Well, I had so much fun last week in the 2000 AD-verse that I decided to stay for another week. This week I read Slaine, The Horned God by Pat Mills with art by Simon Bisley, published by Rebellion.

Slaine is the story of a Celtic barbarian who rises above his thieving ways to become the High King of the Celt Kingdoms. This seems to be the basis for all the sword-and-sorcery things these days. In this case, the tribes of North worship the Earth Goddess and life, which brings them into conflict with the tribes of the South who worship death. Slaine, the hero, has to unite the warring tribes and gather a bunch of magical artifacts to defeat the bad guys. I can’t remember the exact names of the magic doohickies but it includes the sorcerous Hot Tub of Life, Sword of Slicing-n-Dicing and a magic rock. Lots of fighting ensues and the good guys mostly win.

I jest about the story but Pat Mills has created an excellent sword-and-sorcery story, easily as good as any Conan tale published. The heroes are big and manly. The villains are vile and evil. And the women are… well Bisley drew them so their big is in all the right places, too. Pat Mills has never really made the leap from 2000 AD to American comic books but he is a heck of a writer. If you’re going to write a barbarian adventure then the battles, the quest and the villains all have to be bigger than life. And this story succeeds.

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Well, I’ve had enough of superheroes for awhile so it’s back to things you most definitely haven’t read. This week I returned to the Judge Dredd-verse and read Judge Anderson: Shamballa, written by Alan Grant with art by Arthur Ranson.

This is a recent collection of older Judge Anderson adventures. I’ve long been a fan of Judge Dredd and his universe because it is so different than the typical American comic. Plus, it’s fun to see early material from top creators that has been pilfered by the American comic book industry.

The first story is "Shamballa." The world starts to experience mass hallucinations and other strange phenomena. The ordinary Judges turn to their psychic expert, Judge Anderson. In short, Anderson enlists the aid of a retired Psi Judge, travels to the region that was Tibet and saves the world. But, along the way has several philosophical discussions on the state of man and the origins of the universe. It’s an interesting little story. The second story, "The Jesus Syndrome" is about a tent revivalist who threatens the Judges’ hold on the city by preaching peace and non-violence. The third story, "Satan," involves a very powerful, very evil creature which returns to Earth to destroy it. And finally, there are a couple of short stories too. Notice any thematic trends???? Anyway…

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Keeping with my recent superhero reading fest, I picked up the Avengers: First to Last hardcover this week. This book collects back-up stories from Avengers Classic #1-12 and a miniseries from 1995, The Last Avengers Story. I only bought this for the Last Avengers, which I knew was good, but was pleasantly surprised by the quality stories from Avengers Classic.

Similar to the Classic X-Men series from years ago, Avengers Classic reprinted the first issues of the Avengers with a backup story which was supposed to “fill in the gaps.” The shorts were written by Stan Lee, Dwayne McDuffie, Macon Blair and Bob Burden. There was art by Kevin Maguire, Michael Avon Oeming (using his painted style), Juan Doe and Sergio Aragones.

I wasn’t sure I would like the shorts but they were all very good. And, more importantly, I liked it right from the first story. The first story, by Stan Lee and Kevin Maguire, is a humorous take on the Avengers as they decide to become a team. I’m not a fan of anything Stan has written since 2000 but he turned in a very tight script. Maguire’s art didn’t hurt either. As always, the three stories by Dwayne McDuffie were great. Macon Blair, a new name to me, also did a good job writing. Bob Burden, of Flaming Carrot fame, told a wonderful tale about Molemen deciding to stay on the surface to drink beer and watch TV instead of returning to a life of working hard for the Mole Man. While none of the stories were super-amazing-fantastic, they all provided good entertainment. I really liked the different art styles, too.

