Edshugeo The GodMoor

Picked up this graphic novel (comicbook) at an impromptu stop at Barnes & Nobles in Garden City last week. It's published by TokyoPop who mostly publishes manga (Japanese comics) translations and imitation manga. This was neither. I was imediately struck by the cover image of a pierced, slightly heavy-set, red mohawked black chick holding a bloodied toilet plunger. A bad omen, I guess, as I found later that very night, I would be in need of a toilet plunger. I won't be getting into that.
A glance at the back cover and a quick peek inside told me this was probably a girl vs. zombie story. I could live with that as well as the $10 price tag on the 200 page paperback.

Ross Campbell isn't just an excellent artist, he's a damn good sequential artist who's also great at writing dialog. The book is, overall, an enjoyable read, but I'm not too crazy with the direction the story took. This may be my bias against the genre more than anything else, but I'm not sure. And what exactly was the thing about the dumptruck?

Crap:
Ultimate Marvel Flip Magazine #9
I used to get Shonen Jump at the supermarket when I did my food shopping, but it appears the manga compilation either sells out before I get there, or is ordered irregularly. Whatever the case, I've lost track of whatever I was reading in it a year, maybe a year and a half ago. I've always meant to subscribe (which would be cheaper), but never got around to it. At some point I may or may not get the Naruto books. DragonBall and DragonBall Z for sure. I have the first four volumes of DragonBall and will continue those one day. The anime is a bit much. I suppose I could download the whole thing, but I think I attempted that a few years ago and then decided it was way too much trouble. I still think Harmony Gold's version of the first two (or was it the first and the third?) DragonBall movies were much funnier than Funimation's. Wish I still had those on tape or something, but I'm sure they can be found online, somewhere.
Anyway, the only other comics at the supermarket are these flip comics put out by Marvel. You get Captain America on one side, Avengers on the other. At four bucks per issue, I guess it comes out at about two bucks per comic, which is still too much, if I bought these things on a regular basis. I was interested in Captain America, but the story was too far along and I may end up getting the paperback compilation despite knowing who the Winter Soldier is.
A couple of months ago I picked up one of these just for the hell of it. I don't make it to any comics shops too often anymore. It was Spiderman on one side and Arana (or something like that - the Hispanic Spidergirl) on the other. Both stories were okay, but aside from John Romita Jr.'s art, didn't blow me away.
This weekend I spotted one that featured two "Ultimate" titles; Fantastic Four and X-Men. Ultimate X-Men was written by Mark Millar whose work I enjoyed in The Ultimates, a re-working of the Avengers and the only of Marvels Ultimate line I've read so far. Ultimate FF was written by Warren Ellis, of whom I've mostly read good things, but whose works I've never read, I think.
Both stories appear to be crap. Is that because I'm coming in mid-story and this sort of thing reads better in compilation form (the way I read The Ultimates), or are they just crap? I may never find out.
I recently ordered Akira #37 and 38 at Biblio.com. I got 38 (for six bucks) but was never charged for nor sent 37. I'll get it at some point from somewhere. A few years ago (everything happened a few years ago) I searched for the last few issues of that series thinking it ended at 36 for some reason. I think I stopped buying the series because the schedule got real erratic at some point, but I don't remember. Anyway I bought what I thought was the last few issues up to 36 and re-read the whole series, and when I got to the "end", found myself asking "WTF? Is that it?" and just left it alone for a while. At some point I realized there might be more and when I found out for sure I would check every now and then, when visiting comicbook stores or online sites. I'm not payin' twenty bucks for a single issue of any comicbook, though. When I found 'em listed at Biblio at six bucks a piece, I was like, "cool!" Still don't have 37, though. When I get it, I'll read the whole series over again. Hey, it's worth it.
(edit: Also read DC Universe: The Stories Of Alan Moore, which of course is (mostly) not crap. Except for the Green Arrow story (which along with most of the Green Lantern Corps tales, I'd never known about). I don't get how people are still writing comics that features a guy using a bow and arrow in an urban setting while dressed like Robin Hood. I'm not crazy about Hawkeye in The Ultimates, either. Sure, there's a lot of stupid shit in comics, but some shit is just too stupid for comics.

Labels: Anime, comics