Unpopular Opinions!

Valhallahan

Comic Books Are Nice

As unfashionable as it is to say on the Internet, actually like monthly comic books, I like the look and feel and the objects as a whole. I like paper. Also, as someone who works 9-5 in front of a PC screen, I don’t want to stare at a screen too much when I go home. I try to make a trip to a comic shop once a week, on a Friday or Saturday, I tend to go with friends, often with that guttersnipe Action Ash because it’s a nice jaunt and you can all go to the pub afterwards. Obviously digital would make it easier to have but less fun. Making them something you just download in private in your nerd cave takes away a fun social aspect of the hobby. Like it's something to be ashamed of, you probably say a Hail Mary and cry afterwards.

Phonogram and Scott Pilgrim Were Both Shit

You heard me, what chu gonna do about it? Phonogram was a pretentious, wanky Hellblazer rip off that should've stayed an idea in the back of some sixthformer's excersise book. Scott Pilgrim looked like shit and was 90% one arsehole whining. Maybe I just hate indie kids.

X-Men The Animated Series Was Not That Good.

I know it got a lot of people into X-Men, but really... I dare you to watch an episode now. X-Men: Evolution was better. Wolverine and the X-Men is better. Pryde Of the X-Men was better and that had an Australian Wolverine!

Deadpool Is Not Funny!

Not even slightly. The fun's over now let it go.

Block Mania!

Valhallahan
This week Brit Cit has been awash with Block Wars. Beware citizens and remember:
Be pure!
Be Vigilant!
Behave!

Whitewashing Mega City One?

Valhallahan

In a rare act of Bad Guy synergy, like Ash, I've recently been renewing my interest in 2000AD characters. Largely the peripheral characters like Button Man and classics like Dredd and Bad Company. Anyway, in my Dredd reading I picked up on something I'd long since forgotten: Chief Judge McGruder used to be black.

Exhibits A and B

In the world of Dredd Judge Hilda Margaret McGruder was head of the SJS (Judge Internal Affairs division) who later became Chief Judge of Mega City One, after making a poor decision she opted to take "The Long Walk" which is the Judges' retirement package. The long walk entails the retiring judge exiling themselves from the city armed with their Law-Giver gun to "bring law to the lawless" in the radioactive wastelands of the Cursed Earth (and our public sector think they're hard done by!). Years later during the Judge Dredd Mega-epic "Necropolis" which Ash kindly loaned me the other day, an exiled Judge Dredd happens upon former Judge McGruder in the radioactive wastelands, whom he teams up with to save Mega City One from Judge Death and his Bitches From Hell. To cut a very long story very short, at the end of Necropolis McGruder is reinstated as Chief Judge and all is well, except for the fact that her time in the Cursed Earth has turned her into a mental with a lady-goatee.

It also turned her white.


McGruder in post



McGruder taking The Long Walk



McGruder post-Necropolis

To my knowledge there's never been an in-story explanation for this, so what happened? Was it a colouring error? Had they always intended her to be white? Had they forgotten she was black? What the shit?

As an aside, in the 1995 "Judge Dredd" movie starring John Spartan, McGruder is portrayed as white. But then again, I wouldn't even know where to begin, listing the problems whith that movie.

Happy Canada Day!

HAPPY CANADA DAY FOLKS!

Us Bad Guys are going to go get pissed with some genuine Canadians in Trafalgar Square, so should you.

Excelsior!

Valhallahan

Gene Colan 1926 - 2011

Sadly, master artist Gene Colan, passed away last night at the age of 84. This is a great loss to the industry and he will be missed by all.
His work was fantastic and he could surely show some of these young'uns a thing or two.
-AA

Shopping!

ValhallahanI spent the weekend bouncing around the bars of Norwich drinking my body weight in cheap Bourbon. I've lost my voice and gained the shakes, but thankfully I had the presence of mind to fill my boots with Vertigo back issues at Norwich's own Abstract Sprocket when I first got to town, so I've a great deal to read in my recovery.

