Girls Don't Read Comics

100% Awesome

Wow, it’s been a busy month or so in comics news.  I’m been so busy with the spring time home ownership stuff that I’ve been neglecting GDRC again.  The biggest news has been, to me anyway, Gail Simone leaving Wonder Woman.  There was a couple of days where we all held our breath to see who would pick it up. There was speculation that it would be the rumored Grant Morrison Story, but no confirmation.  We mostly just crossed our fingers that it wouldn’t be some misogynist ass-hat.  Finally the announcement came that it would be J. Michael Straczynski.  I am sad to see Gail Simone leave the title, but I am sort of ok with JMS picking it up.  I have liked most of what I have read of his, and he has this way of taking over a title that then gets made into a movie.  So I am hopeful, but in a “withholding judgement” kind of way.

The really happy news is that Gail Simone will be returning to 2 of my favorite titles, Welcome to Tranquility and Birds of Prey.  I am over the moon about Welcome to Tranquility.  I remember picking it up and loving it, only to have my heart broken by Andy telling me that it had been canceled and that  I had just read the entire run of it. Sadness.

Cosmic!

I have been buying a lot of stuff lately.  Like a ridiculous amount of stuff.  Happily, it’s all been things that I am very excited about.  I used to read a ton of Archie when I was a kid.  I wanted so badly to grow up to be Betty Cooper, and as I saw it, the only thing standing in my way was that I was a brunette.  I read all the Archie family books too, like Josie and the Pussycats, and Katy Keene.  When I saw Jetta in Preview a couple of months ago, I was so spiffed.  It was an Archie family book that I had never read, and it was about a rocket age teen girl! Holy Crap!  I am loving it so far.  I haven’t had a chance to read it cover to cover yet, but what I have had time for has made me really happy.  There is tons of historical stuff in here, and pages and pages of homage pin-up art by modern artists.  I looove this book.

Not For Young Readers!!

This is going to be an awkward transition.  Um.  I also love this book…Wow.  Ok, so Crossed is like as far away as you can get from Jetta without folding reality somehow.  It’s really good though.  The problem for me is that as a retailer I have trouble recommending a book where a character is named “Horsecock” because he uses one to hit people over the head.  This is a dark, violent book.  That makes it sound too dainty.  This is a vicious, disgusting book that happens to have a really compelling story with interesting characters and a fascinating setting.  And it has a rampaging mob of sort of undead crazy people that stab people and then rape the stab holes.  So yeah.  I actually really like it, but it’s a tough one to sell.

If you are a Spokane dweller, make sure you come visit us on Free Comic Book Day, which falls on May 1st this year. There will be all kinds of awesome going on.  For details visit The Comic Book Shop online.  At 5:30 the Northtown mall will be honored by a visit from the 501st Legion.  Come get a picture with Lord Vader, a Tuskan Raider, or a Scout Trooper.  I am personally very excited.

Also coming up soon is Spokane ComiCon. It will be at SCC this year, and there are going to be a boatload of cool guests.  I’ll be there, and so should you.

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Batwoman Lives!! Probably for real this time! Maybe..

Today DC announced a new ongoing series written and drawn by J.H. Williams III, with Amy Reeder Hadley coming in on art for the second arc.  To say I’m excited would be a huge understatement, but I’m also a little wary.  After several announcements over the last couple of years about a Batwoman title, I’m afraid I’ll have to see it to believe it. Rich Johnston over at Bleeding Cool expresses this sentiment very succinctly: “But I’m grown very distrustful of Batwoman announcements. Odds are before publication, it’ll suddenly be relegated to a back up strip, then online online, then postponement for a crossover series then it’ll vanish hoping no one will notice.” *sigh*

The Batwoman run of Detective was the first mainstream superhero comic I ever subscribed to.  I read the first issue and called up Matt (who handles subscriptions) with the issue still in my hand.  I had to have it.  I’ve been chomping at the bit to do a formal review of it, but I have been waiting for the collection to come out.

When Greg Rucka announced a couple of weeks ago that he was leaving DC, I was heartbroken.  This character has filled a spot in my monthly pulls that will leave a vacuum when she’s gone. I was just starting to get used to the idea that she was going to be out of Detective after Bruce Wayne’s mighty return, but with Rucka gone it seemed like she was just going to vanish into the mists, maybe to be pulled out for a big crossover or to be killed to set up someone’s revenge story.

If they do actually get this new series out, it will be an automatic add to my pull list.  With Williams doing the art and story, I can’t say no.  With Amy Reeder Hadley for the second arc, I will probably sit in my car in the parking lot of The Comic Book Shop on a Wed night to read it.

The Circle

Super big thanks to Louis Kwok for including me among his other guest contributors on the recent episode of Kwok Talk, Synonyms and Baby Hymns. Louis reviews Wonder Woman: The Circle with support from myself and Angela P of A Comic Book Girl.  I’ve only recently started listening to Kwok Talk, but I am fast becoming a big fan.

Fierce!

Madame Xanadu Vol 02 Exodus Noir Written by Matt Wagner, Art by Michael Wm. Kaluta

Ok, I know I already reviewed the first volume of this one, and pretty recently really, but this  is so good, I can’t let it pass by.  The two volumes have drastically different art, but both are so excellent that this is now near the top of my “recommend to new readers” pile.  Exodus Noir features 2 stories that are beautifully interwoven.  We have the murder mystery set in 1940, and the tragic romance set in the days of the inquisition.  Magic, love, passion and death.  All told with some of the most eloquent layouts I have seen.  I need to get a scanner hooked up one of these days so that I can post examples.  In the meantime, you’ll have to just go out and buy this.  It’s really that good.

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So everything that I read has been coming out in trades lately, and I have been reading like mad.  Unfortunately I have been snowed under with random, time consuming stuff, so all the awesome comics I have been reading have been accumulating in a large, sad pile.  On top of that, Brian Cronin over at Comic Book Resources has been doing his “Year of Cool Comics” Series, and it keeps making me throw stuff on the pile.  So he’s to blame for this one.

Wonder Woman's face bugs me

JLA Earth 2 Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely

This is the story of 2 earths.  One we know very well.  The JLA are Earth’s protectors, and Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman heroic ideals. On the other Earth, the anti-matter Earth, the citizens live in fear of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika and their horrible destructive whims, and Lex Luthor is a benevolent genius who only wants to help his people.

I really had a good time reading this.  It’s eccentric in that special Grant Morrison way, and his insanity works really well here.  I love they way the Crime Syndicate characters are shown to be the opposites of their good guy counter-parts.  Superwoman in the broom closet with Jimmy Olsen while the wimpy Lt Kent listens outside just cracked me up.  Especially Lt Kent’s little mustache.

I have a huge back log of books to get through, so I’m going to try to crack out a bunch of these quick little 5 minute things, one book at time.  In the meantime, I need to get downstairs for the new episode of Lost.

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