Comics, etc.

Dark Horse horror books are on sale on Comixology. Lots of good stuff, including Hellboy-related titles. I particularly enjoy Witchfinder.

Of note is that they are collecting the issues of various series into not just trades, but Omnibuses and Library Editions. For example, Harrow County is available in all three. The omnibus is the cheapest way to go, but either the second one isn't out or just isn't in this sale.

The BPRD stuff has been MUCH cheaper when bought by omnibus in the past, although I haven't re-examined it during this sale since I already have it.

Buffy and Angel on sale?

Both were pretty great once they were together under Dark Horse. That first season of IDW Angel was weird.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Dark Horse horror books are on sale on Comixology. Lots of good stuff, including Hellboy-related titles. I particularly enjoy Witchfinder.

Of note is that they are collecting the issues of various series into not just trades, but Omnibuses and Library Editions. For example, Harrow County is available in all three. The omnibus is the cheapest way to go, but either the second one isn't out or just isn't in this sale.

I have really liked what I read of Harrow County.

I read the first two or three volumes of Harrow County a while back and really liked them as well.

To end (at least for the time being) with my recent Jim Lee obsession, I read Batman: Hush Unwrapped, and it was fantastic. I had read Hush back in the day, and I remember really liking it, but the Unwrapped edition showcasing Lee's pencils is just incredible. It also helped that I barely remembered the story, so I had a great time revisiting it.

Completely unrelated, I read Betty & Veronica by Adam Hughes. I had never in my life read an Archie comic before, but I recently saw Hughes tweet about the three-issue miniseries he wrote and drew a few years ago, and I bought the Betty & Veronica trade that collects it. I love Adam Hughes's covers, but I think this is the first sequential work of his I've read since Gen13: Ordinary Heroes from way back when, and boy let me tell you --it was an absolute treat. Guys, Hughes is sooooo good! I also found the story to be very enjoyable, so I had a blast reading about the nasty feud between former good friends Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge. Plus, a sheepdog narrates the story, and you just can't go wrong if you include a sheepdog in your story. (The sheepdog says he is so articulate because he ate a thesaurus once --I mean, come on!) A super fun read I absolutely recommend!

Aha here's the comic thread.

Here’s another collection of eclectic (and very international) reads that have kept me entertained over the past few weeks:

SHI, volume 1, written by Zidrou and illustrated by Homs. Subtitled "In the Beginning There Was Fury", this European comic takes place during the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, where we meet two women that will become the leaders of a group of fighters that will target the colonialists and industrialists that wronged them. The art is fantastic, and the story promises great things to come, but this particular volume works like an origin story (which makes sense, since it’s volume one), and I found it a little bit slow. I am curious about what happens next, but I’m not in a big rush to buy the next book.

I know Gunsmith Cats is a manga (and not a “comic") by Kenichi Soda, but let me tell you about it. I bought and read volume 1 of the Revised Edition, which I think collects the first three volumes of the series, and I had a great time. For those of you who don’t know anything about this classic (says the guy who just read it for the first time), it stars two girls that own/work at a gun store and are also bounty hunters. The story is packed with cars, car chases, cars being destroyed, cars being shot, and some assorted cars here and there, as well as lots of very detailed guns, non-stop action, and some funny moments. Even though I thought I liked it but didn’t love it when I finished reading it, I can’t stop thinking about it, so chances are I’ll continue the series soon. Plus, there are only four volumes in the Revised Edition, so it sounds pretty doable.

Deadpool by Joe Kelly, volume 1. As its title clearly states, this is the first volume of Joe Kelly’s legendary run on Deadpool, the one (mostly) illustrated by Ed McGuinness. Despite having read the first two Deadpool miniseries when they came out, I never read this ongoing because at the time McGuinness’s style did not connect with me. I do like it now, so I thought I would buy this first volume… but boy did I hate it. I didn’t care for the story, didn’t even like McGuinness’s illustrations all that much (they were okay for the most part), and the fill-in artists did not help matters. I know it’s a beloved run, but it was a crushing disappointment. Would not recommend.

