Weekly Pulls, 4/23

Looks like it’s back to a normal-sized week for my pick-ups this week, even after picking up literally nothing that came out last week. What’s really funny? It’s an entirely Image week for me this week. Zero, Ales Kot’s timeline-twisting super-soldier-spy book, has been consistently impressive, and I’m really looking forward to issue 7. In the last arc of The Massive, Brian Wood seems to have acknowledged that the book had gotten off track in the previous couple of arcs, and said so right there in the script. This last arc seemed to pull the book back on course, and I’m looking forward to the start of a new story with issue 21.

What’s really sad is that I’ve finally dropped Letter 44. Oni Press’s alien invasion (sort of?) tale just completely failed to hook me after the first four issues, and I couldn’t justify continuing on with it. It’s a shame, really, because the concept was pretty neat, but the execution just missed the mark. But, really, I’m waiting for…

sheltered_08_coverSheltered #8. In issue 6, Lucas was just starting to pull his shit back together after some un-forseen circumstances derailed his plans. In issue 7, one dip-shit threw a wrench in the works, and things seem to be unraveling. I love this series and I’m on the edge of my seat wondering how things will progress after the events of issue 7. The same goes for…

dead_body_road_05_coverDead Body Road #5. Justin Jordan’s revenge tale is, honestly, a pretty straightforward story. But every issue has been building to an awesomely bloody conclusion, and the twists that keep coming – while minor in scope – have successfully hooked me. I’m in ’till the end for this one, just like…

lazarus_08_coverLazarus #8. Lazarus is eight issues in, and it is already, in my opinion, one of Greg Rucka’s finest works. And that’s including amazing resume entries like Gotham Central, Queen And Country, and Stumptown. The series started by focusing on the post-apocalypse’s elite class, and now we’re finally getting to see how the serfs and waste live, and why they do the things they do. Lazarus is one of those comics that I’ll recommend to anyone, comic fan or no. It’s that good.

Luke’s Picks for January 9th, 2014: Dead Body Road #5, Lazarus #8, The Massive #21, Sheltered #8, Zero #7

Advance Review: The Fuse #3

I need to preface this review by saying that I like The Fuse. I like it. Try to keep that in mind, because it may not seem that way for a bit…

fuse_03_cover_largeI am a huge fan of Antony Johnston’s Wasteland from Oni Press. What makes Wasteland so fantastic is the world-building; the atmosphere. It’s not the singular most original post-apocalyptic tale in the world – a post-crash drifter falls in with a scrappy group of survivors-on-the-run – but the world and the atmosphere that Johnston weaves into Wasteland makes it so much more interesting than its base subject matter.

That’s really what I was expecting with The Fuse. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet gotten that. We’re now three issues in, and although it’s a mildly entertaining murder mystery, it’s one that could’ve been set in any city, in almost any time period. The characters are so vanilla as to be easily transplant-able across genres, and the particulars of the story would take minimal adaptation to modern day, the old west, or medieval Europe.

It’s strange, really, to come across a story like this. The overarching ideas of the murder mystery – two lower-class citizens turn up dead, their murder unexpectedly linked to powerful elite – are so straightforward that I can’t really think of another setting in which it wouldn’t fit. Maybe that’s a testament to the timelessness of the story, but that’s not really what I’m getting from it.

The problem is that I’m just not connecting with the Fuse itself. The setting – an Earth-orbit space station large enough to be its own city – just isn’t felt enough in the story. Yeah, the victims are “cablers”, bottom-class citizens who live in the ductwork. Yeah, the “city” is full of effective refugees from Earth who came up to escape their history. But I just don’t feel it. I don’t know what it is, really, but I the atmosphere of a crowded space station just isn’t conveyed here.

Maybe it’s the artwork. I don’t want to blast Justin Greenwood for his art – structurally, it’s just fine. But so many scenes are in offices or medical facilities or someone’s desk, that I don’t get to see the actual Fuse enough. That, I think, rests on Johnston’s shoulders. We need to see more of the environment that normal Fuse-goers see. And even when we’re “outdoors”, I don’t get enough of the environment to make me go “Wow, that’s really a cool futuristic space station!” It’s all just kind of… blah.

The latest issue still pushes forward that murder mystery, and that part of the book is interesting. I almost wonder, though, if the book would be more engaging if it were set in a more vanilla setting and allowed the characters and plot to shine through. Setting this story in such a cramped, futuristic environment carries with it the expectation that that environment will be a major player in the plotline, and so far it just isn’t.

We get bits and pieces in issue three that help with the environment, but only a little bit. The murder mystery itself, through the first two issues, wasn’t quite enough to really set the hook in me. The story’s starting – just starting – to develop some momentum now, but I can’t help but wonder why the creative team bothered to write this tale into a futuristic, space-station setting like this.

