A weekly thread for people to share what comics they've been reading. Share your thoughts on the books you've read, what you liked and perhaps disliked about them.
Batman Night Cries. One of the darkest stories
X-Men Grand Design - Basically like a recap of early to 80s X-Men.
Sentry Omnibus - Now he is in my top 10 favorite Marvel characters.
-Tank Girl Remastered 1-3: just dumb fun and I loved every moment.
-Minor Arcana vol. 2: Jeff Lemire continues to crush this series.
-Quick Stops vol. 2: one arc of a story rather than multiple short stories. So over-the-top but exactly what you want from Kevin Smith.
-Absolute Wonder Woman vol. 2: one of the few superhero books Iām really looking forward to each session.
-Absolute Batman vol. 2: still a fun Batman story.
-Carry On: Pan African sci-fi anthology. Kind of disappointing for all the same reasons they usually are. Too many stories with not enough room for them to be done well.
-Big-Ass Sword: Cool little Heavy Metal/2000AD apocalyptic robot wandering swordsman.
-Daytripper: Wow, such a lovely story.
-Concrete vol. 2-3: Just great storytelling. Absolutely loved Concrete taking up acting.
-Exquisite Corpses vol. 1: Death game stories can be cool or lame. Definitely a cooler one and I canāt wait to see where they went from there.
-Junkyard Joe: would recommend. Need to check out the rest of his universe of characters.
Shout out to Batman and Deadman by James Robinson and John Estes. It is not a typical Bat-story. Might not be for most Bat-readers. But the Art and the visual storytelling are superb!
Å ! #54 by various ā alt-comix anthology themed around āItās All Good!ā. As per usual in this anthology series, thereās a variety of styles, lengths, and āseriousnessā of material, and generally solid although with a couple real duds (for me) in this one. Itās a bit all over the place, not the ātightestā of themes, but some highlights were Caroline Cashās āDrunk Girlsā (just fun little one-night-out comic), Anandās āTough Impressionsā (kind of weird little crime caper?), Elizabeth Pichās āDyke Wifeā (a series of title-appropriate one-page comics), Margot Souncakās āJessicaā (psychedelic pop-culture-sex-symbol-dream), and Leo Foxās āGood Guysā (is heaven all itās cracked up to be?). Thatās a pretty good set to be happy with, and there are more decent ones in there.
The Chaos Effect by Pierre Christin and Enki Bilal ā bleak political comics. This edition combines two books from the same author/artist team, The Black Order Brigade and The Hunting Party. Both are pretty bleak, there-are-no-real-good-guys stories of political violence, through a very looking-back lens. The first is the story of a group of retired freedom fighters who reunite 40 years after the Spanish Civil War to go after their re-emerged fascist enemies ā but they are old, retired, have lost their real fervor, and are uncertain whether what theyāre doing really matters to the new Left movements. Itās a pretty straightforward, although relatively slow-moving, political thriller with some punctuated action. In the second, a number of prominent Communist officials gather for a hunting retreat, many united by their shared history with the mysterious and powerful Vassily Alexandrovich, told through sort of through the view of a young new interpreter. Itās a little more non-linear, lots of flashbacks, and more richly symbolic. Thereās also just a little bit of surreal dream moments as past and present merge together. Both are illustrated with very distinctive Enki Bilal art, although for the most part he doesnāt stretch his wildly out-there-sci-fi and keeps us with the caricatured faces and dour mood he does so well. A really great collection.
Okay, this was so weird I just have to talk about Hypericon by Manuele Fior
I went into this with no idea of what it was - I expected some slow, slice of life literary comic based on the cover - and to an extent, it was just that.
This book has to be one of the biggest WTF's I've ever read - not because of the content, but because of the agenda it seems to have. It stars a ~28 year old student with a fascination for archeology and king tut who copes with her chronic insomnia by reading first hand experiences about the discovery of his tomb. She has a plan for her life which gets derailed quickly by a 'go-with-the-winds' stranger that drifts through various moments in life without any cohesive plan for the future.
Overall, its a good story and a sad look at someone at rock bottom who doesn't realize they're at rock bottom, but in the last half of the book it turns into this weird evangalizing of St. Johns Wort. She turns down a museum job to research the plant, and finds a cure for her insomnia through it. The very end closes with one final 'flash back' to the discovery of King Tut's tomb, and ends on a note about finding the plant adorned on his sarcophagus.
Its the weirdest tone shift Ive read in something because its a great story about broken people told in parallel to the discovery of this archeological wonder, but then shifts completely into a weird pseudo-propaganda about a plant and how it can seemingly cure everything. The parallel between finding King Tut's tomb and finding St Johns Wort as two huge pinnacle discoveries of civilization just took me out of the story so far that I couldn't help but laugh out loud at how truly absurd it was.
The art is all over the place with some of the worst drawn faces Ive ever seen during the 'present day' parts of the story, but the art for the historical flashbacks is striking and gorgeous. It clearly illustrates the authors strengths and weaknesses all in one volume, which I found to be pretty interesting since most creators will just refuse to create work that requires showing off their weak points - even if its meant as practice to get better in those places.
