Comics Books

It will only take the reading of at most 10 pages before you will reach the conclusion that Bill Watterson is a genius. He captures the lament of all children whose imagination overpowers them, leading them to other places when they "should" be concentrating on more mundane things like schoolwork. Calvin is a young boy who is always in trouble, yet his problems are a consequence of his tenuous grip on reality. If he can maintain his imagination into adulthood, he no doubt will be very successful as a writer, but as a child, there are strong forces that will strongly dampen his wandering mind.
I was such a child, often preferring to play off by myself on the playground and pretend that I was doing greater things than simply kicking a ball or swinging in a swing. My teachers often wondered about my being alone, yet those were my favorite times during the school day. Elementary school teachers have a collective abhorrence for any child that is "different."
Some people enjoy C & H for the amusement, yet some of us recognize something deeper, the imaginative nonconformist who struggles to hold that characteristic into adulthood. For it is not till adulthood that it is appreciated.

I ordered this item and received it within a week. Very good timing.

I love this book!When my friend got a Calvin and Hobbes book, I did'nt really like it because it was not in color. But once I got this book I loved it! I colored in the ilistrations so now I don't have ANY problems with this book! I want to collect all of the Calvin and Hobbes books, but right now I only have 4. I would reccomend this book to anyone who likes funny books. They are so good my dad reads them! Other good Calvin and Hobbes books are Revenge of the Baby-Sat,Scientific Progress Goes Boink, and Attack of the Deranged Muntant Killer Monster Snow Goons. Well, I guess that's it. BUY THIS BOOK!!!!!!!

This is a funny book about a kid named Calvin and his stuffed tiger named
Hobbes. They do funny stuff and they have adventures. Calvin is a funny six year old. Hobbes is a smart tiger! YOU NEED TO READ IT!

Forgive me if my review runs a bit on the sappy side, but I grew up with Calvin and Hobbes, and I sometimes think they are among the best friends I've ever had. Bill Watterson's comic is gentle, sincere, and magical. At its core it is an examination of what it means to be human, and the value of friendship. Watterson's philosophy of the comic strip was that it should be based around characters rather than gags; we should feel as though we know the protagonists as real people, rather than as interchangeable vehicles for jokes. That comes through on every page, even from the very beginning. Calvin's world has a cast you can probably count on two hands, but every character (except possibly Moe, the bully) has at least a hint of fully-rounded personality. Watterson's world is one of simple pleasures shared with good company.

As with any comic strip, the first collection is rather crude in pretty much every aspect--the drawings, the humor, the personalities--but as a prototype for what would come later, it is not without its own charms. Even at this stage I would hardly call Calvin and Hobbes a forgettable, generic strip. It still has heart and a sense of profundity, even if Watterson had not yet figured out the most effective way to illustrate these things in his strip. It's interesting to see the origin of Hobbes (even if this version was discarded later), the genesis of Calvin's relationship with Susie (the love-hate romance, which will later be toned down, is at the forefront here), the first appearance of Spaceman Spiff, the introduction of a then-unnamed Rosalyn, and so forth. Also, early Calvin and Hobbes are somehow a bit more adorable here than their later incarnations, but you didn't hear that from me.

In an age of disposable comics, Calvin and Hobbes is one of the few childhood experiences of my life that I can actually appreciate more with age. I would not find it an exaggeration to say that Watterson's perspective of life heavily shaped my own, as I find myself much less concerned with superficiality and the plastic culture of Hollywood than many of my reality-TV-addicted, Nike-sporting, iPod-blasting peers, and more appreciative of the little things in life that we tend to take for granted. All Calvin needs to be content is a good friend and a search for adventure, and even as I grow, kicking and screaming, into adulthood, I find I can still relate.

This was a gift for my 9 yr old granddaughter. She told me she loved it.She had rented from the library and was overjoyed to have her own copy.

Be sure to keep reading to reach chapter three where entrepreneurship takes off in the most subtle way, selling mini toys at school. (We had a little trouble getting entranced in chapters one and two.) But soon after, Greg is creating and selling homemade comic books. The comic book assembly is explained (including drawings) which is a nice touch for readers who would like to try and create their own. It's never too early to let your child write and create their own book.

