During a NYC trip in which I failed to get a ticket to TWELFTH NIGHT with Anne Hathaway (last weekend I got a ticket but it was rained out), I got KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #152. This was another good issue: the return of Knuckles, more on the return of Gary Jackson, and a hysterical look at how far the players will go for a few epees. Hoody hoo!
So James, when is KenzerCo going to just give you a column in KODT, or at least on their website? lol
.
I snagged #151 and 152 at Origins last week, and I’m kinda shocked and amazed to look back and realize how long the D-team has been laying the foundations for Gary’s return. I’ve got a friend who dropped KODT a few years ago who’s *this* close to jumping back in because of this development. (I also got to attend my first KODT Live Reading in years, thanks to a scheduling re-shuffle of certain Origins staples, and got in on one of the demos for Hackmaster Basic. The new system is interesting and a little more fluid than the D&D model that the previous edition ran on.)
.
My only other thought for this week’s stash is that I’m going to be dropping a serious chunk of change as I pick up an accumulated month-and-a-half’s worth of books. I was holding back so I’d have some “just-in-case” money for the Origins trip, which I thankfully ended up not needing, so now I’ve got some reading to catch up on.
.
.
Chuck
At this point, I doubt I’ll get my own column and just get my letters printed. Still, my bio *and* photo were run there — hoody hoo!
I still haven’t decided if I like Gary Jackson’s return. While the hints and foundations they’ve included are impressive, I think the in-comic game worked better with the Hard Eight crew doing their best instead of Gary getting by on his legendary reputation. Also, much as Hackmaster 4.98 was oversimplified, I liked Heidi Jackson (based on the comments, I’m one of the few who did) as a foil to the die-hard more-the-same Hard Eight crew.
And as I recall from the older scripts, Gary was very willing to release “new” editions with nothing but a font size change or two tables, so I doubt he’ll prove to be a renaissance for the Hackmaster world.
Now about that uber-lethal stampede…
Twelfth Night is phenomenal! Anne Hathaway and Raul Esparza are excellent as the leads but the real star is Hamish Linklater who plays the bumbling knight Andrew Aguecheek. He steals every scene he’s in and is absolutely hilarious.
Best of all I got tickets on the virtual line so I never had to camp out in the wee early morning hours for tickets!
I can’t even get my comments published here at all. *sigh*
R-
But you got that one posted.
Picked up CA: Reborn… I’ve seen this plot somewhere before. :-/ Was kind of shocked they were even bold enough to refer to Sharon Carter as Rogers’ “constant”. I trust Brubaker, but the similarities to Lost was jarring enough that it snapped me out of my suspension of belief/engrossment mentality.
Picked up CA: Reborn… I’ve seen this plot somewhere before. :-/ Was kind of shocked they were even bold enough to refer to Sharon Carter as Rogers’ “constant”. I trust Brubaker, but the similarities to Lost was jarring enough that it snapped me out of my suspension of belief/engrossment mentality.
Batman and Robin was a solid improvement over last month, as this time Grant succeeds in exploring just what it means for Ðìçk Grayson to fill Bruce Wayne’s shoes, and why Damian is Robin. Add that to the action and the art, and this is a winner.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer sadly confirms that Jane Espenson, talented as she is on TV, is clueless about how to write a comic book. There are some good bits, but in general it’s a lot of incomplete scenes jumbled together, reading like the notes for a much longer comic.
The Buffy comic seems to need a bit of editorial guidance, although I’m not sure that is part of the job description these days.
.
I agree about the abrupt scene changes, and it’s not only in the Buffy comic and not only from any one publisher. In order to be a good comic book story, the story must have a flow. If I have to spend more than a second or two trying to figure out what is going on, failure has occurred.
Muppet Show
Green Lantern Corps
The Boys
.
3 completely different comic books, all good reads.
I picked up War of Kings, Savage Dragon, Cable, Buffy, Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man, Authority, and Echo. Really good week, as besides X-Men they were all great reads. Surprisingly I started reading Cable right after Messiah Complex (which I got suckered into reading since I was hooked on X-Factor). As it stands, it’s probably be other favorite X-book each month and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the time traveling, since I really don’t like Cable as a character.
I didn’t get around to reading the newest X-Factor until today. Naturally, I liked the continuing story, and the Alan-Davis inspired art of the present-day sequences, but I have two questions:
1. Why was Doon seen in his usual, full-power look in some shots, and then suddenly as an invalid in others? I didn’t understand this.
2. Why does Shatterstar have white skin and black hair on the cover?
Doom was insane. The images of him looking healthy and powerful were all in his mind.
1. Why was Doon seen in his usual, full-power look in some shots, and then suddenly as an invalid in others? I didn’t understand this.
