Comic Book Addicts

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist: Oliver Coipel

Let me start off this review by letting you know that I’m not a long time fan of Thor, I guess when I was growing up I just couldn’t get into all the language of Thor. However, for this relaunch I was kind of looking forward to it, just to see what they were going to be doing with it. I have to say I have been very impressed so far.

Now I’m not familiar with how the Thor fan community has reacted to the new look of Thor and, honestly, I am not familiar enough with Thor continuity to know if they have changed anything drastically on that side of things. Having said that, I’m really enjoying the series so far and it has been very easy for me to get into this series even though I don’t really know that much about Thor or the reasons he has been gone from the Marvel Universe.

The art is really a strong point so far for this book. Oliver Coipel is doing some of his best work here. Some of the spreads really communicate to the viewer as if you were literally standing in the world that you are looking at in the book. It’s just breathtaking.

Even though I have always liked Thor’s classic look, I have to say that the reenvisioning of his look is really good. It stays with the theme of the classic look and gives it a little edge with more chain armor, but it doesn’t go too far. You also have a really interesting dichotomy with Thor coming from Asgard, as opposed to the small Oklahoma town and the small town people that he interacts with in the book. I think both the art and the writing do a good job of making that work really well.

The writing has been very solid and I’ve enjoyed the story up to this point. I hope that it has a good conclusion to this first story arc and builds from the success that this relaunch has had. There has been a good bit of humor that I think has really been well-timed and character appropriate; whereas in Straczynski’s past work, in Amazing Spider-Man , the humor never seemed quite right for Spidey. Here it all comes off smoothly and left me openly laughing at several spots in the book. There’s a scene like that in issue #2 that reminded me of Daffy Duck  running out of the genie’s cave shouting, “Mine mine mine!” 

The start of #1 gives you a very succinct synopsis. It explains where Thor has been all this time and how he has returned. It transitions to Donald Blake being back on earth as Thor’s alter ego and shows him moving into a small town in Oklahoma. This town is near where Thor’s hammer landed way back in Fantastic Four #536 , which was also written by Straczynski. I don’t know if that meant he knew he would be writing Thor at that point or if he was just attempting to set himself up as the writer of a book that he knew would come back sooner or later. I like to think that Marvel has long-reaching editorial plans such as that, but I know it works the other way as well.

I think this series is a good one for newcomers as the story has reset and allows for easy access. I’m sure there will be parts that will leave a newbie scratching their head, but so far the story has really been just moving forward and not dwelling on much in the past. So no matter if you’re new to Thor or a veteran of the story, I think you should give it a try. You’ll find yourself entertained.

As a comic book reader and enthusiast, one of the things I think about a lot is how to get other people interested in my love of the hobby. I think the main hurdle is getting people to dismiss or overlook the so-called “stigma” of comics. I think everyone is familiar with this stigma in one form or another, it is the “Fanboy”. A lot of people look at comics as something that only geeks read or something that is only for that guy that lives in his parents’ basement and plays D&D with a stack of Mt. Dew cans next to him. . . not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course. Well, I am here to say that yes, a portion of comic book readers are indeed like Comic Book Guy but a lot of them are nothing like him. In fact, I think you will find that the common comic book reader today will run the spectrum. I have seen quite a few suits perusing the aisles of my favorite local comic book stores come Wednesdays when the new books come out. In fact there is a whole group of comic book readers who don’t even “collect” comics, in that they don’t bag and board them and put them into boxes and the speculators have greatly disappeared. In addition to the demographic being different from what most people think, there are all kinds of new readers and a new slant on comics that they are “cool” due to all of the successful comic-based movies that have been released over the past several years. I would go so far as to say that a teenager today wouldn’t even think that they needed an excuse for reading a comic book but would embrace it instead.

So let’s say that comics are “cool” again and people are perfectly willing to accept them and give them a try. The problem then is that even though most readers are friendly and inviting to new readers there is still a bit of a clique element to comics and comic enthusiasts, sometimes without anyone even realizing it. I talk to my wife often about comics and only when I start to explain something to her do I realize how convoluted some characters and stories can become. While that is the sort of thing that most comic readers embrace, people looking in from the outside can see it as confusing and impenetrable. So we as comic hardcore readers have to let down the walls and begin to forgive creators and editors for changing things in continuity that help new readers understand what is going on in some of the more established books. So if that means that Spider-Man has to wear his black costume for a year so that people that just watched Spider-Man 3 understand better what’s going on, then I can live with that. I am even willing to listen to Joe Quesada’s arguments for Peter Parker to be single again (even though I really disagree with him).

