To me “Born Again is not only one of the best things Miller did in DD, but one of the best things he ever did, point. And I think that, after that, few, if any, of his works have matched that

Gloria, I’m hard-pressed to argue with you. I’d love to say that the first Sin City or 300 were stronger, if only because those were creator-owned works, but both of those had their roots in earlier work (noir stories and the historical precedent, respectively) as much as Born Again had its roots in Daredevil and the Marvel Universe, and I think Born Again probably has more depth than his later creator-owned work.

I may end up starting with Batman/Grendel, just Wagner’s Batman is so good, then move on to Devil By the Deed.

Where are the best starting points for: a) Hellboy / BPRD, and b) Grendel? Been meaning to get into both for a long, long time.

For Hellboy, begin at the beginning. That’s the Seed of Destruction trade. You can easily jump in later, especially at The Chained Coffin and Others, which is short stories, but it’ll read best if you start with volume one because each Hellboy story really does tend to build on ones that came before.

For BPRD, starting with Hollow Earth & Other Stories works just fine, but it and the trade after it are short stories by a variety of creators. The real meat of the BPRD stuff kicks off with Plague of Frogs, the first Mignola/Guy Davis mini, and you’ll want to read them in order after that.

As far as Grendel goes, since Dark Horse just released a nice new version of Devil By the Deed, start with that. Timeline-wise, Grendel goes like this: Devil By the Deed, Devil’s Legacy, Devil Inside, Devil Tales, The incubation years (not traded), God and the Devil (traded next year), Devil’s Reign (traded next year), and War Child. These are the main story. There are other trades available, like the various Grendel Tales which take place in varying time periods, and Black, White, and Red and Red, White and Black, both of which take place around the time of Devil By the Deed. The new series Behold the Devil also takes place around the time of Devil By the Deed.

Looking forward to Dan Dare as well although I’m just as much looking forward to The Dock Walloper.

Never read Grendel before but I am looking forward to seeing some Matt Wagner artwork again..finally.

You guys didn’t have the New Avengers Volume 1 Hardcover on your list? I’m shocked.

I’m looking forward to the Return of Ra’s Al Ghul storyline, based entirely on the combined might of Morrison / Dini / Milligan / Nicieza. All of those guys (barring maybe Morrison) can be hit-or-miss, but if they all bring their A-game, this could be something special.

Salvation Run will be a must-buy for Chen’s art alone - he’s just been firing on all cylinders lately.

Still loving Down the Line by the way. I always end up getting a thing or two I didn’t notice the first time through that you guys mention, like Amulet this month. How did I miss that?!?! Great stuff, thanks.

Nice job as usual with this feature.

Vaguely related question, about Walt Simonson’s fantasy work. If his Thor Visionaries Vol 4 is just released, and you can get Vol 1 anywhere, then why are 2 and 3 out of print? This is weird, right?

Well, yes and no. It isn’t weird because Marvel lets interstitial volumes of their trade collections slip out of print all the time. Volume 6 of the JMS Spidey is unavailable right now, for example, while all the others are around. This happens a lot, is a real pain in the ass (especially when the missing volume is number 1), and probably has to do with that volume being sold out and sent back to reprint but put at the back end of a line of other trades with more priority, so it can take a while. That’s just a guess, though.

It is weird because you’d think they would want all of the volumes of that run available when a new trade releases, at least. For whatever reason, it just doesn’t happen that way.

Vaguely related question, about Walt Simonson’s fantasy work. If his Thor Visionaries Vol 4 is just released, and you can get Vol 1 anywhere, then why are 2 and 3 out of print? This is weird, right?

i was hoping you guys could say somthing on this? How did you find the Girls? is it worth putting down 100 bucks for?

I read, and mostly enjoyed, Girls, for the first 10 or so issues, but quickly grew tired of it and never finished. I may go back and read the trades at some point, but I definitely am not planning on dropping $100 on a hardcover. Ultra, on the other hand, I loved, and I wish the Luna Brothers would go back for more of that.

Sure, Iron Man and Power Pack seems adorable until Stark throws the kids into the negative-zone prison and Julie becomes a new hero named Cutter who can only access her powers when she cuts herself.

Brr. This seems chillingly plausible in the mainstream Marvel Universe.

Nice work on the “six guys from Brooklyn jump on the Hulk” bit. I LOL’ed.

Yes, Dan was in rare form this month. It was all I could do to keep up.

Nice work on the “six guys from Brooklyn jump on the Hulk” bit. I LOL’ed.

i was hoping you guys could say somthing on this? How did you find the Girls? is it worth putting down 100 bucks for?