What I Read – Apr 10

Where do the weeks go?  Seriously, as I get older the time seems to go faster... and faster.  Since I had a birthday this past weekend (still younger than Jim) it seems like life is moving at light speed. 

Anyway, Saturday was the big day so we went on a family hike up one of the local mountains.  3 hrs up, and 2 hrs down.  It was a doozey.  I mostly spent the walk up with the girls, and the walk down with the boy. 

Boy, far and away had the best comments, but you can decide for yourself which one is better.  You choices are:

#1) Just as we are starting down, Boy turns to me and says "hold on dad, I'll be right back. I have to go fertilize the grass with my ray-gun."

I can honestly tell you I have never referred to my privates, or his privates, as a ray-gun.   Ya gotta love the things they learn in school.  And, honestly, it's more of a bazooka.

#2) About half way down, as we were looking for a stick that he had gotten rid of earlier on the walk
Boy: Sigh. I really wish I had my stick back.  It was such a cool stick but I had to throw my stick away.
Me: Yeah, that's true.
Boy: It's was so cool with these markings on it that looked like cool stuff.  But Mom made me throw it away. I wish I still had it.
Me: You do know Mom made you throw away the stick because you hit her in the head with it right?
Boy: Yeah. But it was a really cool stick and I only hit her once and I didn't do it on purpose.

It's a really tough choice.

Anyway, as for books, this week I read Blue Estate Volume 1, James Sturm's America: God, Gold, and Golems, and Planet of the Apes Vol 1.

You can see what I thought of the rest of the books below the break.

DC Preview Review June Part 1 of 2

Jim: Damn, these things come around like clockwork. When I think of DC now I think Elseworlds (the new DCU), Vertigo (great stuff) and hardcover disappointment as so much of their library is untapped and the quality of their hard cover program has gone in the crapper.

Gwen: Vertigo, one of the only things I still thoroughly enjoy from DC.

BEFORE WATCHMEN: MINUTEMEN #1
DARWYN COOKE
Backup story written by LEN WEIN
Art and cover by DARWYN COOKE
Backup story art by JOHN HIGGINS
1:25 Variant cover by MICHAEL GOLDEN
1:200 Variant cover by JIM LEE
On sale JUNE 6 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 6, $3.99 US • MATURE READERS
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.
“Little did we know that poor boy would lead to the end of us all.”
Plus: Don’t miss the CRIMSON CORSAIR backup story by writer LEN WEIN and artist JOHN HIGGINS!

Jim:.I get that people think Watchmen is some sort of story that should never be touched, but let’s remember the work that Moore did was derivative itself. Alan Moore took analogs of the Charlton characters DC had purchased and made them over. On the good side DC is doing preludes as opposed to trying to continue the story. Plus Watchmen made Moore a ton of money and probably the reason he is allowed to be the crotchety old crazy guy he is today. Finally Darwyn Cooke is a fantastic creator so I’m sold.

Gwen: No way for me. While the original Watchmen was a great story (if for nothing else that then the bad guy explaining things only after his plan already happened) I could care less about anything happening before Watchmen. It wasn't the setting I enjoyed from the original material but the quality of the story.

Echo

Here's an interesting thing. I've been sitting on reviewing Terry Moore's Echo for a few months now. At first it was that I had other things that needed to be addressed sooner, such as the Library books. I own the Echo books. No need to return them on deadline, or sign them out again.

But here's the other thing. This is a great series. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, it's almost hard to write about it. How many superlatives can I toss around before the reader gets bored? How many before I get bored? The perils of being a critic, even an unpaid one.

But, put simply this is a great piece of science fiction. It's not great in the grand space opera scale of a Star Wars or Star Trek. It's great in the story of believable, relatable, even likeable characters who live in a world much like our own. In fact, it's science fiction elements are so well done a layman like me is hard pressed to say that it's suppositions aren't scientifically possible.

The Weak in Review

I called it weak because I have so much to do this week-end and little time to get it all done. Plus I just got my comics this Friday and have so much real work stacking up again; I know I sound like a broken record, so I have reviewed what I read. On with the show, this is it, Oh monsieur light the lights, wrong opening. Nothing up my sleeve “Presto”, gotta get a new hat, still wrong opening. First person to guess where those two lines come from and send me an e-mail with a snail mail address and I will send you a trade paperback, really. I used to run contests all the time on this site back when I started the whole thing. Fellow Comic And writers are not eligible to win Matthew.

I picked up Avengers vs X-Men #1 and was wondering will it be crap or will it be good. The multiple writer approach has its plus and minuses, but one scripter makes it better.  The writers are all of the Marvel promoted big names Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman and Matt Fraction, the scripter Bendis, art by John Romita Jr and Scott Hanna (so nice to see him getting a huge book like this), with colors by Laura Martin. I’m actually not a fan of Romita Jr., but damn if he does not impress when he brings his “A” game and since he is not doing all the issues I’m happy with the art, it has big bold panels, great storytelling, solid emotions being registered. All is all the art is a solid B. Not an A because stylistically I think there are better artists out there, technically Jr. does a great job. The story itself was well done also. I remembered the DC series 52 was by a staff of writers and that was a solid series and this started out very well. It was a nice straight line story that the Phoenix force is headed to earth. The Avengers believe they should hold Hope to protect her and Earth. The X-Men believe that it is a mutant issue and they should protect Hope.  Cap and Cyclops face off and Cyclops shoot an eye blast at Cap and the stage is set. Bendis had some stupid dialogue moments here and there but all in all this was a great read with solid art. Instead of dreading the series, it now looks like it could be fun. They won me over for now. In some ways I feel like the eternal sucker for being drawn in and in other ways I look for the cape and cowl set to just be light entertainment and this fits that premise. By the way I will be publishing the digital comic codes on here and face book for every issue as I will never use them so if you get it first congrats.

Comic Covers Sunday

Sorta thematic this week.  Since it was my birthday yesterday, baseball started, and it's Easter too there's alot of variety in styles this week. 

Let's start simple and classic.  I might never read the inside but the appeal of the book is undeniable.  And, an excellent composition too!

Really Recent Reads (2012 Spring Break Edition)

It’s Spring Break and it’s time to head to the sunny Florida beaches with my brood of six children and stay at Jim’s house!  Just kidding…  We are traveling this weekend, going down to Richmond to celebrate Easter with my mother and do some fun stuff around my hometown.  So, I don’t have much time to cobble together a post; therefore, I’ll try to keep it short and sour…I mean “sweet”, which leads us to another installment of Recent Reads.

One of the difficulties of catching up on your reading (as Jim has been doing) is generating a huge backlog of stuff to blog about.  I’ve just finished the Captain Britain Omnibus (very good) and while I hope to spotlight it someday in the future, I don’t have the time right now to do it justice.  The real problem develops the more time that passes between when you finish a book and get around to discussing it.  Enthusiasm wanes, details get fuzzy, etc.  If you read something, but don’t blog about it, was is really worth it?  We’ll leave that question for the philosophers.

Anyway, Wednesday was my first day off for the break and I was at the store right at 1100, having just downed a White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino, with a generous helping of books I really enjoy in my box.  I even had time to read all of them that afternoon.  Unfortunately, I had problems with most of them.  (Maybe it was my strange melancholy mood and innate fatigue.)

Free Digital Comics

Free Digital Copy of Avengers v X-Men #1


Code is ATMC1ZVATF14

go to marvel.com/redeem

First there wins. Of course I posted this on facebook also.