This book is an giant-size hardcover annotated edition of “Watchmen” graphic novel. Presenting the entire originRe-discovering a known masterpiece
This book is an giant-size hardcover annotated edition of “Watchmen” graphic novel. Presenting the entire original work, in black & white, along with reference notes per page. Also includes a timeline of the events in the story.
Creative Team:
Writer: Alan Moore
Illustrator: Dave Gibbons
Editor of Annotated comments: Leslie S. Klinger
WHO WATCHES THE WATCHMEN?
None of you understand. I'm not locked up in here with YOU. You're locked up in here with ME.
I read Watchmen for the first time in 1998. I couldn’t do it before since getting that kind of graphic novels in my country (Costa Rica) was impossible then, and thanks to a tourist trip to USA, it was that the first thing that I do in a comic book store, it was looking for it and buying it, to read it once back home.
I didn’t know then, but this will be my first “meeting” with my favorite comic book writer (and while I prefer V for Vendetta over Watchmen (yes, I know, it’s not natural, hehe) still I have a high respect for this graphic masterpiece.
Watchmen was a pioneer work that in past decades, when comic books were only avalaible in specialized comic book stores, Watchmen was avalaible in regular book stores, featuring in the Time Magazine Top100 of the best books ever written.
Since Watchmen changed the game, it was one of the first comic books distinguished to be named “graphic novel” since this is without a doubt a work of literature…
…only having drawing along with it.
My favorite character in Watchmen is Rorschach.
Never compromise.
This book is decomposition about the genre of super-heroes and how it was time to “mature” the comic books and making it a writing format not only for kids, but also for adults. Moreover, showing how the super-heroes could impact in the real world, changing it from its original timeline.
Everything begins with a murder. A super-hero is killed and it’s suspected that maybe somebody is starting to assassinate masked heroes. An investigation is soon initiated by one of the few super-heroes still in operations, not matter that US Government already declared it illegal.
What's happened to the American dream?
It came true. You're lookin' at it.
Past & present intermixed to discover the stories of the main characters and how they were pivotal in the new history of the world.
ANNOTATING WATCHMEN? TALL ORDER
We're all puppets, Laurie. I'm just a puppet who can see the strings.
I have read several times Watchmen (along with watching several time also, the film adaptation), and I naively thought I already know everything that I can get to know about this masterpiece story…
…I was wrong!
God doesn't make the world this way. We do.
This annotated edition opened once again my eyes to Watchmen, and realizing many things that they were there, in plain sight, but I wasn’t careful to watch them.
Of course, sometimes I wondered why there were some pages without any note at all, since I think that hardly there is one single page where nothing happens. Always is happening something in Watchmen, so while definitely this was a titanic Enterprise, offering insightful comments and information, it was curious to find some pages without something to say about them.
Thanks for this annotated edition, it radically changed my appreciation about Watchmen in its graphic novel format, introducing to me, a lot of details and background information that it’s quite relevant to increase one’s reading experience about this bold tale.
I read a chapter per day, since there were a lot of information to process and also I want to enjoy the new type of reading experience.
I won’t spoil those awesome details, so don’t worry about it. It's better if you get surprised in the same way than me, while passing the pages and reading the priceless background information about what it's displayed on them.
I only can tell you that if you’re fan of Watchmen, and not matter if you already have a regular TPB edition…
…this is a MUST-HAVE edition, and you won’t regret having bought it…
This is the twenty-third volume of “The Walking Dead", collecting the comic book issues from #133 to #138.
Creative Team:The Whisperers are coming!
This is the twenty-third volume of “The Walking Dead", collecting the comic book issues from #133 to #138.
Creative Team:
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Illustrators: Charlie Adlard
Additional gray tones to inking: Cliff Rathburn
Chapter Twenty-Three
WHISPERS INTO SCREAM
You will fear us.
The different communities are doing their best to get civilized again, but how smart can be trying to get back that, in a world where modern society collapsed beyond any hope to rise again?
Survival instinct has been the way of life since zombies started to walk.
Killing has been the only safe way to remain alive.
They thought that they were safe now.
Zombies. The Governor. The Hunters. Negan.
Rick’s group seemed already having faced all the possible worst that this apocalyptic world could bring into them.
