Fall TV, part 1

Once upon a time I used to review TV shows for The Express. Television has changed a lot in the nine years since I left the paper. Cable TV programming has exploded and most of the good TV shows are not on the networks. They're on HBO, Starz, or a bunch of other cable stations.

The problem is, they're a bitch to track down. I don't get a lot of those stations and anytime I feel like taking a chance on a TV show by buying the DVDs (because I'm a good boy who doesn't pirate) I end up frustrated. House of Cards started off great but I never managed to finish the first season. The Walking Dead....well, zombie were never my thing and that show is less my thing. Boring. Homeland is so overwrought I couldn't get past the first handful of episodes.

I do like Justified, though. I need to get back into that.

I never watched Breaking Bad. I understand that's sacrilege. I may, one day, once the hype has died away a bit. But I feel no urgent need to watch it.

I guess I'm old fashioned. I like a big slab of TV fighting out in a Darwinian battle to survive every fall. Throwing a couple of dozen shows into the grinder each fall to see which ones last is a deeply stupid way to do things, but I get amusement out of it. Yeah, occasionally I'll lose a show I like, but not often.

I'm not going to be crazy enough to review everything coming out right now, but I've caught a few already, and there are more coming I'll review as well. This also has the usual caveat that pilots are a different beast. A good pilot will not ensure a show's survival (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip had a brilliant pilot. It was a disaster after that), but a bad one will handicap it for the rest of its probably very short life.

So let's see what I've seen so far.

1. The Red Band Society - Ten minutes in and I knew this wasn't my show. I mean, I'm not the demographic and that's fine. But the bitchy blonde cheerleader just forced me right out of the show. Teenagers at a hospital for sick kids is a hell of a concept and at least it's set over three weeks in its first season, so there's none of the weirdness that inflicted Glee. But I won't be tuning in. Not my cup of tea.

2. Madam Secretary - Again a good premise, but lacking some guts. It's basically what would happen if you took an apolitical and nicer Hilary Clinton and did a tv show about her. And Tea Leoni is good as the title character. She can carry the show as a Secretary of State dealing with world problems. Hell, it's an interesting job. One of my few gripes about the West Wing was that Secretary of State is one of the most important positions in the US government and we barely heard talk of the character in the show.

So yeah, good lead, ton of potential. But it's a soft and bit gutless pilot. American held hostage in Syria is a bit of a flat open. A conspiracy over the death of her predecesor. A Chief of Staff with a sinister agenda. It's a little too rote. I'd like to see it get gutsier in the coming weeks, but I'm not overly hopeful.

It's biggest sin, however, is having Bebe Neuwirth standing around and doing almost nothing except scowl in the pilot. That woman can act. For the love of God, let her have something to chew on in the weeks to come. I'll give it a few more weeks to see if it acquires a spine.

3. Gotham - You might have heard they were doing a show about Gotham City in the years before Batman. Maybe spotted an add or two.

Is it good? Yes. I'll keep watching it for awhile. There's a lot to like. Nearly all the acting is solid enough, although Jada Pinkett Smith as the badly named Fish Mooney just about steals the show. I think Sean Pertwee was badly miscast as Alfred, but we'll see. And the rest are good. Ben McKenzie makes a fine Jim Gordon.

But man, is that an over-stuffed pilot. Yeah, it's dark. Cathy found it way too dark and didn't care much for it. But a show based on Gotham City was never going to be sweet and lightness. But there were a lot of characters, plots, subplots and everything else crammed into that show. Really, it could have been two hours. Or they could have stretch some of it out for a week or so. We didn't need to meet everyone this episode.

But there are lots of little things to like. I like that Selina Kyle witnessed Bruce Wayne's parents murder.  I like that Renee Montoya is in the show and they've already made reference to her sexuality. I like the shades of grey already, like Gordon making what he thinks is a compassionate choice, but it's already resulted in one death, and many more to come.

It has a ton of potential. Whether it can do it, and if the audience will stick around for a show more about shades of grey, and no Batman, well, we'll see...

