Every comic you've read in 2013

[Dread]

Dial H #15: A wonderful final issue for a comic that could have gone on forever and I would have loved it. Sad to see it go, and I'm glad I get to have a follow-up in the JLA .1 book, but this was bittersweet.

Batman Inc. #13: The disappointment is over. Morrison's Batman run, that began with a billion explosions, fizzles out over it's final year. Originally, I planned on having the entire run bound into a hardcover like I did with my Suicide Squad and Night Force books, but now I think I'll just eBay it.

Cyber Force #5: Pretty good. This is something that probably needs to be read in one sitting. These five issues were free, so I'm not bothered. The hardcover should come soon (because I Kickstarted this), so I'll give it a reread then before deciding on going for volume 2.

Jack Kirby-In The Days of the Mob: Another beautiful oversized hardcover collection of a small piece of Kirby work. This one takes the one issue of Kirby's ill-fated crime magazine that was published and actually puts together the second issue sans a prose piece and a pin-up from collected original art that Morrow hunted down. It is beautifully preserved and contains some of Kirby's best work. Great stuff!

The Strange World of Your Dreams: Simon and Kirby's 1950s bizarre four issues comic where they fictionalized the readers dreams. Touted as "Freud meets Dali" this comic claimed to have bought the readers dreams and made them into comics. I doubt they actually did, but it's a fun premise. What I was most impressed by is Mort Meskin's art in these books. Talk about an unsung master...

Avengers-The Complete Geoff Johns vol 2: What a great run he had! Not life-changing, but just as good as Busiek's, though not as long.

Comics: 718
Trades: 38
Omnibus: 9
Graphic Novels: 37

[Koete]

What I was most impressed by is Mort Meskin's art in these books. Talk about an unsung master...

Still waiting for the collection of his work I ordered from Fantagraphics.

[Dread]

What I was most impressed by is Mort Meskin's art in these books. Talk about an unsung master...

Still waiting for the collection of his work I ordered from Fantagraphics.

I might have to go back and grab that, myself.

[Dread]

Solo: The Deluxe Edition-all 12 issues in one oversized hardcover. If you can't find ten things to love in this book then you officially hate comics. And Allred's Haney-era Titans partying so loud as to upset the Doom Patrol is pure gold. Or silver as the case may be.

Graveslinger #1-4: Read this mini because it is a weird western and has a title similar to something I'm working on. Thankfully, it's very different. It's alright.

Nocturne #1-4: Attempts an interesting take on a modern day Night Raven, but fails almost wholly.

Comics: 726
Trades: 38
Omnibus: 10
Graphic Novels: 37

[elnino14]

Uncanny X-force by Rick Remender: An absolute keeper, fantastic story that's pretty looking, with a strong story that is pretty self contained within its run. Great thematic relevance, looking at actions and consequences, outstanding mix of characters, mixes continuity with the ease of new comers reading, just a strong x-men universe story. Probably the strongest since Whedon's Astonishing. 8.5/10

Top 10 and Spinoffs (the Forty-Niners and Smax) by Alan Moore: Smax spin-off is awful. The rest of it is pretty decent. It's borderline parody most of it, and it's not exactly reinventing the superheros, but it's a marginally fun book, that got boring at times, just because it's all so casual (and it's a procedural). It didn't excite me, it didn't make me want to rush home to read the next chapter, it was all just kind of boring, and that may have been the point of the book, but it wasn't as fun as I wanted it to be to read. 6.5-7

Green Arrow The Longbow Hunters: My first Green Arrow and one of the most famous books from that character as I understand it. I don't think the book transcended the 80's as well as Frank Miller's timeless batman stories have. It feels very much stuck in the 80's and it's hard not to fault it for it. The plot is a little topsy turvy for my taste, and while there is some great emphasis on the Green Arrow character, I felt that it honestly got stuck more on it's blase drug/conspiracy plot that just didn't work for me at all. It ate up a majority of the book, and it was my least favorite part, but all the stuff that focused on Arrow and the rival archer was solid writing. 6.5-7/10

