What are you reading in May/2016?

May the force be with your latest readings.

Finished Thief of Thieves, Vol.1: I Quit. It is a heist crime comics bigger than life, like Ocean's Eleven, with all its twists and turns.
Very well written, with good dialogues by Nick Spencer and naturaslitic art by Shawn Martinbrough that sometimes ressembles a relaxed Howard Chaykin.
I'm sold.

>2 apokoliptian: Sounds good - I see Robert Kirkman is listed, too.

I'm about halfway the first Immortal Iron Fist collection, with Ed Brubaker doing the storytelling. Pretty good so far.

>3 jnwelch:
I finished the volumes 2 and 3, and I really recommend this series. The TPBs are self-contained but as the story evolves, it adds some breath-taking tension as in Breaking Bad or Prison Break.
Robert Kirkman stays until volume 3, but from this book on we have Andy Diggle!!!

>4 apokoliptian: Oh good, apokoliptian. Thanks. Andy Diggle is an able replacement for Robert Kirkman. I liked The Losers a lot. Are there others of his you recommend?

>5 jnwelch:
It is not his signature style, but I liked Swamp Thing, Vol. 1: Bad Seed.

Finished Superman Batman Absolute Power, which was entertaining but nothing worth writing home about. Am now a little more than halfway through Fables: Animal Farm and am thoroughly enjoying this series so far.

>6 apokoliptian: Thanks.

>7 sweetiegherkin:
Fables is incredible and mildly addictive. The series really takes off from Animal Farm on.

Torpedo Volume 1 by Enrique Sanchez Abuli, with stories about a killer-for-hire, is very well done and very hard-boiled.

>9 apokoliptian: Good to hear. I was already a big fan of the first two in the series.

I'm watching Marvel's Agent Carter, which tells the story of Peggy Carter, after the WWII, working in a proto-Shield agency and dealing with the heist of Howard Stark's technology. It is not a Mad Men, but the recontruction of a 1940's New York summed with the spy thriller is inviting. By the way, up-to-now no Super-Heroes and the main actress is gorgeous!

Good series.

I've finished the Thief of Thieves, vol.4, which closes a circle. The first four books present a downward spiral that pushes you to continuous reading. Besides different writer, the quality is very even and the art is a strong point.
Highly recommendable.

>10 jnwelch:
Torpedo is a favorite of mine. Regarding the violence, it led Alex Toth leaving the book (a pity). But Jordi Bernet carried the torch boldly.

About halfway through Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows' Providence, Act 1, which collects issues 1-4 of that series. So far, it's a dream come true for a Lovecraft/Moore geek like myself. Not sure how others might react to it, though.

>12 apokoliptian: Just don't watch the second season. :) After that totally astounding and amazing first season, I was totally let down by the second one.

>16 DanieXJ:
It's sad. Up to now, there is only the first season in the Brazilian branch of Netflix and I was hoping for a 2nd season. A good one.

I've finished J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography by Rick Geary. It is very simple, didactical and unbiased. As it is almost an illustrated book, there is not much storytelling, but the designs are great.
Geary is one of the artists that really gets me interested in the making of illustrations. His ligne claire art and hatches make me think of what pens and brushes he uses in production.

>17 apokoliptian: It's not a horrible season. I've watched many other shows that were much worse. But personally I felt like the first season was so nuanced and it worked on multiple levels. And the second season to me felt like the creators went, 'oh crap, we got a second season, what'll we do now?' I guess that I was just waiting for an amazing show and instead just got a regular run of the mill one like every other CSI, L&O sort of thing.

>17 apokoliptian:

It's not that bad. I actually liked it - despite its weaknesses.

>19 DanieXJ:
>20 AnnieMod:
Thanks. I will try it when it is available.

I'm a big fan of Warren Ellis and I'm really enjoying his Injection series right now. I have also picked up Snowfall and am quite enjoying both of those as well. I have the Providence series up to #9 now noted above but haven't read them yet.

I've read Eyes of the cat by Jodorowski and Moebius. The story is told in large panels with a minimalist text and detailed black and white art with a exquisite hatch work. The pace and events showing up conducts the reader in a very short story.

