And speaking of good timing, Paul Pope's long-awaited clothing line from DKNY was released a couple weeks back and I couldn't help myself... Isn't that the coolest hoodie you've ever seen in your life (comics fan or not)??? I even got some bus props for it, comic bus props dripping with disbelief and awe! So, I was riding the 49 back from Capitol Hill last Friday night and as I made my way to the front to grab my bike this guy looked up and said, "I-I-Is that Paul Pope? Where'd you get that?" I told him to type 2089, DKNY, and Pope into a search engine and he'd find it...
Now, this guy and his girlfriend must have known their stuff or must have considerably good taste because 5 minutes earlier I was reading the 2nd volume of Warren Ellis ("Transmetropolitan" & "Iron Man : Extremis") & Stuart Immonen's ("Ultimate Spider-Man") "Nextwave" and they commented, "That book is soooo good". That is a gross understatement. I loved the initial 6 issues when I read them in singles a couple years back (http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=659384&blogID=110799604), but I held off and waited to find the 2nd volume used. And boy, did I get spoiled! Initially, I thought these Marvel Premier Edition Hardcovers were a really bad idea. I mean, Marvel is still working their way out of bankruptcy and their bookstore unit sales have been growing steadily, but releasing everything as a hardcover upon completion of serialization then releasing the paperback 2 months later...are these guys crazy??? This is comics, not "real books", there's no place for publishing logic in this arena! But apparently there is and I was wrong. I have to be onto something though, considering the fact that they bypassed the hardcover format for "Civil War" and plan to do the same with "Secret Invasion" (albeit, with deluxe hardcovers on the way later). Getting back to "Nextwave" though, the semi-political humor that made the first volume a riot is gone. But have no fear, the laughs have merely migrated to a different avenue, namely the mining of the Marvel Universe for the absurd. Ellis said during the initial run that "Nextwave" was "a distillation of the team superhero comic" and this is true, but it almost sells the book short as it veers off into pretty experimental territory that I'd ruin if I told you about. Immonen's work has never looked better and that is not only due to his sleek character designs and power-packed breakdowns. Maximum credit is due to Wade Von Grawbadger ("Starman") for his superbly slick inks and Dave McCaig who proves he is among the elite of comics colorists...