The war between Rick's allies and Negan's Saviours continue!
This is the twenty-first volume of “The Walking Dead", collecting the comic book issueThe war between Rick's allies and Negan's Saviours continue!
This is the twenty-first volume of “The Walking Dead", collecting the comic book issues from #121 to #126.
Creative Team:
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Illustrators: Charlie Adlard
Additional gray tones to inking: Cliff Rathburn
Chapter Twenty-One
ALL OUT WAR – PART TWO
…go get Rick. I know he’s in there. The adults need to talk.
The war of Rick’s group against Negan and his Saviors continue.
The chains of command suffered some shaking in certain communities.
And Negan still commits negligent mistakes in his war strategies and as I commented before, I can’t cope to have such big stuff villain to be turned into something so mundane and fallible.
Also, taking in account the bloody bodycount...
...in a title like The Walking Dead, I think this is the “safest” war ever!
Where nobody of importance is falling.
Wars have casualties, it’s not something any good,...
...but it’s part of it.
And when nobody that you care about dies in the middle of an “all out war”...
...well, you have trouble to regard it as something really epic.
The war between Rick and Negan is closer and closer!
This is the nineteenth volume of "The Walking Dead", collecting the comic book issues from #10The war between Rick and Negan is closer and closer!
This is the nineteenth volume of "The Walking Dead", collecting the comic book issues from #109 to #114.
Creative Team:
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Illustrators: Charlie Adlard
Additional gray tones to inking: Cliff Rathburn
Chapter Nineteen
MARCH TO WAR
You’ll get out of this. We don’t die… you and me… That’s the rule. We don’t die...
Negan yet again proves that you never can guess what he will do next, but you can bet that he has his own code of honor and each movement made is carefully planned ahead.
Meanwhile, Rick is making alliances with the Hilltop and the Kingdom and preparing to go to war.
However, Rick still doesn’t know enough about Negan and his Saviors and that terrible lack of information will turn Alexandria in a earlier war zone, where nobody would be safe and blood will run not matter what.
As in real life, knowing who is right and who is wrong is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish.
This is a single comic book issue given in the Free Comic Book Day event of 2018, featuring a exclusive premiere of a Ghost in the Shell for free!
This is a single comic book issue given in the Free Comic Book Day event of 2018, featuring a exclusive premiere of a complete, all-new short story of “Ghost in the Shell”..
Creative Team:
Writer: Max Gladstone
Illustrator: David López
Colors: Nayoung Kim
AUTOMATIC BEHAVIOR
This is a great preview of the upcoming Hardcover Anthology of Ghost in the Shell expected to be published in September 2018, because if the rest of stories are the same as great as this one,...
...oooooh! You’re for a show alright!
Major Motoko Kusanagi and Section Chief Daisuke Aramaki, traveled to Shanghai, China, for an undercover mission, pretending to be diplomatic representatives of Japan, in the signing of a trade agreement, to investigate a possible rogue involvement of some Chinese officials in the attack to a mining operation in Africa.
The analysis of the attack indicates the use of combat tactics of an American Special Ops Team, that it shouldn’t exist anymore.
During the opening party for the Trade Summit, Aramaki is kidnapped by rogue mechas, and Major is alone in a foreign country, without weapons or personnel back-up, for not saying that she isn’t sanctioned for any of both nations, Japan and China, to intervene in the Aramaki’s rescue…
This is the eighteen volume of “The Walking Dead", collecting the comic book issues from #103 to #108.
Creative Team:
Writer: Negan is here to stay!
This is the eighteen volume of “The Walking Dead", collecting the comic book issues from #103 to #108.
Creative Team:
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Illustrators: Charlie Adlard
Additional gray tones to inking: Cliff Rathburn
Chapter Eighteen
WHAT COMES AFTER
Let me put this to you as clearly as I can. I’m not in charge anymore. Negan is.
Rick doesn’t know too much about Negan and his Saviors’ army and without knowledge would be reckless to engage against them, so Rick will have to do one of the most difficult things to do…
…kneel before Negan.
Enter: Ezekiel…
…the eccentric leader of The Kingdom (oh, and he has a tiger… really, I’m not kiddin’!).
