XERXES: THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF DARIUS #5 (of 5)
PROJECT SUPERPOWERS [2018] #1
From the World of Black Hammer: THE QUANTUM AGE #2 (of ?)
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP #4 (of 5)
INFINITY WARS #1 (of 6)
The Little Book of THE INCREDIBLE HULK
The Little Book of IRON MAN
The Little Book of X-MEN

Manga:
GHOST IN THE SHELL TP by Shirow Masamune
GHOST IN THE SHELL 1.5: HUMAN-ERROR PROCESSOR TP by Shirow Masamune
GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: MAN-MACHINE INTERFACE TP by Shirow Masamune

GHOST IN THE SHELL: STAND ALONE COMPLEX by Yu Kinutani (tankobon volumes):
  EPISODE 001: SECTION 9 (adapts TV episode 01)
  EPISODE 002: TESTATION (adapts TV episode 02)
  EPISODE 003: IDOLATER (adapts TV episode 07)
  EPISODE 004: ¥€$ (adapts TV episode 14)
  EPISODE 005: NOT EQUAL (adapts TV episode 13)

I'd bought the above tankobon volumes (approx. 250 pages each) as they'd been released by Kodansha Comics back in 2011-2014, but had never actually gotten around to reading them. I was a little disappointed to find that they were just straight adaptations of the episode scripts, scene-for-scene and dialogue-for-dialogue (I'd been hoping that they were original stories set in the same world as the GitS S.A.C. TV series). They do a good job (artwork and story all read well as manga) for what they intended, but add or subtract nothing from the anime episodes, so if someone already has the anime episodes in their collection, they're somewhat disposable.

GHOST IN THE SHELL README: 1995-2017 HC - History and background info of the GiTS franchise in anime films & TV series, profusely illustrated with cel frames, designs and character model sheets, up to and including the 2017 live-action feature film. I also watched the first five of the anime films: Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell (1995) and his sequel Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004), and Kenji Kamiyama's three Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex features: The Laughing Man (2003), The Individual Eleven (2005), and Solid State Society (2006). I haven't yet seen the 10-episode 2013 OVA series Arise or the spinoff anime 'New Movie' which caps off that series' storyline (I've been waiting for all ten OVA episodes to be offered in some sort of 'Complete Collection' on DVD, and I don't want to watch the feature film spinoff until I've seen the OVA series that preceded it). Shirow Masamune's original manga, the 2 Oshii anime films, the TV series Stand Alone Complex, and OVA series Arise all have their separate continuities, with some details in storylines agreeing and others contradicting those of the other versions. Comparing and contrasting the different versions helps in grasping some of the vaguer or harder to understand details of the SF concepts and metaphysical/philosophical ideas being explored.

PLATINUM END VOL 01 (tankobon) - I loved this! It just totally turns all those superhero elements on their head and defies expectations as to how they are usually applied in a story. Yet all the same basic elements are worked in. Orphaned kid granted superpowers by magical being/cosmic alien (in this case, in the guise of a cutesy teen angel girl). Almost seems like it's going in the same direction as Spider-Man, with a theme of "with great power there must also be great responsibility", but also seems like it won't be a quickly learned lesson, as it was in the case of the teenaged Peter Parker, but a much more torturous pathway. The angel characters are somewhat creepy, and in the case of the main one, Nasse, I believe she'll turn out to be not what she appears, or at any rate, there's a lot she's not telling our young hero. The reconfiguration of religious/mythological ideas into pseudo-science fantasy terms reminded me of SAINT SEIYA (Knights of the Zodiac). I just immediately ordered tankobon Volumes 02 through 06. Extremely pleased to have discovered this one, can't wait to read the whole thing.

PRECARIOUS WOMAN EXECUTIVE MISS BLACK GENERAL (tankobon) by JIN - A pretty funny superhero parody. Took me a little while to decipher the cartooning style here (extremely reductive, and the appearance of characters tends to morph a lot according to their emotional state), but some bits are reminiscent of Viewtiful Joe, while other bits remind me of Ben Edlund's The Tick.