4. Scorpion - One wag called it The Big Bang Theory solves crimes. I like to think of it as Numb3rs meets Harry Potter. Basically, a bunch of geniuses with no social skills get recruited to work for the federal government to solve problems only people with their skills sets possess.

Look, this show is going to redefine technobabble. Anytime a character starts speaking it, just put in Hogwarts spells. It accomplishes the same thing. The show is going to sink or swim on the character interactions. So far, it's fun enough. The actors are likeable. It's very processed (CBS must have a machine that cranks these procedurals out), but not all processed food is bad. Not all processed shows are bad.

The key is going to be keeping it from getting too silly. The pilot featured corrupt software at LAX threatening to bring planes crashing from the sky. The plot was bouncing merrily along, escalating from silly, to very silly, but still entertaining. Until the last 10 minutes when it went balls-to-the-wall batshit stupid/insane.

Don't do that again.

5. Forever - Immortal characters are nothing new in fiction, although particularly challenging in television if the show lasts more than a few years. But one worry at a time. Ioan Gruffudd is a particularly likeable actor (I'll forgive him for The Fantastic Four. That wasn't his fault) and the show is obviously leaning heavily on his charisma. Essentially his character is 200 years old. He's a medical examiner working for the NYPD studying anatomy in the hopes of finding a way he can die. Seems immortality is a bit of a curse.

Now he has a curious detective working with him and they solve crimes. All the way there's the mystery of how he can't die (when he does, he comes back to life in the Hudson River. Awkward) and the other immortal stalking him. Oh, and plenty of opportunities for flashbacks.

Gruffudd mercifully has a good supporting cast. Judd Hirsch can do this in his sleep, but mercifully adds a ton of charm and their father/son relationship (not in the way you think) works. Alana De La Garza and Joel David Moore also are good. I was quite surprised by the show. It's not perfect. The voiceover can get a little purple at times, and they killed him three times in the pilot. That was a little bit of, well, overkill (sorry).

It's got a ton of potential and it's charming. It's my favourite if these five so far. We'll see how it ages over the coming weeks.

Last Five
1. American Skin (41 shots) - Bruce Springsteen
2. I understand - Sloan
3. Your heart - Repartee
4. White dove - Jenn Grant*
5. Songs for Dan Treacy - MGMT

Harley and Ivy commission

I've mentioned several times I've acquired a...thing about original comic book art. Funny, for years I loved looking at comics but it never dawned on me I could actually own pieces of the artwork. However, once I got started, like a geek with an obsession, I've made up for lost time. Right now there are 22 framed comic book pieces on my wall (and one of those frames consists of nine small pieces), plus ones I haven't framed, and ones in sketch books.

So yeah, I like comic book art.

A lot of times it's pretty straight forward. You go up to an artist at a comic con and tell him or her what you would like. Online, you might exchange a few emails about what you're looking for, and then after you pay the artist, your piece arrives in the mail a few weeks (sometimes months) later.

I mention this to put it in some context. Earlier this summer I contacted an artist named Michelle Sciuto. Her art had come across my tumblr stream a lot of times and I quite liked it. She's starting off as an artist, which can be a good thing when you're looking for comic art. A few years ago I contacted a Canadian artist named Agnes Garbaska because I'd seen her art online a few places. She'd been published, but wasn't hugely known. And I got this amazingly fun commission from her.

Now she does covers for Red Sonja and My Little Pony, among other books. So at worst you get a cool piece of art, at best you get a cool piece of art from an artist before they became really popular.

I get the feeling Michelle is going to fall into the later category. Not only is her art a hell of a lot of fun, but she's really good to deal with. I checked my gmail account. We exchanged more than 30 emails on my sketch from her.

It was a very collaborative process. Once I got on her commission list, she asked what I wanted. I gave her two options - Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, or Birds of Prey (Oracle, Black Canary, Huntress). She really wanted to do Harley and Ivy. My only suggestions were that I wanted it to be fun, a little sexy (not slutty) and I was thinking rather than their traditional costumes (or, even worse their "New 52" costumes), maybe a retro 50s pin-up girl theme.

