Hey Guys! Danielle here! (For the regulars and site visitors-sorry class project-but you might enjoy this!) In my Critical Literacy class, we get to make an ad for a  made up product or company. I, of course don’t have the need to make anything up! I have a real store! So, here we are. It’s cool to manage the store, seeing as how I’m probably the youngest manager ever. We, of course, if you aren’t aware, usually offer at least a 25% discount for pre-orders. Really, I don’t have much to say about it. I love it, and I get a lot of travel opportunities other kids my age don’t. That’s pretty much all I can say, so, hope you enjoyed this!

Aquaman hardcover vol two: The Others

Unless you’re reading this story it’s hard to describe the thrill that occurs when you tell someone else that Aquaman is one of the best comics out there.  That’s right, Aquaman!  The only thing wrong with this second volume written by Geoff Johns and penciled and inked by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado and colored by Rod Reis is that it ended too quickly.

The story of the others was absolutely engaging and following the first volume, “The Trench” it just continues to crest that wave heading towards the “Throne of Atlantis” storyline that crossed over into Justice League.   There lies my complaint for DC.  This volume collects issues 7 through 13 and currently we’re receiving issue #20.  So even though this book just arrived last week, the new volume could be here right now.  It won’t be.  It hasn’t even been solicited yet.

This is so good, both in the story and the art.  Reis and Prado are a good team that compliment each other well and even with additional ink credits going to Andy Lanning, Oclair Albert, Jonathon Glapion, Julio Ferriera, and Ivan Reis the quality of the art doesn’t show that there may have been a deadline issue that required a handful of help.

The Others are the team that Arthur ran with before he grew into the Justice League.  His past with Black Manta came back to haunt him as well, revealing to Mera that he’s not necessarily the man he’s projected himself to be.  He’s not the man he used to be either and the story resolves on a high note even as we’re preparing for even more carnage.  I can’t wait.  This really is one of the best comics I’m currently reading.

Yes.  Aquaman!

I just saw Iron Man 3 and there was a lot to like about it.  Foremost, at least for me I think, was Tony’s anxiety over what had happened in The Avengers.  That and his admission that something happened that he can’t explain.

Right from the start though, I should admit that I haven’t read the Extremis storyline that was apparently a huge part of this.  As for just sitting there and enjoying it?  Watch out for spoilers here as I’ll touch on specific points…  I liked that Iron Man didn’t fight an Iron enemy.  I loved  the idea of all of the different armors being autonomous (and that makes me think of the Joe Quesada Iron Man story in which the armor’s AI kind of grew it’s own conscience and neutralized an enemy even as Stark was wearing it).  I didn’t have a problem with the Mandarin not having magic rings or only being an actor as the figurehead of a terrorist organization.  I thought they got to the President of the United States way too easily.  Even with the assistance of the VP.  I was surprised I didn’t see Nick Fury or Maria Hill anywhere, specifically in the aftermath of the destruction of Tony’s home.  Stark.  Anthony Stark, sure made it look easy to find this terrorist, his base of operations, and then infiltrate it, all without his armor.

Even though the Extremis code could “cure” people I didn’t think that was an even match against the IM armor.   Never the less, I thoroughly enjoyed it despite sitting there thinking that the whole story was very nearly completely coincidental.  It just so happens that Tony’s suit fits Pepper, she instantly knows how to operate it, the villain knows how to operate Iron Patriot, Tony just happens to find a garage with the workbench light on, the Extremis soldiers just happen to be in Memphis at the same time Tony is… The list goes on and on.

The object here is to put that all behind me.  It’s a comic book movie and for many years I could only dream of seeing something so cool on the big screen.  As I wrote for The Celebrity Cafe, I loved, and I mean absolutely love, seeing the armor form and move around him in ways that the comic book can’t duplicate.  The bottom line is, even if I don’t read Iron Man or am that big a fan of the character, it’s a comic book movie that was done damn well and I’m happy to see it!

Whether it be reading for enjoyment, reading to relax, reading to sleep, or reading as research, I’ve fit a number of books in and around my recently out of control schedule.  All of these books I’ve read because they made my list.  None of them were explorations that deserve a full review but in the interest of letting you know what I think, aside from the obvious, I’ve broken down my thoughts to as simple as possible.  Regrettably, I know there are books I’ve read that haven’t even been mentioned, and most likely they’re previous issues of what’s already on this list.  So, in no particular order, here’s what I’ve read recently:

FCBD 2013 Grimm = Liked it a lot.

