What are you reading... in December/ 2015???

What? December? Are you sure???

Well, it has been a good year, so let's close it doing what we do so well: Reading and commenting.

I've finished the Marvel event Original Sin by Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato. While both authors together could be easily associated with a character like Punisher (due to Scalped fame and dark gritty art, respectively), this series is a Noir-procedural crime investigation placed in Marvel Universe (Cross my heart and hope to die). It starts with "Who Killed the Watcher?" (no spoiler, it is written on the cover) and follows a trail that will lead to the killer.

It is really good to see how Aaron can delivers a good story in this enviroment, but Deodato's art is the hightest point, depicting the characters with naturalism, but very expressive.

If the events depicted here are perennial, I don't know, but it is a good reading.

I've been chained to my apartment by a stubbornly-refusing-to-heal broken metatarsal for the last 6 mths so I haven't been able to get out to get comics to read. But my library offers Hoopla for free and they've just started carrying comics (limited to 8/mth, which is ridculous), plus the library itself has added a ton of comics to its database.

So far I've read/am reading/have downloaded:

Saga #5- just as amazing as the previous 4 volumes!
Blacksad: Amarillo by Juan Diaz
The Cage by Martin Vaughn-James
Pop by Curt Pires
Satoshi Kon's Opus
Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown
My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf

I am mostly picking up star Wars trades as they come to my local library. I recently read Star Wars: Kanan: The Last Padawan. It was better than I expected.

I've been pleasantly surprised by the new Star Wars comics. I'm a bit behind so I have to get caught up before the movie comes out.

There is a lot to absorb get through. I read the first trade on the Star Wars titled book and really enjoyed it. I have not read the Vader, Leia, or Lando titles.

I'm sorta of two minds about the new Star Wars trades. On the one hand, it'd be cool to read them, but on the other hand I have so many other books/tpbs that I have/want/need to read, so... argh... :)

The flagship star wars title is worth it. It is well written and the art by John Cassaday is fantastic. He's been a favorite of mine for years.

Saga is fantastic! A story of love and lust, bitter ex girlfriends, difficult relations with in laws as well as a story of Imperialism, economic inequality and human rights.

I'm also reading Providence, written by Alan Moore but clearly borrowed from H.P. Lovecraft. I'm still baffled by the fact that there is no mention of Lovecraft in the credits.

DC's new release of Constantine is dynamite.

>10 kivarson: Alan Moore doesn't have an original bone in his body. If all he did had to list its actual creators, there'd be no room left for his rapes and ramblings.

Some interesting things I've read in the past couple months:

"Corpse on the Imjin" and Other Stories is an anthology of Harvey Kurtzman's war stories from the EC titles "Two-Fisted Tales" and "Frontline Combat". Half are drawn by him, and half by other artists, all really high quality--I can see why people revere EC so much. These are gritty, meticulously researched, "war is hell" stories, in effect anti-war sentiments, though not without heroics. Most are set in the (then contemporary) Korean War.

The Story of My Tits is a touching memoir, not just of the author's ultimate cancer, but of her life from childhood to that point. Good self-aware mix of drama & humor.

The MAD Art of Wally Wood: The Complete Collection of His Work from MAD Comics #1-23. More fun from EC, before MAD became a magazine. I have (but haven't read yet) similar collections from Jack Davis and Will Elder. So glad DC put these out!

The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius: laugh-out-loud stories of a foul-mouthed boy genius.

Corto Maltese, Beyond the Windy Isles by Hugo Pratt that has a band of washed out deserters, rogues, globe-trotters, adventurers, explorers and natives drifting around Maracainbo, Barbados, Colombia, the Amazon. All they risk is ending in a shady antique store as a collector's Jivaro's reduced head.

I've finished the full run of Young Avengers by Allan Heinberg,Jim Cheung and Andrea di Vito.

The first part (Young Avengers: Sidekicks) is pure gold. You have mysterious new characters, action, tension, few references to continuity, which turns the book easy for new readers, and the story is self-content with a good wrap-up.

In the second part (Young Avengers: Family Matters) the train derails. Unnecessary ties with continuity, unnecessary turns with well structered characters, unnecessary retcons... It is a mess!

The high point in the whole series is Cheung's art. I think this series was his first major work for Marvel, and he shows a classic clean style, with strong blacks and perfect storytelling. The last issue is a tour-de-force of design and storytelling.

It is worth checking.

Checking deviant art I saw vshen's art, from which I've picked 3 samples:

http://vshen.deviantart.com/art/Doomsday-Paintover-576421609
http://vshen.deviantart.com/art/Darkseid-Portrait-560922067
http://vshen.deviantart.com/art/Kilowog-Portrait-569994999

Worth checking.

>12 edgewood: I thought The Story of My Tits was awfully good, too. The librarian did a double take when I returned it, saying she had to be sure she read the title right. I explained what it was about, and we agreed the author was smart in picking an eye-catching title. :-)

I'm reading the seventh A Bride's Story book by Kaoru Mori. It's good, but it focuses on a side story, and I miss the tales of Amir and Karluk in their 19th century tribal village in Central Asia. Great artwork, as usual, from her.

>3 EnidaV: Sorry to hear about your injury. Hope you heal up fast. When I used to volunteer at a library a few years back, my job was to delivery books to patrons who were home bound for one reason or another (usually senior citizens, but could be temporary things like injuries also). You should call your library and see if they offer a similar service.

I've been moving along with the Batwoman series and read Batwoman: Webs most recently. Didn't realize until I picked up the physical copy that the authors/illustrators changed again. The book started out by finishing up the storylines in the previous volume and it was clear the new creative team didn't care much about those and half-heartedly tied them up quickly and poorly. They then introduced their own new plotline, which was entertaining but seemed more superficial than previous ones. Now I'm torn about whether I pick up Volume 6, as it's gotten really, really bad reviews. But the curious side of me wants to know how the story concludes.