Sunday, April 20, 2008

A Little Game


Facundo Percio
Here.

I'm going to play a little game: let's see how long I can resist writing about politics. A friend of mine (hi, N___) told me I've been getting a little "ranty," hence the game.


I've done quite a bit of reading in the last few days. But let's start with Warren Ellis's new series Anna Mercury, which I read quite a bit back. As best I can tell, this is Ellis at his sci fi prime. It took until the end of the first issue to get there, but it isn't what I though it was going to be: another "hot chick fights bad guys" flick. Plus, it's with Avatar, so, while it's a dollar more expensive, it doesn't have ads. Also, the art is spectacular. If you have a pull list, add this to it. Issue two doesn't come out for a week or two, so try to get your hands on the first one. Here at Oberlin, that means asking the kind folks at Infinite Monkey to order it for you.


Also of note, Ex Machina, which just gets better and better. It's on a sixty-issue clock, and we're at issue 35, so there's still time to start it and collect the last issues in pamphlet form--if you're a nut for that kind of shit like I am. I reviewed it once, here, and, as I mentioned before, it might get made into a movie (Fellow Oberliner, Bubblegum Aesthetics has a post up on Vaughan, the author, here).


Really, though, it's top-notch work, and yet another example of how--even within the superhero genre--the medium of comics can tackle a wider variety of topics, with success, than you'd think.


I'm up to date with it, so if you'd like to borrow the first trade (five issues), let me know.


Lastly, 100 Bullets. Wow. The first trade isn't great, but it's necessary, and if you stick with it, you'll get bowled over pretty quickly. My friend Marc! told me that if he could only get two comics, he'd get Cassanova and 100 Bullets. I can see why. Plus, the shit's is more addicting then Lost.


It's on a 100 issue clock, and has 90 out right now, so it's coming to an end, but, frankly, with a scope as broad as this one, and with a plot as addictive as this one's is, I would have lost my mind if I had to read it a month at a time.