Great characters, Good Art (for the most part), but the most laughably absurd propaganda is buried at the end of the book leaving a funny-bad taste in my mouth about the experience as a whole. It feels like the book wasn't created to create art, but to push a message instead
Nightwing compendium 1, not bad a little generic as far as the villains go I do like the little things that show how dick is different from Bruce not a big fan of the art āļøāļøāļø
Aquaman by Peter David vol 1-2 and time and tide, I just didnāt like the raised by dolphins and his father, being some sort of immortal sorcerer also how Mira fits into this and where she comes from is very confusing plus it was really disjointed āļø
Thor by Donny cates
Vol 1. Came swinging out the gate this is awesome and I really like the dialogue it feels very epic highly recommendāļøāļøāļøāļøāļø
Vol 2. Really interesting love throg in this and poor Donald got a shit dealāļøāļøāļøāļø
Vol 3. just filler but always nice to see throg āļøāļø
Vol 4. I like the funeral at the end but didnāt really like the rest of it I feel like it wrapped up too quickly and mjolnir being evil came out of nowhereāļøāļø
Vol 5. Just a pointless crossoverāļø
Vol 6. Terrible art and the story is convoluted and doesnāt make any senseāļø
Atlantis Chronicles, really liked this a lot of very interesting lore and history to Atlantis that I like.āļøāļøāļøāļø
Star Wars bounty hunters vol 1-5, I just found this very boring but it has great artāļøāļø
Void rivals vol 1-5, I thought this was really interesting I like the main characters and Iām looking forward to seeing more of scarred
skulxxoidāļøāļøāļøāļø
G.I. Joe vol 1-3 itās just kind of meh for meāļøāļø
Transformers vol 1-5, kind of mixed feelings on this vol 1-2 are really good vol 3 is a lot of background on starscream that I really donāt care about vol 4 is pretty good itās basically a huge war vol 5 is an interesting startāļøāļøāļøāļø
Superman:the death of Superman, my favorite part is doomsday tearing through the justice league like wet paper with one arm tied behind his back but overall its pretty much 80 pages of one fightāļøāļø
Superman:funeral for a friend, the main parts are good but way too much filler a slog to get through āļø
Superman:reign of supermen,again a slog to get through despite being called reign of the supermen thereās not a lot of them there is so much about all there side stories that go nowhere and are not interestingāļø
Superman:the return of Superman, over about 400 pages very bloated and for the 3rd time a slog to get through the main story is very mehāļø
Superman:doomsday, the first 3rd of the story was interesting. I like seeing doomsday origins, and then how he was defeated the rest of the book is forgettable crap.āļøāļø
The authority by Ellis,itās ok for me nothing special I didnāt like the god being a giant pyramid made of flesh or the pro-choice statement being shoehorned in .āļøāļø
The authority by miller,didnāt finish this horrible art and the story is about the same as before with a bunch of weird stuff thrown in I really didnāt like that they let the guy go to live a happy life right after he murders a bunch of babies .āļø
The Authority has a lack of humanity that prevents any amount of value. Shame because it tackles some interesting themes, and the characters have dimensions in other series. Stormwatch was a much improved series.
Werewolf Jones & Sons Deluxe Summer Fun Annual by Simon Hanselmann. Iāve been a fan of Simon Hanselmannās work for a while now, so this was a fun read. If youāve read "Megg & Mogg," you already know what youāre getting into. Werewolf Jones is basically the human (werewolf?) embodiment of bad decisions. Depravity in all forms: Drugs, sex, theft, violence, catastrophically bad parenting. The guy has absolutely no self-awareness and somehow keeps finding new ways to make every situation worse. His sons, Diesel and Jaxson, are weirdly the sympathetic characters here, which is saying something considering these are the same kids who once lined a waterslide with razor blades and sliced Owl's back to ribbons. Is this mostly a rehash of earlier "Megg & Mogg" WWJ material? Yeah, kind of. Did I still laugh my ass off? Also yeah. Hanselmannās sense of humor is so relentlessly bleak and mean that it somehow loops back around to being hilarious. The anthology format works well too, with contributions from Josh Pettinger and HTML Flowers fitting right into the chaos. If black comedy is your thing, this is over a hundred pages of Werewolf Jones doing what he does best. In other words, being the absolute worst. If that sounds awful to you, steer clear. But I had a blast. 7.5/10
I finished volume 1 of Assorted Crisis Events, which was one of the best comics Iāve read in a long ass time. I love how each issue has its own little āgimmickā so to speak. (the issue about a time loop has pages that are meant to be read in a circle rather than left to right and the issue about the alternate universe would use the same panel layout every two pages) Every characterās struggle feels very real and it clearly has a lot to say about the world at large, which can also make it feel like a bit of a downer to read sometimes, but that doesnāt make it any less good. By contrast, Iāve also been reading Fear Agent which is about the farthest you can get from a downer. Itās about a space exterminator from Texas with a talking ship who wants two things: booze and money to buy more booze. Thereās probably more to him than that of course, Iām only 3 issues in and all theyāve explained about āFear Agentsā is that the main character used to be one. So far though itās just a silly space adventure about a lovable Texan drunk who shoots stuff for a living, and sometimes thatās all you need.
Saga of the Swamp Thing By Alan Moore - absolutely loving it. Almost done & thought I was going to move onto something different afterwards (I have the Eternuat & Nausicaa on deck) but might have to go right into Vol 2.
Carnet de Bord T4: 2002-2003 final volume (so far) of Trondheim's travel journal comics. For anyone else, 2000 pages of autobio comics (450 pages of this series, plus some of his other series) would constitute a large fraction of their output, but Trondheim...
Slam Dunk vols 27-31 the real treasure was the dunks we slammed along the way. Several stand-up-and-cheer moments in the final stretch. It became increasingly obvious with each volume that the structure was not going to turn out the way you'd expect. Inoue improved enormously between the first and final volumes of this series
Avengers by John Byrne Omnibus nuff said, true believer, excelsior etc. Was this period the last time Byrne looked actually, you know, "good"?
Blade of the Immortal Omnibuseses 8-10 this final third of the series can't live up to the prison break sequence of the previous one or two omnibuses, which was an all-timer, and the closest thing I've experienced to recreating the thrill of Usagi Yojimbo's Dragon Bellows storyline. Still great, and it lands in a very different place from what you'd predict from the start of the series. Somewhat marred by a couple of bits of dum-dum sexist shit
Collected Crumb Comics v13 Season of the Snoid speaking of marred by dum-dum sexist shit. Still one of the greatest draughtsmen in comics, and a visionary satirist, but jesus the misogyny. This volume includes one of his most famous strips, A Short History of America
(DC's adaptation of the first bits of) The Bible (by Sheldon Meyer, Nestor Redondo and Joe Kubert) not as much fucking as Gilbert Hernandez's version
My Gorilla Family the first Smudge release I've read that lived up to the promise of the imprint. Fucking batshit, and terrific. I'm looking forward to the second volume from this crazy cat
The action set pieces, especially the prison break, in BotI are so much fun.