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Lately I’ve been reading lots of “deeper” titles. By “deeper” I mean books that are more than just men in tights or the latest event gimmick. There’s nothing wrong with complex books but occasionally I need to get back to my superhero roots. I need a good dose of men and women in spandex just knocking the stuffing out of each other for no apparent reason. And this week I was lucky enough to get pointless superheroics in spades in the latest Hulk collection. That’s right, I read the Red Hulk saga by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness.

In case you weren’t aware, a red Hulk appeared and started causing trouble. In the first issue the red Hulk kills the original Abomination. In the second issue he attacks the SHIELD Helicarrier. In the third issue he battles the new Abomination, who happens to be Rick Jones. In the fourth issue he battles the original, green Hulk. In the fifth issue he battles Thor. And in the sixth issue he battles Thor AND the green Hulk. All six issues involve some color Hulk in an over-the-top, massively destructive battle and it’s wonderful.

Here it is: I liked this book. It isn’t a new version of Watchmen but it isn’t meant to be. This is a strict superhero slug fest with lots of pointless action. This is nothing but an excuse to watch some color of Hulk smash things.

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I’ve been reading lots of humor and superheroes lately so I decided to try something different. This week I read Snaked by Clifford Meth and Rufus Dayglo, and I was treated to a truly scary horror book.

Snaked is the story of Bill Timmons. Timmons is a low level public official who works on campaigns for various political operatives. It turns out that Timmons is a "Nechashim," or Serpentine American. He is a genetic offshoot that looks like a normal person but is part snake and has some of the characteristics of snakes. For instance, every 11 years he sheds his skin.

The story opens with Timmons in jail. A former politico is in custody, or a sanitarium, relates the events that lead to Timmons arrest. All the while, the politico is in fear that Timmons will get out of jail and hunt him down. Apparently, there was a vast conspiracy that involves the events of September 11 and Timmons was a pawn that got compromised. The first issue contains a graphic, page turning, gut wrenching prison scene that is fantastic. Needless to say, Timmons escapes. I assumed that would be the peak in the series but issue #2 managed to top it with a hospital delivery room scene that needs to be read to appreciate. Overall, the story is full of conspiracy tales and some really horrific moments.

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Another week, another book I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who read. This week I read the trade paperback LUCHA LIBRE, written by Bill Frissen with art by a host of people. The trade collects issues #1-5 of the original series.

Two things drew me to this book: first, the art; and second, the masks. I will admit that I don’t watch American or Mexican wrestling so I really wasn’t sure what to expect. The first story, "Luchadores Five," was written by Jerry Frissen with art by Bill. The story follows a superhero team, like the Superfriends except they’re masked wrestlers, as they try and save the world. The problem is no one knows or believes they are superheroes. Their wives and girlfriends yell at them and even the neighborhood winos laugh at them. The adventure starts when the Luchadores notice a news cast that shows Gojira destroying parts of downtown Los Angeles. It turns out the evil super genius Elveze kidnaped Gojira’s children and blackmailed him into destroying Los Angeles. The Luchadores Five superhero team rushes off to stop him. This summary sounds fairly straight forward but the story is far sillier than that. Gojira looks like a fat bodied giraffe and has the personality of an old alcoholic. There’s a werewolf biker gang that steals the Luchadores’ car so they have to hitch a ride to stop Gojira. Not to mention the car actually belong to a team member’s wife and she was not happy that he lost it. And to top it off there are some aliens running around. I really can’t do all the silliness justice but it works.

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Once again, I decided to read a book that takes place a foreign land. I wanted to read about something I was unfamiliar with,  so I picked a book about Hollywood. This week I read Screamland, written by Harold Sipe with art by Hector Casanova. I read the trade paperback collecting the original five-issue mini-series

Screamland explores Hollywood from the perspective of the classic monsters: Frankenstein, Wolfman, Dracula and the Mummy. They are no different than Cary Grant, William Shatner or the multitude of B-list actors used, and abused, by Hollywood. Each of the first four issues deals with one of the monsters and the final issue ties up the overall storyline. The first issue focuses on Frankenstein (his drinking problems) and sets the tone for the rest of the series. Subsequent issues deal with the Wolfman clinging to his glory days, Dracula being in the closet and the Mummy dealing with a post-9/11 world. The final issue finds all the monsters getting together to make a comeback with one last movie.