The Secret Service by Millar: Another movie pitch that feels like a movie pitch. Lot's of been there done that, the entire book summed up in one line: a coming of age, rags to riches (or slums to suave), James Bond story. Not nearly as fun as it should be, no deep characters, no deep plot, just kind of there. 4/10

High Roads by Scott Lobdell: Absolutely ridiculous fun, the stuff that Millar claims he still does. A completely crazy view on WW2 heroes and comic book tropes, there's a crazy cast of characters with a midget Adolf, a Steve Rogers (Captain America), a failed Kamikaze pilot, and a femme fatale that used to be Adolf's mistress. One part superhero, one part team book, one part Indiana Jones, one part noir, many many parts insanity, oh so much fun. Sure it doesn't mean much but it's a blast to read and a crazy ride. 7.5/10

Warren Ellis collection:

Two Step: Weird, unfunny, excessive story, but very pretty to look at. 4/10

Tokyo Storm Warning: Mechas in WW2, pretty cool take on the Anime big robot craze, mostly ho-hum, but that ending is killer and makes up for the book a bit. 6/10

FreakAngels: Really really decompressed as the whole story takes place over two to three separate 24-36 hours period over 2 weeks, but this is such a good story with 12 characters that are awesome and each one comes with their own unique personalities, voice, and look. The entire story is masterfully written, no matter how slow paced it can be. It's so enjoyable, and offers a really refreshing look on the dystopian genre and the coming of age genre at the same time. Loved it. 8.5

Currently Reading:
Defenders by Matt Fraction

Up Next:

Moonshadow by JM Dematteis

Young Liars by David Lapham

Punisher by Greg Rucka

[Rjoyadet]

Yesterday, I went to the only comic book store that I am familiar with and saw a Sailor Moon doujinshi. I was ready to buy it until i saw the price was $24.95 (almost $5 over my weekly budget). I told them I was not paying that much for fanfic. Now I feel like a jerk.

[Molly]

Captain America: The Bloodstone Hunt:

The most fun I've ever had reading Cap. Batroc is a blast, as is Diamondback. Crossbones is terrifying, the locations are exotic and the art is great. Not brilliant, but so fun.

[Professor]

100 Bullets - This took me way to long to finish. I was interested, but never motivated to continue if that makes sense. I would read, enjoy, but when I would stop for the night I was never like 'I must read more' the next day. And since I am the type to become obsessive about media I am consuming, I think that tell me a lot. As for the book itself? I enjoyed it, but the ending felt rushed, flat and a bit shit. The art fits (I guess) but I am not really a fan.

Comics - 208
Graphic Novels - 22
Trades - 38 (239)

[elnino14]

Marvel Universe: The End - I didn't care for this. After reading quite a few Thanos (and cosmic) stories including all of the Inifinity sagas, the Life and Death of Captain Marvel, and the entire new run on the Cosmic universe by Abnett and Lanning, this all seems so long winded and boring. It seems plase and overdone.

For some reason Ultimate Universe keeps pulling tempting me back in even after I've given up on it numerous times.

Ultimate Comics Fallot: After the death of Spider-man there was basically a restructing of the entire universe, this was really the book to tie up those loose ends, put a capper on the large really fantastic supporting cast of Spider-man and when it focuses on those individuals and how they deal with the aftermath of the death of the friend/family member/ team mate in Peter Parker, it is pretty powerful. When it focuses on auxillary plots, Rogue and Quicksilver especially, it loses the emotional power of the main book and clearly focuses on the new initiative of the universe.

Ultimate Comics Hawkeye: I really liked Johnathon Hickman's Secret Warriors saga, and I have enjoyed his FF work and some of his work outside of the big two, so this was a severe disappointment for me. Completely not able to stand on it's own two feet and providing very little insight into who the Hawkeye character is. It's a falls so hard in it's focus on that one character that it just ups the action quotient and brings in a team for the sake of it. Sure it may be consequential to the Ultimate Comics Ultimates series (or whatever it's freaking called), but it did nothing for me during this first reading.