You can just NEVER really tell what a manga's about by its title. In this case I suspect that the author (who goes by the pseudonym 'jin') intended it to try to capture the same sort of effect of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", in other words, just to tickle people's curiosity when they heard or read it. I'm not sure about the translation of the word precarious in the title; it seems like they missed something about the sense of it. If I had to guess I think the meaning of precarious as "risky" was somehow assumed to be the same as the word risqué (which actually means improper/indecent/suggestive) -- so I think the meaning which was intended to be conferred was Risqué Lady eXecutive BLACK GENERAL. The 'Miss' in the title translation is just an honorific of '-san' appended to the name Black General. We could really just call it RX Black General.

She's supposed to be the field marshal of the secret evil organization 'RX', whose ultimate goal is total world domination, and tries to look the part, dressed in her military cap and pseudo-Nazi-type uniform with an X armband, and an eyepatch (which she admits is just because 'it looks cool!'). Really she's just a superhero fangirl who gets the whimwhams whenever she encounters the hero Braveman (who looks a little like Batman, but is really nothing like him). She took the job with the evil RX organization just so she could get up close to her idol, the secret object of her obsession (she's a lot like Betty Cooper that way), but all she's succeeded in doing so far is becoming an irritating annoyance and king-size headache for Braveman. The evil RX organization is headed up by the overly-polite and afraid-to-offend Boss (who is a supervillain with telekinetic powers), but so far the organization hasn't done a single evil thing except to declare their intent of world domination and call out Braveman to challenge him. The rest of the organization consists of Secretary, Scientist, and Minion #1, #2, and #3 --  but they're still keen to recruit new followers (even though they've completely blown through their cash reserves). Good satirical treatment of superhero cliches, and about as different as night from day, when compared to PLATINUM END, even though they're both playing with some of the same well-established tropes.

I just finished reading some of my graphic novels
Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong
The Best Of Archie Comics - Betty & Veronica - Book #2
Jughead - Volume #1
Menage A 3- Volume #1
Swing #1

Quote from: BettyReggie on August 08, 2018, 11:12:57 AM
I just finished reading some of my graphic novels
Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong
The Best Of Archie Comics - Betty & Veronica - Book #2
Jughead - Volume #1
Menage A 3- Volume #1
Swing #1

I don't know if you read Vol 1 of Menage A 3 in the smaller paperback (tankobon) size published by Pixie Trix, or the slightly larger format (same approximate size as The Best of Archie Comics trade paperbacks), published by Udon Entertainment, which collects 2 of the smaller paperback volumes. I have both versions of volume 1, and I really like the larger page size of Udon trade collection. I just ordered the second volume of that series (which collects volumes 3 & 4 originally published by Pixie Trix). I think I'm going to stick with that format because the artwork looks so much better printed at the larger size, even though at the current rate Udon is publishing them, it will take quite a while for them to catch up to the Pixie Trix volumes.

LOST IN SPACE: THE ART OF JUAN ORTIZ HC
FANTASTIC FOUR (2018) #1
SAVAGE DRAGON #237
TITANS #24
HAWKMAN #3
PLASTIC MAN #3 (of 6)
WONDER WOMAN #52
UNNATURAL #2 (of 12)
PREDATOR HUNTERS II #1 (of 5)
WORLD OF TANKS: CITADEL #4 (of 5)
CARSON OF VENUS #1: FEAR ON FOUR WORLDS Part 1 (of 4)
NEW LIEUTENANTS OF METAL #2 (of 4)
HEY KIDS! COMICS #1 (of ?)
LOONEY TUNES #244
UNCLE SCROOGE #38
DONALD & MICKEY QUARTERLY
WALT DISNEY SHOWCASE #4: GOOFY
WALT DISNEY SHOWCASE #5: DONALD DUCK FAMILY
DISNEY MASTERS HC VOL 03: MICKEY MOUSE and THE VANISHING BANDIT
DISNEY MASTERS HC VOL 04: DONALD DUCK in THE GREAT SURVIVAL TEST

... and on the e-comix front...
DIE KITTY DIE: HEAVEN & HELL #2 (of 4) - Ahh! ... "Good things come to he that waits", as the saying goes. DKD never fails to give me a little thrill of delight at the sly little in-jokes and quirky humor. Not to mention how much I'm loving the artwork. The boys really put their hearts & souls into this, and you can feel it in the resulting product. Li'l Satan has kind of a big supporting role in this issue, and it's always nice to see more of him. There's a brief appearance by Kitty's cousin Katty in the flashback story preceding the present-day main story, and as usual, we check in with Rudy, Mara, and Jim at the comic shop to see how Kitty's death is impacting the world of comic fandom. Sweet.

