About those 2 characters…

Yes, I was actually right. As I was mentioning in my previous post, Wood was introducing 2 characters at the end of Channel Zero and they were Mustafa and Special, some of the main characters in different books which are Couscous Express and The Couriers. I’ve actually read the former over the week-end and it’s pretty interesting to see how Brian Wood makes them evolve… I have not purchased The Couriers yet, but reading the first story made we want to buy the 3 volumes…

Back to Couscous Express, I really recommend it to someone who wants to read something fresh, something new. The art is pretty nice, but what really grabbed my attention here was the story. It’s simple, but yet very compelling and also very different compared to other books… Good stuff, I won’t say much more, just go buy it!

I was in a “Wood Mood” when flipping Couscous Express’s last page so I went on reading Supermarket from the same writer. The story, once again, was great and the art really matched it to perfection… The atmosphere of the book felt amazingly close to when watching some Tarantino movie, though… I suspect Wood must have watched Kill Bill a lot beforehand… Or maybe Tarantino read Supermarket a dozen times when working on Kill Bill?? Who knows… I still recommend picking it up… Those books are by far some of my best purchases so far…

As a matter of fact, I am still in a "Wood Mood" and it so happens that I acquired a Local hard cover from a nice friend who did not mind bringing it back to me all the way from Kuala Lumpur... So that's probably going to be my next read.

Still seeing life in black and white…

Why? Mainly because I’m reading Brian Wood’s books. I’ve just finished reading Channel Zero and am quite happy with my purchase… It’s different than any other comic book I’ve read lately, maybe because it’s a bit closer to “real life”… Things like those described in his story could actually happen, and are happening in some form or another in countries like France or China who are recently implementing ways to control the way their people uses the internet, which contents they download and monitor what they store or install in their personal computers.

Back to the book itself… You’ll be able to follow Jennie 2.5 in her struggle to wake up the American people from their lethargy as they just became a consuming population who’s willing to believe anything that the now state controlled media says. There are also a couple of issues focusing on another character who actually became a “cleaner”… His job is to cleanse the street from its scum; the only thing being almost anyone is scum right now. You litter? I shoot you. You smoke? I shoot you. You spit your chewing-gum? I shoot you. You stink? I shoot you… I wonder if Wood was basing his inspiration on Singapore… ^^

Towards the end of the book, Wood introduces 2 characters that I think are in Couscous Express and The couriers. Maybe the stories are tied up in some way? I’ll write about it after reading them.

Mycomicshop.com weekly promotions

This week's promotion over at Mycomicshop.com are:

5% off pre-1981 issues

10% off modern-era issues in the following groups:
Dark Horse Titles
DC M to Z Titles
First Publishing Titles
X-Men Titles

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Disclosure:
As I am part of their affiliate program, clicking on one of the above links will help me out raising some credits for my future purchases... Mycomicshop.com will credit 15% of your first order (yes, your first order only, not the following ones) on my account. As a way to thank you, I offer the weekly password so you can enjoy a 10% rebate... So we both win something in the end! Thanks for you support!

Mycomicshop.com weekly promotions

This week's promotion over at Mycomicshop.com are:

5% off pre-1981 issues

10% off modern-era issues in the following groups:
1980's Titles
Fantasy/Sword & Sorcery Titles
Marvel M to Z Titles
Viz Titles

How can you get access to the discounted prices? Easy, just click on one of the above links and enter my preferred customer password for this week: TOLKIEN

Disclosure:
As I am part of their affiliate program, clicking on one of the above links will help me out raising some credits for my future purchases... Mycomicshop.com will credit 15% of your first order (yes, your first order only, not the following ones) on my account. As a way to thank you, I offer the weekly password so you can enjoy a 10% rebate... So we both win something in the end! Thanks for you support!

Just wanted to share

Brian Cronin recently featured Sean Gordon Murphy in his Comics Should Be Good column. I have been quite impressed by Murphy's new project... You can check it in Brian's related post, just scroll down to the end until you reach the last few panels...