.
Yeah, the panels with extravagance were those coming from Doom’s head, compared to the actual reality of the situation in the other panels. I felt that this could’ve been made a little bit clearer, but I admit I’m not sure what would have been the best way to go about it.
OK. I know this series is new, but BATMAN AND ROBIN is absolutley AMAZING. Issues 1 and 2 might just be the best two issues I’ve read all year in any series out there. OMG I’m in love again! I beg you guys to try this series.
Joe V.
Best Batman story for sure, but far from best of the year.
Tried it, loathed it.
.
Batman – ordinary man, his physical and intellectual skills honed to the heights of human perfection, fighting crime in the dark shadowy world of Gotham City.
.
Flying Batmobile? My áršë!! Suddenly we’re channelling Flamebird, live from the bottle city of Kandor!
.
Feh!
.
Cheers.
I picked up five comics this week. A quick comment about each:
BATMAN AND ROBIN #2; Frank Quitely’s art is great as usual. “The Circus of Strange” storyline isn’t really exciting me, but Morrison did well in exploring Ðìçk Grayson’s approach to being Batman. (P.S. Please lose the flying Batmobile!)
JONAH HEX #45; When I was starting to feel burnt-out by super-hero stories, a friend suggested I try this western title. Gray and Palmiotti bring a gritty realism to Hex’s world. The character of Tallulah Black is one of the few strong females that doesn’t need to resort to T&A to get your attention.
FANTASTIC FOUR #568; I like Millar’s characterization of Ben Grimm as a tough-talking dude with a caring side. But the storyline (“Doom’s Master”) seems rushed. With only one more issue to go, it will really surprise me if they can end this story arc without an ending that feels like a cop-out.
SECRET SIX #11; Books that star villains are only compelling if the characters act like such. It’s to Gail Simone’s credit that she can make the “bad guys” relatable — even likable!
STRANGE ADVENTURES #5; I’m a Starlin fan from way back. It’s so disappointing to see a mini-series from him that seems so mediocre. Anyone remember J.S.’s stellar writing/drawing of Adam Warlock (c. 1970’s)? This book will have you pining for those days.
Thanks for the chance to share with you guys.
P.S. Comic Book Resources is dead wrong. X-Factor is one great read. Thanks, Peter!
I agree about the Strange Adventures story because it has been going on for too long. Please get to the end soon. After that, I would be willing to try another such story, but end the dámņ thing.
I can’t go to the comic shop this week, but I wanted to congratulate PAD on the awesome revelation at figures.com…
Madrox is getting his own Marvel Legends figure in 2010! Very cool! Way to go, PAD!
Hmmm, so Hasbro has set three 2-packs, with Madrox, Lady Bullseye, and Warpath already chosen, and will let the fans choose the other three. Assuming that means one of the company-chosen paired with a fan choice, do you think we could get enough votes to have Madrox paired with a second Madrox (with a different face sculpt, perhaps)? And maybe some interchangable heads, so if you buy several packs, you can have each Madrox with a different expression!
.
.
Chuck
Didn’t pick anything up this week, but last week, amongst others, I got those two X-Factor issues in one fell swoop, and it read much better as two issues back to back, mostly because the Shatterstar cliffhanger at the end was a pretty big hanging chad, but I can totally see the logic in focusing issue #44 on Monet (and to sell the provactive cheesecake bit, lots of slash pages and big panels of her looking hot) and issue #45 on the Shatterstar fight. The Doom stuff in betweeen was great too. But reading them back to back played very easily.
As for what else I got: Incredible Herc (I have a love/hate relationship with this book. The story and small character bits are great, but it tends to DRRRAGGGGGGG with these tedius retellings of Greek Mythology that bring entire issues grinding to a halt. The artists try to spruce it up, but it’s very dry stuff. Usually, the book makes up for it with the action story/character stuff, but this one “The trial of Zeus” was just backstory/exposition). And Ultimate Spider-Man: Requiem #1. Man,I missed seeing Bagley on this series. I wish he would come back, he’s the glue and seeing him do it feels right. (Kind of like whenever Pablo Raimondi jumps on for an X-Factor arc).
The highlight of the week was the latest issue of Knights of the Dinner Table. I just love the characters. Kind of reminds me of the great tv show BARNEY MILLER in that the description of the characters is pretty stereotypical. Yet the characters in both become real people.
I also enjoyed Reborn and the new Justice League miniseries. Amazing artwork on both.
Biggest disappointment of the week has to be Strange Adventures. I echo the previous comments on how the storyline has dragged far too long. I would prefer for Starlin to come up with a new story on a smaller scale involving Comet.
