Amazing Comics: Civil War - Wolverine by Humberto Ramos and Marc Guggenheim

Civil War is an amazing cross-over Marvel event - one of the best ever. It focusses on a a main storyline, with a great number of references to these events in almost all running Marvel series. You can find collections of those comics with references, but in many cases you are either dropped in the middle of an ongoing storyline (hard to follow) in which the direct reference to the Civil War doesn't add a lot to the story. In the other case it is just a retelling of part of the story but from the perspective other characters.

Luckely there are some exceptions and "Civil War: Wolverine" is one of them. It brings the initial Civil War events in another shade of light. It's a real pageturner, drawn by top-artist Humberto Ramos. Of all books by this artist, this is the one you really want. He abandons his Frank Miller influences (see also "Wolverine: enemy of the state) to bring you a modern, powerfull and energetic sequence of drawings that are just waiting to be put up on the wall.

Blows you off your socks.

You should buy: Civil War: Wolverine
You should visit: Civil War Comics Hub
If you like this book, you should also read: Civil War, Wolverine: enemy of the state

Elmo Art

Drawing "Quatre mains".

Amazing comics: Batman Year 100 by Paul Pope

Paul Pope is the Jon Spencer of comics. And when an incredible artist like him, who knows all about how to tell a fascinating story, applies his futuristic visions on a traditional hero like Batman you can bet you won't be disappointed.

I met Paul some months ago, and he told me that the latest Batman movie took over his idea of the bat-motorcycle. But since he can't prove that the original idea was his he didn't get paid for it.

You should buy: any book from Paul Pope, but in this case Batman Year One Hundred
You should visit: Paul's blog: Pulphope
If you like this book, you should also read: Batman The Dark Knight Returns

Dumortier

In may I was in Huldenberg with Elmo. Ophi was going to babysit Elmo, but because of some misunderstanding he wasn't at home. Elmo and I decided to go for a walk.
We climbed the hill, where we found Tom, who was enjoying the beautifull weather in his backyard. Tom is one of the only friends Saskia and I have that Elmo considers as one of his own best friends. Quite funny the way he talks about him.
On our walk, we stopped at the farm of Tom's grandparents. There we met an award winning poet.. planting some patatoes.
A little later, Elmo met an actor that also drives a huge tractor. You can imagine what an impression he made on the little fellow.
And finally, we discovered wild animals while they enjoyed their afternoon nap. A fascinating sight.

A few months later, the lady of the house passed away. I remember the ceremony as a colorfull yet respectfull moment of peace. The actor and the poet, together with their brother, brought back some beautifull long forgotten memories. Made you wish you lived in the past.

Amazing Comics: Marvels by Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek

What is there not to like about this book ? Ross is one of the most popular comic superstar artists around, thanks to his photo-realistic style in beautifull watercolors. Luckily the story of Marvels, written by Kurt Busiek, levels with the art work - which is not the case for some of Ross' other books like Kingdom Come.

It tells you the rise of the Marvels' superheroes and villains from the perspective of the man on the street - in this case a photojournalist. Even if this approach is not really original, the way Busiek increases the involvement of the journalist in the events without actually having him taking part in any superhero activity is state of the art.

Any comic fan that gets his kicks on photo-realistic art work should have this book framed above his/her bed. And by the way: Ross is only 38 at this time, so lets hope on many more astonishing work for the coming years !

You should buy: Marvels
You should visit: Alex Ross on Wikipedia
If you like this book, you should also read: Civil War

Amazing Comics: Bone by Jeff Smith

I remember Bone existed when I started collecting comics more then 15 years ago. Since the offer of Belgian comic series (published in dutch) was limited at the time, my brother and I seeked other sources to still our hunger. Evidently US comics were the first to grab our attention. The inconsistent translation policy and unclear distinction in the shops' display with series such as Cerebus kept this masterpiece out of our hands. After many years, the Bone series became an expensive investment since the number of TPB (or even hardcover albums) had increased significantly and were, at $18 a piece, too expensive for my student budgeg. Until finally an integral version was published, making it a coherent and comprehensible must-have object.

I'd describe the story as Lord Of the Rings meets Disney, but that doesn't cover the richness of this story at all. Astonishing artwork in black and white (incredible how consistent the drawings are over all these hundreds of pages) combined with suspense and fantasy make this one of the best gifts you could ever do to a loved one. And to know that Smith was obliged to publish his books himself because no publisher would take his work.. I guess they regret their chance now.

You should buy: Bone One Volume Edition
You should visit: www.boneville.com
If you like this book, you should also read: 

• Donjon 
  
• Rasl 
• De lichten van Amalou 
• Aberzen 
• Slow Storm