Which Michelle loved. And I thought that would be that. Until a few days later she contacted me with preliminary sketches. She wanted to know what outfits I wanted them in, and what pose. 

(There's a third pose I haven't included here as I don't have a jpeg of it, just a pdf)

No artist has ever gone though this much consultation with me on a commission. And honestly, those rough sketches are amazing. I asked if I could buy them from her...she tossed them in for free.

I opted for the middle costumes in both of them and the pose with Harley and her hyenas as the pose. I later got a pair of final pencils with the hyenas at different sizes. She wasn't sure how big to make them, and wanted to know if I had any preference.

Seriously.

I got the final, fully coloured piece in the mail on Thursday. It's stunning. It's easily one of my five favourite pieces on my wall (Garbaska's Justice girls, Buscema's Red Sonja, Maihack's Supergirl/Batgirl, Mebberson's Mulan/Merida are the other four). I mean, look at this beauty...

It's 11x17 and just pops off the wall. And the price for this loveliness? $80. Another $10 for shipping. Ridiculous, given how much time she spent on it. Michelle seriously need to raise her prices. She also has more than 1,000 likes of it on tumblr, which is pretty cool. And it's all mine.

If you're looking for a fun comic book related piece of art, I strongly recommend dropping her a line. No kidding, she's a blast to deal with, her prices are beyond reasonable and you get great art. Check out her tumblr or website.

Last Five

1. Hate to see your heart break - Paramore

2. Cherry tree - The National

3. Shadow of love - She & Him

4. Put out your lights (live) - Matthew Good

5. Downtown train - Tom Waits* 

Archeology dig

I mentioned I went back to St. John's. That also meant a visit back to the house I grew up in. My family has lived in that house now since 1978. As a family, then just my dad, then just my mom, and then dad bought the place outright. The joke used to be I lived with the house. The parents were optional.

This isn't the first time I've been back there in decades or anything. It was less than two years ago. The place hasn't changed in that time. Reasonably sure it hasn't changed since the 1990s. My benchmark for determining this is the stereo.

The stereo has been sitting in the no-man's land between the living room and dining room for awhile now. How long? I think dad bought it around 1984. It was pretty cutting edge at the time, with it's duo-cassette deck drive. So you could play one tape and then, scandalously, copy the music by putting a blank in the other deck drive. Quite the controversy at the time, what with it making it easy to pirate music and all.

Anyway, cutting edge in the mid-80s. Not so much in later years. Pretty sure it died completely sometime in the mid-90s. So yes, for the better part of the past 20 years a dead stereo system in a wooden cabinet has been sitting in the living room for no reason.

We won't talk about my university grad picture in all its massive glory in the dining room, terrifying anyone who ventures forth to eat there (moustaches are never a good idea). Best not to dwell on it.

I've mentioned to dad he might want to do something about the stereo. He says he will and yet, there it rests in all its faded glory. I'm considering a flamethrower for Christmas as a method of internal redecorating/purging. Not for him...he'll never use it. But his niece lives in the basement apartment and his sister is a five minute walk away. I'm pretty sure they would. And he's going to Florida for a few months this coming winter. So we'll see how it goes.

However, since I was there I decided to do some poking around. Most of my stuff is long gone. Either up here, or sold. But there are a few things still there, so while talking with him, I put on my Indiana Jones fedora and decided to see what I could find.

Some of the stuff made me laugh. There's the hand-carved walking stick he brought me back from Cuba. I loved that thing because I thought I looked cool. Didn't have room to bring it back, alas. Plus, Cathy tends to put walking sticks in the same group as trenchcoats; things I do not look as cool using/wearing as I think I do.

There was a painting of the character Death from the Sandman comics my friend Mireille did for me around 1993. Really would have liked to have taken that back, but no room, alas.

In the closet there was an absolutely hideous brown lamb leather jacket that I seemed to have thought was a good idea around 1990. I informed dad it was not to go to good will, but to be taken out to the softball pitch behind the house in the middle of the night and set on fire. Ghastly. Still fits though, so that's one good thing.

