{"id":7166,"date":"2004-10-15T14:18:15","date_gmt":"2004-10-15T21:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/10\/15\/graphic-2.html"},"modified":"2004-10-15T14:18:15","modified_gmt":"2004-10-15T21:18:15","slug":"graphic_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/15\/graphic_2.html","title":{"rendered":"Graphic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey, kids! Comics! Or, at least, graphic novels of lated added to the collection.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not even bothering trying to keep it down to the 40-word review. <\/p>\n

Review code format: [writing (3-1, faboo to mediocre) \/ art (3-1) \/ suitability for jumping on as a new reader (3-1) (* for intro info) \/ suitability for hooking a non-comics reader (3-1)]<\/p>\n

Marvel 1602<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (Marvel) w. Neil Gaiman; a. Andy Kubert, Richard Isanove [2\/3\/3\/2]
\nSell-out, or spiffy 8-issue What If? from Gaiman? Various Marvel key players are incarnated at the end of the Elizabethan age, and they’re faced with the end of the world as they know it. It’s enjoyable reading, and great fun spotting the players and seeing how they fit in, but not terribly profound writing from Gaiman. Gorgeous illos by Kubert, painting by Isanove.<\/p>\n

Teen Titans: <\/em> Family Lost<\/strong><\/a> (DC) w. Geoff Johns; p. McKone, Reis, Grummett [2\/2\/2*\/1] (reprints #8-12, #½)
\nThe Titans take on a new-and-nastier Brother Blood, even while Deathstroke and his recovered daughter, the Ravager, hunt him, too. And then there’s Raven, now Blood’s prisoner, and the newer Titans aren’t sure why the older ones are gung-ho to rescue her. What is family? What is a team? How do they overlap? Good questions, those. Also, the funniest Batmobile scene ever.<\/p>\n

BPRD:<\/em> The Soul of Venice & Other Stories<\/a><\/strong> (Dark Horse) w\/a. Diverse Hands [2\/1\/1\/2]
\nCollects 4 one-shots and a new Mignola-written story. The stories are fairly entertaining, but not very cohesive, and the art ranges from mediocre to worse. Only for the completist.<\/p>\n

Batman in the Eighties<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (DC) w\/a. Diverse Hands [2\/2\/3*\/1]
\nGreat overview intro essay on how the 80s transitioned from the 60s-influenced cluttered Bat-cast to a leaner, meaner Bat-world under Denny O’Neill’s editorship. By the end of the decade, we had Dark Knight Returns, Year One, The Killing Joke, <\/em>and the death of Jason Todd. The stories collected here, though, don’t do justice to that complexity — it would take a volume several time this 192pp. <\/p>\n

X-Men:<\/em> Days of Future Past<\/strong><\/a> (Marvel) w. Chris Claremont, a. John Byrne [3\/3\/2\/1] (reprints #138-142, Ann. #4)
\nWhile parts of this collection have been reprinted before, the whole here has everything after the death of Phoenix, from the Wendigo to Kitty-vs-the-Alien<\/s>Ngarai, the end of Byrne’s art on the series. Claremont’s just past the top of his form, beginning to get too self-referential and complex, but Byrne’s pencils (under Austin’s inks) are superb. And while it’s been referenced-back to death, the titular storyline was stunning and groundbreaking at the time (around ’81 or so — and shame on Marvel for no intro or supporter material here), even as it laid the groundwork for further over-complication of the X-universe.<\/p>\n

Hellblazer:<\/em> Setting Sun<\/strong><\/a> (Vertigo) w. Warren Ellis, a. D. Hands [2\/2-3\/2\/2] (reprints #140-143)
\nThe last four issues of Ellis, all stand-alone, all typically mind-warping creepy, including John having a long, uncensored chat with an investigative journalist about what really goes on in London, and a Bradstreet-illustrated tale of a truly nasty artifact with an even nastier secret. Not for the faint of heart, but vintage, excellent Constantine. <\/p>\n

Wolverine:<\/em> Return of the Native<\/strong><\/a> (Marvel) w. Greg Rucka, a. Darick Robertson [2\/2\/2\/2] (reprints #12-19)
\nThe last arc of Rucka’s run, which focused on Logan, the man struggling not to be an animal. This one is more
\n“super-heroic” than the others, involving both his origin and two of his cohort — the homicidal Sabretooth, and a previously unhinted-at woman from the Weapon X labs, the Native. Logan has to track down Native and keep her safe from both Sabretooth (very nice interplay there) and the Evil Government Scientists who want her for their own typically nefarious purposes. Still, good drama, even if it all wraps up too neatly by the end, and, with Rucka’s departure, will likely never be referenced again …<\/p>\n

Starman:<\/em> Grand Guignol<\/strong><\/a> (DC) w. James Robinson, a. Peter Snejbjerg [3\/2\/2\/2] (reprints #62-73)
\nThis is the aptly-titled climax of the series, as the elaborate plans of the Shade (or are they?) come to fruition, and everyone gets into the act fighting for or against him. Folks die on both sides, and the action hurtles forward even with repeated and frequent digression issues on one or another cast member’s past, or the past of the Opal itself. This is epic comic writing in a class of its own, with more backstory and foreshadowing than you can shake a cosmic rod at. Though it’s way late in coming, I applaud DC for (3-4 years later) reprinting it. One more volume, and we should be set (and ready to reread the whole thing again).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey, kids! Comics! Or, at least, graphic novels of lated added to the collection….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-comics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6700,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/07\/30\/graphic_novel_r.html","url_meta":{"origin":7166,"position":0},"title":"Graphic novel review","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 30-Jul-04 3:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Doyce and Margie both razzed me for dragging graphic novels off to the Con, but it made for an enjoyable pre-show pump-up on the flight out. In keeping with the...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6908,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/12\/03\/comic_relief_8.html","url_meta":{"origin":7166,"position":1},"title":"Comic relief","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 3-Dec-04 9:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A few graphic novels that have been stacking up ... and up to forty words about them. Review code format: [writing (5-1, faboo to mediocre) \/ art (5-1) \/ suitability...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4630,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/07\/27\/bt03_comfort_fo.html","url_meta":{"origin":7166,"position":2},"title":"BT03 – Comfort Food, Part 1","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-Jul-03 3:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"Man does not live by Alan Moore alone. When I'm just looking for entertainment to read, and I go to the comics TPB bookshelf, what do I pull down?...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7595,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/01\/28\/graphic_novels.html","url_meta":{"origin":7166,"position":3},"title":"Graphic Novels on Parade","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 28-Jan-05 10:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Time to catch up on recently read graphic novels (and up to forty words about each) ......","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9282,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_fantasy_an.html","url_meta":{"origin":7166,"position":4},"title":"BT06 – Fantasy and Science","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 11:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 Stardust (Vertigo) [5\/5\/5\/5] w. Neil Gaiman; a. Charles Vess Strictly speaking, this...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9281,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/30\/bt06_fantastic.html","url_meta":{"origin":7166,"position":5},"title":"BT06 – Fantastic Threesome","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 30-Jul-06 12:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 Ultimate Fantastic Four: N-Zone (Vol. 3) (Marvel) [4\/4\/3\/2] (collects #13-18) w. Warren...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}