One of Those Days collects the popular webcomic by Yehuda and Maya Devir you might be familiar with. It shows their daily life as a couple, and it never fails to be sweet, funny, and very relatable. Also, the illustrations are fantastic!

The first volume of Home Sick Pilots from Image Comics is written by Dan Watters and illustrated by Caspar Wijngaard, and it tells the story of what happens when a high school girl enters a haunted mansion… and the house decides she’s not getting back out. I will not spoil anything else so that you discover all the surprises by yourselves if you want to check it out. I liked it but didn’t love it, though. The first couple of chapters/issues were great, but then I started to lose interest. It has 4.5 stars on Amazon, so clearly people liked it more than I did. Who knows, you might agree with them!

Next we have Always Never, a 152-page graphic novel written and drawn by Jordi Lafebre. I heard about it on the 11 O’Clock Comics podcast, and the story sounded interesting enough for me to look up some pages and look at the artwork to decide whether or not I wanted to buy it. I thought the art looked amazing, so I bought the book… and I was blown away. Always Never is the story of two star-crossed lovers told “Memento style": it starts with Chapter 20 and the two main characters being old, and it “progresses” until we see how they met in Chapter 1. The whole book was a fantastic trip, very romantic, full of nostalgia and missed opportunities, but also quite funny, touching, and tender. If what I’ve said sounds good, do not hesitate and buy this book —it is amazing.

And finally we get to 5th Capsule, by Omar Dogan. You might know him from his work for Udon Comics, particularly Street Fighter, but I’ve never read any of those books. I follow him on Instagram, and when he announced his creator-owned, labor-of-love series 5th Capsule was on sale on Gumroad I thought I’d give it a try and bought all six volumes sight unseen (it was like $5 total, so it wasn’t a big risk). And friends, what a great idea that turned out to be! 5th Capsule is a slice of life/romantic comedy series drawn in a very manga style (the first volume is black and white, but all the others are in full color), and it is an absolute blast. Now, if you hate slice of life/romantic comedies, this series is probably not for you; but if you only claim to hate those genres (because all your friends do) but love them secretly (like you should), then this is the book for you. Girl trouble, nice people, fast cars, cute drawings, and an interesting story that, despite the occasional and regrettable typo here and there, hooked me from the very beginning and made me smile all the way through, with a couple of sequences that made me laugh out loud (I will only say “pelicans”). Along with Always Never, the best book I’ve read this summer, and probably this year so far. So, so good!

Always Never sounds interesting. I’ll put that on my wishlist. I’ve accumulated a sizable pile of unread comics and should probably work my way through those first.

Your description made me think of a graphic novel called Day Tripper which is told out of sequence to some degree and is also about love and family. It’s one of my most favorite graphic novels and I can’t recommend it enough. The writer/author is named Fabiano Ba I think. His twin brother wrote and drew it as well.

Oh, yeah, I've heard very good things about Day Tripper, by the brothers Moon and Ba. I confess I'm not super into their artwork (or wasn't the last time I looked at it), but I'll check out some pages to see if they speak to me now. Who knows --they might!

Mario_Alba wrote:

Oh, yeah, I've heard very good things about Day Tripper, by the brothers Moon and Ba. I confess I'm not super into their artwork (or wasn't the last time I looked at it), but I'll check out some pages to see if they speak to me now. Who knows --they might!

The art isn’t great but the story is amazing. It might make you cry.

My copy has a poor print quality as well. I bought mine years ago. Not sure if they’ve upgraded the quality since then.

Home Sick Pilots is a weird name for a haunted house story, but I love those, so I'll check it out!

I really liked Day Tripper. This is a video analysis by Elsa Charretier.

Natus wrote:

I really liked Day Tripper. This is a video analysis by Elsa Charretier.

