Brontoforumus Archive
Discussion Boards => Media => Topic started by: Thad on April 29, 2009, 08:28:21 PM
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Hoy!
I have been wanting, for some time, to start a Comics for People Who Don't Read Comics thread. It would also be a good website feature, but I think it is a subject with lots of room for discussion and outside contribution!
I intend, at some point in the near future, to talk about Maus, Heartbreak Soup, and The Tick: The Complete Edlund, but I don't really have time at the moment.
However, I figured I should start the thread anyway, to remind everybody that Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday, May 2. Go to your local comic shop and check out the free things. See if there is something you like! I find that Fantagraphics and Top Shelf put out consistently great FCBD books.
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I'm going to say Fables, because of all of its merits that make it a great read yes, but with the important bit being that by using fairy tale characters you already have a high concept that people can understand the minute you tell them about it, and broad strokes for the characters themselves when first easing into the story.
Thanks for the heads-up on FCBD. I will need to stop by the LCS if I have time before work on Saturday.
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I took two days off work to go back to school and
help out loiter at my old comic book store.
I fucking love Free Comic Book Day
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My local comic store doesn't do FCBD. ::(:
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:fukit: :serious:
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Shit. I completely forgot. I probably need to work, then.
Ah well. I could use the cash.
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My local comic shop is doing 25% off collected-editions that day. I am going on a shopping spree. Must have more classic batman story arcs to read.
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A friend of mine showed me Transmetropolitan over the weekend. I don't know if it's a good candidate or not.
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Need recommendations for decent stories that are in a single collected edition. Still working through V for Vendetta. Sin City looked tempting, but it looks like it spans many many volumes.
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Yeah, but I think each volume is a single, complete story.
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For the most part. But there's little links between them all that reward reading the complete series.
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Currently looking to nab Batman: Longest Halloween.
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The always-excellent Joanna at Comics Worth Reading (http://comicsworthreading.com/2009/04/30/free-comic-book-day-2009/) has a list of FCBD recommendations. I totally should have remembered to include Owly and Drawn and Quarterly.
Max: Have you read Bone? It's available in a single volume that's VERY reasonably priced considering its page count.
As for the others I mentioned at the top of the thread -- Maus is in two volumes but you can get the both of them fairly cheaply, Heartbreak Soup is technically part of a series but is totally self-contained, and The Tick: The Complete Edlund is pretty pricey but well worth it if you're a Tick fan. I'm assuming you've probably heard of Maus; Heartbreak Soup is a collection of stories about the people in a Central American village. Again, I intend to go into more depth on these books and why I love them later, but I'm in a bit of a rush just now. Suffice it to say that neither one of them is very much like Batman.
Oh! Also, Ghost World generally goes on most people's "comics for people who don't read comics" list, and is a single volume.
(And yes, I got Ghost World from Batman because of Clowes's appearance on Simpsons where he said he just wanted to draw Batman.)
EDIT: All-Star Superman is another one that's two volumes but is reasonably priced, represents everything I love about comics, and requires a much longer discussion when I have time for it.
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Let's see...going over my trade shelf, the Contract With God trilogy, Mouse Guard, Pride of Baghdad, Sandman, and Y: The Last Man are all good beds. Oh, and maybe Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing, which is pretty well self-contained.
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Was limited to TEN free comics. Of stuff not directly aimed at kids (NASCAR comics? What?), I found nine including an aliens comic.
I picked up at 25% off
Aliens Omnibus 1 - 6 (About $18 a book)
Batman: Longest Night ($15)
Shop owner looked at the list of comics I've bought from him to date (his computer tracks all of this), and recommended I start on the Frank Miller Batman stuff like Year One. I plan to go back and get the AvP omnibus books in the future, he only had the second one there today or else I would have gotten it.
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I've said it before but it bears repeating: Batman: Year One is the only thing by Frank Miller I've ever really liked. (Although I hear good things about Daredevil and Ronin.)
