Beginning the Rain Wild Chronicles by Robin Hobb

As New Year is coming up I thought I'd better get up-to-date with recording my reading as I've recently completed Books 1 and 2 of the Rain Wild Chronicles by Robin Hobb.

It's taken me sometime to read this, not any fault of the books themselves but the fact that I've seemed to have little time for reading. Evenings are currently occupied by watching Buffy and Angel box-sets and figure painting and football take-up my time during the day.

Anyway, Book 3 awaits and I'll continue until I finish all four books in the series.

The Crimes of Grindelwald

The family all went to see this movie last week.

I was a little disappointed to be honest. Perhaps it will feel better once it's part of the a complete story but there was an element of treading water going on.

For the record, I don't believe Grindelwald's big surprise at the end. I think he's messing with people.

The Silver Surfer by Dan Slott and Mike Allred

Last night I finished the fifth and final trade collection of Slott and Allred's Silver Surfer run.

All my versions were read on my Kindle and I didn't mind one bit reading the digital version.

Loved the series too. A satisfactory conclusion at the end was cleverly scripted. Great job all round.

Conan Treasury Edition 1975

So in the new year, Marvel will publish an Omnibus of the first 24 or so issues from their 1970s Conan comic. I'm interested in this as I've not read any of these stories and it's got a very good reputation.

Therefore, to test the waters so-to-speak, I finally read this Treasury edition which I've owned for years to see if I'd enjoy Conan stories.

Well....I do. And that Omnibus is now pre-ordered! Can't wait.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

                                        

A very enjoyable movie. The world wasn't at stake but there was lots of imaginative action and some great humour.

The New Teen Titans Vol 7 and 8 "The Judas Contract"

I've finally got round to completing these trades and reading the famous "Judas Contract" arc in NTT.

I really enjoyed that story and I can see why it became so popular and famous back in the day (1985).

Perez leaves after issue 50 (in Vol 8) and I feel the series suffered somewhat as a result. No shame in that because he is almost impossible to replace. Vol 8 finished with a reprint of issue 58 and it was a nice conclusion for me to complete my collection. 

Three new DC Silver Age Omnibus Editions

Legion of Super-heroes Vol 2, Supergirl Vol 2 and The Flash Vol 3 all look fantastic on my bookshelf.

No issues with the condition of any of these after shipping by Amazon. 

Jurassic World - Fallen Kingdom.

Saw this movie yesterday. The plot was a bit overdone as they threw everything at the story just to make another action sequence and move the, somewhat ridiculous story along.

Jim Starlin's Thanos Saga

Inspired by Infinity War and the fact that I have all the comics from Starlin's original saga from the 1970s - I thought I'd read them!

It all starts with his first appearance in Iron Man #55 but then moves to Captain Marvel where Thanos gets hold of the cosmic cube and CM goes all cosmic and aware!

Thanos is actually defeated at the conclusion of the story in issue #33

Strangely the story also includes a few issues Daredevil - basically because Moondragon, also of Titan, is introduced.

and an issue of Avengers with a classic cover.

After the conclusion of his CM run, Starlin moved onto Warlock (Strange Tales and then published under Warlock's own name)

I decided to read that from the beginning as it all ties-in eventually.

 There was some great Starlin art in those issues.

Eventually the story concludes in two 1977 Annuals.

And that was that for a few years. Some classic issues in that run.

So, for a change, I've got to read plenty of original issues (27 altogether).

Back to Teen Titans next.

Solo A Star Wars Movie

A great film. As much as I've enjoyed Episodes VII and VIII, overall I have preferred Rogue One and now Solo more.

Avengers Infinity War

So Part 1 of the Infinity Saga film has landed and it's great. I've seen it twice and although, of course, it's not perfect it is still an awesome achievement to include so many heroes and Thanos in just one film.

It's certainly meant the value of my Iron Man #55 which is the first appearance of Thanos has increased.

New Trades from the Bargain Shelf at Forbidden Planet

I like visiting Forbidden Planet in Birmingham as at least that store has items on sale unlike Forbidden Planet Coventry or Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham.