At the end of the video she answers my question as to whether there’s been a higher quality printing made available. I’m going to buy that deluxe version.

edit
It looks like the deluxe edition is out of print. Amazon has one used copy for sale at $59.99 USD. I’m guessing that the seller is marking that price up quite a bit. That’s disappointing.

Humble Bundle has a nice Judge Dredd bundle:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/j...

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Home Sick Pilots is a weird name for a haunted house story, but I love those, so I'll check it out!

Home Sick Pilots is the name of the band the main character is in, which might make it a little less weird of a title... but not by much.

Completed Invincible and loved the ride. Things were tied up quickly in the end with some hand waving but it was fun.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Completed Invincible and loved the ride. Things were tied up quickly in the end with some hand waving but it was fun.

One of these days I'll go back and finish it.
What's the best way to finish out non-Marvel stuff electronically now? Comixology or something else?

I've never read Invincible nor have I watched the show. Maybe one day...

As for my recent reads, here's the last three:

Persona 5, volume 7. (I know this is manga ) Written and drawn by Hisato Murasaki, this series is, of course, an adaptation of the game. The Futaba storyline starts in this volume, so if you've played the game you'll know exactly what that means; and if you haven't, I understand because the game is quite long, but it is also awesome and you should check it out. The manga as well.

Rocket Raccoon, volume 1. I wanted to check this out because it's written and (mostly) drawn by my dear Skottie Young. (The last two chapters are drawn by Jake Parker, of Inktober fame.) Most reviews agreed that it was a laugh riot and all sorts of fun... but I thought it was just okay. I liked the art and I laughed a couple of times, but overall I was not impressed. Honestly, I don't know why I keep trying Marvel books here and there --other than Strange Academy, I don't think I have enjoyed anything out of the House of Ideas very much in the past several months. Let this be a lesson!

The Dream of the Butterfly, volume 1. Written by Richard Marazano and illustrated by Luo Yin, this first volume subtitled "Rabbits on the Moon" looks and feels like a Ghibli Studios movie on paper. The story stars Tutu, a little girl that gets lost and ends up in a strange town with talking animals (fun!) that live in an eternal winter (not so fun!). She quickly becomes the center of attention and different players try to recruit her to help them achieve their goals while all she wants to do is find a way back home. The book has an Alice in Wonderland vibe I really enjoyed, and I thought the art was very pretty to look at. I have already bought the second volume, which appears to be the last one, and I am very curious to see how it all ends.

And that's it for now. Let's see what eclectic reads I bring you next!

lunchbox12682 wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

Completed Invincible and loved the ride. Things were tied up quickly in the end with some hand waving but it was fun.

One of these days I'll go back and finish it.
What's the best way to finish out non-Marvel stuff electronically now? Comixology or something else?

I only get non marvel stuff from comixology and humble bundle. Or I guess amazon which sometimes has different prices than comixology which is weird.

Baron Of Hell wrote:
lunchbox12682 wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

Completed Invincible and loved the ride. Things were tied up quickly in the end with some hand waving but it was fun.

One of these days I'll go back and finish it.
What's the best way to finish out non-Marvel stuff electronically now? Comixology or something else?

I only get non marvel stuff from comixology and humble bundle. Or I guess amazon which sometimes has different prices than comixology which is weird.

I don’t read a lot of comics digitally. I have to share the iPad and spare laptop with the rest of the family and it’s too often that when I’m in the mood to read comics that way, those devices are either being used or have a dead battery.

man I’m so worn out from all of those hours of iPading. can’t. reach. charger…
[end rant]

When I do read digital comics, the Amazon app is pretty good!

Just finished Gideon Falls. Really, really enjoyed that entire series. The story is interesting, the artwork is great...especially loved the chapter headers and the ever evolving head portrait art.

Any recs that have the same level of seriousness and some level of surrealism/unknown as Gideon Falls? I gave Harrow County a try but it was a little too YA for my liking.

Hoopla and Libby are great library apps, they have a surprising number of comics and are free, with your library card!

NathanialG wrote:

Hoopla and Libby are great library apps, they have a surprising number of comics and are free, with your library card!

