Space Captain 2

Son of the Suns

By Michael Park and Chris Baldie

Slightly Less Special Second Edition, Aug 2016

. Space Captain dreams of or remembers getting attacked; abandoning ship; jumping in the capsule in which he was found by Prospector

. In the present Prospector and Space Captain crash land on a desert planet; while Prospector talks to Molly (the ship's computer) and tries to repair it, Space Captain goes into town to look for Marsta

. After getting a lead on where to find Marsta and a horse-like transport, Space Captain heads back to the ship to let Prospector know where he's headed and check on the progress of repairs

. While searching for Marsta he thinks he sees his wife, she is still pregnant; she stays for a time but eventually vanishes

. The bounty hunter has followed them to the dusty planet; she chases Space Captain into a cave; he is captured by the Garkarra, indigenous cave dwellers who are led by one not of their race, Marsta; while the Gakarra hold on to the bounty hunter Space Captain and Marsta escape

. Space Captain and Marsta chat; Marsta agrees to help him get back to Earth although he warns him that there isn't anything left there for him; Space Captain acknoledges that but says he still needs to go to Earth

. By the time Space Captain gets back to the ship Prospector has fixed it using parts from the bounty hunter's ship
. More Kaztani show up on the dusty planet, after Space Captain and Prospector depart, and find something called Helix which seems to be just what they were looking for

. still njoying the way this book is laid out, the choice of panel size and arrangement and the sorts of things put in the panels, love the establishing shots, and the silent panels that speak for themselves

9/30

The Fade Out 7

The Sound of Waves

By Ed Brubaker, Sean Philips, Elizabeth Breitweiser

Jun 2015

. Dottie comforts Tyler in the hospital after his car wreck; Tyler admits he was desperate and is scared of Brodsky; Dottie assures Tyler that she will take care of him and that she has eyes everywhere 

. Charlie and Maya hang out at the beach and in bed over a weekend; Charlie can't seem to let go of something or maybe can't get a grip on it; either way something nags at him; he imagines a conversation with Val; he muses about Maya's personality

. Visually, a heavy portion (12 pp) of this chapter focuses on Charlie and Maya; it slows the story down and adds atmosphere

. After they leave the beach, Maya drops Charlie at Formosa, a bar, to kill some time while she is busy at a press event; he winds up getting into a fistfight with another writer and gets beat up pretty badly; Lincoln Kessler, the other writer, is a friend of Gil's who apparently doesn't know about whatever deal Charlie and Gil have going, and sees Charlie as the guy who gave up Gil's name to the Feds

. Charlie wakes up in the restroom after the fight to the smiling face of Drake Miller, the guy Charlie remembers from the night Val was killed; Miller hints that he's been keeping an eye on Charlie and that he suspects that Charlie's writing has changed, possibly a hint that he suspects Charlie is working with Gil; just before Charlie passes out again Miller suggests they have lunch and hands him his business card; later in the car with Maya he pulls out the card which isn't a card but is a slip of paper on which is written "Call me. We need to talk - Tina"

9/28

Eternals (1976) 4

The Night of the Demons!

By Jack Kirby, John Verpoorten, and Irv Watanabe

Oct 1976

. Kro and a horde of Deviants attack NYC; Ikaris tries taking them on by himself but he is knocked out, captured, and placed in a capsule that is dumped to the bottom of the ocean

. Sersi tells Margo about her past, about encounters with Ulysses and Merlin, just before they are attacked by a trio of Deviants; Sersi defeats the trio by turning them into lizards but decides it is time to call for reinforcements

. From a great distance, in the Andes Mountains, Ajak sees what happens to Ikaris but chooses not to interfere just yet

. Announcements from the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page: 1) Archie Goodwin is the new Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics, 2) the Treasury size adaptation of 2001: A Space Ofyssey written and drawn by Jack Kirby will soon be released

9/27

Alias (2001) 1

Alias Investigations - Part 1

By Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos

Nov 2001

. Jessica Jones, private investigator, former superhero and Avenger

. She makes a living now snooping on cheating wives and looking for missing persons, for a fee

. She has a one-night stand with Luke Cage and accidentally spies on Captain America while working on a case

. This is a good opening chapter, a real mixed bag which isn't very focused but instead provides a sample of what Jessica's average day is like, or so I'm guessing

. Michael Gaydos does not draw people pretty in this book, I'm okay with that; I really like the visual storytelling and the placement of word balloons; I wonder if that was all Gaydos or Bendis or both

. Of course I'm reading this after watching the first season of the TV series based on this comic and am seeing some of the same stuff but I know enough to know that it isn't identical, I really enjoyed the first season of the tv show, more than either of the first two seasons of Daredevil 