Ultimate Comics X-men by Nick Spencer: This lineup of the X-men is sooo different than the regular universe's version, and it's kind of refreshing. But plot-wise it doesn't do much new with the X-stories. I like the constantly changing focus from character to character, and it shows that they know how to utilize a large cast and it helps build a large worldview and a broader scope. From that aspect it does a great job, from the smaller character moments it's hard to get invovled as I'm not familiar with many of the characters from Ultimate X-verse, except for Bobby, Kitty, and Johnny who were supporting characters in Ultimate Spdier-man, those characters bring a ton of emotional weight to the story as they decide what to do in a post-Peter world. Nonetheless, it was entertaining enough and consistent enough to read the whole 12 issues.

Ultimate Comics Spider-man: Starrring....Miles Morales....the new spider-man. Compared to Peter, he's younger, more immature, more naive, yet still full of so much heart. Bendis doesn't miss a step with the new series. He gets it just right making fresh and new but still showing respect to what came before, unfortunately the origin is a little haphhazard, as it's exactly the same, but once you get past that little mis-step, it's easy to get sucked back in to this story. The new supporting characters are also reallly great as well.

Silence and Co.: A bland noir story doing nothing new compared to before. Kind of an odd story actually, involving an adopted member into the mafia who gets involved in some plot that involves some organization that's involved with everything, who then kills his mafia family and now he wants revenge on them. It's really convoluted and has little plot or character when it's all said and done.

The Compleat Moonshadow: An odd adventure really, a coming of age story that has slightly echoing Hictchiker's Guide or Terry Pratchett, with completely random characters popping in and out of this adventure. The core theme is super strong, but I'd have to stay the story was a little too off kilter for my tastes, it was a little too absurd, a little too ridiculous, a little too random, and I couldn't get past it, no matter how much I really loved the coming of age factor, and the life experience factor. This is still a surprisingly well down story that i absolutely enjoyed but probably won't read again.

Bedlam vol. 1: I really liked this, the build in the first half of the book is delightfully macabre, the main character is an odd conglomeration with definitely some Joker in there. The story loses some luster as it moves away from the main character and focuses on the murder mystery plot. There's a flashback sequence involving a montage of murdering kittens. That alone is great.

[Dan]

Daredevil by Mark Waid, Vol 1 Hardcover: Obviously, this was terrific. Collecting issues 1-10, along with 10.1 and an issue of Amazing Spider-Man, the artwork was fucking beautiful. Also, Waid writes a fun book without ignoring that Matt is a supremely fucked-up individual. Also, a return to the Jim Shooter rule, with a update: "every story is someone's first". Every few issues, Matt describes his origin and powers, but not in a way that anyone who knows the character would find annoying or obnoxious. This was just a phenomenal collection.

[Missy]

Afterlife with Archie #1

A mature zombie comic set in Riverdale that stays true to the characters and their motivations, and it's all drawn by Francesco Francavilla. Yes, it's awesome.

Glory #23-34

Best. Wonder Woman story. Ever.

[Dread]

Bedlam vol. 1: I really liked this, the build in the first half of the book is delightfully macabre, the main character is an odd conglomeration with definitely some Joker in there. The story loses some luster as it moves away from the main character and focuses on the murder mystery plot. There's a flashback sequence involving a montage of murdering kittens. That alone is great.

Hell yes! I just pre-ordered the second volume with art by Ryan Browne. I'm stoked.

Daredevil by Mark Waid, Vol 1 Hardcover: Obviously, this was terrific. Collecting issues 1-10, along with 10.1 and an issue of Amazing Spider-Man, the artwork was fucking beautiful. Also, Waid writes a fun book without ignoring that Matt is a supremely fucked-up individual. Also, a return to the Jim Shooter rule, with a update: "every story is someone's first". Every few issues, Matt describes his origin and powers, but not in a way that anyone who knows the character would find annoying or obnoxious. This was just a phenomenal collection.

