Titan Books

Ed Brubaker, best known as the man who killed Captain America over at Marvel Comics, had earlier written a twelve-issue arc on DC/Wildstorm's "The Authority", a JLA-esque superteam with fewer morals and more sex and violence. Introduced by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, and later handled by the likes of Mark Millar and Frank Quitely, Brubaker's run restores some prestige to a property that had meandered for some time. The first half of the story revolved around the Authority running the United States, with a mysterious off-panel foe manipulating events.

This volume picks up a few years in the future after the Authority's disbanding at the end of the last volume, with Jack Hawksmoor (poorly-defined powers relating to cities), Swift (basically DC's Hawkgirl, though Asian), Apollo (Superman analogue), and Midnighter (Batman analogue) (the two are also gay, which is handled as a background detail), the Doctor (an incredibly powerful magician), the Engineer (a woman with nine pints of nanotechnology in lieu of blood, which she extends over her nude body to form a metal skin and weaponry in battle), and Jenny Quantum (the spirit of the 21st century) mostly living separate lives (some, such as the family pairing of Apollo and Jenny, and the romantic Hawksmoor and the Engineer, stick together). The villain behind their disbanding is revealed as Henry Bendix, a villain from the old "Stormwatch" series, and he has a major plan in the works to finally defeat his old enemies and secure corporate dominance of America.

Brubaker is best known for street-level grit, but here he holds his own with the likes of Ellis, throwing out numerous sci-fi concepts, particularly with regard to the history of the various Jennys (the spirits of various eras), whose backstory he embellishes considerably; Jenny Quantum, a relatively minor figure in the first half of this arc, takes centre-stage here, as we see her start to assume the leadership role that Jenny Sparks played in the original incarnation of the team. Bendix is a masterfully-handled villain, and most of the heroes get some big moments that showcase their skills (Shen/Swift remains pretty superfluous, something that seems to invariably be the case no matter who is writing "The Authority"). He also makes the first alterations to the team's lineup since the introduction of Jenny Quantum many issues earlier, adding the latest incarnation of the Doctor (who gets quite an interesting origin story) (at the same time sending off the version who's been around for the series so far), and another member whose identity I'll refrain from mentioning, since it's a twist. On art is Dustin Nguyen, whose work fits the Authority absolutely perfectly; his is the best stuff the team has seen since Hitch left.

One can debate the merits of the various runs on "The Authority" (both Ellis and Millar's tenures have much to recommend in different aspects), but Brubaker's may be the best for balancing action, inventiveness, and characterization.

The ballad of Halo Jones

You have to get the whole series, books 1 through 3 to have the series make any sense, while each book stands alone well, the story is one of those that I remember reading, and has stayed with me for a very long time. Finding these books is something you want to do, and reading them is something you want to do even more.

Alan Moore was hugely prolific in the mid 80's writing a very large number of graphic novels for 2000 AD which was a weekly comic book in England. You could follow a number of stories through this venue, so when the graphic novels came out, they were well worth picking up. The story of Halo Jones though is a standard semi-dystopian story of girl meets world, from sheltered existence with mind numbing boredom, all the way through to what she does to escape that boredom, from bartender to soldier to kept woman, the entire story is sad, marvelous, depressing, and fulfilling.

This is not an easy story to read, but worth it in the end, something you do when you just want to read something that will touch you in unexpected ways. Depending on how you associate with the character, you want to pick up the entire series, the artwork is exceptional, the story line is compelling, the books are very hard to find now, making the story of Halo Jones that much more interesting to find, read, and see where it takes you.

Five of Five stars, this is one series you want to pick up.

Truly a book written with great care, thought, dignity, and creativity. Barb Wire is not a well known comic book, just the corny flick with Pamela Anderson as Barb, but she plys her part well. She even won the Worst New Actress award for it!WOW!!! Pam is going places, I can tell. First Baywatch, then the honeymoon tape, Home Improvement, and now this? Wow...what will she come up with next? A book? Maybe a disguised autobiography called "Star???"

I like this book a lot. Great depth. Great story. Great details. Fantastic suspense. A fine book to read. A great book to buy. Buy it grab and read it all.
I love the ending. Beatty did a great job.

This is absolutely exquisite, as a piece of storytelling and a piece of art. Dave McKean's art is layered, with various textures present. I'm particularly fond of a page with a lace curtain wafting over the scene depicted. The story is quite unsettling, but beautifully told. I think this was my first graphic novel, and the first time I experienced comics that weren't designed for car trips, but to make one think and appreciate the form. I cannot recommend it enough. See also McKean's work with Neil Gaiman, esp. "Violent Cases".

