Doug: The holidays are always a time to get caught up on a little rest and relaxation. Those of us in the education field tend to be a bit more fortunate than our brethren (and sisthren) who work in other areas. This year, for example, the school calendar gods were smiling in giving us (of course, it's the students, not the teachers... right?) a break of December 22-January 6. My sons will have even an additional week beyond that -- oh for those college days!
Doug: Anyway, assuming you have a few extra days to enjoy friends and family, travel, etc., what will you be reading? And this can be anything, not just Bronze Age comic love. For me, I've asked for and hope to receive Marvel Comics: the Untold Story by Sean Howe (Karen's already read this). It's also known that Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers would be a swell thing to send my way. So obviously those will be on my radar screen if Santa delivers. Additionally, many of my colleagues at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have been recommending Tim Snyder's Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. I've had it for a few years but have yet to crack it. That should be rectified. Obviously that will be a little heavier than Englehart and Rogers doing Batman... Karen: I'm also off for about ten days (yes!). What I really need to do is get some writing done. But of course I'll be using some of that time for reading. I already have a stack of comics that I want to dig into; these include early issues of the Marvel Captain Marvel, some Englehart/Brunner Dr. Strange, and a handful of 1960s Sub-Mariners. I'm hoping to get either the first volume of the Kamandi Omnibus or the Kamandi Essentials under the Christmas tree as well. Of course, I always plan to do a ton of things when I have time off, and I'm lucky if I get half of them done. Still, I'm just grateful for the down time.
Doug: But, if I got neither of the comics-related tomes I mentioned above, I would really love to find a run of time to sit down with some of my Essentials, particularly Thor. I have volumes 2-4 and really dig that Kirby/Colletta goodness. I'd also like to revisit the Tales of Asgard tpb that Karen and I dipped into over a year ago, and I have a couple of Thor "Marvel Premiere Hardcovers" featuring some John Buscema wondfulness. So, for the sake of today's exercise, the Thunder God books are what I'll go with for my lighter fare. How about you?
That 'If Asgard Should Perish' book is a cracker. Got it myself. You won't be disappointed.
ReplyDeleteDon't even get me started about all of the "real" books (i.e. non-comics), both fiction and non-fiction, that I have laying around just begging to be read...
ReplyDeleteAnyway sticking to comics, with what unfortunately little free time I'll have over the holidays, I'm going to try and catch up on my Avengers reading: I have the two recently-purchased Panini digests that collect the Bride of Ultron and Korvac sagas and everything in between, and then move on to "Under Siege" once it arrives in the mail (eBay was good to me again - I found that HC plus a few other Avengers books for a ridiculously low price about 2 weeks ago).
Other than that, I'm just finishing up the first Savage Sword of Conan phonebook, so I'll probably move on to the second one.
I got my wife a B&N Nook a few months back, so I'm looking forward to buying the 'Marvel Comics Untold Story' book we've been mentioning a few times, and a classic Heller fav of mine, 'Catch:22'.
ReplyDeleteY'know Edo, that's how I buy my Masterwork hard covers.. I know they list for over $50, but of the dozen+ I have now, I grabbed most of them off eBay (still wrapped) for under $25 shipped. I still greatly miss the Letters Pages, but still a great deal for those books.
Comics-wise, I hope Santa brings The Steve Ditko Omnibus vol. 2.
ReplyDeleteThis is the second of two collections of Ditko's work for DC. This particular volume includes Ditko's Hawk & Dove, as well as Ditko-produced Starman, Legion of Super Heroes and Demon stories.
Oh golly, let's see-- I'm taking a week of my vacation right through the holiday week, so I should have a bit of time for diversionary reading. . .
ReplyDeleteI, too, am hopefully getting MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY for Christmas, but if I don't, I'll immediately order it w/ an Amazon Gift Card from my Mom. Yep, it's all planned. Also hopefully getting Vol 4 of Fantagraphics' Prince Valiant collections-- enabling me to read 3 AND 4 at a stretch!
HBSon has, like, 4 weeks off (!!!), and he's getting both the latest Harry Dresden and Terry Pratchett novels. . . and he's a very fast reader. . . so they just might make it into (*ahem*) someone else's hands before he heads back to college. . .