I used overdrive thorugh my library for most of Gideon Falls. Didn't have volume 5 for some reason so I paid for that.

bigred wrote:

Just finished Gideon Falls. Really, really enjoyed that entire series. The story is interesting, the artwork is great...especially loved the chapter headers and the ever evolving head portrait art.

Any recs that have the same level of seriousness and some level of surrealism/unknown as Gideon Falls? I gave Harrow County a try but it was a little too YA for my liking.

I have the first three trades, and I agree --it is a great series! I need to get the last couple and finish it myself!

As for suggestions, have you tried Locke & Key? It is not as YA as the Netflix version of the show, but it might still be too YA for you, I'm not sure. I know I loved it, though.

Something more surreal but less serious is Tale of Sand, by Jim Henson and Ramon K. Perez. I think it is an amazing book.

Another suggestion is WaterSnakes, by Tony Sandoval. It's very surreal and dreamlike, but once again maybe not as serious as Gideon Falls. (What is?)

Finally, a strange manga series named PTSD Radio by Masaaki Nayakama is surreal and serious and weird as all get out. Which reminds me, Uzumaki by Junji Ito might also be to your liking. (Or anything by him, really.)

Mario_Alba wrote:
bigred wrote:

Just finished Gideon Falls. Really, really enjoyed that entire series. The story is interesting, the artwork is great...especially loved the chapter headers and the ever evolving head portrait art.

Any recs that have the same level of seriousness and some level of surrealism/unknown as Gideon Falls? I gave Harrow County a try but it was a little too YA for my liking.

I have the first three trades, and I agree --it is a great series! I need to get the last couple and finish it myself!

As for suggestions, have you tried Locke & Key? It is not as YA as the Netflix version of the show, but it might still be too YA for you, I'm not sure. I know I loved it, though.

Something more surreal but less serious is Tale of Sand, by Jim Henson and Ramon K. Perez. I think it is an amazing book.

Another suggestion is WaterSnakes, by Tony Sandoval. It's very surreal and dreamlike, but once again maybe not as serious as Gideon Falls. (What is?)

Finally, a strange manga series named PTSD Radio by Masaaki Nayakama is surreal and serious and weird as all get out. Which reminds me, Uzumaki by Junji Ito might also be to your liking. (Or anything by him, really.)

Thanks for the recs! I saw Locke and Key is available via Overdrive at my library so I'm going to give that a try. I'll check out the rest of the recs later on.

I also remembered there's an Alan Moore Lovecraft series out there somewhere. I should check that out too.

bigred wrote:

I also remembered there's an Alan Moore Lovecraft series out there somewhere. I should check that out too.

It's pretty freaky, and has the usual Moore trademarks of really off the wall visions and various forms of sexual assault. The phantasmagorical finale, however, mirroring the rise of Trump/Brexit, was pretty wild.

Sexual assault? I hate Alan Moore. Leave it to Alan Moore to ruin Lovecraft.

RawkGWJ wrote:

Sexual assault? I hate Alan Moore. Leave it to Alan Moore to ruin Lovecraft.

Didn't Lovecraft already have some problematic issues on its own, or am I confusing it with someone else?

lunchbox12682 wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

Sexual assault? I hate Alan Moore. Leave it to Alan Moore to ruin Lovecraft.

Didn't Lovecraft already have some problematic issues on its own, or am I confusing it with someone else?

Only if you consider racism and white supremency as issues.

So your answer should be "Yes. Lovecraft does have some problematic issues."

Mantid wrote:
lunchbox12682 wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

Sexual assault? I hate Alan Moore. Leave it to Alan Moore to ruin Lovecraft.

Didn't Lovecraft already have some problematic issues on its own, or am I confusing it with someone else?

Only if you consider racism and white supremency as issues.

So your answer should be "Yes. Lovecraft does have some problematic issues."

Thanks. I forgot if it was him or another older author like Well or something.

Also am I just a dumbass and missed the sarcasm in Rawk's quote?