If we, as a group, want to see comics grow and become a mainstream form of entertainment again then we have to make it okay for people to join the club, and the requirements for joining have to be lessened. Instead of shunning someone who hasn’t read Watchmen, why not let them borrow your copy of the trade? Instead of making fun of someone for not knowing Sin City or Hellboy was a comic book first, how about showing them a copy and telling them “the books are better than the movie”? It’s those little things that can really make a difference in how people look at our little hobby and, maybe, just maybe, they might like to join the club too.

Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Howard Chaykin

This is a book that I wasn’t really looking forward to read, it was probably in the middle of my stack, the top of the stack containing the books I want to read the most and going down in preference from there. I had never read anything by the writer, Jason Aaron, and wasn’t really sure what to expect from him and I had never been a fan of Howard Chaykin’s artwork. As soon as I began reading the book, however, I thought the art looked good and really suited the book. It is kind of gritty with a realistic leaning. Throughout the book the art is very consistent which is something that I am always glad to see, as I hate to see good detailed art on one page then turn to another and it almost seems like someone else drew the next one.

Now onto the story, this was a book that, for the first time ever, I was truly sad to see the last page. Usually you read a book and it ends in a cliffhanger or in some way to make you look forward to the next issue and, in that way, you don’t want the story to end. This book to me was different in that, like a great novel, I was generally disappointed for it to end. It was that good. It is a one shot story that comes between the last story arc that Jeff Loeb finished and the next one that a new artist will be starting, so this is a great issue for people to jump in on this title. The only place you see Wolverine in his costume is on the cover and you don’t see him very often throughout the story, as the storyline really concentrates on an anonymous character. Considering this, you would think that it would be on the boring side, but you really get sucked in and want to know who this guy is and where this place is that he works and what all the secrecy is all about. The writer also communicates very well the feeling of suspense towards the end of the book, in that you really aren’t sure what’s going to happen or how things are going to work out for the main character and the title character.

Jason Aaron is a fairly new writer on the scene of comics but has had some critical acclaim for his ongoing book Scalped and the limited series The Other Side both published by Vertigo Comics. I really think a book like this is perfect for people that want to get into comics, but don’t know where to begin. It is contained, for the most part, in this one issue and it is done in a mainstream title for a mainstream company. For people who read comics regularly, like myself, it makes me want to go right out and buy the Scalped trade. So I recommend this book to anyone who is new to comics and to anyone who likes a good story. Go pick it up now if you haven’t already.

Hi everyone! My name is Amber and I’m one of the writers for this blog. I’m fairly new to comics. I’ve only been reading them for a few years, but I’m really enjoying getting into them. I’ve read and enjoyed Fell as well as MouseGuard recently. Those are the two that stand out right now. Sometimes it can be difficult to get into the well-established comics like Spider-man and Superman as a new reader, but the independent comics are easy to pick up and jump into. I’ll write more about this later. Hopefully, I’ll be able to help new comic book readers find comics that they can thoroughly enjoy. Feel free to let me know if you’ve found a gem that I should read! I will be posting regularly here at ComicBookAddicts.com.

Today, we went to the Atlanta Comic Convention. It is a fairly small, one-day convention held at the Marriott American Century hotel in Atlanta, GA. It costs $4 to get in the door, however, their website had a one-dollar coupon that we printed out before we arrived. In the door for $6 total, not bad! There were people around the front area giving away some free books, which is always nice. We went to the back corner where someone had about twelve 50 cent longboxes of comics. We started sifting through them and found some really good stuff. I got some Batman and Batman Detectives comics as well as some runs of Thor, Avengers, and Teen Titans. The man running the booth said that he had bought those books off of 6 different collectors. Those were their collections, so there weren’t a lot of duplicates, that was nice, and there were some good runs, with them back to back in the boxes. That makes it easier as well.

My wife saw some Richie Rich and Archie comics in some 50 cent boxes too. They ended up being good deals. She picked up a Dudley Do Right comic that happened to end up being worth $75. It was in great condition. I picked up some Amazing Spider-man (that’s my favorite) for $5 each that ended up being worth quite a bit of money. Sometimes I don’t think they really pay attention to what they put in some of these bins sometimes. You can get some good deals if you have time to sift through the boxes of comics.

A lot of the vendors were buying comics too. I was told that I should bring my duplicates to sell to them. I think I might do that sometime. They’re having a larger 3-day convention February 8-10, 2008 at the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel for only $25. That’s a good price for a 3-day convention. Go to www.atlantacomicsexpo.com for more information.

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