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I decided to read some superheroes this week for a change. But, since everyone already reads and reviews the basics, I went for the more off-beat Omega the Unknown. Omega was written by Jonathan Lethem and Karl Rusnak, art and letters by Farel Dalrymple, colors and chapter six interlude art by Paul Hornschemeier. I didn’t recognize Lethem or Rusnak’s names, but I am a huge fan of Dalrymple’s art so I knew long ago I would get this. Plus, month in and month out the covers were excellent so it just helped to sell me on the concept even more.

The story starts as our hero, Alex Island, who was home schooled, is traveling with his parents to a new high school. Alex is an intellectual prodigy that has no social skills, so his parents are sending him to a "normal" high school to become socialized. On the way to school their car crashes and it’s discovered that Alex’s parents are robots. Alex is taken to a local hospital and starts having nightmares about a superhero, Omega, fighting killer robots. The rest of the story involves Alex going to school, learning to be a normal person and unraveling the mystery of Omega.

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After a recent dip into European comics, I’ve decided this week to return to Americana. (Of course the story takes place outside the lower 48, so it may as well be another overseas book.) I read The Last Winter written by Larry Fessenden and Robert Leaver with art by Brahm Revel.

In the future, due to energy concerns, oil drilling has been authorized in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWAR) region. But, in an effort to keep people happy, before any oil can be drilled companies must perform environmental impact studies to insure minimal damage to the environment. The story revolves around the small team performing the studies in remote regions of Alaska. As winter approaches, the oil company North Industries sends Ed Pollack to speed the studies up and prep for drilling. This leads to clashes with Jim Hoffman, the lead environmental impact analyst. In between various arguments about the need to work versus the need to protect the environment, strange things start happening and members of the team start dying. It appears that nature is fighting back against all the drilling. In the end, the remaining team members are just fleeing for their lives, chased by nature itself.

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I’ve decided to go Euro again this week, but as a change of pace I went British and read Nikolai Dante, The Romanov Dynasty from 2000 AD. And, as always, I loved the book.

Nikolai Dante is a collection of stories that originally appeared in the weekly 2000 AD magazine. All the stories were written by Robbie Morrison and most of the art was by Simon Fraser. There were some shorter arcs that featured art by Henry Flint, Chris Weston and Charlie Adlard.

Set in the far future, when Russia has reclaimed its place as a world power, and, as is always the case with empires, there is plenty of corruption in the ruling parties. The Tsar rules with an iron fist while the chief rivals, the Romanovs, try to steal it from him. Nikolai Dante is a thief, part Aladdin, part Han Solo, who learns that he is part of the Romanov aristocracy. Mayhem ensues as Dante learns all about court politics, how much money he still doesn’t have and how much trouble he still gets into.

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Well, the World Series was this past week and, even though my team wasn’t in the big game, it was exciting to watch. Oh, who am I kidding? I didn’t watch a single game. Baseball is dull as dirt when it involves two teams I couldn’t care less about. But, I felt I needed one last baseball fix so I decided to read Dugout by Adam Beechen and Manny Bello, published by AiT/PlanetLar

The story involves baseball and an escape attempt from the local prison. The official line is:

It’s 1960, and the only thing that can save in-debt manager Cookie Palisetti and his sinking pro baseball team is getting his star pitcher out of prison. When the courts won’t show mercy, Cookie plans an exhibition game against the prison team – as cover for the wildest, most unlikely jailbreak ever!

I imagine the pitch for this book was, in movie terms, The Longest Yard meets The Great Escape. And that’s a fairly accurate assessment. There are plenty of baseball moments and plenty of character moments, too. The baseball is handled well with enough detail about the game to entertain baseball fans but not so much as to overwhelm those that don’t care about it. The characters are all likable and even the "bad guy" wins in the end.