HB
Working in a Secondary School, I'm also off from the 21st to January 7th.
ReplyDeleteI'll be reading the Johns/Frank Batman Graphic Novel; King Kull: the Hell Beneath Atlantis; the Back Issue Treasury Edition special; the third book in Lin Carter's Green Star series; and my school book group Secret Santa gift, Starter for Ten.
A work colleague suggested I might also like After the Armistice Ball by Catriona McPherson.
In early January, I'm expecting my long-awaited copy of Marvel's Greatest Super-Hero Battles!
I'll probably try to catch up on some of the books I've been meaning to read forever. Maybe the Burton/Swinburne books by Mark Hodder, or On the Map by Simon Garfield, or The Lost City of Z by David Grann, or Distrust That Particular Flavor by William Gibson, or...yeah, I have a lot of reading to do! (By the way, I thought Marvel Comics The Untold Story was great.)
ReplyDeleteAs for comics, I'll just grab whatever's handy; I am looking forward to Amazing Spider-Man #700, just to see what they do for the "last" issue.
Mike W.
I'm currently reading Howe's Marvel Comics:the Untold Story (hey HB, I got it from my library) (Delaware's a great small state, where I can put a hold on ANY item from the 100+ libraries in the state, and they send them to my library, a resource I wish I had discovered much earlier than I did! CD's and DVDs too.)
ReplyDeleteIt's a good read, much of the info I already knew, but there's some good "dirt" in there (my favorite part). And this book only confirms my opinion of Stan the Man as, well you read the book...)anyway, it's why i always abstain from the thread whenever Stan Lee is being honored. Stan certainly is an important part of comic book history, but he (and Shooter) sure stomped on ALOT of toes to get what they wanted (did they get it, though?)
Happy Holidays
starfoxxx
I'm reading The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky) and should be able to finish it during the 12 consecutive days (between vacation, holiday, and weekends) I have off and will probably then start Pride and Prejudice or The Iliad and the Odyssey (any of which would be a rare re-read for me). In the comics world, I'm finishing off vol. 2 of The Secret Society of Super-Villains TPB. I may take a break from TPB's, but I'm also reading through my Fantastic Four back issues and am almost through them. If I finish them, I'll start another series of back issues, but haven't decided which title.
ReplyDeleteMike W -I really enjoyed the Burton and Swineburne books (although the last one seemed to drag at points). Marvelously imaginative.
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite fiction this year was Ian Tregillis' two novels, Bitter Seeds and its follow up, The Coldest War. I also discovered Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series this year and devoured them, and I really enjoyed Chris Farnsworth's Red, White, and Blood, the latest in his 'President's Vampire' series.
I just finished Paul F. Wilson's The Keep, which was the first book I've read by him but probably not the last. Now I'm trying to decide whether to re-read The Hobbit or try something new.
HB, I read through the first 2 volumes of Prince Valiant last year. Beautiful color reproductions, and good story! I finally saw what all the fuss was about, for that character.
ReplyDeleteI picked up 9 huge volumes of the Japanese series Vagabond by Inoue, that I'll tackle over the holidays. They were on sale for a steal, and the art looks about the best I've seen for Japanese comics.
Oh lordy, dbutler16 you WIN THE THREAD (well, as far as I'm concerned) on the basis of dedication to literary significance alone. . . ! What you're reading for pleasure would be a college freshman's required Lit class nightmare!
ReplyDelete(Although I freely acknowledge that I'm probably the least well-read guy on the block. Plowed through TENDER IS THE NIGHT hoping that sooner or later I'd start caring about the protagonist; could NOT EVER get through OF HUMAN BONDAGE; keep trying and failng w/ THE ILIAD, although I may have a particularly artless translation-- my tendency to read for entertainment and escape, rather than enlightenment & education, drives my poor wife banana-boats--)
HB
I'm working my way through the first two Iron Man Essentials right now. I also want to read a few old Tarzan hardcovers by ERB, and some old Doc Savage books sitting around here. Hoping for some Chapters gift cards from Santa, and I got some cash from the Mom and Dad National Bank, which my fav used book store will be happy to relieve me of.
