I Can't Believe I Own This Comic Mutant X #1 by Howard Mackie & Tom Raney Okay, let me justify myself first. I am a sucker for alternate universe stories. Not the boring 'Nazis won World War II' stuff, but skewed versions of fictional worlds that I enjoy. It is…
Ultimate Daredevil Elektra #1–4 by Greg Rucka & Salvador Larroca This Ultimatization is essentially a new version of the origin of Elektra; Daredevil does appear, in the form of Matt Murdock in a mask, but it is definitely how the Ultimate Elektra came to be. I'm not sure why they…
Ash vol. 1 (Trade collecting #1–5) by Joe Quesada & Jimmy Palmiotti I can't recall if it was Azrael or The Ray where I first saw the dazzling art of Joe Quesada, back when he was just an artist, but I do know that I liked it. It sizzled with…
Nexus: The Origin by Mike Baron & Steve 'The Dude' Rude Some comic-reading history first. I got the bug in my teens, in the mid-to-late '80s, reading superhero comics, like most other people. For me, it was the X-books; I couldn't get enough Claremont and mutant soap opera. However, by…
Suicide Squad (Volume 2) #1–12 by Keith Giffen & Paco Medina The original Ostrander/Yale Suicide Squad had a lot of charm and took a great idea and played with it. This revival plays on that charm and history, but bypasses a lot of grounding and characterisation to try something that…
I Die At Midnight by Kyle Baker The Cowboy Wally Show and Why I Hate Saturn are sublime in their beauty, wit and charm. Baker need never work again, if the quality of work was rewarded. In the real world, artists need to create to live. I want to support…
Just A Pilgrim (series 1) by Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra Even if Ennis wasn't a great writer, he demands attention for having written Preacher and Hitman, among many others. So, the chance of seeing him let loose on his own creation seemed like an obvious choice, and it had…
Channel Zero by Brian Wood; sorry, 'created, written and illustrated by' The excessive credits for Wood on the front cover should have given me a hint about what to expect. Something where the author (if that isn’t too limiting a description for Mr Wood) believes they know better, is going…
Grrl Scouts by Jim Mahfood I really like Jim Mahfood's work. His art has this great, funky, angular, graffitti-cartoon vibe going on; his characters are visually unique and compelling; and there's a 'comics are fucking cool' attitude to his work. Some of his one-pagers are very funny, as can be…
My comic collection is quite large. This is understandable, as I've been collecting for a while now. I try to keep it controlled, with occasional pruning. In some instances, this has lead to me donating comics to a children's hospital (my karma was smiling that day), but sometimes I have…