Absolutely. It continues to have that quality as well.

I have so many entries to add that it's almost daunting enough to quit. I'll see what I can do.

[Molly]

I just finished my yearly read-through of the O'Neill/Mostly Cowan Question series.I came to a horrifying conclusion: These 36 issues are still, really, really fucking good... ...But, and it fucking kills me to say this...

The last half is really, really weak, comparatively speaking. Rick Magyar takes off, and Denys Cowan's art suffer's for it. Malcom Jones III does what he can, but it's still rough. The ugliest issue in the run is inked by one of my favorite pencillers ever, Dick Giordano. O'Neil's stories even seem to go from "Oh shit, this city sucks" to "Really? We haven't razed this fucking place yet?"

I'm not saying I don't love the run, the characters and the arc, but, the disparity is jarring.

EDIT: This is the series that I have words from indelibly inked on my right arm. I love it, deeply. It's my favorite comic I've ever read, I think, but there are flaws, and they aren't small.

[elnino14]

I just finished my yearly read-through of the O'Neill/Mostly Cowan Question series.I came to a horrifying conclusion: These 36 issues are still, really, really fucking good... ...But, and it fucking kills me to say this...

The last half is really, really weak, comparatively speaking. Rick Magyar takes off, and Denys Cowan's art suffer's for it. Malcom Jones III does what he can, but it's still rough. The ugliest issue in the run is inked by one of my favorite pencillers ever, Dick Giordano. O'Neil's stories even seem to go from "Oh shit, this city sucks" to "Really? We haven't razed this fucking place yet?"

I'm not saying I don't love the run, the characters and the arc, but, the disparity is jarring.

EDIT: This is the series that I have words from indelibly inked on my right arm. I love it, deeply. It's my favorite comic I've ever read, I think, but there are flaws, and they aren't small.

I've been wanting to read the run for a while. I should read it some time next year. I had been planning on reading JLI/JLEu, I should probably read this after.

[Dread]

I'm not fucking giving this up in November!

Blueberry 6,7,8 -the next three Moebius Western graphic novels are long on good points but pretty repetitive.

Druuna: The Forgotten Planet-Great porn. I've said it before.

Thor: I Whom the Gods Should Destroy-Donald Blake kills someone on the operating table and becomes alcoholic and depressed, so Sif has to come and help him out of his funk because she can't ever fuck Thor if Blake won't turn back to him. Basic plot synopsis. Pretty good.

Silver Surfer: Judgement Day-telling graphic novel stories all in splash pages is a tricky concept. This one did not really get over the tricky part.

The Inhumans-Nocenti's OGN. Not very good.

Comics: 726
Trades: 38
Omnibus: 10
Graphic Novels: 44

[Dread]

Justice League #23.3-This is the Dial E #1 Forever Evil thing. I was not fully satisfied with how Dial H ended, but it was way better than this. This is a comic that is attempting to wrap up an entire universe within a universe with each page drawn by a different artist. It sounds like a mess and it is. Sad.

The Walking Dead #113-115-It's coming back to a full-on upswing. Negan is a bastard. He's the best villain TWD has had, I think.

Savage Dragon #190-191-Crazy. Exciting and fun as always. One day, I'm going to read this all the way through from the beginning including Freak Force. That will be a good day (technically several days).

Shaolin Cowboy #1- This is the Dark Horse reboot. And it was fun, but I'm not sure I need to see more zombies. I'll grab the trade when it comes out.

Scene of the Crime-This is not great. Brubaker feels like he's going through the motions and Michael Lark has yet to really turn his art intp something pleasing to look at. It is interesting as an early career artifact, but it certainly is not worth the larger format hardcover.

Hellraiser: The Dark Watch vol 1-Wow. Bizarre and intense mythology building here. Pretty bold. I love how all these "New Pinhead" trades have covers that make it look like she is modelling Vera Wang dresses. It's delightfully grotesque.

