Like I said on my other blog, 2006 was the year when reading comic books became an addiction for me. The year when I began to love Wednesdays (in my case, since I’m here in the Philippines, it’s Thursdays since new books arrive here in the afternoon or evening of Thursdays). And since the year’s over, I’d like to make a list (an awesome list) of things that made my addiction worth my hard-earned money. In no particular order:
Last year, around the holiday season, I was totally on a Neil Gaiman fixation. I was always lurking around Powerbooks in Alabang to look for everything Gaiman. I started with Endless Nights, which is a kickass graphic novel, and then I moved on to his prose. I devoured Good Omens (co-written by Terry Pratchett) and Stardust in a couple of weeks. The fourth Gaiman book I purchased was not really written by him. Book of Dreams is a collection of short stories by 18 (21 if you count the frontispiece, the preface, and the afterword) writers, inspired by Gaiman’s The Sandman graphic novels.
I love the rain. The gloomy weather. The cold smugness of my bed. Whenever it’s raining, I get the urge to stay in my bed and indulge in my guilty pleasures like watching a DVD movie and its extras, reading comic books or graphic novels, and being alone. Yes, being alone in my cold bed during a downpour is one of my guilty pleasures. That’s why I love the rain.
Yesterday, it was raining a lot. I would have stayed all day in my bed, but I had something else that needed to be done. I had to canvass for a private resort in Pansol for our team building on Saturday. It’s probably our last team building with our current team leader. It has to be special. So we’re going all out on food, alcohol, amenities, alcohol, food, and alcohol. Hehe.
I went to Alabang first to purchase some stuff for my rainy day lovefest with myself. I got a copy of the latest issue of DC Comic’s 52 (a weekly comic book!), a copy of Y: The Last Man: Cycles (the 2nd collected edition of the Y: The Last Man comic book series which I totally dig right now), a copy of the Kami nAPO Muna tribute album to the APO Hiking Society, and a DVD of George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead (zombies are frickin’ awesome!). I’m going to write reviews on these purchases in the near future because they’re so frickin’ cool.
On the way to Pansol, I listened to my new CD. I fell in love with Imago. Awesome rendition of “Ewan”. Anyway, listening to the whole album made me want to go straight to UPLB and start a moni session with my brods and sisses at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. As I canvassed Miramonte for 3 private resorts with clean comfort rooms (a requirement by my team lead. hahaha!), I decided not to go to LB and just go home to commence my rainy day lovefest with myself. 2 pm moni sessions will have to wait for another time.
After eating lunch, I was supposed to watch Land of the Dead, but I saw they were showing 50 First Dates on HBO. I decided to watch it first (for the 1,396,150th time!) before I wet myself with Mr. Romero’s zombiefest. I read the Y: The Last Man graphic novel during the movie because it was making me want to hold somebody, and that’s not good if you’re alone during a rainy day. After the Sandler-Barrymore movie, I went straight to the gory masterpiece of Mr. Romero. And after that, I watched all the DVD extras. The rainy day lovefest with myself was a success!
I can enjoy a rainy day with friends and loads of alcohol. I can enjoy it cuddling with someone under the bed sheets. I can enjoy it by myself with all my guilty pleasures. Whatever I’m doing and whomever I’m doing it with, I can enjoy the gloom of a rainy day. That’s why I love it. If only I can will it to rain whenever I feel like it, that’ll be orgasmic.
This past week has been a very nice week for my brain and eyes, and a very bad one for my wallet. I went to Powerbooks in ATC once, and to ComicQuest in Festival Mall twice. Twice! All for the love of comic books. Yeah. It�s my disease. Some people have an addiction with shoes. Some with textmates. Some with pirated DVDs. Some with useless trinkets. Mine is with the wonderful combination of dynamic artwork and great literature of sequential art. Here�s my review (if you can call it that) of this week’s acquisitions:
Daily Bugle Civil War Newspaper Special #1: Yeah. It’s not in the traditional comic book format. It’s in the form of a fictional newspaper. For those who are not familiar with Spider-Man (what, you haven’t even seen the movies?!), The Daily Bugle newspaper is where Peter Parker worked as a freelance photographer. This “newspaper” chronicles some of the major storylines revolving around Marvel Comics’ Civil War event, which has gained so much US media attention, especially when Spider-Man unmasked himself in public. I really liked how the writers executed this as a “real” newspaper. It gives you the feeling that you’re living in the fictional world of Marvel. It’s like you’re really reading about real-world current events. Plus, it’s only Php 20.00. Hehe.Brave New World: Basically, it’s a preview of six new titles (Uncle Sam & The Freedom Fighters, OMAC, Martian Manhunter, The Trials of Shazam!, The All-New Atom, and The Creeper) from DC Comics. Out of the six preview stories, only the one featuring Captain Marvel was interesting for me. The others were just blah. And there’s also a “surprise” on the last page, but I didn’t give a shit.