I have a strong feeling, having read Wasteland and a bit of Umbral, that this story will pull together after 5 or 6 issues. Wasteland proved that Antony Johnston is skilled at – and fine with – the slow burn. Like I said at the start, I like The Fuse – but I’m not sure I’m willing to wait that long, when it comes to individual issues.

I like The Fuse. I do. But I desperately want to like it more than I do. The story is an interesting murder mystery. I’ll likely pick up the whole story when it comes out in trade. And, I guess, that’s my recommendation for other readers, too. I’m confident in Antony Johnston’s storytelling, but I’m not sure this particular story is suited for monthly episodes. Let’s just hope the atmosphere plays a bigger part in the coming months.

TSP Ep. 64 Technical Issue Resolved

If you’ve been having a problem finding or downloading Trade Secrets episode 64, our ECCC show, those problems should be resolved now. There was an error in the XML feed that was preventing the show from showing up in feed aggregators and on iTunes. This error would not have affected direct downloads via the link in the original episode post, but would’ve prevented the episode from showing up in the feed like normal.

Everything is fixed now, and we apologize for the inconvenience. Subscribe to the show on iTunes or by clicking on the feed to the right, or download this individual episode HERE!

TSP Ep. 62: Nowhere Men

PrintEpisode 62 of Trade Secrets is now available! On this episode, the TSP crew discusses the decline of The Unwritten, the difficulty of introducing new readers to comics, and the Image Comics mad scientist yarn NOWHERE MEN!

Subscribe to the show on iTunes or by clicking on the feed to the right, or download this individual episode HERE!

Weekly Pulls, February 12th

The month of January was pretty brutal for me and comics. Being short on funds for most of the month, I wasn’t able to actually collect the books in my pull-list for four weeks straight. While that makes for a fantastic first week of Feburary and gives me tons and tons of stuff to read, it’s really rough to get so far behind.

This is my first normal week of comic buying again, and it’s pretty slow. I’m a full issue behind on both Fatale and Letter 44, so I can’t much comment on them yet. I know that I was on the fence with Letter 44 before, so I guess I’m automatically going to get two issues (January and February) now to decide whether I’m going to stick with it. Of course, there’s always

sixth_gun_38_coverThe Sixth Gun #38. The Sixth Gun is a constant favorite of mine. Every week that I have one to pick up, it’s usually in this column. Even when this book falters (which it has at least once), that “misstep” is still better quality than 95% of the books on the shelf. In typical TV fashion, Oni Press is touting this issue by teasing the death of a character. Who will it be? I’ll find out right after reading

the_fuse_coverThe Fuse #1. I recently read the first trade of Antony Johnston’s Wasteland for the Trade Secrets Podcast. It was my first exposure to the book, and I was very pleasantly surprised. The Fuse is billed as a crime comic centered around a murder at a spacebourne energy platform with a population of half a million, and it looks to be right up my sci-fi noir alley.

Luke’s Picks for February 12th, 2014: Fatale #20, Fuse #1, Letter 44 #4, The Sixth Gun #38

Weekly Pulls, January 22nd

It’s a middlin’ week for me, numbers wise, but not in quality. I liked what I found in the first issue of Justin Jordan’s Dead Body Road but it didn’t blow me away. I’m hoping that this week’s #2 will ramp it up. A new arc starts in this month’s The Massive, which is good, because the last arc was one of the weakest in the series so far. And, of course, Kelly Sue DeConnick & Emma Rios’s incredible Pretty Deadly gets another installment. For me, I’m really anticipating…

zero_5_coverZero #5. Ales Kot’s timeline-skipping sci-fi military/spy thriller has been fantastic from the get-go, with a couple of real “Holy $#!+” moments in the last two issues. The way the story is constructed makes the new-artist-every-issue formula work really well, and I’ve become a solid fan. The book feels like something written by the love child of Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton, and I can’t get enough. But what I’m really looking forward to this week is…

deadly_class_1_coverDeadly Class #1. Rick Remender is one of those writers who I’ll follow into oblivion. Fear Agent ranks amongst my favorite comics ever, and Black Science is heading into that same territory. Now, take one of my favorite writers and pair him with a story about a high-school for the next generation of elite assassins, with a tagline like “Murder is an art. Killing is a craft. At King’s Dominion high school for the deadly arts, the dagger in your back isn’t always metaphorical, nor is your fellow classmates poison.“? I’m already hooked. But I also have to mention…

planetary_omnibus_coverThe Planetary Omnibus Edition hardcover. Warren Ellis and John Cassaday may very well have peaked with the book that, as we discussed on Trade Secrets Podcast, ranks amongst the best comics ever made. And now, the whole thing is available in a spectacular single-volume omnibus hardcover, and even includes the less-than-stellar spinoff mini-series’? Do it. Do it NOW.

