On Fraction’s Hawkeye

So here I am, two days before “All New Hawkeye” by Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez begins, and I’m finally just getting Into The Matt Fraction era of Hawkeye that ended a few months back. To be fair to my well-read book club friends, I’ve had a number of people pointing me at this series for a while, it’s only now that I got ahead enough in my regular reading to dip into some new comic titles.

So last week I got the first three collected volumes (Issues 1 – 11, the first annual and issues 14, 16, 18, and 20) of the 22 issue series, and over the course of three days I got myself well into the series.

Here what I’ve found out (again, well after almost everyone else).

1) You should really take the time to check out this series
2) The artwork is very clean, has a unique feel that runs through each story arc and
3) Sometimes it’s a great idea to go beyond the A-lister’s (being, Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Spider-Man, etc.) as the second stringers tend to have a little more slack in what can be done with their stories (I’m thinking Sandman, Swamp Thing, Starman, and other similar series here)
4) The writing moves from incredibly relatable to hilarious to heartbreaking with ease and left me wanting to read more RIGHT NOW!
5) Perhaps I should listen to my friends recommendations more often, because this stuff is FANTASTIC

Things I've Noticed: My favourite comics of 2013

At the beginning of 2014 I look back and realize that although I wrote a lot about the various books, games, movies and television shows I enjoyed last year, I didn't really talk about the current comics I was reading.

As I am, traditionally, someone who tends to focus my comic book reading on trade paperback collections - where a run of comics (for example, issues 1-7) of a series are collected in one book, I tend to be four to six months behind the current story lines of whatever I'm reading.

Last year however, I did check out two new series, Marvel's new Guardians of the Galaxy title (written by Brian Michael Bendis), and Afterlife with Archie (written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa) and I've got to say that both are pretty amazing.

Not at all familiar with Guardians of the Galaxy before I started, I'll happily admit that I began collecting this series as to get an idea of what to expect in this years upcoming adaption of the material - the fact that it was written by Bendis was a strong point in my choosing of it, but once I read the first few issues I was sold.  The art is fun, the story works a lot like classic Star Wars and Buck Rogers, and I can't seem to stop smiling while I read it.

Afterlife with Archie was recommended to my by one of the helpful staff at Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton, and it basically combines Archie Comics with a zombie outbreak - working very hard to keep itself a fair representation of both the world of Archie Comics and a classic Zombie story.  This comic is  incredibly fun, and after trying the first issue, I knew I had found a new favourite title.

Both series are currently ongoing, and if you haven't tried them yet, I strongly recommend you take a look.

Things I've Noticed: I start school again next week

Next week I begin my final year of my Masters of Library and Information Studies Degree.  As I have a full-time job I'm only taking two courses; Reference and Information Services, and Comic Books and Graphic Novels in School and Public libraries.

Guess which one I'll be focusing on here on my blog.

So I've now got a list of a bunch of comic books I need to read to begin my understanding of the format.

First up, Owly v1: The Way Home and The Bittersweet Summer by Andy Runton, and The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

Although the course does have a superhero component, that will come later so first up are two comics which contain almost no words.

I'm totally looking forward to it!

Things I've noticed: It's time to start hunting for new comics

When it comes to comic books I’m mostly a trade paperback kind of guy, where a collection of 4-10 issues are bound together, sometimes have a nice introduction written and often include notes by the author after the final issue.  But I’ve got to admit there is something nice about a continuing monthly story.

For the last few years I’ve been collecting one or two comic book series issue-by-issue: The Dark Tower, and The Stand, both published through Marvel comics, both adaptations of Stephen King novels I love.  With the adaptation of the The Stand wrapping up a few months back, and The Dark Tower series, catching up to the stories I’ve read in the original novels, I’m feeling it’s time for me to start looking for a new series to follow, issue-by-issue.

Right now I don’t really know where to start – my youngest daughter likes Batman, so if I get those I’ll probably get two readings out of each issue I purchase, but at the same time there are a heck of a lot of Batman and Batman-related titles out there.

Anyway, I don’t really have an idea of which series I’ll be going for, but I’m going to make sure to list whatever ends up gracing my (very small) single-issue comic book space at home.  For the record, the last time I went mainstream was back in 2000 when I collected Brian K. Vaughn’s run on Swamp Thing, featuring the original swamp things daughter, Tefe Holland. (who, come to think of it, would be a great Genre Character of the Week), so I’ve set the bar pretty high for myself there.

Genre Character of the Week: Mister Pullman

Normally I don't do this - if I'm reading a book that I'll be discussing at one of my book clubs in the near future, I tend to hold off on discussing aspects of the text on my blog until after the meeting.  This month I've been reading The Unwritten a comic book series written by Mike Carey and art by Peter Gross.  I would consider the story as a dark fantasy.  The reason I'm writing about it now, rather than early next month, is that I totally loved the main villain, Mister Pullman.