I especially enjoyed the competitive relationship with the girl next door and how feelings (anger, admiration, jealousy, etc.) were expressed throughout. My son would often ask to continue reading as I finished a chapter.

Money, sales and partnership ideas are nicely addressed. You read about advertisement examples kids are exposed to at school (there is a surprisingly long list), ideas on why money is important, compromises needed when working with a partner, and the good feelings that arise from making donations.

I think my favorite part is when Greg realizes (through discussion with the school board) that he was as guilty as all the other advertisers. He was also targeting the children at school. "He was the hunter, and they were the prey." Actually, this is not a bad thing as entrepreneurs need to understand their target audience but it is the first book I have read that addresses this issue. A++

My nine year old son has read my book so I wasn't surprised when he asked, "How come none of the books we read mention taxes?" (We've read a few entrepreneur books recently.) I had to laugh and remind him, "Not everyone enjoys doing taxes... or even reading about it, so maybe the author decided to leave that technical part out."

Of all the Andrew Clements school books I've read, Lunch Money was by far the least engaging. The reason for this is that a large part of the book focuses on numbers instead of people, and where Clements has succeeded in the past is in his ability to make us really like his leading characters. Greg, the lead character in this book, is not very nice. He's largely driven by money and selfishness, and although Clements does try to make Greg more personable by depicting his change of attitude, the change does not come off convincingly.

The concept itself behind the book is terrific: schools are hypocritical because while they profess to be trying to promote certain values and healthy lifestyles, the actions districts take are at times directly opposed to the high moral standards the districts are imposing on the students.

I did enjoy the book, and recommend it to those looking to read more of Andrew Clements' books. I would pick up Frindle, The School Story, or The Report Card first however.

Lunch Money is a good book for money lovers. Its about a boy who has all these good ideas to make money and then he comes up with his best idea yethe decides to make comic books!The princapal disagres but then Mrs Davenport decidesto let Greg sell comic books. I highly recomend this book!

I'm a nine year old boy from NY. This book is funny and serious, too. This boy Greg wants to make lots of money while copycats try to steal his ideas. He makes money by selling little chunky comics. I recommend this book to everyone.

WB

This is a great tutorial and reference for anyone considering writing a comic book for the first time (or perhaps someone more experienced who'd like to get a fresh perspective and/or deeper understanding of fundamental structure). Scott has taken all those elements that go into making a good comic book (that you've probably noticed subconsciously but couldn't put into words) and laid them bare with expert analysis.

The analyses and guidelines are presented in a light-hearted, comic book format that is both entertaining and enlightening. You won't find yourself getting sleepy or distracted while reading this book - and you will understand every concept with perfect clarity, even if you are a complete novice.

Get this book! I found it at my local library and read it twice (cover to cover). I plan to buy it so that I'll have it handy for reference as I plan and begin drafting my first comic book.

Highly recommended.

Scott McCloud's "Making Comics" is a must-read for all aspiring comic artists. This book is very different from other comic technique books. While most other books will teach you how to draw characters or backgrounds, this one teaches you how to tell stories. McCloud goes in depth into what makes a good story through pacing, image choice, layout, words, facial expressions, among many other factors. All of the instruction is given in comic form, so it is very easy to see how the techniques are implemented since he shows you right on the page. I particularly like the section on facial expressions. He has a very inventive method of using basic facial expressions and then mixing them to create totally new facial expressions. It has to be seen to be believed.

If you're thinking of starting to draw comics, or if you're on the edge of giving up comics because you just can't get it right, this will give you the inspiration to keep trying. If you're a great artist, then you'll come to a better understanding of the techniques that you use. I definitely recommend reading this book.

I've always found it fascinating to imagine how a comic book author/illustrator creates the stories and images that appeal so much. Having been a non-fiction book author for many years, I have a firm understanding of the writing process. I sometimes pick out a few illustrations to put into a book.

But building a story around the illustrations, that seems like a trip to the planet Neptune to me. I was very pleased to find that Scott McCloud is very good at explaining (and illustrating) the creative and production processes he uses. I was delighted when I realized that he had also described how an individual could make a few comics to share with friends.

With computer art getting to be easier to do, I can see that there's even hope for those of us who couldn't draw out way out of a paper bag.

Mr. McCloud has the kind of mind that sees everything in perspective, in this case as facets of an overall story-telling task. He always has the goal of engaging the reader in mind and relates his points well to that purpose.

