The second one just came out this week. It's a 3-issue mini, but they've said they'll be doing more minis after this one.

Awesome. I'll pick this up and double-dip for the TPB as well.

Except of course for that whole "getting them out on time" thing.

That's par for the course in the comic book industry today, though, so he's following the trend.

Buffy has shipped regularly due to other writers handling the duties no? Or are you just referring to Astonishing?

Re Buffy: I've caught all the way up and all of the characters are acting true to nature, save for Xander whom I think they've actually improved upon in the comic. Comic!Xander is awesome! Whereas I was getting kind of sick of his character around season 5 of the show since he didn't have much to do.

True enough. But of the 40 or so books I get on a regular basis, the two that are written by Whedon consistently miss their solicited date and in general, run later (more late?) then the others.

Astonishing and Runaways.

I'm guessing you're not a reader of All-Star Batman and Robin.

Ha! Actually I dropped that after two issues. Wasn't feeling Lee's art, and had no idea what Miller was trying to do there.

Miller is being AWESOME! That's what he's doing.

Just a question.

Why are we still in the March thread in mid-April?

We're saving the April thread for May. You can expect May to be available sometime in the fall.

Not a lot of big events but this might be my favourite issue yet. Goddard knows how to write great dialogue for Andrew and Xander...the lecture was great (the chalkboard was awesome and a Krull reference!) and the Dracula scenes really worked for me (complete with Bram Stoker's Dracula reference!) Just a fun, light and entertaining issue.

lol

Sweet! I'm all about doing my part for conservation and sustainability.

Wonder what she looks like in Zee's fishnets?

I'm sure Paul could tell you if you get him drunk enough. I would bet my life that they play dress up.

I read this over the weekend:



And it was awesome! Sure, it is derivative of Lord of the Rings, Alice and Wonderland, the Narnia books, and others of this ilk, but still -- damn! The art and sequential storytelling in this thing was just off the charts. The dialog was sparse, and instead of being heavy handed with captions and stuff, Kazu let the art speak for itself. Thank god he did, because this book had some of the best action sequences I've ever seen. They were so good that you could hear the musical score behind them. I can't wait to read the rest of the story and believe this might be the next Bone. Has anyone read his Daisy Kutter series?

Also, I'm two volumes into Death Note, and this too is really awesome. The story is really interesting, and it makes me wonder how no one thought to do it before. It's awesome knowing there are 12 volumes of this stuff out there waiting to be read by me. I'm going to devour them!

I think we talked about this before (I don't remember if it was you or someone else), but Deathnote starts off great, and then kinda derails a bit about halfway through. It is a great manga, though, with incredible art by Obata, and there's even a book that is labeled as volume 13, but is mainly background info and interviews and stuff.

If you're a fan of Obata's work on this, also consider picking up Hikaru No Go. It's a very, very different title, and the plot is basically about a teenage Go player (Go is a Japanese strategic board game, more like chess than monopoly), which would seem to be an odd subject for a comic book, but I highly recommend it.

edit: I should probably make it clear that unlike some manga, Obata is only the artist on each title, they are written by different writers (Tsugumi Ohba for Death Note, Yumi Hotta for Hikaru No Go), so the storytelling is very different.

Yeah, Death Note goes in the toilet after book 7. Really disappointing after how the story had gone up to that point. And Hikaru No Go is compellingly readable, despite having almost no experience with Go beforehand.

Well I will try Hikaru No Go because the art on Death Note is pretty amazing. Enough so to make me seek out some of his other stuff.

Sorry to hear that the series hits a few speed bumps, but I'm still down to read them all and decide for myself. Especially since the library has all of the volumes and they're pretty quick reads.

Have either of you tried the anime series based on Go or Death Note? I hear they are pretty direct translations and there isn't much point in watching them if you read the manga.

It's not so much Death Note hits a few speed bumps, it's that in book 7 there is a major, series-changing event, and the direction chosen after that event really didn't work at all for me. It's all anti-climax after that point. If you like Obata's work, Viz is publishing another manga he did, called Ral Grad. It's a fantasy thing, based on the video game Blue Dragon. The main character is a teen boy obsessed with tits, and he basically spends most of his time trying to cop feels. The first volume was released here a month or two ago, and it only runs four books. Artistically speaking, it's more exciting than Hikaru No Go, but the latter has the more involving story by far. Haven't watched the anime of either Death Note or HnG, but the Death Note live action movies are good if you have region free access. Or wish to acquire them by less...savory means.

The anime of Hikaru No Go is great. Unfortunately they aren't bringing any more of them to the US after the 11th DVD so the rest of the story has be be read.

I do play Go so i especially loved the story.

I picked up the first two issues of the Firefly 3-shot and have yet to read them. Flipping through them the art is great though.

I also snagged issue 2 of a book called Echo. I bought it purely on a whim because my daughter's name is Echo. Hopefully it is a good story.

Well that comic is done by one of the best creators ever for my money, so you should get some enjoyment out of it.

I picked up The Complete Frank Miller Batman at a book fair yesterday for $.50.

It's in pretty good shape - a little bit of wear on the corners.

Is this the leather bound book? If so, that's a great price for it.

Yep - I checked Amazon last night to see what it is going for.