Ménage à ZOMBIES (one-shot) - Floppy comic spinoff of Ménage à 3, by Dave Lumsdon and Fernando Ruiz. The injection of zombies into the otherwise more real-world universe of Ménage à 3 makes this an out-of-continuity flight-of-fantasy. Possibly the idea was a tongue-in-cheek poke at ACP's Afterlife With Archie. The story was originally created as bonus content for the most recent Ménage à 3 tankobon collection, but is presented here as a standalone one-shot in color.

BETTY AND VERONICA DIGEST (1990s) #56, 57, 62, 68, 69, 80 - Purchased for a buck each. Most of the stories were ones I'd previously read, reprinted in more recent B&V digest issues. I'll pick these older digests up if they're cheap, but they're not really on my want list, per se. I'm really only focusing on collecting certain digest titles that I missed from around 2005 to present (varies according to each title): Betty and Veronica, Betty and Veronica Double, B&V Friends Double, Tales From Riverdale, Jughead & Friends, Jughead Double, Archie & Friends Double, World of Archie Double. Many or most of these had at least some new (at the time) stories besides the usual reprints.

manga:
THE BIG O, Vol. 1-6 tankobon (2002-2004) by Hitoshi Ariga - This was another manga series (like GHOST IN THE SHELL: STAND ALONE COMPLEX by Yu Kinutani) that was based on an anime TV series, rather than the other way around. Unlike that other series though, these stories weren't just straight adaptations of the TV episodes, but new stories based on the TV characters. The anime and character designs have the same sort of 'dark deco' sensibility as Batman The Animated Series, because it was a co-production between Sunrise Studios in Japan and Cartoon Network in America. There's a lot of homages to older Japanese anime and tokusatsu TV shows, as well as retro design homages to 1960s style. Hitoshi Ariga (who also did the manga based on MegaMan in Japan, which Udon studios is currently reprinting in thick, standard-format color comics) did a good job on this, even though he was feeling his way along at first, having started serializing the manga in MAGAZINE Z in Japan 3 months prior to the on-air debut of the anime. The TV series eventually ran 26 episodes, so it was nice to get some new stories featuring those characters in the manga series.

I read Fence #4 & Saga #54.

WALT DISNEY SHOWCASE #6: THE PHANTOM BLOT
ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN '66 #2 (of 6)
BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR VOL 01 TP
BEST OF ARCHIE AMERICANA VOL 03 TP: THE BRONZE AGE 1980s-1990s
STREET FIGHTER SUMMER SPORTS SPECIAL
INFINITY 8 VOL 2 #2 (of 3)
INFINITY WARS #2 (of 6)
STELLAR #3 (of 6)
TERMINATOR: SECTOR WAR #1 (of 4)
ICE CREAM MAN #6
GIDEON FALLS #6

Review: BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR VOL 01 TP



While I was hoping that this collection might start out by reprinting the older ARCHIE GIANT SERIES issue numbers which fell under the B&V Spectacular title logo - begininng with #11 (June 1961) and ending with #632 (July 1992), which was in fact the final issue of the entire AGS run - it actually begins with the #1 issue cover-dated October 1992. After the cancellation of the Archie Giant Series, it was replaced by a number of different ongoing titles, all of which had previously appeared under the AGS numbering. World of Archie and Betty and Veronica Spectacular were initially published quarterly, which was approximately the same schedule under which the titles had appeared in rotation under the AGS numbering. The other two titles (Archie's Christmas Stocking and Betty and Veronica Summer Fun) were published annually.

