I pondered the multiple ways I could pick which books to read, then went with the easy answer: books I own but haven’t read (unless they’re a sequel and I don’t remember the last one), in alphabetical order by author’s last name. That could give me some trouble soon as I’ve got a backlog of fat Clive Barker books, but I’m off to a roaring start so far.
1. Batman Illustrated by Neil Adams
Writer: Dennis O’Neil Artists: Neil Adams and Dick Giordano
I’ve always liked the art of legendary penciller Neil Adams, and at DC Comics he was best known for his Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman runs. This book is the first of three collecting his Batman run and I picked it up a couple years ago expecting to get the rest. Not now, it’s not as good as I expected. C-
2. X-Men Visionaries: Neal Adams
Writer: Roy Thomas Artists: Neil Adams and Tom Palmer
Maybe it’s the fact that I used to have some of these issues (both the originals and the reprints in Giant-Size X-Men 2), but I liked Neal Adams much more here. Part of it was the inking of Tom Palmer, but I thought the stories were more interesting, and not as predictable. B-
3. Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!
Author: Scott Adams
A collection of the Dilbert creator’s blog. Quite simply, if you like the blog, you’ll like the book. I was enjoying it until about 40 pages from the end, where I ran into blog posts I’d already read – weird to have deja vu at the end of a book. B
4. Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Gorn Crisis
Writers: Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta Artist: Igor Kordey
An explanation about why the Enterprise didn’t show up during the Dominion War. Decent story, but the art holds it back. B-
5. The Fountain
Writer: Darren Aronofsky Artist: Kent Williams
This was also the third film from a director who I like. Pi was great, and Requiem for a Dream was mesmerizing (don’t know that I’ll ever watch it again, though). The Fountain was planned as a movie, and when the plug got pulled, translated into this graphic novel. That inspired him, and he rewrote the screenplay and made the movie for much less money than originally planned. I haven’t seen it yet, but would like to after reading this trippy time travel tale. Kent Williams’ expressionist art is a good fit. B
I assumed the Enterprise didn’t show up to the Dominion War because they’re chicken. Plus Riker’s scared of Worf because he stole Deanna away.
Jean-Luc Picard isn’t man enough to deal with the awesomeness that is Benjamin Sisko. Rawr!
Um, something like that. Actually the storyline Riker on a planet with a bunch of Klingons is pretty good.
Showdown of the bald captains would be a nice story too.