This is my fourth Christmas post and with the first three I at least managed to post them at Christmas. Although I must say that problems with my computer are nothing new. In my first Christmas post I already had the problem that I couldn´t burn any files and was about to loose all my picture archive ( just like right now ). So far the topics of my posts have been :
how I pick christmas presents and why ultimates 3 sucks ( which I already knew after reading the first issue and another one about
just a short post with a larger one on the next day
Supergirl image line art by Adam Hughes, colors by Jprart on deviantart
So which topic should I choose for this post ? Now the problem is that I don´t have any access to all the pictures I collected this year. Normally I just pick something that tickles my fancy and in 95 percent of the cases I already have all the material I need. Recently one of my readers commented that my posts are waay too nerdy and all over the place.
Which is because I mostly write my posts the way I have a conversation. I thought about doing a post about Marvel´s secret Legion of Super - Heroes comics but I will do that on another occasion.
So my fourth year writing a Christmas post. I like christmas. Because I just like to give people presents. It´s true. It may sound weird that I don´t write " I like to get presents. " and kind of hypocritical. Because on one side for me Christmas is about finding the perfect gift for others. On the other side I mostly get pretty crappy gifts. Especially my younger brother has big problems in that departement.
One year I even went so far as to make a whishlist on amazon for him because he didn´t know what he should get me. Of course he never looked at it in the end. I don´t know, maybe I should just do it like my mother and drop a few decent hints throughout the last months before Christmas. There are a few series I began reading but which I haven´t continued because I don´t have enough money to follow them all :
- CEREBUS
Back when I was in the money and starving for good reading material I started reading the phone books but because of other stuff that I deemed more important the last one I read was Vol 11 GUYS. Now that the series has ended it would be nice to read the following issues.
- POWERS
The same here. I followed the series till the 8th trade LEGENDS. There have been a few since then but because I never remembered which was the last one I had read I lost track of the series. I have heard that they have even gone to Marvel´s ICON imprint in the meantime. Also a book I would like to continue even if the double page spreads are so confusing that you don´t know if it really is a double page spread or just two separate pages.
- RISING STARS
Yes, this is an oldie but goody. I read the first two trades and for anyone who wants to try this series out I should add that you should read the first two trades or none at all. Because there are some things in the first trade that are weird and only make sense after reading the second one. There were a few more trades but I think there are two that are important for the storyline.
- DYNAMO 5
This is a rather new one. I don´t think I have written something about this series. It´s a pretty decent superhero book with an innovative twist ( at least as far as I can say after reading the first trade ) and nice art. I got the first trade which was pretty cheap - thanks to IMAGE´s policy of putting out the first trades of series for ten bucks - but I never got around to buy the following ones. I also lost track of INVINCIBLE but a few months ago I got all the new trades.
- JACK STAFF
I started reading Paul Grist on his cop series KANE of which I only got some scattered issues. There were some plans to release the series in Germany but I don´t know if they ever released more than one. KANE was a series which I mostly found at conventions or one time even at a WILDSTORM signing but I lost track of it. I don´t even know if the whole series is available in trade.
With JACK STAFF I felt it was my second chance to read Paul Grist. The series is about the hero JACK STAFF who was Britain´s greates hero who vanished twenty years ago and resurfaces now - a bit like Captain America. I like the series not only because of Paul Grist´s art and writing but also because he tries to build the english superhero universe. And into this he incorporates such heroes / anti heroes like THE CLAW, THE SPIDER and others who appeared in british pulp comics and which were published in Germany in the cult comic KOBRA.
Just ask anybody of my generation and he will probably fondly remember the KOBRA comics. Anyway, trying to stay on topic here I got the first two trades but there are two more available. And although the writing is a bit repetetive in some cases - due to the fact that this series is not written for the trade - I would like to see how the story continues. One thing I have to add about the switch from black and white in the first trade to colour in the second trade is that it has good parts but also it´s bad parts.
The good part with the black and white version is that since you have to colour it in your mind it´s always right as if it´s colored by the comic artist your vision might not be the same as his. The bad part with the black and white version is that for instance a black person can look white if the artist doesn´t draw him different from the whiteys. Which is the case with one of the characters. I reread the first two trades recently and tried to order the third from amazon but they ran out of copies. So I will have to order them through blackdog or another comicshop one of these days.
Other series that I have on my list are WALKING DEAD - I only got the first two trades, THUNDERBOLTS - because of my budget I am following it in trade now but I always forget to write down the last issue I read before going to the comicshop, WALTER SIMONSON´S THOR - I got the first two trades but since I already have the issues in the floppy format it´s not that urgent, NEW MUTANTS CLASSIC - got the first two trades to close gaps in my collection and I have to get the following trades one of these days, MAN OF STEEL - also to close some gaps ( as well as reading them in chronological order ) and I need the trades 5 and up, etc., etc., etc.
The list just goes on and on. On the other side there are some comics which are going to be presents in the not too distant future. For one VAMPIRE BOY 1 by Carlos Trillo and Eduardo Risso which wasn´t up to the quality of 100 BULLETS and also the first LONE RANGER trade which for my taste had a weird story and pretty mediocre art. I think the best part were the covers by Sean Cassidy. I put both of them in my thread to get rid of some of my comics and tried to get some WALKING DEAD trades for them. But no luck so far.
As for the Christmas presents for this year I got all of them till the end of last week which is cool because you don´t have to get into the whole mess that is Christmas shopping in the last days before christmas. The bad part is that you have to wait that much longer till it´s finally Christmas. I think I got some good ones this year and if I can I will post something about that after the holidays because there is the slim chance that one of my brother´s might read this.
I know that they usually never read it but like always it would be just what I need that one of them finds out prematurely about his present. My older brother is especially hard to surprise since he has begun to sneak around my stuff lately. I remember that once I had to buy three birthday gifts for him because he kept finding the hidden presents and ruined the surprise. Which is one of the reason why I try to buy presents that I also like. You never know when you have to keep it for yourself because your brother already found out and ruined the surprise.
So anyway, once again this is the end of the post. I hope to do a review of this year which is a pretty popular thing for blogs at the end of the year. Last year I started a look back on the best and worst as well as some predictions what the new year has to offer. With a bit of luck I can do something similar this year - even if I couldn´t finish the series last year.
So here´s a Merry Christmas to all my readers out there ( if there are still a few left ), all my link partners, the writers of the blogs I like to read as well as all the other bloggers out there keeping it real.
If you are reading this you are the resistance.
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