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So what book is the voice of this era?

So what book is the voice of this era? published on No Comments on So what book is the voice of this era?

So what book is the voice of this era?

Hello everyone

It’s been too long since I did one of these and I’ve been meaning on doing this one for a hot minute 🙂
First I would like to announce for those of you who don’t already know the Tall Tails Kickstarter is now live and it is very possible for you to get all 560 plus pages of the first story arc in one volume, so go check it out now and get yourself a copy 😀

Also here’s a little something to whet the appetites for all of those who enjoy Oswald and his chronicles. Here’s the cover for the final issue of the Clive cycle with Clive and his parents no less. The cover is illustrated by the always awesome Jade Gonzalez and colored by the man himself Derwin Roberson.

Webset iss 8

Now onto a few comments about some books I read last week.

covers

The Divine (Illustrator), Tomer Hanuka (Illustrator by Boaz Lavie (Author), Asaf Hanuka)

I picked this book up on a lark hoping that it would be something I would enjoy and I did. The art is mangaish but doesn’t completely owe everything to that fine heritage, instead it comes off as a fusion of European and Manga styles to give it strange and appealing look and feel. The story is self contained and is one of those things that made me think of things that are just out of site and what’s happening to people in other places far away from home.
Divinity by Matt Kindt and Trevor Hairsine
I didn’t know what to expect from this book since I hadn’t picked up any books from the new Valiant line and I’m glad to report that this was a good one. The story is of a Russian cosmonaut who gets sent into deep space and comes back to earth 30 years in the future totally changed from his experience. This story is just a primer for a greater story and I hope Matt Kindt and Trevor Hairsine keep going forward with this title.

Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland Paperback – July 2, 2015

by Eric Shanower (Author), Gabriel Rodriguez (Illustrator)

I’ve been interested in Little Nemo for several years now and more so since I picked up a copy of the Teschen reprint of the series. The series interests me for a number of reasons mostly because I touch upon similar themes in The Oswald Chronicles. My original inspiration for this was HP Lovecraft and his Randolph Carter character who travels through dream and lives entire life times and wakes only to wish to return to those long lost lands even though there’s always something dark and strange just beyond the horizon. The art by Gabriel Rodriguez is awesome and I think Winsor McKay himself would have been happy with it. The only thing I would have liked to have seen is the pages produced larger and for Gabriel Rodriguez to have been allowed to work on a grander scale, because when you see the original Nemo pages in such a large format it’s breath taking and it would have been nice to have seen Gabriel Rodriguez given that same opportunity. The story by Eric Shanower was okay but fell short for me, I think the trope of Nemo waking up as many times as he does slows the pace of the story and is destructive because of it. Many would argue that’s how the original was done and I would agree but the great Winsor Mckay wasn’t producing a serialized story where the reader would read page after page but rather a story that would be contained on page and I’m certain if he had been presented with a longer format he would have adjusted Nemo’s waking. It does look like this series has come to an end since Gabriel Rodriguez has moved on to another project, shame I would have liked to have seen more.

Thor: God of Thunder Volume 2 Hardcover – July 14, 2015

by Jason Aaron (Author), Nic Klein (Illustrator), Ron Garney (Illustrator), Emanuela Lupacchino (Illustrator), Das Pastoras (Illustrator), Esad Ribic (Illustrator), Agustin Alessio (Illustrator), RM Guera (Illustrator)

I have to admit that my enjoyment of Thor as a character started early on and he’s been my favorite superhero since I was a kid and it all started with Roy Thomas and his run that adopted the Ring of the Nibelung and pasted Thor and Odin in the various roles within the great story that then culminated in issue 300 where Thor takes on the Celestials and brings down Arishem, I’m going into full geek mode 😀 It’s one of my favorite runs on Thor and even though Roy didn’t write issue 300 it was still awesome.
The next great Thor run which followed a few years later when the title was rumored to be close to being cancelled was Walter Simonson’s run which is epic and to this day my all time favorite but after Walter I left the title and didn’t really look back for a long time and I had heard many sad things had happen to the title. I’m sure there were some good books in there somewhere but I wouldn’t take that challenge to find them, but I had heard some whispers a while ago that J. Michael Straczynski was doing some awesome things on the title and had brought it back from the dead literally, since they had destroyed Asgard and killed everyone off. I had picked up the complete run in a hard cover that JMS had done and I was very happy with it and I have to say that his version of Loki is perhaps the most conniving and disturbing version of the character I had ever seen. He returned as a beautiful woman and instead of changing himself to his normal form of a man he decided to stay as a woman and have a good time with it, the trickster god had never looked so good or scared me so much as that version and it saddened me to find out the JMS had departed the title on bad terms with Marvel because he didn’t want to do one of these massive cross over events that centered around Thor and Asgard and thus another great run ended, prematurely, sad.

Now here comes Jason Aaron the Vertigo Scalped guy, who what why, oh now I see why once I read the first volume of this series and I have to say that I’m enjoying JA’s run immensely and I love how he shows current Thor and future all father Thor and on occasion young immature Thor. The story line I found the most intriguing was the all father Thor story where he fights Galactus for Earth and has help from his very awesome granddaughters of thunder. Now those three young ladies should have their own title 🙂 I have yet to read any of the new Thor stories with Jane Foster as Goddess of thunder and the only thing I have to say is I’m looking forward to them even after all of the kvetching I’ve read about it on line about Jane Foster not really being Thor and the hair splitting about the whole thing, me I was always on the side that she has assumed the title of Goddess of Thunder the same way Betta Ray Bill had done back in the Walter Simonson run. Now the reason they want her to stay with the Thor moniker is because if they changed the title to Jane Foster Goddess of Thunder it would be just a little weird but I would have bought it if Jason Aaron was writing it. Now for all of those folks who hate that version rest assured the original Thor will be back sometime in the future when I don’t know and I don’t want to know I want to be surprised by it and I know he’ll be back because JA has given us a big clue, you know the whole thing with All Father Thor fighting Galactus , yea that was Thor not Jane Foster as Thor so at some point he’ll be back after he learns how to forgive himself for something he’s done, Nick Fury’s such a prick 😀 So yea go get this one if you like some good Thor action.

Now onto the original question, so what book is the voice of this era? I ask this because while I was at Boston Comicon (awesome show by the way ) I was asked by a fan from Spain who had been out of the loop when it comes to American comics and the last thing he had really read was Watchmen which he felt was the voice of comics for that era. Now for me it’s Watchmen and Dark Knight and the two go hand in hand and no matter what the 2 creators have gone on to do or say after this, these were great works by them all. I had to say I was stumped when he first asked I could point out great books by various creators like Fables, Sandman, Preacher, Planetary, Authority, Scalped, Marvels, Kingdome Come, American Vampire, Locke and key, East of West and various others and have to say I think it’s Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples along with the Oswald Chronicles, okay that last one is a little self serving of course 😀 So what do you think? What’s the comic that most speaks to you as the comic title of this era?

Thank you one and all for indulging me here and please vote for the Oswald Chronicles on topwebcomics.com it does help and please go support the Tall Tails Kickstarter and get yourself an awesome book 😀

Thank you all again

JD Calderon

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