Oh, and nice icon choice, Arc.
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Just read 'The Stuff of Legend' by Th3rd World comics. The last double-page art in this one alone is worth picking up. Borderline grimdark.
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I'm only two pages into 'Attack of the Alterna Zombies' but uh, it's Jesus and Abe Lincoln fighting zombies and they just ate some mushrooms...
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ALTERNA! LEND ME YOUR POWER!
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Bone's rad. I read it for the pictures AND the story!
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What I've read of RASL is excellent, too. Too bad it's coming out at a glacial pace.
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The store was busy, but most of the good stuff was gone by the time I got there. Which is okay, really, as long as it got into the hands of new readers rather than other guys like me who are there every Wednesday.
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Just finished 'Outbreak' in the Aliens Omnibus 1. This is some seriously awesome stuff. To think I was scared to death of the mere image of Geigers Alien up until early college..
Didn't help I saw the movie when I was like six....
Huh, didn't realize I picked up this one... Something about a new Green Lantern story arc and lantern guilds of other colors.
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Yeah, basic idea is there are power sources which respond to a variety of emotions (:rainbow:? :pride:?) in the same manner as Green's Willpower and Yellow's Fear. They presumably all have some sort of weird spirit being, too, like Yellow's Parallax (see: Post-Death-of-Superman Green Lantern) and Green's Ion.
Re: Suggestions. Even though it hasn't been released in one volume yet (instead, four shorter TPBs), I highly recommend Sleeper, especially since you seemed to be considering stuff like Sin City. Basic premise is that a U.S government organization sends a sleeper agent who infiltrates a super-powered terrorist cell, but he gets stuck there because the only one who knows he's a double agent and can get him is in a coma. Very good writing; a lot of fucked up stuff, sympathy for the devil, etc..
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Aliens Omnibus 1 complete
Summary:
Humanity is the greatest monster ever.
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Apparently I'm not supposed to like Brian Clevinger because he writes a webcomic and... something. Didn't stop me from picking up the Giant Robo free comic.
My only complaint is that there wasn't enough Atomic Robo in the comic.
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It occurs to me I should have picked up the CARS comic to inflict on someone else when I inevitably ship a package to someone around here.
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All I got for free was an Avengers one-shot. ::(:
At least the store is having a sale on everything this month.
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I had a freaking blast at the ole store. We had two local comic-ateers, Jay Hossler (http://www.jayhosler.com/) and Jarod Rosello (http://jarodrosello.com/blog/), doing a signing and sketches for kids. It was wonderful. A bunch of skater kids came in and made Jay draw a bunch of far out shit..... on a skateboard. Also: Some Storm Troopers showed up and did photo ops in front of the store. Weird. Awesome. Weirdly awesome.
I put a copy of Owly and Friends into the hands of as many people as I possibly could. The big duds of the day seemed to be DC Kids (slight tragedy) and Shonen Jump. At least Shonen Jump didn't have subscription cards in them this year (we tore 'em all out last year).
I dropped about about $50 on the entire Suikoden 3 series (75% off) and a book each from the guests, and got 'em signed, naturally. Overall, the store made more money today than on any single day ever in the history of anything. Not bad for free comics.
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It occurs to me I should have picked up the CARS comic to inflict on someone else when I inevitably ship a package to someone around here.
Haven't read it yet, but by all accounts Boom's licensed Disney comics are actually quite good. I haven't read The Muppet Show yet because it sold out instantly, but it got great reviews. The first issue of Incredibles was pretty all right.
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Finished Aliens Omnibus 2. Okay so in Colonial Marines, they were kinda /reaching/ with that story arc, but good god that is over a hundred pages of pretty much 'FUCK YEAH, WE'RE SPACE MARINES WITH HORRIBLE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS' awesomeness.
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Sad that I was out of commission for free comics day. Was hoping to snag a free Ignition City 2 maybe.