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This week I went back to reading superheroes. Not main stream superheroes but C-listers who, for some unknown reason, have their own title. So, I read the latest Moon Knight trade, God & Country, which is the third volume of the series reprinting issues #14-20.

The “God & Country” storyline ran from issues #14-19 and was written by Mike Benson, with plot by Benson and Charlie Huston, and art by Mark Texeira. Issue #20 was a stand-alone story, “In The Company Of Wolves,” which was written Benson with art by Mike Deodato.

In case you forgot, Moon Knight has gone looney tunes. He has become ultra-violent and now scars criminals with a moon symbol on their forehead. In addition to his new, extremely violent tendencies, Moon Knight “sees and hears” Khonshu, the Egyptian moon god. The fact that no one else can see or hear Knonshu only serves to reinforce Moon Knight’s tenuous hold on reality. Oh yeah and just for good measure, Khonshu manifests as Bushman, Moon Knight’s arch nemisis, sans face because Moon Knight tore it off in the first issue, collected in the first trade.

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This week I read Largo Winch: Takeover Bid, written by Jean Van Hamme with art by Philippe Francq. Largo Winch is a French comic that has a huge following in Europe and currently has a movie in development. In America the few reprints we have are brought to us by the publisher Cinebook, and I must say I am glad there are reprints to be had!

Largo Winch, at age 26, is the sole owner of a company called "The W Group," which is worth $10 billion, making him the richest man in the world. Please note this was originally written in the early 1990s, so $10 billion back then probably could make you the richest man in the world. Anyway, as a small child Winch was trained to be the ultimate business man. It’s the same story about small children trained to be ultimate assassins, but in this case he’s a business man. The story opens as the W Group is exposed to a hostile takeover by another company. To counter the move, the W Group plans its own takeover bid of the opposing company. It’s all going according to plan until Winch’s assets are frozen by the IRS for tax fraud, leaving his company in more danger than ever before and potentially leaving Winch penniless.

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This week I went manga and read Afro Samurai by Takashi Okazaki. I was excited to read this because of all the hype that preceded it. Actually, it started as an anime in 2007, then some toys were released, and now a book has been generated. I figured any property that can generate continued interest and enthusiasm after a couple of years should be pretty good. Unfortunately, I don’t understand the thrill.

Overall, Afro Samurai is a straight-forward, manga tale of vengeance. It’s set in a strange world in which people use swords and arrows while using lighters and some other modern technologies. As a small boy, Number 2, as he is called, watches as his father, Number 1, is killed by a rival. Apparently, the number 1 fighter in the world has god like powers, which is why Number 2’s father was in the fight. Now, twenty some odd years later, Number 2 is looking for vengeance. Along the way, Number 2, who is the second best fighter in the world, encounters all sorts of villains that want the honor of being number 2 and lots of bloodshed ensues.

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This week I went “classic” and read A History of Violence by John Wagner and Vince Locke. Let me clarify “classic.” Maus, Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns. Those are classics that should be mandatory graphic novel reading. A History of Violence is considered one of the great crime fiction graphic novels so I felt I needed to read it.

As you may or may not know, A History of Violence (Note: AHV from this point forward because I’m not typing that over and over) has been out for a long time, so long that it’s already been made into a movie. When it was released the movie got rave reviews and the book got raves, too, which is how I knew I needed to read it. Any comic book or graphic novel that can capture main stream media attention has to be at least looked at. It didn’t hurt that the publisher, Paradox Press, also published “Road to Perdition,” so I was pretty confident this would be good. Because of the movie, I felt I had a general idea of the story and it turned out to be very different from my expectations. And, little did I know how good it was!

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This week I read the latest Deathlow Collection “…And Then You Live” by Brian Azzarello, Carlos D’Anda and Henry Flint, collecting issues #1-9 of the recent mini-series. In case you’ve forgotten, Deathblow was part of the latest Wildstorm relaunch that failed miserably.

