The October List by Lee

This month I’m beating Thomm with the List… BWHA HA HA. Me FIRST!!!

Let’s start with the fact that there were no real clunkers this month. I got lucky and enjoyed what I read. So, the order is based upon best read, but I would recommend reading all the books for one reason or another.

Gantz Vol 1-5 by Hiroya Oku, published by Dark Horse
This was just an all out action packed, violent page turner. Well, once you got past the first book it became a page turner. It starts slow but picks up speed quickly. There are plenty of mysteries, and this is one of those rare books that every time I thought I had it all figured out… I was wrong. And the best part was, getting the answer usually ended up with someone dying. A bloody good read. And not in the British term of the word bloody either.

7 Psychopaths by (W) Fabien Vehlmann and (A) Sean Phillips, published by Boom!
This is an updated version of the old “assassinate Hitler” plan tried by the Allies in WW2. In this case, the team is comprised of 7 asylum patients sent on a task to kill Hitler. Why? Because it’s an insane mission with no chance of success, and only an insane person would try it. Et Viola, a new Dirty Dozen (less 5 people and a whole bunch of sanity) is formed. Vehlmann breathes new life into a very old cliché and it works. Any book that can make me say “Maybe that isn’t such a bad idea” contrary to all the facts presented is a doing great job.

AX Volume 1: A Collection of Alternative Manga, published by Top Shelf
If you like the Mome collections from Fantagraphics then you will love this. Stories range from normal, people falling in love, to strange, Women who worship ants and meet any aliens, to horrific. Not every story makes sense. Not every story is good. But there are more winners than losers, and even the losers were pretty to look at. This reminded me of reading American Underground comics more than collection of Alternative comics. If you’re looking to see what other cultures are doing outside of the mainstream, this is great.

The Amazing Screw On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola, published by Dark Horse.
This is just a collection of shorts, and a one shot from Mignola. It’s a brisk read but tons of fun.

Losers Vol 2 by (W) Andy Diggle (A) Jock and Others, published by Vertigo.
This huge trade collects issues 13-32 of the original series and is a hefty read. I can see why the movie was only ok because there is way too much going on in this to capture in 2 hrs. But, it’s all very well done, and even though it breaks down into James Bond world conquering silliness at the end, it’s still a good read. The only problem, none of the car/vehicle action scenes worked. Luckily there’s only a couple but other than that, it’s fine.

Lucky in Love by George Chieffet; art by Stephen DeStefano, published by Fantagraphics.
This is a tough call because I loved the art, loved the story, and hated the main character. I’ll review this next week because there is a lot going on here. Overall, very good and gorgeous to look at.

The Infinity Gauntlet by (W) Jim Starlin, (A) George Perez & Ron Lim, published by Marvel.
This is pure superhero silliness with little redeeming values. Other than that, it’s an awesomely good time involving the good guys hitting the bad guys in every escalating battles for 6 issues with nothing silly like character development to get in the way. This is a ton of fun in an old school superhero kinda way.

And finally, the prose book of the month was, Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin. An old school vampire novel published in 1981, it’s the story of vampires on the Mississippi during the 1860’s. It’s a good book more in line with Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire, than Robert McCammon’s They Thirt. It wasn’t about fear and mass death, so much as about vampires trying to live in peace with humans, well, some of them at least. Still a good vampire novel without the milksop overtones of the Twilight saga.

And, that’s it for me this month.