Category: comics

I just started reading Concrete: The Human Dilemma. I’ve had this mini-series sitting in my reading pile since it was published back in 2004/2005. I’m really enjoying it, and I wish I had more Concrete to read, but I just checked Wikipedia, and apparently there hasn’t been any Concrete published since then. Oh well.
Paul Chadwick does a great job of mixing large-scale social commentary with small-scale human moments. And his artwork is great too. He obviously puts a lot of thought into panel arrangement and “camera angle” within the panels, and sometimes uses little tricks (for lack of a better word) that could only work in comics. Bits that, in the wrong context, would be distracting, but work well for him.

OK, I know it’s sappy, but I like it.

Also, in the “dubious achievements” department, I have finally caught up and read all of the comic strip e-mails that have been piling up in my GMail account. I subscribe to GoComics.com, and get a daily e-mail with about a dozen strips. I fell behind in reading them quite a while ago and never caught up. Until this weekend, when I inexplicably had an urge to read about six months worth of comic strips. (One of the things that helped me catch up is that the older e-mails largely consisted of broken image links, since they apparently don’t keep the image links functioning forever. Except for those on Garfield and Doonesbury, for some reason.)

I’m taking this week off from work, in part to relax a bit, and in part to catch up on some paperwork and tasks that I’ve been putting off for too long. I decided to read “Murder Mysteries” this afternoon. P. Craig Russell is one of my favorite artists, and Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite writers. I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read, for quite some time. It’s got some great PCR artwork, and it’s a really interesting story.
I stumbled across an interesting video yesterday, taken from a documentary, showing PCR hosting a little party for the various people who have worked for him as models. Pretty neat.

I’ve been relaxing a bit this weekend, and I just finished reading Bryan Talbot’s “Heart of Empire”. I bought a copy from him at a con (probably San Diego) a few years ago, and he did a nice little Luther Arkwright head sketch in it for me.
I need to pick up his Grandville books next. I haven’t had time to do much comic book reading lately, and I still have a heck of a pile of unread books, though, so I probably shouldn’t be thinking about buying any new ones.

75 Years Of DC Comics: The Art Of Modern Mythmaking
Wow, here’s a book I’d buy, if it were a lot cheaper. I’m sure it’s worth the price, considering the size — 720 pages and 16 pounds! And written by Paul Levitz, who is probably the man most qualified to write such a book, given his long tenure at DC.

I just finished reading Doctor Strange: The Oath, by Brian K. Vaughn and Marcos Martin. I stopped buying comics about a year ago, but I still have a big pile of unread books. This mini-series was published back in 2006, so that’s how far behind I am. This is a good standalone story. It’s respectful to the characters involved, which I appreciate. The art is quite good too — a little reminiscent of Ditko, and maybe even a bit of Kirby in places. Nice and clean, and not flashy, except when it needs to be.

There’s an article on CBR where Vaughn discusses his approach to Strange and his goals for the series. If you think you might be interested in picking this up as a trade, go read it. It’ll give you a good idea of whether or not this series would be your cup of tea.