2017 books: 58-60

[the_siobhan]

One of our shelves was completely full of comics, most of them titles I got from my sister. So I'm now sorting through those and trying to figure out which ones I want to keep.


    

Preacher by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon A series of 9 books. This one was actually loaned to me by bcholmes. I asked to borrow it because we have occasionally been watching episodes of the TV show and although I can tell the story has been changed I couldn't remember enough detail to know how much. As it turns out, pretty much everything. The characters are the same and the central quest, but man the comics are way more deeply twisted and disturbing than anything you could ever put on a screen.

    

Mage by Matt Wagner This is a trilogy but I only have the first two. Basic story, some average dude meets a mage and weird shit starts happening. It becomes clear that average dude is the reincarnation of King Arthur and he must save the world from the forces of evil. It's a cute little comic, but the story is pretty simple and there isn't much in the way of individual character development. I didn't like it enough to seek out the remaining book.

    

Elfquest by Wendy and Richard Pini There are seven books in this series. I've finished the first five so I'm going to count this towards 2017. A tribe of elves that call themselves "Wolfriders" discover they aren't they only elves in the world and go on a quest to find their kin and their origins. Along the way they meet enemies who consist of humans, trolls and other elves. They also make allies are humans, trolls and other elves. I have a complicated relationship with these books. They were one of Fiona's favourites when she was a teenager and we used to geek out about them on a regular basis. On re-reading the story still really stands up. The artwork not so much, it's really a little more cutesy than I like, although you can really see the style mature over the course of the story.

Comments

[greylock]

I often struggle as to whether I should count comics towards my book total.
I think, yes.

I read the first issue of Preacher around the time the first episode came out, and enjoyed it. And was curious about the fact the first series is basically a prequel to the comics.

S2, which I gather hews closer to the comics, killed any interest I had in reading further. Pity.

I thought Elfquest was still going? (Checked with Wiki, it is). Never read them, but I seem to have known about them forever.