It's tonally quite a different series but if you're ever looking for sequences at a similar level (and don't mind a long haul) Golden Kamuy has two of the best action set pieces I've seen in comics (including its own prison sequence, though this one is a break in).
yeah I keep seeing you guys talk about the prison break in Golden Kamuy. I enjoyed the first volume but have been waiting to find more volumes at a good price
This was fantastic. I've read Lovecraft before, including this one, but I have to admit the pictures did legit help, lol. I certainly feel like I have a better understanding of the story now, and overall this was a great adaptation. I also read his version of The Color out of Space, highly recommend that one as well, and it's shorter.
Ah, āGoodnight Punpun,ā the infamous feel-bad manga that manages to distill the darkest aspects of depression and inject it straight into your veins. This is at once: the ultimate neuroticās manifesto, a horrifying portrait of trauma and insanity, andā¦ a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Because it is undeniably brilliant, with dabs of bona fide genius spackled intermittently throughout it. It also hits you like a sickening gut punch, except it does so slowly over the course of its nearly 3,000 pages. In the preface to his book, āNative Son,ā Richard Wright wrote that he wanted the reader to feel devastation beyond sadness, like the sensation of ācrying without the consolation of tears.ā Well, thatās certainly a perfect description of this series as after reading it I spent a good half-hour or so blankly staring at the wall, completely numb to any sort of stimulus or emotion of any kind. I suspect many other readers were left in a similarly shattered state upon completing it.
The biggest source of tension in this series is between two different types of perception: the perception of the main character (Punpun Onodero) and the horrific way he views himself and the world, and the masterful way that Asano manipulates us, the viewer, into seeing and empathizing through his point of view. This manga is in essence, the ultimate form of solipsism. Punpun canāt seem to break beyond the boundary separating the world from his own thoughts, and weāre mostly trapped within his fractured psycheāwhich is so fundamentally broken that he pretty much remains an unknowable cipher to us even till the very end. Everything feeds into this, including its most distinctive feature in how it visually depicts Punpun (and several of his family members) as crude bird-like figures, which starkly contrasts the realistically drawn environment and characters of the world around him.
Thereās also slight details that further warp our perception. A good amount of the characters are drawn in an off-putting, hyperreal manner, as if there were an omnipresent, accusatory malice hidden behind the mask of their smiles. Compounded with the fact that nothing ever seems to go right for Punpun, it gives off the impression that the entire world is an inherently hostile place where most people are always looking to harm or pull one over on you in some shady way. However, this is counter-balanced by a couple of female characters who are portrayed much more softly, in an almost angelic light, especially a girl named Aiko, who Punpun immediately becomes obsessed with at first sight. He begins to imagine her as an unreachable ideal of perfection, and as the sole thing in the world worth living forāa mindset that any normal person can easily predict will only lead to heartbreak.
The biggest issue with this isnāt that itās so depressing (thatās actually its 2nd biggest issue!), itās that Punpun is one of the most thoroughly unlikable and un-rootable main characters Iāve ever read, and this is after acknowledging just how tragic his life has been. Take something like āBerserk.ā Despite how grim and horrifying it gets, you canāt help but root for its main character Guts. Heās perhaps fighting an endless, futile struggle against fate itself, but at least, by god he fights! Punpun by contrast is extremely passive. In fact, the one true act of dynamic agency he undertakes in his life directly ties into an even greater tragedy awaiting him. If Punpun is symbolic of trauma and the nihilistic view of the world as your own personal hell, then Guts is symbolic of the Buddhist-like notion of all life being suffering, and your will to endure and claw your way out of that hell, no matter how many obstacles are thrown your way. Thereās only one real ethos here you can roll with.
Still, something I realized long ago with art is that anything that is capable of emotionally affecting you as strongly as this does, is almost certainly good no matter how bitter a pill it is to ingest. Yeah, yeah, I was eventually grateful for having read this, even though I aināt planning on revisiting it anytime soon (as in the next couple of decades at least). Yeah, I did kinda-sorta learn something about human nature and it caused me to reflect on myself on how I couldāve gone down a path like Punpun, and to better appreciate my life, and perhaps even strive to be a better person. Thatās all true, but by god, did we get put through the wringer in order to reach this post-nut cathartic state of melancholic appreciation. 4.5/5. A masterwork that I'm unsure if I can directly recommend to anyone, or even read again.
Sara, by Garth Ennis, Steve Epting, and Elizabeth Breitweiser
Youāre very quickly pulled into this story as the setting and characters are inherently interesting. Itās about an all-female group of Soviet, crack-shot snipers set during WW2. In movies, whenever I see that sniper vs sniper dynamic Iām always fascinated by it, as it eventually leans into this cat and mouse interplay with each trying to one up another as the superior āpredator.ā For a large part, the group of snipers here reign havoc completely unchecked, with some even gaining legendary status amongst the hapless German soldiers that whisper of a white-clad female angel of death that is responsible for hundreds of kills. This eventually spurs the Germans to go on the attack however and introduce their own elite sniper which brings that aforementioned hunter/prey dynamic into play. The mood, artwork, and characterization all work together extremely well to create a simple but compelling story that succeeds mostly by its action sequences, and to a lesser extent by its psychological portrait of a unique, tight-knit group of people struggling under the immense stress of war. 3.5/5
Glad Punpun resonated! As you said, it's one of those titles that I never feel comfortable recommending.
Not only because so much of the content is deeply uncomfortable (not to mention Onadera being an utterly despicable protagonist) but because I've seen some who have had similar emotional struggles take it as almost prescriptive, like they too deserve to lash out at a world they feel is unfair instead of introspecting.
Though if you've got your head on your shoulders and don't mind tagging along with someone truly deplorable it can be intensely affecting and a very cathartic experience to watch such painful self destruction.
Yeah, I canāt even describe it as sad. It feels more like a gut punch, like the scene of Artax sinking in the swamp of sadness from The Neverending Story, but extended out into a whole manga. As you said, I have no idea how people are going to respond to such an unrelenting feeling of devastation.
I Hate Fairyland - I read the first book in this series years ago and loved it but never read the second book. Now books 3 and 4 are out and I decided to read them before I go back to reading a prose book in my back and forth to work on both TBRs. lol So, on Friday I finished rereading the first book and am now on the second book.