OH WELL, I WILL PAY FOR IT TODAY I GUESS :sadpanda:
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Free Comic Book Day does not mean you pick a comic and it is free. It means they have a selection of comics that were free. You would have had to pay for that Ignition City anyway.
That said, apparently there was a Love and Rockets sampler to be had. No sign of it at the store I went to.
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My only complaint is that there wasn't enough Atomic Robo in the comic.
Also, Atomic Robo has a time machine... I'm pretty torn on Atomic Robo too, based on this issue and the most recent non-free one. It's a fun idea, but it doesn't really add anything new to the current crop of science adventurer pastiche. It seems to be going the way of ninja, pirates, and zombies (ninja and zombies, anyway. Pirates are forever.)
Clevinger's 8-Bit Theater voice sprung up immediately as well. It works, but I guess that I'm still glutted on it from my past flirtation with it.
The big duds of the day seemed to be DC Kids (slight tragedy) and Shonen Jump. At least Shonen Jump didn't have subscription cards in them this year (we tore 'em all out last year).
But there's a scene where Japanese Stan Lee commits seppuku while shouting "Hari Kiri!" I'm grasping at straws here, really.
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All right, finally put this together. A quick summary/review/why you should read it on Art Spiegelman's classic, Maus.
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Maus, by Art Spiegelman
In brief: Art Spiegelman tells the true story of his father, Vladek, a survivor of Auschwitz -- as a funny animal book, with Jews depicted as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs.
Significance: Won a Pulitzer.
Price: 2 $14 paperbacks.
Maus is one of a handful of books that I can say, without hyperbole, changed my life. I first read it at the age of 11, and it proved both a compelling history of the Holocaust and a demonstration of the true power of the comics medium.
It's a highly personal story that has two major components. The cartoonist, Art Spiegelman, sits down with his father, Vladek, and asks him to recount his story as a Holocaust survivor. The book splits focus between Vladek's story and the "present" (some time in the late 1970's and early 1980's), where Vladek is a damaged, neurotic old man. Art loves his father and feels a sense of duty to tell his story, but can hardly stand to be around him -- at one point, he remarks to his stepmother, Mala, that he is worried about the contradiction between telling what his father suffered and simultaneously depicting him as what amounts to an antisemitic stereotype.
As the story progresses, and particularly in the second volume (which was written after the first was published and received acclaim), another theme emerges: the cartoonist's own relationship to his work. He's overwhelmed, not merely by the desire to honor his father, but by the magnitude of the Holocaust itself. In one scene, he depicts himself sitting on a pile of the dead while surrounded by enthusiastic reporters asking him questions about his book.
Maus succeeds because it is deeply personal. It is one man's story, seen through the eyes of his son. Spiegelman addresses the big themes by focusing on the small and immediate, and by wearing his own conflicted feelings as storyteller on his sleeve.
And then of course there's the storytelling style itself. It's a funny animal book: Spiegelman takes the Nazis' rhetoric, "Jews are vermin and Poles are pigs," literally. The most striking effect, of course, is to highlight the utter absurdity of such a claim. There are scenes, for example, where Vladek puts on a pig mask to escape detection, and in one sequence, a prisoner at Auschwitz pleads with the guards that he is a German and his son a decorated military hero -- Spiegelman depicts him as a mouse in one panel and a cat in the next. Likewise, in one of my favorite scenes, Art is sitting with his wife Francoise and wondering aloud whether he should draw her as a mouse or a frog, as she's French but converted to Judaism. Ultimately he decides she should be a mouse (and she has been throughout the scene), and describes a sequence (not actually pictured) where a rabbi transforms her into one. (This may also have been my first encounter with metafiction. There are several more sequences where Art switches back and forth between speaking as if he's not in a comic and then acknowledging that he is; later in the same chapter he's worrying that his work is unrealistic and takes too many artistic licenses, and then says to Francoise, "See? In real life you never would have let me talk this long without interrupting.")