Rick’s world is getting larger and larger. First, Rick’s group settled in Alexandria, then they knew about The Hilltop, later came the Saviors and their secret headquarters “The Sanctuary”, and now there was The Kingdom.
The Kingdom is yet another community (with certain offbeat customs) under the extortion of Negan.
However, while Rick is aware of how larger his world has become, he is aware of something else.
Each time, there are more other communities in the area…
…and only one community loyal to Negan.
And something more important, if The Hilltop has a Jesus, it seems that The Sanctuary has a “Judas”....more
This is the comic book issue #3 of the event “Doomsday Clock” that it will be a maxiseries of 12 issues.
Creative Team:
Writer: GeoffWorlds collide!
This is the comic book issue #3 of the event “Doomsday Clock” that it will be a maxiseries of 12 issues.
Creative Team:
Writer: Geoff Johns
Illustrator: Gary Frank
THE PLOT THICKENS
I am aware of too many comic book fans that think that it’s heresy to read a sequel to Watchmen not written by Alan Moore, and I have to admit that I was between those at first, but luckily I gave it a chance to the maxiseries, and trust me, you won’t find a better fan of Alan Moore in my country (Costa Rica), I have read a LOT of Moore’s material (just check my “Read List” on my Goodreads profile) and even when I was giving a chance to Doomsday Clock, I guess that at the bottom of my mind, I was sure that this new maxiseries won’t be as good as the original one…
…well, I am not so sure anymore.
Let’s not fight over if this new maxiseries would be better than the revered Watchmen, since even in my own very personal humble opinion about Moore’s work, I think that V for Vendetta is his truly opera prima, bute ven considering that this new maxiseries would accomplish the preposterous effort of placing side by side with the still considered the best comic book story ever, along with being a sequel to that very storyline not done by the original creative team…
…well, it’s obvious that it has be too far-fetched.
However, in this third issue, Geoff Johns is showing that he did his homework, he read the original material, but even more crucial, he watched and understood how Alan Moore delivered it to the readers, how the original writer set the many different pieces, here and there,…
…and more important, without falling into a poor copy, but honestly presenting a truly inspired and respectful sequel, totally worthy to be read and enjoyed.
Because Watchmen never was only about a shattered super-hero team, but the storytelling was enforced by separated prose material, delivered it along with each chapter that it was as relevant as the narrative exposed in a graphic way. And Geoff Johns understood that and he’s plotting his own prose material that it’s delightful to read.
Alan Moore will remain as my number one comic book writer, but certainly I am honestly pleased to find that Geoff Johns isn’t just doing a commercial approach just to sell comic books and make money, but definitely a real work of smart writing, adding new interesting characters to the lore of Watchmen.
This is the comic book issue #2 of the event “Doomsday Clock” that it will be a maxiseries of 12 issues.
CreThe search for Dr. Manhattan continues!
This is the comic book issue #2 of the event “Doomsday Clock” that it will be a maxiseries of 12 issues.
Creative Team:
Writer: Geoff Johns
Illustrator: Gary Frank
OF MEN AND WATCHERS
The Earth of Watchmen keeps falling into a certain doom.
The only way to stop a real apocalypse there is to find Dr. Manhattan and bring him back.
However, it’s most likely that Dr. Manhattan doesn’t want to be found.
The only clue leads to the Earth of the “main” DC Universe where Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and many others live.
The next generation of a fallen hero joins forces with the most unlikely saviour along with the forced recruitment of a couple of criminals. One heck of dysfunctional team and they’re not the best hope,…
…BUT the only hope for the Earth of Watchmen.
Arriving to an Earth where things are way different than in theirs, they need to learn quickly how things are done there if they have a possibility to accomplish their impossible task of finding a god hidden between mortal men.
This is a special publication of “The Walking Dead”, not part of the regular run, therefore, it’s onBeware alive ones, here comes Negan & Lucille!
This is a special publication of “The Walking Dead”, not part of the regular run, therefore, it’s only avalaible (at this moment) in this very hardcover publication.
Creative Team:
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Illustrators: Charlie Adlard
Additional gray tones to inking: Cliff Rathburn
HEY, BATTER BATTER!
It’s time I told you about Lucille.