I was a dumb ass and had been working through 3 massive runs simultaneously. One of them trying to catch up with all of Mark Waidās current DC output (of which, I just finished Absolute Power), catching up to Ruckaās current Batwoman starting with 52 (in which, I think Iām at week 20), and trying to span John Byrne to Peter Davidās Hulk run (of which Iāve not even started Peter Davidās run yet). I got burned out and intimidated. I am not a fast reader in the first placeā¦
So Iāve been on a break. Then I sat down in one sitting and read Jeff Lemireās The Nobody. A graphic novel originally released from Vertigo in ā09. Iāve had it for 7-8 years but never read it. Again, I was a dumb ass for not reading it sooner. This is Lemireās take on the Invisible Man if it were set in a small fishing town during the 1990ās. It had great characters with depth and a brilliantly done ending. Lemire is my favorite working writer and all his strengths in storytelling were on display here. As an artist, I thought Lemire used some fun techniques and managed to create powerful imagery to display the inner turmoil of the main character. I donāt want to give too much away about the plot but this was just rereleased from Dark Horse not too long ago. I suggest everyone give it a peek. Itās highly underrated.
That got me to move into rereading Jeff Lemireās Green Arrow run with Andrea Sorrentino. This run was during the height of the Arrowverse and I had to approach the run as āThis Green Arrow is a different universe and different character than the other Green Arrowā in order to enjoy it. Iām used to the Kevin Smith/Brad Meltzer/Phil Hester anti-establishment version of the emerald archer. This was āUltimate Green Arrowā for lack of a better analogy. When I was able to make that distinction, the book was an incredible ride. Andrea Sorrentino delivers top tier work here. The way Sorrentino set up panels allowed for the colorists to highlight different parts of the action. It was impactful in the high action moments. Sorrentinoās work was weak when it comes to characters emoting but Lemire really was able to carry that enough and draw the readers in with this Oliverās internal narration. The plot was very much a riff on Millerās Daredevil with a mysterious trainer, secret ninja guilds, and a hero pulling themselves up from rock bottom after the villain has sliced them down. However it deviates by focusing on Oliverās family bonds (existing and past) instead of a romantic life. I hadnāt read this since 2017-18ish? It was a lot like reading it again for the first time and I think itās certainly a compelling period in the characterās long history. The Deluxe Edition Hardcover of this 19-issue run was re-released in May and I would recommend it.
One World UnderDoom (By Ryan North, R.B. Silva, David Curiel, and Travis Lanham): This should not have been an event book. One World Under Doom should have been a banner like Dark Reign or Heroic Age or some other thing that Marvel had done. It should have been every book coming to terms with Doom being in charge, and culminated in an event like Siege. It could have launched a flagship title similar to Dark Avengers during Dark Reign that focused on all of the things Doom was doing. Ryan North could have still written it along side the FF. But that isnāt the boom we got. We got this. This wasnāt bad, but it could have been epic. There were good moments throughout the series, especially like Doom twisting the heroes use of their powers during the debate. There were times where I was just frustrated reading the story (mainly after issue to and the Masters of Evil). I didnāt hate this book, but I am frustrated and disappointed it wasnāt better.
Fantastic Four, Volume Six (By Ryan North, Steven Cummings, Cory Smith, Wayne Faucher, Oren Junior, Jesus Aburtov, and Joe Caramagna): This volume has the banner of One World Under Doom, so it obviously deals with things that are tied to that series. And I canāt believe that Ryan North wrote both of them. Maybe Ryan North is better on the smaller scale books, and the events have too much to juggle. But this book did not feel out of step with the rest of the Fantastic Four that Iāve been reading. This continued to feel like a story about this family and the lengths theyāll go to stay together. This is the last volume in this set of Fantastic Four stories, it gets rebooted yet again after this one, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Ryan North did an exceptional job telling these stories. Iām very happy that I decided to give this series a try.
X'ed Out by Charles Burns - This was my first exposure to Charles Burns, as a wee boy. Found this laying around the house one day, when I was maybe 8 years old ? This was so not for my younger self, turned me off his stuff for the longest time. Funnily enough, I only remembered the ligne claire parts, kind of took me by surprise when it suddenly turned into his usual style.
Now though, I can definitely dig it. It's got the usual Burns-isms, decadent youths and broken people, with some body horror thrown in. But I'm particularly curious to see where he takes his Tintin pastiche thing
Lucas Wars Vol. 2 by Laurent Hopman and Renaud Roche - Carries over the narrative and visual style of the first volume, but I found myself less engrossed this time around for whatever reason. Still made me want to go back and watch the movies (which I still haven't done since the first book). I had absolutely no idea how troublesome the production of these movies was. The books glaze Lucas a bit too much though. Seems like they'll stop after the third original movie, but I'd kind of love to see them tackle the prequels
Completed Batman Reptillian, actually found myself enjoying it more than I expected, art wise some very beautiful and creepy looking stuff courtesy of Liam Sharp. Storywise, its far from anything special or anything of Garth Ennis' greats but I found this version of what Killer Croc ultimately is interesting, typically he's a metahuman with some form of atavism that caused him to be born with reptilian traits. In this story it's discovered he's technically a hermaphroditic hybrid of a reptilian alien species with the mutation being caused by Croc's mother being exposed to chemicals originating from the wreckage of a UFO which crashed into a swamp near where Croc grew up. In the story Croc unknowingly births a feral reptilian that's more alien looking than him and the creature attacks many of Batman's rogues due to Croc leaving pheremones on them, overall its nothing special as I previously said but I found facets of the stuff with Croc interesting
Also began reading Ram V's New Gods run. enjoying it more than I expected, the New Gods have become an area of the DCU that Ive come to enjoy after reading Kirby's Fourth World and overall I feel the New Gods IE Orion particularly and to an extent Mr Miracle are underrated characters. Overall looking forward to completing this comic run and its nice to see the New Gods getting some more stories
Ive also been reading Resident Alien, watched some of the tv show years ago found it rather nothing special but the comic Im actually finding myself enjoying it a lot. Im enjoying it particularly in part because the titular alien isn't a cliche malevolent alien sent to wipe out humanity like in the show but rather a good natured person that simply happens to be stuck on Earth and misses his partner back on his homeworld. In the first arc, the titular alien using the Human alias Dr Harry Vanderspeigle is intially a hermit living in the wilderness of Washington but is asked to substitute as the local GP doctor for a nearby small town due to the murder of the GP there. The first arc also has Harry become involved in helping solve the murder case after a few more murders happen and over time becomes more accustomed to living amongst humans and remains in position as a GP. Overall really like this comic so far and IMO better than the show
This book opens on a somewhat abstract scene, painted in murky browns and blacks, where a shadowy, not-quite-human figure emerges from the ocean, looks around, then walks forwards. It walks through an ill-defined landscape until it reaches a large structure, one that looks as though it could be created by humans. It then splits into two, and the two creatures wake up in mechanical bodies in a lab, and we join the ārealā world, meeting for the first time the titular artificial lifeforms/robots, Carbon and Silicon.
