This past week I read the first eleven of the 22 issue X-Men cross-over event, X of Swords.

There is no specific groundbreaking storytelling here, but I am enjoying how Hickman is establishing a deeper mutant mythos within the Marvel Universe.

The first volume set up the world and was heavy with intrigue and court politics, whereas volume two is a magical travel adventure that dives deeper into the world. It ends with more questions than answers.

His book was sitting on the shelf for a while, so I decided to finally read it this past week. What a fun story. My first impression review of the book is that it is a good cross between Twin Peaks and Stardust.

I just read Volume 1 of The Autumnlands by Kurt Busiek and Benjamin Drew. I really enjoyed the talking animals’ setting and the world is established. There is some insinuation that the world is our own far-flung future and I like the story so much I went ahead and found Volume 2 online and purchased it.

As a reader, I became connected to the world before I was connected to the characters. At the end of the book, I was really excited to see more. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a volume 2. Not sure if Zander Cannon even made one

The story felt rushed and honestly didn’t do much for me. Instead of concentrating on character development, it seemed like the writer, Kelly Thompson was shoehorned to start some meta plot story seeds for the larger Marvel Comics universe.

This past week, as I have been waiting for some back issues to arrive, I jumped back into the Dime Comics app. If you have any IOS devices, I highly recommend it. It’s packed with thousands of golden age comics from the 1930s to the 1950s. I’ve been reading Green Hornet Comics from the early ’40s.

Society changes, writers change, art changes; and if one feels that the addition of updating the back story of a character is offensive, then do not read the comic book. Comic books have always been at the forefront of human rights and social justice issues and that will never change.

…I mentioned in some previous posts that I’m reading the in X-men titles. I read the first 4 issues of the new Cable series. I need to do a bit of research to figure out why Cable is now a young man and not the old gruff guy he was when I read him 20 or so years ago.

We had a full week of podcasts! Since our last update, we had 3 more interviews to add to our library. The first one was with well-known artist and YouTube star, Scott Serkland. He talked about his career as an illustrator and cartoonist and provided some tips on how to make a living on it.