Read 50 Graphic Novels (Last Year 52) (0+1=1):
- New Teen Titans Vol 1 HC
- Dice Throne Season 2 - Lives up to the promise of Dice Throne Season 1, with improved production and storage, and fun new character types.
- Azul Stained Glass of Sintra - Azul is one of my favorite games, but the tweaks made here make this version, a standalone game, even better than the original. It's a tiny bit harder to teach, but super-rewarding.
- Orbis - From the publishers of Splendor, this game about being a God and building up your world, worshipers, and temples was... a little simple. It's not a bad game, but it doesn't immediately strike me as replayable as Splendor.
- Pandemic 10th Anniversary Edition
- Just Desserts
- Dice Settlers
- Pandemic Legacy
- Terraforming Mars
- Azul
- Sagrada
- Codenames
- Splendor (x2)
- Blackout Hong Kong
- Conan the Barbarian #1-2 - Marvel's return of Conan is pretty great, new stories from Jason Aaron with stunning artwork by Mahmud Asrar, incorporating early Conan *and* King Conan and also providing standalone stories in the first two issues.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1 - Boom! reimagines Buffy for 2019 in a similar vein to what Marvel did with Ultimate Spider-Man in 2000, and man does it work. Jordie Bellaire really gets the voice of the characters and makes some interesting tweaks to them and their continuity, and I'm curious to see where she goes from here. And Dan Mora's artwork is incredible, as expected.
- Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1-2 - Tom Taylor and Juan Cabal give me the street-level Spidey I've been wanting, with the same understanding of the character I expect from Taylor's other work, and a new supporting cast I quite enjoy.
- Criminal #1 - Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips return with an ongoing version of what *might* be my favorite of their various noir collaborations.
- Immortal Hulk #11-12 - Hulk in hell with Alpha Flight's spinoff team Gamma Flight seeking him out, and supporting cast members like Absorbing Man? This is a strange, horror-tinged Hulk unlike any I've seen, and Al Ewing and Joe Bennett are doing pretty impressive work here.
- Man Without Fear #1-5 - This five issue mini by Jed McKay and various artists explores Matt Murdock's recovery from a near-death incident, and has a real grip on him and all his eras and supporting cast and enemies. I don't know how much of it will be foundation for Zdarsky's upcoming run, but this was a pleasant surprise.
- Black Widow #1 - A merely OK first issue, but the promise of Black Widow working for Tyger Tyger in Madripoor is definitely enough to get me back for more.
- Star Trek 2020/Q Conflict #1 - IDW's Trek books have been great, and these two are no exception. 2020 is like a lost TNG episode, featuring the first meeting of Picard (with hair! on the Stargazer!) and Beverly not-yet-Crusher, with beautiful painted art by JK Woodward and a great script by Trek veteran Peter David. Q Conflict, on the other hand, is the team of David & Scott Tipton, introducing various godlike beings in Trek putting the crews of TOS, TNG, Voyager, and DS9 up against each other in a Contest of Champions type thing that you'd never see outside of the comics.