Itās not explicit, but I interpreted this scene as foreshadowing for the bookās overall themes and concepts. The artificial consciousness emerging from the ocean evokes the common imagery used to talk about the emergence of tetrapods, ancestors to humans and all other backboned animals that live on land. As with the tetrapods, these consciousnesses are the heralds of a new type of lifeform, one that looks human, but isnāt. And that last sentence? Thatās a big theme of the book - the contrast between the human characters and the artificial ones is often stark, but those stark contrasts make the things we have in common all the more noticeable.
Witness, for example, the beingsā creator, Professor Noriko.
Noriko has thrown herself into her work at the detriment of her own personal life. We first meet her as Carbon (who is given a female identity) and Silicon (male) wake up for the first time. Noriko is heavily pregnant. This isnāt a coincidence thematically, as Carbon and Silicon are in many aspects her children as much as the actual one growing inside her, and the fact that she views them as such causes conflict between her and her family; years later, when Norikoās daughter Diana, now a small child, first meets Carbon and Silicon, Noriko witnesses an astute observation from Silicon and tells her āIām proud of you.ā Diana clocks this and, in an obvious fit of jealousy, yanks the cable that connects Siliconās body to her detached ābrainā (itās too large to fit into her head) out of its socket, temporarily lobotomizing her.
This is not an isolated incident. As time goes on, Noriko spends more and more time with Carbon and Silicon, and less with her family. Carbon notices that Noriko has particular affection for her over Silicon, and reprimands her:
āWeāve discussed this, Noriko. Silicon and I share the same basic AI. The interest you have in me must be dissociated from the body I inhabit. You only do this because I remind you of your daughter.ā
Noriko has a further problem that her obsession with viewing her creations as people, as her children, exacerbates. She works for a corporation that treats them like products, and has a heated argument early on when her superior tries to force her to program planned obsolescence into the AIs that will cause them to shut down after five years. Their investors will want to see quick, constant turnaround of the models, with regular updates meaning people have to keep buying new models. Noriko protests and manages to talk him into allowing them 15 years (ālike a catā).
We also see this contrast when the robots are made publicly available and Carbon and Silicon are taken traveling for the first time. Cabins on trains are assigned for āsafetyā: Thereās one for LGBTQ+ folks, one for cis women, and one for robots. When they fly, the robots are in the cargo hold with cats and dogs. Carbon and Siliconās discomfort at both situations is made very clear, and we feel it too.
Bearing in mind that I have only covered the first of six chapters so far, Iām going to stop describing the plot here, because I want people who read this based off my review to experience it as I did, seeing the lines blur between human and robot as the situation escalates and we are regularly, constantly challenged on idea of what it means to be ārealā and/or āaliveā.
This is an especially timely graphic novel to read as we enter a new world full of automation and artificial intelligence, but itās about more than that. Itās also about transhumanism, the impact of technology on the environment, the way our personalities and dreams are affected by the concept of mortality, the risks of overreliance on technology, and the toll that capitalism takes on the human existence. Itās deep, dense, philosophical stuff that makes a point of avoiding easy, clean answers.
And above all else, running through a plot which covers centuries of time, is the relationship between Carbon and Silicon. Sometimes fraught, sometimes distant, but always deeply connected and intimate. They are siblings who are also soulmates, born from the same spark, whose lives take drastically different turns but are always defined by their connection to one another. They are characters who are obviously alien and beyond us in so many ways, while remaining, for lack of better words, human.
Iād recommend it as a companion piece to Upgrade Soul by Ezra Claytan Daniels, which explores a lot of these same themes.
Man, that's a great breakdown! Especially of how that first scene and Noriko's relationship with the two main characters serve as foreshadowing / thematic shorthand respectively.
I'm reading "Die, Die, Die" by Robert Kirkman, this is a ridiculous but extremely fun graphic novel.. Recommend this as an alternative to his well known series as well, you wouldn't think it's written by the same person
About 1/3rd into Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing so far. My first real Marvel omnibus, figured I'd go with the big guy. This has been amazing. But I'm definitely missing out on a lot of extraneous infos. Just means I've got a better idea what other things to eventually read! The art has been great, I liked the bit in one issue where the reporter was getting people's statements and things changed to match the interviewee's perspective. Old noir comic cop was especially amusing. I also love digesting each issue, some of the heavier items going on in Hulk's and Banner's life yield a bit of pondering.
Tiodoraās Letters by Marcelo DāSalete ā A woman named Tiodora writes a letter to her husband and a little boy named Bene tries to deliver it for her. Unfortunately this is Brazil and Tiodora and Bene are enslaved so if theyāre caught knowing how to read and write they could be killed. Bene has to navigate the dangers of the jungle and plantations. Luckily thereās colonies of runaway slaves called mocambos or quilombos that help him. So ya, itās a little exciting and educational. It was a fascinating, and super depressing, time in history. The is blocky black and white that almost looks like woodblock prints. The lack of detail means they can use cheaper paper which makes the book lighter, though. I kinda wish more comics did that. And thereās a bunch of notes in the back. Tiodora was real, but I donāt think Bene was.