Negan is my favorite character in The Walking Dead (comic books and TV adaptation), obviously I had read the comic books and watch the TV series since their own beginnings and I like several character on each version, but once Negan appears…
…the voting get closed. Negan won.
He’s not only the most complex villain (and certainly The Governor was way cool) so far, not matter that the series would meet yet another formidable villain in future chapters, but…
…Negan (in my personal opinion) remains as not only the most complex villain but also the most interesting character since you never know what he’d do next but…
…you can be sure that it’ll be awesome and shocking the storyline.
He is smart, he watches ahead of the present, he has his own unique “code of honor” (for lacking of a better term), and…
…he has Lucille, a wood bat covered in barb wire (and old traces of blood), his own signature weapon, which is something to fear…
…Negan will talk, and you’ll be mesmerized with his conversation (like in a Tarantino film) but once “Lucille” got into the conversation…
…the blood will run big time.
Just add a cool leather jacket and black gloves…
…and an icon (in comic books and TV) is born.
In this special publication, you’ll find a prequel, exploring the past of Negan. What he was before the zombie break, why his bat is named Lucille (which was quite obvious), how he was at the beginning of his survival trip in the roads once the zombies take over, the first people he meet, and how the fearsome Saviours born under his rule.
I'd wish that it would be a longer narrative with more content, but still I am glad of having bought it and being able to read it.
This is the seventeenth volume of “The Walking Dead”, collecting the comic book issues from #97 to #102.
Creative Team:
Writer: RobHere comes Negan!
This is the seventeenth volume of “The Walking Dead”, collecting the comic book issues from #97 to #102.
Creative Team:
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Illustrators: Charlie Adlard
Additional gray tones to inking: Cliff Rathburn
Chapter Seventeen
SOMETHING TO FEAR
Rating: ***** ( 5 stars )
I’m just getting started. Lucille is thirsty.
A new era of The Walking Dead begins, and we get back to Rick Grimes and his group of survivors in a dystopian world where zombies roam it.
At the ending of the previous volume, Rick’s group realized that their world is larger than they thought.
They meet the community at The Hilltop.
Rick negotiated a deal with Gregory (Hilltop’s self-appointed leader) that, in change of supplies (mostly food), to eliminate the threat of “The Saviors”, a violent group that sells protection in change of half of everything of value of each community. Rick’s confidant to be able to beat those so called “Saviors”.
Rick was wrong, deadly wrooooong…
Enter: Negan…
…the fearsome leader of “The Saviors”.
Rick’s group has dealt with merciless enemies like The Governor and also The Hunters, but nothing, NOTHING of that was any useful to prepared them to face Negan, and soon enough they would know that they were out of their league, paying it that learning with precious blood.
Negan isn’t only the new villain, but also is the most complicated and hard-to-predict character ever appeared in The Walking Dead so far. Easily my new favorite character in the whole series (both in comic book than TV).
Zombies are easy, humans are hard.
You know what to expect from a zombie,...
...but a human?
You never can be certain.
Rick isn’t certain of anything about Negan and his Saviors.
And the blood, too precious blood, will start to run a lot soon.
This is the comic book issue #1, lenticular cover, of the event “Doomsday Clock” that it will be a maxiseries of 12 issues.
CrThe clock is ticking!
This is the comic book issue #1, lenticular cover, of the event “Doomsday Clock” that it will be a maxiseries of 12 issues.
Creative Team:
Writer: Geoff Johns
Illustrator: Gary Frank
AFTER WATCHMEN
Have you ever wondered what happened after the end of the original Watchmen (by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons)?
Well, here you’ll find out!
But Doomsday Clock seems that it’s a story so big that it won’t be possible to be contained in the alternate world where it happened…
…and crossing over to the DC universe where Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and many other will play pivotal roles.
Rorschach returns but he’s not who you remember to be and he got a new partner since they have a whole new different mission…
…find god.
But it’s not a religious mission, but one to try to stop the destruction of their world, and they have only three, nope scratch that, now only two hours to do that…
…and the certainty of success isn’t guaranteed.
However the new fighting team-up of the new Rorschach and his secret partner won’t be enough to such endeavor so…
…they need to recruit a new watchman but since things never go as they are planned…
…they’ll got two for the price of one!
The American dream became a nightmare and the ramifications will shake more than one reality!
