September '23 Reading Round Up

 

 

That image of the great Cimmerian above is how I feel every time I walk into my LCS to pick up my books. The Big 2/Poo are raining arrows of crappy books on my head, trying their damnedest to tempt me with their flimsy stock and watered down plots. By Crom you shalt not have my hard earned shekels you corporate vultures! 

Lo, behold Marvisney as thy stock dippest below 80. Thou sayest thou wilt pour your ill begotten gold back into your amusement parks yet thy parks offer no amusement! They offer pain, suffering and a hole in the common man's wallet. Dip farther you scourge of beast. Sell thy Marvel properties at once! 

And you, you DC! Decrepit Caca! Where have thy Black Label Books of yore gone? Now it is drivel everywhere I look, have thy coffers gone dry due to your stomach churning cinematic experiences that have cost you everything you own and brought back nothing? Box office? Ha! More like a Pillbox Compartment! Perhaps thy new movie Aqua Douchebag (the lead is a Douche) and the Lost Kingdom is about you! You have lost your kingdom! Sell! Sell! Sell!

Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of my LCS and their comic racks I shall purchase no evil! For I have the comfort of my Conan comic from Titan and a pull list hidden far far away from thy scraggly fingers and shriveled nutsacks!

Anyway, here's what I got into this month. Happy Reading you Geekazoids!

I love me some Rick Remender. I may not jump on all of his series but you’re guaranteed to get a fully developed world with a deeply invested writer and creative team no matter the title. I will say that I feel like the endings of his titles are ever truly satisfactory for some reason. It’s not something I can put my finger on other to say that the endings of ‘Black Science’ and ‘Seven to Eternity’ weren’t truly memorable nor did they pack a serious wow exclamation mark on the series. Maybe that’s just his style. His newest offering is another great hook for a first issue. It’s another world you’ve never seen before with characters you’ve never laid eyes on. I wonder if they have cheap rent there, LA is getting ridiculous.

 

 

 

Black Cloak just finished what Kelly Thompson is saying was now their first arc, meaning there will be another. I enjoyed it to a degree but I gotta say I could not keep up with which Elf was which Elf and who did what and how to who and why and all the things that make up the basics of character relationships. Maybe they need to pull a Monstress and give you a rundown of the cast before each issue but unlike Monstress, you know, don’t put my brain in a vice and squeeze out its desire to follow a coherent plot. Meredith McClaren did some gorgeous work on this book, especially with the architecture and landscapes of this world created from scratch. Yet the faces pretty much all looked the same but with different fashion and odder names so, yeah, clean that up mmkay?

 

Also, did Kelly Thompson just write a story where the big reveal at the end was a nod to what is actually going on in our real world as it pertains to, umm, trafficked children? How the “You want to build a city on the blood of the innocent" is being used to run our world? Hard to say if she intended that to be the case or if it’s just another example of how the truth of what has been going on in our world for centuries is seeping its way into our everyday lives and pop culture. I’m sure Kelly would deny the connection but safe to say I saw it whether she intended it or not. Interested to see where this goes...

 

 

Tom King and Elsa Charretier are crafting a story for the ages. Love Everlasting just seems to get better with every issue. King’s writing was particularly touching for the final installment of the second arc. I’m not sure King is meant for hero books. I think he’s found the perfect genre, whatever genre you want to call this, for his distinct type of style. The germination of this multi timelined mysterious romance could be found in his disastrous Bat/Cat book of a year or so ago. I know he’s taking up the Wonder Whoa-man mantle which still has me a bit skeptical. Maybe he should take Elsa and Clayton with him?

 

 

 

 

Holy crap! Have I read two, count 'em two romance comics this month??? Synder’s Barnstormers is an absolute victory for the Romance genre, of which we need more of in this industry. More smooching you nerds! Less gross twisted fetishy nastiness like ‘Red Room’ or Gene Simmons’ ‘Dominatrix’, yuck. After a slew of middling and confusing three issue Comixology drops this is by far his most engaging and enjoyable. It’s Bonnie and Clyde in the air and it’s a fantastic read. Can’t wait to read the final installment which has already come out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Issue 46 of Monstress began with a cat being tortured by a bunch of other cats on a wacky prison colony wth a bunch of Seaweed lookin’ Gods in outer space. I can’t believe I just typed that sentence. Can we get a GoFundMe together and pay for Marjorie Liu to just end this series soon? I just can’t anymore. I have no idea what the fuck is going on with this comic and why but I’ve paid for 46 issues, actually 48, I’m behind for a reason, and I’ll be damned if I drop it this far into the game. C’mon Marj, end this psycho fest. I seriously check the Monstress solicits for the words ‘Final Arc’ as much as I check for the Disney Stock to drop under 70.

 

 

Oy, I've gotta pack for my flight back to La La Land. Excited to get back! I just heard from my friend that a homeless woman just pooped right in front of her upscale furniture store in Venice the other day. It's about time. San Francisco already has a human feces app for their city, it's high time LA catches up. Man, finding human poop everywhere, how cool is that? It's like catching those Pokemon everywhere except now its Poop-e-Man! I'm gonna find you little shits! Woo hoo!