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By | Thursday, November 11, 2010 | 6:46 am | 4 Comments | Blog > Database Updates

To start with, I had some trouble with the last review for Showcase Presents: The Phantom Stranger – it wasn’t showing up right in the feed and was missing on the site for a few hours.

Sorry about that – it had to do with the problems I was messing with below. It’s fixed now.

I modified a plugin to allow me to paste links from within the site into my posts without it creating relative links (you know, like /../ in the link structure) which was driving me nutty. So that should speed up my posting a little bit.

I added a couple menu items in the backend for drafts and scheduled posts right from the dropdown, but only the other administrators (not you) can see it, so don’t worry about it.

I added a “top” anchor to certain templates on the site, which will allow me to put “back to top” links in blog posts as needed.

I changed the review layout to include creator information and top and “jump to verdict” links. Then I spent a significant amount of time converting the old reviews to this layout. I’m not sure if I can do a better system, since the code is hard-coded in each one to make sure they work in the feed. Honestly, I should probably learn how to make category specific feed layouts so I don’t have to do this (And just use custom fields like we do for the book entries), but I haven’t had time to look into it.

I wrote out all the code for the review template and put it in a txt file, to make doing each review faster since I don’t have to type it out again (dur). I need a better solution (some kind of txt snippet or canned code insert thing in wordpress) but haven’t found one yet.

Finally, I made the “Review” links on the reading order listings bold. Each review takes a lot of work, and I want that to stand out! It’s the place to go for extensive info on whatever book is there and should include some nice quality scans made just for this site. So we should be proud of them.

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By | Wednesday, November 10, 2010 | 11:46 pm | 18 Comments | Blog > Reviews

Find This Book At:
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Includes Issues: Showcase 80; Phantom Stranger 1-21
Issue Dates: February 1969 – October 1972
Creators:
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This review is spoiler free! Skip To The Verdict? »

Here’s a tome of mystery and mayhem, with a hint of horror, but still sporting a cape. It’s the black and white Showcase collection of the Phantom Stranger!

You may have seen him around the DC Universe, eyes white, hat low, but you don’t know his name, his origins. Well, here you are – even more lack of name and origin! Perfect.

Ok, he wouldn’t be much of a Phantom Stranger if you knew more about him. His roots are here, in his self-titled Bronze Age feature collected along with the original Doctor 13 backup.

For those totally unfamiliar with the character, he’s one of the more obscure DC magic types. He shows up for various magic related events, was a major player in the Books of Magic miniseries, had appearances in Swamp Thing and Zatanna books, and recently was a major character in the first volume of the Madame Xanadu ongoing published under the Vertigo imprint.

A little trivia: The Phantom Stranger doesn’t wear a mask – his eyes appear to be outlined with black due to his hat. In later appearances you never see the dots in his eyes, but in this early book he often seems to show much more emotion, sometimes even with a fully formed set of peepers.

Though he has taken on other tasks, his original role was to show up randomly (as a stranger, yes?) and help during mystical conflicts, often done in one strange tales. Doctor Terrence Thirteen, The Ghost Breaker (whose roots stretch back to a small run in the 50s, and whose stories make up about 1/3 of this book) had a different spin. He’d pop in and debunk mysteries, ever the scooby skeptic.

Together they serve as the hosts of this book, sometimes narrating and often participating directly in lightheartedly scary stories.

The roster of artists and writers included here reads like a who’s who of DC in the early 70s – Bill Draut, Curt Swan, Len Wein, Nick Cardy, Robert Kanigher, Tony DeZuniga, and so on – just glance at the list above.

The book contains both early career and later life work by various pre-crisis gods of comics. Though a variety of artists are featured in this run, it comes together rather tightly and the work is very consistent all the way through (thank the editors!)

The story quality has more fluctuation, though it’s generally what you’d expect. Lot’s of hokey punchlines, exclamation points, and because this is a DC book, a fair amount of punching evil (especially towards the middle, when it seems to move more towards a superhero style book, with a recurring villain and small story arcs.)

