Brontoforumus

Posted: **Wed Apr 30, 2014 1:18 am**

First up: this Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. Always a good time.

Second: the Humble Bundle is currently doing a digital comic bundle with Image. The books included are East of West, Fatale, Lazarus, and Morning Glories; pay more than the average and you'll get Saga, Revival, and Chew, and if you pay more than $15 you'll get the first and the most recent volume of The Walking Dead.

You know what The Walking Dead is. I highly recommend Saga (an irreverent, often obscene, but heartfelt space opera) and Chew (a black comedy police procedural about a guy who has telepathic powers activated by food). I haven't read the rest (except a freebie issue of Morning Glories that did not make as good an introduction to the series as they seemed to think it did) but I've heard good things. I've been meaning to check out Lazarus in particular.

I don't currently have a tablet and I've got too damn many comics I haven't read yet as it is. But it's tempting.

Posted: **Sun May 04, 2014 2:23 am**

So far the only FCBD comic I've read yet is the Mega Man X one.

My main takeaway is that I'm pretty uncomfortable seeing Ian Flynn get sole script credit when 75% of the script is Dr. Cain's narration lifted verbatim from the manual.

Posted: **Mon May 05, 2014 2:31 pm**

That humble bundle is really amazing. This was the first I've read of Saga and I really can't wait to hit the rest of it.

For many years running now, I've been helping out at my friend's comic store for FCBD, and this year was the biggest one ever. The line had no end in sight for the first three hours, and we made the most money in any one single day in the store's history. Such a great event. It's my favorite holiday.

Posted: **Tue May 06, 2014 1:10 am**

Yeah, I've never seen my LCS as packed as it was this FCBD, and I've been shopping there for about 20 years.

Here's what I had to say about Saga when I first read it:

Saga reminds me, cursorily, of New Gods. Because it's a space opera about a war between two planets that features obvious biblical symbolism, and because there is some fucking crazy shit going on.

That's really where the similarity ends. This isn't a superhero book, and it's not like Kirby in writing, pacing, or art. (Maybe in the themes and Big Ideas.) And yes it goes without saying that only Jack Kirby was Jack Kirby.

But so far I quite like it. I think, in the span of 32 pages(? they're not numbered and I didn't count, but it FELT like 32 pages -- for only $2.99!), Vaughan and Staples managed to create a neat, weird universe, and fill my head with questions that I legitimately hope go unanswered.

(Vaughan's good at that. It's easy to give readers an explanation for the Big Mysteries -- and just as easy to let them down with an anticlimax that is not anywhere near as interesting as the mystery itself was. What killed all the men in Y? YOU NEVER FIND OUT. And that may seem, to the untrained eye, like it's lazy or a copout -- but it's just the opposite. It's very good instinct and remarkable self-control on Vaughan's part.)

Really good start, and I can see why it seems to be the New Hotness and is purportedly selling out everywhere. If you can still find a copy at cover price, I definitely recommend getting it; if not, I suspect there'll be a second printing, the way things are going.

We also discussed the temporary ban of #12 from the iOS version of Comixology. I wrote a blog post about that too, and then another one suggesting Image's decision to go DRM-free was probably a result of that little object lesson in what happens when you limit the distribution of your product to a single proprietary platform.

I also wrote one called Saga: Sexy, Funny, Thrilling, and Sad, but it's got a major spoiler for issue #11 near the end, so you might want to hold off on that one.

Posted: **Tue May 06, 2014 10:51 pm**

Welp, Saga Vol. 2 was added to the Humble Bundle. I am voracious.

Posted: **Thu May 08, 2014 1:53 am**

You can read Kaboom's FCBD comic free on ComicsAlliance.

It's pretty great! Except for the part where they took those old Peanuts strips and added a bunch of stupid fucking Photoshop gradients to them. That part makes me sad. But the rest is pretty great! There's Adventure Time and Regular Show in there, and Herobear and the Kid, and a Garfield story written by Mark Evanier (head writer of both Garfield and Friends and The Garfield Show) that looks nothing like any Garfield comic I've ever seen before.

Posted: **Mon May 12, 2014 6:40 pm**

They've added Invincible and Manhattan Projects to the Humble Bundle. I recommend both. Invincible is a Suberboy/Spider-Man story for the new century (written by a pre-Walking Dead Robert Kirkman), and Manhattan Projects is one of my current favorites, a FUCKING CRAZY SF take on Feynman, Einstein, et al where Oppenheimer has multiple personalities and Fermi is an alien.

