Pick Of The Weak

Amidst the crisis and the lockdown, we were able to hoard the following items.

Now we must admit that these things are not as good as clean drinking water, food, toilet paper or
rubbing alcohol but at least we are somewhat entertained enough before we die.

For after all, there is no friend as loyal as a book. As said by Ernest Hemingway , no less!

But enough talk, let's look at dem books, shall we?

Let's start with the most prominent one which is undoubtedly, Grendel #24 -25.
Titled Devil Reborn and Devil At Large respectively.
I haven't read either one before this documentation but I'd probably do so in the coming weeks.
The art does looks incredible

and these double spread covers really do look amazing.

But what really drew our attention were these wedding photos on issue #25.

Interlaced with his fan mails.
I think these were Matt Wagner's personal photos. Pretty neat and a rather belated congratulations on his wedding.

Next up is The Dragon : Blood And Guts.

Which isn't your typical Savage Dragon title as it is not written or drawn by Erik Larsen.

The story closely resembles a buddy cop comedy/drama from the 90's.

 And a few good puns and references are thrown in the mix.

Jack Kirby or someone closely resembling him (Chief Wisenberg)

also appears in the book. But knowing Larsen's love for all things
Kirby, this was most probably intentional.
This title had 2-3 more issues within its run, hopefully, I'd be able to find those back issues as well.

Right after that is 100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso.
Now, any random issues of 100 Bullets are but a staple at Booksales everywhere.
But what particularly caught our eye was THIS:

What are all these names doing in one book?
The answer is pretty simple.
Although the book typically looks like THIS:

All of those names were brought in to spice up some of the pages.
Which isn't as alienating as let's say Satan's Six (by Kirby & McFarlane, look it up) because they were all given single splash page to work with.
By: Joe Jusko ( but surprisingly enough, his contribution was not painted like a Marvel Masterpiece. Dyuskupo!)

By: Dave Gibbons

And
By: Frank Miller

Next up is Triple X by the Pander Bros.

Despite being heavily praised by Matt Wagner in a previous issue of Grendel.

Triple X does look a bit Aeon Flux-ish.

The anatomy and expression are kinda weird to browse through hence I'd probably
be reading this last.

The book itself is pretty thick and much to our dismay, I guess?

Rather obscured from view are
1. Void Trip.

With interior artworks looking like THESE:

Again I haven't read this one yet but the art style looks really promising.
And this knight character

heavily reminds us of the Ascorbic Acid Cecon Knight.

Jokes aside, this book was also partnered in by another preview title called Paradiso.

With interior artworks looking like THIS:

2. The Jaguar by Impact Comics.

Which is to my understanding was an imprint of DC Comics.
With interior pages looking like THESE:

I seriously skipped pass the comics and went straight to the ads.

Not only did he found gold in the Philippines.
He's also scamming helpless nerds for cash.

3. Kamandi Challenge.

Solely bought this for the Bruce Timm cover.
Sad to say but there are no Bruce Timm artworks inside.

With the first half of the book being drawn in a somewhat Kirby-esque fashion.

And hey, another cameo by Mr. Kirby!

Awesome!
And the second half being drawn in a more contemporary "C.B. Cebulski Approved" art style.

While still somewhat retaining some to little Kirby-esque architectural motifs.

And 4.The Phantom by Hermes Press.

We close out strong since this book is definitely a winner.

So much so that it would've made Lee Falk himself proud.

The dialogues are witty and the artwork has that dailies feel and look to it
but presented with bigger panels.

But the poses are somewhat unrealistic at times

but then again, this IS a comic book after all.

The book also features cover sketches, articles,

vintage ads for Hermes Press reprints / other titles

and these two absolutely badass blown-up panels.

Needless to say, this was THE book from this haul.

Next up is this Farside Collection entitled Unnatural Selections.

This is our second Gary Larson collection courtesy of Booksale.
I'm confident enough that I could eventually find all the books listed here.

2 down and several more to go!

Favorite strips:

Unnatural Selections was also kinda unique since this was the first time we've ever saw
a COLORED Farside strip. And not just any ol' strip. These are 3-4 pages worth of double spreads.

However the watercolors were not done by Larson himself, these were credited under Donna Pickert-Korris.
But still, for P35.00. This was definitely worth every buck..

And last but not the least is this Golden Super Adventure book: War Of The Gobots.

Gobots are a trio of robots from the 80's.

Kinda like The Transformers but not as famous.
Surprisingly enough, this book WAS drawn by someone famous.
Someone that goes by the name of

Surprisingly enough the robots do look the part

and the humans don't exactly look like The Vulture.

I specifically liked how Ditko depicted Leader-1's chest panels.

Which was probably achieved by using a correction pen.

And that's all of them.
These were some of the books we've really liked so far.

Well, this lockdown really really sucks!
You can't really do anything or go anywhere.
Might as well make the most out of it, I guess?
But hey, aren't you glad we're blogging again.

There are tons and tons of backlogs for us to talk about so stay tuned for even more post-apocalyptic entertainment, I guess?
See you on the other side of the dome, friends!