Items

Item One

Saw the latest issue of Superman (which of course doesn't feature Superman) proclaiming "A bold new direction for Mon-El!" and immediately dropped all Superman Family books. I dunno, maybe I'll catch up on the whole flabby New Krypton crossover this weekend and change my mind, but I really haven't been enjoying this padded out piece of robbery much. The Mon-El/Guardian stuff in Superman has been a complete bore. The Supergirl saga leaves me cold and the Flamecunt and Nightprick bollocks in Action Comics is a total drag. I have enjoyed the New Krypton series, but it's pretty much unreadable unless you buy the other three Super titles and, to be honest, I'm not sure I like it enough to keep doing that.

Item Two

Had a shufty around Orbital on Saturday - the missus was looking in the antique bookshops on Charing Cross Road so I thought I might as well slope off for a bit of a mooch. They really have done a good job on the place. It's definitely the go-to-shop for back issues in London, there are thousands of single issues in there, thousands. I believe that their manga store has closed down which is a shame, but they have maintained a decent selection at the main store. The art gallery is still in place and there's a vintage movie poster store opened in another of the alcoves towards the rear of the store. The small press section is brimming with obscure zines and photocopied comics and, of course, all your current spandexery is available at the front of house. Lovely shop and well worth checking out if you find yourself with some time to kill.

Item Three

I'll still be picking up my weekly fix from Gosh though. Here's what I'll be loading up on this week...

Blackest Night - Flash #1

Johns and Kolins on The Flash. This is the only Flash I need to read. I'm a fan of Kolins, even liked his Omega Flight mini, and nowhere has he ever been as good as on Johns' Flash. He's a much better choice for the crackly, zippy world of speedsters than the detail obsessed Ethan van Sciver.

Blackest Night - Wonder Woman #1

I loved the start of Gail Simone's tenure on Wonder Woman. All Nazis and apes so it was. It went a bit dry after that though so I ditched it. Is she writing this? I dunno. Haven't got time to look because my son will be waking up in a minute. I'll buy it anyway.

House of Mystery #20

Err. I'm nine issues behind on this, so the real mystery is my continued support of a book which I'm no longer reading. There will come a day when I get time to read it. On that day I will realise that I don't like it. So it goes.

Mighty #11

Ah, now, I'm three issues behind on this, but that's OK, cos there's only one more issue to go after this one and then I'm going to read the lot. I heartily recommend you pick the entire story up when it's traded too because it's a little dark gem.

Sweet Tooth #4

The adventures of Deer-Boy and Clint Eastwood. A comic which successfully draws on sources as diverse as Bambi and Mad Max, Sweet Tooth satisfies my need for post-apocalyptic-road-movie-style-shenanigans while stealthily pulling on my clogged heartstrings with some good old fashioned weepy bits.

Thor #604

Hmm. I HATED Stracyzinski's run on Thor. Really HATED it. I mean it might've got good, but after two issues of the Thunder God wandering around small town America doing NOTHING, I gave up. Several folks have called it brilliant so maybe I should go back and read it, but in the meantime I might give this issue a look becasue it's written by Kieron Gillen. I'm hoping he knows that the God of Thunder needs to be smashing people over the head with Mjolnir A LOT! We'll see.