FCBD 2013 Bongo Free-For-All! = Enjoyed it.

FCBD 2013 Infinity = I read it.

FCBD 2013 Harbinger Wars = I was teased by it.

Amazing Spider-man #121 and 122 = Enjoyed it.

Marvel Team-up #1 = Liked it.

Amazing Spider-man: Fearful Symmetry: Kraven’s Last Hunt = Loved it.

Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-man #74 = Liked it.

Spider-man: Death of Jean DeWolff = Loved it.

Star Wars #5 = Liked it.

Justice League of America #3 = Enjoyed it.

Harbinger 12 = Loved it.

Archer & Armstrong #0 = Liked it.

Harbinger Wars #2 = Liked it.

Shadowman #0 = Liked it.

And Please remember.  My tastes aren’t necessarily your tastes.  Feel free to comment or send your own thoughts on something at any time.  I’d love to hear what you think about what you’re reading.

Invincible Ultimate Collection hardcover volume eight

Written by Robert Kirkman, who’s famous for his Walking Dead, and illustrated by Ryan Ottley, Cory Walker, and Cliff Rathburn with FCO Plascencia and John Rauch on the coloring.

Volume eight let me down in a lot of ways that were not necessarily bad.  I moved through the collection quickly enough and the art is good enough that I have no complaints.  I really like that it’s the same creative team that came right out of the gate nearly 100 issues ago.  I understand that creators can become stagnant or want to move onto something else to rejuvenate the creative juices, but this lends a huge amount of “comfort” to a project that, at least in my opinion, is rewarding in itself.

I’ve said a couple of times in the past that I like Invincible because I see it as capturing the best of the innocence of the Silver Age of Marvel Comics.  Unfortunately with this volume, the first of what I don’t like rears it’s ugly head as the Modern Age catches up with us.  It’s become too gory or violent.  Make no mistake, it’s cartoon gore.  The violence is so over the top and repetitive and all consuming but drawn in a simple and innocent way.  Picture these same pages published by Avatar Press and you know exactly what I’m talking about.  The story seems to be still moving forward but it’s almost as if the story is secondary to the blood.  I’m starting to lose interest.  I do feel it’s important that you know it’s not bad, because it’s not.  If I wanted to see this kind of story I’d read Walking Dead though.  This just isn’t for me anymore.

The second thing I was put off by was that originally this was solicited as collecting through #100 and that would be a great place to just drop off if I’d wanted.  Instead, the book was changed after the orders were placed to collect Invincible  #85 – 96.  Now if I’d like to read through #100 I’m buying at least one more Ultimate Collection.

We’ll have to see how I feel when that’s solicited.

We had a great time yesterday!  It’s no secret that I was very disappointed with the public’s turnout, so instead of wasting our money on advertising next time, we’ll turn this into a twice a year event to reward the regular customers like yourselves.  Look for the next one the Sunday after Labor Day.  Hopefully we’ll dig up another creator to come hang out with us for the day.  You’re ideas are always welcome.

Here we have Scott enjoying Joe’s response to his “surprise” Wolverine drawing.

Scott Hanna and Joe Lavoie May 4th, 2013

The Manara Library volume one

Milo Manara is my new love.  He’s been on and off my radar for quite a while now and I’ve mostly stayed away because these collections are categorized as “Historical Fiction/Erotica”.  I have a great respect for erotica done well.  As long as it’s a clever story and not just sex for sex’s sake.  I’ve found that most of the erotica I’ve experienced has just been trash.  I’ve no interest in that.  I’ll be honest here, the ‘Historical Fiction’ part of that tag went completely by me.  I was focused on the erotica.

I finally broke down and procured this first volume which collects “Indian Summer” written by Hugo Pratt and translated by Kim Thompson, illustrated by Milo Manara, and colored by Laura Battaglia, and “The Paper Man” both written and drawn by Manara with Thompson and Battaglia again in their respective roles.  That’s it.  The title “Indian Summer and Other Stories”?  Well that should read “Indian Summer and Other Story” but that’s where my complaint stops.

Everything about this book was clever, smart, engaging, and beautiful.  I do mean beautiful.  The art is simple and breathtaking.  I found myself seeing the inspiration for and influence on Barry Windsor Smith.  I have no idea if Barry’s a fan of Milo’s and I didn’t bother to research that but artistically it’s reminiscent.  It also reminded me of Juanjo Guarnido’s Blacksad.  Not quite as good as that but it’s right up there in it’s presentation as both men are clearly masters of their crafts.