Purchases included:
4 Horsemen, American Century, American Freak, Battleaxes, Chiarascuro, Congo Bill, The Crusades, Doom Patrol, Enigma, The Extremist, Faith, Fault Lines, Flinch, Ghost Dancing, Goddess, House of Secrets, Millenium Fever, Jonah Hex: Riders on the Worm and Such, Seven Miles Per Second, Solo, Strange Adventures, Vertigo Pop: Tokyo.

I also had time to read Jeff Parker's The Inter Man and  Pat Mills and Leigh Gallagher's Defoe:1666 on the train. Reviews to come!

Isle of 100,000 Graves

Action Ash
This year I've been getting into the works of the Norwegian cartoonist Jason. I had seen his books around and online and they had always intrigued me with their animal characters and their simplistic, minimalist aesthetic. I finally gave in to curiosity and bought The Left Bank Gang, and I was not disappointed, which lead to me also purchasing The Last Musketeer. Now I'm a fan and have been waiting anxiously for his latest offering to be released, which it was last week.

The story is that of a young girl named Gwenny (often referred to as "that ugly little girl") who recruits a pirate crew to take her to the Isle of 100,000 Graves so she can find out what happened to her missing father. While there, it is discovered the island is home to a school for executioners and torturers and that is where the adventure really begins.

Isle of 100,000 Graves is the first work of Jason's to be written by someone other than himself. Boy, did he choose a good one! The scribe for this comedic pirate adventure story is none other than French comic writer Fabien Vehlmann, writer of the WWII adventure drama 7 Psychopaths (you can the bad guy's review of that here). Vehlmann and Jason seem to share the same sense of humour. As I was reading the story it seemed so much like the previous Jason books I had devoured. Also the pacing was very similar, which made me wonder if Vehlmann was trying his hardest to write a "Jason" story. However, thinking back on 7 Psychopaths I can easily see the similarity in pacing and humour and, also, could totally imagine it being illustrated by Jason. Although that would completely change the tone, so wonderfully set by Sean Phillips.


Visually it is much the same as Jason's other works, which in my opinion are stunning in their simplicity. The sparse composition of the panels, the 'ligne claire' art style (yeah, I just got pretentious on yo' ass) and the fantastic use of negative space all add to the understated, dead pan wit of the tale.

A fun and entertaining adventure that just goes towards further proving the talent of these men.

5 ugly little girls blackmailing dead pan pirates out of 5

Missing In Action: Image United

Valhallahan

Surprising no-one, the (alleged) hotly anticipated reunion of the Image founders (sort of) in one book has fallen woefully behind schedule suffering severe delays. They have managed to get three whole issues out in the last few years though, so more power to you, Image. Well done on losing all the goodwill you've clawed back in recent years. Who saw that coming? Surely noone's career is going to come off well from this embarrassment.

But wait! It's been announced that DC are giving Rob Liefeld a new series in their relaunch. Is it some kind of self referencing joke?

Oh, and it looks like Xombi's being cancelled.

But Rob Liefeld is getting a new series.

Fuck you too DC.

Flashpoint: Batman: Knight of Vengeance #1 Review

Writer Brian Azzarello
Artist Eduardo Risso
Cover by Dave Johnson

Valhallahan

The boys, it seems are back in town. Flashpoint: Batman: Knight of Vengeance as it’s so wonderfully titled, reunites the winning 100 Bullets team of writer Brian Azzarello, artist extraordinaire Eduardo Risso and comic book cover god Dave Johnson.  A winning formula indeed. I’ll preface this review by saying I have no idea what’s going on in Flashpoint, because frankly I couldn’t give a crap about The Flash, but Action Ash braved #1 and let me know the general gist; someone went and messed with DC Universe history so that The Flash never existed and the worlds in a right state. Sort of the Age of Apocalypse with less knobbly collars and more castrations. Anyway, as I have no intention of reading the rest of the crossover I’m just going to treat this as a “What If?” or “Elseworlds”.

“What If Thomas Wayne Became The Batman?” is what this story is essentially, things happened dramatically differently that fateful night in Crime Alley, and Thomas Wayne survived the encounter that otherwise would have forged his son’s destiny as The Bat. Whether Bruce and Martha survived is not clear from this issue, but I suspect it will be important in the story to come. Anyway, what we do get in this issue is a bit of set up with a very different, dangerous new Batman, stalking Killer Croc in Gotham’s sewers leading to a brutal confrontation. This Batman is a bit of a dick, to say the least, very Dark Knight Returns.

