I have been way, way lax in any kind of comic book reviews. So here are links to a flurry of graphic novel / trade paperback / collections I just threw out there on GoodReads.
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DC
Astro City, Vol. 9: Through Open Doors (Vertigo) Standard Kurt Busiek / Brent Anderson goodness, episode tales with a broad thematic and framing sequence; good super-hero stuff without Big Two editorial to screw up the vision. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090501300]
Astro City, Vol. 10: Victory (Vertigo) More of the same, here focusing on Winged Victory, Astro City's Wonder Woman analog. (5/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090538865]
Secret Six, Vol. 4: Cats in the Cradle – Man, I miss this series, in its pre-New52 glory, so freaking badly. Making second-tier villains the protagonists, and having them still be bad people but sympathetic characters, without glorifying their evil, is a tricky task, but Gail Simone pulls it off. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088428795]
Secret Six, Vol. 5: The Reptile Brain – Not one, but two villain teams clashing, with subtle gradations between the protagonists and the monsters. More Gail Simone and John Ostrander goodness. (5/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088465104]
Marvel
All-New X-Factor, Vol. 1: Not Brand X – Peter David (with spiffy Carmine Di Giandomenico art) plays with a new group of legacy X-characters, this time in a corporate-sponsored team. Fun. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090550411]
All-New X-Men, Vol. 3: Out of Their Depth – Good Bendis dialog, good Immonen art (for most of the collection), and a wildly complex mix of characters that are still identifiable and relatable to. X-Menny goodness. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088420698]
Image
Alex + Ada, Vol. 1 – A robot love story (sort of) should be too cliched for words, but Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn are doing something really spiffy here. (5/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088469122]
Brilliant, Vol. 1: Brilliant – Decent Brian Bendis story and Mark Bagley art, but the downward spiral of college genius creating superheroes descending into tragedy and madness and betrayal seems all too predictable. (3/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088425643]
FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics, Vol. 1: The Paradigm Shift (Image) When the laws of physics become flexible, the Feds step in. Sort of. Crazy writing by Simon Oliver, expressive but difficult art by Robbi Rodiguez. (3/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/995058495]
The Fuse, Vol. 1: The Russia Shift – This police procedural on a massive space station is good worldbuilding and storytelling. Stor by Antony Johnston, art by Justin Greenwood. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088487568]
Lazarus, Vol. 2: Lift – Fine dystopian intrigue and action by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark, in a thoughfully-crafted world. (5/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090558736]
Rocket Girl – Fun concept by Brandon Montclare, lovely art by Amy Reeder, with timebending dramedy, but it goes from something truly wonderful over the first few issues to something that gets a bit too complicated for its own good. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088443282]
Sheltered, Vol. 2 – "Lord of the Flies" in a pre-apocalypse survivalist compound continues. Good story by Ed Brisson and Johnny Christmas. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090623965]
Thief of Thieves, Vol. 3: Venice – I should like Andy Diggle's art thief / mobster / caper writing here than I do, but I found it something of a slog (though better collected than by individual issues). (2/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088456883]
Umbral, Book 1: Out of the Shadows – Passable but pedestrian fantasy realm, focused on a young thief who inadvertently nabs a valuable artifact, ho-hum. Story Antony Johnston, art Chrstopher Mitten. (2/5)[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090566374]
Velvet, Vol. 1: Before the Living End – Gritty Bondsian spy drama with a gender twist. Typically glorious stuff from Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting. (5/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088449551]
Other
Courtney Crumrin, Book 6: The Final Spell (Oni) Ted Naifeh give us the final chapter in the tale of young witch Courtney Crumrin, wrapping up plot threads from across her series. Sorry to see her go … (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088490850]
Earthward, Book One (Kickstarter/Regent) Bryan Q Miller pens a fun but mostly-by-the-numbers SF tale with kids, a cute robot, imperial conspiracies, vanished parents, and the mystery of the stolen Earth. I'd read another volume. (3/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088423082]
Questionable Content, Vol. 4 (Topataco) The next chunk of Jeph Jacques' twenty-something web comic is just as fun as the others, in a convenient new size. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090635824]
Revelations (Dark Horse) Politics, murder, and evil stalk the Vatican, and a atheist London detective has to figure it out. Paul Jenkins' story takes a lurch at the end, but Humberto Ramos' art is surprisingly fitting here. (3/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090541536]
Rover Red Charlie (Avatar) Garth Ennis pens a post-apocalyptic story starring three dogs. And, if you like Ennis, it's triffic stuff. Some violence, a bit of sex, shockingly little profanity, and strange, tragic, funny drama. (5/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088479633]
The Sakai Project: 30 Years of Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse) A well-deserved benefit book to help with Stan Sakai's wife's medical issues. Yeah, it's a lot of UY pin-ups, but a lot of them are excellent. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088473622]
Wasteland, Book 1: Cities in Dust (Oni) Antony Johnston's post-apocalypse latter-day Earth has too many cliches (and too sketchy art by Christopher Mitten) to really make me come back for Book 2. (2/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090544935]
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It's interesting, looking at the above, the proportion of Image (and other) published works, vs the Big Two. In part, that's because I buy a lot of monthlies from Marvel (though little has risen to the level of wanting a permanent collection, esp. since I can pull up copies from ComiXology to reread whenever I want), and I buy very little these days from DC. A number of the Image and Other books I bought as colletions, rather than as monthlies first. That does lead to some misses along with the hits, but that's the nature of the publishing world.
Thanks for the Alex and Ada review. It looked good, but I wasn't sure. I'll pick it up and let you know what I thought.
+Greg Stockton It's definitely a Luna thing — the same kind of spare-yet-carefully-crafted art, and similar dialog, as his other pieces. I'm enjoying it a lot, but YMMV.