Morning Glories vol 5-Yikes. This series is getting so confusing that I'm going to have to reread through the whole series just to have a hope of understanding what's going on. If volume six doesn't kick my ass, I might just quit. Quite a radical change over two trade paperbacks...

Daredevil vol 4-For a change, this is a trade that contains one continuous story. I think Mark Waid is my definitive DD writer now. Samnee and Allred both did amazing work here too.

Ultrasylvania vol 1 and 2-I kickstarted two and three. I have read these first two and am very excited for the third. This is alternate history in a world where Frankenstein's Monster and Dracula are heads of state in a perpetual state of cold war. It's pretty brilliant even thought the art can be less than stellar at times. It's a great inventive read that is right up my alley.

Masks vol 1-The Shadow, Green Lama, Ms. Fury, Green Arrow, Kato, Spider and Zorro (yes, Zorro) team up to take on tyranny. I don't know how else to sell it. It's written by Chris Roberson with art by Alex Ross and Dennis Calero. There, I did it.

The Black Beetle: No Way Out-Francesco Francavilla doing his own pulp hero based on The Bat and The Spider. What more do you want? The story gets very simple at times, but the visuals are stunning. GREAT storytelling. I'll be grabbing the next hardcover too.

Colder vol 1-The best horro comic that I have read in a long fucking time. Holy shit. So good.

Savage Wolverine: Kill Island-Frank Cho writing and drawing Wolverine and Shanna the She-Devil fighting dinosaurs, cavemen, giant gorllias and Lovecraftian gods in the Savage Land. Yeah. I bought this as a used Hardcover in my LCS and was so delighted by it that I went to order the second volume hardcover this month. Only the artistic team has completely changed. Bummer. No thanks. Cho's writing isn't great, but the visuals are amazing and it is full-on pulp adventure fun. Also, he draws Shanna the She-Devil.

Comics: 733
Trades: 48
Omnibus: 10
Graphic Novels: 44

[Dan]

Hawkeye Vol. 1 hardcover - Wow. Just wow. I already knew this was arguably the best book on the stands, certainly from Marvel, but this absolutely blew me away. This hardcover just came out this week, and reprints #1-11, plus an issue of Young Avengers Presents. The artwork, mostly by David Aja, is tremendous and pushes comics storytelling in new directions (even without taking into account the Pizza Dog issue, which is going to be referred to in comics history books years from now). And Fraction proves once again why he's one of the best writers working today, as he puts a grittier, more realistic spin on Hawkguy, even while acknowledging that he's still fighting monsters and aliens offscreen. Clint is a fuck-up and an asshole, and knows he's a fuck-up and an asshole, and is trying so damn hard to be better and just cannot figure out how. Clint's relationship with Kate Bishop is also absolutely terrific, and she's written as basically the best, most useful teen sidekick that's ever lived.

My only qualm is with the book itself; the actual, physical object. The pages are tissue-thin, wrinkle if you look at them funny, and I was terrified I was going to tear them as I read the book.

[Rjoyadet]

I just recently discovered the "Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai" I have bought both the comic adaptation of the movie and the continuing adventures. The only real difference is that whenever I read the comic adaptation people don't notice Peter Wellers face photoshopped on the cover and ask me if I am reading Robocop.

Also after reading "Jetpack Dreams" I may give the rocketeer series "Hollywood Horror" a try.

[Professor]

Mutant Texas: Tales of Sheriff Ida Red - This should have been a book full of bright colors. Instead it is just boring black & white.

I Killed Adolf Hitler - Not what I expected, but I really enjoyed this extremely quick read.

Marvel Fairy Tales - Looks nice and that is about it.

Jinx: Little Jinx Grows Up - Written for twelve year old girls. I am not a twelve year old girl. Not for me.

Tommysaurus Rex - I think I see the moral of this story. But I also think it is done horribly, misses the point and isn't as funny as it thinks it is.