But is it any good? In a word, yes, but not thrillingly so. Risso captures moods like few others in the business; his pages are, as ever a delight to behold. I seriously love this guy’s art. And y’know, Azzarello, (although I find him a bit hit and miss) ain’t no slouch either, they set up a decent mystery, throw in some action and it looks pretty, what more do you want? If there’s anything negative to say, it’s that it’s a very brief read, it sort of whips by and you’re left wanting more, but at least you do want more.

Go buy it.

Or don’t.

It’s your life.

Gosh!

Well Who'd A Thunk

Valhallahan

Please don't take this as an endorsement of their work, but by God, I never imagined a day when C-list X-Man Sean Cassidy aka Banshee* would feature in a music video by Pop dullards Take That. Says something about the place of comic book characters in popular culture in 2011.

The video is here, if you're that bloody bored.

*amongst others.

X-Men: First Class

Valhallahan

Yesterday the nefarious Action Ash and I made a trip to our local picture house to see X-Men: First Class, and the verdict is that despite some terribly cheesy moments (Moira's gifts the CIA didn't give her, "Mutant and Proud") it really is a fantastic romp and a jolly good attempt to make a great X-Men movie. I'm going to give you a few thoughts on the film and a bit of a spoiler-free geek's eye view. Listen up punks!

The first X-Men film came out in 1999, and was instrumental to bringing the worldwide audience to the possibilities of superhero movies. It discarded much of the details of the books, and the colourful costumes preferring to reimagine all the details, stick ‘em all in combat leathers, and focus on the core concept of the team. Since then we've had more faithful adaptations of the 4 colour wonder of comics, like the Spider-Man films and Iron Man, and the audience's increased willingness to suspend disbelief is certainly played upon here, with a rather colourful globetrotting adventure. We even get traditional blue and yellow X-costumes and a rather spot on rendition of Magneto’s signature headgear. This doesn’t detract from the faux-real-world angst, or inventive violence of the earlier movies, and in fact reminds us why we liked them too. This is a very nice mix. As I said, there are some naff bits so be warned, the odd line here, the Bond-esque unnecessary sauciness there (your mileage may vary), but nothing that really detracts from overall enjoyment. If anything it fits together nicely. The 1960s setting is a masterstroke. As with the rest of the series don’t expect anything but the occasional scene to come directly from the source material –this is very much the filmmakers’ own creation.

In terms of fitting in with the previous movies, it amazes me that within the space of 5 films they've managed to create as many continuity discrepancies as they have in the comics, which is a nice bit of meta commentary I’m sure. I won’t delve too far into these for fear of spoilers, but suffices to say ignore X-Men: Origins: Wolverine, which is arguably a good rule of thumb to stick to anyway. One baffling choice, not a continuity problem per se, but damned silly, was to portray Moira MacTaggart as an American CIA Agent when she has already been established as a Scottish Doctor in X-Men: The Last Stand. My advice is just go with it, you won’t regret it.

The film largely focuses on the Xavier/Magneto relationship and it can be argued that this is really Magneto’s movie – he certainly gets all the moments of anti-heroic badassery. It’s possible that they even went a bit too far with Magneto as I found myself liking him a lot more than Charles, who sometimes comes off as a bit of a berk. Perhaps that says more about me than the film, but I cannot stress too much how fucking cool Magneto is in this movie. His journey across the globe hunting Nazi war criminals is an underused but established comic book fact, and leads to some of the film’s more memorable scenes.

I enjoyed Mystique's story arc in this film, I found her more likeable than Charles even, despite some seriously hokey lines (try not to cringe when she says "Mutant and Proud" I dare you) she's quite an engaging B-character. I am surprised though by how wildly she differs from her comic book character, I realise they are using her as an audience POV character, much like Rogue in the first movie, but when you compare her to the older, ruthless globetrotting assassin turned terrorist of the comics the charming young friend of Charles is quite jarring.