But there were other cool things that I did rescue. In the same closet that produced the dreadful brown leather coat, also produced a black one that I didn't remember until dad refreshed my memory. He went to Australia in 2002 and brought me back a really nice black leather jacket. But he guessed wrong on my size. It was too small. I tried it on now and it fits perfectly. And it looks really good. So that was a nice find.

My old bedroom produced two interesting relics. The first was all my old letters. I used to write a lot of letters before email killed that. To pen pals mainly, but when I was in Korea in '97 I wrote letters to everyone. I'm told people thought I was writing in code to fool censors (I have terrible writing), but I have all the letters they wrote back.

So if you wrote me a letter between 1983 and 1999, odds are I have it. I'm really looking forward to going through those letters and see what comes up. A lot of embarrassing stuff. A lot of banal stuff. A couple of early gems include one I found from my grandmother that she wrote while I was in South Korea. I found a letter a woman sent me when I was with the Muse, thanking me for a story I wrote that helped her out (pretty sure it was the letter that cemented my belief that I should become a journalist). But I suspect I'm going to also laugh a lot and bug Cathy with 'I'd completely forgotten about this!" once I get going.

However, the real gem is "School Day Treasures". Back in Easter of 1975 my nan and pop Welsh gave me this book in advance of me starting Kindergarten. Each page was a year of school and you could put in all kinds of information. So there's a place for a picture, your report card, who your teacher was, how much you weighed, how tall you were, best friends, ambition (I was very determined to be an astronaut) and so on.

It is, at the very least, absolutely adorable. There's my infamous bowtie pic. The junior high pic where I looked like I was stoned. The report card that praised my handwriting (Grade 3. Seriously) the one where it was concerned I was too quick, mean and sarcastic (Grade 5. Sorry, Mr. Green. The progress you saw at the end of the school year was transitory) cracks me up.

It's a brilliant thing. I'm so glad nan and pop gave that to me. I've no idea if they still make these things or not, but they're awesome. I'm also pleased I kept up with it throughout school. Only Grade 2 and Grade 7 are missing pictures. I faithfully filled out the information and kept all the report cards. It would have been easy to stop doing that once I hit junior high, but I didn't. And now I have this brilliant thing.

I still think the house needs a purge. But I'm glad I grabbed these relics before it happened.




Last Five
1. Indestructible - Matthew Good Band
2. Gypsy biker - Bruce Springsteen
3. You can never hold back spring - Tom Waits
4. You got lucky - The Gaslight Anthem*
5. Thirsty - The National

Whirlwind

We were back in Newfoundland last weekend. Cathy's brother, my brother-in-law, got married. That meant a ridiculously brief trip back to St. John's. We left Iqaluit on Wednesday afternoon, arrived early Thursday morning (1 am) and then caught a plane back on Monday morning at 6:30 and was back in Iqaluit by noon. So four days to see family, friends, do some Christmas shopping and have a wedding. No problem.

We're still exhausted and the colds we're both currently fighting I suspect were either caught in Newfoundland (or en route) or just because our immune systems are shot from the travel.

It was a good trip. Dan and Meg's wedding was really quite nice. They were married in Bowring Park on a miraculously beautiful day in mid-September. My mother-in-law is taking credit for that, by virtue of hanging rosary beads from the clothes line on Friday morning.

We had good weather. I'm not going to knock it.

Anyway, a nice ceremony on the Cabot 500 stage. My favourite bit was the lovely, and hilarious, reading from the journals of their grandparents. It was a nice touch. Then a gathering at the Yellowbelly pub downtown. We bailed at midnight, but apparently they shut the place down.

Cathy and I had an agreement going back to St. John's. She was going to be busy with wedding stuff, but I had to spend time with my parents or they were going to disown me. Which I did. It's been almost two years since I've been back to Newfoundland. It's just one of those things now where trips there are going to be rarer events. I only have three weeks vacation these days. They understand, I hope, that there's a limit to how much I can do in Newfoundland. Friends and family don't drop everything just because you're back for a visit. They have lives and commitments.

