Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities My Big-Ass Pile o'Trades Waiting To Be Read At My Whim

Penny for your thoughts?

Somewhat surprisingly, I think I preferred Vol. 1 over Vol. 2. Even though the art in Vol. 2 was overall superior with Dale Keown being the main contributor, I just found the gray Hulk to be so much more interesting than the merged Hulk during this fresh revisiting of the material. Now, it may be that the best is yet to come in Vol. 3, especially as we get deeper into the Pantheon era, but the nuances gray Hulk and Banner were missed. (This is not to say that Vol. 2 sucked by any means, btw.) I anticipate getting to Vol. 3 in the next few months, so we'll see where it lands.....

Thanks, Lardy. Maybe I'm just too much of an art snob, but I really think that Jeff Purves's art in the Las Vegas era dragged down the stories somewhat (relatively speaking, of course, because PAD's scripts were consistently excellent, but still...)

I won't spoil anything about Volume 3 other than to say that it has some of my favorite PAD Hulk stories and some of the best art of Gary Frank's entire career. I think the best issues are 413 through 418.

Got this month's DCBS shipment and the FIRST thing I read was the fourth trade for SIKTC... SO good. It gets me up to issue 20, and tells Erica's backstory. Can't wait for the next book!

The other trade item I got was DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH vol. 1. I flipped through it and put it down for now; it felt like a bit of a slog getting into, and I'll wait until I'm in a better headspace to give it the attention it needs.

Definitely a good series and probably better in trade form. The individual issues are often over too fast while feeling decompressed. Almost like it's 8-10 minutes of a good episode of a suspenseful series before going into a commercial break. (That's somewhat of an exaggeration, as some issues are fuller than others--but it's close.) I imagine the trades feel like a whole episode of something like Stranger Things and just as satisfying.


I read the first issue, finally, last week, as I'm taking a trade break to dive into my floppy backlog. The first issue does a great job of setting up the premise, and the identity reveal at the end felt pretty inspired. We'll see how it goes with subsequent issues.

Both are James Tynion books, which get pretty much an automatic try-out from me. That said, his fantasy-adjacent Wynd failed to interest me at all and topped it off with a weak cliffhanger. I'm glad I read that one before putting it on the pull list.

So here's a First World Comic Snob dilemma.....Recently, I've been thinking about getting a better copy of From Hell. My current copy was from eBay and is basically just a secondhand worn phonebook-style book with fairly flimsy pages. I'm torn between 2 hardcover options: one in B&W, as originally presented, and a new colorized "Master Edition". Normally, I'd make a hard pass on something newly colored in favor of the original black and white, but the Master Edition's colors were done by From Hell artist Eddie Campbell himself. I'm still leaning B&W, which is also $10 cheaper, but the choice is harder than it would be under other circumstanes.

From Hell, btw, if you have never read it, has emerged as probably my favorite work written by Alan Moore. Fick feels the same way, IIRC, and we discussed that work either on this thread or another one a couple of years or so ago.

Like a spiral on the wynd,
I can hear it screaming in my mind
LONG LIVE ROCK AND ROLL
LONG LIVE ROCK AND ROLL

https://youtu.be/sLN8lHBBKck

Oh. Sorry.

Hang on a sec, Lardy, I'll go have a look at my copy.

Okay, I'm back. My copy is a B&W hardcover, ISBN 978-1-60309-397-2, cover-priced at $39.99. I think it's the most perfect version ever published, though I can see how the prospect of Eddie Campbell coloring the story would be attractive. My 2p, anyway.

Yeah, that's the exact one I'm leaning toward. It also has a beautiful red-hued cityscape on the cover!

I don't know if this was ever a really serious internal debate, but Eddie's involvement made it worth some thought. I'm definitely not that guy anymore who won't touch B&W books! And I think the original format is just too classic and suitable for the subject matter.

Agreed 100 percent. And in the last few years, I've become a major fan of Eddie's solo work, especially "Alec: How to Be an Artist," "The Fate of the Artist," and "The Goat Getters."

Now, I'm trying to figure out where we discussed From Hell on this board....

Et voila!

http://legionworld.net/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=844476#Post844476

Sounds as though you're leaning towards the colour version. Which is what I'd get. Especially if you've already got a B&W copy.

I think I have the not so floppy original floppies of however many issues there were. Lots of notes in the back if my memory cell is working. Mind you, if I start thinking an Aardvark did the killings, I'm confusing it with the long text pieces in Cerebus.

I picked up the FROM HELL and Its Companion box set a while back. The Companion is basically Campbell's recollections and notes from Moore's original communications with him. Interesting and serviceable enough that it's probably all I'll ever need.

I did eventually sit down and give the first trade a proper read, and enjoyed it. I went and ordered the next two trades.

Added some 70s freaky goodness to my TBR pile-- SWAMP THING Bronze Age Omnibus and HOWARD THE DUCK Marvel MasterworksVol.1.

Good stuff!

So this story took an unexpected turn. My wife was with me when I looked for this book a couple of weeks ago at a local comics/gaming/collectibles shop that I've visited since I was a kid. Their not having a copy is what lead to my post on this thread. Anyhow, I'd not yet ordered a copy from In-Stock Trades, and it turned out that I received it as a gift from her yesterday for my birthday! Of course, she had no idea of the decision-making process I shared here, so she bought me the Master Edition, featuring Eddie Campbell's color revisions!!!

Y'know what? I'm not gonna hem and haw over this one and get her to return it. I'll just chalk it up to kismet and say it was meant to be!

Kismet indeed! Happy reading, Lardy!

I think there's mileage in a Doctor Fate / From Hell crossover.

In colour, obviously...

Thor Epic Collection Volume 8, "War of the Gods," stories by Len Wein & Steve Engelhart, pencil art mostly by John Buscema, inks mostly by Tony DeZuniga.

One of the few Post-Kirby/Pre-Simonson eras of Thor that I like a lot, culminating in the Annual (number 5 to be exact) from which the collection gets its title -- that Engelhart/Buscema/DeZuniga gem was originally intended as the first issue of a quarterly Thor magazine which was cancelled at the last minute. Also includes a whimsical Warriors Three story from an issue of Marvel Spotlight.

Newest to the pile:

The SANDMAN Books One and Two, softcover
DEATH, The Deluxe Edition HC
Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? HC

Book One and the Death collection were from InStockTrades, and Book Two and the Eddie Gein hardcover were picked up at Newbury Comics today during a Buy 1 Get 1 1/2 Off trades/Manga sale. I've been reading the first Sandman volume, which contains the first twenty issues, and am planning on starting the Gein book when I go to bed tonight.