Dawn of the Dumb - Charlie Brooker

I think Brooker is probably the funniest writer in Britain at the moment.  His Guardian columns, even when they're mediocre, are streets ahead of any other columnist.  He's also currently being much funnier than anyone else on the 10 o Clock Show.

This book is a collection of his writing from around 2005 and 2006.  The articles are taken from both his Monday column and also his weekend Screen-Burn. So, it's a nice mix of TV rants and freeform rants.

Good, honest, vitriolic fun.

Hellboy vol.1: Seed of Destruction - Mike Mignola & John Byrne

The first collection of Hellboy stories and it is cracker.  I've actually read more of the Hellboy spin-offs than I have the actual books.  I've even seen more Hellboy films than I have read the books.;  It's nice then to finally get to grips with one of them especially as I have book 2 waiting in the wings also.

The art, as you'd imagine, is beautiful and full of shade and nuance.  From the off both Hellboy and Rasputin are both forceful and dynamic on the page.  I'm not a big fan of the whole Lovecraft pantheon type stuff but here, kept to a minimum, it works well.

The story is an origin tale that gives away very little with regard to H's origin.  It has a nicely Gothic setting and things aren't quite what they seem.

Lots of fun to read and I wholeheartedly intend to catch up on the ones I don't have.

Vampire Hunter D - Hideyuki Kikuchi

I found this and a couple of his other books in a bargain bookshop the other day. They were a good  price and despite a general ambivalence towards manga I grabbed them.

It was an odd little read. I'm not sure if the writer has / had an odd style or if it's the translator who is at fault.  Some of the passages are really quite strangely written.  For instance, when D and Rei-Ginsei are fighting and D realises that he shouldn't stab at the heart D yells, "That was close" to which his opponent replies "I can't believe you changed your target at the last second...". So far so naff but then Kikuchi begins and explanation of this with...

'Here's what they meant by "That was close" and "you changed your target.".

It really is quite odd.

The story world was nicely realised though and the whole thing romped along with a vaguely spaghetti western flavour to it.  I must admit I quite enjoyed myself but i think maybe not enough to read the others any time soon.

Horus Heresy: Garro - Legion of One - James Swallow

The second of the Garro audiobooks sees him head for Istvaan III and recruit Gavriel Loken for his new un-named (Grey Knights) legion,.

It's a nifty little tale concerning Garro & his Ultramarine & World Eater companions attempts to defeat an army of plague zombies and the madness that has made the abandoned Loken convinced he is Cerberus the guardian of Death.  It's all a little daft but that's where the fun lies in the 40k (& 30k) books.

The reader, Toby Longworth, is solid as ever but even he can't make the cod-Latin sound anything other than ridiculous and clunky.

I like Swallow's writing and these two audiobookshave been fun although I thought they'd make more of the recruiting than just the two.  Be interesting to see what happens next.

Doctor Who: Dead Air - James Goss

This was the last of the David Tenant audiobooks and it's a pretty good ending.

This is the Doctor on his own, no assistant to get in the way although he does acquire a scouse DJ called Layla along the way.  The story has a Sapphire & Steel vibe to it with a Time Lord weapon called the 'Hush' trying to increase its range and power through some nicely devious machinations that only become apparent at the end.

Tenant is a great reader and he really does have his Doctor down absolute pat.  His reading is fun and quirky with some nicely done voice work that perfectly suited the story.  I enjoyed this one a lot.

Jack of Fables vol.7: The New Adventures of Jack and Jack - Bill Willingham & others

I'm not the biggest fan of the Jack books.  I've bought them mostly because the main book is so damn good. This one I rented from the library.

It's actually pretty good.  The book is split between a storyline featuring Jack of Fables slowly turning into a dragon, due to him hoarding all that gold he has hidden in his suitcase and a better storyline featuring Jack Frost as he returns the Ice Queen's powers and embarks on a life of selfless heroics accompanied by Gepetto's wooden owl McDuff.  This tale is fairly light and fluffy but does have a couple of fun notions running through it.