Comics - 208
Graphic Novels - 24
Trades - 41 (251)

[Dan]

Marvel Collectors' Item Classics #1-6: This was a reprint comic from the late 1960s that eventually would morph into Marvel's Greatest Comics, a Fantastic Four reprint title. For the first couple of years, it was an oversized 25-cent book with multiple stories in each issue. It gives a really good overview of Marvel's output for the first two or three years of its "Marvel" era.

By and large, the reprints stuck to:

• Fantastic Four, which was really good, strong stuff right out of the gate and led off every issue.
• Iron Man stories from Tales of Suspense, which were hit-and-miss but mostly reasonably entertaining, especially in how hilarious the cutting-edge technology was circa 1963.
• Hulk (the first six issue series), which was mostly okay but clearly finding its voice.
• Ant-Man stories from Tales to Astonish, almost uniformly terrible. Ant-Man is just not a solo hero. He cannot carry his own title.
• A handful of the first few Doctor Strange stories from Strange Tales, which were boring as fuck. They read like lackluster Golden Age stuff, and every story is "How will I fight this guy? Oh, right, my amulet that does whatever I need it to do and can't be defeated. I always forget about that." Ditko's art is good, but the muddy coloring and meh storytelling hurt it a lot.

And then the occasional Spider-Man and Thor strip, along with Tales of the Watcher. Early Silver Age Marvel that's a lot of fun, especially as you can see them slowly figuring things out.

[Dread]

Deadshot Beginnings: This trade collects the 80s four issue miniseries as well as an issue of Batman and two issues of Detective from early Deadshot appearances. None are his first appearance, but that is heavily flashed back to in every other appearance. Beyond the Ostrander mini (which proves his plot game is as good short as it is long) there's some great issues by some classic Bat Artists: Don Newton, Marshall Rogers and Alfredo Alcala. Good collection.

The Fox #1: Fun. Not mindblowing, but enough for me to buy the trade.

G.I. Joe ARAH #155.5-195: This is the modern IDW iteration of Hama's original run by Hama. I usually stand by the adage that you can't go home again, and that is part true here. It is corny. But the original was too, so the tone is consistent. It's interesting to see how that doesn't REALLY work these days. There are elements that work, and even Cobra Commander's over the top nature is loveable. The part where

he mourns the death of Billy

is remarkably emotional too. Will I continue? Maybe. I have an annual I still have to read. I'll take another long break from it though.

Comics: 775
Trades: 49
Omnibus: 10
Graphic Novels: 44

[Dread]

Blueberry 9-Very repetitive, the next volume promises all-out Indian War! I look forward to that. Moebius is an amazing storyteller though, and his research appears to be exhaustive. So there's that. But the stories here are less than exciting.

GI Joe ARAH Annual 2012-Not super great. Fun but a weird terrorist plot thing. I think Hama's run out of steam here.

GI Joe Special 1995-So I watched The Image Revolution, a great documentary, and the end has a bunch of title cards talking about the various creators. On the Todd McFarlane shot, they said he was the only founder to not return to work for Marvel. When I saw that, I knew it was wrong. I knew that McFarlane did a Gi Joe Special sometime in the 90s. So I dug through and found it! Voila! Not quite. The cover, is a poor ripoff of Spider-Man #1 with Snake Eyes as McFarlane has done in the past...but this wasn't him. It was a great facsimile. But it wasn't him. The interiors are definitely McFarlane though, and is credited to him, but - and this is coming from a guy who doesn't think highly of his art - it is easily the worst McFarlane art I've seen. And the story is similar. Having recently read through the entire original GI Joe run (and now the entire continuation), I've read the issue. Drawn by someone else! So, what must have happened, is that either this was a book that McFarlane tried out for and failed when they saw how bad it was, or even more diabolical, and probably the truth: Marvel gave this script to up and comers to cut their teeth on to submit and TM did it. He did it poorly and was turned down. But after he became the biggest name in comics and he would never come to work for them again, they decide to pull it out and make a sale. Ugh.

