Access to comics in the joint is limited, there's no Wednesday trip to the store followed by a loop through the Indian buffet, Jack. Makes me thankful for every page I can peel. I wasn't able to clutch my desperate mitts around sequential art for four flat before I discovered Bargain Books catalogs, part of the Edward Hamilton Booksellers banner and approved vendor of the Department of Corrections whose fare is like Half Price Books on paper. I ordered a Wonder Woman/Justice League Dark and Titans pairing of trade hardbacks for a song, and they were a wave-pool in the Gobi to receive. The beauty of living hard-up is the bliss of it's teensiest reprieve.

     Since then, two other players: Hit Pointe out of Michigan, a primarily RPG joint with on-point customer service (I'm a stickler) carrying contemporary stuff, but limited viewing catalog-wise. I solicited a list of graphic novels/trades to receive 8 pages in the mail quick-fast: somebody throw 5 stars on yelp! for a bitch. Also, there's Books and Things, possessing a leviathan two-volume catalog each making one recall a bygone big-city "phone book" available in our library, manned by the most enchanting woman since Aileen Wuornos.

     My collection has ebbed in a wide array of titles I've sold on the yard, donated to our previously mentioned library, and had a stack stolen once. I still have a healthy shelf with my non-departables: Jane Foster - Saga of Valkyrie, Wonder Woman Earth One: The Collected Edition (more on those eventually), and the DC/Marvel Encyclopedias amongst them. I recently got the Batman/Elmer Fudd Deluxe Edition by Tom King and Lee Weeks, and I'm sure those phone books I spoke of could be filled with what's been said about it, but in a people warehouse without the 'net I haven't read a word fingered about it's nova brilliance with slapstick noir Monkey Prince Volume 1 is a corporate effort to give China a hummer, purely, but did it entertain concurrently? Only the chapter that introduced Shellestriah felt worth the price of admission for me, despite my genuine desire to see more Asian superheroes like the perpetually/criminally underdeveloped Dr. Light get spotlighted. Paper Girls, the first two volumes, paid off so tremendously I'm ordering the done-in-one shebang Archie Presents: Chilling Adventures was a failed venture, not a stroke for the creators, being masters, but the printer. The binding was SHIT. It fell apart after two reads, weathering on the first. Content-wise, it was a rich, offbeat delight (mind you, in the concrete chrysalis I've never seen "Riverdale", nor "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" with my beloved Sally Draper - I read issue #1 of the comic, tho' - ignunt AND dope). On order, I've got the Absolute Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman books a guard raved about, Cassandra Cain in Batgirl: Mother, and I plan to send for the Batgirl: Burnside Omnibus and the She-Hulk tome featuring the heavenly Slott run plus more - I already have the unbelievably fun Soule series, plus volume two of Creature Commandos Featuring Frankenstein, which ended with the (SPOILER!!!!) revelation about his and Lady's son, already blown for me by that encyclopedia, and maybe most exciting Girl From H.O.P.P.E.R.S., my first Love And Rockets joint in a decade, courtesy of Books and Things en route.

     I'm vibing on DC Compact Editions! On the lean streets, the trade bookshelf concept made me abandon the comic book consumable in a healthy bowel movement (if you take one today and no one can walk by and check your face, well treasure it, Honey) for something I could loan a friend to enjoy and discuss. I love a shared experience - that's why you and I are here now, Toots. Anyway, these kitschy reprints of the company's big tales are brilliant. I have Watchmen, Harley Quinn and the Gotham City Sirens (she did NOT have top billing at original publication - it was an equal triad), and plan to add on DCeased, Birthright, and The Authority. The other Compact Edition in my tall locker, and subject of the now is Mark Waid and Alex Ross's 1996 masterpiece Kingdom Come, an examination of generational morays and cultural decline through the lens of the aging triad: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

     The impetus for this thing you're ruining your eyes on was a discussion with my compadré Hippie, where he cosigned my backhanded compliment of the once four-issue miniseries: Ross's exquisite Rockwell-painting-per-panel endeavor is too good for it's own sake. Having long held that a simpler artist of the time (Bruce Timm immediately springs to mind) embellishing Ross's pencils would've let the taut political thriller the duo concocted breathe and make it to the reader, I maintain that KC is the cherished project fans own but only gave a perfunctory reading to.

     Speaking circa '99 to a fellow fan who was a JOURNALIST for fuck's sake, he couldn't see the logical fallacy in The Kingdom follow-up comics, being that most of the titular characters were bombed to death, and the remainders abandoned their secret IDs. Him being a scholarly man of letters (a slutty pot-head to boot, appreciable to a Libertine like me) I was nonplussed to find he didn't know shit from Shinola regarding the text part of KC. Hippie and I agreed that's likely normal, as Ross overshot the goal. Princess Grace used to stun in a single strand of pearls with an ornate gown Ross's Kingdom work is an entire jewelry case strewn with a Von Furstenberg, train-in-tow.

     Shame exponential with Alex contributing a beautifully potent story element: the interstitial paste of Reverend Norman McCay (based on Ross's father) and the Spectre, who are alternately Divine judging bodies and us watching this crescendo moment that began in 1938 at it's finale. Realizations made regarding a life full of victories, mistakes, and the nature of retribution are so thoughtfully pondered with perspective on Superman as the inspirational iconoclast featured in the spectacular film from this year I promise you, that precious movie wouldn't be without this series (because of that, Megan 2.0, Weapons, and Thunderbolts, I inhaled hope for cinema in 2025).

     Much as I love these compact books, and they look stellar like multiple boxes of our generic Mac and cheese inexplicably do lined up on a shelf, the trade paperback is preferable if you're not that kinda aesthetics whore coz' reason - a character key. All those future legacy characters identified and (somewhat) demystified. My favorite never-again-used personality is a New God Batwoman, obsessive of Bruce Wayne and his toys, with her giant Pound Puppy Bat-Hound. One solo tale would be bitchin', Mizz Nelson (she's still High Mother, right?).

     Again, Kingdom Come, in this bellicose hour of division, conspiracy, greed, and dangerously unchecked youth suffers not a lick from stagnation. I'd still love to see a revised version with simplified (not cheapened) art to amplify the story like Mick Derrington from Doom Patrol and Batman Universe, and let Alex Ross be appreciated for the genius that he is by getting himself out of the way.

 

     ​#DCcomics, #Superman, #PrisonStories, #NorthpointTrainingCenter, #AlexRoss, #MarkWaid,  #KingdomCome, #90scomics, #DCcompactEditions, #Bargain#Books, #HitPointeBooksAndThings,                                                             #LoveAndRockets, #PaperGirls

     

     ***PLEASE, if youre a comic nerd who wants to recommend titles, send updates, etc., contact me at the address(es) provided. If it sounds cool, I'll check it and talk about it here!***

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Todd Hiett

#283308

NPTC

PO Box 479

Burgin, KY 40310-0479