Plus, I want to travel. I spent most of my first 35 years in Newfoundland and saw very little of the rest of the world. I can't begin to explain how important travelling and seeing new places is to me right now. We're already planning next summer's trip.

But I hung out at Shoppers' Drug Mart with my mom and got to watch her in action. Which is always impressive. Everyone knows my mom. Or, as she said, "Even the dogs know me at this point." Which is true. I was chatting with my friend Karin about her over brunch and we agree...she could teach master classes on customer service. Or become a consultant. Everyone gets attention. She's insanely friendly and helpful. She gives honest advice at the cost of an immediate sale because it's just good customer service (and the karma probably gets her triple the sales anyway).

I always knew she was good. Watching her work for an hour or so, I have a new appreciation.

I hung out with dad at his place for a bit, and did a power walk around Quidi Vidi Lake and the Virginia Park Trail. I also got a crash course in how much my home has changed since I left. It's been nine years. Things are going to change. But the influx of money finally hit me this time. Not sure why not before. Perhaps because I've only been home at Christmas and maybe the snow and crappy weather hides the money. But man, it's gotten silly in town.

Just in my area the old Janeway Apartments are gone and a massive new retirement complex is getting ready to open. The old Virginia Park Plaza is gone and a new 5-story condo complex is being built and they've broken ground on a new elementary school to replace the one I used to go to.

I remember growing up and Quidi Vidi Village (The Gut) was a bit of a dump. It had the worst weather in town and was generally run down. Now there are gourmet restaurants, million dollar homes and floods of tourists. Pleasantville is being transformed from old military buildings into houses. I saw more Porches in town in four days than I did in Vegas in a week. It feels like every surplus bit of green space in town is being converted to condos of some kind.

It's just very...jarring. I'm glad to see St. John's have an influx of cash. I would never begrudge it. And those things I mentioned being changed? They're all necessary. The apartments were rundown. The Plaza was a dive. My old school should have been replaced 20 years or more ago. And good riddance to those military buildings in Pleasentville.

Still, it just feels like it's being...wasted. For every awesome thing I see being done with the money (Mallard Cottage in the Gut is lovely), I see a ton of condo units or just unending suburban sprawl with no character. I wish there was more creativity and cleverness with the money. Maybe I've just missed it, but I don't think so. Newfoundland won't be the first place to get stupid with its oil wealth and at least no one has taken to building 120 story tall buildings out by Cape Spear (yet. Give Danny Williams some time). It's just kind of disappointing. I wish the province was being more like Norway and less like, well, pretty much every other place that hit an oil lottery ticket.

St. John's is bigger and richer...just not sure it's better.

But maybe I'm a grumpy ex-pat who should just shut up...

Last Five
1. 99% of us is failure (live) - Matthew Good*
2. Saviour - Ron Hynes
3. Hustling - Foster the People
4. Dark days - Punch Brothers
5. Crosseyed - Brendan Benson

My comics reading list

One of my friend’s on Twitter thanked me the other day for recommending Hawkeye a Marvel Comics series to him earlier the year. It’s won a ton of critical praise and the current creative team is getting ready to wrap things up and the series is going to be cancelled. That’s one thing that’s changed from when I was a kid. A series used to keep on going, no matter if a creative team left or not.

Now, it’s just as likely after a dozen issues the series will be cancelled and restarted with a fresh #1. But it did get me thinking…I think I have pretty good taste in comics. I do have friends who ask for recommendations from time to time. So I thought I would do a master list of what I’m currently collecting.

A couple of caveats…I’m just including series where the books are still in print and are ongoing. I love, love, loved Amelia Rules but there are no more books coming out in that series. I’m currently on a fool’s quest to try and find all the trade paperbacks of Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey run.

While I won’t do full reviews, I will include a few words about why I’m collecting them.

And yeah, it seems like a lot. Even I was surprised by how many. But these are regular series and not stand-alone graphic novels like RASL or This One Summer. Also, most of them put out one, maybe two books a year. It’s a lot, but believe it or not I collected a lot more when I was living in Newfoundland.

