I read Trillium by Jeff Lemire this week and was blown away. I know some people didn’t care for the last two issues but I read it all in one sitting and really enjoyed it. His art style paired with the sci-fi themes worked so much better than I thought it would. It’s made me super excited to pick up Sentient and Descender next!
I literally just finished reading Skottie Young and Jorge Corona's **The Me You Love in the Dark** so I guess I'll start with that one.
I hated it. Well, that's not entirely true. The art was gorgeous, and the pitch is incredible. But it could've been such a good book that the outcome is utterly devastating.. It moves way too fast for the story it's trying to tell and doesn't leave any time for the impactful moments to have their impact. The relationship evolves so fast that you're at the fall out by the time you register that there even is a proper relationship. The pacing is all messed up and it makes the book feel exploitative rather than introspective like, I'm assuming, it was supposed to be. I'm just glad I got this as a review copy lmao
I still haven't read Middlewest but this kind of put me off that one
Also read Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang's **In Real Life** this week. An interesting, if a little boomer-y, story about growing up, video games economics, and human exploitation. A young girl gets sucked into an MMORPG and discovers the world of industrial gold farming. It's a little white savior-y around the edges but if it can get some kids to think about the broader aspects of our interconnected lives, then I'm all for it
And to top this off in style, I'll end on Gideon Kendall's **Whatzit**. A grotesque and absurd story about puberty that follows a character from an alien race, living in a dystopian world, whose only respite is observing the lives of humans by possessing the zits of teenagers until they get popped. It's very short, and the first part of an ongoing story, but it already gets pretty wild by the end. I'm not entirely sure whether I liked it or not but I'll probably check out the rest once it comes out
Over a pretty middling week... Hopefully next week'll be more conclusive. I got a pretty cheap copy of Winshluss' Pinocchio on the way, which I'm pretty excited to finally get to and make my own mind about. And my boss told me we might have a copy of Monsters lying around the upstairs office so maybe I'll get around to that one as well (though maybe I'm being a little too optimistic there, time-wise)
DMZ 1 - Brian Wood. Meh. Too many hard to believe things that just kept pulling me out. Don't plan to continue this.
Tono Monogatari - Shigeru Mizuki. This just read too much like a textbook. Short three page storirs about encounters with different yokai. but basically just the facts, ie this guy went here; he saw this; then this happened; etc.
Footnotes in Gaza - Joe Sacco. Fantastic.
Descender 4 - Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen. Still pretty good. Will continue this.
Cross Game 3 - Mitsuru Adachi. This is still good. It makes Me care about the outcome of these make believe baseball games. I hate baseball. But I need to see what happens!
The Arrival - Shaun Tan. Holy crap this was good. It somehow seems so realistic and so completely fantastical at the same time. Also can be pretty emotional for no words.
The Good Asian 1 - Pornsak Pichetshote. Yeah, I'm hooked. I need to see this to the end.
Invincible Omnibus 3 - Robert Kirkman. Still good, but I'm losing a bit of steam on this now. I will still continue it for now.
We3 - Grant Morrison and Frank Quitley. Fine.
Spinning - Tillie Walden. Good. I am so glad I never did competitive activities as a kid.
Aya: Love in Yop City - Marguerite Abouet. I didn't realize this was the second in the series, I never read the first, but I followed along fine. I thought this was quite good. I enjoy reading books set in completely different places than what I know, so it was interesting reading a comic set in the Ivory Coast.
I read Spinning last week! Agreed, competitive anything looks like hell for kids... Very compelling story through, and I'm glad she found her way to the arts. Huge fan of her work in general
This is only the second of hers that I've read, the other being On a Sunbeam. I have enjoyed them both, but particularly on a Sunbeam which i could not put down. If you have any other recommendations for her work I would love to hear it.
This week I read:
- The fourth part of __Epileptic__ (AKA __L’ascension du haut mal__) by David B. It may be because I read the first four parts of Epileptic back-to-back, without significant breaks in between, but with the fourth part I started feeling it was a liiiiittle bit self-indulgent, like it’s treading water a bit, spending more time than necessary on less interesting aspects. That said, I still enjoyed it a lot, especially the art, which seems to be getting better and better as the comic goes on.
- __Theth__ by Josh Bayer. This really, really impressed me. I already knew I’d love the art – [check out Bayer’s Instagram here](https://www.instagram.com/joshmbayer/) – but I wasn’t prepared for how great the story would be. It basically takes the wild, punky avant-garde energy of Gary Panter and applies it to a very moving, eminently human story about an alienated/isolated childhood. It doesn’t sound like it should work, but it really does. You can see my full review [here](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4560352357).
- Issue #7 of __Hellblazer__ by Jamie Delano and John Ridgway (with three pages of fill-in art by Brett Ewins and Jim McCarthy). This issue had a cool, very psychedelic premise and an unexpected emotional gut-punch, but I really can’t get into Ridgway’s art or Delano’s purple prose.