The work is impressive at another level . . . it's a masterpiece of providing instruction. The book shows more than tells, as a book about comics should do.

If Mr. McCloud ever tires of making comic books and graphic novels, he should go into explaining non-fiction subjects. He would make a fortune!

Well thought out, well written, quality throughout. I like this book the best so far; the previous weren't as appealing as this but were still very well done. The author really practices what he preaches as far as his message and the book speaks for itself. You won't be disappointed. Looking forward to the new books!

When my grandparents got me this book, I didn't think it could help me. I was looking for a "How to Draw" not a "How to Write". This book proved me so wrong. I couldn't believe how much fun it was to read, and it helped me a lot too. Almost everything I thought I knew was proved wrong and after reading it I felt like I understood comics so much better. As well as making me better at writing comic books, it made me a better writer altogether. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in comics or in just plain writing or art.

It's all been said before by other 5-star reviewers...and I crave other comics from Tatsuya Ishida - he is very good, too good for syndication, even!

Ever since Calvin and Hobbes left the comics scene, I've been hard-pressed to find another comic that really hit home with situations I can relate to. Nothing is sacred to Ishida, since he makes fun of everything from God and the devil, to the ongoing battle of the sexes.
I recommend this highly. =)

Always with things popping up, this web comic has always entertained me. Some are just a giggles while others make you wanna laugh out loud. I love keenspot comics, I've been reading them for about 5 years now. Sinfest is one of my favorites of all time. Just how the characters interact is so priceless and well thought out. How the random stuff can turn into a delightful story line. You won't find this at your local book store. Fun for the whole family(if you like corrupting your children that is).

Quality comic, which I highly recommend. However, you can purchase the books for only $15 on the author's cafepress.com page. He has a link to it on sinfest.net.

Sinfest is the best web-only comic I've read. I've been reading Sinfest since 2002 and I'm surprised that it's still not syndicated.

This book contains comics from 2000 and 2001. Tatsuya Ishida's art has improved since then, but even his older material is good. The Sinfest comics are all online, so you can check it out and decide for yourself if you like it before you buy.

If you love C&H, you'll like this book. For me, Calvin is like pepperoni pizza... when it's good, it's really good, and when it's bad, it's still good.

Unfortunately, I say it rather cynically.

My, there are so many monsters peopling this strip. The kid's a monster. His parents are monsters. The tiger's a monster. The teacher's a monster. The babysitter's a monster. And the only character who's not a monster (and more of a victim) is naturally enough, a young girl who is never bad or gets into any trouble. And the strip, while a rugrat's fantasyland, also smacks of extreme adolescent rebellion.

The strip is so overrated even after its demise a decade ago that it's been ensured that no cartoonist alive or yet to be born would ever create a strip as well-worshipped as it is for all eternity to come. So why not just remove the whole comic section from the news for good?

This book combines material from both Yukon Ho! and Weirdos From Another Planet!. Perfect to read with a blanket and a cup of tea on a rainy Sunday afternoon. It lifts my spirits up and makes me laugh, even when there's no one around. Really, that could be said about any Calvin and Hobbes book, though!

Whether the collection is the "Indispensible" or "Essential" or "Quintessential" Calvin and Hobbes, it doesn't really matter. Watching this hyperactive, hyperimaginative child and his willing though wise accomplice, Hobbes, take on evil babysitters, Susie Derkins, the class bully and all creatures (real or imaginary), is a pleasure and laughter without stop. "The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes" is another in a long list of the great comic work of Bill Watterson. This is an indispensible/essential/quintessential collection for all Calvin and Hobbes and humor fans!

Calvin is a beam of light, a dinosaur, Spaceman Spiff, a pollster on the election of new parents, a robotic explorer from Jupiter (in search of chocoloate) -- well lots of things. He's all the best and all the worst a boy about five can be, and that covers a lot of ground.

If the others around him never quite see things Calvin's way, that's really not his problem. Hobbes will always understand, and generally offer some understated commentary on events. I prefer not to say too much about Hobbes. It's really best if you let him introduce himself.

This book is a treasury of daily and sunday color strips. It captures a part of one of the best strip comics ever. If you already know C&H, you'll surely want this collection. If you missed the strip when it was still in the papers, this will give you a wonderful introduction.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood, and Calvin offers his for your enjoyment.

