Welcome back, Donist World Denizens! For those of you new to our site, I’m Donist, and I am joined by Donist World CFO the Reverse Obie* (my friends’ Boston terrier whose fur recently swapped colors) and by our marketing director/administrative assistant/party planner/gingerbread gobbler Tulip. November was a crazy month, but time seemed to slow down for the past two weeks which is great as far as we’re concerned. My puppy executive team and I bonded as we chilled in the Holiday Bunker where we ate pumpkin pies, drank some good beer, and read some great comics. Now that it is December, we’ve vacated the Holiday Bunker to rub our eyes at the shock of real light while rejoicing in the feel of the sun on our skin/fur for a couple of weeks before we have to retreat back to bunker for the next round of holiday madness; we are prepared. Anyhow, be kind to each other, mind your health and sanity, eat some tacos, keep your pets safe, cherish the ones you love, hydrate, and read some great comics. Thank you for reading!
*Obie, through his dabbling in arcane magiks mixed with ancient corrupt business practices, has had not just the colors of his fur switched, but a complete overhaul of his work ethic as well…I think I’m kinda okay with the mishap.
Not sure what “Comics Lust” is about? Take a look at the
Introduction to “Comics Lust” post or take a look at the static “
Comics Lust Table of Contents” page to jump to a topic.
Comics Lust
More Bang for Your Buck: The Omnibus (Part 2)
How are those muscles treating you, Denizens? A little sore? I’m sure you are, but that’s because you are building muscle mass and getting stronger after hefting all of those omnibus (omnibi?) around from last time. But don’t get too comfortable. Today, we’re going to work through the pain and we’ll be hefting even more omnibus collections around because if you stay at the same weight all the time you won’t continue to strengthen not just your body, but your mind. So best warm up with some light stretching and light cardio before tackling the books on this list. Be mindful of your form and lift with your legs. You got this.
(Written by Robert Kirkman, illustrated at first by Cory Walker and primarily afterward by Ryan Ottley, series originally published in 2003 by Image Comics. This volume collects
Invincible #1–47)
I’ve been on a journey for the past couple weeks, Denizens, which is definitely what started me on talking about this whole giant-sized collection thing. I originally joined the
Invincible bandwagon right around the time the fifth trade had been released; after reading the first I was instantly hooked. Here we have a brand new superhero story unburdened by the continuity constraints of the Big Two, which made it not only accessible but fun and interesting. By the time I made it through the third trade when everything dramatically changes after Invincible and his father have the discussion, I was hopelessly hooked and continued to be hooked up until the amazing “Viltrumite War” which concluded with issue #78. The events of that book were brutal, thrilling, and utterly devastating. And then…I just never picked the remaining trades or issues; I’m not sure why. Thankfully, I ended up getting the three compendiums, which collect issues #1–144 but kept putting off starting the reread of the familiar material and diving into the new. That is until recently. I just finished issue #84 and this ol’
Invincible train is in no ways stopping until I reach station #144. The basics: Mark Grayson is your normal, everyday high schooler until the day he goes to take out the trash from his dead-end, fast food job and accidentally tosses the bag into orbit; his powers have finally kicked in. What the world at large does not know is that Mark is the son of the fiercely powerful superhero named Omni-Man, an alien from the planet Viltrum, and Mark is poised to become Earth’s newest protector, Invincible. I can’t begin to properly tell you how fantastic this bloody, violent, heartbreaking, and triumphant series is; you will just have to read it for yourself. I can tell you that Walker starts the series off with some great art, but Ottley quickly comes in and makes the series his own for the majority of
Invincible’s epic run. The compendiums are all softcover and are a ridiculously inexpensive way to read this series that I am thrilled to have reread as I now dive into thrilling, uncharted territory. Each volume is 1000+ pages long. You MUST read this series. Oh, did you catch that this is written by that guy who wrote a little ol’ thing called
The Walking Dead?
(Written by Gerry Conway, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Doug Moench, and others; illustrated by Mike Ploog, Don Perlin, and many others, series originally published in 1972 by Marvel Comics. Collects
Werewolf by Night #1–43 and so much more!)