Besides the Stranger and Dr. 13, notable characters include Tannarak (a devil stand-in who I think shows up in the Lucifer ongoing) and Tala, self styled queen of evil. Except for stories revolving around those two and some pesky frost giants, the majority of the issues can be enjoyed on their own, making this a good book to leave in the bathroom or read on your smoke break.

That may sound slightly dismissive, but it’s not meant to be – the short form storytelling is done well for the period and many of the mysteries are actually quite amusing. I can’t say that I was particularly terrified or even grossed out – no EC style work here – by any of the stories, but there are some creepy moments.

Perhaps the Scooby Doo metaphor is apt, it’s not quite horror. Or if you remember the more kooky episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, that might give you some idea of the tone to expect here.

In general, the Phantom Stranger stories are of a bit higher quality than the Doctor 13 backups. Perhaps this is just because they maintain an element of mystery to them, while it gets clear very fast that Doctor 13 will always find some kind of electronic device to explain any bit of mischief – and once he starts really interacting with the Stranger, his constant dismissal of the obvious magical happenings becomes a bit tiring.

If it was a modern book, we’d expect some kind of build up or suspense over which position was right, but here he’s left in the roll of repeating this title’s version of “you meddling kids.”

His dialogue isn’t the silliest – as with many books of this era, there is a lot of outdated slang (possibly even when it was printed) that rolls of the tongue of any teenage character. Luckily, I really enjoyed that aspect. When reading any book of 40 year old comics, some suspension of modern tastes is required.

I have to say, to this young reader, the book still works.

I was always curious about the Phantom Stranger from his brief DC appearances and as for this collection – I’m diggin’ it.


Verdict:
4 out of 5. Some of the weaker stories drag it down a bit, but you’re getting more than enough quality for the price. Groovy.

Essential Continuity:
You can probably get the gist of any Phantom Stranger appearance without reading this, but it’s not a bad place to start. Note, because of his interaction with so many Vertigo characters, we place this book on the Vertigo Universe list.

Read first:
You might want to check out Showcase Presents: House of Mystery Vol. 1 or Showcase Presents: House of Secrets Vol. 1 to see what else was happening on the mystical side of the DCU during this period. Also of serious note: Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis. It runs a little later, but Swampy even has a cover cameo in this volume. 

Read next:
The logical next step would be Showcase Presents: The Phantom Stranger Vol. 2 but if you’re looking for a more modern take, check out the highly recommended Books of Magic miniseries by Neil Gaiman, which moves into a really great ongoing. Madame Xanadu Vol. 1 also plays heavily on the Stranger, but doesn’t come quite as highly recommended.

As for Dr. 13, I’m not sure where he shows up next, but his fairly recent modern age miniseries is collected in Doctor 13: Architecture and Morality.

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By | Tuesday, November 9, 2010 | 10:47 pm | 9 Comments | Blog > Database Updates

It’s a little hard to do the database work and manage to write a review every day, but I’m sure I’ll figure out a good schedule for it eventually. And hopefully more user and guest reviews will allow me to devote more time to the database.

But it certainly seems that reviews are what people want – the response in terms of traffic has been pretty substantial.  Or maybe I’m just doing a good job sharing the pretty pictures.

Here are the books that have been updated with covers and publication information:

The Shield (had to scan this cover myself – not a lot of info available about these Archie hero collections online.)

Superman Archives Vol. 3 (If I ever get my hands on all the archives, I’ll have to do a better job with these cover scans – terrible lack of good quality images for most of them)

The Shazam! Archives Vol. 3 (Scanned this one as well – lucky I got a hold of these recently!)

The Golden Age Flash Archives Vol. 2

Superman: The Dailies 1940-1941

All Star Comics Archives Vol. 2 (Quick scan of this one as well – unwrapping mine from its dustcover protective thing reminded me that even the collection is almost 20 years old.)

The Shazam! Archives Vol. 4

The Golden Age Green Lantern Archives Vol. 2

Batman: The Dark Knight Archives Vol. 2

The JSA All Stars Archives Vol. 1 (another scan. Luckily my copy of this book is in great condition.)

That’s it for now. I’ll put some time into a review and some marvel work later tonight.