Interestingly, the Hellfire Club itself is very much how one would imagine it, although its membership is entirely different to the source material with the exception of Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw. I liked Emma’s characterisation; I'm not a big fan of the modern, reformed, toothless tiger Emma that appears in books these days, so it was nice to see her as her old formidable self. Curiously, Sebastian Shaw’s character seems to be a bit of a mixture of his comic book self and that of Mr. Sinister, certainly in terms of motives and history. I won't go into it too much for fear of spoilers, but it’s very well done in my opinion. It goes without saying that movie Azazel is better than his comics because a dogshit on a baked potato with pop tart legs and the voice of a Dalek would be better than the comic book version.

I could go on, but I won't. Words don’t grow on trees you know! Go see the film, it's good.

Well, what are you waiting for?

What Is Wrong With You People? (A voyage into the DC readership Part One)

Valhallahan

When DC announced that letters pages were returning to their books after a long absence, I was pleased to hear it. I enjoy anything that adds to reading time in my monthlies, even those annoying little Super 8 pull outs, I read The Walking Dead’s letter page every week and fondly remember the nerd raging fanboys in the X-Force/X-Statix issues, proving that sometimes there’s none so backwards as the fans of the fantastic. But what are today’s fan’s thinking what kind of person reads Jonah Hex? What are my fellow consumers thinking these days? How about the Vertigo readers, surely they’re my Kind of People right? Our survey says: “Hell Naw!”

Some people just don’t know when they’re on to a good thing. In this series I'll share some examples from three of my favourite books.

Scalped #48

In Scalped #48 Joe Fonseca of Kitchener, Ontario goes to great lengths to prove that not everyone in the land of Wolverine and Neil Young has the level of discerning taste we’d been led to believe. He writes:

“…Most Vertigo titles have Very good writing but poor art, Scalped is the exception…regarding the covers: I understand why Vertigo is going for a different look to their covers, but the fact of the matter is that the vertigo covers are not very appealing to the eye. The ironic thing is that of all the Vertigo books, I find Jock’s to be some of the more interesting ones (next to Bolland’s Jack of Fables covers).”

Couldn’t disagree with you more Joe, week after week the Vertigo covers pop out at you from the shelf, if anything, Bolland’s are the least interesting compared to the madness Jeff Lemire comes out with every month on Sweet Tooth, the pop art dynamism of Mike Allred on I Zombie, or the sheer force of Jock’s masterful works. Ask any grown up who hasn’t been trained for years to enjoy the stylised musclemen and women of modern superhero comics what stands out to them as something that might be worth reading...

“...If I was editor, I would let R.M. Guera do the covers as a straight scene from thee story or try some of the great superhero artists like Ivan Reis, David Finch, Gary Frank or Jim Lee.”

Well thank fuck you’re not Joe! I’d drop that book like a hot turd if you were! Perhaps you should stick to Green Lantern or Legion of Superheroes or some other artistically stunted dross. I’m just going to put up a little compare/contrast for you readers at home.

Vertigo's I, Zombie #1

Jim Lee's X-Men #1

Vertigo's Sweet Tooth #1

David Finch's Psylocke #2



Vertigo's American Vampire #1

Gary Frank's Superman: Secret Origin #2



Vertigo's Hellblazer #275






Ivan Reis' Blackest Night #0



Vertigo's Scalped #38



I guess it’s a matter of taste. Whether you have any, that is.




Stay tuned for parts two and three where I look at the letters from Hellblazer and Jonah Hex!

Crisis of Creative Competence!

Action Ash 
So, in case you haven't heard, in the wake of Flashpoint DC are restarting all titles from #1 and rebooting continuity to be more "contemporary" and more relevant to "today's audience". To top it all off, over 50 characters are going to be redesigned by Jim "add a jacket" Lee, apparently making them "more identifiable and accessible to comic fans new and old". What's more identifiable than Superman or Batman, I ask? Are they not two of the most iconic characters in pop culture history? Recognised the world over across a plethora of media? Apparently that's not good enough. Jim, get the jackets ready.
Of course I speak of only their physical appearance. DC probably meant identifiable as characters also. I for one will feel able to relate more to the orphaned billionaire turned vigilante, the indestructible alien super god, the super powered amazonian princess, the test pilot in charge of the most powerful weapon in the universe and the man who can run faster than the speed of light, if redrawn worse than before by an artist past his prime.

