Bristol Comic Expo

For the past few years we have attended the Bristol Comic Expo and this years event took place this past weekend. The show normally takes place in a large (ish) exhibition hall although for whatever reason this years show had been downsized and as such took place in the function suite (and a couple of smaller rooms) of a hotel in the city.

We arrived at the hotel at around 9am - about an hour or so before the start of the show - and were surprised to find we were one of the first there: in previous years there had been a couple of long queues forming around this time. At half past nine the ticket collection desk opened and by 9.45am we were in the function room.

My first thought was the fairly obvious one - 'crikey, it's a lot smaller this year'. Twenty minutes later and having done my first 'lap' I was quite happy: yes it was (obviously) a smaller event this year but there was still plenty of see and plenty of room to move around.

Half an hour later and my mood had changed a bit - it was starting to get pretty crowded, loads of people were stood around talking (not in itself a problem but why do they have to stand in the middle of an isle blocking other people?) and it was becoming difficult to get to the comic longboxes without having a wrestling match with the people either side of me.

Another change this year, enforced no doubt by the size of the facilities, was separating the 'small press' (independent publishers) into a different - smaller - room. In the past I've enjoyed seeing the different exhibitors alongside one another - on more than one occasion in the past I've unearthed an unknown gem after looking for something a little more mainstream.

It was good to see three or four large dealers at the show with their large stocks of new and old titles - both single issues and trades - and the usual mix of toys, statues and clothing.

Despite the show being smaller this year we did enjoy our day out - I think we managed to spend more money than in any previous year! I'm pretty sure we will go again next year but, assuming the venue and size stay the same, we'll need another 6am start to be there for when the doors open.

The Batman Universe

I've been a fan of Batman for as long as I can remember. Like a lot of people my age (I was reminded recently that I am 'quite old') I have fond memories of the 1960's television series staring Adam West and Burt Ward, the sometimes hit and sometimes miss films of the late 1980's and 1990's, through to the films with Christian Bale over the past few years.

Along the way I've enjoyed collecting Batman merchandise and mostly enjoyed reading the Batman comics published by DC, although I've enjoyed the comics a little less over the past year or so during the Batman RIP 'event'.

With Bruce Wayne now 'absent' we're currently in the middle of the 'Battle for the Cowl' to determine - amongst other things - who will be the next Batman.

It's a struggle to keep up with things at times! There is so much Batman news and information on the internet and not all of it is as trustworthy - or even worthwhile - as it could be.

One reliable source that I've discovered is a website called www.thebatmanuniverse.net/
The website covers, in great detail, the Batman comics, films, TV, merchandise and video games and includes a lively forum. The guys that run the site also publish a number of podcasts focusing on previewing and reviewing comic releases as well as interviews with creators.

A couple of months ago the guys added a blog to their publishing empire and whether I'm reading the website, the blog or listenning to the podcasts it's clear that authors really know their stuff and their enthusiasm for Batman comes across in their written and spoken words.

The Batman Universe has become my first stop for all things Batman.

The Authority: Relentless

For Easter my good friend Simon gave me a copy of 'The Authority: Relentless' trade paperback. I wasn't familiar with the title but with a creative team of Warren Ellis and
Bryan Hitch the signs were good.

The book has sat on the shelf for the past week while I caught up with my regular monthly titles. Up-to-date, and with some free time yesterday evening, I sat down with the intention of maybe reading the first four-issue story arc. Two and a half hours and 192 pages later the book was finished - what a cracking read!

Having witnessed the demise of StormWatch - another creation of Warren Ellis - Jenny Sparks creates a new super hero team dedicated to protecting Earth against global threats. Sparks is joined by former StormWatch members Jack Hawksmoor and Shen Li-Min, and recruits four new members, the Doctor, the Engineer, Apollo, and the Midnight. This edition collects their first two four-issue missions, battling a nation of super-powered terrorists in the first and stopping an invasion from a parallel world in the second.

Publishers Wildstorm (a DC imprint) have included a number of The Authority volumes as part of their After Watchmen, What's Next promotion and you can download a preview of the artwork from their website.

As I say, a really good read. The writing and artwork is, at times, intensely violent, and the stories are told a grand scale - The Authority titles have in the past been described as 'widescreen comics' and this description sums the work up perfectly.

Another recommended read from The Savage Rabbit library.

The Authority: Relentless, paperback, 192 pages, published by Wildstorm, 2000.

Mystique: Tinker, Tailor, Mutant, Spy

Over the weekend I've finished reading Volume 2 of the four Mystique trades I picked up recently.