9/26

Eternals (1976) 3

The Devil in New York!
By Jack Kirby, J. Verpoorten, and John Costanza
Sep 1976

. As Arishem's followers begin to disembark Ajak reveals that the area is about to be sealed off for 50 years; Ikaris flees taking Margo with him, against her will; Dr Damian opts to stay behind with Ajak and his crew
. Ikaris and Margo are attacked by deviants led by Kro who has changed his form slightly and now looks very much like traditional depictions of the Devil; Kro's change is completely intentional and part of his plan to defeat the Celestials
. After eluding Kro and his crew, Ikaris and Margo head to NYC; they visit Sersy, another eternal and Ikaris asks her to keep an eye on Margo while he goes to battle Kro and the deviants

. the story continues to slowly build; I love the way Kro and Ikaris are each evolving; I am wondering if that is the last we will see of Ajak and Dr Damian
. what is Sersy's deal? who is she? what can she do? how will Margo interact with her?
. still love the splash pages

. Eternal Utterings features the three letters, two of which ask that the Eternals be kept in their own universe separate from the rest of the Marvel Universe, one of which is from future Marvel editor and writer Ralph Macchio whose earliest writing credits are from the summer of 76
. Marvel Bullpen Bulletins features the following announcements (1) Marv Wolfman has stepped down as editor and returned to writing and that his replacement will soon be announced, (2) Roy Thomas has come up with a new title called What If...?, (3) Steve Englehart is moonlighting as an astrologer, (4) Steve Gerber is selling Howard the Duck for President buttons

Bury the Past

A Tale from an Altered Frontier
By E. Baird

. Lukas, a stranger in town, winds up in jail after a run in with Davies, a local tough guy; Catalina de Léon, the marshal who arrested him, gives Lukas a second chance and he starts working at the saloon where he got into trouble
. A few weeks go by; Lukas seems to be fitting in quite well; Milan, a bounty hunter, comes to town looking for Lukas;

. Whether it was intentional or not I don't know but some of the male characters, maybe just Lukas, looked more feminine than masculine to my eyes
. When I spoke to the creator at SPX she said the stories were inspired by the Gunsmoke radio program, I think there's a note in the book saying that, too; on the whole the story feels like it could be adaptation of an episode of Gunsmoke; the characters lacked depth of nuance; it felt more like an exercise in visual storytelling than it did a fully fleshed out story
. The story was originally posted one page at a time on the Internet and once I knew that I could see it in the way each page flows and the way the story flows from page to page
. The placement and way in which word balloons were connected was a bit strange and felt experimental
. Glad that I just bought the one issue and didn't buy the set; it's possible that this is a poor sample of the author's work but I wasn't inspired to seek out more even though there is more available on the web for free

9/22

Space Captain 1

Captain of Space
By Michael Park and Chris Baldie
Less Special Second Edition Nov 2015

. An alien explorer discovers a body buried in a capsule on a snowy planet (Foran 4); the man in the capsule is still alive; he is the last human; he has been asleep for 1,000 years
. The Trogmador explorer takes the human to a Gondari doctor who revives the human; the human has dreams of encountering skeleton like beings and also of happier times with his wife, Kathy; other than that he can't remember much
. A Kaztani bounty hunter gets word of the human and comes looking for him; she finds him thanks to the explorer who is out celebrating his discovery and blabs about it in public; what makes it such a big deal is the fact that he is the last human
. The bounty hunter tries tricking the human into going with her but the human figures out what is going on, fights back, and escapes capture; he departs Foran 4 with the explorer

. like the way the book is drawn, in particular I like the way the panels are sizes, arranged, and organized

9/20

Amiculus (Ch 9)

IX: Flagellum Dei

. Orestes deals with a thorn in his side, Eugenius, who leads a group that opposes Orestes; Eugenius arrests Orestes but Orestes is one step ahead of Eugenius; in the end Eugenius' allies are slain before him and he commits suicide rather than submit
. A good chunk of this chapter is devoted to filling in some of Orestes background; he tells Eugenius of his time serving Attila the Hun and one of the lessons he learned

. I like the use of a different color palette for scenes that take place in the the "past"; even so it got a little confusing for me at times differentiating between the past and the present

. The notes at the back helped to flesh things out and to clarify them a bit, as did the short conversation I had yesterday with writer Travis Horseman at SPX

9/19

Chelo's Burden

Reprinted in Heartbreak Soup
by Gilbert Hernandez

. Captioned panels which introduce two threads
. The first is titular Chelo, her story of her early years, why she can't have children, and how she same to be a midwife
. The other is the story of two "brothers" (Soledad and Manuel); they are brothers in the sense that they were both born on the same night and grew up together; there is no biological basis to their bond
. End of the story hints that there is more to the story of Soledad and Manuel

Amiculus (Ch 8)

VIII: Dulcedo Memoriae, Part 2

. Orestes alliance with the barbarians ends when he refuses to give them what they want, 1/3 of Italy
. Orestes is seemingly killed in a battle with the barbarians but later emerges
. The good times end for Romulus
. Amiculus who only seems to have been a rumor until now takes human form (or does he?)
. This chapter is a little confusing in its purpose and what it is putting forth
.

