cheesywhiz

May 1, 2012 3:33 pm Well, Whedon's coming off a high with great critical reviews of his script for the very entertaining "Cabin in the Woods" and "The Avengers" snagged a great review in "Rolling Stone" even though movie critic Peter Travers called (a move he enjoyed) Whedon's use of heart and character emotion a "fanboy heresy." The Avengers has a great cast and it will earn a ton of movie. Whedon, I think, is the reason it will actually be more than a popcorn film though. Even his "misses" are usually well done stories that simply fail to connect at the level of lowest-common-denominator that mainstream entertainment expects.

October 20, 2011 10:31 am Your other criticisms are valid (though I personally find his inclusion of visually displaying, often subtly, the other dimensions of the story adds extra enjoyable layers to it), but I don't think Thompson is bordering on child-porn or anything remotely close--I don't see a "creepy" fascination with underage girls in the book at all. The moments which depict Dodola as a child-bride are disturbing and are meant to be so, but they do not pander to us, whitewash anything, or commit any great occidental sins of imposing Western concepts we would like expressed. Unless I'm forgetting something, Thompson never illustrated Dodola naked or provocatively until she was older, stated as over 18. Even then he didn't cheesecake it up or sell it as sex, always showing harsh realities in a fuller picture but letting the strength of the character shine through, and I found a lot more actual feminism at play here then in any mainstream comic work recently. Anyway, I can't fairly compare the two as I haven't read any "Love and Rockets" in years, so I have some catching up to do. I was just surprised that anything could have topped "Habibi" last month so now I have to go and see for myself if something did! For any that have read it, can you jump right in with this current volume or do you have to backtrack to understand the story?

October 13, 2011 3:36 pm I'm sure this is good stuff but I can't believe any book last month could top Thompson's "Habibi" and it's immense attention to detail and epic scope. Of course, I'm predisposed to the subject matter for other reasons and a fan of his work so that could be part of it. Not only is the art terrific and the story resonant, but it also is a great-looking product with presentation to match its quality--it's a nice addition to any comic library.

March 31, 2011 9:29 am @RocketRacoon: Gotham Central is released in just 4 volumes in the new editions from this year and last, both in hardcover and paperback. Hardcover's are pricepointed and 29.99 and tpb at 19.99, but instock trades and amazon are offering them all under 20 dollars a piece...volume 2 is longer and encompasses some of the earlier run's volume 3 as is volume 4, doing away with a seperate volume (and it is all 40 issues).

March 30, 2011 11:11 pm Maybe it's just been time and location luck for me, but I haven't run into the problem of not being able to sell single issues. I recently decided to make the switch to trades on certain titles and to replace favorite runs with nice omnibus/harcovers and unloaded the single issues at my LCS for a decent trade in value that allowed me to pick up additional trades. I didn that several times over the past year, only to have them pass on some last week so I took them to a used bookstore in town which gave me a decent amount for them. The locals shops seem to steadily move back issues--and I always hear that single back issues are so cheap now but I quickly gave up trying to get around picking up missing trades by picking up single issue runs when every time I went into a comic shop the back issues cost 4-5.00 per issue regardless of the title while the trade is 30 percent off of 20 dollars.

I like being able to read issues as they come out and enjoy the monthly fix and then pick up the trades for titles I wish to revisit in the future and to keep on my shelf. I could see digital filling this need but not everyone (myself included) has the still rather pricey digital readers or even enjoys reading comics in that manner...

March 24, 2011 9:42 am I think this book has a lot of potential. I just happened to stream the first 2 films on Netflix recently, so that helped with the flow for me knowing what was going on with things that weren't spelled out, but that would be a stumbling block for new readers like you said. This book is supposed to be official Hellraiser storyline, taking off after the first film since that was the only one Barker was associated with (and the original novella). The art was great, the story was interesting, and I think this will without much trouble be the best thing to happen to that particular mythology since the first film. Does anyone know when the Marvel Archive editions are coming out? I've checked Amazon every week for the past few months, I even typed in the ISBN number given on the back of this comic that advertises the first volume and nothing shows up.

March 15, 2011 4:18 pm @josh--good point.

March 15, 2011 3:34 pm P.S., as much as I'd hate to lose new books I think were the market to end tomorrow yet trades were still available for purchase, I'd have enough to keep busy with, moreso than i could ever hope to afford and find time to read anyway.

March 15, 2011 3:32 pm Visiting this site lately is a bit depressing. Every other article or comment is about the "dying" industry. I have enough concerns in the world without stressing over the survival of the things I do to distract and entertain myself from those other problems as well. I understand wanting to support your favorite artists and entertainers, especially when they have a small (relatively) fanbase and you wish to ensure their continued career, but ultimately unless you are rich you can only buy what is worthy of your time and money, and if artists are to survive they must make compelling work. Brubaker was excellent on the entire Criminal series thus far as with most of his Captain America run. This latest volume of Incognito is not so hot, but I'm sure he'll bounce back. There are a ton of great books on the market, buy those and drop the poor ones. I'm tired of hearing about the supposedly imminent death of the print media--music supposedly died in the physical media format yet there is a thriving vinyl industry (relatively speaking) that will stay on as a niche market--while I may enjoy listening to downloads on my ipod, if I truly want to experience the work I have to pick it up in vinyl for the much better sound, more interactive engagement, archival and display status, etc. Were comics to go digital and I had the device to read them on and it was worthwhile as far as cost, I could see myself reading my weekly issues digitally but still buying the nice Hardcovers and trades of stuff truly worth keeping, that will remain as a niche market if not larger so; digital has its benefits, but it certainly doesn't replace the physical item when that item is presented in the right way. Print is going to be around, I can rarely find the academic material I need digitally and even on large, classic items that are free-to-cheap for download, if it's something I need to return to often enough I prefer a nice, hardcover, annotated edition. @zenman, if baseball is on its way out, how in the heck can Pujols negotiate a 300million+ contract?

December 10, 2010 11:41 pm Currently I live in small apartment but hope to move back to larger space by next year. I use short boxes b/c you can stuff them anywhere, but once I have the space I hope to make the move to filing cabinets. My career in academics forces me to maintain a library, so under a stack of physcial media it can get crowded, but filing cabinets look nice, presentable, office-like and can organize a massive collection in a decent amount of space. I agree that trades and absolutes  are the archive ideal, but if I follow a series in floppy form I don't always want to pay for them again in trade--but I might like them enough that I want to hold on to them rather than cull them. Sure, every collection can use a browse through to trim the fat now and again, but I'm always finding a series I want to reviist, a story-arc that ties in with a current one worth reinvestigating, etc. The collection aspect is something I can't imagine giving up even though new media is so much in itself to keep track of...