Spider-Man: Parallel Lives-Gerry Conway and Alex Saviuk tell the entire story of Spider-Man and Mary Jane through both of their eyes. Recounting major events in Spidey's past through MJ's eyes is not an innovative story element, but it is beautiful and i loved every page.

Kull: The Vale of Shadow-Kind of a snooze.

Doctor Strange/Dr. Doom Triumph and Torment-I haven't read this since I got it from the library when I was six or seven years old. It still holds up. Strange and Doom meet at a meeting to decide who the Sorcerer Supreme is early in Strange's career and end up going to Hell to fight Mephisto for Doom's Mother's soul. Kind of brilliant. Great Roger Stern story, even greater early Mike Mignola art. Beautiful.

Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection-I had fond memories of this as a kid, but this is kind of a turd. I think it has something to do with my recent feelings about Howard Chaykin's art. It's certainly taken a turn for the worse lately, but it's hard to look at the old stuff without still seeing the Cabbage Patch Dolls.

Conan: The Skull of Set-A little fun, but probably 15 pages too long. Rambly.

Roger Rabbit: The Resurrection of Doom-A direct sequel to the movie. It's kind of genius. Beautiful all around.

Comics: 777
Trades: 49
Omnibus: 10
Graphic Novels: 51

[Dread]

Nemesis: The Impostors #1-4-After reading the first issue of this on a 1st Issue Special with mike and loving it, I bought the series in issue format, and never got around to actually reading it. Now I have. It skirts on crazy...a lot. But it still has one of the best first issues I've read in a long time.

Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape #1-6-This is basically the continuation of that story, and yes, it gets way crazier. not good. Incomprehensible even. Sad.

GI Joe ARAH #196-Pretty good. Didn't set my world on fire.

Tangent Comics Doom Patrol-Not good. Bad even. Too bad. Sean Chen's art is great.

Joe Kubert Presents: The collected edition of the miniseries anthology edited by Kubert. He never lived to see the first issue published but he still managed to put the entire six issues together. Crazy. Like any anthology, it has ups and downs. Almost everything Kubert does is brilliant, but the other stories vary greatly. The Angel and the Ape story is cartoony and fun at first, but quickly gets pretty awful in subsequent stories. Sam Glanzman did those 80s Marvel OGNs about his time at sea during WW2 and he continues with that. The short format helps a bit here, but still is boring as fuck. It became a bit of a chore to read this by the end, but overall, still pretty good if only for the Kubert stuff.

Green Hornet Volume 1: Bully Pulpit- Mark Waid takes on Green Hornet to make him a mixture of Citizen Kane and Lawrence of Arabia with some sharp noiry art. A really great pulp crime series. Highly recommended.

The Spider Volume 2: The Businessman From Hell-Fucking stupendous. The best from Dynamite's pulp line thus far. And that's saying something. Dynamite is my favorite publisher right now. This one has a really dark violent crime/supernatural angle but still has a stinging sense of humor. Good stuff.

LOTDK Jim Aparo Volume 2-Yup. Nothing wrong with 27 issues of Brave and the Bold and two issues of Detective all drawn by the master Batman artist with stories by Archie Goodwin and Bob Haney. Love it. Volume three will be the first without B&TB content so I'm looking forward to that.

Comics: 789
Trades: 52
Omnibus: 11
Graphic Novels: 51

[Dread]

Hack/Slash Omnibus Volume 5: The Finale of what might be the greatest modern horror comic. Beautiful stuff. Great concept and mythology building. Why this isn't a TV show is beyond me. Totally beyond me.

Bringing a bunch to read with me on vacation so I'll update when I return for a final tally.

Comics: 789
Trades: 52
Omnibus: 12
Graphic Novels: 51

[Missy]

If you want to get your final 2013 thoughts in, do so quickly, 'cause I'll be locking this in a few days.