To Get Her by Bernie Mireault ā I havenāt read any Bernie Mireault yet so I thought Iād better remedy that. Unfortunately my library doesnāt have any of The Jam so I got this one (which turned out to be a Jam book). Itās about a guy named Gordon Kirby whoās in a toxic relationship with a girl named Janet Ditko. She wants him to make money but he wants to draw comics. Itās stressful because of all the fighting but itās also a nice slice of life showing off the comics community in Montreal. There are some intrigue, though. Itās not just drinking and drawing. Thereās jail and a stalker, etc. And Gordie dresses up as the Jammer a little in the end. Itās a mix of prose and comic sections. It starts off with a prose section which I thought was the intro so I thought Bernie was in a toxic relationship but it turned out to be fictional. Whew! The comic sections are black and white with grey shading to make things look 3D. Mireault had a pretty cool style. Down to earth but still cartoony. Thereās also a long comic in here drawn by Gordie about the organs in a body revolting against their owner thatās done in a rougher style. Now on the his Grendel stuff!
The End of the Arab of the Future vol 1 by Riad Sattouf ā I canāt believe we finally get to finish it. I thought weād never find out what happens to Riadās brother, Fadi, who was kidnapped by their dad and taken to Syria. In this one theyāre still trying to get Fadi back and Riad is having his own teenage problems. Heās not very popular and heās gotta avoid the bullies. He meets a girl who introduces him to comics, though, which is huge. Also he starts listening to Nirvana and then gets into Slayer and Sepultura, which is pretty awesome. Heās much cooler than I was. Meanwhile his mom is going to fortune tellers and crap trying to figure out how to get Fadi back. Man, I always wonder how he can recall so much from his life in these books. He must have done tonnes of interviews with his family members or maybe he kept a diary? Anyways, good stuff. His style is super cartoony and clean. Itās like a rounder version of Guy Delisleās? His cartoon version of himself is hilarious with that hotdog looking pompadour. Poor little guy.
Sorry y'all but I've got some seriously long winded reviews this week....
Judas by Jeff Loveness, Jakub Rebelka - Dissatisfied with a God whose lack of action betrays his power and dissallusioned with a prophet whose miracles cater primarily to his own reputation, Judas Iscariot decides to make a terrible choice. A pawn in a game between the largest of powers, Judas is manipulated into an act of vengeance and pays the ultimate price for the role crafted for him as the villain. Or is that really his purpose? Is that really his story? Perhaps this is only the beginning of what part he has to play.
A great little fable that deftly walks the tightropes between fate and agency, good and evil, faith and control. While the exploration between these dualities can seem a bit trite, there's a sobriety to the messaging that neither lionizes yet demonizes the players and feels uniquely capable of wooing both believers and those for whom Christianity is just a mythology. As there isn't a clean middle ground between any of these positions, there is some tension that detracts from the power of its message but it's hard to imagine navigating this path much better while delivering an emotional journey that is both uplifting yet tragic. For those that have found themselves persecuted by the disciples of Christianity, much of this may feel hollow but if you can separate the scripture from its followers I think you'll find a lot to appreciate here and it's one of the few subversions I've read of Christian myth that feels overtly positive (especially over the cynical Vertigo fare I usually consume).
The art is also a distinctive pleasure. Diffuse, oily colors spread the gamut between muted and saturated to fit differences in setting and emotional intensity. Shading and form within compositions is pleasantly blocky with the occasional fluid diversion where setting and character bleed across each other into an evocative smear as the story crosses the boundary between grounded and supernatural. Just really darn pleasant to look at. āāāā
The Nikopol Trilogy by Enki Bilal - A trilogy of farcical retrofuturist romps that follow the misadventures of Alcide Nikopol. The "Carnival of Immortals" depicts a fascist ruled Paris in the year 2023, dominated by the whims of Egyptian gods who hover over the city in their floating pyramid. Three nuclear wars removed from when he was launched into space, Nikopol crash lands back to earth where he is quickly possessed by the god Horus who plans to use the poor sap to infiltrate the corrupt Parisian government. "The Woman Trap" follows a blue haired, pale skinned journalist traveling in search of a story for her readers living in 1992, yet becomes sidetracked by numerous violent encounters and bouts of self induced memory loss before eventually crossing paths with Nikopol. "Equator Cold" sees Nikopol's estranged son, also named Alcide Nikopol and also appearing to be the same age (due to his father's cryogenic sleep in space), attempting to track down his father after years of absence. He ventures around Africa where he serendipitously crosses paths with another Egyptian god Anubis that possesses him and facilitates his entry into a prestigious "chess boxing" tournament with the intention of gaining access to a formidable criminal organization / government.
This was one of the most indulgently absurd things I've ever read and I loved it, hindered only slightly by a comparatively tepid yet beautifully illustrated middle act. The trilogy starts out as a work of dystopian futurist satire, cynically taking the piss out of corrupt state villainy and contrived Egyptian myth conspiracy, then escalates continuously until it's a full blown farce. As I alluded to earlier, the middle chapter drags a tad with a story that's less intensely absurd though told with a decompressed pace while presenting some indulgent hyper violence and adding a surreal touch to the farce. The last volume rekindles the intense ludicrousness with a plot that humorously recycles aspects of the first two acts, yet with an extended cast of nearly identical characters, while supplementing the journey with some ridiculous wildlife motifs that are taken to an absolute extreme. The resolution delivers an almost cyclical ending that feels like the perfect absurdist capstone to a plot that appears to be laughing at the reader just for consuming it.
The art is also quite engaging, filled with detailed compositions of dilapidated urban environments, Egyptian super powered violence, and a touch of Toriyama like flight craft. The color work is a bit of a mixed bag for me but is always evocative, balancing a dour and muted palette with one of hyper-saturated primary colors. You can definitely see the influence on Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element" in the costume and creature designs, my favorite of which being a green and white striped psychic cat that's constantly irritable. I also liked the use of diffuse accents that appear almost like smoke or fog used for sequences that feel a bit inebriated or surreal. āāāā
Wika by Olivier Ledriot, Thomas Day - The magical world of Pan is thrown into tumult when the fae crown prince Oberon invades his sister's kingdom after the birth of her child. As it becomes clear that her brother's offensive will succeed, the Queen instructs a warrior vassal to absond with her newborn baby Wika and deliver her somewhere safe to live out her youth in obscurity. Decades later, Wika is entering adulthood when she undergoes a sudden transformation that reveals her past and puts her on a collision course with the same forces that toppled her home as a child.
