999 Reading Challenge Review and Discussion Tread

[Ryan 'gobo' C.]

The Metabarons is on my 999 list.  It's a thick bit of book too.

I've got two volumes of it that I stumbled across at a con on mine, pretty excited to read it.

Hearing it's like Luther Arkwright as me really really excited.

[Rustyautoparts (Russ Otto)]

My first book is King City. I reached the halfway point this morning. It feels really cool to be immersed in a world like this for an extended period of time. The length really fleshes out this bizarre world. And now, halfway through, I think my brain has been sufficiently reconfigured to accept this new reality. I'm really excited to hear the conversation on this week's episode, and I'll edit this post with my full thoughts once I'm finished.

King City

Wow. What more can I add to this excellent work? I absolutely loved the passion that Graham poured into this book. As VinceB said, King City is Brandon Graham, and that comes through in every single panel. I fell in love with the sense of humore Graham uses throughout. This tome is Kirbyesque when it comes to the sheer multitude of ideas packed in its pages. It was a joy to read. The only negative I could think of was more as a failing on my part as the reader. I expected the book to end with the traditional climax and resolution, but Graham sidesteps this trope expertly, reaffirming that the plot is secondary to this beautiful, vibrant, supremely odd city. And that's how it should be.

5/5

[S. Earl]

Hard Boiled by Frank Miller.

Quick read as far as words go, slow read if you sit back and take in all the detail. My god, the detail. Darrow is a beast. I need to buy more of his work. I believe Big Guy and Rusty the Robot will be purchased soon. Story was alright, it was basically there to service the chaos and destruction that Darrow dives into, basically Blade Runner meets the Prisoner with a hefty helping of late 80s early 90s mass consumption commentary.

It's been sitting on my shelf for years, think I actually "inherited" my copy from when I used to live with EManderson (who doesn't seem to post round this parts that much anymore). I've flipped through it once or twice, glad I finally read it proper.

[whirlwindx]

Two down.

Gantz Vol.20

Volume 20 further expands on the elements in play with the previous volume. The fights and events seem to have taken on an added importance. I was getting into the central mystery and how everything was working out and then bam! cliffhanger. These volumes read really fast but my interest in this series has definitely been rekindled. I want to see where this is going but I'm sure a whole volume of three of fighting on going to be on the way.

[Robert]

My first book is King City. I reached the halfway point this morning. It feels really cool to be immersed in a world like this for an extended period of time. The length really fleshes out this bizarre world. And now, halfway through, I think my brain has been sufficiently reconfigured to accept this new reality. I'm really excited to hear the conversation on this week's episode, and I'll edit this post with my full thoughts once I'm finished.

My copy arrived via DCBService. 

Guess I know what I'll be reading next. 

[Lukeh]

For me, one of the things I love about king city is, it couldn't of been anything else but a comic.

[ford]

I got a good day of reading in yesterday. And with lots of days off in the next week I'll make a nice dent in my pile.
The one conclusion I came to yesterday was that I'll probably read more 'extra-curricular' comics than normal. Especially because whatever new purchases I make are going to seem new and exciting. Really can't wait for Flex Mentallo this week and it isn't't on my list. Also picked up Akira vol. 1 on Monday which is top of my priorities.

[erikh42]

While this wasn't the first book I finished, I felt compelled to write about King City immediately.  I spent a marathon reading session last night because the book was too good to put down.  If this book is not in one of your categories, find a way to add it.

There is a marvelous, dirty, magical, extremely dangerous city in fiction and it lives in the mind of Brandon Graham.  King City in not just a comic book, it is a conglomeration  of genre, story, theme and art nicely bound up and selling at the low price of $19.99.  In case you could not tell, I really enjoyed this book.

At it's heart King City is a story about Joe, the Catmaster and his friends, Pete and Anna.  Joe has recently returned to King City after journeys 'down south' and now needs to figure out where he fits into the place he had spent his youth.  In the process he gets involved in a gang of human/owl hybrids, fights an avatar of the elder gods, laments over his ex, ogles every nice ass that passes in front of his eyes and adventures with his fellow 'catmasters.' There is an arc of fighting the ultimate evil and battling addiction of a drug that literal consumes ones body, but these aren't really important.  The book really about the characters, letting you glimpse at three unique lives and their interrelationship.

At the heart of the book there are the beautiful lines of Mr. Graham.  He has a style that while reminiscent of manga stays uniquely his own.  His characters express a wide range of emotion, every page is packed with detailed backgrounds and for the careful reader there is sometimes more text in the background than in the world bubbles.  He forces the reader to study each page ensuring you are maximizing your experience.  Each panel that Mr. Graham draws is a story unto itself.  