 

Staying away from spoilers (and The Unwritten has a lot of those) Pullman works for... hmmm...

 

Okay, Pullman has just about the creepiest power (curse?) I've seen in comics to date, you see, when he... right, no spoilers.

 

This just got much harder than I expected.

 

Okay - go read The Unwritten - the first six Trades are currently available for purchase.  It's pretty great, there is a heck of lot going on, and oce you've seen Mister Pullman in action, I think you'll see why I think he's such an interesting villain.

Top Five Comics I'm still getting around to reading

As I'm sitting here typing away in my study, I'm faced directly by my bookshelf of books to be read and I'm realizing that my comic book and graphic novel collection is starting to pile up. I've been pretty focused on novels and school work for the last year and therefore the important business of comic book reading has fallen to the wayside a little (Interestingly I've read a number of books about comics this year, but that's not quite the same thing).

So here we go - Bookmonkey's top five list of comics I own but still haven't gotten around to reading yet:

5. Tiny Titans - this kid-aimed comic actually belongs to my youngest daughter, but those teeny tiny little versions of the Teen Titans are consistently awesome - I'm about 10 issues behind.

4. Jack of Fables - I got up to volume 5 (I think), to just about where the Great Fables Crossover occurs and haven't gotten back to the series since - I own them, I just haven't read them yet - I'm about 4 trade paperback collections behind.

3. Fables - Same story as above, only I'm about 5 trade paperback collections behind ( I did read Peter & Max, however, and it was awesome).

2. Hellboy - This one is a little embarrassing, although I'm only one trade paperback collection behind (and it only came out about a week ago), I'm usually so good about reading this title that a new collection doesn't spend a night in my house without me checking it out.

1. Starman - This one is actually the worst (not the series, I haven't read it yet), I mean this is my worst offender, as I own all six Starman Omnibus collections in hardcover, have heard nothing but praise from my friends who have read it, and it has a Hellboy crossover and I still haven't gotten past issue one! The series looks so good, but I just haven't had the time to begin!

So there you go - the comics I own that I still need to get around to reading. I've just got a few more books to read this month and then I'm totally going to start (only next month is happening in just over a week and then I have seven more books to read...

Things I've Noticed #3: Following your favourite comic-book author may bankrupt you

A quick look at my history with comics in a convenient timeline:

Ages 4 – 10, (1980-1986): I’m pretty much limited to Archie comics

Ages 11 – 13 (1987 - 1989): My own personal Dark Ages - I only read a few scattered X-Men I found in friends basements, dentists offices, etc.

Age 14 (August 1990): Wandering into my local comic book / used book store I came across Sandman #18 (Dream of a Thousand Cats). I had a couple extra bucks and the Dave McKean cover artwork totally grabbed me so I went for it, and I've never looked back since.

Since then I’ve been a big purchaser of series, mostly collections in trade paperbacks as I don’t have the patience to wait month by month for my stories to finish.

My problem with comics actually came a few years back. Basically I had my favourite three series (Sandman, Swamp Thing, Transmetropolitan) and was looking for a fourth. As I had followed Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore into their other works I decided to give Warren Ellis a try.

I looked him up in my library and found they had two books of his, Planetary and The Authority. As Planetary was pretty much stand alone I started there – it was awesome. The libraries copy of the Authority was stolen, lost or damaged before I could give it a look, so I headed off to my local comic book store, where I was told it actually was a continuation of a previous comic of Ellis’ called Stormwatch. Figuring I should probably read Stormwatch before I started the Authority, I decided to look into purchasing the previous 8 years worth of comics (I attempted this in 2001).

Two weeks of research later and here was the problem in a nutshell:

1) I wanted to read more Warren Ellis, so

2) I wanted to give The Authority a try, but

3) The Authority was made up, principally of surviving members of Stormwatch, and

4) Ellis only started writing Stormwatch at issue 37.

5) Before that, the title was written by Ron Marz, who spent a great deal of time tying it in with James Robinsons WildC.A.T.S., to the point where I would need to read WildC.A.T.S. to understand the earlier run of Stormwatch

6) and I didn’t have the three bazillion dollars needed to purchase all these old titles

So there you have it. It’s now been almost 8 years since I decided that maybe reading The Authority would be cool and I haven’t done a thing. I’m scared that in the incredibly complicated tie-in, crossover, dingo-crazy world of comic books that I will end up obligating myself into purchasing more comics than my house can physically hold.

Instead, I’ll call it a day, and go back to my dependable, never-charnging, you can always count on me classic: Archie.

OH MY GOD!?!