Posted: **Tue May 27, 2014 2:27 pm**

Comixology is giving away a free comic a day through June 14. Today it's Dynamite's Magnus: Robot Fighter #1, by Fred Van Lente and Cory Smith.

Posted: **Thu May 29, 2014 12:51 pm**

And today's is Lumberjanes, which I found kind of boring but also which I think has potential!

Posted: **Thu May 29, 2014 1:03 pm**

Ooh, thanks; I've been meaning to check that one out. I don't have a tablet to read it on, but I'll go ahead and put it in the bank for later as I intend to get one in the next month or so.

Posted: **Thu May 29, 2014 1:17 pm**

New Humble eBook Bundle includes Wizzywig, March, The Sword and Sorcery Anthology, From Hell, and Wizard's First Rule as its entry-level books, with The Alchemist, The Executioner, Jam, and Lovecraft's Monsters: Anthology as higher-dollar add-ons.

I've been meaning to check out March.

Posted: **Thu May 29, 2014 2:03 pm**

And then, some of this year's Free Comic Book Day offerings ended up on Comixology.

Posted: **Thu May 29, 2014 3:42 pm**

Thad wrote:New Humble eBook Bundle includes Wizzywig, March, The Sword and Sorcery Anthology, From Hell, and Wizard's First Rule as its entry-level books, with The Alchemist, The Executioner, Jam, and Lovecraft's Monsters: Anthology as higher-dollar add-ons.

I've been meaning to check out March.

Fuck Terry Goodkind, but The Sword and Sorcery Anthology and Lovecraft's Monsters both sound interesting. Does anyone know if The Alchemist and The Executioness are good? They sound cool.

Posted: **Thu May 29, 2014 4:29 pm**

I'm not familiar with Goodkind's work. Objectivist nonsense is not a dealbreaker in my comics; I love me some Steve Ditko.

Posted: **Thu May 29, 2014 4:52 pm**

If I recall correctly (note: I read Wizard's First Rule and sequel well over a decade ago), the first book isn't that big on Objectivist nonsense, though it does kick off with the villains convincing the main character's home town to literally ban fire and the hero effectively calling them all sheeple. That was pretty goofy.

Honestly, what got me about it was the enforced sexism in the world, but that also didn't get too bad until the sequel if I recall. The first book did have the all-female dominatrix torture force, but I thought of that as more general fantasy nonsense. It wasn't until the second book that I really noticed how women were worse at everything magical by universal fiat. (and of course the hero is the best at everything, but again, that's just the genre) Like there are the Confessors, and they're all women...because male Confessors are TOO POWERFUL. And there are the all-female wizards, but they only have half magic and it takes a MAN WIZARD to teach the hero proper manly magic that lets him combine both into super magic. Or something like that, I just remember reading it in jr high and getting really mad.

But again, a lot of that is in the sequel, and Wizard's First Rule did convince jr high me to keep reading, so it might not be that bad.

Posted: **Thu May 29, 2014 7:57 pm**

You mean you didn't get to the evil chicken?

Posted: **Tue Jun 10, 2014 10:15 am**

Today we have Shutter for free. New Image series, I like it so far.

Posted: **Fri Jun 20, 2014 2:07 pm**

Trees #1 is free from Image (or Comixology, if for some reason you think "Hey, this free comic is great, but you know what would make it better? DRM.") through Tuesday (just in time for the release of issue #2 on Wednesday).

Here's what I had to say about it when I read it:

Thad wrote:Warren Ellis has a new comic out, with artist Jason Howard. It's called Trees. It's a take on the trope where Earth is invaded by aliens so advanced they see humanity the way we see ants -- it's not a fight, they just sort of brush us out of the way and kill us without a thought when we get too close. It's not a new premise, but, as is the trend since at least The Walking Dead, this is a story about what happens next, how people function when this becomes normal. Trees isn't about the invasion; it starts 10 years after.

It's a solid premise and I'm curious where Ellis goes with it. Or if he'll get around to finishing the damn thing.

Posted: **Wed Jun 25, 2014 5:50 pm**

Dynamite Humble Indie Bundle: not only are there a total of 18 comics (so far), they're also giving away a free single issue every day. Today it's the first issue of Red Sonja, by Gail Simone and Walter Geovani. This is a great damn book and you should get it.

The Moore/Reppion/Campbell Sherlock Holmes series is solid too. Of the others on the list, I've only read Project Superpowers and the first issue of Green Hornet; I wasn't as impressed by them.

Posted: **Mon Jun 30, 2014 7:33 pm**

The Imitation Game, a biography of Turing, is free to read on Tor.

Brontoforumus

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