The final push for this came in the most unlikely of comic book fans: my cousin Joanne. Country cousin comes up from Florida to visit for a few weeks and trips over her past into a temp job with...wait for it...DC Comics! So, guess who's been getting lovely little care packages...that's right, city cousin Marc. I tell her to read Watchmen and Sandman as a primer for working in the world of DC Comics; she reads the former, but scoops me and goes to Y: the Last Man, knocking it down in under a month, raving all the way.
Not to be undone in my own house, I started scrummaging around the closet, behind the Countdowns, the Death of the New Gods, the Secret Invasions to find the trade paperback stacks. What did we unearth? First tpb of Fables and the first seven tpbs of 100 Bullets. Went to the store with some Christmas money and less than an hour later - some Y: the Last Mans and Ex Machinas.
Which to read first, though? Looking at the back covers, I noticed that the first trade of each (4) had the first 5 issues of each book by 3 creators. So I read each one and decided to let that dictate which one I finish first.
- Y: the Last Man - really enjoyed this first blast. Vaughan juggles the time frame and the many characters expertly (gee, now why did they hire him for LOST?). Alas, poor Yorick doesn't get much screen time, but that seems right at this point. Pia Guerra's art, on the surface, looks very traditional, especially for a Vertigo book. But it's bold, clean and expressive and reminds us that this is a story about characters more than concepts and it works. Also, remember Truog and Hazlewood's work on Morrison's Animal Man? Good touchstone there.
- Ex Machina - didn't think I would like this as much as Y; I'm not overly political and was never a big Tony Harris fan. Also, the revisiting of NY events puts me in Law and Order territory - not a fan there, either. However, Harris' work is extremely good, getting a wide variety of characters to look, well, various. Vaughan's exploration of political themes is thought-provoking, if not a bit obvious in its leanings. Anyway, I'm hooked here, too.
- Fables - I've stayed away from this book because I didn't want to sully the fond memories I have for Sandman. Foolish me. This book works similar avenues, but does so with a wittier and more urbane style.
- 100 Bullets - Having been a HUGE fan of Brubaker's Criminal over the last two years, I've let this book slide. But the two mini arcs collected here work very well. But it was the 8 page mini-story at the end that made me confident that Azzarello is a master storyteller. Risso's artwork is less realistic than the art in Fables, which is initially strange - it is the most reality-based book of the four - but it is also dynamic and dynamite.
- Y: the Last Man - it's complete. I don't want to have to wait.
- 100 Bullets - it's complete next month. Again, I'm not a fan of waiting. Also, don't want to read two Vaughan books back-to-back.
- Ex Machina - it's the next one to complete - it's at 40 and he's going to 50. You see the trend.
- Fables - no end in sight on this one, so it goes on the back of the line.
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3 comments:
Never got past the first trade of Y: The Last Man... really failed to impress on any level.
Have been waiting for 100 Bullets to finish before beginning it. Mostly because I can be an impatient bastards--when I started reading Preacher, I wound up buying the second half of the trades in one visit to the shop. When I get into something, I get oddly obsessive, so having the ability to buy the entire series in a short period of time is a must.
My best friend had been talking up Battlestar Galactica for years until I watched the mini from someone. I didn't see a "live" episode until season 4 started, so he busts my chops for not having "suffered". Actually, LOST is the only show I've watched this decade - besides that shit-fest 'The Sopranos' - where is was in from the ground floor.
I'm almost 4 deep into the Y tpbs - I do like it a great deal. The only problems I have are:
1. (and I say this sincerely) the pop culture references do wear a bit.
2. Yorick's a bit of dick, no pun intended. Maybe this is to give him room for growth, or maybe it's something Vaughan's intending, but he grates on me at times.
I bought the first 7 tpbs of 100 Bullets at a sale waaay back, bringing me up to issue 49. Then I bought 50-53, and was like, what the hell? Like I'm NOT going to get them in tpb down the road. However, now that I've started, and the last tpb isn't coming until late August (99 drops this week), I'll pick up 89-100 in floppies (my LCS puts everything at 1/2 price after 4-6 weeks of shipping - another reason I'm slimming down my pull list)
again, late on posting comment -- thanks for the mention! feel very important. send me a care package of sandman, i don't have any and i want to start. watchmen was over the top; i would like to have seen yorick have a little more power over all the "women" in his life, but it was a good romp (pun intended!)
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