1st issue Challenge

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 6:52 am

Well the Twilight book came out in 2005 or so. It was a monster hit before the films. I haven't read Undying Love yet but I doubt the feel is the same as Twilight (i.e. teenagers in stupid love).

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:54 am

abysslord wrote:Well the Twilight book came out in 2005 or so. It was a monster hit before the films. I haven't read Undying Love yet but I doubt the feel is the same as Twilight (i.e. teenagers in stupid love).

I think the comparison comes from the love story angle, though the protagonists are a kick-(bleep) mercenary guy and the vampire he's in love with. The plot involves them having to kill the vampire who created her (the strongest vamp in China) in order to cure her so they can be together.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 7:05 pm

Blue Estate #1 (Image) - The different artists worked for me on this issue and I liked the mystery & characters being set up. I like noir type crime stories so I'm onboard for this one.

Charismagic #1 (Aspen) - The #0 issue of this didn't sell me on this series, but #1 did. It set up the pieces & ended on a mysterious note that I want to find out more about. I'm adding this to my pull list.

Fear Itself: Home Front #1 (Marvel) - I thought the stories were OK, but non-essential. I liked the Speedball story the most, but this is not something I need to be paying $3.99 for, so I won't be continuing on with it.

Green Wake #1 (Image) - I love Riley Rossmo's art but I had ZERO idea of what was going on in the story. Not my cup of tea, I won't be continuing with this one.

Herc #1 (Marvel) - I'm going to chalk it up to coincidence that Herc hits New York, saves a Greek diner owner from criminals, gets a job there, and has a relationship with the hot daughter of said owner EXACTLY LIKE the Greek demi-god in "God Complex" By Mike Oeming from Image Comics.
Other than that, I enjoyed the issue a lot. I like Herc's use of the weapons from Greek myth & the retelling of the plot dressing from "God Complex" (which will be completely new to the majority of Marvel comics readers.

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 6:44 am

The Mission #1 (Image) - Pretty simple idea [the movie Frailty] but I enjoyed reading it. It did the job as a first issue by presenting the premise and wrapping it up, but leaving you wanting to see what happens next. The comic probably moves too fast if you want to remain completely believable, but I don't have a problem with that.

This is an example of where the cover art may have hurt it. The cover is pretty bad and makes it look like an aging Spock is hanging over him. I even skipped this comic from the name and cover, it wasn't until reading the preview that I was willing to give it a try.

Frank Castle · Post by **Frank Castle** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 11:40 am

BobBretall wrote: Green Wake #1 (Image) - I love Riley Rossmo's art but I had ZERO idea of what was going on in the story. Not my cup of tea, I won't be continuing with this one.

I'm with you there, I have no clue what happened in the book. The beginning of the book reminded me of the Pearl Jam cover song, Last Kiss though, so that was kind of fun for me.

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 3:44 pm

Frank Castle wrote:
BobBretall wrote: Green Wake #1 (Image) - I love Riley Rossmo's art but I had ZERO idea of what was going on in the story. Not my cup of tea, I won't be continuing with this one.
I'm with you there, I have no clue what happened in the book. The beginning of the book reminded me of the Pearl Jam cover song, Last Kiss though, so that was kind of fun for me.

I think I have a vague enough idea that I'm interested in continuing ... however, I completely agree he made the mistake of not giving away enough information in the first issue. In a novel, or a trade, you could get away with it. But I think he's going to lose a lot of readers. After 5 issues it could either be really interesting, or just vague and confusing .... that's how I feel about "Infinite Vacation" as well.

If anyone is interested, here's my take on Green Wake #1: SPOILERS

Basically we have a town in limbo where people show up, for an unknown reason, and don't know how they got there. These two "detectives" have taken it upon themselves to help these people ease into Green Wake while also trying to figure out how things work. For this issue, they're interested because this woman they know has killed two people and left for Babylon, and right away a new person arrives that knew her because I'm assuming his picture was in her locket ...although he does not remember knowing her.

The issue ends with Ariel finding Babylon and it looks like it's just a drug house.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 5:29 pm

abysslord wrote: Basically we have a town in limbo where people show up, for an unknown reason, and don't know how they got there. These two "detectives" have taken it upon themselves to help these people ease into Green Wake while also trying to figure out how things work.

Yeah, I gathered this much, but it was too "spacey" without enough concrete story for my taste. I'd have liked to see a much more tangible threat or mystery that they had a decisive plan of action to combat. Everything was too squishy.

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 6:51 pm

BobBretall wrote:
abysslord wrote: Basically we have a town in limbo where people show up, for an unknown reason, and don't know how they got there. These two "detectives" have taken it upon themselves to help these people ease into Green Wake while also trying to figure out how things work.
Yeah, I gathered this much, but it was too "spacey" without enough concrete story for my taste. I'd have liked to see a much more tangible threat or mystery that they had a decisive plan of action to combat. Everything was too squishy.