- Amazing Spider-Man #14
- American Carnage #3
- Black Widow #1
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1
- Captain Marvel #1
- Champions #1
- Conan the Barbarian #1-2
- Criminal #1
- Crypt of Shadows #1
- Domino #10
- Exorsisters #4
- Fantastic Four #6
- Firefly #3
- Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1-2
- Green Lantern #3
- Guardians of the Galaxy #1
- Gunning for Hits #1
- Hardcore #2
- Hawkman #8
- Immortal Hulk #11-12
- Invaders #1
- Journey into Unknown Worlds #1
- Killmonger #3
- Man Without Fear #1-5
- Marvel Comics Presents #1
- Marvel Knights #5-6
- Miles Morales: Spider-Man #2
- Ms Marvel #37
- Naomi #1
- Oliver #1
- Prodigy #2
- Punisher #6-7
- Quantum Age from the World of Black Hammer #6
- Return of Wolverine #4
- Rolled and Told #5
- Runaways #17
- Skyward #10
- Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #4
- Star Trek IDW 2020
- Star Trek Q Conflict #1
- Star Trek Tng Terra Incognita #6
- Starcraft Soldiers #1
- Superior Spider-Man #2
- Tony Stark Iron Man #7
- Winter Soldier #2
- Wolverine The Long Night #1
- X-force #2
- Young Justice #1
Graphic Novels This Month:
- BPRD Hell on Earth Vol 4 HC
- Black Hammer Vol 3 Age of Doom Part 1 TP
- Champions TP Vol 5 Weird War One
- Daredevil Back in Black TP Vol 08 Death of Daredevil
- Farmhand Vol 1 TP
- Marvel Two-in-One TP Vol 02 Next of Kin
- Spider-Geddon TP Edge of Spider-Geddon
- Supers Vol 1 TP
- To Drink & to Eat Hc Vol 01
- Tony Stark Iron Man Vol 1 TP Self-Made Man
- Voltron Legendary Defender Vol 3 TP Absolution
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Honeymoon" "Hitchcock & Scully" "The Tattler"
- Crashing "Jaboukie" "The Temple Gig"
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend "I Will Help You" "I'm Not the Person I Used to Be" "I Need Some Balance" "I Can Work With You" "I'm Almost Over You"
- Deadly Class "Pilot"
- Future Man "Season 2"
- Marvel's Runaways "Gimme Shelter" "Radio On" "Double Zeroes"
- Sex Education "Season 1"
- Star Trek Discovery "The Escape Artist" "Brother" "New Eden"
- The Good Place "Book of Dougs" "Chidi Sees the Time-Knife" "Pandemonium"
- Titans "Hawk and Dove" "Origins" "Doom Patrol" "Together" "Jason Todd" "Asylum" "Donna Troy" "Hank and Dawn" "Koriand'r" "Dick Grayson"
- Top Chef "Season 16"
- True Detective "The Great War and Modern Memory" "Two Suspects"
- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt "Season 4"
- Wayne "Get Some Then"
- Young Justice: Outsiders "Princes All" "Royal We" "Eminent Threat" "Private Security" "Away Mission" "Rescue Op" "Evolution" "Triptych" "Home Fires" "Exceptional Human Beings" "Another Freak" "Nightmare Monkeys" "True Heroes"
- You're The Worst "The Intransigence of Love" "The Pin in My Grenade" "The One Thing We Don't Talk About"
- You're The Worst - I didn't think anything could push past Good Place, but the first episode of the final season ("The Intransigence of Love") is like a great standalone romance with YTW's traditional acidic sense of humor, and Jimmy/Gretchen getting married is paying story and comedy dividends.
- The Good Place - Still the best show on TV in general, though. And that season three finale was a heartbreaking but great episode of TV.
- Star Trek Discovery - Season two comes back strong, Anson Mount is killing it as Captain Pike, Tig Notaro was a ton of fun in her first appearance, and I'm very intrigued by the Spock/Red Angel story.
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Returning strong on NBC, the Jake/Amy honeymoon episode was terrific, but young Scully/Hitchcock was worth this season all on its own.
- Young Justice: Outsiders - It's all about great returns this month. Revivals of lost shows haven't fared well in general, but this doesn't miss a step, and if it's sometimes a *little* too happy with it's unrated DC app freedom, it's also giving us a great take on the Outsiders, not to mention little cameos from Milestone, which I always appreciate.
- Sex Education - A frank exploration of teen sexuality, great characters, fantastic cast, laugh out loud moments in every episode, strong emotional storytelling, and Gillian Anderson as an oversexed sex therapist? What's not to like?
- Crashing - Pete Holmes' comedian on the rise story gets better with every season, and I loved the first two episodes back.
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Final season going well, Skylar Astin is great as the returning Greg. There haven't been as many killer memorable songs as usual, but the Cats riffs were pretty great.
Movies I Watched This Month:
- Avengers Infinity War
- Bumblebee
- Mission Impossible Fallout
- Cabin in the Woods
- Bad Times at the El Royale
- Greatest Showman
- American Made
- Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened
- Corner Bakery
- Deckhand Oyster Bar
- Easy Tiger (x3)
- Fat Dragon
- Firehouse Subs
- Flyrite Chicken
- Holy Roller
- Juarez
- Michi Ramen
- Mod Pizza
- Outback Steakhouse (x2)
- Short Stop
- Slab BBQ
- Suerte
- Texas Roadhouse
- Thai Kitchen
- Torchy's Tacos
- Tumble 22
- Vera Cruz
- Whataburger