This week’s Honorable Mentions: I’ve been a huge fan of Brian Wood’s run on Conan, but it’s a book I’m getting in hardcovers. If you’re a fan of Howard’s sword-slinging Cimmerian, go grab Conan The Barbarian #24 this week.

Luke’s Picks for January 9th, 2014: Dead Body Road #2, Deadly Class #1, The Massive #19, Pretty Deadly #4, Zero #5, Planetary Omnibus HC

Weekly Pulls, December 18th

Holy $#!+, this is a big week for me. I’ve got 7 books showing up in my pull-box this week, and I’m picking up another hardcover collection for my bookshelf.

East of West has been phenomenal since the start, and one of my favorite works by Jonathan Hickman. Hit is a lot of fun and I’d wholeheartedly suggest grabbing it in a collected edition after it ends if you haven’t been getting the singles. Zero has been consistently good, and an interesting experiment in graphic storytelling, with every issue taking place in a different time and drawn by a different artist. Revival seems to have found a rudder again after a few haphazard issues, which I’m glad for. And speaking of being off-course…

Over the first 8 to 10 issues, I was a huge fan of Brian Wood’s The Massive. The post-apocalyptic world that Wood had built was unlike any other I was used to seeing, and the story of the bedraggled crew of the Kapital searching a devastated world for the titular sister-ship felt a lot like Firefly on a boat. Over the last several issues, The Massive feels like it’s lost focus, ambling around off-course and struggling to find the spark that made those first few story arcs so riveting. I’m planning to stick with the book, at least for a while, but it definitely needs to get back on track.

Luckily, being such a big week for me, there are several books I just can’t wait to get into my grubby little paws, starting with…

black_science_2_coverBlack Science #2. Wow. Just… wow. Remender’s newest love-letter to classic science fiction kicked off with a bang last month, and set the stage for what looks to be an epic mixture of Lost In Space and Sliders. And boy, is this book gorgeous. Dean White’s painted art over top of Matteo Scalera’s layouts is a spectacular combination, eliciting feelings of some of the best classic Heavy Metal stories. I can’t say enough good things about this book, and I suggest you get on board while the gettin’s good.

pretty_deadly_3_coverPretty Deadly #3. I’m going to sound like a broken record over the months if Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios keep up the level of quality they’ve crammed into the first two issues of this book. It’s a story that’s hard to describe, told in a way that’s… hard to describe. It’s just different, and it’s that difference that makes it great. My best suggestion for figuring out what this book is like is for you to go pick it up and read it.

secret_4_coverSecret #4. It’s been almost four months since the last issue of Secret came out. I’ve never been able to find a good explanation for the delay, other than perhaps Hickman had overloaded himself with work at Marvel and his creator-owned work. Whatever the reason, I’m glad the book is back, and the Image website lists further issues on track into 2014. I had thought that a huge delay would’ve hampered my interest, but when I saw issue 4 in the lists for this month, all that excitement ramped right back up.

peter_panzerfaust_hc_coverPeter Panzerfaust Deluxe Hardcover. This is a book that wasn’t even on my radar when it came out. It wasn’t until preparing for an interview with Kurtis Weibe at Emerald City Comicon in 2012 that I took notice. At the time the book’s sales were struggling a bit, but shortly after took off and solidified Weibe’s World War II Peter Pan tale as a solid entry in the Image lineup. After reading the first two issues, I’m hooked (no pun intended), and will definitely be picking this one up in hardcover trades.

And on that note, I’m going to introduce the new Honorable Mentions section of this article. If you listen to the Trade Secrets Podcast, you know that I collect a lot of books in hardcover form. For several of them, I don’t get individual issues, making me one of the dastardly “trade waiters” you hear so much vitriol about. So, each week I’ll list some books that I think are great, but that I don’t get in singles.

This week’s Honorable Mentions: Kelly Sue DeConnick’s reboot of a classic Dark Horse hero finally hit’s the stands this month in the form of Ghost #1, Joe Hill’s absolutely amazing Locke & Key comes to its inevitable end with Locke & Key Alpha #2, and Brian K. Vaughn’s award-winning science-fiction fantasy tale continues in Saga #17.

Luke’s Picks for December 18th, 2013: Black Science #2, East of West #8, Hit #4, The Massive #18, Pretty Deadly #3, Revival #16, Secret #4, Zero #4, Peter Panzerfaust Deluxe Hardcover.