WORLD OF ARCHIE #1 (August 1992) - #22 (March 1999)
BETTY AND VERONICA SPECTACULAR #1 (October 1992) - #90 (September 2009)
ARCHIE'S CHRISTMAS STOCKING #1 [48-Page Giant] (November 1993) - #7 (November 1999)
BETTY AND VERONICA SUMMER FUN #1 [48-Page Giant] (July 1994) - #6 (July 1999)

Of the four ongoing titles born out of the former Archie Giant Series, B&V Spectacular was by far the most successful, lasting seventeen years - ten years longer than the other three titles. Just for reference, here are the issue numbers of the Archie Giant Series which were Betty and Veronica Spectacular issues:

11   21   26   32   [here the AGS title jumped 100 issue numbers]
138   145   153   162   173   184   197   201   214   221   226   234   238   246   250
[here the AGS title jumped another 200 issue numbers] 458   462   470   474   482   486   494   498   501   506   510   518   522   526   530   537   541   548   552   559   563   569   575   582   588   595   600   608   613   620   623   632

Okay, with that preamble out of the way, this is a pretty good collection. Compared to the previous volume in the "Archie Comics Presents..." series, ARCHIE AT RIVERDALE HIGH, which attempted to compile stories from issues #1-33, BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR VOL 01 TP only reprints stories from issues #1-11, so it is far more complete. The JUGHEAD'S TIME POLICE and COSMO trade collections were indeed "complete" in the truest sense, even reprinting the covers of the issues whose stories were contained therein. Here, unfortunately, we don't get the covers (which is a shame, because for the most part, they are great covers). However, we DO get MOST of the stories from issues #1-11 reprinted. Here's a listing of the contents of Volume 1 (number of pages follows the story title):

#1  Run For Glory   22
#2  This Looks Like A Job For Sugarplum!   21
#3  Genie Hi-Jinx   11
#3  BETTY in "The Big Slice"   1
#3  Flee This Market   5
#3  "Clothes" Minded!   5
#4  Fashion Fiasco   11
#4  Go Fly a Kite   5
#4  Triangle Trouble   5
#5  Wiener Wars   11
#6  Princess and the Pauper   11
#6  Chances Are...   5
#7  Love Notions   11
#7  Jersey City 07303   5
#7  Too Much Infomercial   5
#8  Fitness Fiasco   11
#8  Moody & Snooty   5
#9  Look Who's Watching   11
#9  Paper Route   5
#9  Yard Sale Of The Century!   6
#10  Here's Sand in Your Face   11
#10  S'more Trouble   5
#10  Vests For All Occasions (Veronica fashions)   1
#10  Boxer Boom!   5
#11  Teacher Torture   11
#11  Picture This!   5
#11  The Prodigal Daughter   5

Just to see what didn't get reprinted from those issues, I consulted the Grand Comics Database. Here's what's missing from those issues (excepting ads, letters pages, editorial pages, and puzzle pages):
#1-11  covers
#3  BETTY's Fantasy: The Music Maker (pin-up)   2
#5  No Contest   5
#5  The 60's In The 90's (B&V fashions)    1
#5  Opposites Detract   5
#6  A Fowl Scent   5
#6  Hot Roddin' in the "Fifties" (pin-up) 1
#8  Hold the Phone   5
#9  Rad Fad   1

So essentially, what BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR VOL 01 TP contains is "almost" the complete contents of issues #1-11 of that title, with the exception of all the covers and 25 pages of other stories or features. It could have been a little more perfect, but given that they had to fit it into a 224-page trade collection, not bad. If I had been the editor, I'd have left issue #11 for Volume 2, and reprinted the four 5-page stories from issues #5, 6 & 8 that they skipped, plus a 1-page feature. Or the two best 5-page stories, plus all 10 covers from issues #1-10. But that's me. All in all, not too bad. I rate it a "buy".

One small irksome point. There is a 1-page text introduction which had me wondering whether the (uncredited) writer of that page even read the stories in this collection. Said writer claims in the intro that "As time went on, the series introduced a few new female characters - one of which you'll see in this particular collection is Sugarplum, the teenage daughter of Santa Claus".

