Ok Here Goes :
February 2021 Reading Challenge
This month, regrettably, has been rather dry in the quantity of comics I have consumed. This has been due to a variety of factors, school, family, emotions and etc. I will not go into detail, however I will say that the same cannot be said about the quality of content.
One thing that can be noticed about this month’s reading is that I have begun to list volumes in my reading list, as due to a recent discovery of the service Hoopla. Ensuing that of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, I had recalled that the ComicBookHerald had put out an article discussing Hoopla and how the Sandman was one of its denizens. As such, I decided to sign up, and oh how glad I was to do so.
This month, I have begun to read comics volume by volume. This has proven to be a much more organized and enjoyable experience than the chaotic mess that it is jumping from issue to issue without any ordered say in what to read next. As such, I had decided to list my reading by volume, however there were still those issues that had been read alone, which will still stay on record as single issues(ie. on the second and the 9th). By doing so, I have found that I can recall and appreciate the content absorbed much more, even allowing me to write about those comics after the experience. With this new insight into how I read, I’ve also decided to continue the theme of reading by volume, not just on Hoopla or physical, but also on MU and DCUI.
From this, I have decided to review a couple of my experiences—but not all, as that would be a bit too much writing for my illiterate self. For this month I will review Neil Gaiman’s the Sandman Vol 1. (2019)(Which includes the first two volumes of the Sandman) and Brian K. Vaughn’s Y: the Last Man Vol 1. (Don’t worry the reviews will be spoiler free).
The Sandman Vol 1.(2019) , for one, came as a delightful surprise. While slow at first, Gaiman was able to slowly, but incrementally grab my attention and interest, as the story grew increasingly more captivating and emotionally exhilarating. I can confidently say that the story had successfully and concretely incited emotions and feelings that no other comic had ever made me feel. In fact, there were even moments in which I had actually felt a part of myself die inside, and that’s a good thing, because it meant that the story had been successful with drawing me in and connecting me with one of its minor characters, before taking that character away in an abrupt and delightfully horrifying instant. The Sandman is great with bringing the reader in and creating connections with minor characters that seemingly have no purpose at all, while simultaneously seeming to mean the world all in their short one issue arcs, before disappearing forever. I can confidently say that the Sandman is the most emotionally engaging story I have ever read, whether it be comic or novel.
Before reading Y the Last Man, I had originally planned to read and review Garth Ennis’s the Boys. However, after reading a few issues in, I found it not as entertaining as I had imagined, that said, it was still quite fun, however reading the comic after seeing the show was a little too hard. Although there were differences the similarities were all too apparent, and it wasn’t worth it to have it be the topic of my second review for the month of February, so I decided to put finishing it on hold, and read Y: The Last Man instead.
So for the second review, I will be talking about Brian K. Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man(After this, I’m omitting the Y for readability) Vol 1. I first heard, or should I say saw, The Last Man, as a poster on Chuck Bartowskie’s wall in the TV show Chuck. I had no previous knowledge of what I would experience, reading The Last Man. However, I had expected it to be a popular series to be displayed on television like it was. I had made many assumptions on the series plot. I could have not been more wrong. The series started slow, and honestly quite mundane, but that was probably a smart move made by Vaughn. By the end of the first issue, all it took was 5 seconds, or in the comic’s sake, 5 panels, for everything to change. The whole tone, setting, and theme of the series changed drastically. What the series does masterfully is break expectation. The farther I read, the more drastic the series grew. While the plethora of abrupt escalations took me by surprise, every time, something that I rarely get to experience, the thing that surprised me the most had to have been the series’s tackling of the sheer number and intensity of controversial ideas. In the end Vaughn’s Y : the Last Man does have some good writing, the dark humor sprinkled in does make for some good chuckles, however personally, the political themes centered around the plot does off put me a little, as personally, I feel politics are becoming too much of an everyday thing, and I’d rather seperate my broccoli from my ice cream, and that is a personal choice. Y the Last Man is indeed well-written(for its first volume at least), however, its shameless ideological intensity concerning that of sexuality, politics, and religion may not be for everyone.
All in all, this has been an extremely entertaining experience. I had a real blast in reading and writing for this summary. I hope to continue this trend throughout the rest of the year. Again, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it, thank you, and see you next month.
Also, apologies again for my illiteracy, here’s this month’s reading(so far, concidering that I’m turning in my summary a week early lol) :
| Date | Title | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| 2/2/21 | LET THEM LIVE!: UNPUBLISHED TALES FROM THE DC VAULT (2021-) #1 | DC Universe |
| 2/9/21 | THE DREAMING: WAKING HOURS #1 | DC Universe |
| 2/20/21 | The Sandman Vol. 1 (17 issues) | hoopla |
| 2/21/21 | Y : The Last Man Vol 1. (5 issues) | hoopla |
Here’s the link to the google sheets doc again just in case : 2021 Reading - Google Sheets