You find yourself wanting to know as much as you can about the crazy buildings and lumbering background characters.  There are just glimpses of Echhhh Zu: Baby Eater of Shadowtown with its lair of white gold baby souls or corn cult looking to rule the world.  Lines like, "The cat doesn't believe the the dark art of Popsicle," or " ... mudd astral projected himself through the back of a camel," make you want to detour out of the story you are locked into and dive down a different rabbit hole. Even after all this you still get to enjoy the hand drawn board game and the connect-the-dots puzzle.

There is so much packed into this book that it would be impossible to capture in a short review.  King City is a unique and fresh story.  If you want to see what the comic medium is capable of, or you just want to read 500 pages of imagination gone wild, you need to read this book.

[Brian N.]

10 books down 71 to go!  Granted, I did start about a week early, but I'm happy with my progress so far.

Today I finished Sky Doll and The Stand - Captain Trips.

Sky Doll

I really loved the art.  It had a cool animation feel, the characters were anthropomorphic aliens, but really conveyed emotion and didn't look silly.  It had a sexy feel too it, nice lines, and full of detail in the background.  There were some interesting concepts, and it had me at first, but it never really gelled overall for me.  Story wise something just seemed to be missing.  I don't know if it was lost in translation or what.  Here's what Amazon has for the story rundown:  "Meet Noa, a so-called Sky Doll; a life-like female android without rights, who exists only to serve the State's needs and desires. But when Noa meets two so-called "missionaries" who aid in her escape from her tyrannical master, all hell breaks loose for our cyborg siren as she uncovers clues that she may be much more than just a robotic toy."  This leaves out a whole lot of the religious stuff in the book and miracles and the manipulation of society through that religion.  Again, great art, wasn't feeling the story.

The Stand - Captain Trips

 I read the uncut novel a few years ago when the swine flu scare hit the states.  It was really timely to read about a pandemic decimating the human population during a real life scare.  I've never been that big on Stephen King in the long form, not because of the length of some of his work, but because of his writing style.  I enjoy his short stories, but have only made it through a few of his full novels.  I really wanted to read The Stand so I took it in parts, reading a few chapters at a time throughout the year.  After reading Marvel’s adaptation of Ender’s Game over the weekend, I didn’t have high hopes for their version of The Stand.  This time I was wrong.  For this first part of the story, Marvel did a good job of telling it through the comic medium.  They left some stuff out to advance the story, but really, King can get caught up in the details a little much at time.  We were introduced to a good chunk of the main players and saw the world degenerate through the super flu.  The art did a great job of showing the horror of the flu’s effects on the human body.  The subtle horror aspects were there, setting the mood for the story.  I will say some of the story was lost through the comic’s pace, but not to the overall detriment of this version, like the Ender’s Game adaptation.  I am glad I read these five issues all at once.  I think it would be frustrating reading it in the single issues.  I don’t understand why Marvel has broken this up into several mini-series, instead of just one big story.  I do have to say it left me wanting more, and I’m tempted to change some of my challenge list to accommodate it.  This month’s Previews did have a solicit for a Stand Omnibus, and if it was normal omnibus prices, instead of a jacked up sum, I would probably be tempted.

Next up, Fallen Angel Omnibus 0.

[Ryan 'gobo' C.]

I felt similarly about Sky Doll. I want to read it in French to see if that was the issue. I doubt it was though.

[evaD]

The rest of the Stand is equally enjoyable. I read it as it came out in monthly issues, and the pacing probably worked better that way. I think it came out as minis to give the creative team some built in catch up time.

My most recent read was Exo-1 and the Rock Solid Steelbots.

Written by Adam Besenyodi, Shawn Pryor, with art by Daniel Logan, it was published as a black and white digest sized book. It came signed and numbered by Daniel Logan. I'm gonna have to contact Mr. Besenyodi and get his signature on there as well. I had a great time reading it, the story was interesting and moved along at a fair clip. The story is a sci fi based action adventure about a group who receive exo skeletons through somewhat strange circumstances. The end sets up the possibility of future adventures, which would be great because I'd like to see more done with the Steelbots. Most of this book focused on the forming of the Exo-team, how they get the suits and come together to work as a team. The Steelbots are mostly in the background. The only complaint I have is that the art was very dark. I don't know if that was a by product of the printing, the size or the coloring, but there were some panels that were difficult to discern. Not impossible, but difficult. Other than that, the art served the story well and was beautiful to look at.

[JoeyN]

Last of the Greats Vol1- I have to say that I really enjoyed the first arc of this book. It's brutal, and had a ton of twists and turns throughout. Looking forward to the next one.

[erikh42]

Last of the Greats Vol1- I have to say that I really enjoyed the first arc of this book. It's brutal, and had a ton of twists and turns throughout. Looking forward to the next one.