This is the fifteenth volume of "The Walking Dead", collecting the comic book issues from #85 to #9The aftermath of an awful zombie massive attack
This is the fifteenth volume of "The Walking Dead", collecting the comic book issues from #85 to #90.
Creative Team:
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Illustrators: Charlie Adlard
Additional gray tones to inking: Cliff Rathburn
Chapter Fifteen
WE FIND OURSELVES
Good effort everyone – but save your bullets. I’ll take it from here.
Maybe the zombie herd is over, but hardly Rick’s group is safe again (as if anyone could be really safe in an apocalyptical world overwhelmed by zombies), and definitely they got out from that last struggle, (literally) soaked with blood, all over their bodies and deeply inside of their souls.
Zombies or Walkers, they have been so much in their world that being repulsive for them is no longer an issue.
Hope is not here anymore, but the quest for recovering hope in the community of Alexandria maybe it will be the only thing saving them from getting totally insane.
However, they still are in the slow and hard working process of finding hope, so there is still plenty of time to get crazy between each other.
And if they really want someday to have hope again, somebody will have to take the hard decisions...
...and when the hard calls rise...
...only Rick can take them.
And they are clueless of that their troubles haven't yet to begin....more
I bought this in its single comic book issues, but I’d chosen this TPB edition to be able of making a better overalThe lightning can strike twice!
I bought this in its single comic book issues, but I’d chosen this TPB edition to be able of making a better overall review.
This TPB edition collects “DK III: The Master Race” #1-9.
Creative Team:
Writers: Frank Miller & Brian Azzarello
Illustrator: Andy Kubert
Inker: Klaus Janson
Colors: Brad Anderson
FOUR TO RETURN, THREE STRIKES & NINE MASTER(Y)
When Frank Miller did the first delivery in this saga, The Dark Knight Returns, in four parts, back then in 1986, he got back the character of Batman to his original grim & gritty roots, when he was created in 1939, becoming a staple in Batman literature, one of the best graphic novels ever made.
However, when Frank Miller returns to make the sequel, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, this time in three parts, in 2002, well, everything went wrong, even the absence of Klaus Janson in the inks was felt, since not only the writing didn’t work, but not even the artwork was in the least any acceptable.
So, having one masterpiece and one cr…mmh…aah…mediocre work, two extremes in the bar of comic book quality, it was impossible to bet how the third delivery would result. But I knew that for better or worse, I couldn’t just let it pass, since deep in my soul, I still had hope that the lightning would strike (in the good way) again…
…and happily, it did!
This time, Frank Miller, now in 2017, in DK III: The Master Race, it was needed nine parts to make it possible to be a success (at least in my humble opinion). Miller got the cooperation of Brian Azzarello to bring order to the mess resulted in the second volume, and even good ol’ Klaus Janson returns to bring his priceless detail in the inks, that along the new addition of Andy Kubert at the pencils, definitely it's a gorgeous book to look at, and with Miller and Azzarello writing, also a delight to read.
BATMAN AND THE WHOLE WORLD
I can’t lie that I could wish a totally Batman-focused story, without involving the rest of DC Universe. Frank Miller did outstanding jobs in The Dark Knight Returns & Batman: Year One, using only the already vast Batman inner universe, BUT after those, in works like The Dark Knight Strikes Again & All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, it seemed like Miller was unable to deliver more Batman tales without having to involve the Justice League and the rest of DC Universe, that if the the titles would clearly indicate Justice League, I wouldn’t complain (much), but if you put just Batman in the title, well, you’d expect that it should be a story about Batman and his direct related characters.
Here, it isn’t any different, BUT the good side was that finally it worked. Maybe NOT as a Batman story per se, BUT it worked as a good Justice League story, having Batman in a pivotal role.
The brave and the bold move here, it was that Azzarello helped Miller to prove that his expanded universe, that it was just awful in The Dark Knight Strikes Again, it can work, with the proper adjustments.
SUPERMAN & BATMAN, THE WORLD’S FINEST…AGAIN
Since the first volume, it was famous for the battle between Batman and Superman, and it was clear that the lineament by DC, in its universe post-Crisis, it was that Superman and Batman should fight all the possible times.