The Jodorowski introduction, with its backstage story, turns this tale more interesting.

>23 apokoliptian: I like both Jodorowski and Moebius, so I'll give that one a look. Moebius Library: The World of Edena is coming out here this fall, and apparently Dark Horse intends to bring out more of his work?

I'm nearly to the end of Lucifer Volume 3, and once again enjoying this series with a Sandman-like flavor.

>15 artturnerjr: What's Providence about? I'm seeing a lot of rave reviews for it, but nothing that really explains the basic plot.

I finished Fables, volume 3 today. Up next is a nonfiction book - The Battle of the Bulge: A Graphic History of Allied Victory in the Ardennes, 1944-1945.

>22 robertwmartin:

I have the Providence series up to #9 now noted above but haven't read them yet.

Make sure you check out the annotations at FACTS IN THE CASE OF ALAN MOORE'S PROVIDENCE when you get started - very usefully stuff:

https://factsprovidence.wordpress.com/

>25 sweetiegherkin:

What's Providence about? I'm seeing a lot of rave reviews for it, but nothing that really explains the basic plot.

It's primarily about the series' protagonist, Robert Black. Black is in someways like H.P. Lovecraft, in some ways like Lovecraft's friend Robert Bloch, and in some ways like neither one of them. Quoth Alan Moore:

Robert Black. I decided that I wanted somebody who provided an example of the “new American man” around about 1919. I wanted somebody who was young, who had a sense of purpose, but who was an outsider. Somebody who was not related to the mainstream of American society, whatever that was. I chose some parts of Robert’s character specifically because they resonated interestingly with some of Lovecraft’s prejudices.

I thought this would be a good way to actually make some of Lovecraft’s views emotionally explicit by showing them from the point of view of someone who could not help but be hurt by them. Robert is probably a little too smart for his own good. He’s bookish, he’s literary, he thinks he’s a little bit cleverer than he is. He is planning to write a Great American Novel where he is planning to use the “Outsiders”, perhaps “occult Outsiders”—whom he is on the trail of across New England—as a metaphor for social outsiders. Perhaps for his kind of social outsider. He’s looking for a metaphor but what he finds is far from metaphorical (laughs). He also starts to question the notion of what a “real” outsider might be.

The idea of the outsider was, I think, fairly central in Lovecraft’s fiction, and also in his image of himself. I think he saw himself as a stranger in the 20th century, as an outsider. Probably not the same kind of outsider as the decomposing ghoul in the story of that name, but probably not a million miles away from it. Now, I would question whether Lovecraft really was an outsider, any more than any of us are.

I’m sure he felt like one, but if you actually look at his attitudes, they are actually precisely those of the white, middle class Anglo-Saxon Protestant heterosexual men of his period. All of his fears were almost exactly the median of social fears at the time. He was frightened of Bolsheviks. He was frightened of foreigners. He was frightened of women. He was frightened of gay people.

In Providence, we kind of examine the idea of the outsider. Who is the real outsider? Is it Robert Black? Is it any of the characters we meet during the course of Providence where their outsider status might perhaps be more profound? Providence gives us a chance to look at that and Robert Black seemed like an interesting character for it.*

Hope that helps.

*source: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/04/23/alan-moore-writes-a-gay-jewish-protagonis...

Just finished a couple of Lucy Knisley memoirs and am now starting Aya: Life in Yop City.

I am reading Gødland, Vol. 1: Hello, Cosmic! by Joe Casey and Tom Scioli. It is a very interesting experience: Think about a comic book plotted by Stan Lee (Fantastic Four years) and drawn by Jack Kirby (The Demon years), but the story was lost inside some vault and the word-balloons were filled nowadays, like in the Marvel Romance Redux vein, but action oriented.

It is a very good project and execution, and only shows how awesome Casey (one of the Man of Action team, creators of Ben 10) can be.

Finished A Game for Swallows, a short memoir taking place during a night of bombing during the civil war in Lebanon. Art is reminiscent of Persepolis. nice read.

>27 artturnerjr: Thanks. That does sound interesting.