Fours and Two

My January pop culture consumption has had an abundance of fours: I read 4 books, 4 trade paperbacks, 4 single issues of comics, and bought/downloaded for albums (one of which has 4 discs). In fact, the only thing I didn't manage 4 of (besides TV, but who can keep track of all that) was short stories, having read only one. There's no big significance to any of this, of course, but I found it interesting.

Here are some quick reviews of two comics I read yesterday...

Joe the Barbarian #1 - This is a new Vertigo series from Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy and this first issue costs only a dollar. As far as the story goes, it's definitely a set-up issue about a geeky diabetic who is either hallucinating or actually traveling to a world where all his toys are real and "the drains are choked with guts and stuffing." Interesting. Even better, though, is the art by Murphy (who also drew one of the short stories in that first House of Mystery). I'm not very adept at talking about art, so I'll just say that his work makes me feel like I could visit the places he's drawing. More than that, I want to. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Astro City: The Dark Age Book Four #1 - This is the final book of the long-running Dark Age storyline, where Charles and Royal Williams are out for revenge for their parents' murder. This is not a good place for newcomers to start, as this is the 13th issue of the story. For long-time readers like me, I'm looking forward to finding out what happens, especially filling in the pieces of Silver Agent's time jumps.