//wiredweird

I was not expecting anything when I started this book...frankly, I'm not sure I remember ordering it. In any event, the parallels between this graphic memoir and my own life make this book read more like an answered prayer than merely another memoir.

I take that last part back. It's not just that the author's experiences mirror my own life that makes this book notable. Rather, it's that Gregory manages to capture his own HUMANITY...without resorting to irony or the manufactured self-deprecation that seems to plague the modern memoir that makes this book so notable. I mean, finally!, someone has managed to write an HONEST memoir, one that does not require an attorney's Release of the Facts as a prologue.

"Everyday Matters" reads like a private journal, without the pretention that comes when the author knows other folks'll be reading it. Gregory's sketches are likewise uninhibited and imperfect; together, the text and illustrations create a personal, intimate environment for the reader that is inviting and judgment-free; none of the "You shouldn't have looked (though I knew you would, so I gave you my best side)" business that is the meta-text of so many memoirs, but instead offers a reassuring, "Well, that's me, hair and all...what do you think?"

A thoughtful, generous gift from Gregory to his readers.

A very enjoyable read and inspirational. I went out purchased a sketch pad and started drawing after finishing the book!

This is a great book! I read it in an hour and a half. I enjoy knowing the process people take in order to deal with life's occasional hiccups that knock the world out from under you. It helps to know that you're not the only one sometimes. It's always a relief when the person works it out positively and thinks enough to want to share it with others. Thank you, Danny!

love it, love it, love it !!!!
a wonderful inspiring little book.
perfect smaller size (6"x8") to carry along with your sketchbook to keep you encouraged in your drawing.

I suppose I had some misperceptions of this book. I was assuming there would be more inspiration that would cajole me into journaling and artwork. I also thought is was he who was disabled - it was his wife. There was little mention of how his wife's diability figured into the whole pictue of his life. As a disabled person, I thought there would be some insight into overcoming disability to do what you want. I do however, love the way he draws and journals. In the end I saw this as a simple journal that anyone might have done. I still have his other book and I have higher hopes for that.

I began reading Box Office Poison in 1995 when it was a Xeroxed mini-comic in the $1-box at Jim Haney's Comics (NYC) and devoured it instantly. I loved the shadowy back and white drawings and the quirky dialogue. All the characters seemed real; they live in shared apartments, have uneasy first dates, and work in jobs they don't like. This was a lot more REAL than MTV's REAL WORLD series. Then again, maybe this comic shows you "the real world" with the overweight guys and girls.

After a childhood of comics with muscle-freaks leaping around in pantyhose, I was glad to find comics where people actually get old and DIE. Robert Crumb drew adult-themed comics for 40 years before his stuff was put in regular bookstores, but Robinson's Box Office Poison can be found in Barnes and Noble. Hopefully the Pubic Libraries will soon stock up on graphic novels, which are finally being taken seriously as literary works.

reading an original graphic novel. I love every one of the 602pgs of this book.
thank you, Alex Robinson.

There is something wrong with this book. There are many characters that should be interesting, who have interesting situations and back-stories, but they act like paper cut-outs. This book is boring. There is no spark in it, no life or soul or whatever you might call it. Everything in this book just generally falls flat, in my humble opinion.

A bunch of recent arts college graduates in NYC: their ups, their downs, tears and laughter. That sums up the weaknesses of this book, which sometimes swings into soap-opera land, but only sometimes.

The great strength of the book is the Irving Flavor character, a grumpy old comic book artist who draw the NightStalker, then got shafted. There's some great nuances to his character, and a wonderful section about his attendance at a comic convention.

I'd liked the experiments with story-telling styles, with disorganized panels, overlapping dialogue, and out-of sync visuals.

I read this book (all 600+ pages) in one long sitting and I will definitely be back to read it again and savor it. It's the story of an interwoven group of friends and acquaintances, mostly in early post-college life, in New York in the mid 1990s. The book mostly focuses on Sherman, a frustrated bookstore employee/wannabe writer and Ed, his close friend who aspires to be a comic book artist. Around them orbit a host of characters, from Sherman's roommates Jane and Stephen, to elderly Golden Age comics creator Irving Flavor (Ed's "boss"), to Sherman's kind-of-crazy girlfriend to secondary and tertiary characters who drift in and out.

