Robot-mel London, United Kingdom

This was actually a collection of stories you couldn't sit and read in one go. Each "comic" had it's own collection of short stories, most of which were very funny and as such needed to be picked up and read in short bursts. I have to admit one of my favourite stories was the one where the superheros had to take on Jerry Springer. The boy genius who was everyone's favourite didn't do much for me. Americana even as a paradoy is a bit annoying. But I loved the pulp adventures and it was lovely to see more artwork by Melinda Gebbie. I borrowed this from the library but will definitely have to get my own copy.

I read this through very quickly the first time as I had spent the past year quite worried about what had happened to Mina. I loved that Harry Potter was the anti-christ. I can't believe that I didn't see that coming. Given the literary basis for this series it really was so obvious I feel almost ashamed for not figuring that out! Orlando was a much better character in this. She kinda had to pull everyone together and was much less frivilous. Mina did seem quite broken which was such a shame after the way she was in 69.

After having read it I decided to go back and read all three together. I definitely recommend reading them more than once and reading them all together. There were even more hints about Mr. Potter that I missed the first time and going back and reading things again I found I picked up on many more of the little details in the art work. Which I have to say was particularly amazing in 2009.

Having read the whole series again I think 1969 is definitely my favourite. Though this one is a close second. The first time I went to Kings Cross after reading this I found myself shuddering. The only thing I found disappointing in this was that I spend so much less time involved in popular culture than I do in Victorian literature I felt like I missed out on most of the references! Though I did love that there were a few Doctor Who ones! (and can't believe I missed the dalek the first time I read 1969).

The text at the end also makes a nice story when all three parts are read together. The knowledge of the patient and her circumstances make it all make much more sense and flow together really well.

Definitely one of Alan's best series.

After throughly enjoying book 3 in this series I felt a little disappointed by 4. There were some great moments, when they finally got to the coven who were trying to bring about the end of the world, the betrayal, but the earlier part of the collection just felt a little disjointed and slow. It felt like a little bit like the writers were too contrained by Big Crossover Event happening and not able to get on with things at their own pace. I must admit I'm currently finding Constantine to be a bit boring. He doesn't really do much besides show up and be a know all who doesn't reveal anything. I'm having a hard time seeing why he became such a popular character. (Dare I say that Jamie Delano did a better job of developing him than the Great Bearded One?). I think my biggest problem with this was there wasn't enough monsters and too many superheros and it felt like going over old territory a little with the trip back to hell. Two collections left of the series though and I will definitely finish it. I'm glad I decided to read the series I think book 3 just set my expectations a bit too high so that I ended up being let down by this one.

This is an absouletly gorgeous comic. It's about the lives of ordinary people living in [north]Hampton. A woman returning home after 10 years, various members of her family and then a couple in America who have plans to build a new shopping mall in the city.
The art work is stunning, beautifully rendered highly realistic pencil sketches. A lot of the panels have no dialogue and so the art work gets over the emotions within the story. It's depressing and real and so much better and more interesting than any superhero adventure could be. It's a shame only two issues were ever released but I'll definitely be getting the second one (and then reading everyone's plot developments in the Storyteller book).

I bought this last weekend I'd not read any Swamp thing in a couple months, having finished book 2 and then deciding not to buy anymore books for the rest of the year. It was totally amazing. Without a doubt my favourite of the swamp things so far and just as good as Alan Moore's best work. The book saw the swamp thing start to understand his role as a plant elemental a bit better. How to grow himself a new body and how to travel. Normally I prefer graphic novels that are one big story rather than individual ones but I liked it here. I thought the nuclear waste guy disappearing was a bit of a cop out. But apart from that I really liked it. There were ghosts, vampires, werewolves, voodoo. But more importantly it was just so beautifully written. The lines were lovely, particularly the swamp things. Considering how articulate monsters are one of my favourite things it's really no wonder I love this series so much. But there are also really great issues discussed environmental concerns, women's rage, sexism, racism. While there are magical and mystical beings it's really just using them as an excuse to talk about real world issues in disguise. I have to say the woman's rage, the story of the curse, was totally brilliant. (Even if I don't believe a native American tribe could be that horrid and she had a hopeless ending). As soon as I finished I bought book 4. I hope it's as good.