9/16

Amiculus (Ch 7)

VII: Interlude

. Procopius takes a break from reading because he thinks someone is watching him; he startles a young monk who was bringing him food and then interrogates him
. Meanwhile a mysterious figure lingers in the shadows watching Procopius and the young monk

9/15

Ghost World (Ch 8)

Chapter 8 - October

- I'm thinking now, even though it wasn't explicitly clear to me, that based on the title of this chapter that it took place over the summer after that Enid and Rachel graduated from high school
- Enid is the main character, Rachel is the sidekick; Enid is constantly changing her look throughout the story whereas Rachel stays more or less the same
- Lots happens in this, the longest and final chapter of the book
- Enid and Rachel hang out at the diner where they run into someone they haven't seen in a long time
- Enid and Rachel go over to Josh's place to hang out with Josh and WA ch TV
- Enid gets her driver's license and a car (a hearse), Enid and Rachel go on a trip to Cavetown, but it is a mockery of Enid's memory of the place, of which she had great memories
- The trip was supposed to be a test run for Enid's trip to college but she doesn't get into Swarthmore, later the car has a for sale sign on it
- Rachel and Josh start dating
- Enid talks about running away and then does just that

- There is the suggestion of in requited love between Enid and Rachel; the last words from Enid are a comment on Rachel's beauty; earlier in the chapter when they were on the Cavetown trip they talked about staying together forever

9/15

Amiculus (Ch 6)

VI: Trans Tiberim

. Ioannes shows up to relieve Valerius of command of the legion guarding the city only to discover that things aren't exactly as they seem; it turns out Valerius had made a deal with the barbarians, a deal which the barbarians decide not to uphold

9/14

Ghost World (Ch 7)

Chapter 7 - A Smile and a Ribbon

- Enid and Rachel look at old pictures and Enid gets nostalgic for a record she had as a child
- They leave a crank note for Josh
- They get into a fight over the future, their future
- Enid goes home and cries and then goes to see Josh; they kiss; it looks like they might do more but then she leaves
- When she gets home she finds that her father has put her old records and record player on her bed
- She falls asleep listening to the record she was obsessing about earlier; in the morning she calls Rachel

9/13

Amiculus (Ch 5)

V: Ioannes

- The government is on the run, in hiding from the barbarians who have attacked Rome
- Orestes seems to be taking control of the small group of senators; he tries to get Ioannes to take control of an advance military force that hasn't been heard from but Ioannes doesn't seem to have the mental toughness to get the job done
- Orestes flips out when one of the senators suggests turning over the young emperor to the barbarians; he beats the senator to death, which seems to invigorate Ioannes
- In the moment when Orestes is delivering the beating he looks for a moment like Amiculus; foreshadowing?
- This book really could use a cast of characters page; I sometimes get mixed up with all the archaic names

9/12

Amiculus (Ch 4)

Vol. 2: Flagellum Dei
By Travis Horseman and Giancarlo Caracuzzo

IV: Dulcedo Memoriae, Part 1

. A look back at happier time from the young emperor's past, when his parents were still alive
. Apparently his father was not the emperor before him, that was Julius Nepos; so how did the succession work in the mid to late 5th century?

9/12

Ghost World (Ch 6)

Chapter 6 - The Norman Square

- Enid and Rachel spend more time at the diner
- They run into Melorra at the diner, she has really gotten into acting, she's taking classes and now has actor friends
- Melorra's happiness really seems to agitate Rachel and Enid
- They try propositioning Josh but he isn't down with the idea of having a baby with either of them
- They fall asleep on a bench at a decommissioned bus stop holding hands only to wake up and realize the stop has been reactivated; is this a metaphor for something?

