I splurged again this month in terms of buying comics :scream:

Les 5 Terres – L’intégrale en édition limitée

I discovered « Les 5 Terres » recently, I liked volume 1. As I was talking about it briefly on the Bubble Facebook group, an absolute fan told me about the release of a limited edition complete. It’s a thick volume with a very nice hardback cover, dust jacket, 6 bookplates signed by the authors, with a limited edition of 280 copies at the modest price of… 235 €!

And obviously I cracked! But I do not regret my purchase, the volume is splendid.

The bookplates are beautiful but, for now, I’m leaving them safely in the comic.

Corben – Complete publications from Eerie & Creepy

I discovered Corben through <a href= »{{}} »>Métal Hurlant. The author died in 2020.

That’s why his publisher, Delirium, decided to pay tribute to him and to release an integral of his publications in the magazines Eeerie and Creepy. This limited and numbered edition of 2500 copies, with silk-screened cloth back, is proposed for the 10th anniversary of DELIRIUM.

There too, this complete set is superb.

Locke & Key

I continue my reading of Locke & Key. This time, as a gift for the purchase of the two volumes, I got a mini-comics with two short and funny stories.

Ghost World

I read Ghost World by Daniel Clowes in English this weekend. It’s a « _Coming of age_ » comics about Enid and Rebecca, two 18 years old friends, at the turning point of childhood and adulthood. Rebels, cynical, frustrated of having no boyfriend, the two girls start growing apart.

Very interesting comics, sometimes hard to understand for me because of the US slang, it’s one of the most renowned independent American comics. There’d even a film based on the book, I haven’t seen it.

Meadowlark

Another comics in English that I read last night, Meadowlark by Ethan Hawke (the actor!) and Greg Ruthe. It was not what I expected: I thought it’d be “just” a graphical novel, but instead I received a punch in the stomach! Yes, as the backcover says, it’s a coming of age story about the dysfunctional relation between a son and his father, but above all a captivating, very violent, thriller. And the violence keeps cascading until the end.

The drawing is beautiful, very realistic, although very static even when there should be movement. It’s a bit weird, like if each scene was a painting.

I loved the comics but it’s not for the faint of heart.

Here are some reading notes from the last three days.

Setting the context: for most series I read very spaced out, I have a hard time fully memorizing the story, characters, unresolved ongoing plots… And sometimes when I start a new volume, I don’t know who so-and-so is, if what’s-his-name is good, bad or ambiguous, etc. 😅

That’s what happened to me on several comics here.

Umbrella Academy T3

I loved the Netflix series, funny, crazy. Then I started reading the comics. They are funny and weird too, but even more than the TV series! And the drawing is particular, at the limit of the burlesque I find… And as much as I managed to follow the volume 1 (for your information the story has almost no relation with the scenario of the series), I have almost no memory of what happens in the volume 2…

And I understood nothing in volume 3, really nothing! After a while, I can hold on to the plot again and enjoy reading, but I don’t understand anything about what’s going on, the characters’ goals, the space travel, the time travel, or whatever. I was confused at the end, I feel like I went from one thing to another all the time.

Maybe there is a higher level of reading, or some subtleties, that I missed?

Sillage T13

Same effect of my poor memorization of certain characters or plots, but to a lesser degree. I’ve loved Sillage since the beginning. Recently, in order to read volumes 11 and 12, I quickly reread the whole series to get back into the swing of things. But now, a few months later, I’m starting volume 13, and I’m lost 😅

The story is still generally understandable and pleasant to read, but I have the impression each time that I don’t understand certain plots because I don’t know if this or that character is « nice » or not.

I will nevertheless read the rest with pleasure!

Il faut flinguer Ramirez Acte 2

Praise be to Nicolas Pétrimaux, who included a QR code at the beginning of the comic that points to a six-minute video summarizing Act 1 in still images and voice-over! It served me well. Act 2 is as funny, offbeat and breathtaking as Act 1, maybe even more bloody: people are dying by the dozen around this poor Ramirez who doesn’t seem to control anything in his life… except that we realize he has a much richer life than we thought!

Interesting revelations are made in the second part of the comic. I really like the road-movie that serves as the plot of the comic, and I invite keen eyes to spot at least one explicit reference to « Thelma and Louise« . The fake ad pages are still fun to read, and I can’t wait to read the rest!

Locke & Key T3

Again, I had forgotten some details from volumes 1 and 2 (too many keys, some details about Dodge, some secondary characters…) but I managed to dive back in very quickly. And once again, I loved it.

I feel a certain anguish when reading each volume, I am afraid for the heroes, and I find that the horrific side is very successful. I am also impatient to read the next volume.

Note : Article published with delay.

Death Note artbook

I am a fan of Death Note. It was only natural that I would fall for a great artbook of Takeshi Obata‘s works!

There are drawings from Death Note as well as other works by him that I don’t know. And everything is splendid!

Death Note Short stories

Some short stories in the universe of Death Note a few years after the main plot and humorous strips.

The stories are a nice read, but are less elaborated, it’s still honorable, but not exceptional.
As for the strips, they show me how Japanese humor sometimes seems so different from mine…
It’s like the humor page at the end of each volume of Attack on Titans, almost embarrassing :sweat_smile:

Spiderman – Blue

First volume of the 2021 collection of the Marvel 10, Spider-Man – Blue : excellent duo of scriptwriter
and drawer, nice story. But like many Marvel or DC Comics, you need to have already read or seen other stories to understand everything.

Batman DC Rebirth #3 Mon nom est Bane

« Batman Rebirth – My name is Bane » is the 3rd volume of the « DC Rebirth » series.
I really like the character of Bane, and Selina Kyle too 🙂

Stormtroopers

And I cracked up after an ad from my favorite comic book store this morning, I rushed out to buy the bookends and the three Stormtroopers in « monkey wisdom » style. It takes an elite troop to hold off Bane :smiley:

Blacksad

And there was also a mock journal Blacksad that caught my eye.