2012 - End of Week 8 - Books.

Greetings Friends,

As part of my 2012 challenge for 2012 I need to read 12 books (and 20 graphic novels, 500 comic books [single issues] and watch all 10 seasons of Smallville). I read (or finished) three books this week. Check them out.

Book #3 (of 12)

Zot 1987-1991 - The Complete Black And White Collection by Scott McCloud.

At 576 pages this book is a serious tomb. What is Zot? Zot is a super hero from an alternate reality Earth stuck in 1964. But their 1964 is more like 100 year in our future. They have flying cars, futuristic looking cities, ray guns and the like. And of course they can travel to other realities. Zot (who is about 15) comes to our Earth and hangs out with Jenny and her high school friends. All he wants to do is help people while he is here (crime is pretty much gone in his reality.) All Jenny wants to do is stay in Zot's reality when she can get back there.

As stated in the title this is the complete black and white edition by Scott McCloud. So this book collects issues #11-#36. It is explained in the forward that issues #1-#10 were color (and the story had a mild tweak at issue #11 so #1-#10 weren't needed for this volume). Also issues #19 and #20 weren't included because they were drawn by another artist. But their story boards are included. Cool. McCloud's artwork gets progressively better all the way through the series. His use of blacks and grey tones work well with his style of art. Nice series. Recommended.

Book #4 (of 12).

The Goon in Death's Greedy Comeuppance by Eric Powell (Goon #10).

The volume is really two stories in one. In the first story (Goon #32 and #33) it's The Goon's birthday. And he is depressed. Side-kick Frankie tries to cheer him up. We also have the return of a Goon bad guy.

The second story is the three issue limited series Buzzard. This story is kind of a Buzzard buddy rode story. Buzzard is on a quest to kill some savages that have been killing innocent people. The Buzzard's guide is a bright, inquisitive boy. They bond on there way to certain(?) doom. Will they make it out alive? Always Recommended.

Book #5 (of 12).

Monster Truck by Shaky Kane.

Shaky Kane (artist of The Bulletproof Coffin) has done a book with the tag line "Automobiles Monsters And Mayhem" That is a good way to describe this book. There are fifty pages to this book. Or should I say panels. Each page is a panel. But that's not really true either. It's actually one long panel divided up into fifty pages. The story is basically a monster truck driving through a barren wasteland inhabited with all kind of crazy monster, alien, car or whatever Shaky Kane could come up with. The art has his usual Mike Allred feel to it. Nice concept. Execution: Just okay.

Keep Reading Comics

D.L.