Goodbye to you

My pull list has been getting shorter, as I've dropped titles. There are always new adds (Buffy, The Dark Tower), but I have to get to those long waiting trades (Testament, Preacher) and the fiction I like to read also.

I just read the last issues of two titles I'm dropping: Crossing Midnight 4 and Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis 49, the end of the Busiak arc. You have that odd distance in reading a title you know there is no future with: you want to not get invested.

Crossing Midnight is an interesting title, but I knew from the start that the art didn't appeal to me, for no concrete reason. Sister Toshi has become a geisha-esque assistant, and being broken down by taking away her name and making her subservient. Brother is on a vigil at the hospital after Mom has been cut to shreds, and teams up with Nidoru, with spiky nails and control of needles and pins. I might read the rest in trade form.
"a broken soul is the easiest meat to digest"

American Virgin is another recent Vertigo title I dropped. Still love DMZ, Jack of Fables and Y.

Linkos!
Rex Libris-- the librarian movie!

#81 reason to love comics: redhead Guy Gardner

Librarians love a list: ALA Top 10 Graphic Novels for youth

Gail Simone's Avengers would include: THE SPECKLED AVENGERS
I'm speckled, can I be one?

All I really want is...Girls 24
The conclusion to the wildly popular and utterly disturbing series has been eagerly awaited for months.

It's all geek to me
NYT article that covers -300, conservatives, sci-fi culture, irony and campiness

so fast, so numb

If you are wondering about the odd subjects this week, I'm honoring REM for their much deserved entry to the Rock and roll hall of fame. I had the best time when I visited the museum in Cleveland. Everyone should go there once!

Win original Marvel Zombies art

Moon Knight: Vol. 1 in hardcover

Guy Gardner Collateral Damage 1 and 2
Howard Chaykin (writer and artist) spins a Guy Gardner story, with a lot of teeth, big lips and eyes. It was great to see Guy have his own title, as one of my favorite redheads in comics (see my December list). There are all the Guy moments you'd expect, with arrogant comebacks, and all-out aggression. The story involves the Rann-Thanagar War, of which I know zip about. It was a bit tricky for me to follow the sides, plus the Tormocks, plus the Lanterns, like G'nort of G'newt- the best name in comics. The setup is that Guy becomes the 'neutral arbitrator', the "Green Lantern with an ego bigger than the Power Battery and an opinion of himself only slightly vaster than the distance between the two worlds at war".

What I hoped to see, without a rewriting of the character, was a little less buffoonish Guy and more of how his rough early years shaped his current smug and arrogant persona. The art is all Chaykin - someone also said on a blog that he has 'rectangular heads' in addition to his teeth and nipples. That's funny. These are $5.99 each, for 24x2 pages of art, which must keep a few fans away I would think.

Tag
Keith Giffen Kody Chamberlain
If you like horror/thriller, give Tag a try. Issue 1 starts with a restaurant breakup "The cliche lives. Drop the breakup bomb in front of a live audience." Mitch leaves the restaurant and skeletal zombie type touches him and says "Tag! You're it.". After a hospital visit where he is not breathing, and with a body temp just above room temp, he tries to figure out what is happening. The art is shadowy, with lots of facial closeups. And the truth might be found in the blogosphere...