GRAPHIC NOVEL AND TRADE PAPERBACK (TPB) REVIEWS

by The Masked Bookwyrm


The Story So Far...

I got back into reading comic books (after about a ten year hiatus), and boy, have things changed.  Half the characters aren't the same, Universe's have been refashioned.  It's almost too much for my thirty year old brain to take.  I still don't read a lot of regular titles, but I buy GRAPHIC NOVELS (and ratty old back issues, of course).  Graphic novels, and trade paperbacks, are comics on expensive paper, with stiff spines, and often (though not always) lavish colours.  The advantage to them is that you don't have to scout around for continuations and, like books (and unlike comics themselves), they stay in print longer and tend not to appreciate.  A graphic novel published five years ago might still be on the shelf of a bookstore or comic store, costing no more than the original cover price.

But what prices!  They ain't always cheap, so I first like to cruise around the net, looking for reviews and opinions of GNs I'm thinking of buying -- and I've discovered there aren't that many out there.  So, I decided, why not provide them myself for other weary souls who are trying to get an idea of what might be contained inside those four-colour pages prior to parting with hard earned moola?

My main interest is the superheroes -- which I know isn't something I'm supposed to brag about (most of the other sites I've seen devoted to graphic novels tend to focus on alternative titles).  What can I say?  If I want to read/watch slice-of-life, or a gritty crime drama, I pick up a book, or watch a movie.  Other mediums do those things very well.  Superheroes, despite occasional forays into novels, movies, and TV, are still best explored in comic books.  I don't object to non-superguy comics (far from it), but I don't see why superheroes get derided so much.
Since my opinion might not gel with yours, I've tried to be a little more in-depth (like a novel or movie review) without giving away too much, I hope, so that you can evaluate my opinion.  If  I write I hate something, that tells you nothing; but if I write I hate something because of a, b, and c, you might think that actually sounds pretty cool, so the review's still of value even though you disagree with me.

In addition to reviews, I've included the credits, the issues reprinted (in cases of collections), a rough page count (rough because I haven't always decided whether to count all the pages, or just those containing the story; a TPB might run -- say --a hundred pages with title pages, editorials, etc., but only 88 pages of actual story!), cover scans, etc.  In cases where I've read the original, serialized version of issues reprinted in a TPB, but not the TPB itself, I've mentioned that, too.

I might, as time progresses, add a few other things (a Greatest comic stories of all time list, like I've seen on other sites; maybe some snarly essays, etc.).  But for now,
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