Gorga's Looking Forward to Wednesday 11/4/2oo9

Oh my god this week is a shitload of shit I've got to buy...

First, the maybes...
"Batman: Widening Gyre" #3 of 6
Issue número two of this series was a bit disappointing but I think I'm going to try for the long haul. We'll see what this issue has in store for me.

"Black Widow: Deadly Origin" #1 of 4
This interview on Marvel.com with the mini-series' writer Paul Cornell makes this sound WONDERFUL. I will be taking a peek here.

"X-Men Origins: Iceman"
This series has been hit or miss in my opinion. The Jean Grey issue was amazing. The Beast issue blew more than it had any right to. We'll see.


Then, the definites...
"Assault On New Olympus: Prologue" one-shot
Not only is this a Spidey appearance, but it's also the beginning of a crossover event. Seeing as how I almost wrote my college dissertation on crossover events...

"Atomika" #11
Oh ho ho! The penultimate (yes, I know what that means) issue of this magnificent series.

"Strange Tales" #3 of 3
I enjoyed "Strange Tales" #2 more than #1 (as you'll find out when we get to reviewing it) so I'm excited for this last issue.

and lastly:
"the Amazing Spider-Man" #610

Now I ask you, how amazing is this?

(Click the image to make it open, legible, in a new window. Click here to see the program from whence it came.)

A Spider-Man issue. On the top 10 in THREE slots.
And it's the end of a story-arc picking up threads from the Clone Saga, the supposedly most reviled Spider-Man storyline of all time.
Wow. Just... wow.

UPDATE: 11/9/2oo9
I can now show you my haul, because I now have my books:
Why did I wait so long to pick up my books? And why so many? Because of the 25th anniversary sale at St. Mark's Comics, that's why! Among the many remarkable things about St. Mark's Comics: when they declare a sale, even their brand-new-THIS-WEEK'S comics go on sale. 25% off for 25 years on St. Mark's Place. I went with Clare, as it is her favorite shop in the city and she was home for the weekend!

Yeah, I broke and bought the "Sugarshock" one-shot. They even had that damn elusive "Cowboy Ninja Viking" #1 I've been trying to find. If you've been following the blog, you've probably gotten the feeling that I talk about picking up indie books and then never do. Well, that's because often I get to really buying the thing and I say "Ugh, this doesn't look like it's worth my money" and I end up buying most of my indie stuff at awesome conventions like the MoCCA Fest where you can meet the creators face-to-face and your encouraged to almost read the thing right there. These books look gorgeous and fun. So I bought them.

Gorga's Looking Forward to Wednesday 10/21/2oo9

Another blessedly light week. Although I have just been accepted for employment at one of NYC's most prestigious bakeries and hopefully that will work out for a few months and allow me to concentrate on this blog and my comic-writing!

I'm picking up:
"Ex Machina" #46
The final arc marches on.

"the Amazing Spider-Man" #609
The Clone Saga's spiritual return marches on equally.


The take-a-peeks:
"Cowboy Ninja Viking" #1
This was supposed to be out last week and got pushed back and I still want to see if it's as good as it sounds!
also:
A damn slew of possible Spider-Man appearances.
"Dark Avengers" #10
and
"Mighty Avengers" #30
I am in love with the idea at play in the first two pages of the preview you can check out: here.
and
"Spider-Woman" #2
Spider-Man guest-stars... for real this time?

This just looks cool:
"Superman/Batman" #65
A Halloween special of sorts.

UPDATE: 10/21/2oo9
I love how easy it is to find the wonderful Jim Hanley's Universe comic-book store in Manhattan. You just go to 34th street and look for the Empire State Building because Jim Hanley's is right off its south side! For someone as green a New Yorker as I still am, that's awesome! I took this photo as I walked down 34th from the East side.












UPDATE: 10/22/2oo9
Me bookies! The new "Amazing" and new "Ex Machina". And with the low number of books this week, I picked up the "Punisher" Annual from a few weeks ago that I kept forgetting to pick up.

Spider-Man, as it turned out, did not appear as a guest in any of the three titles he could have been in, including the one he was solicited to be in!

