The Week in Ink - 8/24/05

Remember last night when I said I had comics to read? Well here they are.

• Adventures of Superman #643
• Angel: The Curse #3 and Spike: Old Times: Yeah, I'll say it. I'm totally gay for Buffy now. Wanna make something of it? There were some spoilers in these for me, since I haven't watched any of Angel, but really, that's my fault now isn't it?
• Banana Sunday #2: Colleen Coover still isn't returning my calls. She is, however, drawing an awesome comic about monkeys. Seriously, it's beautiful to look at and the story's more fun than just about anything else coming out right now, so go read it.
• Battle Pope #2
• Conan #19
• Daredevil vs. Punisher #3: I need to take my copy back to the store, as it appears to be soaked in awesome sauce. ...Except the part where the Punisher says he's never fought Bushwacker before. Maybe I can use my expertise to get a consulting job...
• Day of Vengeance #5: Sentinels of Magic + Suicide Squad = Shadowpact. IT'S SCIENCE!
• Hellblazer #211
• Invincible #25: Second of this week's Robert Kirkman Trifecta, and it's six kinds of enjoyable. Not only is it a great issue, it's a great anniversary issue. It's got the last-page shocker and some great backup stories. I got excited like three times reading this book.
• Jack Cross #1: The fact that I used to refer to my ex-girlfriend's arms as flippers (long story, don't ask) made this one even more enjoyable for me. I can't say that I love Gary Erskine's art--not that there's anything wrong with it, it just doesn't grab me. If Chris Weston was on this book, boy howdy. But still, it's a great read.
• JSA Classified #2: Like most of today's Geoff Johns joints, you can pretty much read the first page and the last page and be done with it. But then you'd miss all that pretty Amanda Connor art.
• Legion of Super-Heroes #9
• Monkey in a Wagon vs. Lemur on a Big Wheel #1
• New X-Men: Academy X #17
• The OMAC Project #5
• Queen & Country: Declassified v.2 #2
• Queen & Country: Declassified v.3 #3
• Rex Libris #1
• The Surrogates #1: Finally got around to picking this one up, and it's actually really darn enjoyable. It's like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, only the Special Victims are actually Robot Victims, and that makes everything better! I think I caught Richard Belzer on page 12, though. That guy's in everything.
• Wolverine #31: Here endeth the Mark Millar run, and therefore I won't be getting this anymore. Have fun with Daniel Way, suckers. Man, these have been good, though. An uncanny throwdown in the mighty marvel manner. I loved it.

And although it's not really part of this week's comics, I did get my copy of The Order of the Stick: On the Origin of PCs by Rich Burlew, based on the webcomic of the same name.

It's great stuff if you happen to be into D&D, but even beyond that, his timing is impeccable in everything from the sight gags to the puns. Steve and Felecia picked it up for me at GenCon, so not only did I get it early, but I got it signed by Burlew, and he even did a little sketch of a goblin on the title page. It might be the first time I've paid full price for a trade paperback in three years, and it was worth every penny.