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By | Tuesday, November 9, 2010 | 12:24 pm | 6 Comments | Blog > Reviews

Find This Book At:
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Includes Issues: Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight 31-35; Willow: Goddesses and Monsters
Issue Dates: December 2009 – May 2010
Creators:
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This review is spoiler free! Skip To The Verdict? »

How do you review a book like Buffy? Very carefully, I suppose.

I subscribe to the school of thought where reviews are for people who are looking to get into something, not just gain affirmation of their beliefs. Sure, it’s nice to see that the critics agree with your own personal top ten movies of all time, and we all enjoy discussing books, but generally when people look for a review they want to know where to put down their hard earned cash and spend their ever more rare free time.

A main part of the appeal of the Buffyverse comics is the “what happens next” aspect. We’ve followed these characters through seven years of one show and another five of  second (sometimes overlapping.) The creative team has grown in skills and stature and the characters have grown with them. Those of us who are serious fans have watched and re-watched, but that first time through was a doozy.

So, assuming you’re interested in the Buffy comics and have somehow missed the rampant spoilers out there on the net, this review is for you.

This is the seventh book in Season 8 – and its time for a big crazy reveal and a whole lot of plot exposition. The main feature here, which continues the story from the previous volumes, is handled by writer Brad Meltzer and artist Georges Jeanty with Andy Owens and Michelle Madsen on inks and colors. There’s also a Joss Whedon sandwich of sorts, as this volume collects his short intro “Turbulence” and then is backed up by the Willow: Goddesses and Monsters one-shot. There is a small cover gallery plus a couple sketches rounding out the back.

All in all, a nice size book at 160 pages – and surprisingly only 7.99 right now on Amazon. I have to admit that I’m quite pleased with Dark Horse’s collection style lately.

To the meat of the content. The Whedon-speak comes quick and heavy in the first few pages. It’s been a little bit since the last volume was released and it took a minute to get used to the banter style again, especially reading it instead of hearing it. I actually went back to the last volume and flipped through it to refresh the plot, even though there was some not-so-subtle stating of this volume’s status quo.

I don’t count that against this book – the story here is of the long arc variety and I expect that future generations of readers will be voraciously devouring the entire series in one sitting, so the quick start will be appreciated. This first part of the story is the most enjoyable in this collection. It quickly wraps up the immediate cliffhanger conflict from the last volume and jumps into a hilarious sequence full of references sure to please hardcore comic book audiences. All of the dorky one-liners are correctly placed in the mouths of geeky characters, though, so if you don’t get them nothing will seem off to you (and there are others in the book scoffing just as you are.)

It’s always nice to see the Buffy comic embracing the medium just as the television show dissected the tropes of the tube. It’s obvious that Whedon and Meltzer are fans as much as they are creators.

I came into the book having heard very mixed reviews and actually expected not to like it (even though I loved the previous volumes, despite some ups and downs.) I was only able to remain skeptical for two pages before I was stiffing laughs. I was particularly tickled by riffs on a couple other pop culture phenomena that may or may not rhyme with pie-light and fairy trotter.

Starting with such strong crowd pleasing moments was smart, because the middle does sag, and if I wasn’t warmed up I might have come away with a very different feeling on this book.

As it is, there are some extremely awkward scenes here. I’m very limited in what I can show in this review’s scans in order to avoid spoilage, but suffice to say that this book isn’t really for kids. The show never was either, but it rubs it in a little here, though never in a ratings committee kind of way. Still, while it may have gone on a little long, the point was made (thankfully, no page turns in this book without some kind of joke, usually pretty amusing).

But then the point was explained, a lot, and the explanation isn’t really that sense-making. I feel sorry for Meltzer – this book has to handle a huge shift in direction, wrapping up of a long mystery, and setting up of a new one (or perhaps the “season” ending. I’m not sure yet.)

As with many Buffy seasons, it tends to get a little worse before it ends well. That’s evident here. It’s only a little worse, but the impression is of a “plot” episode, instead of one where the overall arc moves organically while the characters get to have really fun adventures. Except for the Willow story, the whole volume is devoted to moving the plot forward, and… it… must… do… it. And then, of course, it ends on another reveal/cliffhanger.

