Top Five Fridays 1/11/08
Some of you may have noticed on the sidebar, we have our “Top Five of the Moment” listed. These are the five books that are most clicking with each Pants writer. It may or may not represent the best books we’ve read all month, year, or just what we’re digging that week. We generally try to update it with books from that week, but there are no hard and fast rules. Inspired by an email from one of our readers, we’re going to post every Friday with the most recent Top Five from each member of the Panteon, and hope for your comments on our lists, or maybe even your own “Top Five of the Moment.”
Also, just as the Wednesday Number Ones feature is generally our spot for folks to talk about the comics of the week, we hope that Top Five Fridays is where you’ll come to talk about what’s going on in comics in general. News in the comics world, thoughts on comics you’ve recently read, talk about comic-related movies that release this weekend and more are welcome in the comments thread for Top Five Fridays.
This week, the Top Five Books of the Moment are:
Nick Budd
- Nova
- Bat Lash
- North Wind
- Spirit
- B.P.R.D. 1946
Dave Farabee
- BPRD: 1946
- Nova
- Hulk
- The Twelve
- North Wind
Dan Grendell
- Nova
- BPRD V.7 Garden of Souls
- X-Factor
- Pandora: Death Jr. Manga
- North Wind
Randy Lander
- Nova
- BPRD V.7 Garden of Souls
- Spirit
- Foundation
- BPRD: 1946
David Martindale (D3)
- The Spirit
- X-Factor
- The Twelve
- Hulk
- Amazing Spider-man
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The Twelve was pretty cool I have to say. I think JMS’ strongest points as a writer is doing sprawling casts and their different personalities. I also picked up issue #0 which reprinted some of the original stories of the ’40’s which gave me a Kavalier and Klay kind of vibe.
As much as I really, really want to like Northlanders, the biggest compliment I can give is about the colors. The grainy feel compliments the Euro-style art. So far it just seems like a totally bland rehashing of Hamlet. But I do have faith in Brian Wood and I know it takes him a while to build his stories.
I just picked up Annihilation Conquest #3 this week and thought it was good. So far I like the Conquest minis better than the originals, but I like the original main event better than this one. I think what Conquest is lacking more than anything is the giant scope of a full scale war. It is more focused on the personal stories which I think needs more of the war-story feel, granted the set-up is being laid out. All nit-picking aside, there IS still three issues left and I’m sure there will be some great action to come.
12 Jan 2008 at 5:45 am
QuoteLight week for me so just a top 3:
1. The Spirit
2. The Twelve
3. Hulk
12 Jan 2008 at 7:51 am
QuoteOnly three books for me as well this week but I can’t put Countdown in a top anything so it is only a top 2 for me.
1. Killing Pickman
2. X-Factor
12 Jan 2008 at 10:37 pm
Quote1. BPRD:1946
2. The Spirit
3. Nightwing
4. Bat Lash
5. 3:10 to Yuma-Not a comic but the newest film version. It is indeed the best western since Unforgiven.
13 Jan 2008 at 10:53 am
QuoteAnyone read Teen Titans The Lost Annual? It was lost but DC brought it back, it must be good, right?
It’s sad Darwyn Cooke won’t be continuing with Spirit. Before his announcement to leave Spirit, he was going to write twelve more issues of Spirit. Damn, shame…
13 Jan 2008 at 4:38 pm
QuoteYo Dan G.,
I recently read reviews about Robotika and Shaolin Cowboy although I have not read any issues. I think I might pass on Robotika because I like a strong plot. But the reviews sparked a hunger in me for a lone warrior, samurai or monk story that has a good plot. I couldn’t really find any titles while browsing through regular comics but then I realized manga might be serving the type of dish i’m looking for. I realize there are probably a lot of samurai stories but they all look the same. What do you think? THe manga world is too vast for me to pic one up randomly. Thanks,
14 Jan 2008 at 4:16 am
QuoteYou have several great choices, actually. My first recommendation would be Lone Wolf and Cub, which is about a samurai serving the Emperor in feudal Japan whose wife is killed during a plot to discredit him and remove him from his position. He takes his infant son with him on a quest for vengeance, earning money as an assassin while being chased by his political opponent’s forces in an attempt to shut him down. Told in a series of vignettes over 28 volumes (so get ready for a long haul), it’s my favorite manga EVER, looking at the nature of honor and loyalty, investigating all walks of life through the various stories, and telling one hell of a story. The main plot seems to go dormant at times, but it is never forgotten, and there’s tons of action and plenty of suspense and queit, thoughtful moments too.
Another good choice is Vagabond, which tells the life story of famous swordmaster Miyamoto Musashi. It’s an adaptation of the novel Musashi, which I’ve read and which was also great. The manga follows Musashi from the time he was a young punk named Takezo, through his trials and tribulations, his loves and the effect his focus on swordsmanship had on them. There are currently 26 volumes out in the West, and the series is still going in Japan, so this one will probably go even longer than Lone Wolf and Cub.
14 Jan 2008 at 5:42 am
QuoteMy top 5 this week:
1. The Spirit
2. Infinite Horizon
3. The Foundation
4. The Twelve
5. Amazing Spider-Man (yes, really!)
Haven’t got around to reading Nova and Killing Pickman though. Might have to read the first issue of Killing Pickman again because I can’t for the life of me remember what happened!
Oh, how I wish that Cooke’s issue #13 of The Spirit, advertised on the last page of #12, was coming out. Do we think it actually exists?
14 Jan 2008 at 1:07 pm
QuoteThanks Dan for your response. I think I will check out both Lone Wolf and Vagabond. However, after re-reading my post I realized I made an error. I meant to say I like strong writing. By mistake I said I was looking for a strong plot. Although good writing and a good plot can be connected, I wouldn’t think they are the same. For example, I would be willing to check out a story of a guy sharpening his sword for the whole book if the writing was good. Does that change the recommendations? No matter though, I will still check them out. Didn’t Lone Wolf also come out in regular comic form? Or was that a spin-off.
Also, even though no one praised the writing of Shaolin Cowboy, I think I still want to check it out because I appreciate great art as well. But I cannot find any trades anywhere. What’s the deal with that?
Anyways, thanks again for taking the time to respond to my question.
15 Jan 2008 at 2:46 am
QuoteNope, the recommendations stay the same. Both have very strong writing. As far as Lone Wolf and Cub in prestige comic form, First Comics began releasing it in that format in 1987, but they only did 45 issues before shutting down. Stories were skipped and overall, less than a third of the series was printed in that format.
Shaolin Cowboy is published by Burlyman Entertainment, and their books are ridiculously late. In theory, Shaolin Cowboy is bimonthly, but it took a year to get the most recent issue, #7, out. Their other title, Doc Frankenstein, is hardly any better. With this kind of haphazard scheduling and given the fact that I’m not entirely sure either title has reached a point yet in the story where a trade would make sense, I wouldn’t expect a trade anytime soon. I could be wrong, but I’d be surprised.
15 Jan 2008 at 3:41 am
QuoteVagabond sounds great. I don’t know if I’m too late here, Dan, but have you seen the movies Samurai I, II, & III from the ’50’s starring the great Tohihiro Mifune? These movies were adapted from the same novel about Musashi. They have have been collected into the Criterion Collection on DVD and are worth checking out.
19 Jan 2008 at 5:20 am
QuoteI sure have, and they are indeed quite good. I’m quite a fan of both jidai-geki and chambara films, and those are definitely in my collection.
19 Jan 2008 at 8:25 am
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