Pick Of My Pile for the week of 4-15.

Hey Chums,

Since the Kansas City Planet Comic-con, I've been reading plenty of comics and graphic novels. A couple of things I have enjoyed include Short Comings by Adrian Tomine and Powers by Bendis and Oeming. If you haven't already, give both of these titles a try.

On to my picks.

Marvel:

Stephen King - The Stand - American Nightmares #2 (of 5). Another great issue. This series (The Stand) has yet to have a bad issue. I HIGHLY recommend it.

The Uncanny X-Men #508. The return of Madelyne Pryor - yawn. The return of Betsy Braddock (Psylocke)- yeah!

Punisher #4. This series is off to a great start with a interesting story and it has excellent art also.

Captain America #49. This is the Sharon Carter story I've been waiting for. Is Steve Rogers on his way back?

Stephen King - The Dark Tower - The Sorcerer #1 (one-shot). What is this?

Halo Uprising #4 (of 4). Nice art, but the story had a let down ending.

Incognito #3 (ICON). Another good issue by Brubaker and Phillips.

IDW:

Star Trek - Alien Spotlight - Klingons. Nice cover and art, but the story maybe the weakest of the Alien Spotlights.

Wildstorm:

The X Files #6. The conclusion of The Badlands arc.

The Pick Of My Pile this week is Punisher #4. From the variant cover of Frank going after Norman Osborn, this issue hits on all cylinders. The first four issues have built up a good first arc. I hope Remender can keep the intensity up for quite some time. It doesn't hurt that Opena's art is perfect for this title.

K.R.C.

D.L.

Pick Of My Pile for the week of 4-8.

Hello Chums,

With my last post, some of you might think I was being too hard on Marvel Comics. However, if you have been reading my posts, you know I prefer Marvel Comics to DC something like 5 to 1. And the DC comics that I do buy are still $2.99. I just hope everyone doesn't follow suit and increase their prices by a $1.00. I for one will do some serious cutting back.

On to my picks.

Marvel:

Ultimate Wolverine Vs The Hulk #4 (of 6). Jennifer Walters and Betty Ross together to try to help The Hulk. So why is Betty The She-Hulk and not Jennifer?

Stephen King - The Dark Tower - Guide to Gilead (one shot). More Jae Lee art with no backgrounds. Who does he think he is - John Byrne?

DC:

The Warlord #1. Written by Mike Grell! Cover by Mike Grell! Interior art not by Mike Grell - bummer. However this is a very good first issue.

IDW:

Star Trek - Missions End #2. Kirk & Co. continue their "last" mission with the spider society.

Dark Horse:

B.P.R.D. - The Black Goddess #4 (of 5). More Great Guy Davis art. And the stories okay too.

The Pick Of My Pile this week is very easy. The Warlord was always one of my very favorite books growing up. (I really DISLIKED the miss-fire DC launched a couple of years ago - without Grell) This new book has (#1) Mike Grell back. But it also has a decent start with The Warlord (Travis Morgan), Tara (his wife?), Shakira (his cat/lover), Tinder (his son), and the mention of Machiste (his best friend). As soon as the story moves to Skartaris, action ensues.

I met Mike Grell (for the first time) at San Diego last year at the Comic-con. As he was signing my comics, he told me he was coming back to DC comics to write The Warlord. I wish I would have asked him: For how long? Let's hope it's a good long while.

K.R.C.

D.L.

Comic Book Prices

Hello Chums,

I just wanted to say I'm NOT happy about the new price hike. I mean $2.99 was already too high a price for a comic book. Now the price is $3.99. Are they kidding me? How many kids have an extra $20.00 a week for 5 comic books? Not many kids. Not many adults either these days.

This whole price hike has me thinking maybe now would be a great time (or the right time) to drop a few books. And Marvel comics would be a great place to start. Marvel comics have almost as many pages of adds as there are story pages. The November issues are notorious for having more adds than pages. That is RIDICULOUS. If I collect a long box full of Marvel comics, half that box would be adds. Who needs that?