What an elaborate visual splendor this book is. Dense, ornate imagery integrating Tolkienesque fantasy and steampunk stylings that fill every square inch of page real estate with impeccably realized settings, character designs, and mystical happenings. Vast ent-laden mushroom forests, mech suited dwarf kings, massive castle ships floating among the clouds and hovering over seafloors, gnome manned gyrocopters, bustling bridge top market towns, elaborate crystalline courts, mechadragon warships, lavishly costumed faeries, city sized god trees, bus sized talking lynx, and nearly other fantasy motif imaginable are rendered in intricate detail within sprawling compositions and framed with elaborate border filigree. It's just a non-stop feast for the eyes and for lovers of high fantasy this is an incredible visual experience. I did find the cleavage forward female consuming to be a bit much but for an aesthetic that is so over the top and maximalist it doesn't feel as excessive as it might in another book.
The story is a pretty standard banished chosen one narrative that feels like a mashup of every fantasy work you've ever read and progresses about exactly as you'd expect. However, as a mechanism for throwing every visual concept it can onto the page, it more than does it's job. Outside of some comically sadistic villains, the characterization is rather uninteresting with every role being blandly archetypal and one dimensional yet the intricate character designs do a lot of heavy lifting in making them feel more well rounded. Prose is hit or miss with some clunky phrasing and goofy dialogue contrasted by quality lyrical exposition and cheeky banter. Despite what is a rather trite narrative on paper, I was still pretty engaged with the light yet epic tone it developed and how efficiently it showcased the true draw of the work in Ledriot's stellar art. āāāā
The Book of Maggor Thoom by James Turner - Maggor Thoom is a career demigod at the Insanity Acquisition Department, charged by the Eldritch horrors to drive humanity into madness and cause their eventual destruction. Jaded by tedious KPI driven performance reviews, diminishing returns in an age of human nihilism, mind numbing agile development meetings, and the grating roadblocks of bureaucracy, Thoom has lost the love for his work. In hopes he can rekindle his passion for human downfall, the demigod decides to sew chaos up close and personal by possessing the body of a priest in the material plane yet soon finds himself preoccupied with much of the same self absorbed navel gazing his prey has fallen victim to.
An engaging mix of cosmic mythology and cynical humor for the post-truth age, rendered in a charming cartoon aesthetic reminiscent of Juni Ba or Samurai Jack. The comedy in this was much more biting than I expected with lots of satire surrounding politics, class warfare, workplace malaise, and parasocial obsession yet is balanced by a light hearted, farcical tone that was really inviting. The concept feels like the flip side of "The Many Deaths of Laila Starr", also framing deism as a corporate hierarchy yet instead of using this setup as a mechanism for philosophical exploration Thoom just mines it for yucks. Nothing is taken too seriously yet the humor really hits home in some darkly poignant ways. I do feel the narrative thread gets a bit lost in the pursuit of satire, and wish the series leaned a bit more into cosmic horror drama but I had a good time regardless.
The stark black & white aesthetic utilizes chunky linework and spray to great effect, especially in the detailed and playful depictions of lovecraftian horrors. Foreground and background coloration alternates between black & white, often in nested layers, which makes for a really nice way to add depth to a largely flat aesthetic.I also quite liked how the physical realm was presented as an amalgamation of different ages of human history in a way that reminded me of "Habibi" yet with a western focus. I did find that much of the visual interest is bookended with a middle third that was comparatively a tad drab, and the sound effect lettering (rendered in a plain impact font) is rather ill fitting but those are really my only complaints visually. āāā
Planetary by Warren Ellis, John Cassaday - Elijah Snow is a super powered vagabond that's recruited by an organization called Planetary, a clandestine group of self described mystery archaeologists unpacking the true history of the twentieth century. In their pursuit of investigating various phenomena, they uncover a vast multiversal conspiracy put into motion by four wartime research scientists who opened up a hole to the underlying fabric of the universe. Snow soon discovers he has an intrinsic connection to this plot and in his endeavor to stop the four's grand plan unpacks his own cryptic personal history.
This is a hard title for me to rate as there are quite a few things about it which I enjoy but even more that I find thoroughly grating.
To ease into this, let's start with the good. There's a lot of killer set pieces to enjoy here; rebels infiltrating a kaiju filled remote island, geological titans awoken by song, interdimensional alien incursions, a mod stylized cyborg conflict, drug fueled hallucinatory visions, a supernatural kung fu battle, and hell even spear combat with a big ass snake. Cassaday does an impeccable job putting these scenarios to page and mines them for a lot of engaging compositions filled with subtle details. While the digital gradient coloration is less to my liking, it's hard to fault the overall presentation which carries much of the experience.
There's also some interesting commentary on various science fiction concepts like holographic reality theory and time travel, the latter of which makes an interesting case for how all potential futures collapse the second a time travel machine is invented.
Now, onto the bad...
Ellis spends a inordinate amount of the series engaging in homage, every single issue presenting at least one blatant and superficial rework of a well known property. For a title that revolves around multiversal interaction and the interplay between fiction and reality, I was expecting that these repeated winks at the reader would eventually serve some overarching narrative or thematic purpose. However, that never happens and instead all of these references are simply there to flavor the often weak episodic storylines. The end product feels like the narrative equivalent of that Chris Farley SNL sketch where he plays a fanboy interviewing lauded creatives and asks them if they remember iconic moments of their own careers. Ellis builds a veritable fun house mirror room of others' better work; Kidz Bop but for popular fiction, Ready Player One filled with Temu quality character simulacrums.
As a more well read friend of mine informed me, Ellis based the structure of Planetary on the seminal sci-fi work "Against the Day" by Thomas Pynchon where each chapter establishes a different tone or genre. Ellis adapts this premise to comics in a way that feels deeply shallow by using homage as shorthand for distinct moods and in doing so creates a russian nesting doll of pastiches, both aping the inspiration for the series overall and the influences for individual issues without much transformation or evolution.