Yeah, you'd think an editor would have read this and said "Maybe put a little more story into it" ... I think there was a page and a half of a guy walking through town to figure out it never leads out. You could do that in a handful of panels and use the other ones later on to explain something better.

Oh well, I'll stick around and see what happens.

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:13 pm

BobBretall wrote:Charismagic #1 (Aspen) - The #0 issue of this didn't sell me on this series, but #1 did. It set up the pieces & ended on a mysterious note that I want to find out more about. I'm adding this to my pull list.

I was intrigued and decided to go ahead and pick up #1 and put it on my list for now. Would you say it's worth getting #0? If it's really not needed then I'll skip it.

I really hate these #0 issues. If it's not important enough to put in #1, leave it off.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 8:41 pm

abysslord wrote:
BobBretall wrote:Charismagic #1 (Aspen) - The #0 issue of this didn't sell me on this series, but #1 did. It set up the pieces & ended on a mysterious note that I want to find out more about. I'm adding this to my pull list.
I was intrigued and decided to go ahead and pick up #1 and put it on my list for now. Would you say it's worth getting #0? If it's really not needed then I'll skip it.

I really hate these #0 issues. If it's not important enough to put in #1, leave it off.

I think you can skip #0 & just get #1

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 1:20 pm

BobBretall wrote:
abysslord wrote:Well the Twilight book came out in 2005 or so. It was a monster hit before the films. I haven't read Undying Love yet but I doubt the feel is the same as Twilight (i.e. teenagers in stupid love).
I think the comparison comes from the love story angle, though the protagonists are a kick-(bleep) mercenary guy and the vampire he's in love with. The plot involves them having to kill the vampire who created her (the strongest vamp in China) in order to cure her so they can be together.

Just finished Undying Love, the only similarity with Twilight was a human in love with a vampire. But that goes much further back than Twilight.

I liked it and I can see how IanG thought it was corny, it did feel a little cliche with him just bumping into the guy he was looking for downtown, but I don't care about that. I'd rather it happen quick like that than take a few issues.

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 9:30 pm

Hellraiser #1 (BOOM) - Loved it. With characters as majestic as Pinhead the dialogue is very important and I think it was done pretty well here. The story shows direction and I can't wait for the next few issues to get a better grasp of where they're going to take this.

I loved Hellbound Heart, and the movie Hellraiser, but didn't care for Hellrasier 2. The others I liked, even the high digit sequels, but I did always feel no one really got what Barker was doing with this story. Pinhead wasn't the star, he was just a vessel. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with this comic because even Barker may have no choice but to make Pinhead the star after all these years of exposure.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:29 am

Butcher Baker The Righteous Maker #1 & 2 (Image) - #1 & 2 came out 2 weeks apart and I didn't mention the title before, so I'll address them both. I like this series. The art is different, in a good way. The 1st issue was far more "in your face" and relied on some macho stereotypes & broad humor for the "oomph". The 2nd issue really surprised me when it actually started to develop some conflict and a story line with the introduction of all those bad guys. Some very cool villains. I also like the comedy relief with the Sheriff chasing him around, very "JW Pepper" (Bond reference)...... In addition, I love Love LOVE the backmatter by Joe Casey. I love it more than the main story.

IanG · Post by **IanG** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:07 am

BobBretall wrote:Charismagic #1 (Aspen) - The #0 issue of this didn't sell me on this series, but #1 did. It set up the pieces & ended on a mysterious note that I want to find out more about. I'm adding this to my pull list.

I'm adding this to my DCBS pull list also. Although I've learn to accept a irregular publishing schedule with a very small publisher like Aspen. They do high quality comic books but they almost never come out on time. I'd be okay with a bi-monthly schedule for all their books but they don't seem to keep to that either. Lady Mechanika #1 was released on 12-08-10, four months later and we haven't seen #2.

Danscomics · Post by **Danscomics** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:21 am

IanG wrote:
BobBretall wrote:Charismagic #1 (Aspen) - The #0 issue of this didn't sell me on this series, but #1 did. It set up the pieces & ended on a mysterious note that I want to find out more about. I'm adding this to my pull list.

I'm adding this to my DCBS pull list also. Although I've learn to accept a irregular publishing schedule with a very small publisher like Aspen. They do high quality comic books but they almost never come out on time. I'd be okay with a bi-monthly schedule for all their books but they don't seem to keep to that either. Lady Mechanika #1 was released on 12-08-10, four months later and we haven't seen #2.

They claim that they have this under control and their release schedule is going to become more consistent over the course of this year. The reason it has been off supposedly still goes back to the loss of Michael Turner. I'm optimistic because like you I really like their stuff and would love to give them more of my money