The Pull List (12-17-08): Wait, I'm getting Sentry and Supergirl now?

Man! A minute ago it was 11 a.m. and now it's more than five hours later! Damn this "getting work done" (not that I blog from work ... because that would be wrong). I don't know where the time goes, but I do know it's time for the list!

Getting ...

Age of the Sentry #4 (of 6): In spite of my hatred for this character, it only took one issue to make me fall in love with this ode to Silver Age silliness. Nifty, appropriately cartoony art and breezy writing make this one of the most fun books currently on the stands and leaves me feeling like that guy from the Hotels[dot]com commercial: Aagh, it's working! They got me!

Cthulhu Tales #9: Fun fact: If a book has "Cthulhu" in the title, there's an 86 percent chance I'm going to want to buy it. It doesn't hurt that this series is fairly well-done as far as anthologies go; some stories wind up being duds here and there, but the quality stuff is consistent enough to make it worth picking up.

Fall Of Cthulhu: Godwar #4: Along with Cthulhu Tales, this horror comic is consistently good, and writer Michael Alan Nelson is bringing together all the pieces he's put in place for a story that's become suddenly tense and menacing. It's a fine homage to Lovecraft while remaining neatly original.

Manhunter #37: A new storyline begins with this issue — too bad the series ends with the next one.

Supergirl #36: Generally speaking, I try to avoid getting sucked into all the crossover, here's-your-checklist-complete-with-index, "event" books ... but an interesting story that's establishing a new status quo for the Superman family has grabbed me. I credit the coordination between writers Geoff Johns, James Robinson and Sterling Gates for producing separate chapters that read as one cohesive story.


Maybe ...

DCU Holiday Special 2008

Thor God-Sized #1

Wormwood Gentleman Corpse: Down The Pub (one-shot)


Trading up ...
(Titles I either am, or will be, picking up in trade)

Conan the Cimmerian #6

Ex Machina #40

Fables #79


Recommended ...

Vagabond Vol 2 (VIZBIG Edition)

Welcome To Dingburg: A Zippy Collection

13 for Halloween: Pencil in some time with Death Note

You may point to anything from Chainsaw to just plain Saw, but for my money nobody does horror like the Japanese. And one of the best ways to soak up all that weirdness is by reading a little horror manga like Death Note.

Compared to some other manga, like Gyo or Uzumaki, Death Note is actually pretty tame, but it still has a nice creepiness and asks a truly disturbing question: Which is the true monster? The one that provides the means to murder with the hope it will be used, or the murderer himself?

In Death Note, a shinigami (death god) has left its notebook in the human world out of sheer boredom. The book has the power to kill anyone who's name is written in it, and the shinigami Ryuk hopes someone will discover and begin using it — he's even helpfully included detailed instructions on how the notebook works.

Ryuk doesn't have to wait long. The notebook is discovered by brilliant but sociopathic student Light Yagami, who immediately uses it to kill off more than 50 criminals in and out of police custody. Light argues that he can use to the Death Note to make the world better by cleansing it of evil people, but he soon begins to target anyone he thinks is in his way toward utopia and ultimate power. Once he finds out he can even choose the time and method of death, he relishes coming up with violently creative ways for his victims to die.

One day Light is trying to track down the special agents trying to find him so he can put them in his notebook, when suddenly his bus is hijacked by a drug-addicted, failed bank robber (who Light has arranged to be on the bus by using the Death Note). It's just another day for Light in ...

STOP THE BUS!

(Hey, don't forget to read from right to left!)


Panels from Death Note, Vol. 1
Tsugumi Ohba, writer; Takeshi Obata, artist

Click here to see more 13 for Halloween!

Friday Night Fights: Cutting through the red tape

In near-future Japan, military and tactical expertise will be kicking butt on near-Gibsonian levels thanks to nanotechnology, cyborg soldiers and neuro-networked weaponry.

Unfortunately, researchers will still be trying to find a cure for bureaucracy.

Click to upper-management size!

Luckily Major Motoko Kusanagi — the leader of an elite military unit answering directly to the Minister of Internal Affairs — knows a little something about inter-departmental diplomacy:


One ...

TWO!!


Bahlactus has his own idea of "negotiation."

Following a link? Read more Great Caesar's Post here!

Panels from Ghost in the Shell, Vol. 1
Masamune Shirow, writer/artist

Shoulda taken the plea bargain

When I go through the list of comics being released every week, I usually end up hitting publisher and review sites to get information on titles I don't know much about. But rarely do I get to read something like this first paragraph from the solicit copy for Tokyopop's I-Doll Vol. 1:

"When four troublemakers are arrested for a variety of crimes, the judge hands down the ultimate sentence: The quartet must form a band!"

AH-HAHAHAHAHAAA!

Oh, Japan ... I love you.