The tagline at the end of the book makes the claim that J. of F.'s transformation is permanent and that the book is all Jack Frost from now on but these taglines tend to lie a lot so we'll see.

Doctor Who: Snowglobe 7 - Mike Tucker

Another Earth based romp for The Doctor & Martha as they find themselves inside a giant glacier filled dome near the beach in Dubai.

Odd prehistoric markings have been found preserved in the ice and a number of the research team have either lapsed into a coma or are just plain missing.  The Doctor soon discovers that it is the last of a race called the Gappa (part spider, part monkey, part bat) which lays it's eggs in the heads of it's victims which is nice of them.

It was a fairly ragtag journey to the end with a fairly nice but awfully short zombie scene but nothing much else to recommend it.  Again though, the writer seems at a complete loss as to what to do with Martha.

Doctor Who: The Last Voyage - Dan Abnett

I've had a few of these original 10th Doctor audiobooks knocking around for a while now but hadn't got around to listening to them.  Went for a walk today with my new camera around the local park which seemed a golden opportunity to give one a try.

The story is fairly light.  The maiden voyage of some new type of drive for space travel. It all goes horribly wrong and everyone disappears except for a stewardess and a couple of other people.  Unfortunately there're also some shiny people-things appearing and melting the non-shiny people and unfortunately there's no-one flying the ship.  Into this mess walks the Doctor and sorts it out with relative ease.

It's all a little unremarkable and I really expected more from Abnett.  Still, it passed some time on my wander and Tenant reads it fairly well.

Parliament of Justice - Michael Oeming & Neil Vokes

A short one from the artist of Powers but this time it's his words paired with some other cats art.

The story is a fairly basic Batman & Robin riff.  The two characters are called Parliament and Gypsum and exist in a Gotham-esque gothic city of ultra rich and ultra poor.  The former not so much looking down upon the latter as utterly despising them.  At it's heart there is a nice little parody and the story itself goes somewhere fairly interesting but it's all a little short.

The art wasn't to my tastes.  It's not awful but I'd have rather seen Oeming's own doodles in place of Vokes.

Not as good as I was hoping and annoyingly brief but enjoyable none the less.

Powers vol.12: The 25 Coolest Dead Superheroes of All Time - Brian Bendis & Michael Oeming

And so for now it ends.  This is the last of the big stack of Powers books that I bought recently.  There is another just out but it's pretty pricey still so it'll be a while before I get hold of a copy.

This one finally brings an end to the Deena storyline as they catch the people behind the Powers virus.

It's got a fair bit going for it but I found this one to be a bit of a mess.  It never really flowed and seemed a messy sort of ending but then I suppose endings are generally fairly messy.  It was nice to see Deena get a good send off even if she does end up in tears.

Looking forward to more of these.

Doctor Who: Martha in the Mirror - Justin Richards

One of the things I like most about these books is how quick they are to read.  Started this one yesterday evening and then read the last 70 pages this morning.

Richards wrote the first of these new type Doctor books - The Clockwise Man - which is probably my favourite of all the ones I've read thus far.  This one is similar in a few ways - an unusual character around which the story coalesces, the placing of a little kid within the dynamics of the narrative and some others but it was, under these surface similarities a fun read.

The Doctor and Martha arrive in a castle in preparation for hosting a peace treaty between two warring races - a people race and a crocodile race - unfortunately the crocodile fellas have hidden an army within a dimensional portal inside a mirror left in the castle.  Even more unfortunately the mirror is more than they realise.

There's also a sub-story regarding a little girl named Janna which was fun but a bit obvious.

I really did enjoy this one though.  It was a decent romp with some good characters and a nicely twisted sort of vibe.

American Vampire vol.1 - Scott Snyder, Stephen King & Rafael Albuquerque

It took me a little while to get into this one. I had a couple of false starts before I found the vibe of it and really started reading it.

The story is of a newly created vampire. A new type of one that is particularly American.  His story is told in two parts - simultaneously.  One part (written by King) is Skinner Sweets' origin tale, his genesis.  It's set in the old west where Sweet, an outlaw, is captured, tries to escape, is turned, buried, escapes, is buried again and finally gets away.