Even with this – I wasn’t dissuaded. The second I finished, I went through the mental motions of reaching for the next volume and then cursing. The book had me and I wanted more more more. So they’re doing a lot right.

Jeanty, who is often excellent at carrying the character emotions we know so well, has some problems with the art in this book and I stumbled on it a couple times as I read. I noticed a few places where heads were way too big for bodies, or faces looking too similar caused confusion.

I dislike when I have to go back and forth between panels to figure out who just got smacked down – such things should be obvious, and I shouldn’t have to be comparing hair colors. Especially when red-brown looks a lot like red-red.

I was pretty forgiving, as I often am with these books, because the work was serviceable and did the jokes and action sequences justice. I just wish the people always looked like who they are.

The Willow: Goddesses and Monsters story did a little to sooth the pain, but mainly because it took me out of the immediate “What happens next!?” mindset. The story itself didn’t feel very special, though it had a couple giggle moments and some fun character designs. Like many one-shots, it seeks to do a little expansion on the character, but doesn’t actually reveal anything plotwise that we didn’t already know. So, fun, and I’m happy they included it here for sake of completeness, but nothing special.

The art for this story, by Karl Moline, is more interesting, though has a few facial shifting problems as well. I understand when he wants the faces to look more cartoon-like to show emotion, but there are other times where it seemed less intentional. Regardless, the characters have life to them and I particularly enjoyed the designs and interpretations of the magical denizens. There is even one absolutely beautiful cameo panel of an unexpected character.

The book as a whole? A bit of a speedbump, perhaps, but I remain with high hopes for the series. I’m looking forward to the next book.


Verdict:
As much as I love this ongoing, and wait with baited breath for each trade, this book gets 3 out of 5 stars.

It’s just not the best of the bunch, even though it has some winning moments. While it’s rated lower, it’s still a must purchase, because the books before or after it just won’t be as good without this one in the middle.

Essential Continuity:
For Buffyverse? Yes. This is the continuation of the latest season – no getting around it.

Read first:
You need to have seen the TV series, and read volumes 1-6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8. You also should also have read Fray before that, and need to read at least the Oz stories from Buffy The Vampire Slayer Omnibus Vol. 5.

If you are ever planning on reading the Angel: After The Fall series (which follows up from his show) you will enjoy them much more if you read all of them before you read any Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight. I won’t tell you why, but just trust me on this one, ok?

Actually, there are few enough books in this universe that you might be best served by following the Buffyverse reading order exactly – there’s a lot of good stuff on there that isn’t essential to this run as well.

Read next:
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight Vol. 8! When does it come out, damnit?

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By | Monday, November 8, 2010 | 11:45 pm | 9 Comments | Blog > Reviews

Find This Book At:
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Includes Issues: Action Comics 594, Booster Gold 1-25, Secret Origins 35
Issue Dates: February 1986 – February 1988
Creators:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This review is spoiler free! Skip To The Verdict? »

Here’s a hefty hunk of hero history! Over 600 pages of Booster Gold, time traveling man of action! Hero of the 21st century – and specifically, the 80s.

This giant showcase volume houses black and white reprints of the original Booster Gold run by Dan Jurgens (who you may know from the Death of Superman.) He’s one of those hard working creators who writes and draws most of his work and every issue here is headed by him, except for Action Comics 594, which is written and illustrated by John Byrne. In them, we’re introduced to fan-favorite Booster, created to be a bit different than your average superhero.

First of all, he’s not always that bright. And he can be a total jerk. Plus he’s quite happy to use his powers to gain fame and money, which he’s not afraid to use. But just because he’s not a saint doesn’t mean he isn’t a do-gooder (just not a selfless one.) He’s actually a very likable guy. And he’s an excellent comment on 80s culture (without being a psychotic killer al a American Psycho.)

Many fans first met Booster in the pages of 52, after which he was awarded his own well-reviewed ongoing. He’s also a founding member of the Justice League International and has bounced around through various DC titles since his creation. His slight popularity during the modern age is probably what earned us this collection, which I’m very thankful for – any post-crisis showcase is impressive – this is actually the most recent material collected in this format!

