What I've Read This Year, Part I
I've read a lot of new material this last year, so I thought I'd talk about it on here. :)
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
I've had an increasing interest in reading these over recent years, though I've never really watched any of the movies or anything. There are two periods during which Arthur Conan Doyle wrote these short stories, with The Hound of the Baskervilles, a full novel, plunked in between the periods. The first period is the best, in many ways, I think; the idea is new and it hasn't fallen into formula yet. The second batch is all over the place, with some being excellent and one being so uncharacteristically bad that the introduction calls into question whether Doyle wrote it at all. They were very good, overall, and I would recommend them. Though the introduction says that two writers of mysteries preceded Sherlock Holmes (including Edgar Alan Poe), it's interesting to see how modern shows like CSI still use the same format.
Sherlock Holmes is an interesting character, himself. He is manic-depressive, falling into a deep funk when his mind is not challenged, even taking opium and firing shots at his wall to alleviate the boredom. The stories are told from the perspective of Watson, for the most part, who has supposedly collected notes from their adventures and writes them up, if he thinks they're of interest. Thus, they are not in chronological order.
ClanDestine
I have said that the only thing that will get me to buy a comic book anymore is Alan Davis. This last year, I have done exactly I said. I was a big fan of the original ClanDestine series (and the vs. the X-Men mini), so I was very pleased to see that they were giving him a second chance. Alan Davis has injured his wrist, I think, and he cannot support a monthly comic, so they gave him a mini-series this time. If it did well, he would get another one.
It was a big of a disappointment, really. It had lots of good stuff, but it was too spread out and unfocused. It resolved one of the dangling plot threads from the original series, though it adds at least one more and ends with an outright cliffhanger. The art and writing are of Alan Davis's usual excellent standard, and Mark Farmer, maybe the best in the business, inks his work, as usual. The sales were horrible, even by today's standards, so there won't be a follow-up mini series, sadly. However...
Thor: The Truth of History
Another Alan Davis comic that could very well still be on the shelves. It has the Warriors Three, who are always a hoot. It was a good bit of fun fluff, and it will allegedly lead to three annuals next year that tie in with ClanDestine.
Next: Cyberpunk
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
I've had an increasing interest in reading these over recent years, though I've never really watched any of the movies or anything. There are two periods during which Arthur Conan Doyle wrote these short stories, with The Hound of the Baskervilles, a full novel, plunked in between the periods. The first period is the best, in many ways, I think; the idea is new and it hasn't fallen into formula yet. The second batch is all over the place, with some being excellent and one being so uncharacteristically bad that the introduction calls into question whether Doyle wrote it at all. They were very good, overall, and I would recommend them. Though the introduction says that two writers of mysteries preceded Sherlock Holmes (including Edgar Alan Poe), it's interesting to see how modern shows like CSI still use the same format.
Sherlock Holmes is an interesting character, himself. He is manic-depressive, falling into a deep funk when his mind is not challenged, even taking opium and firing shots at his wall to alleviate the boredom. The stories are told from the perspective of Watson, for the most part, who has supposedly collected notes from their adventures and writes them up, if he thinks they're of interest. Thus, they are not in chronological order.
ClanDestine
I have said that the only thing that will get me to buy a comic book anymore is Alan Davis. This last year, I have done exactly I said. I was a big fan of the original ClanDestine series (and the vs. the X-Men mini), so I was very pleased to see that they were giving him a second chance. Alan Davis has injured his wrist, I think, and he cannot support a monthly comic, so they gave him a mini-series this time. If it did well, he would get another one.
It was a big of a disappointment, really. It had lots of good stuff, but it was too spread out and unfocused. It resolved one of the dangling plot threads from the original series, though it adds at least one more and ends with an outright cliffhanger. The art and writing are of Alan Davis's usual excellent standard, and Mark Farmer, maybe the best in the business, inks his work, as usual. The sales were horrible, even by today's standards, so there won't be a follow-up mini series, sadly. However...
Thor: The Truth of History
Another Alan Davis comic that could very well still be on the shelves. It has the Warriors Three, who are always a hoot. It was a good bit of fun fluff, and it will allegedly lead to three annuals next year that tie in with ClanDestine.
Next: Cyberpunk