just finished the first 5 issues of 100 Bullets. does the story continue to weave around the gun and bullets or is it more episodic than that? or both?

No, it does not. It becomes far less episodic and becomes more about a secret society and their (former) hitmen. The story gets bigger and more confusing (or it was to me, reading it intermittently and forgetting who a lot of the people were), and the gun and bullets become almost an afterthought.

I read every issue when it came out and it was still really confusing most of the time.

Yeah, I kind of want to re-read it, and I kind of don't want to bother. I think the ending (not just the last issue, but the last couple of arcs) will still feel like a letdown even if I had a better idea of what had actually happened.

I can't think of anything that Busiek's done that I've ever really liked, and I'm sort of drawing a blank. I think I've only read Marvels and that JLA/Avengers crossover, neither of which blew me away. I'd probably benefit from flipping through some of his Avengers stories...

I just picked up more trades of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol and that Abe Sapien story that was drawn by Jason Shawn Alexander, who remains one of my favorite artists working today. oh and the first issue of Axe Cop, which really does read like an 8 year old is making it up on the spot. awesome.

I just got an email saying that they're re-releasing Gotham Central in a new format, which I'll probably buy since I lost my old ones and it is one of the best crime books ever written.

Yeah I don't think I ever would have bothered with Astro City if it hadn't come fairly soon after Marvels, which I did like a lot at the time.

What he's good at, I think, is convincing me that he has a reason to tell each one of the stories. Everything feels like it has a very legitimate, tangible point which is kind of a rarity in comics and just about everything else. His stuff has substance, even if it can feel a little clunky and overwrought sometimes.

As much fun as Bendis, Morrison, Ellis, and Ennis can be, I often come up fairly empty when I get to the end of their books.

i've just been reading the episodes on their website for the last 10 minutes. i'm hooked.

I picked it up at the store today and read the first couple of pages. I bought it.

eh, it all depends on the book and the level of dedication involved from the writer. Bendis rarely knocks me on my ass with his writing, but it's WAY more consistently enjoyable than Ellis, who has probably written as many books that I hate as ones that I believe are unparalleled genius. Ennis is great, but he definitely stays in his wheelhouse. Morrison is different, though. Whenever I am unimpressed with Morrison's work, I generally assume that either I missed something tiny in the plot to explain it all or that I'm not on enough mescaline. He's got plenty of work that I don't like, but it's never been short on subtlety. Even the electric Superman JLA period.

This is probably my biggest problem with him, in some cases. He's written some of my favorite books which were plenty weird and hallucinatory, at times at least, but often it seems to me like just doing something really weird and unexpected is an end unto itself in his stuff. I haven't gotten to the end of Invisibles yet, for instance, but on the whole I've found it to be more taxing than rewarding.

But I wasn't trying to say that Busiek's a better writer than Morrison or any of those other guys, really. I was just trying to get at what his strengths are.

So, the last issue of Joe the Barbarian finally came out. I loved this series, and would consider it a fine example of the type of work Grant Morrison can do when he's content with only being a little bit weird rather than his usual metaphysical wormhole clusterfuck. No mescaline required here.

I've only read the first five issues of Joe the Barbarian so far, but I feel pretty confident that I agree completely.

What's great about that one is that it's actually a really simple idea rendered in an amazing way. That and the art is some of the best I've ever seen.

Walking Dead today.... holy fucking shit

I have been selling off my 'Walking Dead' trades.... if ya interested, lete me know... I have volumes 2,3,4,7,8,9 & 10 left....i think.

I probably would be if I didn't already have them.

Incidentally, I normally just buy trades discounted/used from Amazon, but the (closing) Borders near y house had all trades at 60% off, so I went apeshit, picking up:

Criminal: "The Sinners" trade
Queen & Country Absolute #2 (I already have it, but I'm gonna give it to a friend of mine)
Sweet Tooth: trade 2
Mystery Society trade 1
Four Eyes: trade 1
Hellboy: "Troll Witch" and "Crooked Man" trades (a/k/a the Richard Corben stuff)
Locke & Key trades 1 and 2 (which I've never read before, but I just finished the first trade and am already hooked. How the fuck is that gonna work as a TV show on Fox in the fall?)

So yeah, I'm pretty psyched.

They were also selling all of the Invincible Absolute trades, but I was already in over my head (spent another $100 or so on other books)

I haven't yet managed to hit up any our closing Borders at the right time to do that, but I'm hoping I'll get the chance when the Buckhead Borders lowers their GN prices a little more. (They were only 20% off the last time I checked.)

I'm also pretty sad about that particular one closing down.

That first volume of Locke & Key is pretty cool (all I've read so far), but I kinda started to get sick of the art by the end of it.

Just spent the last 3 days at Wondercon.

I got a lot of Archaia books.

a friend of mine is doing a blog that reviews/recaps the Flashpoint stuff. I don't read DC but this is enjoyable. Maybe it's a "you gotta know the guy" but I think it's damn funny.

http://senseofrightalliance.wordpress.com/

IMO DC is making a huge mistake rebooting every title. I bet there are a lot of people who only buy Action and Detective because of the history...

"rhymes with zero chicks" is pretty funny - I will drop this on a few guys I know in the near future.

Probably not many.

And the restart is likely temporary. They can always pick back up on the numbering of the original titles. Marvel's been doing just that for the past several years.

it won't be temporary

How can you possibly know that. I'm sorry, but that seems like a pretty naive thing to say.

they have said as much and if they go back on that then they are really going to fuck up.

the only comics worth going back to original numbering for would be Action comics when it reaches 1000 but thats still like 8 years away