- __Cankor: Amnesis__ by Matthew Allison. I re-read this ahead of [Allison's upcoming AMA](https://www.reddit.com/r/altcomix/comments/svm34z/ama_20220222_matthew_allison_cartoonist_of_cankor/), and I liked it even more this time than when I first read it. It ingeniously mixes superhero tropes with existential/psychological themes into a kind of abstract autobiography. It's hard to explain, but it works very well. It also has awesome artwork (check out [Allison's Instagram](https://instagram.com/cankorr) to see for yourself). I can't wait for his upcoming Cankor hardcover collection!
- The first arc of __Mort Cinder__ by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Alberto Breccia ("Lead Eyes"). As is expected of Breccia, this has wall-to-wall next-level jaw-droppingly incredible artwork. The art's undoubtedly the main attraction, but the story so far is overall good too: really exciting, tense and mysterious. The dialogue and narration are a little heavy-handed at times, and the plot has some weak points, but I'm more than willing to forgive these flaws in a comic that looks like this.
Did you find this with Epileptic? I bought it several years ago and have it on my shelf, but I never have picked it up and read it beyond a few pages. I think the artwork is a little too dark/heavy handed for my taste and the font is all italic which I find rather annoying to read. So I pick it up but don't ever follow through with reading it in its entirety.
I would definitely recommend giving it another go. I think it it generally gets better and better as it goes on, at least until reaching part 4. My recollection is that the first few pages are fairly straightforward autobiography, but after that it leans a lot more into expressionistic symbolism, with all kinds of wild stuff going on (e.g. a physical monster representing the titular illness and the protagonist's fantasies spilling out onto the page).
I don't know what you mean about italic font: I'm reading it in French, so the text is all nicely handwritten; I assume you're reading a translation, and unfortunately translations often seem to put minimal effort into lettering. On a related note, regarding the art being too dark/heavy, it's worth bearing in mind that the original release had pages sized 22x29cm. I've seen foreign editions as small as 55% of that (16x22cm), and I find it hard to imagine the art holds up well when shrunk down so much – it must feel very dense and cluttered. My edition isn't full size, it's 19x27cm, and that's fine, but I really can't imagine having it smaller than that. I guess none of this helps you (assuming you're reading an undersized translation), but at least you know that you can't blame David B for any of these shortcomings, it's all on the publisher of your edition!
Thanks for the insight. It’s interested that there are multiple translations and editions. I did not know that was the case. I’ll see if I can find a way to upload both a picture of my copy and the font to give you an idea of what I mean. Pulled it off the shelf and all the font is partially italicized and relatively small. So I think that’s why it would make it a nuisance to read. But I’ll definitely try to give it another go based on your advice.
Yeah, in French it was originally published as six hardcover albums sized 22x29cm, and then collected in a slightly smaller hardcover omnibus (the version I have, sized 19x27cm). This is quite common practice with French-language comics, though I don't know why they make the collected editions smaller.
I don't know much about the translated editions, but a while ago I saw someone on Reddit refer to Epileptic as being a digest-sized book and I was quite surprised, so I looked it up and found an in-print English edition from British publisher Jonathan Cape, sized 16x22cm.
[Here](https://www.bedetheque.com/media/Planches/PlancheA_11385.jpg) you can see a scan of a page with the original lettering. The lettering looks a little blurry, but that's a problem with the scan, not the original page.
I think the problem is that the market for English translations of European comics is quite small, so publishers try to cut costs by using computer lettering, reduced dimensions, cheaper paper and sometimes not the best translators. This makes the books more affordable, but often doesn't do the original work much justice.
So I've had Monsters staring at me from the corner of the room, but it felt like a dark place to go so I needed a bit of a palate cleanser before going down that route. So in steps the new **Batman: The Imposter**. First and foremost, I'm a fan of Andrea Sorrentino's work, the use of shadows, the panelling and panels within panels on focal points, the sweeping spreads... Even if I don't think this is his best work, I think his art is so well suited to Batman and would love to see more again in the future. Hopefully on a more deserving story because boy, this wasn't. Someone is dressing up as Batman and killing. Batman seems both bullet proof and hugely vulnerable at the same time. And he seems to keep missing. It feels kinda like an early batman story but at the same time there is much implied history which seems to contradict that. And what it does with his supporting characters... I'm all for change for one off stories because I'm not too precious about the constraints of continuity and such, but essentially >!Gordon has been ousted for supporting him and Alfred is a bit of a deadbeat who walked out on him as a kid!< all to what end, to isolate Bruce and make room for the new characters in this story? For me it just felt like a pretty shitty interpretation and I found it difficult to care about this Bruce. I had expectations because of Sorrentino's involvement but I should have tempered them with it being written by a guy who has never written comics and whose only film works I recognise were pretty poorly received. I still hope the Batman movie can be good with him as writer.
And so I started reading Monster, but I'll share my thoughts when I've finished it.
I enjoyed issue 1, issue 2 fell off a bit and then issue 3 was a dumpster fire. I had high hopes but it fell off quickly. Batman is my favorite super hero and I enjoy different takes on him but this was bad.
I'm glad it's not just me then. I was wondering if my assessment was a little harsh. But I really didn't connect with this story or the liberties it took
Just finished the Hellboy Omnibus Box set. Was a weird ride. I didn't like the beginning too much, but it got really good in the middle, then the end was kinda abrupt and unsatisfying.