Another effect of the anthropomorphic animal characters is to provide a sort of cushion, a layer of fantasy between the reader and the horrors on the page. It makes the shocking reality of Vladek's story easier for the audience to cope with, without diminishing its power.
At its core, of course, is the message that arbitrary distinctions don't matter, that we're all human, with all the vices and virtues that entails -- but that on the other hand, crisis shows us who we really are, and that when we face it, we may not be so different from frightened animals. The story is full of people who, out of fear or avarice, steal, lie, and betray. Vladek ends up in Auschwitz because he is double-crossed by two Poles who believe they will get preferential treatment if they turn in some Jews, and by a family friend who is coerced, under threat of death, into writing a letter claiming he is safe in Hungary. Their betrayal does not save them; all three of them ultimately die in the gas chamber.
Vladek, on the other hand, survives, partly through wits and resourcefulness but mostly because of simple blind chance. He is able to make himself useful, to stay strong enough to do odd jobs at the camp, but he never betrays his fellow prisoners and on more than one occasion he risks his life to help a friend or a family member (or even a stranger). The book is punctuated as much by small acts of kindness as by ugly scenes of cruelty and self-serving betrayal.
On the art: a reminder here, I'm not an artist and my vocabulary may be lacking. But here's what I notice as a layman:
Spiegelman conveys a lot of emotion with very little facial expression. In most cases, the mice are drawn with dots for eyes and without visible mouths, so their emotion is conveyed by their eyebrows and their body language. (There are exceptions; in one particularly haunting image, mice who are being burned alive are shown with wide eyes and visible mouths in panicked expressions.) There's a whole section in Understanding Comics about how simple iconic imagery resonates more with readers than detailed photorealistic images -- of course the fact that we're dealing with animals in the first place ties right into that.
There are no gray tones, and shading is done by hand -- something about Spiegelman's not-quite-straight, not-quite-parallel diagonal hash marks gives the book an organic, personal feel.
And the layouts -- they're mostly very simple and conservative, which makes it really pop when they become more complex and creative. Spiegelman's got a real eye for layouts, and I'm interested in checking out Breakdowns, his "new" book which is a collection of his work from the 1970's.
Maus is a brilliant book, deserving of its Pulitzer and its enduring reputation. It's an incredible comic that makes unique use of its medium; it would not work in another format. It's got pathos and drama and laughter and jokes; it takes on big ideas and unspeakable tragedy alongside a unique personal story of one family's struggles. If you haven't read it, you really should; I waited 15 years to read it a second time and I'm glad I finally got to experience it from an adult perspective.
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A friend of mine teaches Maus to his high school students.
...I promise, I'll swipe a copy and read it one day.
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Another jawdrop at the comic shop as I make another sizable purchase.
Scud The Disposable Assassin: The Whole Shebang
Batman Year One
Predator Omnibus 1 - 4
Read Year One, absolutely in love with the dual storyline of Gordon and Wayne.
Finished all of the Alien Omnibus books. Some good stuff and a few hilarious bits. Viking vs. Alien being the best one.
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About five issues into SCUD. Loving this thing for being so darn odd. Turns out the guy who did this is a writer for the Sarah Silverman show.
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Wednesday Comics is, quite simply, wonderful. If the world were a fair place, this is exactly what would save both the comics industry and the newspaper industry.
I was born in 1982. I can't imagine what it must have been like to get The Spirit as a newspaper supplement. The current deplorable state of newspaper comics is pretty much exactly how it's been my entire life, with brightly-colored half-page stuff like Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County the closest thing to a real broadsheet comic strip. Those are gone now, of course, and what's left is uniform -- all boring, similar strips of the same format, the same size, the same genre, and the same utter banality. (With a few exceptions -- I still like Doonesbury. And Boondocks was great while it lasted, though entirely too funny to see print in a major Phoenix paper.) Here and there I've seen a few strips that weren't simple three-panel gag strips, but stuff like Prince Valiant and Dick Tracy was far past its prime by the time I ever laid eyes on it.