Alex Robinson has a great talent for both the artwork (he has a knack for individuating his characters so that it was easy to keep them all straight by their appearances) and storytelling. The dialogue and situations are naturalistic and believable, full of small and large real life dramas, struggles, questions and yes, laugh-out-loud funny moments. Every character has moments of showing deep flaws but at the same time nearly every one has a moment or two of deep nobility. Just like people.

I loved the clean black and white art style--I'm a big fan of Alison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For, and this book reminds me somewhat of her style--very distinct looks for each character, sharp clear images and (it's underrated but a downfall for a lot of indie books)--crisp readable lettering. I'd never make it through 600 pages of poor lettering!

Definitely not for kids (one of the characters introduces himself on page one as someone who you get to see naked a lot and he is not kidding), this is a story that will keep any adult reading and turning pages to find out how these characters' lives turn out. This is one of those graphic novels that I'll not only re-read myself, I'll recommend highly to friends and happily loan it out. Gorgeous work of art and storytelling, and richly deserved every award it won.

If you like the series, this one will not disappoint. The art *IS* spotty in some places but the story makes up for it

If your a fan of Fables or your looking for a nice quick read Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall is a great graphic novel worth checking out. While it helps to have some invested interest in the series to understand why each story's relevance and why it lends so much insight in to the background of the main characters of the series, that is not to say that this is not also a stand alone read. The book has great interesting stories, some as short as a few pages, others that are much longer they are all compelling, sometimes funny and occasionally disturbing but have so much heart and an underlying sense of humanity and universality that anyone can enjoy these tales as much as the Sultan threatening Snow's life in the story.

I definitely loved this book. It was a bit disappointing knowing that it wasn't Scheherazade telling these tales, I would rather have seen her do this, but the stories themselves were nonetheless fantastic, so for that, I give five stars.

The artwork is beautiful but the framing narrative and first story has very little cultural sensitivity, indulging in all the tropes of 19th c. Orientalism with gusto and lack of any self-consciousness that I could pick up. The "Snow-White-in-the-Land-of-Arabian-Fairy-Tales" framing narrative even manages to re-appropriate all of Scheherezade's original wit and cunning to Snow White instead, so that Show White--as the enlightened diplomat from the industrialized, colonizing West--is the one who shares the key to survival with Scheherezade. How lovely for Scheherezade that a white woman was there to help her!

Even when we're removed from the court of the Sultan (which is full of tawdry 19th c. cliches, although in text more than images), the first story-proper artist seems bent on making sure we remember this is an Exotic Story. Thus he meshes and combines all sorts of Eastern visuals willy-nilly, and so in the first story we end up with a Snow White who looks bizarrely Asian, in a more-or-less European land, except that for some reason some of the Prince's men wear medieval Russian costume. The Prince himself alternates through all sorts of time periods and cultures in his clothing. The anachronism and cultural hodge-podge could have been made into a witty commentary on the universality of fairy tales, or their multi-cultural existence (a version of "Cinderella" exists in almost every culture), but the specific cultures here chosen were not suitable for that. Instead, I got the somewhat distasteful feeling that the artist just wanted to give the book a "Gee, how exotic!" feel and considered all non-mainstream-Western cultures as equally exotic and somewhat interchangeable, useful for giving "flavor" to the story and nothing else. A dash of Chinese, a handful of Russian, a spot of Korean, a root of Turk thrown in...

Happily the ensuing chapters do not take this route, but it was a bit of a sour taste to start off on.

The overall story stumbles along at first, as well. It works a lot better once we're done with the framing prose narrative and get into the comic format. The prose-pieces suffer from overwrought, mannered, cliche writing. Of course it is consciously drawing on the way 19th c. fairy tales were written, but clumsily so, amateurishly. Since most of the book is in comic format though, this is not really damning.

However, the art IS gorgeous and most of the stories ARE compelling. I just wish the book opened on a better note.

I have never read a graphic novel before this one, and I rarely read the comics in the sunday paper, so my experience with illustrated stories for older audiences is fairly limited. I have a thing for re-written fairy tales, and the beginning of this book looked very promising, so I crossed my fingers and hoped it would be a wise choice to purchase. It was.