It’s not as good as full color reprints, but perhaps the format is fitting. It gives Booster fans and people with an interest in DC history a chance to read the origins of the character, but probably wouldn’t sell well enough in color to warrant this much being printed (probably over 3 or 4 volumes.) It’s mainly because while the work is very enjoyable, it’s rarely particularly deep. It just isn’t intended to be.

The character’s origins can be read as social commentary, but the book is really straight up entertainment. Jurgens does an amazingly consistent job serving up fun little conflicts amid soap opera drama surrounding Booster’s personal life, and later, company. It’s not always joke after joke, but it’s never too down either (though the Booster gets a lot more serious here than he ever does in later volumes.)

Booster is introduced with a time travel twist, stumbles his way around the DC Universe meeting and battling minor baddies (as well as a few major heroes), joins the Justice League (though his adventures with them are not included in this volume), and bounces around time with Rip Hunter, Time Master (which helped me understand some moments in Animal Man and other books that involve time travel.)

Besides Booster, his tiny robotic sidekick Skeets helps keep the story moving, and evolves into a lovable character in his own right. There’s the usual cast of non-coms that every superhero seems to have – the love interest, friends, possibly a father figure – in this case mostly employed at Booster’s company. They’re likable, if not particularly memorable.

There are some very enjoyable interactions with Superman, who doesn’t like Booster one bit. It’s understandable, as they both work out of metropolis with very different mentalities. Booster is often on the wrong side of a conflict, actually, but that’s part of what makes this book so enjoyable. It’s never really subtle, but at least Jurgens likes to play with the standard philosophies of super-heroing.

Things move at a steady pace and the book only really has awkward spots in story flow during the Millenium crossover event, which is understandable, as several key issues are not included here (and it wasn’t the best crossover anyway.)

The art, likewise, is solid work. Having one artist lends consistency, but Jurgens is also a consummate professional. His style might not stand out on a shelf when compared to other comics of the era, but he has it down pat – and occasionally includes a beautifully rendered dramatic scene or little background details that bring it above the average “house style.” With him writing and illustrating, there may not have been too many awe inspiring moments, but there also were never any moments where my reading was interrupted by some terrible piece of dialogue or art – I breezed through the book with a dumb grin on my face the entire time.

The reprinting suffers from the usual problems associated with a black and white showcase: sometimes the characters just don’t stick out enough from the background or you feel like you miss some of the power of a composition without color. Plus one villain, the Rainbow Raider of course, has powers based entirely on color! Naturally, that story arc is a little hard to follow at times.

But that’s what’s you get for the super low price point. I can’t really complain. The inked linework is great to look at, with a quite a few names listed on this large book: Agustin Mas, Mike Decarlo, Bob Lappan, John Costanza, Gary Martin, and more. While some of the inkers in this volume do their work differently, none of them phoned it in.

It’s hard to judge a book that collects such a long run in one volume. But this one makes it easy by being of good quality the whole way through. It may not be of the same historical value as say, the showcase volume collecting the first Flash stories, but it’s a great book – and essential for anyone into the lighter side of DC, Jurgens, or our boy Booster.

It”s even a great place to start reading him if you’ve ever been interested. It was my introduction to him and I’m already a fan.


Verdict:
A solid collection and a lot of value for your comics money. 4.5 out of 5 – not high literature but 27 fun comics in one volume!

Essential Continuity:
Totally recommended for DC fans – if you want to get the most out of 52, Rip Hunter plotlines, Justice League International, and even events like the Death Of Superman, it’s great to know Booster Gold. Before I was introduced to him properly, I always though he seemed kind of silly when I read through a crossover, but he really does deserve his screen time. Since the entire 25 issue original series is included here, it’s worth picking up.

Read first:
You don’t need to do research to jump into this volume, but you might enjoy reading Superman: The Man Of Steel in order to see what Booster is riffing on – and they intersect in the Action Comics crossover here.

Read next:
There are so many places you could go from this book. You may want to follow up with the Millennium crossover volume in order to make sense of the events at the end. Or you could jump right into Justice League International, which tells a bit of what happens to him next. Or you could head 20 years of publishing history down the line and continue at 52, which leads into Booster’s contemporary ongoing.

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