DC also claim that they are aiming to retell their character's stories while making them "reflect today's real world themes and events" and that "This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today's audience." So in other words, they're trying to be down with the kids. If I wanted to read about the Justice League as whiny youngsters I'd read Teen Titans. Did they not think that their continuity was convoluted enough, without adding "Post Flashpoint" to the list?

This is a most HEINOUS crime DC comics. I hope you're ready for the geek shit storm.

UPDATE: Here is a sneak preview of Jim Lee's redesigns, surprisingly sans jackets. He must of learnt his lesson after the Wonder Woman incident. The new Superman shield is truly bogus! All in all, not as bad as I thought they were going to be but an unnecessary waste of time. Click to make bigger.

Carlos Trillo RIP

Argentinian Comic Book writer Carlos Trillo (Chicanos, Borderline) died today aged 68.

Conan Trailer

Action Ash
The full length trailer for the new Conan the Barbarian film is out, and I must say I don't know what to think. It just doesn't seem very...Conan. It looks like every other action fantasy film. I dunno, I think I'll have to see the film before I make a proper judgement.

Check it out for yourselves and let the bad guys know what you think.

\m/

The Mighty Thor #1

 The Mighty Thor #1
Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Olivier Coipel


Action Ash
I have yet to see the motion picture known as Thor. I'm not particularly happy about this, so to console myself I have decided to review the first issue of the new ongoing The Mighty Thor. The original  title has reverted back to Journey into Mystery but seems to be concentrating on Loki, so I guess this is where Thor's main adventures will happen from now on.

Firstly, it looks great! I'm not surprised by this as I've always enjoyed Coipel's work. Asgard looks epic, as it should, and human and fantasy creatures alike are handled with great mastery. Laura Martin leads a trio of colourists that beautifully embellish the art, making the mundane, the cosmic and the fantastical equally attractive to look at. I praised Miss Martin recently in my post about Fear itself. This is the first time I've noticed a colourist as much as I would an artist, and I thoroughly enjoy her work.

Story wise not much happens, however it seems that this is just a set up for what could possibly be an epic meeting of Galactus and Thor. I enjoyed the side plot concerning the citizens of Broxton and their collective crisis of faith due to living so close to divine beings and witnessing their exploits. Also I enjoyed the dialogue. It was well crafted and notably every character had their own "voice" and expressed themselves according to how that character would speak (unlike a Bendis book).

Nice read, but doesn't take long. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.

 3 sticks of "great stabbing" out of 5

Fear itself: The crossover I've been waiting for.

Action Ash
Having read the one shot prologue and first issue of Fear Itself I am excited. I haven't been properly excited about a crossover since Civil War. I skipped Secret Invasion ("OMG! Everyone's a Skrull") because it didn't look particularly good and from what I've since heard from other people, it wasn't. I enjoyed the Dark Reign equilibrium but that obviously had to come to an end, which it did in a massively disappointing four issue fight sequence (the highlight of which, for me, was the Sentry being killed off and thrown into the sun). The most recent of these events, Shadowland, was good but it was a relatively small one and didn't quite fill the hole within me.

Now Fear itself is here, the first issue of which certainly grabbed my attention. And the best thing about it? It actually has a story. There is a bit action in the issue but not too much because the creators want to present to you the beginnings of a Sci-fi/Fantasy epic. The artwork does not let it down either. Immonen has beautifully crafted each page with the aid of Laura Martin, whose vibrant colours bring the pages to life.

I loved the first issue and I'm hoping it will stay this good throughout.I recommend anyone with an interest in superhero fiction trying this because I think it's what we've been waiting for. I look forward to the next issue, I think it will be most excellent and I hope I'm not wrong.

The Comic Books of March: A Valhallahan's Eye View

Hi there!

Been a while, but now I'm back, from outer space! Well, Stevenage, but whatev's, the point is not where I was but where I am now. You know what I mean? The journey, though important is oft mooted by the destination. You dig? No? Ah sod you then, here's what I've been buying.