Marvel comics the same price as IDW comics? That's insane. First of all, with Marvels dominance of the market on the amount of titles published each month and their higher print runs (number of books to be sold), why are their prices going up? The shear number of adds they have in each book should keep the prices down. It's my opinion that Marvel Comics is a greedy company. They're so cheap they hardly show up at any Comic book conventions. They should be the leader in the field. Instead they have become a greedy price gouger.

Back to IDW, they're comics have card stock covers. Marvel has low quality cheap paper covers (the ink comes off on my fingers all the time). IDW's comics have a few pages of adds at the end of the book. But their adds are for other IDW products. And that doesn't bother me. Marvel has twice as many adds and they're also dispersed in between every few pages of the story. I have always found this disruptive to the story. This is very old school. IDW, Dark Horse and Image comics put their adds in the back (where they belong). Since Marvel is jacking up the price, maybe they could drop some of their adds to thin up a few books. The car (Honda), food, movies and video games adds would be great places to start.

If I did quit buying Marvel singles, it's not like I'll miss anything anyway. Almost everything they print gets collected in a trade (usually sooner than later). The trades are a better value. No adds. And square bound. Which means they'll sit nicely on my bookcase. And you know getting them off the shelf to reread is much easier than digging through long box upon long box until you luck into finding what your looking for.

Keep Reading Comics but boycott the $4.00 Marvel books.

D.L.

Pick Of My Pile for the week of 4-1.

Hello Chums,

A good size week of buying this week. Let's get right to it.

Marvel:

Avengers / Invaders #9 (of 12). This book is sooo late. I mean the Wasp is still alive. This makes completely no sense. This book should have been a stand alone story from the start. Involving the current New and Mighty Avengers was a stupid move.

Franklin Richards - Son Of A Genius - April Fools (one-shot). I like this book. I pick it up every time it comes out however, with the new higher pricing it will be a dropped book next time.

New Avengers - The Reunion #2 (of 4). Hawkeye and Mockingbird together again (sort of). This might not be what Hawkeye hopes for.

Captain America Comics #1. Another retailing of Caps origin (nice story and art). But the old school back up story (baseball) was weak.

Agents Of Atlas #3. Nice story with fantastic flashback art.

The New Mutants Saga (free). Another free book. Yeah it's just an add to attract new readers into the new New Mutants book. But so what, these are cool. Where are the free comics DC?

Universal War One - Revelations #1 (of 3) (Soleil). Continuing were the last mini-series left off. Great sci-fi story, art, and coloring. 46 pages. No adds. The complete package.

IDW:

Angel - Blood and Trenches #2. Great John Byrne black and white art. I'm not an Angel fan but I'm digging this book.

Star Trek Crew #2. John Byrne. Star Trek. Nuff said! I like it!

Star Trek Countdown #4 (of 4). The conclusion to this summers movie prequel.

DC:

The Flash Rebirth #1. Barry Allen is back. I'm not a big DC guy but this issue was pretty good. Ethan Van Sciver's art really fit the story.

Image:

Jersey Gods #3. Sweet Paul Pope Cover. I'm still not sure what's going on here but I liked this issue better than the last. Sweet Paul Pope Cover. Nice back up story also. 28 pages. No adds. How about a Paul Pope written and drawn back up story? That would be kick ass.

There were some solid books this week: The Flash, Star Trek - The Crew and Angel to name a few. But The Pick Of My Pile this week is Universal War One - Revelations. This book is head and shoulders above everything else. I wish every book had as high of production values. All it's missing is a hard stock cover like the IDW books.

K.R.C.

D.L.

Pick Of My Pile for the week of 3-25

Hello Chums,

Check out my purchases this week.

Marvel:

Captain America #48. Finally the end of this (boring) arc.

Fantastic Four #565. The F.F. having fun (?) in England.

Immortal Iron Fist #24. Another good stand alone story.

Mighty Avengers #23. I may drop this book soon.

New Avengers #51. Doctor Strange is back, maybe he'll be gone soon.

