Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing / art / new reader? / non-comics reader?]
Stardust (Vertigo) [5/5/5/5]
w. Neil Gaiman; a. Charles Vess
Strictly speaking, this is not a comic book. Vess’ illustrations are just that, illustrations of the printed text. That said, this edition of the novel (reviewed here) is marvelously all the more charming for the contributions by Vess. Triffic stuff.
Top Ten: The Forty-Niners (America’s Best Comics) [4/4/4/3]
w. Alan Moore; a. Gene Ha
Features the founding of Neopolis, the true “city of heroes” from the early Top Ten books by Moore and Ha. After WWII, the various super-heroes (and villains) of that war are demobbed to a new city. Jetlad must find a way to transition from being a young super-pilot to being just another mechanic in a city were “everybody is special.” Throw in ex-Nazi scientist and vampires, and you’ve got a story that swerves between high adventure and psycho-drama. Not unexpectedly, solid work
by both creators.
Ultimate Galactus: Book 2: Ultimate Secret (Marvel) [4/5/3/2] (collects #1-4)
w. Warren Ellis; a. Steve McNiven, Tom Raney
Despite the clunky title, this is a fine insertion of the Galactus story into the Marvel Ultimate universe. Along the way we get the Ultimate Captain Marvel, too, a charmingly geeky warrior who really has gone native. Along the Ultimates and the Ultimate FF, they manage to avert a Kree attempt to cripple Earth’s space capability — so that they’ll be unable to escape the coming of Gah-lak-tus. Witty and intelligent, this was one of the brighter spots in the Ultimate universe.
(listening to: Bear in the Big Blue House, “Good Morning” from Songs from Bear in the Big Blue House)
(listening to: Kaplan, Sol, “Doomsday Machine: Commander; Beams” from Star Trek Orig TV Sdtrk – II)
(listening to: Doors, “I Looked at You” from Doors, The)
(listening to: Yankovic, Weird Al, “The Brady Bunch” from In 3-D)
(listening to: Poltz, Steve, “Everything About You” from Notting Hill)
(listening to: White, Nancy, “I’m Babbling” from Momnipotent)
Charles Vess is one of my favorite artists. I lov ehis use of colour and how he draws Faerie.
Have you ever seen any issues of the Book of Ballads and Sagas?
I have a (the?) collection of them. There’s also a poster ad for them up on the wall in Katherine’s room.. 🙂
There was a fairly large panel on the Stardust movie adaptation at Comic-Con. Gaiman and Vess are both quite happy with what they’ve seen so far, and they showed some early footage that looked promising. The director and cast were absent from the panel because, well, they were still in the middle of filming.
It really made me wish I’d brought my copy of the book with me to reread when we got back to the hotel.
That’s positive to hear, indeed.