Finally, if you have to pick just one publisher to take a chance on, Image Comics is it. For years it was a hole of really unremarkable super hero crap like Spawn, but has since reinvented itself as a top creator-owned publisher working in westerns, sci-fi, mystery, horror, spies, and yes, sometimes super-heroes. They also do the nice/evil thing of collecting the first trade paperbacks at a very low price.

So via Amazon you can easily get a book like Greg Rucka/Michael Lark’s brilliant Lazarus for $10. Which is an absolute steal.

Anyway, by publisher, what I collect that’s being published regularly.

Marvel

All-New X-Men/Uncanny X-Men – There are about a dozen X-titles. I stick with these two as they’re both written by Brian Michael Bendis, one of Marvel’s best writers. Solid dialogue, good character development and Bendis gets the soap opera aspect that always works well with the X-Men.

Avengers/New Avengers/Uncanny Avengers – The first two titles are written by Jonathan Hickman, who loves ridiculous complex multi-year sagas involving cosmic disasters of some kind. I am, apparently, a sucker for this kind of thing. Uncanny Avengers is written by Rick Reminder who does something similar, but focuses a bit more on character rather than story than Hickman. Both have blown up the Earth multiple times in their runs. Don’t worry, it got better. Mostly.

Black Widow – Nathan Edmondson tells a nice spy thriller about Natasha Rominov seeking redemption for all her past sins (nicely tying into the movie), but Phil Noto’s art is the star. Some of the best on the stands right now.

Daredevil – For decades now, courtesy of Frank Miller, Daredevil has been a dark, pretty screwed up noir-like character. Mercifully Mark Waid remembers when he used to be more a swashbuckling one. Sure, there are dark moments, but this is such fun. Waid also remembers when Marvel characters would drop into books just because it was fun (Daredevil vs. the Silver Surfer. Sure, why not), not because it was a 30 part event. Chris Samnee’s joyful and creative art helps a lot.

Hawkeye – As the tagline goes, this is what Hawkeye does when he’s not an Avenger. Which is? Well, being a schmuck and just making bad decision after bad decision. And that’s before you get into his love life. It’s fun, creative and David Aja’s is unlike anything you’ve seen in comic books before. There’s an issue told from the point of view of a dog. And it’s one of the best things you’ll read this year.

The Superior Foes of Spider-Man – Some of Spider-Man’s d-list villains plot the next big score. Except they’re idiots. Awesomely fun and stupid.

Thor: God of Thunder – Writer Jason Aaron also like the big, convoluted story. The first year involved Thor from three different time periods (1000 AD, now, far future) fighting a villain determined to kill every god in the universe. Ludicrous. Fun.

DC

Batgirl – Writer Gail Simone tells the story of a Barbara Gordon is going through PTSD after being crippled by the Joker. It’s a good book, but you get the feeling Simone was frustrated not being able to tell lighter stories.  That doesn’t mean she can’t bring the drama when she wants.

Batman – In the middle of a classic run with Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. He’s rebuilding the Batman myth with new villains (the Court of Owls) takes on old ones (Joker) and retelling his origin (Year Zero). Lesser writers would botch this. Snyder is not one of those.

Fables/Fairest – I’m collecting these two titles on momentum more than anything else at this point. It’s good, but it’s a good thing it’s wrapping up soon. It’s time.

The Spectre – DC is reprinting the classic 90s run by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake. What happens when God’s Angel of Vengeance is tied to a human with a mission to comprehend and confront evil? What happens when they misunderstand the mission? More spiritual than you might think and Mandrake’s art is unreal. It’s some of the moodiest and scariest art in a comic I’ve ever seen. A little dated, but still good stuff.

Wonder Woman – I’ve always been conflicted by Brian Azzarello’s story. He’s done a lot of things I don’t like and I’m not fond of his interpretation of Diana’s character. But I can’t deny it’s well written. I might have dropped it already if not for Cliff Chang’s spectacular art. I like will drop it when they leave the book later this year.

