expatNERD

Category: Blog

  • Conan the Barbarian

    I do not know if it is cold where you are, but where I am it is very cold. For some reason when winter hits, especially after Christmas, and the feelings of desolation and dare I say a bit of depression rise to the surface, for some reason I always think of Conan the Barbarian, and in particular the stories when he met an ice queen.

    So it is fitting that my pick of the week is Conan the Barbarian #18 from Titan Comics. Titan grabbed the license more than a year ago from Marvel, and have done a lot of wonderful things with the character created by Robert E. Howard, as well as some of his other creations such as Solomon Kane. Jim Zub has been leading the charge, and the look and design of the book of the main series does have that early Marvel Comics feel.

    You can tell that Zub is a fan, because he continues many of the plot points from some of Howard’s stories. The previously mentioned ice queen, which was I believe an unfinished story, was completed by Zub a few issues ago and it was quite satisfying. Plus, Zub has been paired with some amazing artists, such as Roberto de la Torre, Doug Braithwaite, and others. If you have not jumped onto this, I can heartily recommend you do and if memory serves, Zub will be writing at least thirty issues.

    Finally, it is worth mentioning that Titan Comics also resurrected the Savage Sword of Conan series, which is definitely a more adult take in black and white format, continuing what Marvel Comics also started. These oversized beauties are also quite worthy for any collection, whether you are a fan of Conan or not. Titan Comics is a force to be reckoned with, and so far they have done the Conan license justice.

    Before I sign off, I have been a bit jealous of Franka contributing all of the art, especially the comics, so I am also going to accompany some of my own doodles to these posts. Laugh away.

  • Green Lantern Corps

    Last week’s recommendation was One World of Doom, so it is only fitting that I jump to the other company and also make a recommendation. In one way they are quite similar.

    My pick of the week is Green Lantern Corps that came out yesterday, from Jeremy Adams, Morgan Hampton, and Fernando Pasarin, mainly because all three of these individuals have history of delivering some amazing stuff. Adams and Pasarin are frequent collaborators and did an excellent Flash run together, which seemed to come out of nowhere at the time. It was a weird time back then, DC did a big reshuffle and a lot of creators jumped on to new books at the same time. There was a lot of doubt and interestingly all, if not most of those creators delivered something very spectacular, that many said even surpassed what came before.

    Adams and Pasarin had the unfortunate task of following Joshua Williamson’s quite excellent Flash run. And then their run ended up being legendary. Adams then jumped on Green Lantern and collaborated with a ton of talented artists like Montos, Xermánico, and even Kevin Maguire, and this book has been going strong ever since. It spun off a few titles, the latest one being Green Lantern Corps. Green Lantern is hot right now but what, you ask, does it have to do with my last week’s pick One World Under Doom?

    Well, we have the Fantastic Four movie coming out in July, and we also have the Superman movie also coming out in July. And you guessed it, Guy Gardner and probably the Green Lantern Corps will also be making an appearance in Superman. And not to mention the Lanterns series that will be making its debut on HBO Max and is currently in production.

    Oh, and Jeremy Adams also signed an exclusive contract with DC Comics, so thankfully he will be on DC characters for a little while. If this is not a great time to be a Green Lantern fan, or heck, even a comic book fan, then please let me know when that was. Because I am due for a good laugh.