Mmmm, pull list...

What a good week! How exciting:

Walking Dead #59 (now even more depressing!)

Invincible Iron Man #11

Ex Machina Special #4

Immortal Iron Fist #23

Northlanders #15 (now with even more raping and pillaging!)

Scalped #26

Young Liars #13 (now making even less sense!)

All and all, I am excited.

Obligatory Watchmen review: I thought it was okay. Not in a rush to see it again, but not sorry I watched it.

-AR

Northlanders #15

From @BrianWood on Twitter, pages from the next Northlanders!

"Shouldn't be any spoilers, if you read this week's issue (#14). These are uncorrected lettering proofs and might have typos and other weirdness. Please ignore all that."

-AR

My Haul

Hey there sportsfans,

Last week I got one single, solitary book, so a pull list post was hardly warranted. Luckily, this Wednesday was far more fruitful.

Greatest Hits

Northlanders (ARE YOU GUYS READING THIS YET?)

Dark Avengers (Wow, way to go Bendis. Very solid.)

Lone Ranger & Tonto

Daredevil

Crossed (Despite the nice gore, it's not really captivating me. May stop picking it up.)

Umbrella Academy: Dallas (Consistently great at introducing weird, visually exciting characters.)

Runaways (Terry Moore's last. He did an okay job, but it's not a huge loss. Anyone know who's up next?)

Fantastic Four (Uh oh, Richards family, you're in deep shit.)

Siiigh. It's a good time to be a comic book fan.

-AR

CBR Reveals Their Top 100 Comics of 2008

Earlier this week, Comic Book Resources revealed the results of their contributor poll of the best 100 comics of 2008. It's an interesting list so feel free to read the whole thing, but I did want to point out a few highlights that I was happy (and maybe even a little surprised) to see them give props to.

83. CHECKMATE
















This was interesting to me, because up until the point where Greg Rucka left as writer, this was one of my favorite comics to come around in a long time. It had everything- superheroes, espionage, great plot lines. The things that made Queen & Country so great but set inside the DC Universe. While I was reading it I felt like I had to be the only person in the world who was buying it because I didn't really hear anything about it. In fact I'm pretty sure my comic shop ordered only one copy each month and it was for me. While it went downhill fast when Rucka left, it's really nice to see this on CBR's year end list to maybe encourage people to check out the trades.


42. AIR



















I read pretty much anything Vertigo puts out. Hell, I even collected the entirety of Crossing Midnight when I thought it was actually pretty boring from start to finish (no offense Mike Carey). For some reason, I'm not reading Air but I keep hearing good things about it. This might be something I'll pick up in a collected edition.


30. MADAME XANADU



















Pretty excited to see this so high up on the list, as again it's another comic where I feel like I might be the only one reading it (although I do see it on Negative Man's pull list!). I can't really put it any better than how CBR's Andy Khouri puts it, so take it away Andy:

Arguably the most impressive debut of the year, Matt Wagner has taken a largely arcane DC Comics fortuneteller and breathed into her a whole new life. In the best Vertigo tradition, Xanadu’s magical story spans the ages, and with the help of breakout illustrator Amy Reeder Headly, readers follow the wide-eyed mystic as she rubs elbows with some of the most important figures in human history, from Kublai Khan to Marie Antoinette. With guest appearances by Etrigan the Demon, Merlin, Neil Gaiman’s Death and featuring a reinvigorated version of DC mainstay The Phantom Stranger in a co-starring and bizarrely romantic role, “Madame Xanadu” is poised to become Vertigo’s next classic series.


16. NORTHLANDERS





















Ahhhh, now see- I guess this is turning into a Vertigo love fest and I didn't mean for it to be. I don't really care though, cause I love 'em. You know how we feel about Northlanders here and I am absolutely ecstatic to see someone like CBR put this book in their top 20 best comics of the year. It would probably be in my top 10, but whatever. Vikings. That's really all you need to know. Oh- and that the comic is written by Brian Wood and it kicks ten different ways of ass.


That about does it for what I wanted to point out to you all. Scalped, Criminal and All Star Superman took the top three spots and I ain't mad at any of those. A nine to five, tons of comic reading, a strong 4th Quarter showing of Xbox 360 games and travel kept me from deciding on a top 10 of my own so this list stands as a really good reference to some great stuff you might have missed out on in 2008.

- TFM

What I'm Gettin' (11/26/08)

Good news: Comics aren't late this week! Bad news: They're late next week. Ah well, give and take.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #19
Daredevil #113
Northlanders #12
Runaways 3 #4
Umbrella Academy: Dallas #1
Walking Dead #55 (really, already?)

I was skeptical about Runaways, but I've started to really enjoy this story arch. Recommended.


-AR

Contest: Read Northlanders #1 for free / Win a copy of the first trade

All right. There's really only enough screaming from the rooftops we can do from this blog. We've told you that Northlanders is the best comic you're not reading, but you're all probably a bunch of free thinking individuals that just won't take a bunch of awesome people's words as absolute facts. Well now you don't have to. This has probably been up for a while now, but I just noticed it today. The fine nerds over at Vertigo have the entire first issue of Northlanders up on their site so you can read it for free. Did you hear that? You don't even have to part with $2.99 to decide if you like it or not. Head on over and check it out.

Now, I know you're going to be instantly hooked so you're going to want to immediately run out and buy the entire run. Well, the pending holiday season is making us feel a little generous right now. If you email us at spoilerzplz[REMOVETHISPARTWEHATESPAM]@gmail.com with "I Love Northlanders" in the subject line we will randomly send a few people a copy of the first trade.

Not bad, eh? Now get to it. There are some blood thirsty Vikings waiting for you.

- TFM

Rant: READ NORTHLANDERS, NERDS.

Dear fellow comic readers,
It has come to our attention at OMG Spoilzerz, Plz! that many, if not most, of you people aren't reading Northlanders. What the hell is wrong with you? Perhaps you are like me, suspicious of new Brian Wood projects, annoyed by his work in the past. To this I say, "I've been there, brothers and sisters! And I have seen the light!"
Seriously, guys. It's so fucking entertaining. It's got all the sex, violence, and swearing that you could ever want from a comic about vikings. Beyond that, it has *gasp* really good storylines and character development! The way Wood is chopping up stories, keeping them short and sweet, is a great idea that helps the concept from getting stale. Northlanders is easily one of my favorite books coming out, and The Floronic Man and I will be wicked pissed off if it gets canceled. So, please, do your friends at OMGSP and yourself a favor and start reading it. The first trade came out a few weeks ago.

-AR