Au Revoir Mes Amis

Hi Everyone! Just a little note to let you know that new reviews for this week's books shipping on 10/4/06 will be delayed. I'll be on business travel and most likely won't get a chance to post them until the weekend.

I did post October's Graphic Novel Of The Month a couple of days early (below) so you'd all have a chance to seek out Brian K. Vaughan's Pride of Baghdad (DC/Vertigo).

I'm also reading Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, and Takeshi Miyazawa's entire Runaways series from Marvel. This is the entire run so far, all 5 digest sized trade paperbacks which collect the first and second seasons. Thought I'd get caught up before Joss Whedon's run on the book. Though I don't know about it being the "most original book from Marvel since Spider-Man debuted in 1962," it's definitely great and I'm enjoying the pull no punches style, as well as appearances from Cloak & Dagger.

Also picked up Action Comics (DC) #841, the first of the 3 issue arc I reviewed below. It's fantastic! I don't think I recall a more straighforward and enjoyable superhero adventure in quite some time. Richard Donner (original Superman film Director) taking over this book with pencils by one of the Kubert Brothers (can't remember which at the moment) is sure to draw a lot of deserved attention, a shame though that it will most likely overshadow this little arc that was tremendously fun.

Lastly, I decided to read everything I could get my hands on that I'd missed regarding Emma Frost, since I'm digging her so much in Astonishing X-Men. Having read most of her X-Title appearances, I picked up the 3 digest sized Emma Frost books by Karl Bollers and Carlo Pagulayan. While they're hit and miss, sometimes capturing teen angst perfectly and sometimes terribly overwrought and melodramatic, it was a nice idea to do Emma's "origin" from birth all the way up until her first appearance as White Queen of the Hellfire Club. Not the greatest read, but interesting if you're into the character. This is also a credit to Marvel's digest format. I'm getting 6 issues for a mere $7.99, which is a great deal for a compact little package. "Normal" price would have been around $18-20 for regular size equivalents, which I wouldn't have done.

See you soon!