Resting with Comics

I was feeling wiped out at the end of the day today. Wednesday is usually gaming night at Subrata's, but I thought, "You know, what I really want to do tonight is go home and read comic books." So I did.

I went by Comics Conspiracy, which has become my regular store. They're the ones who were having the sale last weekend. It turns out the sale was a touchy issue for them because one of their employees was buying the store from the owner, and the deal was just completed today. But apparently it went pretty well. I congratulated him on the deal.

I suspect he'll run the store better, too; not because the last guy was bad, but because he was too preoccupied with other things, or so it seemed. The new owner (whose name I forget; I'll learn it eventually. Not good with names am I) has already been moving some stuff around into a better configuration for browsing. It's not Capital City Comics in Madison, but it's okay. The main difference is that Cap City had a huge back issue selection, whereas this place's is only adequate; they're missing large chunks of books in exactly the ranges I want to buy. Grr.

So what came out this week?

• Alex Ross Millennium Edition, HC, Wizard, $24.99: Ross is the artist of Kingdom Come, Marvels, and several other comics, and the designer of the characters for Earth X. He's a painter of lovely pictures, and has made a huge impact on the field in the 90s, to the point that he can basically do whatever he wants to do. I've also met him, and he seemed like a truly nice guy; he seems to have a lot of artistic integrity, too, always wanting to find interesting ways to tackle his subject matter.

  This book is a hardcover collection of his paintings, including a lot of rare stuff, as well as sketches, character designs, and copious liner notes. I'm not certain that it's worth the price, but it is a nice package. There are some full- or two-page spreads of some lithographs Ross has done, and I'd love to get copies of the Justice Society and Legion of Super-Heroes ones. I wonder if they're available, and how much they cost?

• Avengers Forever #8, by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern and Carlos Pacheco, Marvel, $2.99: The latest installment of Busiek's 12-issue story reveals "The Secret History of the Avengers", explaining how many events in the super-team's history (including some particular lame stories in the 90s) are the result of manipulation by Immortus. The most impressive part of the story is Pacheco's rendering of images from throughout the Avengers' 35-year history. The story is interesting, but not terrific.

• Jenny Finn #1, by Mike Mignola and Troy Nixey, Oni, $2.95: Mignola's Hellboy series are very good horror yarns, but Jenny Finn - a Victorian England story about a girl who apparently turns men into fish creatures, is not up to his par. Nixey's art is not very strong - the faces, in particular, seem slightly twisted and annoying - and the story involves large numbers of people seemingly ignoring many of the mutated people around them. It's quite bizarre.

• JSA Secret Files & Origins, by James Robinson, Scott Benefiel, and others, DC, $4.95: The prologue to the upcoming new JSA (Justice Society of America) series shows us the beginning of the gathering of the new team, one-page biographies of the members, and a couple of extra stories. The setup looks promising, and Benefiel's art on the main story is very good. I'm a big JSA fan, but it's hard for me to stay excited since I feel that a JSA without Superman and Batman is reduced somehow. (Not to mention that I have no idea what Hawkman's status in the current version of DC history is.) Robinson can overwrite at times, but his work is generally worth a look.

Michael Rawdon (Contact)