Category: Valiant Comics

(Y-11) Happy New Year

I hope your new year’s celebration was a blast and you are as psyched for the year to come.

I spent mine in bed, doing some binge watching with my wife, we decided to start watching Supernatural from the first season up to the thirteen, which the last available to stream on Prime Video.

But I also, in between breaks, I spend it reading.

An I am glad to inform you that it was my best day of all of the 31 from this, vacation period.

The total was 434 pages, this is thanks to that I finished the third volumes of Harbinger and Bloodshot, an all-out war of the psiops.

Also, I read three comic books by extraordinary writer and illustrator Becky Cloonan, these three stories are from her creator-owned series Ink and Thunder, whichever you choose they are fantastic, or better yet, read all three.

Also, I made a bit of headway with Deadhouse Gates, 19 pages, and currently on page 159, also I will be using a new app to track my reading, it is called Bookly, and my intention is to generate an infographic report of each book I read, which is one of the main things that attracted me to the app.

Let’s see how it plays out.

And with all of this reading, my total crossed the 9,000 page-mark.

9,300 to be precise, which gives me a lot of satisfaction, because at the beginning of December I set out to reach 8,000 pages and came out at the other end with much more.

In going thru my number for December, I came up with a total of 6,325 pages read that month, and all of the days above my minimum daily average, I just can see by the graphic below.

December numbers

Yes, I made a graphic, don’t judge me.

A very productive month I must say, I know that this is an atypical month, being almost all without school, at least in my case, but if I could only replicate a couple of time a year, I will be in great shape.

Concerning my reading schedule, and again thanks to this reading spurt, I am now only 17 days behind from the original calculations, and hopefully, by the end of January, this will be reduced dramatically.

Now I want to talk about how my last year of reading, 2018 of course, because as I have explained on other posts, the year of reading for my projects begins and ends in October.

Anyway, I’ll start with stats from Goodreads.

I won’t spoil any of the fun so you can check it out this pretty cool infographic. Here you can see my year of reading on Goodreads.

Just one thing, I did complete my goal of reading 100 books.

And for next year, I’ll keep the number at 100 and hopefully surpass it with flying colors, as I did this year.

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On WordPress, my blog did fantastic, its best year to date.

I wrote 175 posts, which amount to 29,299 words, a whopping 20,000 more words than 2017, I have been doing my work and enjoying every single second of it.

The site received 70% more hits than 2017, which had a total of 626, compared to 1,062 from this year.

That I know, it could be small numbers to some, but for me, they are glorious.

stats 2018

The top three countries I received visits from were: The United States, Mexico (my country) and The United Kingdom, also, some happy surprises of countries that I have reached, like India or Finland, thanks to all for reading.

mapa 2018

 

So those are basically my stats for last year of blogging, in 2019 I hope to double down on my writing, and hopefully, this would reach more of persons in my effort to share this experience, for which I am truly grateful that so many take the time to read it.

Now for the near future of Lost in a Million Pages, let me tell you that I have big plans.

First of all, and in the context of the 24in48 readathon I will be participating at the end of January, I decided to start hosting little events with the idea to promote the literary and coffee culture that is becoming quite strong in my city, Ciudad Juarez, that is in Mexico.

I’ll start small, hosting a reading party for one of the sessions of the 24in48 readathon, this of course in one of my favorite local coffee house, more information coming soon.

The other thing is that probably by the end of March or the beginning of April I will reach 250,000 pages.

I am 7,673 pages from achieving it, and right now I am working with an artist friend to commemorate this joyous occasion, as with my events more information coming soon and a preview of the fantastic work he is doing.

So, I have a lot on my plate for this upcoming year.

But for now, I’ll kick back and enjoy so reading and gear up for what appears to be a busy and exciting year.

Happy Readings!!!

azr.

 

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(Y-11) Last day of 2018 (Day 31 of 31)

This is the last day of this year, although my reading year still has 287 days ahead of it, the change of a calendar year it is something eventful.

I am pleased to inform that yesterday, thanks partly again to my insomnia, was a magnificent day of reading and I finished a couple of graphic novels.

First of them was one of the cross-over events of Valiant comics universe between Harbinger and Bloodshot, it was all out war and beautifully written by Joshua Dysart.

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The second one took me to a not so pleasant trip to Angelville, where Jesse and Tulip had to endure Mr. Custer’s psychopathic family, only Garth Ennis can write those types of scenes.

Thanks to these two graphic novels I had my best day yet, 374 pages and this elevated my total to 8,885 pages for the year.

I’ll aim to reach 9,000 pages by the end of the day, just 115 pages to go, it should not be a problem.

On the book front, I only read 8 pages, currently on page 140.

Being the last day of my micro-project, of reading the minimum daily average, which is 146 pages per day, I think the first week of January will be perfect opportunity to dedicate my reading efforts solely to Deadhouse Gates.