ReplyDeleteI just got the last volume (Vol.4)of the paperback 4th World Omnibus. I missed a lot of issues and was glad to see them. The last Kirby graphic novel "Hunger Dogs" is in this edition. I didn't know how many good issues there were of Mister Miracle.
ReplyDeleteThe Kamandi Omnibus Volume 2 is due out very soon in hardcover. I am awaiting to read that one too. Amazon has the best prices in comparison to Books A Million.I've been to other sites and unless you are getting used or discounted books, Amazon has the best thing going.......
I don't know if it will ever happen, but I wish Marvel would have an omnibus edition of Kirby's 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Machine Man series that followed.
ReplyDeleteI really have an admiration for the artwork that Kirby created during his run on those two titles. There are critics who dislike Kirby's seventies period. However it was a time of change for him.
I never understood how Marvel could promote his arrival and then have negative letters being critical of his work in the letters column of each book. It was disrespectful of Marvel and an insult to Kirby's talent.
On the nightstand right now is Joe Kubert's The Viking Prince and Joe Maneely's Black Knight. I'm on a Camelot kick right now when it comes to comics reading.
ReplyDeleteI recently found a Nostalgia reprint of the Hastings House Prince Valiant which offers up a prose story adaptation of Hal Foster's classic strip fully illustrated by Foster's very own imagery. It's a wonderful little book.
Rip Off
HB, don't feel bad: I burned out on Fitzgerald long before I even got to Tender is the Night. A bit surprised you couldn't get through Of Human Bondage, though - I read that over the course of 2 days (during a summer vacation some years ago) and rather enjoyed it. I didn't mention it before, but since the topic of "real" books has come up, I'll say that there's a few Pynchon books on my shelf giving me this admonishing stare, and I have a few anthologies of Croatian SF/fantasy stories that I bought at a bookfair recently and would like to get to soon.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my copies of Haunt of Horror #s 1-2 (those digests published by Marvel in 1973 with stories by Leiber, Ellison, etc. and many lovely illustrations) just arrived in the mail yesterday, and I'm really looking forward to digging into those...
Wow! I have a ton of TPBs and hardcovers on my "TO READ" list.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently reading "Batman: The Long Halloween", which I have never read before.
On deck I have the following I'd like to get to very soon:
1. JLA: The Tenth Circle (by Claremont and Byrne)
2. Mark Waid's Daredevil Vol. 3
3. The Complete Creeper (by Steve Ditko)
4. Invincible The Ultimate Collection Vol. 1 (by Robert Kirkman)
5. Alpha Flight Vol. 2 & 3 (by John Byrne)
6. Plastic Man Archives Vol. 8 (by Jack Cole)
7. Marvel Firsts the 1970's Vol. 1 & 2
8. Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four Vol. 6-10 (by Lee and Kirby)
9. Fantastic Four Visionaries John Byrne Vol. 5-8
And hopefully getting for Christmas
Marshall Rogers Batman hardcover collection
Marvel Masterworks Iron Fist Vol. 1 & 2
Whew, that's a lot, but it will be fun to tackle.
Currently I've been reading Doris Kearne's Team of Rivals, the last few chapters of which the excellent film Lincoln was based on. As for comics-related stuff, I recently found volume one of the Starman Omnibus in a used book store and decided to give it a try ... wow! Very entertaining. Now I've got volumes 2 & 3 on order.
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago I read volumes 2 & 3 of the Essential Thor, which together comprise some of Kirby's best work ever, arguably even better than his run on the FF. Sure, there are a lot of repititive themes, particularly Odin getting ticked off and taking away Thor's powers and eventually regretting it. But overall, there are some grand, epic tales, and Thor being pulled in opposite directions by his sense of obligation to not-always-so-wise Odin and his love for Jane Foster (in volume 2) and for his adopted homeland, Midgard -- aka Earth.
Actuallllllllly.., I've been buyin' up a lot of Silver/Bronze love lately, such as MTU 21 (surprised how this got past me back in the day..., darn that slipshot distribution problem), and nearly the entire run of F/VF Howard the Duck (except for ish 1 and a couple others, got for $15 shipped).
ReplyDeleteAnd like William, will have to focus on some Masterworks as well.
Perhaps IF I take a day off besides Christmas, will actually recline and read.