It’s another one of those days where I’ve found myself in
the middle of two books (‘The Godwhale’ and ‘The King in Yellow’) and eager to
get going with another one (‘The Goblin Emperor’, I’ve heard loads of good
things about it). If that wasn’t enough, I’ve found my commute taken up with an
overwhelming need to beat my top score on ‘Subway Surfers’ (137740 just in case
you were wondering). It’s times like this when you have to take a step back
from the reading pile (or it will grind you down) and the games on my phone to
read some comics instead :o) Today sees a regular on this blog and a newcomer
that I’m kind of half and half on. Which one should I go for first? I know,
lets go for…
‘X’ #12 – Swierczynski, Maia (Dark Horse)
X faces his greatest challenge of
the series as four
villains—suicidal maniac Deathwish, stargazing supercriminal Carmine Tango,
risk-taking assassin Gamble, and a new
threat no one suspected—converge on Arcadia’s lone vigilante . . . but the
cruelest stab of all comes from a friend!
I said this before with #11 but it’s worth saying again because… bloody
hell, ‘X’ is a particularly brutal read. Every time I think that
Swierczynski and Maia have taken ‘X’ as far as they can they never fail to
surprise me by ramping things up an extra notch. #12 is no exception with the
fight from #11 being ramped up by adding three more villains to the mix.
There’s only so much that one vigilante can take, especially when another
betrayal is playing out off-screen (so to speak). X may be down but the last
panels show that he is by no means out; it’s a long way back to the top and I
have a feeling that X will be climbing over the bodies of several enemies on
the way back up. Swierczynski and Maia
have come with up a comic that is essential reading as far as I’m concerned,
read it for yourself and see. #13 cannot come soon enough as far as I’m
concerned.
‘Chew Volume 7: Bad Apples’ –
John Layman, Rob Guillory (Image)
Just up the road from us is an old phone box that people
have turned into a micro-library. It’s great, not only do I have another place
to get rid of unwanted books but every now and then I come back home with a
couple of books for myself. This explains why I have started reading ‘Chew’ at
volume 7; not the best place to start reading a series (although it could have
been worse, could have been volume 8…) but you have start somewhere and it was
a free book after all.
‘Bad Apples’ was a quick, fun read (is it me or are trades
getting slimmer…?) that I enjoyed more for the art than the story. Not that the
story was bad in itself, it just felt like it was bridging a gap between two
plots that I didn’t know anything about. Not the books fault at all and there
is a lot of stuff going on that a newcomer can get straight into (like Tony Chu’s
relationship with his daughter). It was Rob Guillory’s artwork that did it for
me, very dynamic and with a lot of sly humour in the details; I liked the touch
of anime in the characters as well.
Would I read the rest of the series? Maybe… If I do I’ll be
going along the ‘old fashioned route’ of starting with volume 1, it also
depends if I come across any more volumes in the micro-library :o) I’ll
definitely be keeping an eye open.
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