Jon Gorga's Looking Forward to Wednesday 10/14/09

Well there ain't much for me this week, which is bloody comforting after the slew of comics I haven't finished reading let alone reviewing from last week!

I'll be off soon today to buy:

"Web of Spider-Man" (v2) #1
Writing by J.M. DeMatteis. Check. Spider-Man. Check. Clone Saga? Check. Cool.

"Batman" #691
Well, I'll probably buy this. (I got FOUR comics from last week to read and review, bub! Plus I'm unemployed! Give a guy a break!) I enjoyed #689 very much. We'll see if this issue is equally magical.

and I'm curious about:

"Blackbeard: The Legend of The Pyrate King" #1
Historical fiction in comics is a rare thing and this looks very good. Nothing else to say.
and
"Uncanny X-Men" #516
For essentially the same reason Josh is so excited about it: Magneto fully powered taking on the merry mutants for the first time since losing his powers in "House of M" and getting them back. Very cool. Written by Matt Fraction. Oh yeah he's amazing. I may have to buy this...

UPDATE: 10/15/09

I bought the "Batman" issue and the first issue of "Blackbeard". "Blackbeard" looks like quality visual historical fiction to me!

Jon's Looking Forward to Wednesday 10/7/2oo9

From this week's comics, I'm planning on buying/looking at:

(Spider-Man, Spider-Man does whatever a spider can)
"the Amazing Spider-Man" #608
I'm really looking forward to this throw-back to the era in which I started reading comics: the Clone Saga!

"Strange Tales" #2 of 3
I'm sure Josh and I will be putting together another double-manned review of this fun title.

"Luke Cage Noir" #3 of 4
I've been very much enjoying this series. The first more than the second, but still. And I may break my "NO VARIANTS" rule a second time... They're both gorgeous! Which one to choose!?

(And, drum rolllll...)
"Planetary" #27
The final issue of a brilliant, brilliant series. This is the kind of comics that in the 26 issues published so far, I could count the things that were mishandled or that I didn't LIKE IMMENSELY on a single hand. Exciting.

(The odds and ends that might catch my fancy)
"Cowboy Ninja Viking" #1
This looks crazy! Could be crazy fun!

"Models, INC." #2
I got a kick out of the first issue. We'll see.

"Haunt" #1
This looks like a bit of a mess, but a very intriguing mess. It's co-written by Todd McFarlane and Robert Kirkman. If you're not a big comics reader and you aren't familiar with both or either of those names I don't think I can successfully communicate to you in this space how dramatically different these two writers' work is. This SOUNDS like a re-tread in several ways of McFarlane's "Spawn" series, but you never know.

I'm a pretty conservative comics reader, money-wise. So that's a pretty big week for me: 4 I'm definitely going to buy and 3 I'm thinking about buying.

UPDATE: 10/9/2oo9
See! Fucking huge! Okay, it's only four...

Jon's Looking Forward (a little behind) and Jon's just looking (9/30/2oo9)

(The standard "Amazing" and guest appearances:)
"the Amazing Spider-Man" #607
I'm not the first one to say it: Three times a month is too much.

"The Punisher" Annual #1
Well, Spider-Man going crazy was fun in the Mister Negative mini. Maybe we'll get a nice repeat of that or a repeat of the hilarious Punisher/Spider-Man team-up from a few years ago.

"Spider-Man: Clone Saga" #1 of 6
I gotta admit that as a child of the Eighties and Nineties who started reading Spider-Man, his favorite major continuing character, while the original 616 Clone Saga as it saw print was just starting? I gotta check this shit out.


(Hey there good-lookin':)
"Batman: Widening Gyre" #2
I loved the first issue of this fucking crazy series. Looking forward to getting my hands on this.

"Deformitory"
Well this looks interesting... Weird, but interesting.


So in bad local news:
I lost my job at the comic-book store last week. So I am now unemployed in the big city. For the second time. And my apologies for not having as much of a presence on this blog of late as a result.

So, if you know of any openings in any corner of the comic-book industry. Let a guy know!