Comics of 10/06: Week, Weak, Huh?

Friday was one damned quiet day at the comic book store so I had plenty of opportunity to read stuff. Despite this, I didn't read any more of the week's new releases--so let's just shuffle along to my equally lethargic picks, eh? Pick of the Week is tough because nothing really got me fired up. However, despite my can't-put-my-finger-on-it misgivings (and Jim Treacher's apt critique in one of our comments) about Y: The Last Man, those last few pages were a hell of a shock. If you like picking up a book and wondering what the hell the creators are going to do next month, this is the book to check out.

Weirdly, Pick of the Weak isn't particularly easy, either. Hibbs, for the brief time I saw him at the store, did a pretty good job at seeming well and truly repulsed by Youngblood: Bloodsport #1 but it just didn't bother me that much--it's like getting skeeved out by carnies, you know? Once you realize they're trying to skeeve you out, then you can almost appreciate the theatricality of it. (My apologies to any of our regular carnie readers.) I think I've got to give the Weak to Hulk/Thing Hard Knocks because it's a waste of Jae Lee's talents and everyone else's time and money. I hope Lee can one day overcome whatever resistance he has to good material.

If I was on my game, the Trade Pick would probably be Battle Royale Vol. 9, but I'm two volumes behind and haven't even broken the shrink-wrap on my copy. So lemme just take a second to put in my two cents for Jeff Smith's Bone saga. We've still got a few copies at the store of the big-butt "Bone-in-One" softcover which blows my tiny mind--how can people not snag the steal of the year? Also, I read it over the last day or so and it's a genuinely impressive achievement. Oddly, the "Uncle Scrooge-meets-Lord-of-the-Rings" high concept works all the way to the end, and a wiser comix scholar than I can probably craft a smart essay on why: something to do with the way in which the former's sense of "humor through unchanging character" meshes so well with the latter's concerns with the complexities of destiny (which I guess we could think of as "history's unchanging character"), maybe. All I know is, Smith's storytelling chops allowed me to lose myself in a big old adventure for a day or two and that's pretty great.

So that's that. As mentioned earlier, this'll be my last post for a while, and thanks for putting up with the "all-Jeff's-mouthiness, all-the-time" approach. Hibbs got his computer back but, if I understood him correctly the other day, it's under a scary gypsy curse so you might hear from him by the middle of the week, you might not. As they used to say back in the day: Watch This Space For More Details.