Outside of homage, the bulk of the writing is dominated by technobabble fueled world building. Scenes expounding on the nature of reality are often dense with opaque terminology, interspersed with logical jumps that make the grand theories it tries to lay out feel thin and lacking rigor. World building between individual storylines often conflict as well, which in fairness could be explained as different ways to model the same phenomena but their interaction feels a bit confused to me. For my money, sci-fi world building is best when taking the vague "Linnea Sterte" route where all the environmental novelty is unexplained and you let the reader refine their idea of how things work or at least you go the "Brandon Graham" route and make the building blocks so completely foreign and abstracted from our lived experience that the exposition is just flavor for a system that might as well be magic. Ellis takes the ill-fated route of trying to explain how these utterly impossible scenarios occur via existing terms and concepts which inevitably constructs an explanation that feels contrived and deeply unsatisfying.
Adding to the narrative slog, characterization is incredibly one dimensional. Much like Ellis himself seems to be, nearly every character is a snarky know-it-all devoid of complexity and incapable of internal development. The chosen boy protagonist Elijah Snow is largely omniscient, only lacking in his cognition early on due to contrived supernatural memory blocks that, once released, remove any constraints on his otherwise infallible execution in a universe of innumerable variables. The rest of the cast is similarly lacking nuance, made worse by an obnoxious too-cool-for-school sensibility that undercuts the tension of pretty much every conflict.
āā (Three stars for the good, negative one star for the bad)
What did you think of Transmetropolitan? I thought Planetary was enjoyable for the most part (I admit that send up scene of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern being sent to Earth was hilariously shocking), but it wasn't near as consistent or effective as Metro.
I haven't read Transmet, the only other Ellis that I've consumed being a pretty forgettable but inoffensive miniseries "The Batman's Grave".
The writing in Planetary just happens to hit some of my pet peeves squarely on the head so I crashed out a bit haha. I have had very similar experiences with creators who have taken heavy inspiration from this storytelling style like Gillen (In both DIE And ONCE AND FUTURE). I see the appeal in all three of these titles, even appreciate good portions of them, but aspects like frequent inconsequential external references and snarky wiseacre characterization ends up grinding my gears.
That being said, I do think I'd like Transmet more which appears to have greater thematic weight than Planetary which doesn't feel like it has much to say.
I think a huge factor is also how much a memorable character adds to something. I only vaguely remember the protagonists in Planetary, and I can't recall a single one of their names. Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan on the other hand, began as a clear homage/satire on Hunter S. Thompson, but genuinely evolves to become one of the most iconic characters in comic history.
Beauty by Kerascoet & Hubert. Inspired by finding this on an older sub ā100 bestā list. An incredibly ugly village girl is granted a wish by a fairy to become the most beautiful woman in the world, and consequences ensue. This is good. It looks lovely. We spend most of the time seeing Beauty as the girl she really is, with K&H busting out the hot girl at narratively appropriate moments, and this gives an excellent tension to the thing. Use of colours is great. Whole thing looks appropriately fairytale. Story carries on the fairytale approach, in that terrible stuff happens driven by beauty and itās a bit unclear what the moral is supposed to be exactly, beyond people getting what they deserve. The themes are crunchy and I liked it- is it the beauty that has caused the problems, or is everyone just kind of awful? It lands somewhere in the middle I think. Some interesting gender stuff in here.
Howl by Alisa Kwitney and Mauricet (Ahoy comics). A satirical bodysnatching horror set in Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Our heroine fights against the alien invaders while dealing with all of the obvious problems of being a woman in the 60s, with the more specific problems of being a female artist in the 60s, and also with her mother. This was GREAT and itās a shame it wonāt get more widely read because it should be. Kwitney has poured a load of herself into it, with the main characters modelled directly on her own mum and dad and their experiences. The narrative meshes perfectly with the themes, which are nuanced and multilayered. The big central metaphor flips the script on the usual bodysnatcher thing, where here it stands in for fears of women losing their identities and creativity to domesticity and motherhood, but ends up in a nuanced place where sometimes changing our identities as we go through life is kind of ok. Honestly, really good and really well put together.
The art is also excellent in service to the story. Tons of fungus references, awesome recurrent motifs, colour scheme serving the narrative perfectly. Loads of subtle detail, and really catches the 60s schlocky B movie look. The creative team have clearly poured their heart and soul into this and it has really paid off. I really recommend this, especially as a little 5-issue single TP.
My Dress Up Darling continues to be exactly as expected.
Loved "Beauty". The moral is rather simplistic "be careful what you wish for" / "you reap what you sew" fare but I found the execution of that really compelling with a nice blend of humor and drama.
Despite having three creators, it's a comic that feels of one mind with a fantastic synergy between writing and art. Pages like this express that really well:
#DRCL midnight children vol 3 by Shinichi Sakamoto: God this has to be some of the best and most detailed manga art Iāve seen in a long time! After Dracula was fully released in the second volume itās coming for the boarding school group (and he looks identical to Michael Jackson) and with the goal to psychologically torture the group. This is one of my favorite depictions of Dracula with it acting more as a force of pure evil rather than one single form, the monster taking the shape of peopleās desires or fears and having some really fun forms so far. Loving how the series made sure to build up the dread with low amounts of gore with it mostly being psychological horror, but everything changes when Dracula finally arrives and is let inside. Once again the art is spectacular with no shortage of stunning double page spreads.Ā
Hendrix: Electric Requiem by Mattia Colombara and Gianluca Maconi: A very trippy fictionalized biography of musician Jimi Hendrix that mixes some real facts of his life with supernatural and trippy art, the story itself starting with Jimi in the afterlife and having the story be a look into his history before he passes on. Itās a shorter comic so it jumps around a decent amount of time with some situations that didnāt actually happen, but besides the time jumps I felt like the book was a fun read mostly for the art. If youāre looking for a psychedelic read with some fun supernatural additions then this is a good book for you, but if youāre looking for an in depth biography Iād look elsewhere though.Ā
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u/DarthStormwizard Jun 29 '26
Just started Birds of Maine by Michael Deforge. Pretty weird and interesting so far.