Author: delta

Last month’s anniversary meetup was fantastic, lots of good discussion on the one of the all-time greats, Watchmen, and a new tote bag for the Comic Book Club designed by Kevin Layshock. Kicking off our sixth year, we’ll be discussing Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum, and in November we’ll be reading Eleanor Davis’ The Hard Tomorrow.

Our meetings begin at 6 PM, and we recommend attendees BYOB (be it beer, beverage, or brisket).  Our reading group selections are available in the shop, so drop by to purchase a copy of Batman Arkham Asylum TP for our October meetup. Listed below are our next two months of readings, and a photo and summary of the October selection:

Sunday, October 6: Batman Arkham Asylum 

Sunday, November 3: The Hard Tomorrow 

The inmates of Arkham Asylum have taken over and are demanding Batman in exchange for their hostages. Accepting their demented challenge, Batman is forced to endure the personal hells of The Joker, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and many other sworn enemies in order to save the innocents and retake the prison. During his run through this absurd gauntlet, the Dark Knight’s must face down both his most dangerous foes and his inner demons.

Wow. We’ve made it through five years of monthly (and often twice monthly) comic book readings and discussions and we arrive at the title that I (half heartedly) swore we would never read: the best known and critically acclaimed graphic novel of all time, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen.  In addition to our discussion I have some prizes lined up to give away, and there will probably be pizza and drinks and stuff too, after all this is the fifth anniversary of our first Comic Book Club back in September of 2014 (we discussed Paul Pope’s Battling Boy).

For October’s discussion (the beginning of our sixth year of Comic Book Club!) we will be following in our annual tradition of reading a horror title, and this year we will be reading and discussing Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum.

For a complete list of what our reading groups have read in our fifth year of meetups, check out the list below as well as information for our September and October discussion groups.

September: Comic Book Club Four Year Anniversary Meeting: The Life & Times of Martha Washington + Transmetropolitan vols 3+4

October:  Wytches + Transmet vols 5+6

November: My Boyfriend is a Bear + Transmet vols 7+8

December: Batman White Knight + Transmet vols 9+10

January: Spider-Man Kraven’s Last Hunt

February: Monstress vols 1 + 2

March: Mister Miracle

April: Nextwave

May: Beasts of Burden Animal Rites

June: The Mask Omnibus Vol 1

July: Marshal Law

August: Eternals by Neil Gaiman

Our meetings begin at 6 PM, and we recommend attendees BYOB (be it beer, beverage, or brisket).  Our reading group selections are available in the shop, so drop by to purchase a copy of Watchemen TP for our September meetup. Listed below are our next two months of readings, and a photo and summary of the September selection:

Sunday, September 8: Watchmen TP

Sunday, October 6: Batman Arkham Asylum 

In a world where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history, the U.S. won the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon is still president and the Cold War is in effect. WATCHMEN begins as a murder mystery, but soon unfolds into a planet-altering conspiracy. As the resolution comes to a head, an unlikely group of reunited heroes-Rorschach, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias-must test the limits of their convictions and ask themselves where the true line between good and evil lies.

One month through the relentless summer heat, and not much of a monsoon to show for it. oh well, at least we still have comics! The Ash Ave Comic Book Club is meeting Sunday, August 3 to discuss The Eternals, one of just a few stories from famed writer Neil Gaiman over at Marvel. This 2006 mini-series breathed new life into Jack Kirby’s late Marvel work, with John Romita Jr. providing pencils and inks, this mini-series brought The Eternals to a new audience at the tail end of Marvel’s epic Civil War mini-series, so there’s some timely Marvel continuity in the book, but it is also a completely stand alone read. Speaking of comics that either are or are not stand alone (depending on your stance re: two projects published without the original writer), we’ll be reading the most critically acclaimed comic book of the last 30+ years Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen for our Comic Book Club’s 5th anniversary this September.

Our meetings begin at 6 PM, and we recommend attendees BYOB (be it beer, beverage, or brisket).  Our reading group selections are available in the shop, so drop by to purchase a copy of Eternals by Neil Gaiman TP for our August meetup. Listed below are our next two months of readings, and a photo and summary of the August selection:

Sunday, August 4: Eternals by Neil Gaiman TP

Sunday, September 8: Watchmen TP

More than thirty-five years ago, comics legend Jack “The King” Kirby returned to the House of Ideas with perhaps his biggest idea of all: the universe of the Eternals! Their creation was the result of Kirby’s ceaseless curiosity about the origin of man and his mythologies – but like many of the King’s concepts, it was definitely ahead of its time. Flash forward to 2006: Superstar creators Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr. have boldly taken on these concepts with a loving hand, in the process telling a fresh and crackling fun yarn full of mystery, suspense and majestic power – all with an eye on helping establish Kirby’s creations as a vital part of the Marvel Universe once and for all. Against the backdrop of Marvel’s CIVIL WAR, the Eternals are being awoken one by one from a strange, waking dream, at once coming to terms with the fact that they are far more than the normal people they have thought themselves to be. They find there is little time to commiserate about such things, however, as they are thrust into a life and death struggle that spans both time and space! Collecting ETERNALS #1-7.

It’s July, which means San Diego Comic Con, the inevitable comic based summer blockbuster film(s), and of course, the Ash Ave Comic Book Club will meet for our monthly discussion of comics. For July we’re discussing Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill’s Marshal Law, specifically the deluxe edition collection released by DC Comics a few years back. Unfortunately this title went out of stock at our distributor after we selected it, and is now completely out of print, so we do not have any copies in the shop available for purchase. This is not the case for our August selection, Marvel’s 2007 Eternals mini-series by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr., we have copies available in the shop now for purchase.

Our meetings begin at 6 PM, and we recommend attendees BYOB (be it beer, beverage, or brisket).  Our reading group selections are available in the shop, so drop by to purchase (or preorder if we’re temporarily out of stock) a copy of Eternals by Neil Gaiman TP for our August meetup. Listed below are our next two months of readings, and a photo and summary of the July selection:

Sunday, July 7: Marshal Law TP

Sunday, August 4: Eternals by Neil Gaiman TP

We’re rounding out Spring with a discussion of John Arcudi, Doug Mahnke, and Keith Williams’ collected run on The Mask with a reading and discussion of the recently repackaged omnibus from Dark Horse Comics. For our July comic book club, we will be discussing Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill’s Marshal Law, an extremely dystopian look at the law and superheroes.

Our meetings begin at 6 PM, and we recommend attendees BYOB (be it beer, beverage, or brisket).  Our reading group selections are available in the shop, so drop by to pick up The Mask Omnibus volume 1 collection or to preorder a copy of Marshal Law TP for our July meetup. Listed below are our next two months of readings, and a photo and summary of the June selection:

Sunday, June 2: The Mask Omnibus volume 1

Sunday, July 7: Marshal Law TP

The bestselling comic trilogy that inspired the blockbuster film The Mask is collected in this omnibus edition of gruesome hilarity!

A weird mask of unknown origin and power is discovered and imbues its wearer with limitless cartoon character invulnerability that takes the nerdy Stanley Ipkiss, the police, the mafia, and the monstrous mob muscleman Walter on a colliding violent path of homicidal mayhem, lunacy, and destruction!

Collects The Mask, The Mask Returns, and The Mask Strikes Back!