Batman Ego and Other Catwoman Tails

I've been wanting to read "Ego" by Darwyn Cooke for a bit and decided to give it a go as a change of pace from Bronze Age Conan stories.

Also "Ego" was good I preferred "Selena's Big Score" which was also included in the collection. That led me to continue reading Catwoman stories and I've now finished Vol 2 of Catwoman by Ed Brubaker.

Although Darwyn Cooke is no longer on art, these were still great stories and just proves what a fantastic writer Brubaker is.

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.

More hardcovers and trade paperback collections

It's been a busy time with purchases recently although fortunately I've not spent too much as all the books were bargains. These three purchases were via the Book Depository and were approx 1/3 less than Amazon prices even accounting for P&P.

Quite a range of titles here from Bronze Age Superman, to Batman from 2000s and very recent Marvel series. In fact, I'll read the Vision Vol 2 very soon as Vol 1 was so good.

Teen Titans Silver Age Omnibus Vol 1

This is the 2nd DC Omnibus in about a week to arrive!

I wanted this because it contains a great deal of Nick Cardy artwork. He's an artist I've admired for sometime but didn't have any of his stuff.

Plus, I've been enjoying the New Teen Titans collections so I was curious on their origins. I read the first story , The Brave & The Bold #54 (June-July 1964), and it was silly but fun. These won't be anything like modern stories or even from the 1990s but I think I'm going to enjoy them. And Cardy's art, especially the covers, looks great.

I bought the book on Amazon for £58.49. It was shrink-wrapped but the corners were knocked a little. It actually looks worse on the pic above that it is in real life.

I lovely Darwyn Cooke cover too.

Various new purchases over the last few weeks

Two DC collections to start with.

I've said before how much I like Darwyn Cooke's art and with his sad passing it's a shame we won't get any more. So I have to try and collect as much of his existing stuff as I can and this is a lovely oversized volume collecting a great deal of his DC stuff. I will still have to get "Batman: Ego" but then I have it all.

I'm also going to try out the New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. This series is often mentioned or compared to the X-Men and following some recent posts on Bronze Age Babies I thought this was a good time to try the stuff out.

Unfortunately the Omnibus editions are sold out  but the series of trades collecting 8 or so issues in each are still being published with vol 6 due early next year. I'm going to start vol 1 and decide if I'll order some more.

Velvet Vol 3 is the concluding vol by Brubaker and Epting. I'll read all 3 together very soon.

The Rocketeer

I've recently finished all my Rocketeer trades.

First up was the Complete Adventures by the creator Dave Stevens. This consists of two stories the second of which I've had for some time. Simple plots full of humour and adventure with fantastic art. I love Dave Steven's style.

Post Steven's death, new stories have been published and I thought I'd try a couple.

These were definitely in homage to the original work but lacked the art (although I can't moan at Darwyn Cooke's crack at the character in the adventures Treasury.)

Both volumes were fun to read though.

Two Massive Marvel Omnibus

Well I've been coveting these two massive collections for some time and finally gave in and treated myself.

I'm pleased I did as they look great.

Spider-man omnibus is 1088 pages (approx 40 issues) reprinting the earliest adventures by Lee and Ditko.

X-Static omnibus is even bigger at 1200 reprinting loads of issues from 10 years ago. But it's the whole run and I'm quickly becoming a fan of Mike Allred's art.

God knows when I'll get stuck into these but when I do, I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

Now considering selling some of my old Lee/ Ditko issues as the omnibus does the stories justice and I'll probably not really "read" the originals again. Oh, what to do!?

Well..I'll be damed: Before Watchmen

This hardcover collection reprints two of the "controversal" Before Watchmen stories. Minutemen by Darwyn Cooke and Silk Spectre by Cooke and Amanda Conner. 10 issues collected in all in a nice package.

Now whilst I agree that Watchmen didn't NEED prequels, I enjoy the works by both these creators suffciently enough to overlook that fact (and any objections Alan Moore may have) to purchase and enjoy these stories.

What was nice about them was that they ( in my opinion at least) fit neatly into to the Watchmen storyline, have detailed art in respect of Dave Gibbon's work and both storylines were nice character studies rather than big action thrillers.

A good (but maybe not essential) read.

Before Watchmen...(oh and Star Wars to)

 Two more trade collections have arrived so far this week.

Am I bad purchasing this Before Watchmen: Minutemen and Silk Spectre by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Connor because Alan Moore doesn't want me to?

