First Ship of OH-SIX: 01/05/06

Batman And The Monster Men #3 - More monsters, less men, please!
Day Of Vengeance Infinite Crisis Special - I just read the 1986 mini DC Challenge last night, and it's pretty much EXACTLY THE SAME as Infinite Crisis, only Detective Chimp can't speak. He just goes "cheep cheep" all the time, even when he's possessed by Deadman.
Detective Comics #815 - I don't even know who's on this. Some fill-in crap. Maybe it'll be wonderful.
Gotham Central #39 - Renee Bayliss takes justice into her own hands after the Internet Spectre Killer goes free...but can she live with her actions? Will she try to make Crispus Pembleton her confessor?
Teen Titans #31 - DC Zombies! Who the fuck is Lillith? WHERE IS FRANCES KANE?
Doc Samson #1 - Is this a Slott production? If not, fuck it. Green-locked Fabio scientists get no love from me.
Marvel Zombies #2 - More Sean Phillips gross outs!

I think that Slott wrote the first DOC SAMPSON mini back about ten years ago. Don't know who's responsible for this one.

HARD TIME
HEX
FRANKENSTEIN
SWAMP THING
SABLE AND FORTUNE (mmmmaybe. Will give it a look at any rate.)
What the heck is ALAN MOORE SPELLS IT OUT ?

Looks like a light-ish week, I guess.

Nothing for me this week.

Entering my household:
Seven Soldiers Frankenstein #2
Y The Last Man #41
Shadowplay #4
Down #3
Astonishing X-Men Saga #1 (maybe)
Marvel Zombies #2
New Excalibur #3 (well, probably not)
X-Men The End Book 3 Men And X-Men #1
Dead Eyes Open #3
Marlene #1

Plus Monsterman & Bat Men, as well as last week's stuff.

what is astonishing x-men saga? whedon? is it CONTINUITY or EXTRAVAGANCE?

According to Warren Ellis back in August:

"My old friend Bill Baker’s written a book called ALAN MOORE SPELLS IT OUT, focusing on the creative process of the author of FROM HELL, WATCHMEN and V FOR VENDETTA.

The PR says: “Alan Moore Spells It Out marks the first print appearance of one of the most in-depth interviews ever conducted with this celebrated writer. Even better, its focus is Moore’s approach to creating art, with special attention paid to his thoughts on magic, its relationship with language and with creativity, and tons of stuff on making good comics…. This is something that’s more like overhearing a great conversation between a couple of good buddies than reading an interview, however good it might be. Bill managed to provide Alan with the perfect forum for the kind of discussion which is rarely heard these days, much less captured on tape. Everyone who’s read the mock up, or even had a chance to glance through the Alan Moore-approved transcript, has gotten pretty excited by what they’ve seen.”

Alan Moore Spells It Out will be an 80 page, sparsely illustrated trade paperback measuring 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, and retail for $9.95 US. And it’s out in November. If you’re near a good comics store, ask for it now and they’ll pre-order it for you. It’s released by Airwave Publishing."

When the frigging friggerty is All-Star Superman #2 due out?

Thanks Vic. I think that one'll manage to find a nice home with me.

You could just go back to your back issues of my magazine*, for which Alan Moore wrote a series on how he writes comics. Lesser publication the Comics Journal reprinted it a few years later.

*Hey, I know at least one ILXer has such a collection!

Aquaman #38 - counting down the issues to cancellation! Sorry, "rebranding".
Batman And The Monster Men #3 - I missed the first couple of these but picked them up as back issues thatnks to Huk's pimping. Excellent stuff.
Jonah Hex #3 - NOT AS GOOD AS SHOWCASE PRESENTS. But then what is?
Seven Soldiers Frankenstein #2 - I WILL READ THIS ONE SOBER, I PROMISE.
Swamp Thing Vol 4 #23 - Testing even my tolerance for muck-monsters, frankly.
Y The Last Man #41 - MORE NUNS LOOKING FOR A NEW POPE PLS.
Down #3 - This is the Warren Ellis thing, right?
Iron Man Vol 4 #5 - Whereas this is the permanently late WE book.
Marvel Zombies #2 - MORE LIMBS BURSTING OUT OF BRUCE BANNER PLS.
Punisher MAX #29 - A big double cross shooting plotline. Like that narrows it down.

Did Superman/Batman come out last week?

Ian: Astonishing X-Men Saga looks to be a 48-page summation of the first 12 issues of Whedon / Cassaday goodness, much like (if buzz is to be believed) them there old clip-art-tastic Marvel Saga books.

I would love to see an X-Men: The End Saga done w/ the proper amount of disbelief & incredulity such an undertaking demands.

With scribbled chickenscratch notes by a boozed-up Paul O'Brien in all the margins.

