like most Joe Kelly stuff, a lot of the plot was purposely obfuscated. Interesting ideas, especially if you enjoy steampunk (the genre) concepts. The second arc seemed to confuse things more. Maybe it would have all made sense if the series hadn't been cancelled, but somehow I doubt it. But, hey, what other series has a young Queen Victoria as a duplicitous, ass-kicking cyborg babe?
Never let it be said that I miss a chance to pimp Rex Mundi. The first trade is out and the second will be soon. Great series -- murder mystery, conspiracy theory, alternate history, beautiful art, erratic schedule. Probably my favorite series going right now.
Steampunk was okay, especially the weird story ideas. Every so often I take out early issues of Shade, the Changing Man and wonder what the hell happened to Bachalo. He's out of control.
I'm not sure what you'd think of Fallen Angel. If I recall correctly, you're not much of a PAD fan, but the TPB is free of most of the tropes David tends to use. You might dig it.
Regarding Sleeper, it may simply be that I can no longer willingly suspend my disbelief that there is a secret cabal of the powerful that has stably ruled the earth for centuries. But there were also a couple of half-assed ideas that could have been interesting were they fully assed, and that contributed to the disappointment.
The cabal in Sleeper is little more than window-dressing, a pretext for a couple issues' worth of plots. It may be a bit cliche, but judging the series on that is a bit like panning The Maltese Falcon because you didn't like the statue of the bird.
That is, the real virtues of Sleeper lie in something other than the nominal excuses for the action. The capers Holden Carver is sent on are often the least developed parts of the story, mere contrivances to get Carver on the same train as his ex-fiancee &c. I enjoy the series for its atmosphere of paranoia and second-guessing, its cast of master manipulators constantly jostling for advantage over one another, its insider's look at a wildly implausible supervillain organization's hierarchy, and its willingness to radically change parts of its status quo (Carver's goals and motivations) while retaining the essential traits that make it work.
That said, I don't expect a hyperviolent LeCarre-esque undercover supervillain comic to be everybody's cup of tea. In fact, I tried to steer Matt towards the Morrison and Jimmy Corrigan. The first Sleeper trade collects some fine issues, but they're really more a set of isolated introductions to an ongoing series than they are a telic storyline. (Some of them, I'd imagine, might have read better as individual issues - particularly chapter 5, with its horrific, perfect ending.) The real plot, not the window-dressing, kicks in with the second trade and picks up quite a bit of steam in the second series.
Actually, come to think of it, maybe the second series was the perfect time to start reading.
Hey, give the first Losers trade from DC/Vertigo a try, it's a tightly paced conspiracy story with just the right bit of action and ripped-from-the-headlines worldliness.
If haven't read anything by Brian K. Vaughan, he's one of the writers I'm enjoying the most right now. Whether it is Y: THE LAST MAN or EX MACHINA, he is telling some great Sf-ish stories.
WARNING! WARNING to all Howling Curmudgeons readers! A FROTHING ALERT has been declared for EX MACHINA. Positive references to this series are likely to provoke negative response from Curmudgeon authors and regulars. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
Yummy! I sure do love the taste of my own foot. It's a delicacy I try not to indulge very often, but when I do, I eat it in heaps.
[Rob crawls back to his own little Web corner of the universe, where he can learn to utlize better grammar when posting to blogs]
No, no, stick around - just mind the travel advisories. :)
I have to say, on Sleeper, I feel that I definitely benefitted from having read Point Blank first. It's stronger narratively than the first Sleeper series, and it puts one into the narrative world extremely well. That way, moody digressions like the endless games of Origins don't seem like distractions from the "real" story--you realize that the mood is the story. Too, series 1 ends better than it begins.
Personally I don't think you're missing out on much with Gibbon's the Originals. The art is very nice, but as I'm not so much of an art whore the lacklustre plot and cheap O'Henry ending left me cold...The Filth on the other Hand, despite the odd moment of inchoherence is classic Morrisson - intelligent, witty and wilfully peverse (especially the take no prisoners Pornomancer/World of Anders Klimax issues), ably matched by Weston's Dan Dare does Salon Kitty design. Top notch stuff - "best for wank, eh?"