Warren Ellis has accomplished what many consider to be the impossible: He has written a work, a comic series, no less, that manages to appeal to die-hard fans of the medium without alienating readers who aren't as familiar with the decades-long history of the comics industry. It's not as surprising that Ellis would be the one to pull off such a feat, since he is considered to be one of the greatest writers in said industry, as well as being a published prose author, (Crooked Little Vein), a highly regarded authority on space travel, and having an amazing beard. While Planetary isn't as commercially successful as other Ellis titles like Transmetropolitan or his run on Thunderbolts, it becomes quickly evident that this is a project that he had a lot of care for and fun with. The plot of the story is standard comics and sci-fi fare: A top secret group investigates paranormal activities in an otherwise realistic version of our own world. The twist is that every paranormal case is a reference to a classic comic series or a general pop culture reference, like Batman or Godzilla. Ellis' original take on a premise that's been covered many times manages to still be involving even if you've seen every episode of The X-Files, mostly through his ability to create captivating characters and unexpected plot twists that gleefully defy convention. This original take on an old idea is what makes this book still worth reading even if you aren't going to get all of the sly references to comic lore. Full Disclosure: I am definitely a full-blown comic geek, and as such understood every (I think) reference in this book, so I can't truly articulate a non-fanboy perspective. But I'm confident enough in Warren Ellis' writing to recommend it anyways. The aesthetic of the book is another testament to its appeal. The visuals, drawn by Sean Cassady, (Astonishing X-Men), are crisp and clear, making the action easy to follow and the transitions from a multitude of source materials recognizable without being blatant ripoffs. No easy feat, but again, pulled off by one of the industry's finest. If you're a comics fan and understand all the references I've made, yet still haven't read this book, then consider it required reading. If you are just simply interested in comics and graphic novels, or science fiction stories in general that are smarter and more involved than the general fare, then I would give this a try even if you haven't read everything put out by DC or Marvel Comics. (Just don't tell your comic geek friend that you didn't get the Green Lantern reference).

Although I am a huge fan of mythology and folklore, there are certain stories that I have missed in my reading, even though they seem like necessary reading. 1,001 Arabian Nights is one of those tales (or collection of tales) that I had just never gotten around to reading. After picking it up on a whim, I was instantly drawn in. As you may know, the format of this book is a chain of stories that the characters reference to each other when the contexts are relevant. In other words, it’s a story within a story within a story. This Tarantino-esque quality requires a minimum investment from the reader and was very easy to get into, and increasingly complex as stories started to flow into one another. The dry, crawling, dogmatic text I was half-expecting turned out to be colorful, engaging and light. That isn’t to say that the stories didn’t contain religious or moral quandaries, they did in a way appropriate to lending the reader a perspective on the culture without beating them over the head with it. The characters, especially in their humor, I found to be very relatable and easy to understand. Overall, I found the book to be very entertaining and easy to read for five minutes or an hour at a time. The simplicity of the stories on their own was well balanced by the complexity of the overall narrative that is woven.