Was perusing a discount book store and came across Top Ten Book 1 trade paperback from America’s Best Comics, a DC imprint.  It collects the first seven issues of the series and includes character designs as bonus material, 208 pages in total.  The first issue is available as a PDF preview.
I remember the individual issues coming out and not being that interested.  There was buzz around the title because Alan Moore wrote it but I wasn’t taken with the art.  Since it was at a deep discount I decided to …

Let me start off by saying until I purchased this book I had never heard of Harold “Hal” Foster or Prince Valiant: they were off my comics radar.  I’ve never been a fan of newspaper comic strips and had limited exposure until Prince Valiant Volume 1: 1937-1938 started getting amazing reviews.  Here’s the publisher’s blurb:

HAROLD FOSTER’S LEGENDARY MEDIEVAL EPIC, FINALLY IN ITS DEFINITIVE EDITION
Universally acclaimed as the most stunningly gorgeous adventure comic strip of all time, Prince Valiant ran for 35 years under the virtuoso pen of its creator, Hal …

Sunday February 28th there was a one day show in Toronto at the Metro Convention Centre., put on by Hobbystar.  It was in a smaller room that was packed with local dealers and tables with artists.  I was at this event last year in the same room and experienced the same issue: everything is packed too tightly!  They’re keeping the legal aisle way space but dealers have items for sale so a row now has people searching bins on both sides so you can’t get by.  Add in two rows …

I’m a lifelong Howard Chaykin fan.  In the 80’s I discovered American Flagg! and never looked back.  He has a unique storytelling style that appeals to the teenager in all of us.  His art has shifted over time: I’m not sure why all his male characters are becoming wider.  Recently he completed a story for Marvel using an old character Dominic Fortune who was a retread of his Scorpion character for a failed publisher that he brought over to Marvel in 1975.
Dominic Fortune: It Can Happen Here And Now is …

Jack Kirby is a giant legend in comics and everyone who has enjoyed a comic book in their life owes a tip of the hat to him.  Kirby: King Of Comics by Mark Evanier is a biography of Jack Kirby with a skewed “fanboy” perspective that will appeal to every Kirby fan, of which I count myself.

In it’s 224 pages we get an excellent biography of Kirby’s comic career, covering everything from his childhood sketches to final works.  Sprinkled among the excellently written text are lots of artwork, like my …

I’m a collector: comics, books, statues, that kind of thing.  No matter what it is I like to take care of it so it will last a good long time.  With my switch to trade paperbacks and hardcovers over weekly comics my bookshelves have been steadily filling.  My normal practice for reading any hardcover has been to remove the dust jacket and leave it on the shelf until I was done, then put it back on.  A bit compulsive but I like things to look like new.
I noticed some of …

Sleeper Season One was recently released in trade paperback, collecting the original 2002 twelve issue series from Wildstorm.  It had been collected into two volumes in 2004 but this is the first time we have the first story line in one volume.

I picked this up because I’ve become a fan of this team’s work on Criminal.  Here’s the publisher’s blurb:
From the award-winning Criminal team of writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips comes SLEEPER, the story of Holden Carver and the secret criminal organization he must infiltrate, now back in …

Had seen The Complete Torpedo Volume 1 solicited in Diamond Previews but didn’t know much about the book.  A little internet searching and I found it was a long running Spanish story of a New York hitman in the 1930s: torpedo was slang for hitman or gunman at the time.   Wikipedia gives a little more info: Enrique Abuli started the work with Alex Toth as eight page shorts for Spain’s Creepy magazine but the two parted ways after just two stories.  Jordi Bernet came on board as artist and Torpedo …

With my new found interest in reviewing books and graphic novels it makes sense to lay out what I’m looking for before I tackle a review.

Heard some rumblings on the internet about a new animal graphic novel; lots of interest but most wanted to flip through the book before committing.  At my local comic shop they had one copy of Grandville: after a quick perusal I decided to purchase.  Got home and read it through and have to say Bryan Talbot has created another excellent read.  Here’s the publisher’s blurb:
Two hundred years ago, Britain lost the Napoleonic War and fell under the thumb of French domination. Gaining independence after decades of civil disobedience and anarchist …