I can understand that they have very opposite ways to see life and how to impart justice, but I am old school, my first contact with those two characters where in Silver Age comics and Super Friends cartoons, so to me, they were allies, the were friends, they were the world’s finest.
So, I am thrilled to see that finally, they are buddies again, they still have different points of view, but friendship isn’t about cloned thinking, friendship is about mutual respect by the ideas of the other.
She was introduced in The Dark Knight Returns and since then, we have been able to watch her growing up, in one of the most difficult places to do that, Gotham City, and she proved that she was the one to be the stone where Bruce Wayne can lean on, trusting that she’d take the best call on each situation, even if that decision wasn’t the one that Bruce Wayne would take.
Batman’s sidekicks wasn’t about having help in the now, but finding someone able to take his legacy in the future. Not matter, how much times, Bruce Wayne would cheat death, on his own making or by the actions of others, but sooner or later, he knows that he’ll need to give up his cowl to someone else…
…and Carrie is that one. No a single doubt about it.
Because, she won’t be the same as good…
…she will be even better.
She wasn’t recruited by The Batman…
…The Batman was recruited by her.
SO, WHAT THE HECK IS THIS ABOUT?
In this third volume of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight, the humankind is facing the threat of new kind of master race, a religious zealot army of Kryptonians with the goal of becoming our new gods. And if that wasn’t bad enough…
…Lara, the daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman is taking the side of the evil Kryptonians.
Lara wasn’t raised by humble farmers in Kansas. Lara was trained by her mother to be the best possible warrior, and Lara is too aware that she is superior than any amazon.
She is offered stop meddling between the Earth’s ants, and taking her rightful place above us, way up in the sky.
The Batman has been retired (again) for several time, but in the light of this new global menace… …the Dark Knight is needed again.
However, even Batman will need all the possible assistance on this…
…the Justice League is needed again.
But the team is broken, each member is broken on their own ways, and the zealot Kryptonians are swift, blunt and merciless, so they’ll be taken apart and beaten…
…hard…
…too hard.
The world is on its darkest hour, so it will need all the possible hope, willpower, courage, speed, commitment and intelligence…
This single comic book is part of the Free Comic Book Day event in 2017.
Creative Team:
Creator, WrAn insanely funny journey through Image universe!
This single comic book is part of the Free Comic Book Day event in 2017.
Creative Team:
Creator, Writer & Illustrator: Skottie Young
Colors: Jean-Francois Beaulieu
IMAGE UNIVERSE DIDN’T HAD A CHANCE AGAINST HER!
In case you’re not familiar with the title, let me give you a brief orientation.
I Hate Fairyland is a comic book title from Image Comics, creation by the talented and popular artist Skottie Young, where the main character, Gertrude, got into the Fairyland when she was a sweet and kind ten-years old girl, BUT…
…she never was able to get out from there and 27 years after of looking for the infamous key to escape from Fairyland, well, she became a psychotic killer, but still in the body of a ten-year old girl (imagine the girl from Interview with the Vampire but Gertrude is really able to defend herself). So, after being trapped for almost three decades in Fairyland, Gertrude now is a fearsome menace killing anything alive that cross her path, with the only companion of a talking insect named Larry.
I got hooked with Skottie Young’s work when I got his comic book saga of graphic adaptations of the classic stories of Oz (which I highly recommend to you!), so I didn’t hesitate to pick this comic book on the 2017 Free Comic Book Day event.
This tale is set in the middle of Gertrude’s quest for the key to get out of Fairyland, where she is informed that there are other “lands” beyond Fairyland and where it’s possible to find “the Partners” that they may be have the power to get her back to her own reality, so Gertrude engages into the lands of…
…Image Comics Universe!
This is where the fun begins!
Gertrude,along with Larry, gets into the “lands” of…
…The Walking Dead, East of West, Black Science, Southern Bastards, Paper Girls, Invincible, Chew, The Wicked + The Divine, plus an all-out rumble with characters from Youngblood, Witchblade, The Darkness, Savage Dragon and many others! …
…and of course…
…wait for it…
…wait a little more…
…Spawn!!!
Oh, yeah!!!
If you’re fan of Skottie Young and/or fan in general of Image Comics universe, definitely this a comic book to get!
