June 13, 2023

Today, I carved out most of the afternoon, dedicating the time to reading a giant graphic novel that I picked up last week at Comic World and had not gotten around to yet.

Criminal: The Deluxe Edition Volume One from Image Comics arrived at the shop last week and I thought it was interesting. I have been reading more independent books over the last year or so, especially from Image, so this looked like a collected series that I wanted to try out.

I have also enjoyed the work of Ed Brubaker, in particular his work on Captain America and Daredevil. My rule on independent books to to look to the writer and, if the writer is someone I enjoy, I’ll give it a chance. Marvel and DC are more about the character and the independents are more about writer (and to a lesser extent artist).

However, Criminal: The Deluxe Edition Volume One was an intimidating book. Four hundred and fifty-two pages of content. That is a significant time commitment. I still have that graphic novel, Monsters by Barry Windsor-Smith, that looks like a textbook which I haven’t gotten around to reading yet (maybe this summer…?).

As I said, I left time available this Tuesday afternoon after I spent the morning with the June Swoon 2 and The Daily Zone and I started in on Criminal. I was happy I did.

I will admit I had some trouble getting into it at first, but you could say that about any brand new story that you start. It did not take too long before I was engaged and reading closely on the crime story that was being unraveled before my eyes. I loved the characters and was hoping that things would work out. Things were happening that I did not expect. When the first part of the book, “Coward” was over, I was thrilled.

Then I thought this was going to be an anthology book because of the way the first arc ended. I was wrong though. Instead, the next story arc, “Lawless” took characters involved in that first story and looked at them from a different POV and a different time frame. I loved how they were able to interweave the different stories focusing on different characters who may not have been the focus of the original story.

The third arc was called “The Dead and the Dying.” It actually had the focus on three different characters around the same story which was a real novel way to present the story.

This book was awesome, filled with violence, sex and questionable choices. The characters were very well developed and three dimensional. Their arcs were well defined and you see how things blended together. It was worth the commitment required to read the book.

Other books this post…

Year Zero Volume 0 #2. Written by Daniel Kraus and art by Goran Sudžuka. Kaare Andrews provided the cover art. Year Zero continues to have multiple stories going on that all are interesting in this new troublesome world. I loved the last page which indicates a Bigfoot/zombie connection.

Sleeping Beauties #9. I skipped number eight. Oops. Oddly enough, I did not notice until just now. That does not speak well for this series. I think I may be done with this one.

Strayed #2. Written by Carlos Giffoni and drawn by Juan Doe. I was a few pages into number two and this is another book that I have decided to stop reading. I got this series in a Christmas pack at Comic World a few years back but I just was not enjoying the book.

Warlock Rebirth #2. “Mindscape” Written by Ron Marz and drawn by Ron Lim. Eve Warlock is here and she is ready to kick some butt. Meanwhile, Adam Warlock is having some issues and Gamora, Pip the Troll and Genis-Vell went to see Dr. Strange.

Money Shot: Comes Again #2. Written by Tim Seeley and drawn by Gisele Lagace. Not sure what this book is about. Lots of sex scenes with weird robots in this issue. The cover… boobies and nipples!

Damn Them All #3. Written by Simon Spurrier and illustrated by Charlie Adlard. Mr. Wax, who has one of the possessed coins in his pocket, found that his wife would pay the price. Elle Hawthorne are getting into the mix and meets up with Theo Bolster of the 500 Club, another iffy character. Things are bolstering in this series. I am having some issues with knowing who is who among these characters, but I am still engaged enough to decipher it.