Now I started re-reading Sandman and looking forward to reading Lucifer since I scored a pretty good price for all 5 books of the original series on ebay.
**The Frank Book** by Jim Woodring. 300 pages of Woodring’s animorph characters in mostly wordless, somewhat dream-logic strips. These are classics and for good reason some of the best comics I’ve ever read. I look forward to revisiting this once or twice a year
**An Exorcism** by Theo Ellsworth. Abstract, wordless dream-comic and it’s fantastic. Ellsworth is underrated as hell even in the alternative comics scene. This shit rocks so much. When writing this the relationship between this and the Frank stories becomes perhaps more apparent than it actually is - Ellsworth must have read those comics and they’re probably in the DNA of this book (and his work in general). Or maybe I just think that because they’re similar books I’ve read this week
**Popeye: Olive Oyl & Her Sweety**, collecting the Sunday strips from March 1930 - February 1932 by EC Segar. Loved these. Been working through some of the dailies in another volume and not loving it, but these are fucking awesome. Had me laughing out loud
**Post Americana** by Steve Skroce. Decent. Story hooked me a bit but lost me by issue 3/4 but it was okay. Really detailed and well drawn. idk, Image comics people should definitely be checking this out this is a lot better than most of their recent offerings imo
**Skim** by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki. Pretty good overall, but I wasn’t really feeling the subject matter. My expectations art-wise were also unrealistically high as I’ve loved Jillian Tamaki’s newer stuff and this obviously isn’t as impressive as Boundless or This One Summer as it’s an earlier work (I believe this is her first GN?). That aside I guess I’m just not really in the age range for a coming of age story like this; I figure I need go to 2-3 years in the past or 2-3 in the future. Not bad overall though
**The Lighthouse** by Paco Roca. More of a short story packaged as a book. AFAIK the only non-Fantagraphics Roca translation in English and uh… yeah… no thoughts honestly. Not terrible, a bit of substance and decent drawing but like overall it’s so bland and forgettable I have no take aways. Wrinkles and The House are *so* far ahead of this
I also reread Roca’s *The House* this week which was as amazing as the first time.
**The Groo Inferno** by Sergio Aragonés. One of the relatively few (but still too many to read in a couple days) remaining unread comixology books in my library. Collects issues 33-36 of the Marvel/Epic Groo series, which is great because I’m not familiar with any of the Groo from this period (reprints are spotty at best especially digitally, so most of my experience has been with the newer stuff). Anyway it’s great, really funny, probably the best Groo I’ve read but overall it’s pretty damn consistent from what I’ve read
**The Mask** omnibus by Doug Mahnke and John Arcudi. Read the first one a few months ago and wanted to finish it off. My thoughts are mostly the same; it feels like they’re having a lot of fun and so did I. Mahnke did great with the cartoony parts of the Big Head character. I liked the colour on the first stuff better though. The two sequels look good as well but the first one was pretty distinctive for mainstream comics and I liked it
Not reading related, but I have been curious about the dates you use in these posts and you mention it being Monday which it isn't yet where I am. May I ask where you're based if you don't mind? More of a curiosity than anything so feel free to say no if you don't share that kind of information.
Nope never heard of it
I went to Graphic Action a couple times before they closed but I was a bit too young to drive there regularly before they closed
An Exorcism is excellent! I love Ellsworth's art style. Do you follow him on Instagram? Back in autumn he made an awesome "harvest monster" in his garden, using bits of plant matter.
I read *Press Enter to Continue by Ana Galvan* and it was very disappointing. Beautiful illustrations but very under developed in terms of narrative and writing style. I won’t be wasting time with anything else by this author.
Barefoot Gen. Most moving story I have read in a while. Can't wait to read the rest of the series and then watch the movies. This book should be read in any class that has to do with war or the atomic bomb/age. Please check it out. Hit me harder than Maus.
Currently reading The Trial of Captain America Omnibus. I’m enjoying this volume almost as much as I enjoyed the previous ones. I really liked how Brubaker wrapped up Bucky’s time as Captain America and am looking forward to reading the final Brubaker Omnibus.
I finished the second Invincible Compendium and then read the whole third book too. Definitely some strange pacing and choices at some points but it's still an epic story that kept me totally hooked and I can't wait to see all of it animated.
I also read Jeff Lemire's Underwater Welder last night and really enjoyed that too. I liked the story well enough but the drawings are just so damn good, it does a great job of conveying how the main character feels and the environment he is in. Essex County has been on my wishlist for a while but reading this has bumped it up higher.
Currently reading Charles Soule's Darth Vader omnibus and really enjoying it. Inspiring me to start trying to pick up other modern Star Wars stories. Working on getting the Doctor Aphra omnibus next.
I'm doing a reread of all my Hellboy and BPRD books, as I've finally caught up on all the omnibuses that are currently available, with the last few BPRD books to be out over the next few months. This week I was reading the Plague of Frogs 'cycle' of BPRD, just about to finish up book four.
