Only one novel to report on tonight, and it was a pretty simple one. After Naomi and I simul-read THE HANDMAID'S TALE, it was my turn to choose our book to read together, and I determined that we needed something...softer after that depressing, ominous Atwood read. While Christmas shopping, I came Kate DiCamillo's THE MAGICIAN'S ELEPHANT, and it seemed to fit the need. It's an easy read about a boy searching for his little sister, a mysteriously-appearing elephant, and a vaguely Eastern European city. It's whimsical, basically a fairy tale of sorts, and it was NICE. I really enjoyed it.
As always, I continued to read and re-read comicbooks. Here are some of the selections I chewed through since November…
THE THRILLING ADVENTURE HOUR: written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker and drawn by one of my favorite artists, Phil Hester. Imagine a story about a couple who are deeply in love, enjoy drinking, AND exorcising ghosts!
CAPTAIN UNIVERSE: Ever since I learned of Captain Universe when I was a kid, his whole concept fascinated me – he was “the superhero who could be YOU”! The premise was the universe itself would bestow power on individuals when destiny determined that they were needed. So, coming across this collection of CU stories, I had to read it! Mostly written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Steve Ditko, that was a noteworthy creative team. They are some odd stories, and pretty dated, but darn interesting.
IRON MAN: WAR MACHINE: was a trade I came across recently and picked up because I always enjoyed this variation on IRON MAN, the more military-ish version of the hero, and because it was written by Len Kaminski, a writer whose work I’ve enjoyed in the past. The trade has plenty of corporate espionage, electronic ninjas, cryogencics, AND Tony Stark dies (or does he??)!
FRONTIER COMICS: The Complete Collection. Everyone knows that Marvel Comics is based in the US, but for many years, there have also been British Marvel Comics, too, usually known as MARVEL UK. For a short period, though, during the early 1990s, Marvel published FRONTIER COMICS, which were sort of meant to compete with DC Comics’ VERTIGO imprint. It was an attempt to tell something other than typical superhero comics, and to attract a more mature readership. Unfortunately, it didn’t last too long, but it DID feature some early efforts from creators who have gone onto become quite influential in the comicbook world – Charlie Adlard, Mark Buckingham, Liam Sharpe – to name a few!
This collection reprints all the FRONTIER comics: CHILDREN OF THE VOYAGER #1-4, DANCES WITH DEMONS #1-4, MORTIGAN GOTH: IMMORTALIS #1-4, BLOODSEED #1-2 and MARVEL FRONTIER COMICS UNLIMITED #1.
My favorite of these titles was CHILDREN OF THE VOYAGER, a suspense/horror/thriller limited series. Was really fun to re-read this series! The script is very interesting and the art by Paul Johnson was VERY different than anything else I saw at the time!
Posted by troyfreund 
The Day-to-Day Haiku Project 