As with Volume 1, Volume 2 - Tinker, Tailor, Mutant, Spy - is written by Brian K. Vaughan, however this time we have a different interior art team of Michael Ryan, Manuel Garcia and Raul Fernandez. Covers are again provided by one of my favourites, Mike Mayhew.

Having been recruited as a secret agent by Professor Xavier Mystique travels to South africa for her latest mission - to find and destroy a deadly new strain of smallpox that is spread telepathically. To complicate things, Mystique isn't the only mutant who wants the bio-weapon.

This volume, which collects Mystique #7 to #13, was a 'comfortable' read perhaps lacking some of the plot complexities of Volume 1 Dead Drop Gorgeous: that's not meant as a negative, this was a great 'page-turner'.

Michael Ryan's portrayal of Mystique herself is noticeably different to Jorge Lucas's in Volume 1 - here she appears as a smaller, slimmer - less curvey - woman. There's nothing wrong with Ryan's vision but personally I prefer Lucas's.

Bonus features include a numer of pencil sketches from Ryan as well as all of Mike Mayhews covers for the seven issues - these covers are superb.

Highly recommeded.

Mystique Volume 2: Tinker, Tailor, Mutant, Spy, paperback, 168 pages, published by Marvel Comics, 2004.

Daredevil: Return of the King

I've said many times that Witchblade is my favourite read at the moment and one of our readers challenged me on this by saying 'I thought your favourite was Daredevil?'

Correct, Daredevil is my favourite character and is always a quality read - month in, month out. Writer Ed Brubaker, artists Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano, and colourist Matt Hollingsworth never let the reader down. Every month it's a 9 (sometimes a 10) out of 10 - there's never anything less than an excellent issue. Because it's consistently great my expectations are consistenty high and, if I'm honest, I sometimes take the title for granted.

The last couple of issues (#116 and #117) mark the start of the Return of the King story arc. King of crime, The Kingpin Wilson Fisk returns from exile in Europe - his new life and family destroyed by The Hand - and offers Daredevil an unlikely alliance: combine their 'talents' and get revenge over The Hand.

I loved the way #117 ended - Daredevil meets Fisk in a cemetery, heavy snow is falling, Fisk puts his proposal to Daredevil who, having considered it asks 'And what about after. Where does that leave us?' to which Fisk replies 'Hnnh ...That's what I like about you ... you don't realize what an optimist you truly are ... I wasn't planning to survive ...'. Superb.

Marvel have published some preview pages - click here to see them.

If you're not currently reading Daredevil, this story arc would be a good jumping on point - highly recommeded. As always I recommend Destination Venus for your comic book supplier.

Apologies

I'm currently travelling - also known as queuing at the airport - for a couple of days so haven't had chance to blog.

Back to normal - whatever that may be - soon.

In the meantime, read FreakAngels.

Witchblade

My favourite monthly read at the moment - for a little while now in fact - is Witchblade, published by Top Cow.

The series follows the life of New York police detective Sara Pezzini who is the bearer of the Witchblade - a supernatural artefact that carries great powers. The Witchblade has been worn by many woman over the centuries and indeed Pezzini currently shares it with Danielle Baptiste, a young dancer from New Orleans.

The Top Cow universe is populated by demons, dimensional gates, ghosts and magic. As Sara goes about her business she encounters all of these elements and uses the Witchblade to overcome them.

The writing on Witchblade is always to the highest standards of sequential story-telling - at the end of each issue I find myself desperate for the next - while the artwork - both interior and cover - is beautiful and menacing in equal measures.

If you're a long-time comic book reader then chances are you are already reading Witchblade - if you're not or you are new to comics then pick up a copy - you will not be disappointed.

[Try Destination Venus for your comic book orders - in terms of choice and customer service I've not found a better online store]

Reading in the Sunshine

As you'll have noticed I haven't been blogging much this week - after spending Monday through Wednesday at work I'm currently enjoying a few days annual leave.

With money tight in the 'Rabbit' household at the moment we're taking things easy - doing a few jobs around the house and garden and catching up with some of our favourite TV shows that are stored on our Sky+ planner.

I'm also making the most of the current good weather sitting out in the garden catching up with some of my reading - today I've caught up with Witchblade and Batman: Gotham After Midnight and finally got round to reading Amazing Spider-man Brand New Day Volume 1: I'll comment on all of these titles in due course.

Mystique 'Dead Drop Gorgeous'

I really enjoyed reading the Mystique 'Dead Drop Gorgeous' trade over the weekend - a great story from Brian K. Vaughan with beautiful artwork from Jorge Lucas - and added volumes 2, 3 and 4 to my 'wish list'. With a large pile of comics and trades to read at the moment I was in no real hurry to pick them up but came across someone selling all four volumes on eBay.