It is such a fast and interesting read. The illustrations are NOT for the younger crowd (nudity, rape, murder,etc.), but it is done in such a way as to appear to the eye as a movie instead of a book. The writing is very well done and the story is quite seemless. The beginning of the book reads like a child's picture book, but then you turn the page and the real stories begin...

Having been driven from their homes by a villain intent on destroying their realm, the characters of familiar fairy tales make their new homes in the modern day world of New York City (a popular place to have otherworldly creatures). Snow White is an ambassador of sorts, sent to a kingdom where her mission is to convince the ruling Sultan to form a treaty with the refugees of Fabletown, a treaty that will unite them against the dreaded "Adversary" who is slowly murdering his way through the various fable realms.

She arrrives and, through a bit of trickery, she is wed to the Sultan whose biggest vice is his complete distrust of all women. After a first marriage that had failed on account of his wife's infidelity, the Sultan has taken to marrying a bride every evening and sending her to the executioner first thing in the morning. Instead of weeping piteously at this news, Snow White gains the interest of the Sultan with her wonderful stories that she relays to him each evening for three years, thus sparing her life and changing the broken heart of a cruel man.

This is the collection of stories that the Sultan will hear each night, stories of different fairy tale charcters and their lives before the migrations and during the invasions of the "Adversary". BEWARE: There is no happily ever after to many of these tales but there is enjoyment in every page.

It takes a lot to read a story about incest, even if the two guys aren't related but this story for some reason just gets me. The art is interesting and the scenes are somewhat graphic. Would not recommend for the first time reader but still a great story. The story is interesting because like in most yoai the older is the Uke but he's slightly denser then most uke i have read in the past.

So you love yaoi and are on a mission to find the most exemplary examples of it?? Look no further, my fellow otaku!! No Gakuen Heaven here, only yaoi heaven! Definitely NC-17: steamy and oh-so-detailed. Not safe to read in public (unless your friends love yaoi too!) Yeah, the name of this manga implies a questionable relationship, but these are STEPbrothers with absolutely no relation, except for a shared younger half-sister, if you count that. This authors drawing style is not my favorite, nor are some elements of the story (having to do with the awkwardness of living under the same roof with your parents and little sister and under the pretense of being "brothers"), but the steaminess more than makes up for it. I don't want to give many spoilers because I think being surprised is part of the fun. So what are you waiting for?? Feed the obsession and support the cause!

If hardcore yaoi is your meat n potatos, then this title is for you. It doesn't get any steamier than this. Two step brothers unexpectedly fall in love and do unspeakable things to one another right under the noses of their unsuspecting family. What could be better?
A must for yaoi fans, especially the hardcore fans.

This manga is truly one not to miss. I am a big fan of yaoi and as such i have read many many mangas. This grabs you when you read it. This is one of the few that when you look at the detail of the pictures you don't miss anything! I get very tired of yaoi manga where there are blurr clouds or just outlines, with this book it was like "if i wanna draw it i'm drawing it right!" type things. so not only is the plot funny and great, but the art it amazing with in your face detail!. one of my favorite yaoi mangas beside Embracing Love. ^^

If you're in the mood for a hot yaoi manga, this book delivers. No glowing cones here; there is explicit detail throughout the book, and plenty of eroticism in the artwork. The story merrily flings around taboos (it contains incest, of course, and one of the characters is under 18), so it may not be for everyone, but if you don't mind a little "brotherly love," then this is one sexy manga.

The artwork is attractive, though there are a few scenes where anatomy is distorted. DramaQueen has done a great job with the translation. My only complaint in that area is the sound effects--some of them are just plain silly. ("sproing"?)

The manga's weak point is its plot. If you're looking for a great piece of literature, keep looking--there's nothing here but "two step-brothers have a whole lot of sex." It's not badly written, though, and this book gives you plenty of "bang" for your buck.

The laughs keep coming. I mean the title alone says it all. What a fine comic.

A very funny book, as are all of the Pearls Before Swine books, in my opinion! Everyone who comes to my house and reads it, laughs!!

Unless you're in to politically correct humor...this book is a MUST have!!! Dan Lorenzo Bergen County NJ

I've only recently become a fan of this strip. I decided to start from the beginning. Darn, this guy's funny!

These books are addictive.Great comics!The only thing wrong with these books is that there is too much duplication of comics between the various books.