I bought this 1176-page book in 2017 as a birthday gift to myself; boy howdy, do I give the best gifts! You see, Werewolf by Night is one of the first comics I remember reading. Again, I have no idea who gave it to me or how I got a hold of it, but I would guess that I was around six or seven and that somehow
Giant-Size Werewolf #5 somehow survived a year or two to find itself to my grubby little paws. It left quite an impression with the cool werewolf, the negative warrior with the weird rod thing, and the creepy magicians; I flipped through this comic until it disintegrated and had to be thrown away. Almost 40 years later, I read that story as well as the ones featuring Dracula and Iron Man (against the Tri-Animan) and it was an absolute trip and a half to re-experience something that blew my mind as a young boy. For decades, I had images and recollections of these comics in my mind, some of which were spot on, others that had somehow changed, and things I had forgotten came slamming back to the forefront of my mind. It was nuts. All self-reflection aside, this omnibus is freakin’ fantastic. You have Jack Russel (I know, I know, just roll with it) coming fully into the curse of the werewolf on his 18th birthday and from there you jump from horror stories to random weirdness to supervillains and even see the first appearance of Moon Knight. Ploog’s art is by far my favorite although there are plenty of lovely pages from other artists. I know I will be doing some tricep extensions with this beauty in a few years when I start it all over from the beginning.
Batman by Neal Adams Omnibus
(Written by Neal Adams, Len Wein, Denny O’Neill, Marv Wolfman, and others; illustrated by Neal Adams; first issue in collection originally published in 1968 by DC Comics. Collects a whole mess of stuff!)
This was another treat I bought for myself at a price that couldn’t be beat. I’m so glad I got it. Adams is unquestionably a comic book master with much of his finest work covering none other than the Dark Knight. Some of the comics in this collection had originally made it to my kiddie hands in the past and subsequently died the death of pet dogs, sticky candy-coated fingers, and the general neglect one can expect from a child. Much of the material was new to me, including the Batshit craziness that is
Batman: Odyssey…back to this in a sec. The main story that made me smile was the reprint of the Power Records
Robin Meets Man-Bat which I read as a kid while the 45-rpm record played over and over again. The art is really something to behold, and many of the standalone stories are great representations of what the Bronze Age had to offer. As for Batman: Odyssey, I don’t want to give anything away, and I honestly can’t even really tell you what the story is about with any degree of confidence, but what I can tell you is that there are loads of cameos, Batman riding a giant bat, a caveman Batman, a dinosaur/humanoid robin, dinosaurs, Batman with guns, and…a pretty much naked, Playgirl-esque Bruce Wayne narrating the story in countless “come-hither” poses that were something to behold. I owe myself a reread of
Batman: Odyssey in the near future, if not the entirety of this fantastic collection. The tons of comic covers at the end of this 1072-page behemoth are well worth checking out as well.
(Everythinged by David Lapham, series originally published in 1995 by El Capitan, and this collection published by Image Comics. Collects
Stray Bullets #1–41)
Stray Bullets had a dedicated following in the mid-‘90s through the mid-2000s for its 40-issue run. The problem was that there was one final issue, #41, that did not come out until nine years later in 2014. This vignette crime comic series mostly featured standalone or stories that covered only a few issues and had an impressive roster of characters. The beauty of this oftentimes harsh series comes at the point where characters only touched upon in earlier issues come back around to have an aspect of their life told or when the paths of characters who have somehow managed to survive the violence of Lapham’s world intersect; sometimes it goes well for these characters, other times not so much. I missed out on this must-read-for-crime-junkies series the first time around but this beautiful, 1200-page collection quickly brought me up to speed and corrected a grievous mistake on my part. Lapham has since picked up where he left off so many years ago with
Stray Bullets: The Killers #1–8 and
Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses which is about to see its 42nd issue. Who knows, maybe we’ll get another lovely compendium in the near future. Beautiful art and beautiful—if not occasionally beautifully-tragic—stories that I can safely say make this a must-own book. Cool beans!
(Written by Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman, Archie Goodwin, Chris Claremont, and others; illustrated by Gene Colon, Mike Ploog, and Don Heck, series originally published in 1972 by Marvel Comics. Collects
The Tomb of Dracula #1–31 and so much more!)
Weighing in at a measly 768 pages, what this omnibus lacks in comparative bulk, it more than makes up for with cult status. I don’t own this one. I need to own this one. I will also need to own the subsequent volume 2 and 3 that will someday soon see the reprinted light of the moon so we don’t have to seek out those pricey out of print tomes. Now, I had a bunch of issues for the series back in the day, but they have long since vanished from my collection. I guess we’ll be able to experience this one together. I can’t wait!
That’s it for now, but I’m sure we’ll return to the realm of must-read omnibus/compendiums the next time I feel like doing some heavy lifting. Take care.
Comics Lust 12/1/2018
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