Mister R

I finished reading Daytripper by Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon. An amazing and fantastic book, that is worth all the praise its getting. Some one just donated some old Archie, Jughead, and Betty & Veronica issues and digests from around 15 years ago at work today. So that should be fun reading them. I use to love those when I was a kid.

Finished Identity Crisis. It is interesting, as it didn't bore me, but certain things were just off about it for me. Maybe it is because my only exposure of the Justice League is with the animated series? Anyway, I didn't hate it. There are a lot of things I liked about it. But I am just kind neutral on it, is what I think I am getting at.

From a story point, I think it's Barbara's way of opening up to her roommate. From an editorial point, which is my own opinion here, I think it's vague enough to cover them in case they ever mandate an official reason for her walking again. I did like this issue.

I've heard it was in this latest issue.

See, I'm not a long time reader of this character. I do like the character. Mostly due to exposure on the animated series, and a few one issue books. I am aware of The Killing Joke, but haven't read it yet. So I don't have a built in history with her, like you do. Which is more or less, what DC wants, if my understanding of the re-boot is correct. I am going to listen to your thoughts on it in the podcast though. It is interesting to find out why people don't like things that others do like.

The Batgirl naysayers aren't upset because it's a character-driven book, but because the story, dialog, and characterization aren't that good. Okay I can see some story issues. The villain is a little lame, but I'm enjoying it. Without sounding like a jerk, I think personal enjoyment is better than critical enjoyment. I'm honestly not trying to start anything here either.

That seems to be the general consensus on this book. I'm trying not start a crazy mess here either. I've stopped watching Linkara, or keeping up with his reviews, so, if possible, could you post a link to his videos on IC, when they come out? And Identity Crisis isn't bad, it's more random pieces of crap rammed together to make one stupid story that doesn't make much sense: The art was nice, but yeah, not a great book, Linkara's review comes out in January. I'll post the link for you though.

Is Mark Waid the guy who is pretty much a walking DC comics encylopedia? If so that makes him a badass bookworm then.

That seems to be the general consensus on this book. I'm trying not start a crazy mess here either.

I bought Batgirl # 4, Resurrection Man # 4, Demon Knights # 4, and The Shade # 3 today. Resurrection Man is going a bit slow (way faster than Justice League though), but I am enjoying every bit of this book so far. I've never read the original series. I heard that DC is going to re-print them in an upcoming trade, so I might pick that up. Batgirl has been very good so far. It's a bit more character driven. I know some readers get turned off by that stuff, (I'm guessing the thought is if there is no action it is kind of boring?) but I love it! Demon Knights is a bit hard for me to get into. I only know about two of the characters, but this week's cover looked fantastic and it really grabbed my attention. The Shade I picked up (along with Demon Knights) for my sister. From what she has told me, and she doesn't know anything about the characters involved in these two books, both are extremely enjoyable reads.

Going through Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer. I know a lot of people are not fond of it, to put it mildly. I'm reading it as a bit of prep work for the Atop the Fourth Wall review that's coming up. There are a few things I like about it, but I am only half way through at the moment.

I found one second hand through Twitter. It was

Well, it kind of sucks that video links aren't working. I, mean how I am supposed to know how awesome this is? Lol. Seriously this show needs to get here ASAP!!

I need to finish this game. I'm at the end, but I had to stop playing for a while because of school.

I'm going to shill a little bit here since I do work at a library. One thing that is very nice is that my library system (21 branches in my county) have an enormous trade selection. It is easier for us the shelve them and it makes it easier for patrons (customers) to read them. We also carry regular issues, but its a only a few superhero series. With the trades, we've got everything from the big two, to the little independents. The nicest thing for me though is if I see something in the store that I wanted to read, but wasn't sure about (52 for example), my library has the entire trade collection of it. So for no money I can have a good book, and make up my mind about owning it, for free. It's a win win.

So when I get a new issue or trade from my store, I usually wait to the weekend to read it. I do this because the week is fairly busy for my and the weekend is the only time I get to relax. So I was wondering when do your guys read your comics? Right when you buy them or do you save them a bit, then read them?

So where has this Starfire been hiding?!?!

I just bought, but haven't read yet, these little gems. 1. Wonder Woman (New 52 Version) # 1-3. I've heard interesting things about it and I am a huge mythology fan. It should be interesting. 2. Batman: Black & White Volume 1. Read a few of these stories when they were collected in other trades, but it is nice to see them together. 3. Gotham Central Volume 3: On The Freak Beat. Read this one from work (library) and loved, now I've got my own copy. 4. Batgirl: Batgirl Rising. The Bryan Q. Miller Batgirl series. I read a few issues in the store and loved his work with the characters and writing style. I do think there is another volume out or coming out. Trades: Around 21 or 22. Issues: 12 or so.

I've seen the Absolute editions, and I can safely say that my shelves would collapse from those freakin' things. Lol. I really dug that "interview" as well. I like interviews with anyone involved with the creation process of these stories. It is interesting to get their thoughts on what works and what doesn't. It's pretty cool.

Thanks for the info!

I just recently read the trade (Collected? I'm still working on the terminology here. Lol.) edition of Superman: Secret Identity. Really great stuff. Not a big loud Superman type of story. Just sort of quiet and reflective, which really works well with what Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen have done in this book. I've picked up trade editions of Gotham Central and the second trade of 52. I've read both from my library. And since I really liked them both, granted I had some problems figuring out who a lot of the characters were in 52 but that didn't stop me from enjoying it, I've been meaning to get my own copies of these books. I also snagged a free trade (collected) edition of Watchmen from a book sale at the library as well. So it'll be nice to go through that again once school has settled down.

The trades look decent. Not too crazy about the price points. I am not sure if there is a difference between the hard cover version vs. the trades. I know a lot of books tend to put the "Super Deluxe Special Edition" label on their HCs. Which (with my experience) means just a dust jacket. And not much else. We've got both the HC version and trade edition at my library of "Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader" by Neil Gaiman, and I don't think there is a difference between the two. Does anyone know if there are differences between these two formats? Or is like Double-Dipping with DVDs?

Okay, after reading said issue of The Savage Hawkman (# 2), it is just kind of a mess. I don't really enjoy the layout of the art. The art is really interesting to look at. But a this layout makes everything confusing and hard to understand. Also the characters are kind of lame. I'm giving it until the 4th issue. If it doesn't improve by then, I'm dropping it.

The layout of said art (this a newbie speaking here) is a bit of mess. There is no flow, at least for my eyes, to follow. And why wouldn't you like to see a Man-Bat/Batman lovechild?