Babylon Steel by Gaie Sebold

I read this whilst on holiday in Rhodes. Nice and simple Sci-Fi/Fantasy with a likeable main character and a fast paced plot. An enjoyable holiday read.

Has Alan Moore lost his spark?

I never completed the League of Extraordinary Gentleman "Century" as reviews of the final part weren't that good and I didn't want to read Moore having a go at Harry Potter.

But I thought I'd give both "Heart of Ice" and "Roses of Berlin" a go. I like the hardback format but it's a shame as both stories were a bit average. Especially compared to some of Moore's past work including Vols 1 & 2 of LOEG.

I think, like many creators, he's lost some of his gift. He's produced so many great stories in the past that IMHO he's probably run dry. Unless reviews of new material proves me wrong these will be my last new AM stuff and I'll read his old material - and there's quite a lot of that I've still to read.

Daredevil Vol 3 by Mark Waid

It's actually not that long since I purchased Vol 2 of these nice over-sized DD collections. So I'm happy that Vol 3 is already out. However, as I'm not reading Marvel in 2014 it's only the comfort that it's safe and sound on my bookshelf which I can take at the moment.

Black Science Vol 1

I've completed this trade a day or two ago. Hmmmm....interesting and I'll certainly get Vol 2. I see that Image have yet to publish issue 7 (this collection reprints 1-6) and I guess that's to encourage readers of the trade to pick up the monthly comics.

I loved the colours on this. Just fantastic to look at. The story was a wild and fast paced adventure with characters dieing left right and centre.

2014 A summary of the last six months

As usual at this time of year I take a look at how I've been doing on my constant BUYING v READING competition. Previous retrospectives have shown that I'm buying more than I'm reading - but is that still the case?

For this summary I'm introducing a new category - that of Epic and other collections. These are the books which are either part of Marvel's new EPIC line or they don't quite fit into the Masterworks or standard trade description.

The numbers at the end of 2013 were (brackets are the 6 month figures);

New back-issues purchased      (30) 30
New trade collections                 (44) 51
New copies of Masterworks  & Omnibus editions     (6) 24

Back-issues read                       (19) 39
Trades read                                 (19) 23
Masterworks read                      0
Books (novels)                            (3) 6

AND: Movies watched at the cinema (3)  5

For the first 6 months of 2014 my record is;

New back-issues purchased      4
New trade collections                 21
New copies of Masterworks  & Omnibus editions     12
EPIC and other collections         2

Back-issues read                       0
Trades read                                 19
Masterworks read                      0
EPIC and other collections         0
Books (novels)                            1

AND: Movies watched at the cinema     2

So I can say that I've cut down on purchases (which is a win!) but still not managed to read more than I've bought. The book I read Lies of Locke Lamora did take me a long time and with work and reading RPG stuff my time for reading comics has been restricted lately. My plan for starting my Marvel run at the beginning from early 2015 is looking like it might need to be revised. I've got lots of Batman books to get through before I start! Plus I've a few Omnibuses of more modern material I want to get stuck into as well, so perhaps 2015 will be Modern Marvel, Powers and Grendel.

Impulse Purchase - Harley Quinn

Oh the dangerous of wandering into Forbidden Planet on a whim.

Picked-up this trade which collects some of Harley's first solo adventures. I'm looking forward to the new collection by Palmiotti & Connor but thought this looked interesting as Terry and Rachel Dodson do nice cheesecake style art.