Well to be honest, Watchmen didn't need prequels as the story was nicely self contained but as DC decided they fancied a bit more cash, then getting Cooke and Conner involved meant they will get my £££s.

Moore can get off his high horse as the original characters were copies and he continues to write the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which uses existing characters for his own ends. He's not God. He's from freaking Northampton for goodness sake. I've a few friends from there and they ain't even Saints (despite the Rugby team claiming that title).

So I've bought this deluxe edition and it looks lovely. It will probably be the only one unless I can get the Adam Hughes art one cheap.

Speaking of cheap - the last volume (No. 7) in Dark Horse's trades reprinting Marvel's old Star Wars comics was only £4.23 on ebay. SOLD!

Superman Kryptonite by Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale

I breezed through this very quickly as it was so good and an easy read. Lovely pictures by Tim Sale as ususal.

More swag from London

I confess to buying the majority of my stuff via the internet. It's just so much cheaper that it's stupid not too but if items are a similar price or hard-to-get or better in a sale then I am more than happy to support comics shops.

I made my third visit to Forbidden Planet London this year and came away with these two Batman: The Brave and the Bold trades which are hard to find on Amazon etc. So that was a result. Although an all-ages comic -who cares? The reviews were always awesome on this!

I also picked up the brand new Rocketeer Treasury Edition by various writers/artists including Darwyn Cooke. It's big and looks nice and being only a £5 looks good value. More Rocketeer to read- yay!

I was disappointed not to pick-up Star Wars Vol 5 in the sale. Sniff. It was there last time. Lots of Vol 4 but I guess you win some and lose some.

DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke

Over the last week and a bit I've read both volumes of The New Frontier. Each volume is 200 pages and writtena and drawn by Darwyn Cooke.

I thought is was pretty awesome and lived up to the promise of being a classic. In fact I think it would get better on subsequent readings as my knowledge of DC history isn't that great.

I am very plased to have bought this.

Crazy time in London Comic Shops

 I had another business trip to London a couple of days ago and I got to visit both Forbidden Planet and Mega City Comics whilst I was there. I picked up 4 trades/ collections all for cheaper than I could have got them on Amazon.

The sale at FP again yielden results with this SHIELD hardcover "Agents of Tomorrow" by Hickman.

 Flex Mentallo always gets rave reviews on CBR but they all seem to worship Grant Morrison. What sold this for me was Frank Quitely's art which is amazing. This deluxe edition is very hard to find so I snapped it up when I saw it in Mega City.

 Recent posts have included stuff by Darwyn Cooke and although he didn't draw this story Tim Sale is a more than adequate substitute. On sale at less than a tenner? Yes please!

I also picked up Vol 4 of Dark Horse's reprints of the original Star Wars comics by Marvel. This is crazy stuff but worth it for £10 and having resisted first time round at FP I went for it this time. If they still have Vol 5 in the sale next time I am there then I'll bring that home too.

A varity of Graphic Novels & trades

Lots of new stuff has arrived in the post over the last few days. A cheap (£2.49) hardback collection of Iron Man Extremis was a bit of an impulse buy on ebay. This is from the "Ultimate Graphic Novel Collection" but I don't mind as the story with a few pages of extras looks well presented. I have the majority of the UGNC in the original comics so it was not something I was particularly interested in - but this was one story I was missing.

 The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke is supposed to be excellent so when Amazon got some new stock in I jumped at the chance to buy both volumes.

I read an article about Ravine on CBR and was impressed by the painted artwork as well as being interested in the fantasy based story. This is a 128 page original graphic novel published by Image. I don't know how many volumes they are planning but it sure looks pretty leafing through it!

This weeks reading

I've read a few more Incredible Hulks from 1975. Written by Len Wein they are fairly typical Hulk stories from this period. Herb Trimpe on the art is inking himself though and it's not a good look. Herb needs a strong inker in my opinion and the poor art is quite distracting at times.

I've also read Catwoman Vol 1 by Darwyn Cooke and Ed Brubaker. I've had to sit around in hospital for a few hours a couple of times in the last week and this certainly helped pass the time. I actually think this is my first exposure to Cooke's work and I was mightly impressed. Brubaker takes over the writing for the 2nd half of the book and, whilst probably not as strong as his Captain America or Criminal work, the crime stories were certainly entertaining.

Going to push on with some more Hulks this Bank Holiday weekend. I'm aiming to get to issue 200 before switching to something different again.