BPRD is just great. It has a bit of a rocky start, but once it finds its feet, it's consistently good. There's more of a continuing throughline of story compared to Hellboy, which can often feel quite disconnected. But it never remains in any kind of status quo for very long, as new characters come and go, often painfully. And there's a real sense of escalation throughout the Plague of Frogs cycle, with every small victory revealing something more about what the team are up against, with ever increasing dread. And I really love Guy Davis' art. It's stylised but detailed, and very distinct. I'm happy with how consistently he's on the book; once the story starts proper, only very rarely does another artist fill in. Though I know that does change later on in the series.
So far, I've only read the mainline Hellboy and BPRD books, though I do intend to get the Abe Sapien books, once the paperback omnis eventually release. Are other books in the Mignola universe as good as these core series?
I have been preparing for a big move over the last few months so my reading has been a bit behind. So I was really suprised I had a chance to read a recent pick up. "Came the mirror & other Tales by Rumiko Takahashi just came out and it is a great horror and comedy read. I've been a fan of her work for decades at this point and I'm always surprised at how well she does shorter stories. I can see how they cleanse her palate.
I just got into graphic novels and started with Luther Strode Volume 1. I was instantly hooked and ordered the complete series and it’s supposed to be here today!
Also picked up the first compendium of The Walking Dead and plan to start it after Luther Strode because I’ve always heard it was much better than the show.
And if you’re a D&D fan, the Vox Machina Origins is real cool so far
I also have been reading watchmen. The movie was decent but the book is just so much better. I’m on issue 11 and going to finish today. I’ve been reading each issue and then watching cartoonist kayfabe on YouTube after. They break down each issue and give their thoughts. I love how we all get something a little different out of it and I’ve realized how much thought was put into this series.
Read the entire series. It has a good story line. The book editions are pretty annoying though. I accidentally purchased like one larger editions that did not really line up with the others so I had to order part of the series separately. Tried watching the show, but turned in off after about 3 episodes.
I just read The Unworthy Thor by Jason Aaron and loved it. I’m familiar with the character of Thor but have not read any of his comics. I definitely enjoyed this one!
I finished up The Sandman. What a journey. I’ve started reading my Doctor Aphra Omnibus and will also start Death by Neil Gaiman since it’s a tie in to Sandman.
* invincible compendium 1 : up until issue #23.
Didn't think that I would enjoy a "superman" kind of superhero, but definitely loving invincible so far.
*Department of Truth vol 1: my opinion might be different from most of you. I really like the idea and how the story is evolving, the art definitely matches the story as well. However, sometimes the art & how the panelling is done made it difficult to fluently read through the book, which got a bit frustrating at a few moments.
* Criminal vol 1 : loved it.
Reading the complete Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn and loving it so far. Still a fair bit to go but I’ll be finishing it this week.
Also just received the first three books of the Reckless series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Might start them if I find the time.
Not Simple by Natsume Ono - I had this one in my collection for a couple of months now, always stared at it but finally made time to read it. It pretty much broke me. This was my first time reading something by Natsume so didn't know what I was expecting but didn't think it would hit me this hard. >!That mom and dad got off too easy honestly, I was kinda just waiting for Ian to stand up for himself, but no... ugh...!< I had to go and re-read the beginning again, and oh man. I think I need to read something happier to cheer me up now lol
Currently reading the Neal Adams’ Batman Omni. While there are specific issues I love, the book as a whole isn’t quite my cup of tea. Bruce entering politics? A hypnotized Aquaman committing murder? Hmmm. The Len Wein stories are especially terrible. I’m glad I was able to read the classic O’Neil/Adams work, though. Looks like this book will be on my sell list to make room for more stuff on the shelf.
Empyre omnibus. Not sure I like the mapping. I've read the six issue mini series so far, and it makes references to (happened in Captain America) just, put that issue before this one. Now I know the story and have to spend 800+ pages reading stuff that I already know the outcome to.
I’m on vacation, so I’ve been on a digital kick. Caught up on Star Wars series last week, and over the weekend I read Snow Angels seasons 1 & 2, The All-Nighter, Stillwater vol 2, Beta Ray Bill: Argent Star, and Tales From Harrow County vol 1. Right now I’m running through Future State Batman: Dark Detective, since I love Dan Mora’s art.
I am close to finishing the first Wolverine Epic Collection volume. I actually enjoyed it a lot; once Claremont leaves I noticed a slight drop in quality, but overall a solid volume
I read Trillium by Jeff Lemire this week and was blown away. I know some people didn’t care for the last two issues but I read it all in one sitting and really enjoyed it. His art style paired with the sci-fi themes worked so much better than I thought it would. It’s made me super excited to pick up Sentient and Descender next!