The second tale set some 16 years later has Sweet acting out some sort of Machiavellian scheme against the old vampires.  He creates a new vamp (an actress) and sits back and watches her tear through the ranks of the old guard.

It was a strange little book this one.  It really never felt like it had any real clout.  The idea felt fuzzy and the two stories were never more than vaguely readable.  I'd check out the second volume should it ever be put in front of me but I'm glad my local library stocked this and I didn't buy it.

Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter - A. E. Moorat

Yes this was every bit as ridiculous as the name implies.

The story concerns the young Queen's ascent to the throne and the discovery that there was an age old demonic conspiracy against her and that she was unwittingly on the wrong side.

For the first two thirds of the book I was quite enjoying it. It had some nice set pieces, it played fast and loose with Victoria's life story and in Maggie Brown (the royal protector) it had a funny and engaging character.  About two thirds in though I lost all impetus to read it and the last bit became a bit of a chore.  I don't think it was the books fault, it pretty much ended as it began.  I just lost interest in it.

I did finally finish it some two weeks later and it certainly wasn't awful.  Mindless, cliched and fairly inconsequential yes. But not awful.

Prelude to Deadpool Corps - Victor Gischler & lots of artists

Deadpool is one of those characters that I'd heard lots about but had very little exposure to.  I'd not read any of his comics but had seen the character in the Hulk vs Wolverine cartoon where he was excellent fun and also of course his sort of appearance in the Wolverine movie.
This 5 issue mini is as the name suggests a scene setter for a Deadpool series featuring the 5 Deadpools - the obvious one, 'Tito' (the kid), 'Cujo' (the dog), 'Shorty No Pockets' (the disembodied zombie head) & 'Boobs' (the lady).
In this series we see them all collected together from Xavier's orphanage, a circus sideshow, a tropical island and a battle with General America.  It culminates with them winning a capture the flag competition against some colourful teddy bears and some robots in order to win the chance to save the multiverse.
It was silly but not really funny enough.  Some of the art was nice but Kyle Baker's remains as unappealing to me as ever.
OK but not great.

Tank Girl: The Royal Escape - Alan Martin & Rufus Dayglo

It's been a long while since I've read any Tank Girl. I love the old Deadline stuff and I still have my copy of the collection here. I also have the Alan Grant one (Apocalypse) and The Gifting here but I've yet to read them.
I got this one from the library last week and gave it a read.  To be perfectly honest it's a mess.  The fun was gone and the story was just piffle really.
I've never heard of the artist before but apparently he's done work for 2000AD.  His art was pretty solid. Very reminiscent of Jamie Hewlett but I wonder if that's deliberate for this project.  The colour palette was very limited, lots of green and red with occasional splashes of yellow and orange.
At this particular moment I'm thinking this is pretty much a dead product / concept / comic.

Justic League of America: The Lightning Saga - Brad Meltzer & Geoff Johns (plus lots of artists)

This, I think is the launch of the current re-invention of the Legion.  It is, to all intents and purposes a return to the old original series.  There are some strange tweaks here and there - like Wildfire having Red Tornado's body - but it's pretty faithful apart from that.
The writing is split into alternating chapters between the two writers.  It dies show a little but it's the spilt of the artists that's most jarring.  Most of it is pretty solid but Dale Eaglesham on chapter 4 really isn't up to it.  Stiff ugly and characterless. Like a considerably less talented Curt Swan.
The story seemed a little bit pointless but I'm sure at some point down the line I'll pick up something else that'll help me assemble the pieces. I know Karate Kid is all through 52 so Final Crisis seems the direction to head.
An interesting diversion. Nothing more.

Powers vol.11: Secret Identity - Brian Bendis & Michael Oeming

A strange one this time out. 
We see Walker coming to grips with a new role, new powers and a new relationship. 
Right in thew middle of this Queen Mab's husband is found murdered. Chaos and retribution abound as various members of her team either turn up dead or are murdered in front of Walker and Pilgrim.
The resolution of the book sees a new angle opening up as we now have demons thrown into the mix.
I'm not sure how I feel about this but it'll probably be interesting to see how it pans out.

