My crack from Blackdog #1

Since this is the first installment of this segment, I'll now do a little introduction of "my crack from Blackdog":
While I was still living in Berlin, I used to have a pullbox at an absolutely awesome little all-US import comic book store, Blackdog Berlin. Since I moved away to Munich, I have been having the contents of my Blackdog pullbox shipped to me twice a month. In a bid to bring some content to this site (it's the second blog and maybe fifth website overall I spawned), I'll try and write a little bit about each of the books in the shipping, maybe even rate them on 1-10. That is to say, I'll do that for the first few posts, and if I notice it's not working (i.e. inconsistent) or it just cheeses me off, I might drop it. But you'll get to know what books I pull down, and what I think of them. And isn't that really what we all want?

Desolation Jones #4 (Wildstorm) - This series is absolute, pure, unadulterated, bile-spewing Ellis goodness. Jones is a character that has a similar level of charm to Ellis's most famous creation, Spider Jerusalem (still one of my favourite comic book characters of all time), but with enough qualities all his own to not seem derivative. He's sick and twisted (duh), but unlike Spider he doesn't like to talk all that much. Anyway, the story is about stolen Hitler amateur porn, so you already know you'll be loving it. However, while still very good, this particular issue isn't quite as good as the first three: there's not really much happening, and although we finally get some clarity on what might be going on overall, it didn't feel very satisfying. But, a black doctor with a colt and "FUCK" written on his golden front teeth? That's gotta be worth at least 7.5/10

Detective Comics #813 (DC) - This series was on my "why do I read this, anyway" list for a while (yeah, I read Burns) during the latest Batman Family Crossover fiasco ("War Crimes"? Or was it "Buy 35 books so you know what the fuck is going on"? Hell, I always get them confused), but City of Crime is back in full force and it has my armhair standing on edge. My only gripes are the somewhat too traditional art style (although the artist seems to be awesome, the facial expressions are practically alive) and the fact that somehow I don't know who or what these two girls are Bats is beating himself up about. Is this something old from BatHistory? Or did it happen in the beginning of City of Crime and I missed it? Or is it really only those couple somewhat offhand remarks they drop from time to time? If I simply missed it, knock this up one more notch, but as it is it's 6/10

Fables #43 (Vertigo) - What's to say? Art? Awesome with two hands throwing the goat. Every cover looks so that I want to frame it and I always feel guilty for not looking at those insanely beautiful borders long enough. Story? Guess why I don't look at the borders enough. The standard is high anyway here, and the introduction of the Arab Fables has given it all a new spark. Also, King Cole/Sinbad snark in Arab make 8.5/10

Powers #14 (Icon) - Good God. I honestly don't really know any other Bendis comics, but this is seriously cool. Way shway, or some shit like that. The art isn't beautiful, but it's raw and evocative, and complements Bendis's writing style. I don't think anyone I know can write natural sounding dialogue like Bendis. I really sounds like spoken; people interrupt themselves, start again, that kind of thing. Just awesome. I'm just having trouble finding the red thread that runs from issue to issue. 7.5/10

PVP #20 (Image) - What's there to say about PVP? It's PVPonline on paper, and everyone already reads that. I always think I found some bonus strip that wasn't on the site, but I think I just don't remember or something. It's "just" a brilliant webcomic that I love with an always gorgeous cover slapped on there and printed so I can put it in Mylar and put it in my longbox and call it "preciousss". Oh, and this month's cover? Absolute brilliance. And if I had the power to give them, Kurtz would get a tasty, tasty biscuit for the "Will Eisner Award Loser" badge he put on there. Alas I have only the power to deal out 8.5/10

Rocketo #3(Speakeasy) - The elitist in me cackles with glee each time I get a new issue of this not-so-well-known book (I'm sure there are some even more elitist than me who regard this mainstream, but what do they know. They probably read French stuff in black and white). The art is beautiful, and so different that I have to peer at the pages longer than in most other comics; I suspect (with my very limited expertise) that Espinosa paints rough silhouettes with watercolors and then goes in with ink brushes to bring out details. It's wonderful, anyway. As is the story, with its strange and interesting world and its classical adventure. However, in this issue the epic was missing a bit (the issues before were lots of flashbacks really big on the epic) so "only" 7.5/10

I hope to be doing one of these roughly every two weeks or so, although I might be dialing down the verbose level down a little bit. Hopefully someone will start reading soon...