• 
During a NYC trip in which I failed to get a ticket to TWELFTH NIGHT with Anne Hathaway (last weekend I got a ticket but it was rained out), I got KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #152. This was another good issue: the return of Knuckles, more on the return of Gary Jackson, and a hysterical look at how far the players will go for a few epees. Hoody hoo!
So James, when is KenzerCo going to just give you a column in KODT, or at least on their website? lol
.
I snagged #151 and 152 at Origins last week, and I’m kinda shocked and amazed to look back and realize how long the D-team has been laying the foundations for Gary’s return. I’ve got a friend who dropped KODT a few years ago who’s *this* close to jumping back in because of this development. (I also got to attend my first KODT Live Reading in years, thanks to a scheduling re-shuffle of certain Origins staples, and got in on one of the demos for Hackmaster Basic. The new system is interesting and a little more fluid than the D&D model that the previous edition ran on.)
.
My only other thought for this week’s stash is that I’m going to be dropping a serious chunk of change as I pick up an accumulated month-and-a-half’s worth of books. I was holding back so I’d have some “just-in-case” money for the Origins trip, which I thankfully ended up not needing, so now I’ve got some reading to catch up on.
.
.
Chuck
At this point, I doubt I’ll get my own column and just get my letters printed. Still, my bio *and* photo were run there — hoody hoo!
I still haven’t decided if I like Gary Jackson’s return. While the hints and foundations they’ve included are impressive, I think the in-comic game worked better with the Hard Eight crew doing their best instead of Gary getting by on his legendary reputation. Also, much as Hackmaster 4.98 was oversimplified, I liked Heidi Jackson (based on the comments, I’m one of the few who did) as a foil to the die-hard more-the-same Hard Eight crew.
And as I recall from the older scripts, Gary was very willing to release “new” editions with nothing but a font size change or two tables, so I doubt he’ll prove to be a renaissance for the Hackmaster world.
Now about that uber-lethal stampede…
Twelfth Night is phenomenal! Anne Hathaway and Raul Esparza are excellent as the leads but the real star is Hamish Linklater who plays the bumbling knight Andrew Aguecheek. He steals every scene he’s in and is absolutely hilarious.
Best of all I got tickets on the virtual line so I never had to camp out in the wee early morning hours for tickets!
I can’t even get my comments published here at all. *sigh*
R-
But you got that one posted.
Picked up CA: Reborn… I’ve seen this plot somewhere before. :-/ Was kind of shocked they were even bold enough to refer to Sharon Carter as Rogers’ “constant”. I trust Brubaker, but the similarities to Lost was jarring enough that it snapped me out of my suspension of belief/engrossment mentality.
Picked up CA: Reborn… I’ve seen this plot somewhere before. :-/ Was kind of shocked they were even bold enough to refer to Sharon Carter as Rogers’ “constant”. I trust Brubaker, but the similarities to Lost was jarring enough that it snapped me out of my suspension of belief/engrossment mentality.
Batman and Robin was a solid improvement over last month, as this time Grant succeeds in exploring just what it means for Ðìçk Grayson to fill Bruce Wayne’s shoes, and why Damian is Robin. Add that to the action and the art, and this is a winner.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer sadly confirms that Jane Espenson, talented as she is on TV, is clueless about how to write a comic book. There are some good bits, but in general it’s a lot of incomplete scenes jumbled together, reading like the notes for a much longer comic.
The Buffy comic seems to need a bit of editorial guidance, although I’m not sure that is part of the job description these days.
.
I agree about the abrupt scene changes, and it’s not only in the Buffy comic and not only from any one publisher. In order to be a good comic book story, the story must have a flow. If I have to spend more than a second or two trying to figure out what is going on, failure has occurred.
Muppet Show
Green Lantern Corps
The Boys
.
3 completely different comic books, all good reads.
I picked up War of Kings, Savage Dragon, Cable, Buffy, Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man, Authority, and Echo. Really good week, as besides X-Men they were all great reads. Surprisingly I started reading Cable right after Messiah Complex (which I got suckered into reading since I was hooked on X-Factor). As it stands, it’s probably be other favorite X-book each month and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the time traveling, since I really don’t like Cable as a character.
I didn’t get around to reading the newest X-Factor until today. Naturally, I liked the continuing story, and the Alan-Davis inspired art of the present-day sequences, but I have two questions:
1. Why was Doon seen in his usual, full-power look in some shots, and then suddenly as an invalid in others? I didn’t understand this.
2. Why does Shatterstar have white skin and black hair on the cover?
Doom was insane. The images of him looking healthy and powerful were all in his mind.
1. Why was Doon seen in his usual, full-power look in some shots, and then suddenly as an invalid in others? I didn’t understand this.