52 #10 and #11: The only weekly comics in the US. Some plot points are dull, but the weekly frequency gives me the satisfaction of reading the story without waiting for a whole freakin’ month before the next issue comes. For these 2 issues, it was awesome to see Clark Kent (I swear, I’ll poke your eyes if you don’t know the dude) being a kick-ass reporter and a new Batwoman on the scene. By the way, Batwoman is lesbian. A really hot, athletic, and sophisticated red-haired lesbian. God, I love comics.
Ghost Rider #1: Come on. You have to admit that a dude with a flaming skull as a head riding on a flaming motorcycle looks freakin’ cool. I’ve never been a fan of comic books starring a single character, but I think I�ll be sticking with Ghost Rider for the foreseeable future. The pacing of the story is nice, not to mention the art by Mark Texeira who was one of my early favorite artists because of his work on Marvel trading cards.
X-Men #188 and Uncanny X-Men #476: I’ve given up on these titles a couple of years ago since I got tired of repeating storylines and shallow characterizations. Now, these titles have new creative teams, so I decided to give them another try. And I’ve fallen in love with the 2 X-books again. Sabretooth is one of my favorite characters because he kicks so much ass, and it’s good to see he�s on the X-Men. Rogue is also a fave character (the movies ruined her!) of mine and it’s great that she�s now front and center of the adjectiveless X-Men team. Over on “Uncanny”, I’m digging Warpath. I never found him interesting before. Now, he’s badass. Props also go to Billy Tan as the “Uncanny” artist. He draws a wonderful Polaris and a yummy Marvel Girl. Hehe.
Cable & Deadpool #30: I gave this title a try because of a review I read on a website somewhere. It�s also a tie-in to Civil War, so what the heck. And I found it completely satisfying. This is probably the funniest comic book I’ve read. Ever. Deadpool not immediately realizing that he doesn’t have an internal monologue? Pure genius! This was the first time I laughed (not really that loud, of course) on almost every page of a comic book. It’s now part of my monthly pull-list.
X-Factor #9: It’s funny. It’s amusing. The dialogue is superb. The art is moody. The face-off between X-Factor and the Astonishing X-Men didn’t contain much action, but it was kickass! Who knew that Madrox the Multiple Man would be so interesting? And that Layla kid is so creepy. She knows stuff.
Justice League of America #0: It’s a set-up for the #1 issue next month, but it’s more than that. It gives you the most interesting points in the JLA�s history, and more interesting points in its possible future. Brad Meltzer, the writer who also gave us Identity Crisis (one of my favorite comic book stories of all time), gives Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman personalities. Real personalities. I particularly liked how he presented Batman and Wonder Woman’s reactions to Superman’s “death”. It was heart-wrenching.
Civil War #3: The lines are drawn here. It’s super-hero versus super-hero. Brother against brother. Clash of ideas and beliefs. I would have liked it more if Mark Millar, the writer, decompressed the story more. Sure, Steve McNiven‘s art looks absolutely gorgeous, but it was full of “widescreen moments”. Nevertheless, each and every page cracks with excitement over the bigger battle that is imminent. The last page would have been so much cooler if it wasn’t spoiled to me by online assholes. Pfft.
Ultimate Fantastic Four: The Fantastic: Collecting Ultimate Fantastic Four issues 1-6, this trade gives us a fresh look into the First Family of comics, the Fantastic Four. It reads like a movie, and it�s actually better than the movie in terms of writing and concept. Well, at least for me. I still love the movie because of Jessica Alba. Hehe. Anyway, this collection didn’t impress me enough to think seriously about getting the second collection, but it amused me enough to consider it.
Y: The Last Man: Unmanned: I saw Y: The Last Man trade paperbacks in the “Graphic Novels” section of Powerbooks and I decided to give it a try. This one is volume 1, and it collects issues 1-5. I�m a super-hero comic guy, but I do try something else once in a while. And I’m glad I did with “Y”. I enjoyed each and every twist of the story, and the characters are well-defined. The concept (mammals with a Y chromosome instantly dies all at the same time, save for a dude named Yorrick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand) alone makes the story so interesting and stimulating. Brian K. Vaughan is now one of my favorite writers. He’s awesome. Kudos also to Pia Guerra for the seemingly innocent artwork, which gives the gruesome scenes a more disturbing feel.
Sorry, wallet. I promise I won’t hurt you this much next time. Let’s both give thanks to my employer for giving us the ammo to get this much loot in a week’s time. Hehe.