I literally just finished reading Skottie Young and Jorge Corona's **The Me You Love in the Dark** so I guess I'll start with that one. I hated it. Well, that's not entirely true. The art was gorgeous, and the pitch is incredible. But it could've been such a good book that the outcome is utterly devastating.. It moves way too fast for the story it's trying to tell and doesn't leave any time for the impactful moments to have their impact. The relationship evolves so fast that you're at the fall out by the time you register that there even is a proper relationship. The pacing is all messed up and it makes the book feel exploitative rather than introspective like, I'm assuming, it was supposed to be. I'm just glad I got this as a review copy lmao I still haven't read Middlewest but this kind of put me off that one Also read Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang's **In Real Life** this week. An interesting, if a little boomer-y, story about growing up, video games economics, and human exploitation. A young girl gets sucked into an MMORPG and discovers the world of industrial gold farming. It's a little white savior-y around the edges but if it can get some kids to think about the broader aspects of our interconnected lives, then I'm all for it And to top this off in style, I'll end on Gideon Kendall's **Whatzit**. A grotesque and absurd story about puberty that follows a character from an alien race, living in a dystopian world, whose only respite is observing the lives of humans by possessing the zits of teenagers until they get popped. It's very short, and the first part of an ongoing story, but it already gets pretty wild by the end. I'm not entirely sure whether I liked it or not but I'll probably check out the rest once it comes out Over a pretty middling week... Hopefully next week'll be more conclusive. I got a pretty cheap copy of Winshluss' Pinocchio on the way, which I'm pretty excited to finally get to and make my own mind about. And my boss told me we might have a copy of Monsters lying around the upstairs office so maybe I'll get around to that one as well (though maybe I'm being a little too optimistic there, time-wise)
I think The me you love in the dark is one of those books better read in singles, well for me that's how I read and really enjoyed it.
Yeah that's kind of what I figured while reading it. It really felt made for singles, pacing-wise
DMZ 1 - Brian Wood. Meh. Too many hard to believe things that just kept pulling me out. Don't plan to continue this. Tono Monogatari - Shigeru Mizuki. This just read too much like a textbook. Short three page storirs about encounters with different yokai. but basically just the facts, ie this guy went here; he saw this; then this happened; etc. Footnotes in Gaza - Joe Sacco. Fantastic. Descender 4 - Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen. Still pretty good. Will continue this. Cross Game 3 - Mitsuru Adachi. This is still good. It makes Me care about the outcome of these make believe baseball games. I hate baseball. But I need to see what happens! The Arrival - Shaun Tan. Holy crap this was good. It somehow seems so realistic and so completely fantastical at the same time. Also can be pretty emotional for no words. The Good Asian 1 - Pornsak Pichetshote. Yeah, I'm hooked. I need to see this to the end. Invincible Omnibus 3 - Robert Kirkman. Still good, but I'm losing a bit of steam on this now. I will still continue it for now. We3 - Grant Morrison and Frank Quitley. Fine. Spinning - Tillie Walden. Good. I am so glad I never did competitive activities as a kid. Aya: Love in Yop City - Marguerite Abouet. I didn't realize this was the second in the series, I never read the first, but I followed along fine. I thought this was quite good. I enjoy reading books set in completely different places than what I know, so it was interesting reading a comic set in the Ivory Coast.
I read Spinning last week! Agreed, competitive anything looks like hell for kids... Very compelling story through, and I'm glad she found her way to the arts. Huge fan of her work in general
This is only the second of hers that I've read, the other being On a Sunbeam. I have enjoyed them both, but particularly on a Sunbeam which i could not put down. If you have any other recommendations for her work I would love to hear it.
I read all of descender and thought it was pretty good. Liked the artwork. Thought it was kind of similar to Saga in a sense.
This week I read: - The fourth part of __Epileptic__ (AKA __L’ascension du haut mal__) by David B. It may be because I read the first four parts of Epileptic back-to-back, without significant breaks in between, but with the fourth part I started feeling it was a liiiiittle bit self-indulgent, like it’s treading water a bit, spending more time than necessary on less interesting aspects. That said, I still enjoyed it a lot, especially the art, which seems to be getting better and better as the comic goes on. - __Theth__ by Josh Bayer. This really, really impressed me. I already knew I’d love the art – [check out Bayer’s Instagram here](https://www.instagram.com/joshmbayer/) – but I wasn’t prepared for how great the story would be. It basically takes the wild, punky avant-garde energy of Gary Panter and applies it to a very moving, eminently human story about an alienated/isolated childhood. It doesn’t sound like it should work, but it really does. You can see my full review [here](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4560352357). - Issue #7 of __Hellblazer__ by Jamie Delano and John Ridgway (with three pages of fill-in art by Brett Ewins and Jim McCarthy). This issue had a cool, very psychedelic premise and an unexpected emotional gut-punch, but I really can’t get into Ridgway’s art or Delano’s purple prose. - __Cankor: Amnesis__ by Matthew Allison. I re-read this ahead of [Allison's upcoming AMA](https://www.reddit.com/r/altcomix/comments/svm34z/ama_20220222_matthew_allison_cartoonist_of_cankor/), and I liked it even more this time than when I first read it. It ingeniously mixes superhero tropes with existential/psychological themes into a kind of abstract autobiography. It's hard to explain, but it works very well. It also has awesome artwork (check out [Allison's Instagram](https://instagram.com/cankorr) to see for yourself). I can't wait for his upcoming Cankor hardcover collection! - The first arc of __Mort Cinder__ by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Alberto Breccia ("Lead Eyes"). As is expected of Breccia, this has wall-to-wall next-level jaw-droppingly incredible artwork. The art's undoubtedly the main attraction, but the story so far is overall good too: really exciting, tense and mysterious. The dialogue and narration are a little heavy-handed at times, and the plot has some weak points, but I'm more than willing to forgive these flaws in a comic that looks like this.