DC has it figured out with these Chronicle series books. It's a great format, full color, and while the paper quality is not nearly as good as the hardcover books, it's still quite good. Many of the stories are cheesy, but it's great to see the characters develop. In this volume we see the debut of the Scarecrow and his original costume.

I love the way DC is putting all these stories in chronological order allowing you to see, not only, how Detective Comics was progressing, but the stand alone Batman title as well (not to mention the few one shows such as the World's Fair, and World's Finest series that have been printed so far). Just a great idea and I can't wait for the next one.

i have been a big fan of allan moore for the longest time ever since i read watchmen. the places he takes his characters and the storyline is one of the best i have been exposed to in a long time. i asure you that you will injoy it

Loeb, Sale, and Selina Kyle. What a dynamic trio. This is a great story about a little trip that Selina takes with the Riddler, of all people, to Italy, and the fun and mayhem that she causes there. I may be biased, because I am a huge Catwoman fan and I think this is the best story ever written. Plus, you put the words of Loeb with the artwork of Sale together and you just can't go wrong. I recommend this to anyone who loves either Catwoman, Loeb and Sale, or just an excellent story all around.
Peace and Love,
Jake

*FAST* delivery and easy to deal with, highly recommended seller, A++ (Thanks!!)

The one substantive complaint about these reprints of the "Conan the Barbarian" comic books that Dark Horse has been reprinting has been that the original covers drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics have been omitted. That omission is mitigated somewhat by Volume 4 of "The Chronicles of Conan," which has the splash page from "Red Nails" as the cover. I have a strong affection for this particular piece of Windsor-Smith art because my college debate partner took the original black & white drawing from "Savage Tales" and blew it up on a 6-foot board that I have colored in and which has dominated my "office" for about half my life, to the dismay of my family and amusement of my friends.

This collection has issues #23-26 of Marvel's "Conan the Barbarian" and the acclaimed "Red Nails" (For those concerned with continuity #22 is omitted because it was a reprint of #1) Of those two issues, all of which were written by Roy Thomas, Windsor-Smith drew the first two and John Buscema, who would be Conan's artist for most of the rest of its original run, took over as penciler on the last two. The second of those was inked by Ernie Chua (later Ernie Chan), who would be Buscema's primary inker on the comic book (the way Alfredo P. Alcala tended to do the inking over Buscema's pencils in the black & white magazine "The Savage Sword of Conan"). However, the chief attraction here is Windsor-Smith's final work on Conan.

Issue #22 "The Shadow of the Vulture," freely adapted from a Howard short story, is inked by Sal Buscema, Dan Adkins, and Chic Stone. The Vulture is Prince Yezdigerd's right-hand sword, who is sent to dispatch Conan. However, the story is more noted because this is the first Conan adventure with Red Sonja. This sets up #23 "The Song of Red Sonja," which Windsor-Smith inked himself (be sure to read Thomas' reflections in the back of the volume that cover some of the changes the Comics Code forced them to make with the artwork). When you compare how far Windsor-Smith came from the first issue of "Conan," let alone the infamous "X-Men" #53 that he drew on a New York City park bench, it is amazing how far he came as an artist. "Red Nails" has more scope and Thomas and Windsor-Smith are unfettered by the Comics Code, but all things considered "The Song of Red Sonja" is the best of their joint efforts. This explains why it gets to be the title for this final volume.

The Buscema issues are included, rather than whatever odds and ends Smith ever did of Conan and Howard related stories, because they finish the siege of Makkalet story line. Issue #25 "The Mirrors of Kharam Akkad," inked by Sal Buscema and John Severin (the latter does the King Kull flashback pages in a nice touch), is inspired in part by Howard's "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" story, another one of those stories where a sorcerer tries to get the better of Conan. In #26 "The Hour of the Griffin" the city finally falls and Conan tries to save Queen Melissandra. Conan's big fight is with a giant rat, which is not exactly a big thrill, but he does get to see the face of the one true Tarim, the reason for the war.

Buscema's Conan is a larger, more muscular version of the barbarian than what we saw with Windsor-Smith's art, which I always read as representing the fact he was a more mature character at that point. One of the interesting aspects of this final collection of early Conan stories is that the remastered color better suits the Windsor-Smith artwork. I know that part of why this works is that these stories are reprinted on much better quality paper in these volumes and that another key part is that this sort of thing is now done with computers, but Windsor-Smith's attention to detail in his drawings really gives the colorist something with which to work. Just look at the intricate lines on the shield on that great cover. Besides, now that we have this four-volume set of "The Chronicles of Conan" we can enjoy these classic comic books without having to take them out of the plastic that is keeping them safe for posterity.