Because the Wildstorm relaunch was such an incredible disaster, I didn’t think that I would ever get this trade. But Deathblow is one of those fondly remembered series when Wildstorm was on top of the world. The original 12-issue run, collected in the Sinners and Saints TP, was a great story and had early art by Tim Sale. I loved that original run so much that I felt I should at least do some online research to see if this was worth looking at. I managed to see some previews of D’Anda’s art and thought I would take a chance on the trade. I am very glad I did because this was an outstanding series.

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This week I read the trade paperback collecting the first two issues of Paolo Parente’s Dust. Dust was created by Paolo Parente, written by Christopher Mink and Paolo Parente and art by Paolo Parente with Alessia Zambonin and David Fabbri, published by Image Comics.

The first thing I noticed was the book is billed as a “created by” endeavor. Usually, when something it “created by” someone else, then it’s just a marketing ploy. All you need to do is remember Leonard Nimoy’s Primortals from Tekno Comics to prove my point. Anyway, I liked the art from the previews so much that I figured I would take a chance on it.

The story is pretty generic but the setting is what is the most interesting. During World War II the Germans discovered an alien spaceship with all sorts of wonderful advanced technology. They used the technology to extend the war by introducing zombies, mech armor and robots into the battlefield. In this environment our heroine must storm a Nazi castle and crush their plan to launch a missile platform into space. Of course, the castle is heavily guarded and overrun brain enhanced apes, which will eventually operate the space platform.

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This week, I was back to reading Euro books. I read Three Shadows by Cyril Pedrosa, published by :01 Second.

It’s entirely by chance that I ended up picking this book to read. I found it while I was rummaging through my bookshelves looking for something different. After finishing the weekly dose of Secret Invasion and Final Crisis, I needed to read something less super-heroey. Three Shadows has been on the shelf for a little bit so I picked it up and started reading it. One hour later, when I finished, I realized that I had a forgotten gem on my bookshelf.

The premise of the story is simple enough: death comes for a farmer’s son in the form of three shadows and the son’s father tries to save him. With such a simple premise, this might sound like the million other stories about death but Pedrosa turned it into something special.

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At the height of the Spider-Man craze created by the first movie, Marvel started flooding the market with Spider-Man related books. As with all flooding, some of the books were good and some were bad. But, once the hype and frenzy died down all the books, regardless of quality, were cancelled.

One of the good books was Spider-Man’s Tangled Web. It featured self-contained stories about Spider-Man’s rogues told by A-list creators. The first few issues featured stories by Garth Ennis, Greg Rucka and Peter Milligan. As the series continued, I’m sure it got harder and harder to get such prominent creators to write single issues, but Marvel managed to do it.  Everyone remembers how good the first issues really were but they seem to forget how good the later issues were, too, which is why I am reviewing Volume 3.

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This week I read Little Vampire by Joann Sfar.  If you haven’t realized yet, Joann Sfar is and has been a favorite of mine for a long time. He has written many classics such as The Rabbi’s Cat and the Dungeon series. 

This book is actually a collection of three different stories.  It contains Little Vampire Goes To School, Little Vampire Does Kung Fu, and Little Vampire and the Canine Defenders Club.

The first story, Little Vampire Goes to School, is a wonderful introduction to the character and the series too. It starts when Little Vampire, that’s his name, decides that he wants to go to school. His parents, a skeleton pirate captain and a lovely ghost, try to talk him out of it but he insists. Finally, Little V’s parents relent and off to school he goes. Unfortunately, he quickly discovers that all the other children go to school during the day so there is no one to play with. But, Little V’s parents love him very much and they want him to be happy so they gather the ghosts, ghouls, and goblins to go to school with him. The only rule is that a monster cannot write in the regular childrens notebooks. Of course Little V does so and strikes up a friendship with a human boy, Michael. The book tells about the adventures of the young boys as they learn about each other, bullies in school, and even saving dogs from secret laboratories.

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