Comics!
The Walking Dead HB vol 4, by Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard
Although I was a little put off by some elements of vol 3, this series is quite astoundingly good, and I wasn't going to stop reading it just because of a little gruesomeness. It's a book about zombies, there's bound to be some unpleasantness, after all... I just needed a little time to get over the bad things that happened to the characters I'd grown used to. To be fair, any book that has such that kind of impact on me must be pretty good, especially given how few comics actually cause me to respond to their characterization. Kirkman is a writer with an eye for good dialogue and interpersonal relationships, and the black and white art perfectly suits the story he is telling. This volume collects issues 36-48 of the comic (which is up to 75 or so now, so I've got a way to go to catch up), and marks a fairly major change in the set-up of the story. It isn't a good change (for the characters, anyway), although I think I was a little less upset by this volume's cruelty, perhaps because I'd been a bit numbed by the previous one. It will be fascinating to see where things go from here, though - I've already got vol. 5 on order...
I read the hardback, ISBN: 9781607060000, one evening in early October.
Doctor Who: The Only Good Dalek, by Justin Richards & Mike Collins
I've been enjoying the graphic novel collections of Doctor Who comics from the monthly magazine, and have read a few of the American monthly issues, but this is the first full-length GN that I've read (possibly the first that's been done, I think). It works quite well, to be honest - the storytelling is a little more decompressed, which isn't always a good thing but works well here. There's more chance to build up some tension, and not having to recap the plot every eight-to-ten pages makes the read much smoother. The art is nice, although perhaps a little too scratchy in places for some people's taste, and the story trucks along - perhaps not the most ground-breaking or interesting plot ever written in DW, but entertaining enough and with plenty of nice references back to the original series. The main characters are, as in Michael Moorcock's Coming of the Terraphiles, perhaps a little broadly written, but I guess that's inescapable given the lead times of producing 126 pages of full colour art, and the ending is nicely downbeat. It looks as if there's a new plan behind BBC Books' DW publishing schedule, and if this and the Moorcock books are indications of the future, I might go back to reading DW fiction properly for the first time in ten years...
I read a Hardback, out now, ISBN: 9781846079849.
2000AD collections - Judge Dredd vols 15 & 16, Harlem Heroes
More free comics from work, hoorah. The Dredd ones are still fun, although these ones don't seem to have any of the long mega-epics that I always enjoyed as a kid. There isn't much that's more enjoyable than a decent Dredd story, though, so no complaints here. Harlem Heroes was an early 2000ad strip (it started in the first issue), and one I've never read before. It isn't, quite frankly, very good. There you go. I've said it. The art (mostly by Dave Gibbons) is nice enough, and there are hints of something better in the story, but it feels like the comic was still trying to work out what it wanted to be. Not the worst thing I've ever read, and it passed the time, but not worth hunting down unless you have fond memories of the originals.
Although I was a little put off by some elements of vol 3, this series is quite astoundingly good, and I wasn't going to stop reading it just because of a little gruesomeness. It's a book about zombies, there's bound to be some unpleasantness, after all... I just needed a little time to get over the bad things that happened to the characters I'd grown used to. To be fair, any book that has such that kind of impact on me must be pretty good, especially given how few comics actually cause me to respond to their characterization. Kirkman is a writer with an eye for good dialogue and interpersonal relationships, and the black and white art perfectly suits the story he is telling. This volume collects issues 36-48 of the comic (which is up to 75 or so now, so I've got a way to go to catch up), and marks a fairly major change in the set-up of the story. It isn't a good change (for the characters, anyway), although I think I was a little less upset by this volume's cruelty, perhaps because I'd been a bit numbed by the previous one. It will be fascinating to see where things go from here, though - I've already got vol. 5 on order...
I read the hardback, ISBN: 9781607060000, one evening in early October.
Doctor Who: The Only Good Dalek, by Justin Richards & Mike Collins
I've been enjoying the graphic novel collections of Doctor Who comics from the monthly magazine, and have read a few of the American monthly issues, but this is the first full-length GN that I've read (possibly the first that's been done, I think). It works quite well, to be honest - the storytelling is a little more decompressed, which isn't always a good thing but works well here. There's more chance to build up some tension, and not having to recap the plot every eight-to-ten pages makes the read much smoother. The art is nice, although perhaps a little too scratchy in places for some people's taste, and the story trucks along - perhaps not the most ground-breaking or interesting plot ever written in DW, but entertaining enough and with plenty of nice references back to the original series. The main characters are, as in Michael Moorcock's Coming of the Terraphiles, perhaps a little broadly written, but I guess that's inescapable given the lead times of producing 126 pages of full colour art, and the ending is nicely downbeat. It looks as if there's a new plan behind BBC Books' DW publishing schedule, and if this and the Moorcock books are indications of the future, I might go back to reading DW fiction properly for the first time in ten years...
I read a Hardback, out now, ISBN: 9781846079849.
2000AD collections - Judge Dredd vols 15 & 16, Harlem Heroes
More free comics from work, hoorah. The Dredd ones are still fun, although these ones don't seem to have any of the long mega-epics that I always enjoyed as a kid. There isn't much that's more enjoyable than a decent Dredd story, though, so no complaints here. Harlem Heroes was an early 2000ad strip (it started in the first issue), and one I've never read before. It isn't, quite frankly, very good. There you go. I've said it. The art (mostly by Dave Gibbons) is nice enough, and there are hints of something better in the story, but it feels like the comic was still trying to work out what it wanted to be. Not the worst thing I've ever read, and it passed the time, but not worth hunting down unless you have fond memories of the originals.