Fable has really taken off. Willingham has even introduced Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser. Apparently there will be a crossover of Fables and Jack later this year.
I'm really looking forward to that. I liked how X Men Noir started then it kind of fell flat for me. I'm still into Spider-Man Noir.
Bumpage. Even though he's not exactly one of their better-known heroes, I REALLY like what Marvel's been doing with Iron Fist lately. Great stuff.
I still haven't caught up with Fables, but I did just read Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. Outstanding. Three weeks until DD Noir #1...
I started reading Y: The Last Man yesterday and I'm already 30 issues in. I can't put it down. I think after Y I'm going to start in on Fables. I have a bunch of X-Men stuff waiting to be read, but I can't bring myself to get caught up. I've been enjoying far too many other titles right now. Here's a partial list of what I'm reading every month: The Walking Dead Invincible Iron Man Captain America New Avengers Dark Avengers Mighty Avengers Haunted Tank DMZ Northlanders Unknown Soldier BPRD titles Hellboy titles Jersey Gods War Heroes Crossed No Hero Battlefields minis 30 Days of Night mini Green Lantern Green Lantern Corps Superman Action Comics Air Madame Xanadu And I know there are more, I just can't name them all off the top of my head.
I wander in and out of comic book fandom, and currently I'm back in. I'm sad that I missed the entire run of the most recent New X-Men; that title had a lot of promise before M-Day, and it was dynamite near the end between The Return of Magik and the issues of Messiah Complex. When it comes to using good old-fashioned nationalism against an invading force, I don't know if I've read a run as effective as the Secret Invasion issues of Black Panther. So Mockingbird's alive again, I guess. I'm not totally sure how I feel about that. She was one of my absolute favorite characters as a kid (along with Hawkeye) but having her suddenly show back up the way she did is kinda weird. It's not that I'm expecting further twists and turns, and I like the chance to read a story with her that's more recent than West Coast Avengers, but it's just that I was used to the idea that she was going to be one of the select few Marvel characters that stayed dead. Regardless I'm hoping her arc in New Avengers goes somewhere fun. AIM can be very intriguing so long as Modok doesn't appear on panel and make everything look painfully goofy.
If you're interested in Mockingbird, check out the New Avengers: The Reunion mini-series that features Ronin and Mockingbird.
I would recommend the following: War Child Grendel Tales (there are a bunch of different GN's based on the various mini-series, I especially liked the ones by Edvin Biukovic and Darko Macan. I was a sucker for Biukovic's artwork.) God and the Devil Devil's Reign If you can find collections of the original Grendel series I'd recommend them as well. Also, the Batman/Grendel graphic novels are pretty good.
Hey Irvine, by chance did you write the Vertigo Encyclopedia? I was in a bookstore today and noticed it, was seriously thinking of picking it up but my wife was complaining about how much I spent on video games earlier, lol.
It's definitely on my must pick up list. I hope within the next couple weeks. I'm a big fan of Vertigo stuff. On another note, I finished Y: The Last Man tonight, I started reading it on Wednesday and did all 60 issues. I don't remember the last time a comic grabbed me that hard and made me want to read it all as fast as possible. I REALLY liked it. Now it's time to read Fables.
There was a half-off sale on all back issues at my local comic shop over the weekend, so I took advantage and bought some old Avengers and Dr. Strange.
You're reading that on a monthly basis? Glad you're digging Y. Looking at your list you'll definitely dig Fables as well.
Did DC put the individual mini-series all together in 1 TPB for each or mix them up and order them chronologically?
Yeah, maybe I should have put quarterly. I read all 60 issues of Y in 4 days, I really liked it. I'm on issue 28 of Fables now, but it hasn't captivated me like Y did. I just bought the Vertigo Encyclopedia and am anxiously awaiting its arrival.
I personally have found Fables to be a little scattershot. Some of the arcs didn't interest me so much, but then others would pull me right in. All in all I enjoyed it but I won't pretend to have liked it all.
They're mixed up so they rotate among all the stories. It's not quite chronological, but it creates an interesting overlay effect.
I plowed through Fables last week and generally liked it. And even if irvine wasn't involved, I'd still be interested in DD: Noir, as I'm a big Daredevil fan (the fact that he IS involved just makes me even more interested ). Also, I still can't recommend The Immortal Iron Fist enough.