What are you reading/collecting at the moment?

[J-Sun]

Marvel:
Thunderbolts (consistently good)
X-Men Legacy (consistently good)
FF (giving this a shot. it's a bit heavy, but not bad.)
Cloak & Dagger limited. (brilliant!!!)

DC: Well, with the new 52 titles, this is what I am down for:
Green Lantern: new Guardians (because I like Glomulus and St. Walker, and i want to find out what's up with Larfleeze)
Suicide Squad (I like King Shark, and the rest of the team aint bad)
Justice League Dark (Constantine and Shade on the same team? Win!)
Justice League International (great line-up, other than Batman, who suffers from Wolverine syndrome and is in too many places at once)

[Tom Murphy]

Superheroes don't really do much for me, but I will be picking up at least the first couple of issues of the following from the DC "New 52", based on their writers:

• Stormwatch and Demon Knights (Paul Cornell)
• Justice League Dark (Pete Milligan)
• Animal Man and Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE (Jeff Lemire)
• Action Comics (Grant Morrison)
• Swamp Thing (Scott Snyder)

[Tom Murphy]

One new comic I've been enjoying is The Red Wing (Image), a four-parter written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Nick Pitarra

It's an intelligently handled story of trans-temporal fighter pilots: while we follow a couple of rookies earning their wings in the 'present', we also go back and see the mystery surrounding the fate of one of their fathers - a pilot who disappeared.

I've never read any of Hickman's stuff before, but he seems to be making a name for himself at Marvel. It's nicely paced and constructed, and the artwork's got a similar feel to Frank Quietly. Worth a look, I reckon.

Here's a little teaser from No.1: http://tiny.cc/ykw73

[Guzzlecrank]

In terms of writing quality, the comic that I've read that has surprised me the most so far this year has been Boom's Planet of the Apes series by Darryl Gregory. It's a well-crafted, thoughtful study of both sides of a "war on terror" that found a home in a highly unlikely place. I'm more than a little surprised, too, that 20th Century Fox has put its logo on the inside covers. The plotting, pacing, and characters are all clearly drawn, and the art by Carlos Magno is equal to the script.

[WhiteWolf359]

I'm reading the new Lady Death series by Boundless Comics. At first, I did not like the writing or the artwork, but the story hooked me and I must admit that the inking is gorgeous. The current artist, Marcelo Mueller, clearly studied the old Stephen Hughes series, as his LD looks a lot like those older series, though there is some reflection of the look of Medieval Lady Death as well.

I haven't bought Elric: The Balance Lost, but I previewed the art and it looks good, so I'll get those soon.

There are too many X-Men titles for me to keep up with. I'm still stunned at how amazingly good January Jones looked as Emma Frost, and I LOVE that they wrote her as the older "Hellfire Club" Emma, not the new goody-two shoes version. Let's face it, nobody but January has Emma's remarkable hourglass figure!

[Chris T]

I haven't got the new League of Gentlemen yet as I'm still up to 'The Black Dossier'.

Of the New 52 from DC Animal Man and OMAC stand out way above the rest so far.

I'm slowly working my way through the Grant Morrison X-Men trades.

Also I have also started reading, for the first time ever, the Love & Rockets trades from Fantagraphics with 'Maggie The Mechanic'. This is an excellent comic! My new favourite. Why haven't I read this before?? How come nobody said it had a science fictional setting??

[Pebble]

Just finished Day Tripper by Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba.

It is a masterpiece!

This is what comics is all about.

[Nalga]

Elric The Balance lost# 3!

[Dhama]

Current wants to get into are Astro Boy and Ignition City.

[Dhama]

i thought love and rockets was one of those serious black and white comics about cool peoples relationships that indie comics seem to churn out so often, would give it a try though.

[Tom Murphy]

i thought love and rockets was one of those serious black and white comics about cool peoples relationships that indie comics seem to churn out so often, would give it a try though.

L&R has been many wonderful things down the years, but if you're going to it looking for SF you might come away a bit disappointed - there were a few pulpy trappings round some of the stories for the first few years, but they faded away to focus on the more mainstream aspects of the stories.

After the best part of 30 years, it might be worth checking out this quick guide to the series:

http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.p...=76&Itemid=135

[Tom Murphy]

Just finished Day Tripper by Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba.

It is a masterpiece!

This is what comics is all about.

I read Daytripper in the monthly issues, but I probably need to read it again as a whole.

I was slack-jawed with pleasure after the shocking 'cliffhanger' at the end of No1, but after the first two or three issues, when the main narrative device became apparent, I felt it lost a bit of its drama: ie, you knew - approximately - how each issue was going to end.

I'm sure that reading the chapters together will reveal more clearly the connections and the subtleties of the structure.

It is a cracking bit of work, though - one of those all-too-rare comics you could heartily recommend to a non-comic-reading friend.

[David Mosley]

Also I have also started reading, for the first time ever, the Love & Rockets trades from Fantagraphics with 'Maggie The Mechanic'. This is an excellent comic! My new favourite. Why haven't I read this before?? How come nobody said it had a science fictional setting??

i thought love and rockets was one of those serious black and white comics about cool peoples relationships that indie comics seem to churn out so often, would give it a try though.

L&R has been many wonderful things down the years, but if you're going to it looking for SF you might come away a bit disappointed - there were a few pulpy trappings round some of the stories for the first few years, but they faded away to focus on the more mainstream aspects of the stories.

Probably just reiterating what Tom says above, but also remember that L&R is mostly the work of two separate creators: Jaime & Gilbert Hernandez (their brother Mario also contributes but isn't as well known). Jaime did/does the Maggie the Mechanic ('Hoppers 13') stories while Gilbert did/does the Palomar stories, which iirc were more rooted in 'reality' but it's a long time since I followed L&R (even from a distance) so I don't really know how the separate narratives have evolved.

A couple of years ago, I picked up Vols 1 & 3 of the 'phonebook' L&R collections ('Maggie the Mechanic' and 'Heartbreak Soup' respectively) for a few quid each in The Works. Typically, when I went back the next week for Vol. 2 ('The Girl from HOPPERS') they'd all gone.

[Dhama]

Yeah i saw them in the Works too. speaking of which, the Works is selling Marvel Comics pocket books that reprint classic stories in tiny size cheap. Also a big works of Tezuka (astro boy) book.

[Tom Murphy]

In a couple of spare hours over the past couple of days I've been lounging in the oul' (repro) Eames chair and enjoying the first few issues of the Walt Simonson Thor omnibus.

I'd forgotten how much fun the sometimes-slightly-cheesy narration is, as well as how dynamic the artwork is - helped along by John Workman's lettering.

(That run was one of the first comics that really grabbed my attention: I remember getting excited by both that and Bill Sienkiewicz's work on New Mutants, which were clearly a cut above the more functional stuff that filled the spin-racks at the Chorley bus station paper kiosk.)