Okay, that's just plain wrong on two counts. Apparently the writer confused Sugar Plum with Noelle Claus (the teenage daughter of Santa Claus), a much later Dan Parent creation. They're two entirely different characters. And B&V Spectacular did NOT introduce the character of Sugar Plum (seen here in a story from B&V Spectacular #2, "This Looks Like A Job For Sugar Plum!", which is in fact her fourth appearance). Her FIRST appearance was in ARCHIE GIANT SERIES #580 (January 1988), which wasn't even a B&V Spectacular issue of AGS... it was a BETTY AND VERONICA CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR (a separate annual title) issue. You wouldn't necessarily have to know these details to realize that Betty and Veronica Spectacular #2 wasn't Sugar Plum's first appearance -- all you'd need to do is read the story. In the first panel of that story, where Sugar Plum appears, it's obvious that Betty and Veronica already know her. Since she wasn't in the previous issue of B&V Spectacular, it's easy to deduce that she couldn't have been introduced in that series. That makes the writer of the introduction look pretty dumb, even to a 10 year-old kid of average intelligence.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 16, 2018, 02:39:09 AM
Review: BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR VOL 01 TP



While I was hoping that this collection might start out by reprinting the older ARCHIE GIANT SERIES issue numbers which fell under the B&V Spectacular title logo - begininng with #11 (June 1961) and ending with #632 (July 1992), which was in fact the final issue of the entire AGS run - it actually begins with the #1 issue cover-dated October 1992. After the cancellation of the Archie Giant Series, it was replaced by a number of different ongoing titles, all of which had previously appeared under the AGS numbering. World of Archie and Betty and Veronica Spectacular were initially published quarterly, which was approximately the same schedule under which the titles had appeared in rotation under the AGS numbering. The other two titles (Archie's Christmas Stocking and Betty and Veronica Summer Fun) were published annually.

WORLD OF ARCHIE #1 (August 1992) - #22 (March 1999)
BETTY AND VERONICA SPECTACULAR #1 (October 1992) - #90 (September 2009)
ARCHIE'S CHRISTMAS STOCKING #1 [48-Page Giant] (November 1993) - #7 (November 1999)
BETTY AND VERONICA SUMMER FUN #1 [48-Page Giant] (July 1994) - #6 (July 1999)

Of the four ongoing titles born out of the former Archie Giant Series, B&V Spectacular was by far the most successful, lasting seventeen years - ten years longer than the other three titles. Just for reference, here are the issue numbers of the Archie Giant Series which were Betty and Veronica Spectacular issues:

11   21   26   32   [here the AGS title jumped 100 issue numbers]
138   145   153   162   173   184   197   201   214   221   226   234   238   246   250
[here the AGS title jumped another 200 issue numbers] 458   462   470   474   482   486   494   498   501   506   510   518   522   526   530   537   541   548   552   559   563   569   575   582   588   595   600   608   613   620   623   632

Okay, with that preamble out of the way, this is a pretty good collection. Compared to the previous volume in the "Archie Comics Presents..." series, ARCHIE AT RIVERDALE HIGH, which attempted to compile stories from issues #1-33, BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR VOL 01 TP only reprints stories from issues #1-11, so it is far more complete. The JUGHEAD'S TIME POLICE and COSMO trade collections were indeed "complete" in the truest sense, even reprinting the covers of the issues whose stories were contained therein. Here, unfortunately, we don't get the covers (which is a shame, because for the most part, they are great covers). However, we DO get MOST of the stories from issues #1-11 reprinted. Here's a listing of the contents of Volume 1 (number of pages follows the story title):

#1  Run For Glory   22
#2  This Looks Like A Job For Sugarplum!   21
#3  Genie Hi-Jinx   11
#3  BETTY in "The Big Slice"   1
#3  Flee This Market   5
#3  "Clothes" Minded!   5
#4  Fashion Fiasco   11
#4  Go Fly a Kite   5
#4  Triangle Trouble   5
#5  Wiener Wars   11
#6  Princess and the Pauper   11
#6  Chances Are...   5
#7  Love Notions   11
#7  Jersey City 07303   5
#7  Too Much Infomercial   5
#8  Fitness Fiasco   11
#8  Moody & Snooty   5
#9  Look Who's Watching   11
#9  Paper Route   5
#9  Yard Sale Of The Century!   6
#10  Here's Sand in Your Face   11
#10  S'more Trouble   5
#10  Vests For All Occasions (Veronica fashions)   1
#10  Boxer Boom!   5
#11  Teacher Torture   11
#11  Picture This!   5
#11  The Prodigal Daughter   5

