Copperhead Volume 2

Soooo Copperhead Volume 2 ends on a cliffhanger.  The story is supposedly ongoing, but there hasn't been an issue published since #10 came out in October 2015.  Sigh.

Copperhead Volume 2 is a new arc involving most of the characters from Volume 1, but it felt like a little time has passed between the two arcs.  When Clara throws Nestor in jail, he warns her that she's making a big mistake.  Sure enough, Nestor's brother Zolo breaks him out of prison.  Zolo wants to hightail it out of town but Nestor insists on trying to make Clara pay.  So they set an ambush and capture Budroxifinicus instead.  They drag Budroxifinicus out to the Bastion, hoping to lure Clara into a trap.  For her part, Clara is right behind them with a posse!

Volume 2 was a super fun chase through the desert.  As I said though, it ended on a cliffhanger, which was super disappointing - I want to know what happens next!!!! :(

Copperhead Volume 1

A friend of mine really recommended Copperhead to me (I don't honestly remember why though...we were chatting about things and it came up).  I was excited to find both collected editions at the library so I took them out a week or two ago and finally sat down to read them. 

Copperhead Volume 1 opens with Clara Bronson and her son, Zeke, travelling on a train to Copperhead where she is the new sheriff.  Right off the bat the story is great.  Some idiot tries to sit next to her on the train, and some other guy steps in to save her.  We don't actually see what happens, but she ends up kicking both guys off the train as they arrive in Copperhead.  From there, Clara and Zeke are picked up by Deputy Budroxifinicus (who Zeke calls Boo because he can't pronounce the name, even though Budroxifinicus would prefer Zeke NOT call him that).  Budroxifinicus is a hilarious character because he is super full of dry wit. 

Anyway, Clara and Budroxifinicus are called out to a domestic disturbance at the Sewells place.  Missus Sewell assaults Clara and ends up brought in to the jail.  Meanwhile, Zeke goes out to help his neighbour find her lost dog.  You're not supposed to go out at night because that's when the natives will get you.

I should clarify at this point: this is very much a science fiction western.  The natives are these bug-like monsters who clearly lived on the planet before humans came here.  Budroxifinicus is some sort of alien (I don't think the book actually said what kind).  And Clara and Zeke were posted here from some other planet.

So yeah.  Anyway, Zeke and his neighbour get rescued by an artificial human (an "artie" as Clara calls them - they were created for the war against the native creatures I believe and are pretty much killing machines.  Clara really dislikes them).  Clara was called back to the Sewalls because something tore through the house and murdered the father and the boys (well most of the boys - one was badly injured but managed to live). 

So the rest of the story ends up this sort of murder mystery with Clara and Budroxifinicus trying to figure out what exactly happened (while waiting for the one living Sewall boy to hopefully wake up and tell them).  Budroxifinicus does some great police work in the middle of this, and Clara starts to get over her prejudices for the non-human people.

I really, really enjoyed reading Volume 1 and can't wait to read Volume 2 (hopefully later tonight though - I don't have enough time right now).

The Halo Graphic Novel

I wasn't sure if I was going to include graphic novels on the List. But then I decided that they are, by definition, novels. And I don't read a whole lot of them, so why not use them as a break when I need a really quick read?

I was also really happy when I picked this up in Minneapolis a month ago; I was able to pay the American price ($24 I think) rather than the Canadian price ($40).

The one thing I was rather impressed with was the art. In two of the four stories, the artwork was AMAZING! (In the other two, not so much). There was also a gallery included after the stories with pictures from many different artists, and many of those pictures were also amazing! (I also found out that this is where one of my favourite pictures comes from, which I have included here).

However, I didn't really like the stories. The first one was incredibly hard to follow. It was supposedly about one of the Elites from Halo 2, showing how he lost part of his jaw. I scanned through the pictures a couple of times and I couldn't find where he loses part of his jaw. (There was one really cool part that looked like the flood he was fighting had a chance to bite it off, but I'm really sure he didn't).

The second and fourth stories had the worst drawings. The second one wasn't bad, and it was kind of fun. The fourth story was just okay; I really wasn't impressed with it.

But the fourth story was hands down my favourite! It was the story of how Sgt. Johnson escaped the flood from Halo 1. There were no words in the entire story, yet it was amazing! The artwork (as mentioned) was phenomenal. And they didn't NEED words at all!

So, overall, I totally recommend this for any Halo fan. While the stories might not be super fantastic, it is worth getting just for the artwork.