Having paid nearly £20 for a copy of the now out-of-print Mystique 'Dead Drop Gorgeous' - I've seen it advertised for around £50 elsewhere - I was prepared to pay a similar price for the second trade 'Tinker, Tailor, Mutant Spy' and maybe another £15 on top for volumes 3 and 4.

With a couple of days to go in the auction there were already 9 bids (why does anyone bid this early?) with a highest bid of £12. With just a couple of minutes of the auction left the price hadn't changed and, with around 30 second left I placed my maximum bid of £30.

Imagine my delight when the auction ended and I got all 4 volumes for £18. If I can make some of that back by relisting volume 1 then I'll be very happy.

Bargain!

Templesmith illustrates Doctor Who

I'm not particularly a fan of Doctor Who - although I know a couple of fellows who are - but I'll be picking up a copy of a new one-shot called Doctor Who: The Whispering Gallery published by IDW.

Why? Well, I'm a huge Ben Templesmith* fan - I've followed his work since 30 Days of Night and recently read and enjoyed Welcome to Hoxford that Ben wrote and illustrated.

The preview pages of The Whispering Gallery I've seen look amazing - click here to see them - and the story written by Leah Moore and John Reppion sounds intriguing: 'The Tardis lands in a maze-like gallery filled with thousands of talking pictures, and the Doctor and Martha discover they've come across a planet where showing emotion has been outlawed'.

Nice!

From My Comic Pile: Joker

Every month I get a small delivery from my favourite comic shop - Destination Venus in Harrogate - contaning that months releases. Typically I take every isue of Daredevil, Batman, Witchblade and any number of limited series or one-shots such as at the moment Mirrors Edge from Wildstorm, Epilogue from IDW and Gotham After Midnight from DC. Once I finish my monthlies I read from my stack of trade paperbacks/hardcovers until the next box arrives.

Over the weekend I read the Joker grahic novel written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Lee Bermejo and published late 2008 by DC.

Now, with the popularity of the Batman Begins and Dark Knight one of my regrets has been that the monthly Batman title hasn't particularly reflected the Batman from the films. This seemed a real shame to me that at a time when interest in the character couldn't have been greater the monthly wasn't really an easy 'stepping on' point for new or occasional readers.

Joker, however, is very much the character from the film. Imagine, if you can, Joker being released from Arkham Asylum after years of incarceration to find his 'territory' - the gangs of Gotham, the illegal trade, has been divided up amongst various smaller criminal gangs. As Joker attempts to regain his business and standing in the criminal underworld we see clashes with The Penguin, Two-face and finally The Batman.

The story is written from the perspective of one of Jokers gang members - Jonny Frost. Frost goes from initially being afraid of his boss, through relishing the notoriety that goes with being Jokers right-hand man, to regretting the association when his ex-wife becomes caught up in one of Jokers random killing sprees.

I enjoyed the way the supporting characters were portrayed - particularly Killer-Croc. Traditionally Killer-Croc is seen as half crocodile, half man but he's seen here as a beefy thug who's 'scaly' appearance is caused by very bad skin.

The artwork from Bermejo is superb - it's dark and moody to reflect the often violent circumstances the characters find themselves in without being difficult to follow.

In summary, 128 pages of great story and artwork - highly recommended.

Ed Brubaker: Angel of Death

One of my favourite comic book creators is Ed Brubaker - I love his work on Marvel's Daredevil and Captain America as well as his own title Criminal.

Brubaker has now created and written a live-action web series called Angel of Death releasing a new 7 or 8 minute episode every day for the next couple of week.

The lead character is called Eve who is a kind of Elektra or Sydney Bristow from Alias sexy female assassin.

The material I've seen so far plays out like a live action comic: Episode 2 was released today and sees our heroine Eve with a six inch blade sticking out of the top of her head and (so far at least) living to tell the tale!

Watch the episodes every day at Crackle.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I'm really enjoying all things X-Men at the moment - as I've said previously one of the best titles I've read in recent months was the Jean Grey Origins title and I've just picked up a copy of Brian K. Vaughan's now out-of-print Mystique 'Drop Dead Gorgeous' trade.

Continuing the 'Origins' theme is the forthcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine film due for release in May and from the look of this trailer it will be worth waiting for.

X-Men Origins: Jean Grey

Over the past six months or so I've been enjoying reading some of the X-Men comics that Marvel publishes - far and away my favourite read was X-Men Origins: Jean Grey - a great story with amazing artwork from Mike Mayhew: the image above is an extract from the cover.

The interior art is every bit as good - Marvel has 6 of the pages available for preview - click here to view them.

There are some other titles in this 'Origins' series - I've read and enjoyed Colossus and Beast and I'm wating for X-Men Origins: Sabretooth to be delivered.