Mostly I've been buying from Chaos City in St Albans lately as I've been largely Herts bound and also because it's a jolly nice shop. It's a bit like when Silver Surfer was earth bound but with more pubs, less moping and a day job in social services.

Oh and Post It Notes. But I digress.

What I Got and Why...

Hellblazer: Original Sins

Inappropriate cover artist nothwithstanding (Jim Lee, WTF?) this is a loverly looking package. DC are finally reprinting Hellblazer in its entirety starting with his appearances in Swamp Thing. Thank The First of the Fallen for that! I started reading Hellblazer at around the #100 mark, so there's soooo much cool shit for me yet to read. Expect a full review of this when I'm done.

Joe The Barbarian #8

Finally this delightful little series has come to an end. I recently caught up on this series at Chaos City's sale, but I've been waiting for this issue to come out so I can sit and read it in one sitting. Sean Murphy's artwork in this is su-fucking-perb! He really is a superstar in the waiting. Also be on the look out for an American Vampire mini series from him soon. I can't wait. Never has a story about a young boy drifting in and out of a coma, whilst tripping balls looked so damned purdy. Top hole.

Sweet Tooth #19

The one we've all been waiting for... well, more like the one we've all been kinda curious about, but hey, this is my blog and I'll huckster all I like. This issue is primarily flashbacks and dream sequences, which has given series writer/artist Jeff Lemire a chance to rope in some other indie talent to give us their interpretation of his vision. and what a vision it is. A great issue, absolute top quality, well worth your shekels. This issue also pushes the overall story along in an exciting direction with the final pages' creepy cliffhanger. I bloody love this series.

American Vampire #12

Yee-Freaking-Haw! Danijel Zezelj, the unpronounceable master of the dark and moody, lends his considerable artistic talents to Scott Snyder's American Vampire this month., and a bloody good job he did too (pun not intended, but welcome). This issue is a standalone story featuring outlaw vampire Skinner Sweet going to and old timey rodeo show and reliving some past ignomies with some old... friends? This is one of those melancholy "how the west was lost stories" and a jolly good one it is too. I'd recommend this as a standalone, regardless of whether you're reading the series.

New York Five #2

I am now the proud owner of issues one and two of NY5. How is it, I hear you ask? I must like it right? Weelllll...... I haven't actually read them yet, I can't quite bring myself to. This stupid predicament stems from my ongoing beef with the artistic works of Brian Wood. I'm always suckered in by the gorgeous art, product design and premises of his stories, but I'm always disappointed by the characters. Every. Fucking. Time. It just seems to me that he can't write anything but pretentious hipster douchebags. Even his fucking vikings come across as hipster douchebags! How is that even possible? I'll read these at some point I'm sure but, maybe not soon.

Scalped #46

Scalped is Scalped. Scalped is good. Yep, it's still bloody great and I'm still loving it. I highly recommend this series to anyone comics fan or no comics fan. Actually, scratch that, I wouldn't recommend it to children or depressives as it deals only in adult themes and is truly fucking bleak. Anyway the point is, yet another top-notch storyline, back to the trials, temptations and failures of Chief Redcrow and the continual corruption of Dashiel Badhorse, and back on form after arguably dipping (slightly) with the Agent Nitz story a couple of months a go.

Jonah Hex #65

"Snow Blind" - Yet another classy Jonah Hex strip from Messrs Gray, Palmiotti and Bernet.Hex is one of those series that I have very little to say about month in, month out except that it's so damned entertaining, and such a quality package. $2.99 a month for a mean and fearless western yarn, that's done in one and features invariably monstrously beautiful art from some of the industry's most underrated masters. Just pick up a copy, I double dare you you sunofabitch!

Infestation: GI Joe #1

I'm still following the Infestation series, but after a little break, I'm losing enthusiasm. It really is absolute nonsense, good fun, but bloody stupid. The artwork in this GI JOE tie-in is proper shit though, someone should have a word as these 2 issues will probably outsell any other GI JOE book they produce, and they could have at least put a B or C caliber artist on this. To cap it all off the only character I've heard of in it is Baroness, and through boredom at work, Google and a childhood as an Action Force fan I probably know more than most about the franchise. They must know they can do better....and knowing is half  the battle (drumroll optional).  