Fucking Warskrulls AGAIN, Claremont? Fuck off. - P'OB

Oh, look, bloody Sage and her fucking computer brain are here to save the day AS IF ANYONE GIVES A TOSS, YOU PONCE. REBOOT. BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH. STACK OVERFLOW FOR FUCK'S SAKE! - P'OB

some of this mighta been last weeks, i'm not sure...

action comics
gotham central
invincible iron man
inevitable iron man (i like iron man, what can i say.)
jonah hex (this has looked intriguing for a little while now..)
superman/shazam: first thunder

I BOUGHT:

Wimbledon Green

gotham central is so good, i am going to kill myself when it is over.

Dude, wait until AFTER 52 is finished!

if they don't start collecting more gothams central in tpb format soon i'm going to be one unhappy dude.

I think that another one is coming out in the next few months - it is in the DC solicits

Is Bat Lash really in the new Jonah Hex? It says so on the cover. I love Bat Lash, he's such a sissy. Why amn't I reading Jonah Hex?

She-Hulk #'s 1-3: Finally sat my fatass down and read these. I think that having read the first half of the last series in trade is what had made me dissatisfied with the first half of the first issue, like, I knew it just going be a big tease with no resolution and I didn't want to commit to CARING about Awesome Andy, Mallory, South Paw et al for just a ONE ISSUE THING. MY LOVE IS FOREVER. So I blitzed through 3 issues (or five, counting the bonus reprints in #3) in one sitting and, yeah, what was my problem? This is great stuff.
Batman And The Monster Men #3 - Saving a little something, something for tonight.
Day Of Vengeance Infinite Crisis Special - Infinitely more satisfying than all the other Infinite Crisis associated stuff put together. But I guess that's kinda the point. Loved the Detective Chimp + Rex the Wonder Dog scenes. I can't remember if this was addressed early in the mini or what, but I really like that Intelligent Animals count as magic. The Dr. Fate stuff was a little blase, but then, has Dr. Fate been at all interesting since the 40s without Giffen or DeMatteis involved? With any luck, the new Dr. Fate will team up with the new Blue Beetle and Kyle Rayner and go on a road trip to the Nine Inch Nails reunion tour.
Detective Comics #815 - Why doesn't Chiang's art look as good inside as it does on the cover? Is it the colouring? It's the colouring. I HATE COLOURS. Anyway, the story, is okay, with lotsa groaners: "Suddenly, I'm 8 yrs old again" BatWayne says when Alfred takes a knife to the belly. I want "City of Crime" back. Cuz see, what I loved about "City of Crime" and most of my other favourite Batman stories is that Batman DOESN'T have a personal connection to the case he's working, but HE MAKES IT PERSONAL, because every victim of crime is 8-yr-old Brucio, and that's why he puts on a cape. Because he can't (in current continuity, at least) catch his parents' killer, he has to stop EVERY SINGLE OTHER CRIME in Gotham City. But when it's just, "OMG, you killed Jason!" or "Don't make stabby on my gentleman's gentleman!" or "Not without my daughter!" then he's really just, I dunno, the Punisher sans guns.
Gotham Central #39 - Almost an unnecessary issue, plot-wise. I think that everything that happened this issue could be extrapolated from the last two. Except that they really seemed to focus on the second shift. Is that portentious of something? The art, however, is soooo good that I don't mind the complete obviousness of the rest of the issue.
Teen Titans #31 - Hmmmm. I don't know what I think of this. Old Man Superpants to blame for everything, but Superboy-Prime seems eager to catch up. The lettering was off toward the end of the issue, and WTF? I thought this was going to be a 3-part story, and I think Scott Shaw! did too.
Marvel Zombies #2 - Wheeeeeee! A+
Superman/Batman #23 - If you haven't read the last 2 years worth of S/B over the 3.5 years it's taken for the issues to come out, NOTHING MAKES ANY SENSE. Or does it? Does it all make TOO MUCH SENSE?

Woah, Hard Time is back? Awesome.

Yeah, I should probably start buying it. But I've been holding off on buying things until I actually have an income again, so it was just Bulleteer and Frankenstein for me this week (and lo, the plot of Seven Soldiers finally makes sense!).

Frankenstein - Flesh-eating Martian zombie horses that don't eat flesh! Luke, I am your father! Over-wrought prose!

Frankenstein: The "dung" line was a bit of a clasic -- strangely excellent use of exclamation-point-non-sequiturs by GM in this series so far. The rest was a bit fatuous... thought the overwrought text-boxshes were going to be revealed to be some sort of joke -- who's the narrator anyway? -- but maybe next issue.

I don't really think that level of Lovecraftian pastiche is a joke, I think it's just what the comic is like.