Two fingers to History...

This is Warren Ellis's take on the Battle of Crecy, a major battle in the Hundred Years war between England and France. If you only know Warren from his Super Hero work then this will be a completely different beast for you, if you know his other works then it is more of the same.<br /><br />We follow one of the English Peasents during the march to Cercy with he rest of the foot soldiers. The stock troop being the longbow man, and it takes us through the forced archery practice and the standards of life that the average member of the army would have faced at the time.<br /><br />As with most of Warren's non mainsteam works it is lewd, disturbing, informative and in places crass. It is a warts and all showing of war, expect xenophobic language, expect blood, expect death, expect graphic violence, expect to learn!<br /><br />The art work is stunning and black and white, which provides an interesting take on the subject material.<br /><br />We came, we saw, we pillaged, we ravaged, we slaughtered, we left...the French have never forgiven us (and not without reason) and the survivors of Crecy introduced the two fingered salute to the world.<br /><br />Buy it!

A suitable homage to Alan Moore

After being a little disappointed with Gaiman's opening gambit, Preludes and Nocturns I thought that Neil Gaiman was forever going to be in the shadow of Alan Moore, trying desperately to produce a story of the majesty of Swamp Thing. With this story, Gaiman finally comes to maturity in his storytelling, combining magic and dreams with murder and horror and finally reaches the peak he's been looking for. The beauty of the Dolls House is it works perfectly as a standalone novel but even better if read as a sequel to Swamp Thing. My advice? Read Swamp Thing first if you've not already read it, then take this on. It will be worth the wait.

Classic Dredd

I have always been a big fan of Judge Dredd and rate him as one of my top comic creations, so I am probably a little biased here. I remember reading these when my father bought me 2000AD back in the 70s when I was a child and what I liked then I still like now. Over the years I have lost touch with Dredd and could only find collections in his more well known stories or the old Titan releases, but never a complete collection of the stand alone strips. Now finally someone has had the good sense to issue the back catalogue of Dredd in these rather good books and about time too. A must have for any true Judge Dredd fan.

I enjoyed this

although it is a bit difficult to find all the following books this is even better alongside the spider-man story followed on... great art, clever story and great value! i recomend you buy it.

A must-have for serious cartoonists

This is one of the true necessities for anyone serious about cartooning and what Eisner calls"sequential art". It is NOT a how-to-draw book. Rather, it discusses the nature of drawing and cartooning, and how concepts are depicted through the pen - all with a very personal touch, the author speaking directly to you through the medium of cartooning. McCloud also examines the evolution of true comics from basic drawing, and how the"language" of cartooning has come to differ in different cultures. This book will make you think long and hard about the subject and what you do in it yourself.

Ultimates Volume 2 is Unadulterated Brilliance!

The first volume of Ultimates was very good: an enjoyable take on the Avengers, bringing them firmly into the 21st century. The art was excellent, the integration of the lettering great and the writing and characterization generally excellent- one or two of the dialogue voices were weaker than the others. There are no weaknesses of any kind in the second volume- the atmospere and dialogue is top rate. Every character comes across well realised and distinct- `new' characters have arrived in the form of the Black Widow (slinky and scary), Hawkeye (super smooth and cool, but still a family man), Quicksilver (magnificently glib!), Scarlet Witch (mysterious in a shallow sort of way...) and the Skrull under a different name. The Hulk has become more than scary- his rampage in this volume is terrifyingly devestating, and also quite disgusting ("Hulk Eat!" could describe some of it!). Thor remains unbelievably powerful and as enigmatic as before ("Sorry I'm late...I was just fighting the Midgard Serpent. Seriously."!).

The story develops very well and the plot is fairly linear but with one or two twists- the complexities are, as ever, mostly in the personalities of the individual superhumans. An excellent graphic novel that should be read by any comics fan- amazing!

Enjoyable Insanity

This is a very well written novel and apparently one of the authors first, it was an enjoyable and disturbing read. The Joker is simply delightful as usual, his twisted sense of humour is written to perfection. <br />The multitude of characters incarcerated within the walls of Arkham asylum are given brief mention, it is the Joker who steals the show, seconded by Two Face. This novel covers the story of Arkham's founder intertwined with the present day activities of the inmates as they welcome Batman into their midst. Is he as mad as they are after all? <br /><br />A further thing that should be mentioned about this marvelous read is of course the artwork. Quite unlike the usual illustrations I'm used to, it really matches the theme of the whole novel, roughly scrawled almost, but with the wild lines landing perfectly every time. Insanity inked.<br /><br />The script for the novel at the back also makes for a good read, it's really interesting to see how a script can become a graphic novel, plus to see what was left out of the finished piece. <br /><br />I recommend this book, just keep your sanity in a jar while you peruse it, to be safe.