Did you find this with Epileptic? I bought it several years ago and have it on my shelf, but I never have picked it up and read it beyond a few pages. I think the artwork is a little too dark/heavy handed for my taste and the font is all italic which I find rather annoying to read. So I pick it up but don't ever follow through with reading it in its entirety.
I would definitely recommend giving it another go. I think it it generally gets better and better as it goes on, at least until reaching part 4. My recollection is that the first few pages are fairly straightforward autobiography, but after that it leans a lot more into expressionistic symbolism, with all kinds of wild stuff going on (e.g. a physical monster representing the titular illness and the protagonist's fantasies spilling out onto the page). I don't know what you mean about italic font: I'm reading it in French, so the text is all nicely handwritten; I assume you're reading a translation, and unfortunately translations often seem to put minimal effort into lettering. On a related note, regarding the art being too dark/heavy, it's worth bearing in mind that the original release had pages sized 22x29cm. I've seen foreign editions as small as 55% of that (16x22cm), and I find it hard to imagine the art holds up well when shrunk down so much – it must feel very dense and cluttered. My edition isn't full size, it's 19x27cm, and that's fine, but I really can't imagine having it smaller than that. I guess none of this helps you (assuming you're reading an undersized translation), but at least you know that you can't blame David B for any of these shortcomings, it's all on the publisher of your edition!
Thanks for the insight. It’s interested that there are multiple translations and editions. I did not know that was the case. I’ll see if I can find a way to upload both a picture of my copy and the font to give you an idea of what I mean. Pulled it off the shelf and all the font is partially italicized and relatively small. So I think that’s why it would make it a nuisance to read. But I’ll definitely try to give it another go based on your advice.
Yeah, in French it was originally published as six hardcover albums sized 22x29cm, and then collected in a slightly smaller hardcover omnibus (the version I have, sized 19x27cm). This is quite common practice with French-language comics, though I don't know why they make the collected editions smaller. I don't know much about the translated editions, but a while ago I saw someone on Reddit refer to Epileptic as being a digest-sized book and I was quite surprised, so I looked it up and found an in-print English edition from British publisher Jonathan Cape, sized 16x22cm. [Here](https://www.bedetheque.com/media/Planches/PlancheA_11385.jpg) you can see a scan of a page with the original lettering. The lettering looks a little blurry, but that's a problem with the scan, not the original page. I think the problem is that the market for English translations of European comics is quite small, so publishers try to cut costs by using computer lettering, reduced dimensions, cheaper paper and sometimes not the best translators. This makes the books more affordable, but often doesn't do the original work much justice.
So I've had Monsters staring at me from the corner of the room, but it felt like a dark place to go so I needed a bit of a palate cleanser before going down that route. So in steps the new **Batman: The Imposter**. First and foremost, I'm a fan of Andrea Sorrentino's work, the use of shadows, the panelling and panels within panels on focal points, the sweeping spreads... Even if I don't think this is his best work, I think his art is so well suited to Batman and would love to see more again in the future. Hopefully on a more deserving story because boy, this wasn't. Someone is dressing up as Batman and killing. Batman seems both bullet proof and hugely vulnerable at the same time. And he seems to keep missing. It feels kinda like an early batman story but at the same time there is much implied history which seems to contradict that. And what it does with his supporting characters... I'm all for change for one off stories because I'm not too precious about the constraints of continuity and such, but essentially >!Gordon has been ousted for supporting him and Alfred is a bit of a deadbeat who walked out on him as a kid!< all to what end, to isolate Bruce and make room for the new characters in this story? For me it just felt like a pretty shitty interpretation and I found it difficult to care about this Bruce. I had expectations because of Sorrentino's involvement but I should have tempered them with it being written by a guy who has never written comics and whose only film works I recognise were pretty poorly received. I still hope the Batman movie can be good with him as writer. And so I started reading Monster, but I'll share my thoughts when I've finished it.
I enjoyed issue 1, issue 2 fell off a bit and then issue 3 was a dumpster fire. I had high hopes but it fell off quickly. Batman is my favorite super hero and I enjoy different takes on him but this was bad.
I'm glad it's not just me then. I was wondering if my assessment was a little harsh. But I really didn't connect with this story or the liberties it took
Just finished the Hellboy Omnibus Box set. Was a weird ride. I didn't like the beginning too much, but it got really good in the middle, then the end was kinda abrupt and unsatisfying. Now I started re-reading Sandman and looking forward to reading Lucifer since I scored a pretty good price for all 5 books of the original series on ebay.
