Lot’s of stuff to write about! 1)Last christmas Florence, and Marty got me the first volume of Absolute Sandman. It was awesome, the second volume is even better. The Absolute line (yes the name does make it sound like a promotion for Vodka) from DC is basically a repackaging of some of their most acclaimed series, in oversized, beutifully designed hard covered books. Usually the art is recolored, and the back of the book is jammed with extra content. I usually don’t think it is worth buying a second copy of something if the story has not changed, and other Sandman I don’t think I will (although Kingdom Come is tempting). With Sandman they have reprinted three tpbs, per volume. Volume 2 contains the Seasons of Mists, a Game of You arcs, and most of the short stories from the Fables and Reflections collection. Though volume 1 had some really great issues, this is the period in Sandman in my opinion where it came into it’s stride both with the story and the art. SoM, is an epic that feels like an ancient myth that no one had transcribed yet. Lucifer decides to quit being the adversary, kicks everyone out of Hell, leaves locking the door behind him. He gives the key to Dream, whom he had previously vowed to destroy but now just hopes it will make his life a little difficult. Which it does, as figures from many different pantheons (religious as well as comic book) arrive in the Dreaming seeking the deed to Hell. Reading it again now, it is amazing how a few small interactions in these early issues set in motion the conclusion of the whole series. At one time Season of Mists was my favorite arc, but now I feel a Game of You surpasses it. It is a much smaller scale story than most of the other large arcs, and though Morpheus id in it, he is mostly periphery. The main character is Barbie, who was a periphery character in the Dollhouse (collected in volume 1). She had at one time had a very vivid dream life, in which she was a princess in a magic world of talking animals called the Land. She has however stopped dreaming, and no longer remembers the Land. In her absence the Land has started to die and is under the thrall of a monster called the Cuckoo. Barbie does eventually return to the land and the it causes serous damage to the waking world. The story could just be another “magic land ” like Oz, or Wonderland, but the conclusion id entirely originally. The supporting cast Barbie’s neighbors: sweet transvestite, Wanda, lesbians Hazel and Foxglove, and the witch Thessaly (the only one to have any importance to the bigger story of Sandman), as well as the Land’s animals, giant dog creature Martin Tenbones, and Wilkinson a cynical rat wearing a trench-coat, are some of the most memorable in the whole series. These are the stories that where the art finally moves away from the typical horror comic style (overly lined faces, and colored in sickly purples and greens) . Despite having some of the most horrific scenes in the whole series, a man chained to rock in Hell having his chest repeatedly torn open, a pile of decapitated heads singing, the face torn from corpse nailed to wall happily chatting away with it’s wagging tongue. It was well worth spending seventy dollars for this excellent new printing. 2) I also read echo number 1. It is Terry Moore’s new creator owned comic. It appears to be his take on super heroes. Of course the heroine is one of his beautiful girls. the first issue is a simple origin story. Girl taking pictures in the dessert, inadvertently finds herself in the path of a explosion, gain a super powered suit. That is all that has happened so far. Except that we know that the owners of the suit seriously nasty, killing the previous wearer of the suit (hence the explosion) just to test it’s durability. I know in few issues this is going to have completely sucked me in, and the story will be any thing but simple. This is from the creator of Strangers in Paradise after all. 3) I have totally fallen in Love the album Super Secret from the band Ookla the Mok. They are by far the geekiest band I have every encountered. Nearly every high energy song song is a packed with references to comic books, old school science fiction, or alien abductions. A sample of one of there lyrics from the song Theme from Super Skrull “He can turn one leg invisible, which is not all that practical. Unless you are quite gullible, you won’t get fooled by Super Skrull!” My favorite song on the album is called Stop Talking About Comic Books or I will Kill You, but the one I can not stop humming is Guggenheim Love. The songs are not only catchy, they are hilarious. 4) In a couple of hours i will head over to my local comic shop and pick up a months a worht of issues. Including issues of, Buffy, Angel, Runaways, Fables, Astro City, and the first issue of Serenity: Better Days! Woo hoo!That is all.
