Here's where my little Humble Bundle read count goes off the rails, since I'm unsure of the exchange rate of British progs to American issues...as from the pages of Judge Dredd, we start with from 2004, the Simping Detective, written by Simon (Si) Spurrier, art by Frazier Irving.

"Simping" has taken, shall we say, a different connotation in recent years; but for 2000 AD/Dredd fans, 'simps' are adherents of the Church of Simpology, who "embrace the absurdity of life in the (Mega-)City by dressing and behaving in an outrageous and ridiculous manner. They're usually nutso. Undercover Judge Jack Point dresses like a clown, but it's camouflage for his work in the Angeltown district, as well as being exceptionally helpful as far as hiding weapons...

While he himself was often drunk and miserable, Jack's stories are stylish, sarcastic fun; even if they were set squarely in Dredd continuity. This does cause him to get dragged back into the plot every so often, doubtless kicking and screaming: he has had stories set after the Day of Chaos event. I read that as well: a rogue Sov agent, seeking revenge for Dredd's retaliation in the Apocalypse War (wherein Dredd destroyed East Meg-One) unleashes a virus on Mega-City One. It's a bloody one, that will remind of a lot of the pandemic, except it's the absolute worst case there, and it was written several years prior to it! Day of Chaos is also a long one: 48 episodes, the longest Dredd story to that time. (The first chapter was in 2000 AD #1743 in 2011; but reading it the other day I would've sworn it was post-COVID.) I think Wagner pulled a trick he's used a few times: a Psi-Division Judge has a premonition of doom, that ultimately doesn't help the Judges the least little bit.

But, while Mega-City One lost 350 million in Day of Chaos, Jack Point and his supporting cast made it out okay! He would go through a couple later plotlines, and I'm not sure he's still simping. Although, that might depend on Spurrier or Irving coming back to him. Anyway, we add like 75 progs to our count here, for whatever that's worth. Read more!

I had been meaning to do a re-read of this one: it had been a favorite--easily my favorite ongoing when it was running--and it still mostly holds up! From 2016, Transformers: Lost Light, written by James Roberts, art by Brendan Cahill, Casey Coller, E.J. Su, Alex Milne, Sara Pitre-Durocher, Jack Lawrence, and more.

Actually, this involved re-reading all of the previous series, More Than Meets the Eye, so like 57 issues, an annual, and "the Death of Optimus Prime." The latter is a bit of dramatic license, as at the end of the several million year Decepticon/Autobot war, with Cybertron coming back to life and thousands of non-aligned Transformers returning to the planet, Optimus thought maybe he could just be Orion Pax again. Not yet, anyway!

But, most of Lost Light--plotwise, at least--was about Rodimus trying to get revenge on the mutinous Getaway, a long redemption arc for Megatron that still might not be enough, the conclusion of the quest for the Knights of Cybertron and their sad fate, and the invasion of the Transformers' darkest timeline, the Functionalist universe. But it's really almost entirely about friendship and found family; but a million times less cheesy than I'm making that sound. It's sincere in the best way. That and even though the theology of the Transformers is an important piece, the characters still say things like "God! Can I be chained to somebody else, please?" when they're pissed at each other. For being based on the lower echelons of characters based on toys, everyone is personable as all get out.

EDIT: I almost forgot to mention the Decepticon side of the equation, the Scavengers! The absolute worst of them, but only as far as being effective soldiers; they're affable, damaged dorks. They get a couple decent assists, and a bit of a moment when Megatron himself recognizes them, the lowest guys on the totem pole. And the Scavengers have their own ship, the W.A.P. That's Weak Anthropic Principle...wait, you thought W.A.P. stood for what? 

 That's about another 84 issues to my Humble reading total there! In the editorial wrapping up the last issue, Roberts gives a little advice on how to fudge his numbers, starting with a few one shots and a couple prose stories, to get to a solid 100. Which means I still have a couple to find later.

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Here's another one we've mentioned before, but I can't recall if I got the issues or the trade later, or just this Humble Bundle: from 2011, Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever, written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, art by John Severin.

This is the second trade, of I think six, and the character would show up again later in the Hellboy stories: in Victorian times, Grey served the Queen, investigating unusual events or horrific occurances, unofficially known as the Queen's Witchfinder. I did read all six trades, and some more from the Mignola bundles; but we're checking out this one because it's a western, with John Severin art!

