Pick Of My Pile for the weeks of 9-30 and 10-7.

Hi Chums,

I've been reading an incredible amount of trades lately. Check out my reads.

First up is Richard Stark's (Donald Westlakes') Parker The Hunter as adapted by Darwyn Cooke. This is a nice crime/noir story with Cooke's usual animated style. The men of this book tend to have a hard/tough/criminal look, while the women (woman) has a nice, soft, eye appealing look. His style really works for this type of story. Although it was a fast read, the good news is he's doing another Parker novel for next year.

Keeping with Darwyn Cooke, my next trade was Batman Ego and other tales. Besides Ego, this book features all Cooke work including the very nice Catwoman: Selina's Big Score, a couple of Gotham Knights stories, a couple of Solo pieces and some pin-ups. Although I had read some (most) of this material before, this trade is very good and shouldn't be missed by a Batman or Cooke fan.

Next up is The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanac by Nick Gurewitch. This book is cram-packed with his on-line and newspaper strips. Gurewitch has mastered many art styles and they are on display in this book. Some of his styles ape other strips, while some are all his own. This results in art that more or less goes with the subject of the particular strip. Although these strips have very diverse subject matter, one has to wonder what paper would publish some of his (funny but inappropriate) strips. I highly recommend this book.

Also read this week was The Boys vol.4 We Gotta Go Now. Although I really liked this series at first, these last two trades have only been so so. Since they've announced this series is going to end in a few issues I'll probably see it through to the end. --This series reminds me of how The Exterminators started off with a bang but ended rather flatly. Bummer.

Lastly read was The Golems Mighty Swing by James Sturm. This Drawn and Quarterly book features nice art with beige tones on yellow paper. This is a nice period piece about a traveling Jewish baseball team taking on all comers. Nice start but very weak bailout ending.

On to my picks:

Week of 9-30:

Marvel:

No Man Can Stand Against...(wait for it) Shang -Chi Master of Kung Fu #1 (one shot). 48 pages of Kung Fu action? Not really. 48 pages -yes. But motor-cycles and Deadpool - NOOOO. Four stories with decent black and white art, but a weak attempt for the mighty Shang-Chi.

Stephen King The Dark Tower: Fall of Gilead #5 (of 6). If they stopped this series it wouldn't hurt my feelings any.

The Punisher Annual #1. The Punisher and Spider-man take on two Amazon sized wackos. This is still a part of The Hood story line with the dead (resurrected) bad guys taking a shot at Frank. This story was okay but I have come to expect more from a Punisher annual or over-sized issue.

New Mutants #5. The return of Warlock. I really liked Warlock back in the old New Mutants stories. His return is all that is keeping me on this book for now.

Radical:

Hercules: The Knives of Kush #3 (of 5). More Hercules in ancient Egypt. This book has nice painted style artwork that I really like. What I also like is how gruesome and realistic looking the bloodshed appears.

DC:

Batwoman in Detective Comics #854, 855, 856 and 857. Now normally I wouldn't pick this up. Lesbian Batwoman? But I keep hearing how good the Rucka story is but more importantly how GREAT the Williams III art is. Well they weren't lying. The story is good (very little gayness- I don't feel we need overtly sexual story lines in main stream comics, save that for Strangers In Paradise). But what makes this book shine is the VERY impressive art. The art - lets look at the art. The Batwoman sequences have very interesting panel layout and silky smooth art, while her secret identity (Kate Kane) sequences have a more rounded almost Seth Fisher look to them. This first story arc was very entertaining and will be a nice trade to pick up when it is collected.

Jack of Fables #38 (Vertigo). It's about time for me to get caught up on this title. But I'm not there yet.

Astro City: Astra special #1 (of 2) (Wildstorm). This book has not just a hard stock cover but it's a slick stock cover as well. The cover is set up like your usual grocery store rag (People magazine). Nice looking cover concept, but it is what's in the inside that counts right? And I'm very pleased it's contents are back on par with what made Astro City so good to start with: The human side of super heroes.

Some decent books this week, but The Pick Of My Pile is Astro City Astra Special. This type of story is what made Astro City a special book years ago. Let's have more super hero fare.

Week of 10-7:

This may be a first: more DC purchases this week than Marvel.

DC:

Batman and Robin #5. Nice Quitely cover but where is the Quitely interior art? Couldn't they hold this book for Quitely art? It's a shame DC is too weak to do what would be the right thing to do.

Red Tornado #2 (of 6). More on the origin of The Red Tornado and his sister. Yawn. I hoped this would be good. It's now on my drop watch.

The Warlord #7. Cover-Mike Grell, check. Story-Mike Grell, check. But interior art Mike Grell?,check. AWESOME!!! This issue has so many GREAT two page spreads. Besides braking through the panels, the art practically came off the page! Please give us more! This is the way The Warlord should be. My highest recommendation.

Planetary #27 (Wildstorm). Okay so I haven't read all 26 of the previous issues, but this was still okay for me.

Marvel:

Astonishing X-Men #31. I thought that this was a decent start to the next arc. I think Phil Jimenez' pencils were better suited for this title than the previous artist.

Captain America: Theater of War: Ghosts of my Country #1 (one shot). Another very nicely written (war) story by Paul Jenkins.

Criminal The Sinners #1. The start of the next Tracy Lawless arc! Once again: Brubaker+Phillips=Awesome!

Dark Horse:

Sir Edward Grey: Witchfinder: In The Service of Angels #4 (of 5). Nice Mignola story with good Stenbeck art.

IDW:

Star Trek Romulans: Schism #2 (of 5). Okay the first issue wasn't very good, however this issue had something (maybe more starfleet) that made it more interesting.

The Pick Of My Pile this week is..... do I even have to say it? The Warlord #7. It was flat out awesome on all levels. No book can compete with Mike Grell on his signature creation. Check it out.

Keep Reading Comics.

D.L.