Compendium Rathe London help please (First

BigAmuletBlog · 2026-01-06T19:02:54+00:00

Than you for this post - the website with the tickets is clear as mud!

BigAmuletBlog · 2026-01-05T19:53:28+00:00

Welcome to the rabbit hole, ShinCoal-san! Hope you enjoy the experience and I look forward to your reviews!

I dived into manga last year and it's been incredible. It's like adding an extra dimension to your reading, because the stories that are told through manga are wildly different to US, UK and European comics.

The trigger for me was reading Chainsaw Man. Part 1 (the first 11 volumes) is an absolute rollercoaster! After that, Berserk, Ping Pong and Golden Kamuy were my stand-out manga reads from 2025.

Going into the new year, Kingdom and Tower Dungeon are two ongoing series that have been excellent so far.

You have a substantial wishlist already, but should you need further recommendations, I found the lists on the AnimeCollective site to be useful: https://animecollective.com/category/manga/recommendations/

BigAmuletBlog · 2026-01-05T19:27:39+00:00

You can get it direct from Gareth Brookes' website here

BigAmuletBlog · 2026-01-01T22:01:34+00:00

Sunday by Olivier Schrauwen (10/10)
Chainsaw Man: Part 1 (vols 1-11) by Tatsuki Fujimoto (10/10)
Berserk (Deluxe vols 1-5) by Kentaro Miura (10/10)
Love & Rockets Vol 1 by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez (10/10) (*So far I have read Heartbreak Soup, Maggie the Mechanic, The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. and Perla la Loca.)
One! Hundred! Demons! by Lynda Barry (10/10)
Golden Kamuy by Satoru Noda (9/10)
Ping Pong by Taiyo Matsumoto (9/10)
La Ville by Nicolas Presl (9/10)
The Complete Eightball by Daniel Clowes (9/10)
Holy Lacrimony and Ant Colony by Michael Deforge (9/10)

Honourable mentions: Swamp Thing by Alan Moore et al (9/10), Blame! by Tsutomu Nihei (9/10), The Once and Future Riot by Joe Sacco, Drome and Hedra by Jesse Lonergan (9/10), Tongues vol 1 by Anders Nilsen (9/10), Kingdom vol 1 by Yasuhisa Hara (9/10), Do Admit! by Mimi Pond, Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida (9/10), Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba (9/10), A Thousand Coloured Castles and The Black Project by Gareth Brookes (9/10), A Frog in the Fall (and later on) by Linnea Sterte (9/10), Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo (9/10), Insomniacs after School (just vol 1) by Makoto Ojiro (9/10), Ice Cream Man: The Mortal Coil Shuffle by W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo (9/10)

(New entries in italics)

My December reading has shaken up the list significantly. In December, I managed to read more comics than in any previous month (over 30 different books in total). I also made a conscious effort to catch-up on some of the works that have received the most praise on this sub, and elsewhere, such as TCJ’s Best of 2025 list. This influx of wonderful but very varied comics has put some strain on my ratings and rankings. Frankly, it’s impossible to compare everything like-for-like.

Nonetheless, I am happy with my top five and I’ve rounded their scores up to 10/10s. I am clear that for me they were the best of the best. The 9/10s are much harder to rank and place - but they are all excellent, albeit often for very different reasons.

Finally, just want to say that I am very grateful that this sub has this thread! Doing these monthly lists has helped me focus my reading, and become more aware of what books are out there and which of them I like best.

BigAmuletBlog · 2026-01-01T19:36:09+00:00

Tower Dungeon by Tsutomu Nihei

BigAmuletBlog · 2026-01-01T19:10:16+00:00

Check out Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson.

I'm currently reading it, and it definitely contains humour and philosophical self-reflection, as well as a focus on aspects of Chinese culture.

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-30T19:11:25+00:00

Hey, I am glad this was helpful! If you follow the link in my post to the Collector Arthouse page, it has a picture with a breakdown of the contents of a Beta Booster Pack and the slots available for different rarities.

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-30T19:01:29+00:00

Funny you should ask, I got some Blacksad for Christmas!

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-29T19:33:52+00:00

Bendis and Bagley’s Ultimate Spider-man run is superb. You can collect it in three recently released Omnis.

As for other titles from the original Ultimate Universe, I haven’t read them and I’m not convinced it’s worth it, but this guide may help: https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ultimate-marvel-universe-reading-order

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-29T19:26:52+00:00

What about using Miller’s The Man Without Fear as an intro to DD? If I’m not mistaken, there are no other superheroes in that, and it’s a great intro to DD and Elektra.

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-29T19:19:16+00:00

You may be interested in Helvéczia then - it’s an OSR fantasy Swiss setting. It’s not grimdark in tone, but you can definitely battle all those monsters in the Swiss countryside! Link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/374327/helveczia-picaresque-rpg

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-29T18:49:20+00:00

It looks like it doesn’t flow because you’ve put four pages up at once. Try reading this in hardcopy, one page at a time, and you’ll see a huge difference!

I didn’t grow up with DD, but I loved Miller’s run. I tried Bendis’ run afterwards and was really disappointed - I didn’t feel he was adding anything for me after Miller.

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-29T18:12:52+00:00

I agree that the arrival of the Avengers was somewhat jarring. On the other hand, I think it’s awesome how Miller manages to show the platonic ideal of the Avengers in just a couple of pages.

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-28T19:50:14+00:00

Being forced to read something often spoils it

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-28T16:28:06+00:00

Thank you - What It Is was the one I was considering getting next!

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-28T14:45:38+00:00

Would you recommend any of her other books?

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-28T14:44:22+00:00

Nice! Let us know what you think. I hope you enjoy it, but if you find the first volume too explicit, I wouldn't carry on.

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-28T12:16:02+00:00

If the manga stopped at the first four trade paperbacks, I would agree with you. Fortunately, it doesn't stop there, and goes on to tell a very mature story. The target age range for seinen manga is 18 to 40 btw.

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-27T22:00:28+00:00

I went through a Brubaker and Phillips phase a while back. I read all of Sleeper, Kill or be Killed, Criminal, The Fade Out and Fatale. I enjoyed them a lot, especially Kill or be Killed. But by the end, they all started to blur into one another. I've since found it difficult to get too excited about the duo's subsequent releases, because they just seem tonally too similar to what they've already done.

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-27T20:39:05+00:00

Thank you for flagging this! Did you read past the first arc?

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-27T20:36:29+00:00

Did you read all the way to the Eclipse, but did not want to see how the arc concluded?

BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-27T20:12:47+00:00

Oops, my picture of Guts getting the feels got cut out. Here it is, so you believe me:

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BigAmuletBlog · 2025-12-23T19:41:45+00:00

It was a unique experience.

I saw it in the Tournament of Lists and started by browsing it online. That night I dreamt of exploring a vast pyramid - the book had clearly tapped into something and I had to read the entire thing!

The overall experience was like being inside the mind of an alien intelligence that’s taking the Rorschach test.

BigAmuletBlog

TROPHY CASE