We shouldn’t just collect or flip books, we should also read them. A good story can make your purchase well worth the money spent if you ask me. After all, we buy books to read for entertainment right? Even if you can’t flip them, reading is just as rewarding.
We tend to focus on mostly the floppy copies each week and kind of ignore the trades and hardcovers that come out week after week.
These can be one off books, collected editions or special editions. I go into these picks of mostly just the solicitations provided from the publishers. These are the ones that caught my attention for this upcoming week.
It’s a bit pricey but it’s a great way to read the Batman New 52 series by Snyder and Capullo. And it’ll certainly cost less than trying to buy all the single issues. It’s the big ass omnibus for those who like to spend a Saturday or Sunday reading some great Batman stories.
Batman by Snyder & Capullo Omnibus HC Vol 01
The first 33 issues of BATMAN from the New 52 era by writer Scott Snyder, artist Greg Capullo and others are collected in this new hardcover!
These are the tales that introduced the deadly Court of Owls, brought back The Joker (minus his face!), delved into the Dark Knight’s past in ‘Zero Year,’ and plunged Gotham City into darkness, courtesy of the Riddler!
It’s an epic, acclaimed and bestselling run that you will want to revisit again and again!
Winter Warrior – Fantagraphics by Eve Gilbert
Young Scott Camil grew up in Florida in the 1960s hating Commies and wanting to fight for his country. After graduating from high school, Camil decides to join the marines and is plunged into the thick of combat in Vietnam. Upon his return to civilian life, Camil has a moment of revelation and adopts a new cause: telling the American people the truth about what’s going on in Vietnam.
In Eve Gilbert’s Winter Warrior, each panel is an exquisitely imagined interpretation of Camil’s story, capturing the brutal reality of the war and the bleak political reality on the domestic front. Winter Warrior recounts both the personal journey of one American and his need for political engagement when his conscience collides with American foreign policy during the height of the Cold War. Black & white illustrations throughout.
This next pick has got my interest as I’m fascinated when it comes to religious cults, why people follow, join and believe in them.
Hannah, a successful tech entrepreneur, decides to drop out of society and create a new social app, “Know Me.” She’s invited to test the app on a small religious community, the Church of Love and Devotion.
The results go way beyond any intended consequences as lines separating the self, technology, and belief become blurred and lead to religious cult indoctrination.
Loosely inspired by the life of the notorious Jim Jones and updated for the social media age, Holy Hannah explores family and the ways in which people’s lives become intertwined in unexpected and toxic ways.
The last pick this week goes to the one that intrigues me due to the possible weirdness. I’m also interested in the black and white line work it mentions within the book.
Algernon Blackwoods Willows GN
Algernon Blackwood’s immortal novella of extra-dimensional weirdness on the Danube comes to vivid life in graphic comic form thanks to the incredibly detailed black-and-white linework of talented newcomer, Sam Ford.
Two adventurous women, one British, one Swedish, encounter strange horrors in the Hungarian wilderness of 1907. What they discover on that crumbling sandbar makes them question their sanity, fear for their lives, and revel in otherworldly strangeness. Readers familiar with the story will delight in seeing it depicted in such painstaking, quality illustrations. And those for whom it is new will want to leave a light on for many nights after.
Got a copy of Winter Warrior on order. Thanks.
Very nice. It definitely looks interesting. I love war graphic novels and the anti-war stuff..