And lastly, the gap in my reading schedule has closed down a bit more. Currently, I am 19 days behind, slow and steady wins the race.

I’ll probably go thru the third volume of Harbinger and ring in the new year with a Harry Potter marathon.

I hope you enjoy whichever are your plans for the new year’s celebration, stay safe out there.

Happy Readings!!!

azr

 

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(Y-11) Winter is here (Day 29 of 31)

Yesterday’s reading was spectacular, my total was 344 pages, officially makes it the best of all this season of reading.

This was thanks to my insomnia and that I put it to good use and finished a couple of volumes of the Valiant comics universe, this time it was the second volume of Harbinger, Renegades, and the second volume of Bloodshot, The Rise and the Fall.

These volumes where just build-up for the first major event of this fantastic universe, The Harbinger Wars, written by the authors responsible for the two series mentioned above, Joshua Dysart and Duane Swierczynski, it looks promising.

Thanks to this my new total for the year is 8,377 pages, and I am behind 21 days behind schedule, as I was saying little by little the gap is closing down.

On the book front, again I had a dreadful day, only 9 pages and I am currently on page 110.

But seeing the forecast for today.

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And the fact that it is snowing lightly.

It is the perfect opportunity to stay in bed reading, have one cup or ten of coffee and make some headway with my book.

It finally feels like winter.

Happy Readings!!!

azr.

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(Y-11) Another one bites the dust (Day 28 of 31)

Another great day of reading, yesterday’s total was 156 pages, and another goal achieved.

I have now crossed the 8,000-page mark.

8,042 pages to be precise.

This thanks to the second volume of Valiant Comics’ Shadowman, if I thought the first volume was incredible, this one just keeps on building an extraordinary world, a must read for every comic book fan.

Here I leave an image from one of the alternate covers by David Mack, just beautiful.

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On the book front, I am currently on page 101, making a bit of headway but really slow, and on that idea, I changed my finishing, that was for next Monday, to the first Sunday of January.

On the matter of my reading schedule, I am still 22 days behind, but it has become stable and actually, I have been chipping days off as my reading improves.

For today, which it is forecast rain or possibly even snow, I’ll stay inside with a nice cup of coffee and some great books.

Happy Readings!!!

azr.

 

 

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(Y-11) Straight Ahead (Day 27 of 31)

I am now approaching the final leg of what has been an extraordinary year.

Just 5 days left and I am inching to what I set out to do for this year of reading.

To start off, yesterday’s total was 279 pages, the second highest of the month.

I reached a total of 7,873 pages on the year, that is only 127 to achieve my immediate goal of 8,000 pages. If everything runs smoothly, I will reach this coveted number by this evening.

Now let’s talk about yesterday reading.

I finished the first volume of Archer & Armstrong, The Michelangelo Code, all I have to say about this is Ninja Nuns, you are welcome.

Also, I read the first volume of what I think will turn out to be my favorite one of all the Valiant comics universe, Shadowman.

A really cool mixture between horror and superhero comics, all of this brewed slowly on cauldron full of voodoo. Honestly, it has a lot of the elements that I loved about comics all rolled into one single story, highly recommended.

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So naturally, I jump right into the second volume, Darque Reckoning, of this fantastic story.

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On the book front, the dry spell continues, only 6 pages yesterday, the story is quite catching, but I think that my focus is on achieving certain things that I can concentrate enough to get a good rhythm with the book.

So, for now, I am on page 90 of the book, and this will be treated as the starting point for the next five days to get it done.

I think once the 8,000 pages mark is hit my mind will relax and focus on climbing that behemoth of a mountain that is The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

With this great burst of reading, I have gained one day and currently are 22 days behind my reading schedule, slowly, but surely the gap is closing.

Well, I am off to chase those pages.

Happy Readings!!!

azr.

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(Y-11) Right on track (Day 26 of 31)

With less than a week to go on the year, it is safe to say that I will be closing it with really strong.

Yesterday’s total was 224, and I reached 7,584 total pages for the year, just 416 to achieve the new goal for this holiday season set at 8,000 pages.

The gap in my reading schedule has remained steady at 23 days, but I have big plans for the end of January to reduce this drastically.

Let us now talk about yesterday’s reading.

First of all, I finished the second volume of the manga series Warcraft: Legends, this little snippets of such a vast world are pure delight for any fantasy reader, as I said yesterday, not a big gamer, but I do enjoy my daily dose of fantasy.

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Also, I started reading the first volume of Valiant Comics’ Archer & Armstrong, which I like quite a bit, but to be perfectly honest, this was one of the series that least caught my eye with I started looking into this vast comic book universe, it has been a pleasant surprise how good it is.

On the book front, I really do not want to talk about it, just two pages yesterday, currently on page 84.

Well, at least the new animated Spider-Man movie, Into the Spider-Verse, was really good, and I am not the biggest fan of Spidey.

Now back to it, Happy Readings!!!

azr.