As I understand, this is still a work in progress but it looks really promising. I'll try to update you once it comes out... And still from this blog, I've learnt about a nice comic called Arrowsmith. I can't get to find the link back to it, just google it and you'll find something... :)

Mycomicshop.com weekly promotions

This week's promotion over at Mycomicshop.com are:

5% off pre-1981 issues

10% off modern-era issues in the following groups:
Archie Titles
Avengers Titles
DC A to L Titles
Image Titles

How can you get access to the discounted prices? Easy, just click on one of the above links and enter my preferred customer password for this week: NORMANDY

Disclosure:
As I am part of their affiliate program, clicking on one of the above links will help me out raising some credits for my future purchases... Mycomicshop.com will credit 15% of your first order (yes, your first order only, not the following ones) on my account. As a way to thank you, I offer the weekly password so you can enjoy a 10% rebate... So we both win something in the end! Thanks for you support!

Marathon read

I’ve done it; I’ve finally gone through the 7 Sin City trade paperbacks… This is quite a big chunk of a read, and the collection occupies quite a bit of real-estate on my shelves.

I remember picking them up from Amazon.com… They had like a “grab bag” promotion at the time which allowed me to get the complete story for less than USD90 shipped (and that’s a good deal considering I live half-way around the world). I was saving big on shipping; that was basically the main reason why I ordered it.

“What do you mean?” is my friend Pedro asking… What I mean is I know everybody says it’s an awesome story, I know it’s Frank Miller, I know they made a movie out of it BUT it’s black and white… Now this would have been OK if it was a re-re-re-reprint of some uber-long series that had started a long time ago (a bit like Essential Wolverine) but I always preferred comics that were in colours. So what I really mean is the decision making criteria was the attractive price tag.

For the exact same reason (and maybe also because it is quite bulky and would request some commitment to read the whole story in an acceptable time), the books just sat there for a while before I decided reading them… And it really is an awesome read. Frank Miller really deserves his reputation and he can surely draw a woman’s body… Or actually, maybe not, they’re never that perfect… So let’s say he can surely perfectly draw a man’s idea of a woman’s body.

Anyway, if you’re like me and are kind of hesitating when it comes to black and white comics, don’t pass up on Sin City, it’s a beautifully drawn and very well written story that’s intensified by the fact it is black and white… It may even convert you to only read black and white comics!

Aren't you a bit old for this?

A few weeks ago, a British/Spanish friend of mine came over to my house for lunch. One of the many topics discussed was what we were doing during our spare time, and when I mentioned I liked reading comics among other things, his immediate reply was:

“Comics? Don’t you think you’re a bit old for that? Most people stop around 12 years old…”

This is such a typical answer (that I get quite often) that I shouldn’t even care anymore… But I do. In the past, I usually went on naming titles of comics that have been used in the movie business such as 300 or Sin City as the common mortals they are usually don’t know they were comics to begin with… I would then go on telling them that the word “comics” doesn’t necessarily equals to “super heroes in tights” and that there are many other genres out there (that’s usually when I throw in some of Brian Wood’s work)

Well I am happy to say that I’ve finally found a book that will make everyone agree that a comic book reader can be someone else than 10 years old little Timmy from Kickapoo, Missouri. Batman: Arkham Asylum has become my weapon of choice when it comes to fighting heretics who stopped reading comics as they “grew up”. This book is pretty disturbing and I believe would make anyone feel uncomfortable while reading it… The art conveys that discomfort feeling very well, and if it has such an effect on adults, why would we give it to read to some pre-pubic almost teenager kid?

Back to the book itself…It is really good, the art is amazing, mixing oil painting, photographs, pencil scribbles, but what I really loved was that even the whole book is super depressing, it ends on a high note that gave me a laughter… Really smart way to end the story in my opinion.

Batman and Robin #1

A lot of readers were disappointed by the whole Final Crisis / Batman R.I.P thing… If you’re part of that crowd, you probably know that Grant Morrison is now back writing Batman and the 1st issue of Batman and Robin is now out. You’ve probably picked it up already, though, but for those of you who haven’t, you can read that positive review and check out Frank Quitely’s nice artwork before committing to buying it.

Mycomicshop.com weekly promotions

This week's promotion over at Mycomicshop.com are:

5% off pre-1981 issues

10% off modern-era issues in the following groups:
DC M to Z Titles
Eclipse Titles
Marvel from 1990 to today Titles
Science Fiction Titles

How can you get access to the discounted prices? Easy, just click on one of the above links and enter my preferred customer password for this week: LEMAY

Disclosure:
As I am part of their affiliate program, clicking on one of the above links will help me out raising some credits for my future purchases... Mycomicshop.com will credit 15% of your first order (yes, your first order only, not the following ones) on my account. As a way to thank you, I offer the weekly password so you can enjoy a 10% rebate... So we both win something in the end! Thanks for you support!