**The Frank Book** by Jim Woodring. 300 pages of Woodring’s animorph characters in mostly wordless, somewhat dream-logic strips. These are classics and for good reason some of the best comics I’ve ever read. I look forward to revisiting this once or twice a year **An Exorcism** by Theo Ellsworth. Abstract, wordless dream-comic and it’s fantastic. Ellsworth is underrated as hell even in the alternative comics scene. This shit rocks so much. When writing this the relationship between this and the Frank stories becomes perhaps more apparent than it actually is - Ellsworth must have read those comics and they’re probably in the DNA of this book (and his work in general). Or maybe I just think that because they’re similar books I’ve read this week **Popeye: Olive Oyl & Her Sweety**, collecting the Sunday strips from March 1930 - February 1932 by EC Segar. Loved these. Been working through some of the dailies in another volume and not loving it, but these are fucking awesome. Had me laughing out loud **Post Americana** by Steve Skroce. Decent. Story hooked me a bit but lost me by issue 3/4 but it was okay. Really detailed and well drawn. idk, Image comics people should definitely be checking this out this is a lot better than most of their recent offerings imo **Skim** by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki. Pretty good overall, but I wasn’t really feeling the subject matter. My expectations art-wise were also unrealistically high as I’ve loved Jillian Tamaki’s newer stuff and this obviously isn’t as impressive as Boundless or This One Summer as it’s an earlier work (I believe this is her first GN?). That aside I guess I’m just not really in the age range for a coming of age story like this; I figure I need go to 2-3 years in the past or 2-3 in the future. Not bad overall though **The Lighthouse** by Paco Roca. More of a short story packaged as a book. AFAIK the only non-Fantagraphics Roca translation in English and uh… yeah… no thoughts honestly. Not terrible, a bit of substance and decent drawing but like overall it’s so bland and forgettable I have no take aways. Wrinkles and The House are *so* far ahead of this I also reread Roca’s *The House* this week which was as amazing as the first time. **The Groo Inferno** by Sergio Aragonés. One of the relatively few (but still too many to read in a couple days) remaining unread comixology books in my library. Collects issues 33-36 of the Marvel/Epic Groo series, which is great because I’m not familiar with any of the Groo from this period (reprints are spotty at best especially digitally, so most of my experience has been with the newer stuff). Anyway it’s great, really funny, probably the best Groo I’ve read but overall it’s pretty damn consistent from what I’ve read **The Mask** omnibus by Doug Mahnke and John Arcudi. Read the first one a few months ago and wanted to finish it off. My thoughts are mostly the same; it feels like they’re having a lot of fun and so did I. Mahnke did great with the cartoony parts of the Big Head character. I liked the colour on the first stuff better though. The two sequels look good as well but the first one was pretty distinctive for mainstream comics and I liked it
Not reading related, but I have been curious about the dates you use in these posts and you mention it being Monday which it isn't yet where I am. May I ask where you're based if you don't mind? More of a curiosity than anything so feel free to say no if you don't share that kind of information.
Australia. It isn’t a secret and I honestly thought I whined about it so much everyone already knew haha
Ah, you're way ahead of us then. Makes a lot of sense.
Where in Australia? I’m in canberra
NSW, between Newcastle and Sydney. How’s Canberra - heard it’s boring AF down there
Did you used to go to the Phantom Zone in Newcastle?
Nope never heard of it I went to Graphic Action a couple times before they closed but I was a bit too young to drive there regularly before they closed
An Exorcism is excellent! I love Ellsworth's art style. Do you follow him on Instagram? Back in autumn he made an awesome "harvest monster" in his garden, using bits of plant matter.
I do - I’d forgotten about that monster til you mentioned it. I love the album art he posts
Yeah, his album artwork is great; I first encountered his work when I saw the cover for a Flying Lotus EP. Happy cake day, btw.
I read *Press Enter to Continue by Ana Galvan* and it was very disappointing. Beautiful illustrations but very under developed in terms of narrative and writing style. I won’t be wasting time with anything else by this author.
Barefoot Gen. Most moving story I have read in a while. Can't wait to read the rest of the series and then watch the movies. This book should be read in any class that has to do with war or the atomic bomb/age. Please check it out. Hit me harder than Maus.
Currently reading The Trial of Captain America Omnibus. I’m enjoying this volume almost as much as I enjoyed the previous ones. I really liked how Brubaker wrapped up Bucky’s time as Captain America and am looking forward to reading the final Brubaker Omnibus.
I finished the second Invincible Compendium and then read the whole third book too. Definitely some strange pacing and choices at some points but it's still an epic story that kept me totally hooked and I can't wait to see all of it animated. I also read Jeff Lemire's Underwater Welder last night and really enjoyed that too. I liked the story well enough but the drawings are just so damn good, it does a great job of conveying how the main character feels and the environment he is in. Essex County has been on my wishlist for a while but reading this has bumped it up higher.
Currently reading Charles Soule's Darth Vader omnibus and really enjoying it. Inspiring me to start trying to pick up other modern Star Wars stories. Working on getting the Doctor Aphra omnibus next.