Neither story offered much in the way of actual sex.  ”Indian Summer” featured a rape scene that was mostly off panel and then there were several instances of insinuation, but it was mostly about the relationship of the early settlers and their neighboring natives.  What I found most interesting was at the end of what I thought was a truly exceptional story came the unexpected gift that was the annotations and historical notes and documents.  That this could have been a true story?… It just really made it that much more exciting, even after I’d already been impressed.

“The Paper Man” was more of a lost love story and even that was completely enthralling and entertaining right to the  emotionally shattering end of the story.

Ultimately, I think the most important thing I can tell you about how this book made me feel, is that after reading volume one of this $59.99 Library Edition, I went ahead and ordered for myself the next four volumes.

Fables Deluxe Edition book four

I discovered Fables relatively recently and really enjoyed it.  So much so that I went ahead and bought all of the Fables story that I could up to this point.  My first thought was that it was a little disappointing that while the Fables monthly comic book is up above #120, the hardcover collections were only six deep, collecting through issue 51.  My second thought was a worry that I would read too much Fables all at once and burn myself out on it.  In reality, what I found is that every time I tried to move away from Fables I felt myself needing to be back there.  So I finally did put everything else aside and work on the Fables, for as much of it as I had.  Book four also collected the previously reviewed 1,001 Nights of Snowfall.

Fables deluxe edition book five

Now I’m sad that I’m less than halfway to current and have no way of becoming so without skipping ahead.  Book four continued to be the witty, exciting, out-of-the-box story that kept me coming back.  The art is not the best comic book art I’ve experienced but it’s so solid good.  It moves the story along without hindering it in any way.  It’s also important to point out that in my opinion, I don’t think better art would make this experience a better story.  It’s already that good!  Having said, that I also think that book five is when I watched this well oiled machine slip from what I thought was top gear to even higher.

Fables is the rare kind of story that I’m able to just sit back and enjoy.  I don’t have any kind of expectation or hope for the story or characters.  I’m just happy to enjoy the show.  I was completely happy with it and didn’t think it could get any better, but it went ahead and did so anyhow.

For anyone who’s not familiar with my thoughts, I purposefully stay away from plot points so that anyone can enjoy the story for themselves.  I’ll comment on the art, or story, or both.  I’ll comment on how they work together or don’t to advance the plot. I don’t want to talk about specific story lines or character developments until after you’ve read the story.  At that point I’ll discuss them until we’re both blue in the face.

Fables deluxe edition book six

Book six continued the higher than expected gear and just did a great job of giving me more fables to think about, more places for the story to go that I hadn’t even considered.  It’s embarrassing how simple this idea is and yet so compelling in how well it’s executed.  I’m finding myself very much invested in the characters and am perfectly willing to admit that I’m not sure which ones might be my favorites.  Bigby Wolf certainly seems like a main character but Bill Willingham does a stellar job of not making the story about Bigby.  As the story shifts from Fabletown to Boy Blue it’s about Blue until the resolution which is when we’ll find out what was happening somewhere else while we were here.  Then it will shift again whether for one issue or a multiple issue story arc, constantly highlighting other characters and adventures.

Of the ‘solid good’ art comment, the individuals that deserve the credit are Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Tony Akins, Jimmy Palmiotti, John Bolton, Charles Vess, Michael Wm Kaluta, Jill Thompson, Esao Andrews, Tara McPherson, Mark Wheatley, James Jean, Derek Kirk Kim, Brian Bolland, David Hahn, Lan Medina, Andrew Pepoy, Dan Green, Jim Fern, and Shawn McManus.

Lush and comforting colors are done by  Daniel Vozzo and Lee Loughridge with Bill Willingham being the sole visionary behind the writing.

I’d like to tell you that Book five was my favorite collection so far but I was firmly grabbed by the lapels in my first experience with this story and Book six was more than able to meeting the high standards of five with it’s own individual great moments.  With no doubt Book seven will automatically jump to the top of my ‘To be read’ pile.

Hey guys! I’m just posting this as a last-minute type of info for the Convention this weekend. We (Jon, dad, and I) will have a table, but we don’t yet know where it will be. Hopefully we will be leaving the house at at least  4 o’clock.  Also, we will be having a raffle for Gil Kane’s The Amazing Spider-Man Artists Edition. Tickets for the raffle will be $5 each, and even if you aren’t going to be at Boston, come see us at the house before 1:30 PM on Friday, April 19th to get tickets. The raffle will be at 2:00 on Sunday Night. We will, of course, be there all weekend, so don’t forget to come visit us if you are there!

Have fun!