This time I picked Vols 6,7 & 8 of Superman Chronicles for £2.99 each (but with a buy 2 get 3rd free) and a nice Darwyn Cooke Spirit trade.

I wouldn't have normally gone for Golden Age Superman but this was an exceptional offer because for £6 I got reprints of Action 37 - 47, Superman 10 - 15 and World's Finest 2 - 4. Interesting from a comics history point of view and I'm really happy with them. I think these were on sale because DC are now releasing Golden Age Superman with a new trade dress.

JLA Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 2

My copy of JLA Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 2

I can't believe it's only been a year since I bought my first DC omnibus and it was Vol 1 of this series. I loved the format so much I've bought about 10 more since then. These form all of my pre-Crisis DC collection.

My newest arrival is Vol 2 and I'm delighted to get more cool JLA stories from the dawn of the Bronze Age.

Only problem was that my copy arrived with a small tear in the dust jacket. This is the first one of these weighty tomes that has actually arrived damaged in any way. Bit of a shame.

I tried to repair the damage as much as possible.

I know I could have returned but I can live with it and, whilst I would like a pristine copy, it's the stories I'm interested in.

I've 2 more Omnibus on pre-order. My biggest problem is where the hell am I going to store them!

Black Panther movie

Should have posted this over a month ago when I actually saw this movie.

We (the Marvel comic loving audience) are being spoilt by the consistently good MCU movies. This was another example. Not one of my top 5 because I thought the plot a bit predictable, but I loved Wakanda and I especially loved the costumes in this film. I'm still amazed that films featuring B-list characters such as Doc Strange, Ant-Man and Panther can have such successful movies when none could keep an on-going comic going for very long.

Best bit - car chase in South Korea.

Roll on to Avengers Infinity War.

Thor 262

This back-issue was one of the ones I was missing from the lot I won last year. Only 99p and makes me feel warm inside not having a little gap in the collection.

Great cover too.

All my Harley Quinn

The reason I've not posted much at all so far this year is that I've been waiting until I finished all my Harley Quinn books by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner.

I've now finished all eight. Six deluxe editions reprinting the main series and 2 spin-offs.

Generally, the series was very good. Lighthearted stories, always well told with witty scripts and nice art. And some fantastic Amanda Conner covers too.

The stories were'nt particularly dramatic but the charming and interesting characters made the series enjoyable.

The two spin-offs were perhaps even more fun. The team do Power Girl so well and the interaction between her and Harley was very enjoyable. This concept was taken further with Harley's Little Black Book which was basically a team-up book. Except for the Green Lantern team-up this 40 page stories were especially fun.

I think is only half of the Palmiotti/ Conner output as the series then progressed to the New 52 but more importantly, DC stopped publishing the deluxe HCs - so I stopped buying. I have got some of this New 52 material in digital format but I haven't read any just yet. After 2 1/2 months of Harley craziness, it's time for something different.

Summary of 2017

I'm not going to crunch the numbers for this year as I usually do because I already know that I've bought far more than I've read. In fact I don't think I've read that much except whilst I was away in New Zealand for a month.

But I am going to talk about how 2017 has been different because it has in two main ways.

Firstly, I've bought a tonne of DC Omnibus editions. This Silver and Bronze Age material is all new and these collections are fantastic for me. I've also bought a few trades of older material but it's the Omnibus editions which I really like. However, they are big and I'm running out of space on my shelves for any more.

Secondly, and perhaps even more significantly, I've discovered digital comics. Firstly on kindle and then on comixology. These are brilliant because they are both cheap and they take up no space on the shelf (see above). I've bought loads in the various sales, some of which I already had but a similar amount of new stuff too. I plan to switch to digital for everything except the DC Omnibus editions.

One final point to note and it's important to me because its a bit of a milestone. I've now completed a run on Marvel Two-In-One. I'm chuffed to bits as it's only taken me since 1977 when I bought my first issue!

So what will 2018 bring I wonder? I need to really read more but gaming rulebooks have slowed down my pace on fiction. We shall see!