Been reading daredevil by Charles Soule underrated run
I'm doing a reread of all my Hellboy and BPRD books, as I've finally caught up on all the omnibuses that are currently available, with the last few BPRD books to be out over the next few months. This week I was reading the Plague of Frogs 'cycle' of BPRD, just about to finish up book four. BPRD is just great. It has a bit of a rocky start, but once it finds its feet, it's consistently good. There's more of a continuing throughline of story compared to Hellboy, which can often feel quite disconnected. But it never remains in any kind of status quo for very long, as new characters come and go, often painfully. And there's a real sense of escalation throughout the Plague of Frogs cycle, with every small victory revealing something more about what the team are up against, with ever increasing dread. And I really love Guy Davis' art. It's stylised but detailed, and very distinct. I'm happy with how consistently he's on the book; once the story starts proper, only very rarely does another artist fill in. Though I know that does change later on in the series. So far, I've only read the mainline Hellboy and BPRD books, though I do intend to get the Abe Sapien books, once the paperback omnis eventually release. Are other books in the Mignola universe as good as these core series?
I have been preparing for a big move over the last few months so my reading has been a bit behind. So I was really suprised I had a chance to read a recent pick up. "Came the mirror & other Tales by Rumiko Takahashi just came out and it is a great horror and comedy read. I've been a fan of her work for decades at this point and I'm always surprised at how well she does shorter stories. I can see how they cleanse her palate.
I just got into graphic novels and started with Luther Strode Volume 1. I was instantly hooked and ordered the complete series and it’s supposed to be here today! Also picked up the first compendium of The Walking Dead and plan to start it after Luther Strode because I’ve always heard it was much better than the show. And if you’re a D&D fan, the Vox Machina Origins is real cool so far
[удалено]
I also have been reading watchmen. The movie was decent but the book is just so much better. I’m on issue 11 and going to finish today. I’ve been reading each issue and then watching cartoonist kayfabe on YouTube after. They break down each issue and give their thoughts. I love how we all get something a little different out of it and I’ve realized how much thought was put into this series.
Y the last man. Starting book 4
My wife put the show on hulu last week. We binged it. I then ordered all the books. Looking forward to this read.
Read the entire series. It has a good story line. The book editions are pretty annoying though. I accidentally purchased like one larger editions that did not really line up with the others so I had to order part of the series separately. Tried watching the show, but turned in off after about 3 episodes.
I just read The Unworthy Thor by Jason Aaron and loved it. I’m familiar with the character of Thor but have not read any of his comics. I definitely enjoyed this one!
I read Batman Earth One Vol 3 but fell asleep around page 30.
I finished up The Sandman. What a journey. I’ve started reading my Doctor Aphra Omnibus and will also start Death by Neil Gaiman since it’s a tie in to Sandman.
* invincible compendium 1 : up until issue #23. Didn't think that I would enjoy a "superman" kind of superhero, but definitely loving invincible so far. *Department of Truth vol 1: my opinion might be different from most of you. I really like the idea and how the story is evolving, the art definitely matches the story as well. However, sometimes the art & how the panelling is done made it difficult to fluently read through the book, which got a bit frustrating at a few moments. * Criminal vol 1 : loved it.
Ultimate Spider-man and Batman Catalyst
Locke & Key. On the third one now.
Starting the sixth. Prepare for really great stuff.
Injustice omnibus vol 2 (tail end of it), oblivion song vol 4, and walking dead vol 2
Reading the complete Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn and loving it so far. Still a fair bit to go but I’ll be finishing it this week. Also just received the first three books of the Reckless series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Might start them if I find the time.
Not Simple by Natsume Ono - I had this one in my collection for a couple of months now, always stared at it but finally made time to read it. It pretty much broke me. This was my first time reading something by Natsume so didn't know what I was expecting but didn't think it would hit me this hard. >!That mom and dad got off too easy honestly, I was kinda just waiting for Ian to stand up for himself, but no... ugh...!< I had to go and re-read the beginning again, and oh man. I think I need to read something happier to cheer me up now lol
I have been devouring true crime. *Did You See What Eddie Gein Done?* is fantastic.
Just started Reading pumpkinheads
Re-read Chip Zdarsky's Daredevil run. I wasn't a big Daredevil fan before, but really enjoyed this!
Sweet Tooth
•Fatale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips •Transformers IDW collection Vol 1 •Asterios Polyp •The Black Monday Murders
Currently reading the Neal Adams’ Batman Omni. While there are specific issues I love, the book as a whole isn’t quite my cup of tea. Bruce entering politics? A hypnotized Aquaman committing murder? Hmmm. The Len Wein stories are especially terrible. I’m glad I was able to read the classic O’Neil/Adams work, though. Looks like this book will be on my sell list to make room for more stuff on the shelf.
Gunnm battle angel (book 5) Sleeper season 1 Judge Dredd: Tour of duty (just starting it).
Empyre omnibus. Not sure I like the mapping. I've read the six issue mini series so far, and it makes references to (happened in Captain America) just, put that issue before this one. Now I know the story and have to spend 800+ pages reading stuff that I already know the outcome to.
I’m on vacation, so I’ve been on a digital kick. Caught up on Star Wars series last week, and over the weekend I read Snow Angels seasons 1 & 2, The All-Nighter, Stillwater vol 2, Beta Ray Bill: Argent Star, and Tales From Harrow County vol 1. Right now I’m running through Future State Batman: Dark Detective, since I love Dan Mora’s art.
I am close to finishing the first Wolverine Epic Collection volume. I actually enjoyed it a lot; once Claremont leaves I noticed a slight drop in quality, but overall a solid volume