A to Z Reflections, 2013

May is here and so, A-Z is over.  As always, the opportunity to make new friends and enjoy their alphabetical explorations has been wonderful.  A big thank you to all on the A-Z team for another fine year.

Some final comic book thoughts: given how little advance planning went into selecting my scavenger hunt comics, I've been both surprised and delighted by a few exceptional finds.  I felt all five of the following were strong enough to inspire further exploration of their series:

Atlas
Louis Riel
Next Men
Pathfinder
Yummy Fur

Less surprising, at least to me, is that three of the titles are published by Drawn & Quarterly, a Montreal-based outfit which specializes in offbeat comics and graphic novels.  They also operate a bookstore in Montreal which has become our family favorite.

As much fun as the challenge provided, it's also nice to get back to regular programming.  I hope you'll all come back to visit for Family Movie Night and Baseball Tunes next week.  Also, I've started a bloggers' book club which is holding its first "meeting" on Friday, May 31st.  See details here.

Be sure to check out the A-Z reflections of other participants. You'll find the bloghop list here.

See you 'round the 'sphere!

A Comic Book Scavenger Hunt, A-Z: Next Men

Title: John Byrne's Next Men
Issue: #1 (#31)
Release: December 2010
Writer and Artist: John Byrne
Store: Earth Prime Comics (Burlington, Vermont)

Image via The Daily P.O.P.

I was first introduced to John Byrne's work with his series Cold War, an espionage adventure tale. I only made it through two issues of that story.  This one seems a lot more promising to me.  This issue is a continuation of Byrne's series of the same name from the early '90s.  The relaunch explains the double-numbering.  It's the 31st issue overall but just the first of the new era.

The story is, I have to admit, very confusing.  Since I never read the originals, I can already see that I've got some catching up to do.  Often, such a situation might turn me off but there's that certain something here that makes me want to learn more. Reading up a bit on the history, the Next Men are, predictably, a bit of a spoof on the X-Men but with a far more interesting back story.  The first issue of the relaunch begins with a direct play on the X-Men idea but then heads in other directions.  By the end of the issue, the characters are still very confused as to what's happening to them and I'm quite curious myself.  I'm going back to the beginning for this one.

My scavenger hunt was pretty straight-forward: find single-issue comic books off the rack with titles starting from A-Z.  Go check out the rest of the participants in this year's A-Z challenge.  The official site is here.