X-Infernus #4. The weakest book of the week, in a week of exceptionally weak books.

Wolverine Saga (free). These free saga books are nice. Where are the free books DC?

IDW:

Star Trek-Alien Spotlight-Tribbles. Another good spotlight book.

Star Trek-Missions End #1. Another Star Trek book!

Star Trek-The Next Generation-The Last Generation #5. The conclusion to this multi-Trek arc was so-so. And the character likeness' were okay at best. But it is Trek and it's still better than most of the fluff put out by Marvel.

Image:

Elephantmen #17. The death of Tusk. More of a downer than I thought it would be. Good story.

DC/Vertigo:

Jack Of Fables #32. Finally this story moves on from the boring war. Hopefully it will get back on track.

The Pick Of My Pile this week is Star Trek-Alien Spotlight-Tribbles. Check out the cool Kirk photo cover.

Keep Reading Comics.

D.L.

Pick Of My Pile for the weeks of 3-4, 3-11 and 3-18

Hello Chums,

A couple of quick updates. First if you haven't already, check out my web comic Medical Maladies at Better Than Fiction The Comic (look for the link on the left column). Second, con season is officially under way. My first con this year was Planet Comic-con in Kansas City. It was a blast even if the weather didn't cooperate.

On to my weekly picks:

For the week of 3-4:

Marvel:

Agents Of Atlas #2. Good story so far with great flashback art.

The Age Of The Sentry #6. A nice conclusion to this mini-series.

New Avengers-The Reunion #1. Hawkeye and Mockingbird together again.

Ultimate Wolverine VS. Hulk #3 (of 6). It finally shipped 3 1/2 years late. Not worth the wait.

Image:

Jersey Gods #2. The artwork for this series is very hit and miss. Some of the coloring appears muddy. Nice Darwyn Cooke cover.

Back to Brooklyn #4 (of 5). Ever see a guy do in his mom (in a wheelchair) on a freeway?

Dark Horse:

Hellboy-The Wild Hunt #4 (of 8). Possibly the best Hellboy story in years.

The Goon #32. The 10th anniversary issue. 32 page story with a 13 page sketch book.

DDP:

I Am Legion #2 (of 6). The Dancing Faun story continues in the forties.

The Pick Of My Pile this week is The Goon #32. A nice anniversary issue with a lot of bang for your buck.

My purchases for 3-11:

Marvel:

Stephen King-The Stand-American Nightmares #1 (of 5). The first issue of arc #2.

The Immortal Iron Fist #23. Danny and the six other weapons try to escape the eighth city.

IDW:

Doctor Who-The Whispering Gallery (one-shot). Ben Templesmith art with great likeness'. I've been watching a little bit of the doctor lately and thought I'd give it a try.

Dark Horse:

B.P.R.D. The Black Goddess #3. Awesome Guy Davis art.

The Pick Of My Pile this week is Stephen King The Stand-American Nightmares #1. This book is way cool. I highly recommend it.

For the week of 3-18:

Marvel:

Punisher #3. The Punisher versus The Hood with some nice Jerome Opena art.

Wolverine-Old Man Logan #71. Is this about over? I hope so.

Ultimatum #3 (of 5). More of the usual crap.

Uncanny X-Men #507. Not Fraction at his best.

IDW:

Angel and Trenches #1. GREAT John Byrne story and black and white art.

Star Trek Crew #1. Story and art by John Byrne. He's doing some background art!

Star Trek Countdown #3. The summers biggest movie prequel continues.

APE:

The Black Coat/Athena Voltaire #1. $2.00 special. I wish the Black Coat could come out monthly.

DDP:

The Zombies That Ate The World #2 (of 8). Twisted Zombie tales with art by Guy Davis.

DC/Wildstorm:

The X-Files #5. Agents Mulder and Scully at odds in the badlands.

The Pick Of My Pile This week is Star Trek Crew #1. All these new IDW Trek books have me looking forward to this summers biggest movie.

K.R.C.

D.L.