098 The DC Universe By Mike Mignola

I love Mike Mignola's art.  I always have.  Reading this book reminds me there's a whole Hellboy universe I haven't read and need to.

Books like this are a joy to read.  Focus on an artist or a writer, showing their work all collected together.  It's also great reading something like this because there's a bunch of stuff I'd forgotten about, didn't realize he drew it or completely missed the first time around.  

The book starts off with a Phantom Stranger mini-series.  I'd forgotten he was the artist on this book.  It's been years since I read it, so it was brand new to me again.  He's perfectly matched to draw the Stranger.  I'd love to see him do a book today with the character.  

This also collects The World Of Krypton mini-series.  I never read it the first time around.  It was part of John Byrne's reboot of the Superman universe and I found it pretty fascinating.  I know, I know.  Byrne is a hack, but he's still an interesting one.  There are some other Superman stories here.  I didn't realize he'd done as much Superman as he had.  

I have to say my favorite stuff in here is his Batman stuff.  He was born to draw Batman.  His art is super moody, super stylized.  He fits Batman like a glove.  I'd love to see a Batman series drawn by him.  It would be magnificent.

I want more books like this!

The DC Universe By Mike Mignola

Writer: Paul Kupperberg, John Byrne, Roger Stern, Jerry Ordway, George Perez, Neil Gaiman, Dan Raspler, Mike Mignola, Steve Purcell

Artist: Mike Mignola, P. Craig Russell, Rick Bryant, Carlos Garzon, Karl Kesel, Jerry Ordway, George Perez, Curt Swan, Brett Breeding, John Statema, Troy Nixey, Kevin Nowlan

DC Comics

049 Superman: Panic In The Sky

I've been trying to catch up on my reading.  I have two full bookshelves with backstock reading material.  I finally caught up on everything new I had, so I pulled this off the shelf.  This book really brought me back to the nineties.  But I'm not sure if that's good or that's bad.  I had stopped reading the Superman books by this point in time.  They weren't really doing it for me anymore.  But reading this felt like putting on a comfortable old pair of jeans.

Basic premise of this book is Brainiac is back, he's got War World and he's coming to take over earth.  Superman gathers up as many of his friends as he can to battle Brainac and turn him away.  It looks like Matrix hasn't been around as Supergirl for very long at this point.  She's easily taken over by Brainiac, as is Maxima, or so she wants Brainiac to believe.  This story ran through all four of the monthly Superman titles.  Around that time, everything ran through all four Superman titles, effectively making Superman a weekly title.  While it's a good idea on paper, it really hampers the creative teams on each book because they're not necessarily telling their own stories.  And it kind of shows.

Superman: Panic In The Sky

Writer: Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern

Artist: Jon Bogdanove, Tom Grummett, Jackson Guice, Dan Jurgens, Bob McLeod, Brett Breeding, Doug Hazlewood, Dennis Janke, Denis Rodier, Trevor Scott

DC Comics