Man alive, if I read six trades, those were probably six issues a piece; plus Sir Edward Grey: Acheron and the Serpent in the Garden to wrap up his story...I know I also re-read Rasputin: Voice of the Dragon, and a bunch of Hellboy shorts and one-shots, like the Bones of Giants. I probably read something like 60 issues worth of Mignola/Hellboy stuff there; bringing our vacation Humble read to upwards of 75 issues, at least. And tomorrow we'll check out another Bundle, where I read at least that many issues as well!

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"Daycare."

A short one this week, since I'm playing catch-up: I actually do have a "fill-in" strip, that I keep kicking down the line. It may be dated as heck before it ever turns up, I haven't had any serious disasters yet. Also, I messed up a panel where Pavitr was maybe going to try and hit on Elektra; but then I decided even he wouldn't while she was holding a sword. Miles was also going to describe Elektra/Daredevil as "Un####withable. She's trying not to kill anybody, but with you she might not try real hard..."

Also, I'm pretty sure towards the end of the Krakoa era, the mutants, including Kurt, were on their war footing and fought to kill. I think they were actually less war-crimey than usual, but still killed a lot of goons. I also feel like Kitty--er, Katherine Pryde--might have been somewhat murder-y for that.

 Why would Frank have a sword? If you recall his recent continuity, you can probably guess; but why would he show up with it now? Does everyone have swords on their minds today?

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I might try to ballpark how many Humble Bundle comics I read last week: A Train Called Love was 10 issues, this one was 6. Although they went #0-5, for reasons? From 2017, Ash vs. the Army of Darkness #0-5, written by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims, art by Mauro Vargas and Sam Lotfi.

This series was also from Dynamite, but I think they've had enough Evil Dead/Ash/Army of Darkness issues to offer dedicated Humble Bundles of nothing but those. Sadly, their numbering/naming convention is usually to start a new miniseries, which makes sense when it's just going to a crossover; but perhaps less so when they try to set something up for Ash. Who doesn't go through a ton of growth in his comic, but honestly would you expect him to? The character's pretty established at this point. This run, after the fight at the end of the theatrical cut of Army of Darkness, Ash is canned from his beloved S-Mart; but one door opens as another closes: a local vice principal approaches him, since that Deadite had previously been her school's librarian. With few other options, Ash is forced to go back to high school as a substitute, to find out who had been reading from the Necronomicon; largely in order to get the auto shop kids to repair his beloved Delta 88.

Hijinks of course ensue, with Ash having to deal with high schoolers than are probably more studious than he remembers them being; and encounters with the anti-Deadite task force S.M.A.R.T. The latter had begun, if not with a clever acronym, but back in the 14th century; as Arthur and Sheila decided they needed to keep doing their part against the Necronomicon. The whole thing seems to be trying to set up a new, ongoing status quo for Ash that I'm not sure was revisited: partly because every writer seems to just want to do their own take, which is fine. To me though, the Ash books kind of feel like the tour the X-Men used to do every so often: the Savage Land, Japan, space! Maybe Canada if there's time. Ash tends to run in a set circle, usually with trips to the past, the future, back to the cabin again; and repeat.

We've mentioned these before, and they're usually pretty fun: they tend to stay in the slapstick horror/violence of the third movie; and haven't gone hard on the horror in a bit, unlike the last few movies in the franchise. (I haven't seen Evil Dead Burn yet!) If you check Dynamite's site, they've been cranking out Ash comics for some time, with about a bazillion variant covers. I thought Archie vs. the Army of Darkness was still running, but I guess that wrapped up a couple months ago. That will probably be in a Humble Bundle sometime as well, if you missed it too. Read more!

And we're back!

Yes, yes, I'm sure I'm about as thrilled about it as everyone else... This will probably be a bit of a catch-up week, since while I managed to scrape together enough posts to cover while I was gone, I did not put enough together to, um, cover today? Well, we'll still take a shot at it. Usually, when I'm on vacation, I do a ton of reading, but I didn't bring as many books with me this year. Instead, I went back through a bunch of Humble Bundles and read some that I'm not sure I had before. For instance, I would've thought I'd have flipped through this earlier, since it kind of answers the question, "What if Garth Ennis wrote a romantic comedy?" He would still be Garth Ennis, yeah. From 2015, A Train Called Love, written by Garth Ennis, art by Mark Dos Santos. Cover by Russ Braun.