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(Y-11) Just barely (Day 25 of 31)

I hope everybody is enjoying their holiday and are eating profusely.

Yesterday I enjoyed a day full of food and booze, the stars of the evening where a pair of red wine bottles that I bought more than 9 months ago in Ruidoso, New Mexico, courtesy of Noisy Water Winery & Cellars.

The one called “Dirty” was particularly exceptional.

But of course, before all the celebration began, I did had time to read for a while.

On that note, my total for yesterday was 149, just barely over the minimum daily average.

I finished reading the first volume of The Eternal Warrior, which has been my favorite so far of all the Valiant Comics Universe I have read.

Here you can see an alternate cover from the magnificent artist Clayton Crain, he also did some of the interior art, just little snippets, but quite remarkable.

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 Also, I read some micro-tales of World of Warcraft: Legion, four issues of ten pages each, this is an introduction or mood setter to the sixth expansion of this massive game. Although I am not a player, I do enjoy the stories, epic fantasy galore.

Thanks to all of this my total reading for this year has gone up to 7,404 pages.

Just 2,596 to reach 10,000.

On the book front, not a great day, currently on page 80 and just one week to get through it, I never back down from a challenge.

In the morning I woke up to a pleasant surprise in the form of a Christmas present from my wife and non-other than my two vices, comics, and coffee.

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I hope you keep on enjoying the rest of the Holidays, right now I’ll get ready to go and enjoy the new Spider-Man animated movie with my wife and kids.

Happy Readings!!!

azr.

 

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(Y-11) Let the massive eating begin (Day 24 of 31)

Today it is Christmas eve, and in Mexico, it is the main celebration of this holiday season.

And for me, that means only one thing, food.

Tonight we will have turkey and some other side dishes, it is pretty similar to Thanksgiving dinner on the US, but with a bit of a Mexican twist.

To top off the season of binge eating, I see in my really proximate future some tamales and buñuelos, I’ll post some pictures so you can get a visual delight.

Now, for the reading segment of my blog, yesterdays reading was again phenomenal, 200 pages and I finished the second volume of X-O Manowar, it is just getting better.

Also, I started reading the first volume of The Eternal Warrior series, this is just up my alley, epic sword fights and an immortal warrior, what more can I ask.

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On the book front, I made little headway, currently on page 75 of 699, but I have not abandoned the idea of finishing by New Year’s Day, just have to push a bit harder.

My total for the year is 7,217 pages, and I keep a steady pace that fortunately has increased this last day, now I have 8 days left in 2018 and the goal of reaching 8,000 pages.

I’ll make the most of the morning because today it will be a day-long eating celebration.

Happy Holidays!!!!

azr.

 

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(Y-11) Challenge Completed (Day 23 of 31)

With 9 days left I am glad to inform you that my goal for this Christmas break has been achieved.

With yesterday’s total, 172 pages, and with me finishing the first volume of Valiant Comics’ X-O Manowar, my total surpassed the 7,000 pages.

7,060 to be precise.

Naturally, I’ll be aiming to reach 8,000 pages before the end of 2018, which has been a year full of new adventures and a lot of positive changes in my life.

I have so much plan for 2019, for my life in general and particularly for this blog, but that is a conversation best left for January.

In today’s plan, there is to read the second volume of X-O Manowar, from which you can see at the top of the post a beautiful image of Aric, and to make some headway with Deadhouse Gates, currently on page 64 of 699.

Also, this reading spurt has reduced the gap of my falling behind in the reading schedule of this year, it has steadied at 24 days, but as I said before, my intention is to get it under 15 days by the end of the year, and even closer to form by the end of January 2019 with the 24in48 readathon.

Now back to it, Happy Readings!!!

azr.

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(Y-11) I can almost taste it. (Day 22 of 31)

I am on a roll

Yesterday’s total was 152.

And I am inching closer to my goal for the Christmas break, that was set at 7,000 pages, from which I have 6,920.

Just 80 pages to reach my coveted goal and still 10 days left,  it is indeed the season to be jolly.

Let me talk about my reading for yesterday and my plan for the upcoming days, first I finished the first volume of Valiant Comics’ Bloodshot, what an incredible universe I stumble upon, this is the second volume on the list of reading order that supposedly tights to the whole storylines together, either way, it has been a trill reading it.

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Next up are the two first volumes of X-O Manowar, By The Sword and Enter: Ninjak, written by Robert Venditti, for which I have high expectations because of his run on Hal Jordan and The Green Lantern Corps was phenomenal.

 

On the book front, Deadhouse Gates, I have been moving on a snail pace, currently, on page 44 of 699, I’ll try to make some headway in the mornings, but the climb has become a bit steeper to finish it by the end of the year, but as always, this is not a cause of concern, for the primary goal of my reading is to have fun.

But I do like to challenge myself.

Now back to it, Happy Readings!!!

azr.

 

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