I think this was my least favourite of the Top Ten books. It was a fantasty spoof and while there were some quite funny moments I just don't think I read enough fantasy to get all the references. I did spot Cutter with a beer belly but it kinda reinforced the idea that it's just a genre that doesn't do much for me anymore.

It was amusing to see the police officers from the superhero worlds back in the fantasy setting. To see it all messed up. But it was a very light story without any depth. Just a little comedy and not the funniest comedy I've read by Moore.

This collection of superhero comics on the other hand I did not care for much at all. The only thing I found amusing was that the women superheros were complaining about the outfits of the new superheros, and quite rightly so! I thought it was supposed to be a court version of superheros like top ten was a police version. But instead the court plot took up only three fifths of the book and the rest was mostly filler. The characters seemed to be mostly copied from other superhero books, with a fake superman, womderwoman etc. The story itself about a magical artifact book that could change peoples lives was ok but not very original either. Definitely not one of Moore's best. I'm glad I just borrowed a copy from the library!

Forty-niners was basically a big gay romance. It featured the guy who'd end up the chief of the precinct and his partner of 50 or so years and looked at how they got together. There was also a sub plot of how the city of superheros got built and how the police started. But for me the most important thing was the relationship between the characters. The art style was also much more to my liking. It was much more muted colours and had a much more realistic feel. While I missed a lot of the cast from the rest of Top Ten it was very sweet and I liked it a great deal.

Top ten book 2 continued the nice character development of book 1. It was short but it seemed to wrap up several of the stories really nicely and set up the two next books that were in different time periods or settings. I think Top ten definitely feels more like a cop show than a superhero comic. There aren't really any big fights, at least there aren't any distracting ones and there's a lot more plots to do with the existance of life, unorthodox relationships and prejudice. The last section of book 2 had me in tears as it was so sweet.

So after being less than impressed with wildcats I thought Id read this collection anyway as I'd already borrowed it from the library. It was a collection of different short stories set in the wildcats universe. The first story was ABYSMAL. Ok there were some nice Alan Moore turns of phrase, but it was a spawn crossover and was really the WORST representation of comics I've seen in a LONG time. This was the reason that most women don't read comics. Ok, so I'm bisexual and can appreciate a finely drawn woman in comics. I have read and enjoyed Moore and Gibbie's porn efforts in this regard. But the sexualisation of the women characters in the first collection in this book was just so high as to be truly absurd! First of all the women's superhero costumes was a G-string! There were so many shots of women's butts with little triangles it was absurd! Next the women had huge FAKE breasts! They were large and obviously copied from implants and not real boobs cause real boobs don't look like that!!! Next even the old crippled superhero sitting in a wheelchair wearing a blanket, wore the blanet only to the tops of her thighs to show off her shapely hips and that she wasn't wearing trousers! I can't believe Alan worked with this artist.

The next story set in a dying universe was ok but so far removed from reality that it just didn't make any sort of impression.

The third story however was one I actually really enjoyed. It was about the character from the old team that I liked the most. The one who was part demon who left the team because of their racism and decided to go back to being a stripper, "because the costumes are less demeaning and people treat you with more respect". And yes indeed the issues about the strippers were much less demeaning than the ones about the female superheros! It was a wonderful story about her returning to New Orleans and hanging out with the legba (if that's the right word) without realising what they were. It was about letting go to do the right thing. It was still quite action-y trying to stop a monstrous man from killing strippers and bringing back the dead. But it was done in a really nice sorta spooky and sorta funny way and I really enjoyed it. It made me want to look into just getting the comics for this story, even though I'm sure it'd be cheaper to buy a copy of the graphic novel.

The last two stories after that I just didn't much care for even though one had maxine, she was just drawn too weired and the plot felt like a cliche.