What seems like it's going to be the main plot kind of isn't: Valerie, a headstrong young woman, realizes the obscene phone calls she keeps getting, are coming from across the street, so she stomps over there with a basebat bat to rectify the situation. A charming British hitman, Myles, had already taken care of that for her, and sparks fly; which leads to her being dragged into it when his employer's regular hitters show up, who are of course comic Nazis because again, Garth Ennis. It's only addressed in passing, but the big crime boss was a morbidly obese black man (think the Slug, not the Kingpin; there is a sex sequence involving scuba gear that will either be hilarious for you or miss completely) who seemingly didn't care as long as the hits got made. Again, Garth Ennis: rest assured the Nazis get theirs in amusingly gory fashion.

But, despite being needed for the plot, Valerie and Myles don't feel like the main one: Valerie's sister, Penny, has just made a horrible discovery in her boyfriend Marv's tastes in pornography; while being completely clueless that her songwriter friend Marcy was in love with her. Marv and his friends had recently stumbled into possession of a large quantity of drugs, and were trying to talk their one black friend Mike into helping out since their street credibility was somewhat lacking. Mike was a bit distracted, since he had been tutoring a young woman in math but then discovered her family were full-on Klansmen. (They're suburban/upper middle-class Klan and even in a group don't seem threatening at all; it's played for laughs.) Later, Penny and Marv recognize their friend Jev's new fiance; and you can probably guess from where; while their actor friend Dave meets his idol, who lets him in on what it took to get ahead in Hollywood--OK, I feel like you can probably guess there, too. Ennis is not above taking shots at actors, except of course for Clint Eastwood, 'cause come on.

Is it any good? It's a minor work, it's not Ennis's best, but it feels like he was trying to step out of his wheelhouse at least a little. Maybe very little, honestly Preacher is kind of more romantic than this. But it reads well? I do wonder how it sold; the cover for the last issue isn't even on the GCD, which might be a bad sign. This was in a Dynamite Humble Bundle, and I do think Dynamite does a Bundle every so often, so if you get it in one it's worth a read.

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The title makes it seem like Cribs, but for the Hulk.

Also, this was an unexpected reprint, as the regular creative team apparently missed deadline, so I'm saving this post for the next time I miss deadline! From 1975, Iron Man #76, reprinting 1969's Iron Man #9, "...There Lives a Green Goliath" Written by Archie Goodwin, pencils by George Tuska, inks by Johnny Craig.

A mysterious delivery is made to an Asian woman and a hooded, angry-sounding character: from the color scheme I'm guessing the Mandarin, but we'll see. The box contains an antique armor, but what's inside the armor is the real prize: the Hulk? Shipped like he was from Temu, yet. Meanwhile, Tony Stark had repaired his armor, after a fight with the Gladiator; but not his reputation, as he had to duck out to change, and to current love interest Janice Cord it had looked like he deserted her. She still kinda likes Tony, as he was trying to buy her dad's company, but would like some explanation. Which she doesn't get, as the Hulk smashes in looking for Tony--wait, not for Tony, but for Janice! (Tony earlier uses his "fusion ray" to repair his armor, which is like using a taser to iron your pants. Still, good on Tony for repairing a suit, as nowadays it feels like armors are one-use only.)

Switching into his armor, Iron Man gives chase, but can't figure out why the Hulk would attack like that, or how the usually stupid (at the time) brute was more clever and more cruel now. He gets his answer later, when the fight rolls into an electrical plant's generators, and the Hulk is zapped and revealed as a robot. But who would build something like that, and why? Watching from afar, the bad guy unmasks, and it's the Mandarin, with a mask on underneath his hood. Literally feels like a hat on a hat there. Still, Mandy is pleased to learn more of Iron Man's vulnerabilities. 

Marvel would eventually stop doing reprints to cover books that missed deadline, and instead have editors commission and bank away "fill-in" issues as replacements. Tom Brevoort has a solid guide of them! But, this issue could've been the first time some readers saw Janice Cord, and they might have wondered what happened to her...nothing good, no. Tony isn't the kiss-of-death that dating Matt Murdock is, but he's in the running.

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