Short thoughts in the new year

So, it seems I've been neglecting my blog a bit lately. It's been a crazy few weeks: term papers, graduation, moving out of my apartment, loads of cleaning, and the whole holiday shebang. My Internet access has been somewhat spotty; my time for reading comics has been even spottier.

It's a shame, too: I'd been reading quite a lot of comics before moving. Since then, all I've read is the first Phonogram trade. I'd share my thoughts on it, but I don't know that I have any. I felt most of the time like I was just beyond the horizon of understanding what was going on. Maybe if I knew a little more about the music involved or the whole 80s-90s British goth scene, I would have had an easier time of it. As it is, I didn't like it, and I have a feeling that once I read the appendix of references and re-read the story, I'll have a much better time of it. Anyway, I picked up the trade so I'd have some background for the new series, which I have high hopes for.

I read the first Spider-Man: Brand New Day trade, and it was all right. There was nothing particularly amazing about it, and while I really tried, I couldn't bring myself to buy the second trade. I liked the Mark Waid issues, though.

I finally read through several years worth of Transformers miniseries from IDW, and I've come to the conclusion that I don't really care for Simon Furman's writing. It's great in short bits, especially short bits where it can be really violent and set somewhat west of main continuity, but for the main title he's a poor fit. None of the characters have distinctive voices at all, in part because of the rampant Furmanisms. I haven't gotten around to the newest series or "Stormbringer," both of which I hear good things about, but I'm really left pining for the Dreamwave series, which was fantastic (at least, after the terrible first volume).

I'm avoiding Dark Reign. At some point, I should probably talk about my fantastic disappointment about Secret Invasion.

I don't have any ideas yet for the 30-Second Recap Contest this year. I'd like to come up with something, but it looks like I may be sitting this one out or coming up with it late. I don't feel too bad about that; I wouldn't want to win two years in a row (and I wouldn't imagine it to be possible). Now that I think about it, though, it'd be fun to see Maximum Carnage in crayon form...