Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick BOOM

And to finish things off...

The Programme #3

This is one of those series that will require a full reading before a complete judgement is passed. Things are progressing and it seems like it could be interesting with old Soviet supersoldiers fighting old American supersoldiers. I trust Milligan.

Casanova #9

My roommate Adam doesn't like Casanova. All those in favour of me smothering him in his sleep? Kidding.

I love the bright blue colour of this album. My only complaint about this issue is that I didn't realise it was Ruby with Kaito right away. I wasn't actually 100% sure until Fraction's back matter commentary. Everything else? Awesome. One of my favourite books.

Criminal #9

And so things are set up before issue 10's finale of "Lawless." Tracy does some interesting things here and I'm wondering where it will go. Particularly his confrontation of Simon at the end. We'll have to see. No doubt the end will be well done.

Black Summer #2-3

Okay, so here's Ellis' sequel to The Authority. Hell, it explores one of the major plot points for that book after Ellis left: superhumans executing the president. In this case, John Horus doesn't take over the country, but still, the similarities are there. These superhumans aren't the Authority, though.

I'm slightly thrown off by the fact that we've barely spent any time with Horus. The majority of the series has focused on the other members of the Seven Guns. I do love how they say they won't kill soldiers and then kill soldiers when attacked. Lovely.

I'm really enjoying this book.

Doktor Sleepless #2

But, on the other side of things, we have Ellis' sequel to Transmetropolitan. Is it fair to compare a writer's current work to his or her past work? I don't care, because I do it anyway. Where Black Summer seems like a natural follow-up to The Authority and ably does the job, Doktor Sleepless isn't doing it for me. Where Transmet began a compressed, dense, information-heavy book, Sleepless kind of meanders. Like the Shriky Girls bit in this issue: that would have been a couple of panels, maybe a page AT MOST in Transmet, but here it's three, four, maybe five pages depending on how you count the pages that discuss it.

Now, of course, Transmet and Sleepless are two entirely different books about crazy guys who come down from the mountain and have female assistants and rant a lot--but, oh wait. Oh ho ho.

In all seriousness, I recognise that Transmet was more focused, with more purpose and a much narrower message. It was ultimately a book about the truth. Spider Jerusalem became a cartoon over time, but not on purpose. Sleepless begins a cartoon with no clear purpose beyond a vague idea of changing things. And maybe that's what I miss. I have no idea what this book is about--what it's really about beyond some vague words about how we all live in the future and need to take advantage of that. Fantastic, sign me up.

But, I trust Ellis. This is his newest longform sci-fi series, I trust the guy to deliver some goods. I guess it's unfair of me to lament that Sleepless isn't Transmet. Is it?

Alias and Alias: Coming Home

Got the first two trades of Alias for 35% off... the American price because my shop actually honours the exchange rate. Actually, if I got 35% off the Canadian price, I would have been paying the American cover price basically. Fuck you, Marvel. Assholes.

My only experience with Jessica Jones is in New Avengers, so it's interesting to see where she began. Some interesting stories. No idea what she did to fuck things up with the Avengers, but these stories do turn the old idea that everyone who was ever an Avenger could just show up at the door and they'd all drop whatever they were doing to fix things.

...and did Bendis suggest that the Juggernaut fucks dead bodies? Awesome.

I'll be picking up the final two trades of the series, plus whatever collections exist of The Pulse. Good stuff. Didn't blow my mind the way it seems to have others, but that's okay, my mind isn't blown easily.

Hellblazer: The Gift

Aside from the two issues between Ellis and Azzarello's run on the books, I pretty much own a hundred straight issues of Hellblazer in trade, running from Ennis' Son of Man through Ellis, Azzarello, Carey and ending with Mina's Red Right Hand. Weird.

Anyway...

The Gift finishes off Mike Carey's run on the book with some odd choices. Like killing off the demon bitch who bore Constantine's three evil kids--plus the kids (except for the daughter?). Those characters were some of the more original things about Carey's run, which actually left me pretty cold until issue 200 where Constantine lived out three lives, spawning those three kids. That was some cold shit and Carey took it off the table. Goddamn.

He did fuck up John's life some more, though--which I could see in Mina's run, but wasn't spoiled too much there, thankfully. I love how Carey ends the run with John pissing off a bunch of magicians and facing the fact that he's a douchebag--again. It is a little tiresome to see him do that over and over again. And Carey seems to do that a few times over the course of his run. One of the positives is that each time, he is able to make the reader believe that this new low IS lower than the last. It's probably good he got off the stage after killing John's sister and alienating Chas--where else could he go?

I see that DC has solicited the first collection from Andy Diggle's run and I'm looking forward to that. In the meantime, I should begin buying up the Ennis and Delano trades. Hopefully, between current trades, DC will begin collecting the other stuff that remains in singles only. Even if it doesn't sell the best, Hellblazer is Vertigo's Superman and Batman lines rolled into one book--and it deserves a nice, fat library that is complete.

And that does it for everything I bought while in London. Oh, except for a copy of Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White, which I'll read sometime this week. I've heard good things and a blurb by Fraction was what put it over when I was in the bookstore. That, and the cover price was the same as Secret War, except the page count was MUCH higher. Again, fuck you, Marvel. (I will never let that go, I think.)