9/12

Fury Max 1

While All the Planet's Litle Wars Start Joining Hands
by Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov
July 2012

- Indochina, 1954; Fury is being punished for his actions in a battle during the Korean War with his current assignment; he has a young
- the most appealing thing about this issue is the art; the story doesn't do as much for me as I hoped it would
- it feels like a generic cold war era story into which Nick Fury has been injected
- I'm not crazy about the horizontal panels that stretch the width of the page; there are very few panels in this issue that don't stretch the width of the page; maybe it is just the fact that this is the dominant look that bothers me
- this series only ran for thirteen issues; this story only ran for three issues but I'm not running out to pick up any more issues from this series in the near future

Ghost World (Ch 5)

Chapter 5 - Hubba Hubba

- Enid and Rachel hang out in a diner; their waiter's name is Al but they call him Weird Al; he looks a little bit like the real Weird Al, mostly it's the hair
- they respond to an ad in the personals after they get home; an ad which is directed at someone particular but not them; they suggest a meetup at the diner
- they are at the diner when the guy shows up; he figures it out eventually and curses at them under his breath before leaving
- seems cruel and funny at the same time

9/9

The Fade Out 6

To Set the World on Fire
By Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Elizabeth Breitweiser
May 2015

- Charlie escorts Maya to a movie premiere after Tyler Graves got injured in a car accident; having Charlie escort Maya was Dottie's idea after Charlie sent her flowers to make up for the way he behaved in TFO4
- Charlie can't stop thinking about Val; at the after party he approaches Flapjack and tries talking to him about Val and the Krazy Kids at the ranch
- Maya gets into an argument with Desi Arnaz at the after party; it's his band that is playing the party and with whom Flapjack is playing; Charlie says the right thing to make her feel better and they wind up in bed together
- Gil goes to a party thrown by Dashiell Hammett; he asks Hammett for advice which in the end it looks like he takes but maybe that's just a red herring
- possibly the most interesting bit is the difference Charlie and Gil have about alcohol; Charlie drinks it to forget, Gil because he thinks it brings out the best on him; at the end of the night both men lie about how it went; Gil doesn't tell Charlie about going to the party and Charlie doesn't tell Gil about what happened after the after party

- not a whole lot of plot development here or at least that's the way it felt; it's hard to say sometimes until after you've seen the whole picture
- in addition to Arnaz and Hammett, Humphrey Bogart also makes a cameo appearance, possibly there were other celebrity cameos that I didn't recognize

9/8

Ghost World (Ch 4)

Chapter 4 - The First Time

- Enid and Rebecca talk on the phone; Enid does most of the talking and all if the storytelling
- first she tells Rebecca about a trip to a sex shop with a boy and then she tells Rebecca about her first time

9/7

Eternals (1976) 2

The Celestials!
By Jack Kirby, John Verpoorten (inks), and John Costanza (letters)
Aug 1976

- the Gods have returned
- Kro is vocally defiant and lighting shoots forth from the spaceship of the Gods in reaction to his outburst
- all are sent running; Kro and his Deviant cohort take off in their submersible craft
-Ikaris, Dr. Damian, and Margo are left behind ; Ikaris tells them about the history of the Debiants and some of his own personal exploits including when during the great flood he guided the arc of humans to dry land; the flood was the Gods' reaction to the Deviants defiance; it sank their cities thus driving them beneath the sea
- Ikaris locates and activates a resurrection chamber which brings back to life the Inca God Tecumotzin and several of his warriors; Tecumotzin turns out to be Ikaris' old friend Ajak who had been living among the Inca for years as their God
- the issue ends with a Celestial, Arishem leader of the Fourth Cohort, touching down on Earth

- not a whole lot of action but I love the way Kirby weaves various mythologies together; it fires my imagination to greater heights and gives me a bit of a head rush
- lots of splash pages including a double (pp. 2-3)

- Eternal Utterings: Gods, Myths, and UFOs
- Kirby writes about the fascination with the origins of life on Earth and what those UFOs might actually be
- he also speculates about how characters from today's comic books might influence myths and rituals in the mid 26th century

9/6

The Punisher (2000) 4

Wild Kingdom
By Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, and Jimmy Palmiotti

- after getting spotted by Ma Gnucci and her gang Punisher gets chased into the zoo; lacking firepower he uses animals as weapons
- Punisher makes out ok, and Ma Gnucci survives, just barely, but her thugs aren't as fortunate
- Detective Soap is still a bit distraught over the suicide of Budd Plugg when he meets Detective Molly Von Richthofen who claims to be the biggest embarrassment to the NYPD
- the murderous priest seems to have found a purpose in life when he finds a newspaper article about the Punisher

- still not sold on this series even though I'm still reading it *sigh*
- it reads very fast, not a whole lot of meat on the bone; Steve Dillon's art is the only thing that really interests me about the series; otherwise it seems fairly pedestrian

9/1