.
Yeah, the panels with extravagance were those coming from Doom’s head, compared to the actual reality of the situation in the other panels. I felt that this could’ve been made a little bit clearer, but I admit I’m not sure what would have been the best way to go about it.
OK. I know this series is new, but BATMAN AND ROBIN is absolutley AMAZING. Issues 1 and 2 might just be the best two issues I’ve read all year in any series out there. OMG I’m in love again! I beg you guys to try this series.
Joe V.
Best Batman story for sure, but far from best of the year.
Tried it, loathed it.
.
Batman – ordinary man, his physical and intellectual skills honed to the heights of human perfection, fighting crime in the dark shadowy world of Gotham City.
.
Flying Batmobile? My áršë!! Suddenly we’re channelling Flamebird, live from the bottle city of Kandor!
.
Feh!
.
Cheers.
I picked up five comics this week. A quick comment about each:
BATMAN AND ROBIN #2; Frank Quitely’s art is great as usual. “The Circus of Strange” storyline isn’t really exciting me, but Morrison did well in exploring Ðìçk Grayson’s approach to being Batman. (P.S. Please lose the flying Batmobile!)
JONAH HEX #45; When I was starting to feel burnt-out by super-hero stories, a friend suggested I try this western title. Gray and Palmiotti bring a gritty realism to Hex’s world. The character of Tallulah Black is one of the few strong females that doesn’t need to resort to T&A to get your attention.
FANTASTIC FOUR #568; I like Millar’s characterization of Ben Grimm as a tough-talking dude with a caring side. But the storyline (“Doom’s Master”) seems rushed. With only one more issue to go, it will really surprise me if they can end this story arc without an ending that feels like a cop-out.
SECRET SIX #11; Books that star villains are only compelling if the characters act like such. It’s to Gail Simone’s credit that she can make the “bad guys” relatable — even likable!
STRANGE ADVENTURES #5; I’m a Starlin fan from way back. It’s so disappointing to see a mini-series from him that seems so mediocre. Anyone remember J.S.’s stellar writing/drawing of Adam Warlock (c. 1970’s)? This book will have you pining for those days.
Thanks for the chance to share with you guys.
P.S. Comic Book Resources is dead wrong. X-Factor is one great read. Thanks, Peter!
I agree about the Strange Adventures story because it has been going on for too long. Please get to the end soon. After that, I would be willing to try another such story, but end the dámņ thing.
I can’t go to the comic shop this week, but I wanted to congratulate PAD on the awesome revelation at figures.com…
Madrox is getting his own Marvel Legends figure in 2010! Very cool! Way to go, PAD!
Hmmm, so Hasbro has set three 2-packs, with Madrox, Lady Bullseye, and Warpath already chosen, and will let the fans choose the other three. Assuming that means one of the company-chosen paired with a fan choice, do you think we could get enough votes to have Madrox paired with a second Madrox (with a different face sculpt, perhaps)? And maybe some interchangable heads, so if you buy several packs, you can have each Madrox with a different expression!
.
.
Chuck
Didn’t pick anything up this week, but last week, amongst others, I got those two X-Factor issues in one fell swoop, and it read much better as two issues back to back, mostly because the Shatterstar cliffhanger at the end was a pretty big hanging chad, but I can totally see the logic in focusing issue #44 on Monet (and to sell the provactive cheesecake bit, lots of slash pages and big panels of her looking hot) and issue #45 on the Shatterstar fight. The Doom stuff in betweeen was great too. But reading them back to back played very easily.
As for what else I got: Incredible Herc (I have a love/hate relationship with this book. The story and small character bits are great, but it tends to DRRRAGGGGGGG with these tedius retellings of Greek Mythology that bring entire issues grinding to a halt. The artists try to spruce it up, but it’s very dry stuff. Usually, the book makes up for it with the action story/character stuff, but this one “The trial of Zeus” was just backstory/exposition). And Ultimate Spider-Man: Requiem #1. Man,I missed seeing Bagley on this series. I wish he would come back, he’s the glue and seeing him do it feels right. (Kind of like whenever Pablo Raimondi jumps on for an X-Factor arc).
The highlight of the week was the latest issue of Knights of the Dinner Table. I just love the characters. Kind of reminds me of the great tv show BARNEY MILLER in that the description of the characters is pretty stereotypical. Yet the characters in both become real people.
I also enjoyed Reborn and the new Justice League miniseries. Amazing artwork on both.
Biggest disappointment of the week has to be Strange Adventures. I echo the previous comments on how the storyline has dragged far too long. I would prefer for Starlin to come up with a new story on a smaller scale involving Comet.