Image

Alex + Ada – In the near future androids are common. But an AI revolt leads people to restrict just how smart androids can be. After Alex gets a female android companion from his eccentric grandmother, he struggles with the idea of repressing the android and takes steps that will cause…challenges. Jonathan Luna is a well-known artist, but his style always feels a little soulless to me. But the story is intriguing. First tpb is just out; I’ll be trying the second.

Black Science – Rick Reminder and Matteo Scalera put together a sort of inter-dimensional Lost in Space/Fantastic Four book, except the main character is an asshole who is risking friends, family and possibly the structure of the multiverse. It’s a little over-the-top at times (some creators do better when they have a major publisher/editor reining in their excesses. Reminder is one of them), but a ton of raw potential. First trade out now. I’ll get the second.

Deadly Class – More Rick Reminder. A kid is plucked from the streets in the 80s and plunked in a school of assassins. His goal – to assassinate Ronald Regan who he blames for killing his parents. See above. A ton of potential, but not kept on track. Half the book is spent on a road trip in Vegas with the lead character on acid. Debating the second book.

East of West – My favourite book of 2013. In an alternative, future Earth where America’s Civil War went deeply weird, Death of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse hunts for his missing son. And that doesn’t even cover a fraction of it. Jonathan Hickman firing on all cylinders.

Fatale – Last issue just came out. The fifth and final tpb will be out this fall. It’s by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Rule #1 of Comics. Always buy any book these two are working on. A Lovecraftian Noir tale.

Five Ghosts – Thanks to a dream stone implanted in his chest adventurer Fabian Gray can summon the skills of five “fictional” ghosts. Plus conspiracies, grand adventure and Nazis. Good 30s-style pulp.

Lazarus – In the future the world is not divided by political boundaries, but by families with financial interests. Each family has a protector – A Lazarus. This is the story of one, who begins to realize there’s more to her than she thought. Greg Rucka is pretty much an automatic buy for me. Michael Lark on art seals the deal.

The Manhattan Projects – Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra on what I assume is a staggering amount of drugs. An alternate version at what the 1940s Manhattan Project might have been up to when not building boring things like an atomic bomb. It’s good. Deeply, deeply weird, but good. Hickman probably needs to wrap this up soon, though…

Nowhere Men – What if four scientists were the Beatles of science? At $10 this is a steal. A nice slab of entertainment, weird science and conspiracy. I think the book is on hiatus, however.

Pretty Deadly – A weird little magical western book. Kelly Sue DeConnick’s writing isn’t for everyone. She’s going more for lyrical than plot, but Emma Rios art makes it all go down smoothly.

Rat Queens – If you’ve ever played Dungeons and Dragons or loved Lord of the Rings, you need to own this book. It’s just so much fun. Four warrior women (thief, warrior, healer, wizard) who drink, curse, have sex and get in lots of trouble.

Revival – I normally have no time for zombie comics (there is no Walking Dead on this list), but this is “rural noir”. In a small town in Wisconsin the recent dead return to life. The town is immediately quarantined, but there’s still plenty of other weird things happening to trapped residents…

Rocket Girl – In the future (now) the only cops you can trust are teenagers. But when one suspects a conspiracy and travel back to the past (1985 New York) to try and stop it. Her and her rocket pack. The story is honestly a touch shaky, but Amy Reeder’s artwork is an absolute joy.

Saga – The most beloved sci-fi comic on the market. A star-crossed couple defies their warring races, get married and have a little girl. And if that sounds simple, what comes next is not. Filled with mad ideas and Fiona Staples magical art. It will thrill you just as often as it will break your heart.

Sex Criminals – The darling of 2013. A couple discover they can stop time when they orgasm. So they decide to rob banks so they can save a beloved library. Then the sex cops get involved. More touching and funny than sexual, it’s weird and enjoyable regardless.

Velvet – What if Ms. Moneypenny was actually the most dangerous person in MI-6. Close, but not quite what is happening here. But a great Bond-ian spy thriller set in the 70s. Velvet Templeton (great name) is on the run after being framed for murdering a top agent. Ed Brubaker rule in effect here, although Steve Epting’s stunning art helps.