Pocket book

I have been a Tintin fan almost all my life. I have read all the Tintin adventures in my native language (finnish) and wanted to try finally the english translations. I liked it more, in finnish translations, that Snowy is Milou. Why they didn't use Milou when it's the original name? I also didn't like how small the book was (should read more carefully the"Product details" heh). The book could fit in a pocket and therefore would be a good on travel. So, translations(Snowy)and dimensions(too small): -2 stars

Cartoon style plays

Simplified versions of Shakespeare's plays, very cleverly re-told in cartoon strips, that helps bring them to life for children (and adults) to understand. <br /><br />

excellent

I was actually surprised to see nobody has written a review for this as sine i bought this i have read it straight through several times. This basically tells the story of three Characters a neophyte, a fully fledged space marine and Tankred, a dreadnaught. The three stories are all good and the author jumps from one story to the next without confusing the reader. The art in the book is excellent and i feel portrays the dark future of the 41st millenium accurately. i'm really not one for reviews but this was well worth the read.

Beautiful and cliched nonsense

This book gets great reviews from most, but I found it remarkably dull. Like Ross's"Earth X" the story employs an observer to narrate the future. Perhaps this is necessary in order to make sense of what's going on (what indeed?), but it acts as a handbrake on the action, creating a feeling of passivity and inevitability. In this respect the book is the exact opposite of Miller's Dark Knight Returns, which is an all out direct assault on a possible future for Batman and Superman, upon which Ross has drawn directly and unsuccessfully.<br /><br />Kingdom Come sounds great on paper and looks great on paper but is ultimately hot air. Lots of polemics, no real reason why anything in the possible future has occurred. Unless I've missed something and this is a postmodern treatise on the nature of chaos, this book isn't worth your time - especially not if you're looking for a good old-fashioned superhero asskicking.

total disappointment

You would expect the author to be above such gross commercial act, but actually the book consists of a (very) few sentences lifted from the novel"Thud", accompanied by bland illustrations.<br />This is neither a book for children nor adults. No deeper meaning, here, nothing that justifies the expense.<br />Avoid it !

Finland's Finest

If, like me, you have loved the Moomin family since childhood, you will have read all the quirky, unique books in the series, many , many times. If so, you may be surprised to find, as I was, that these comic strips exist, and allow us an unexpected opportunity to re-enter the world of Moominvalley.<br /><br />In a way comics are the ideal medium for Tove Jannson, the illustrations to her Moomin series are as fine as the effortlessly brilliant stories. Her sense of fun and rather unworldly viewpoint are showcased in these strips as well as her beautiful artwork.<br /><br />Having said all that, these strips perhaps lack the shade of gloomy darkness that make the Moomin series of books so memorable,"Moominvalley in November", for example, is almost bleak in outlook. Also, the characters are all slightly different from in the books, which is a bit distracting at times.<br /><br />Even so, these collected newspaper strips are a hugely welcome addition to any Moomin fan's library.

In a league of its own!

Firstly if youve discovered the anime television series of naruto first (and didn't like it.), the erase its memory from your brain!<br />Naruto is now probably the most well known serialised manga running (or that yugi-card thing) its reached volume 41 in japan and has plenty of plot left in it, reading naruto is becoming something of a commitment but when you can get each book for like £1.50 new & used, maybe its not so bad.<br />its totally enjoyable, every book steps things up from the last, there no vampires/ghosty dragon stereotypes either, every crazy new idea is completely original, its worth reading alone for masashi kishimotos imagination, its really that unique. basicly if you like pictures & fun, you stand a good chance of enjoying naruto.

Getting better and better

Whereas some of the first volume feels extremely dated and often naive( but still vital reading), this is where the style of Dredd begins to develop. The Cursed Earth remains a land mark as does the second epic The Day the Law Died. <br /><br />By comparison to later Dredd the story telling may not flow as well and the second epic suffers somewhat in terms of continuity from the constant changing of artists but overall the book rolls along at a cracking pace.<br /><br />It's great to see Dredd leaping out of one epic and straight into another. Maybe 2000ad's current editors could learn a lesson from this. The longer stories always offer much more in so many ways. A great purchase and one not to be missed.