Doctor Who:Hornet's Nest ep 1: The Stuff of Nightmares - Paul Magrs

This is the first of 5 of these Hornet's Nest stories that mark the first time Tom Baker has been talked into re-donning the scarf since he regenerated.
The story is pretty slight but good fun. It features Captain Mike Yates answering an ad in the paper that seems to have been placed there especially to catch his attention.  He answers , travels to a remote cottage and discovers the Doctor living there with a crotchety old housekeeper and a menagerie of stuffed animals that have a tendency to spring to life and attack.
The Doctor then relates the story of the Hornets that inhabit the brains of these ex-animals and of his first encounter with them. The rest of the series deals with subsequent dealings.
It's fab to hear Baker again.  He's on top form delivering some rapier lines of dialogue.  When the mind controlled taxidermist accuses him of being crackers the Doctor replies "Marvellous isn't it!" in his huge booming voice.  I was giggling for a mile (I was listening in my car).
Captain Yates is a good surprise too.  Richard Franklyn has a great voice for these audio plays.
Like I said the storyline is a little light and most of it involves the Doctor telling Captain Mike the story so far. Two other characters appear - and they only briefly - and all the tension is built through Baker's wonderful voice and some good music.
The prospect of another 4 of these is a nice thought and I've already loaded the second onto my little blue mp3 player.
Marvellous!

Powers vol.10: Cosmic - Brian Bendis & Michael Oeming

Better and better and better; and it didn't start off half bad.
Probably my favourite Power storyline so far.  There have been a couple of strong ones but this one rocked (as they say on TV)
The pair investigate a murder (guy squished by flying guy) only to discover that the dead guy is, not just a Power but the guardian of our entire galaxy (basically a Green Lantern).  Walker then through the course of the story inherits the guys powers and responsibilities but also finds a girlfriend.
Deanna on the other hand is being investigated by internal affairs and really struggling to deal with her new powers.  It looks like these new abilities are boosting her somehow as she leeches off of and kills some gangster type with the same powers and the FBI woman keeps commenting on how good she looks.
I'm really having to ration myself on these books as I've only 2 volumes left and I don't really want to just hurtle through them and squander the ride.

New Avengers / Transformers - Stuart Moore & Tyler Kirkham

As good as the artist on this piece of woefulness was you are never going to make a transformer look like anything other than a cheap plastic toy.
I  like that I missed being part of the transformer generation.  My little brother had them and I always thought of them as the most ridiculous excuse for a toy.  The robot bit was cool, the being able to change bit was cool too (apart from the useless giant gun) but it all looked so cheap and nasty.
Anyway the story has baddie robots using as Doc Doom (naffest villain ever) invented prism to start a war between Latveria and a neighbouring country.  The Avengers (Cap, Spidey, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Iron Man, Ms Marvel & Falcon) go in. Spidey is captured and used to boost their energies in ways barely explained and utterly nonsensical before the goodie robots turn up and everything stumbles to an end with a tedious inevitability.

JLA: The Tornado's Path - Brad Meltzer & Ed Benes

I got this out of the Library earlier today as I'd scored a copy of the JLA: Lightning Saga GN which follows on directly from this story.  Well, to be perfectly honest it follows on from the last page of this story when Trident is discovered to be from the 30th Century.
I've read this book before a couple of years ago and it's ok.  It's never going to be the best JLA, Grant Morrison has got those accolades pretty much sewn up, but it's solid enough.  It loses focus now and again but Meltzer has a solid grip on the characters and keeps up a nice pace.
The art i big and bold. Very much rooted in the Jim Lee / Todd McFalrane super-artists styles of the early nineties but nice enough.  Some of the poses he puts the female characters in are beyond suspect - the Black Canary stabby splash page springs to mind - but on the whole I quite liked it.
Which is pretty much how I felt of the book as a whole.