Just to see what didn't get reprinted from those issues, I consulted the Grand Comics Database. Here's what's missing from those issues (excepting ads, letters pages, editorial pages, and puzzle pages):
#1-11  covers
#3  BETTY's Fantasy: The Music Maker (pin-up)   2
#5  No Contest   5
#5  The 60's In The 90's (B&V fashions)    1
#5  Opposites Detract   5
#6  A Fowl Scent   5
#6  Hot Roddin' in the "Fifties" (pin-up) 1
#8  Hold the Phone   5
#9  Rad Fad   1

So essentially, what BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR VOL 01 TP contains is "almost" the complete contents of issues #1-11 of that title, with the exception of all the covers and 25 pages of other stories or features. It could have been a little more perfect, but given that they had to fit it into a 224-page trade collection, not bad. If I had been the editor, I'd have left issue #11 for Volume 2, and reprinted the four 5-page stories from issues #5, 6 & 8 that they skipped, plus a 1-page feature. Or the two best 5-page stories, plus all 10 covers from issues #1-10. But that's me. All in all, not too bad. I rate it a "buy".

One small irksome point. There is a 1-page text introduction which had me wondering whether the (uncredited) writer of that page even read the stories in this collection. Said writer claims in the intro that "As time went on, the series introduced a few new female characters - one of which you'll see in this particular collection is Sugarplum, the teenage daughter of Santa Claus".

Okay, that's just plain wrong on two counts. Apparently the writer confused Sugar Plum with Noelle Claus (the teenage daughter of Santa Claus), a much later Dan Parent creation. They're two entirely different characters. And B&V Spectacular did NOT introduce the character of Sugar Plum (seen here in a story from B&V Spectacular #2, "This Looks Like A Job For Sugar Plum!", which is in fact her fourth appearance). Her FIRST appearance was in ARCHIE GIANT SERIES #580 (January 1988), which wasn't even a B&V Spectacular issue of AGS... it was a BETTY AND VERONICA CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR (a separate annual title) issue. You wouldn't necessarily have to know these details to realize that Betty and Veronica Spectacular #2 wasn't Sugar Plum's first appearance -- all you'd need to do is read the story. In the first panel of that story, where Sugar Plum appears, it's obvious that Betty and Veronica already know her. Since she wasn't in the previous issue of B&V Spectacular, it's easy to deduce that she couldn't have been introduced in that series. That makes the writer of the introduction look pretty dumb, even to a 10 year-old kid of average intelligence.

j


Thanks for the review, DCR!  I have all of the books (except Cosmo) in this new format so far and haven't gotten to them yet.  I'm looking forward to it, but I wish they were complete chronological runs.  Still, compared to some of the other things ACP is doing, these are a cool idea IMO. 

I just read Slam -The Next Jam #2 & #3 #4

None. I've decided to give up reading comics. It's gotten too expensive.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 20, 2018, 08:35:09 PM
None. I've decided to give up reading comics. It's gotten too expensive.

No way!

Quote from: irishmoxie on August 20, 2018, 09:36:31 PM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 20, 2018, 08:35:09 PM
None. I've decided to give up reading comics. It's gotten too expensive.

No way!

Yeah, as IF !   

Even if I was able, or was forced to, stop buying them, I'd never stop reading them. If I never bought another comic from this day on, I have enough comics in my house right NOW that if I were to read each one only ONCE again, I'd still never be able finish reading them all before I died. So not only would I have to have NO money before I stopped buying them, I'd also need to lose my house and everything in it, and become a homeless person before I stopped reading comics -- and I'm not sure even THAT would stop me completely. If I were homeless and jobless, then I guess I'd also have plenty of free time for hanging around the public library, and if I could use their computers as well, then I'd be able to find even MORE comics to read online. So I'd say that the only way that I could EVER stop reading comics is if I was dead or totally blind, or all the comics in the world somehow permanently disappeared overnight.

I just stopped reading them for a few hours today so I could read this instead: