My Christmas/New Years reading courtesy of Humble Bundle/making the most of Marvel Unlimited before the subscription ended. My subscription to DC Universe Infinite is wrapping up too but it’s a dreadful app so I’ll be sticking with just buying any trades I’m interested in from now on.
Saga (Brian K Vaughan/Fiona Staples) - I had read volumes 1-8 before in 2018 when I was getting back into comics after being a broke student, now caught up to volume 10. Bit weird how this wild space opera universe with no Earthlings has words like woke and pro-life but it seems a deliberate choice along with calling the language Language. Great characters, stunning (and unabashedly horny) art, and somehow got one thing spoiled and not another for volume 9, gut punch. Glad to have it back.
I Hate Fairyland (Skottie Young) - Pretty much what I expected from the premise. Super violent Wizard of Oz parody. Stretching the gag very thin by 20 issues but Young is such a good cartoonist that it was nice just to see him go wild. Also suited hangover reading.
Autumnlands (Kurt Busiek/Benjamin Dewey) - Two things I love: high fantasy and dopey animal worlds, and one I don’t: dopey animal world with omg a HUMAN? Strong start, liked the old Blyton blurb style epigraphs starting each issue, but didn’t keep my interest the whole way through. It was never officially cancelled as far as I can see but left unfinished so didn’t feel much investment.
Revival (Tim Seeley/Mike Norton) - Read just the first volume. Didn’t dislike it, just had no interest in continuing. Was hoping for more of an outright horror rather than reverse-Leftovers, I guess.
Daredevil/Devil’s Reign (Chip Zdarsky/Marco Checchetto) - Daredevil doing what he does best: self-pity, Catholic guilt and keeping gang wars in check. Devil’s Reign like most superhero events could have just been a regular arc in the main series and is mostly there to set up what comes next (and to remind me that there really should be a Heroes for Hire comeback) but it’s hardly the mess other events are. Already deserves to be counted among the better Daredevil runs, no small feat. The Disney+ reboot could do worse than take notes from this, particularly with Kingpin.
Eternals (Kieron Gillen/Esad Ribic) - Think maybe this needed to not be read while tired on a plane, lot going on and sure to be stuff that went over my head. Still better than the movie (which I liked just fine but still) with a more intriguing version of the Eternal murder mystery format. Less mad about the Thanos stuff but that could just be because I’ve had enough Thanos the last few years, thanks.
Moon Knight (Jed MacKay/Alessandro Cappuccio) - Stopped after five issues. Can’t really put my finger on it but it felt a bit slight? Maybe I let the hype I read about it influence me too much. I’ve also read a bit of MacKay’s Strange and didn’t get on with it either so could be he’s just not for me. Also really did not like MK referring to himself as a ‘priest’ even if his Jewish heritage is also touched on in the same issue.
Also got a whole bunch of Kazuo Koike in Humble Bundle, including the full Lone Wolf & Cub which I’ve read the first few stories of before. Lord knows if I’ll ever read all of it (especially since every other genre thing is basically LW&C now) but it’s nice to have.
Got the next volumes of Ice Cream Man and Silver Coin on my TBR amazon wishlist, and will be picking up It’s Lonely At The Centre Of The Earth by Zoe Thorogood, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V, My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris, and The Good Asian by Pornsak Pichetshote when I get a chance too.