Zero – A deeply weird science fiction/spy/thriller. I haven’t decided if I’m getting the second book yet, but writer Alex Kot is making it quite tempting.

Others

Afterlife with Archie – When Hot Dog dies in a car accident, Jughead begs Sabrina the friendly neighbourhood witch, to bring him back. Which she does. With drastic, horrific consequences. I kid you not, one of the best, scariest comics on the market, courtesy of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s clever story and Francesco Francavilla’s spectacular, atmospheric and horrific art.

Atomic Robo/Real Science Adventures – I think the last few books have been a little too serious and not enough fun, but it’s still enjoyable. Basically Tesela in the 1920 invents a sentient atomic robot. There are many weird adventures. Part Indiana Jones, part Hellboy, all fun.

Conan – A little Conan goes a long way with me. In this case it’s been the last three trades written by Brian Wood with one more to come. Conan hooks up with a pirate queen. I’ll probably go 10 more years before needing to read him again, but this is entertaining enough.

Letter 44 – When the new president of the United States arrives in the White House after the previous incompetent and corrupt president leaves in disgrace, he finds a letter that explains why his predecessor behaved so erratically. The story and conspiracy are good, but the art is deeply shaky. I’ll probably give the second tpb a try. The first just came out.

Parker – Darwyn Cooke adapting Richard Stark’s Parker novels. It’s all you need to know. One of the best artists in the business adapting some of the best crime fiction ever written.

Rachel Rising – Written and drawn by Terry Moore. Honestly, an acquired taste involving the dead returning, witches, conspiracies and other weirdness. But Moore’s b/w art is beautiful.

Red Sonja – Never a title I collected. Then Gail Simone took over. Then the character became fun. The whole chainmail bikini even works. A character who was often portrayed as a male nerd cheesecake fantasy becomes one the scariest, most empowering women characters in comics.

The Sixth Gun – A horror/mystery/western. There are six guns, each with magical properties. Each cursed. An evil, and dead, Southern General wants his gun. The sixth. The most powerful of them, which is currently held by a young woman who wants nothing to do with it, but has no choice. A nice mix of all the elements.

Star Wars – A little Star Wars goes a long way for me. Brian Wood tells the story of what happened between the first two movies. Worth it just for a very interesting take on Leia.

Stumptown – PI Dex Parios is a good detective, but a shitty gambler. Set in Portland, it’s a fun detective story, equal parts mystery, fun, action and drama. Greg Rucka is there, so I’m on board.

Bandette – A young woman in Paris who is a thief, but also helps out the police when she’s not busy protecting the people of Paris. Colleen Coover’s art is the draw here. It’s adorable and filled with more energy per page than 10 regular comics.

Cleopatra in Space – No kidding. A teenage Cleo is transported into the future where she has to save the galaxy. And finish school. Mike Maihack’s art is brilliant (I own some of it, although not from this book) and the story is a ton of fun.

Usagi Yojimbo – The most important, consistent and admired comic of the last 25 years. A ronin wanders feudal Japan  getting into adventures. Except he’s a rabbit. Stan Sakai gives a master class in storytelling, folklore and art. He’s so good that what he does looks simple, yet 99% of comic creators can’t do it and freely admit it.

Waiting on

Because that’s not enough, there are several books that haven’t come out yet in tpb format that I’m going to buy. They are:

She-Hulk - Marvel

Captain Marvel - Marvel

Ms. Marvel – Marvel

Rocket Raccoon – Marvel

Magneto – Marvel

Moon Knight – Marvel

Harley Quinn - DC

The Fade-Out – Image

Shutter – Image

Southern Bastards – Image

Fuse – Image

Veil – Dark Horse

Tomb Raider – Dark Horse

Last Five

1. Real long distance - Josh Ritter

2. Praise you - Flatboy Slim

3. Out of touch - Hall & Oates

4. Old Dan Tucker - Bruce Springsteen

5. Ah, me - Amelia Curran