Tuesday 1 April 2014

The 'Library in a Phone Box' Comic Book Post!

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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