Incognito: Bad Influences #4

When this issue came out I sat and read this series from #1 and boy does it read better that way! Don't get me wrong, I love reading my books periodically, but sometimes a book just takes an age to come out and you forget all about it. Anyway, Incognito is going from strength to strength. Expect a full review when we read #5 but suffices to say this is some of the very best super-work on the market. Brubaker and Phillips are so good at what they do it should be illegal. The Secret Ingredient is Pulp apparently...

Xombi #1

Xombi sees the return of an obscure Milestone character I know next to nothing about. I picked this up partly because the premise sounded kind of intriguing, but mainly because of the art by Frazer Irving who, to paraphrase, can make whippet shit look like the Sistine Chapel. The story, featuring living paintings, characters jumping from movie screens, inexplicable tuna sandwiches and mystery popcorn looks fucking mental. Expect a full review of this in due course.

Knight and Squire #6

I'm very sad to see this series go, but it has been a wild ride. I loved every minute of it. I wholeheartedly recommend this series. Also as Ash mentioned in the post below, writer Cornell had the dubious pleasure of meeting the bad guys last weekend. I loved what he did in Soundgarden.

iZombie #11

A slightly drab issue by comparison, but it's still so damned pretty. I really am enjoying this series immensely, despite the fact that it's mixture of supernatural action, soap opera, romance, pop-whimsy and occasional moping is not normally my bag.. Waitaminute, that's totally my bag, what am I on about? Anyway, check out this happening series daddy-o.

Casanova Gula III

Talk about happening! This series is happening as fuck! Not for squares dad, this is the heavy scene. If Jim Steranko and Ian Flemming wrote beat poetry this would be it. Dimension hopping, metaphysical espionage jazz from Matt Fraction and Fabio Moon.

Hellblazer #276-7

In which our hero (?) comes back from his honeymoon, tries to find a new thumb and deals with some pesky property developers all with the aid of nasty mysticism, demons and pure British obnoxiousness. I love Hellblazer. This run is really floating my boat at the moment, and as the cover to #277 says, it's the start of a new storyline and a fine jumping on point for new readers. Hellblazer hasn't been this consistently good for years. Long may it last.

The Walking Dead #82

Another series that it's hard to write any more about, either you're reading it or not at this point. All I'll say is that we're currently in one of Kirkman's "everything turns to shit" storylines and it's as exciting as ever. Who'd a thunk a zombie series could still be so good 82 issues in. Wowsers. I will add that TWD is one of those series it's worth starting from the beginning, if you start here, you're really missing out (and Vol 1 is really affordable, so do it).

 

The New Frontier

Many thanks to friend of the blog, Rene, who sent me The New Frontier Volumes one and two which I can't wait to get stuck into. Rene definitely earned a 2Badguys No Prize!

 

Stuff I didn't bother with...

 

FF #1

Because really, who gives a fuck? Does anyone really like the Fantastic Four in 2011? Anyone? Actually I can think of one guy I know, and he's a good bloke so I'll let you have that. Still not buying it though. I'll ask him what it's like next I see him and let you know.

 

Anything Deadpool

Because, despite the great covers from Skottie Young and Jason Pearson, I really don't find Deadpool funny, interesting or cool.

 

Vertigo Resurrected: Finals

Because it looks like some magic fairy wizard flute bullshit.

 

The Marvel Universe

Not really doing it for me at the moment. For the first time in a long time, I'm not reading any Marvel titles regularly. Feel free to suggest something to me to rectify this.

 

And Finally...

 

Wow, the new TV Wonder Woman costume looks like one of those naff "sexy" Halloween costumes.

 

The new Thor animation from Marvel Knight looks fecking awesome! 

 

I'm loving The Boondocks at the moment. Check it out. Thanks to Mr Nick for the recommendation.

 

I like drawing on Post It notes.

 

Keep your eyes peeled for some bargain bin reviews coming up from me.

 

TTFN pendejos!

 

Valhallahan