Good, that's on my list and I've been really curious as to how it turns out.

[whirlwindx]

Three down. 

Gantz Vol.21

Another volume adds another complication. Just the way I like it. The cliffhanger isn't really expanded upon which I'm not surprised about. Weird to see a kid kicking ass in here but works. It probably was about time to see some more variety in Gantz team members. There have been members that don't get along with each other and other nefarious dudes but smoking, doing drugs, and worse while trying to kill aliens really does add something.

[RickV]

I have two down that I am going to talk about right now.

Rohan at the Louvre (I had posted this in the other thread I blanked that there would be a thread for this)
I am not sure how familiar you guys are with Hirohiko Araki but this is one of the very small % of his comics to actually get a release in English & in North America. That is because he did in association with the gallery. He has been making the craziest action comics that have ever existed in Japan for the past 30 years and it comes through a bit in this story about the painting of ultimate blackness and how it brings out the spirits of people who you knew in life. Which leads to crazy hijinks.

Special Bonus a treat with an example of the hijinks and the art style.

The Marquis: Inferno
If you ever wondered what Guy Davis does with all the idea that Dark Horse didn't let him put into BPRD this is where those things are let loose. When they announced he was leaving BPRD it was a bummer until I read this book which he is now continuing. Black and white Demon hunting adventures in the times of the plagues. Just incredible comics. There is this one chapter which infuses it with color for a real purpose and it works so effectively. Also the motivations and morality of the actions of all the main characters are brought into the light. This comic is extremely NSFW, when he gets down to designing the devils he really goes into it and there is a sequence with an old lady that I shouldn't have laughed at but I had not seen anything like it.

[whirlwindx]

Four down! I didn't think it would be take so long to read a few issues of King City so while I was reading that I also read:

7 Billion Needles Vol.1
Classic sci-fi concept of good vs. bad basically. A girl becomes inhabinated by an alien being that gets her to seek out evil it needs to confront. Of course this causes other complications in her life. At four volumes from Vertical for the complete story I think I'll seek out more of this later.

[whirlwindx]

Five down. Finished King City which was David's pick from the hosts category. Looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say on the 11 O'Clock comic episode now.

King City #8-12

What I can I say beyond this is awesome? I think plenty of people have said that before. It was great to finally finish off these issues. Initially I ordered the digest after hearing good things and wanting to type out some of the "OEL Manga" that Toyko Pop was putting out. King City was the right combination of hidden gags/graffiti like style of Mahfood that I was familiar with and some fun like Scott Pilgrim for me to order up the Escalator trade and Multiple War Heads after reading the digest. Good to see it still in form after the digest. There was some interesting changes in format from the digest with content going onto the inside and back covers which was a bonus. I do wonder if those earlier issues look that much different and about some of the extras I missed. Also how some of these later issues would have looked in digest? I think some of the more detailed stuff and maps look better at the Golden Age size. There's always so much to look at on top of all the regular hidden away stuff and scribbles with the maps and then at one point it even turns into a board game which is pretty inventive.

[Robert]

I've nearly finished King City, and unfortunately, I'm not as sold as the rest of my forumites.  

Whereas I really enjoyed the nuances such as some the wildly imaginative cat concepts, it seemed a bit too clever for its own good at times.  

My favorite part was probably King City, itself.  All the little "Easter eggs" and minutia that Graham had planted throughout the book were wonderful, but the apathetic nature of the characters, although a reflection of the city, obviously didn't resonate too strongly with me.  And I have to say, without sounding too harsh I hope, Graham's cartooning left me a bit, "meh".  Not great, not bad, just "meh".

As much as I didn't hate this book, I actually liked it, I can't say that I am stark raving mad over this title.  Definitely glad I read it, and I know I will read it again, but for now, it's just good.

[Lukeh]

7 Billion Needles Vol.1

I dig this series. I wanna read the original story it's based on. I would love to see more stuff based on old pulpy sci-fi and horror.

The cover designs for this series is great as well.

[Thermite (Iz Wilkison)]

The Marquis: Inferno
If you ever wondered what Guy Davis does with all the idea that Dark Horse didn't let him put into BPRD this is where those things are let loose. When they announced he was leaving BPRD it was a bummer until I read this book which he is now continuing. Black and white Demon hunting adventures in the times of the plagues. Just incredible comics. There is this one chapter which infuses it with color for a real purpose and it works so effectively. Also the motivations and morality of the actions of all the main characters are brought into the light. This comic is extremely NSFW, when he gets down to designing the devils he really goes into it and there is a sequence with an old lady that I shouldn't have laughed at but I had not seen anything like it.

Loved all the Marquis stuff. Great pick!