Wednesday Comics -- it's funny. My uncle and I were talking awhile back about this very thing. He commented that, say, The Walking Dead would work fantastically as a page-a-day serial, or Gilbert Hernandez could put out a regular strip to brilliant effect. Wednesday Comics isn't that, exactly, but it shows the versatility of the format in a way unheard of in my lifetime.
If the world were just, stuff like this would be on prominent display in the checkout line, and every newspaper in the country would have at least a few strips like this. There's real creativity and variety here, with gorgeous art against a backdrop of clean, tight writing. I like to think this is the kind of shit Eisner wanted to see when he started The Spirit in the first place, though frankly I'm never quite sure with that guy. Certainly his influence is there, particularly in some of the very creative layouts (like the Deadman strip).
Wednesday Comics is good. If you see a copy on sale, pick it up. In fact, I was going to put this in the Funnybooks thread but fuck it, I'm totally cut-and-pasting into Comics for People Who Don't Read Comics. That's where it belongs.
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Scud is a lot of fun. It's been years since I read it.
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Just finished Chew #1, included in its entirety as a bonus with the latest Walking Dead, and have decided it is fodder for this thread.
Also, it is FUCKED. UP.
It's a sick comedy in the tradition of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac -- except this one also happens to be a very clever sendup of the cop drama genre. And, specifically, the cop-drama-with-supernatural-powers subgenre.
It's the old "cop solves mysteries with telepathy" bit, except in this case, the telepathy is triggered by eating. Chu gets telepathic residue from eating things -- animal or vegetable, when he eats something he knows how it died, and maybe gets some other imagery around that.
Oh, also chicken is illegal. It's been banned under a spurious bird flu scare. So now there is chicken-related organized crime, and chicken speakeasies. And the FDA plays the role traditionally played by the FBI in a cop drama -- stepping on the local cops' toes and telling them they have to let the perp walk because he's turned informant.
Pretty much every cop show cliche is there right upfront, from :MENDOZAAAAA: to the mood-swingy chief. Also, as you might expect, there is cannibalism before the end of the first issue.
I think I might have to continue picking this one up. It's funny! Because I am a sick, sick man.
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Robot 6 has a neat little Comics 101 piece on Love and Rockets (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/08/comics-101-los-bros-hernandez/). There are a few minor points I could disagree with, but overall it's a fantastic damn guide to the series and what you should read if you're just getting started.
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I disagree with recommendation to not start with the Maggie the Mechanic story. While the goofiness and genre fiction are abandoned as the series progress, it establishes most of the world surrounding the Locas stories.
Speaking of the brothers, Citizen Rex has been a good read so far. Based around a robot who was the first lifelike synthetic being, the story focuses on a young writer who discovers the titular robot Citizen Rex is still around and running loose in the city. Gilbert's art style is evocative in creating a dirty, mysterious city of the future. It's worth picking up, and only 2 issues isn't hard to catch up on.
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And while I agree with the CW that Mario's work is on the whole not as good as his brothers', he still does some great stuff. I just read Amor y Cohetes (a paperback of the extraneous L&R stuff that's neither Palomar nor Locas), which had his Somewhere in California series; it was quite good.
That stuff IS deemphasized in the brothers' more prominent work; in the long run there's been plenty of love but fewer and fewer rockets. That said, Jaime's been doing a superhero story in L&R vol 3 that features Penny Century from the Locas stories. (Issue #2 is out this week -- bear in mind that vol 3 consists of 100-page annuals, so picking up individual issues IS effectively waiting for the trades.)
I'm kinda of two minds on the "start with the second Locas collection" suggestion. It IS much more representative of the series, but vol 1 is great shit too. Of course, I'd sidestep the question and suggest starting with Heartbreak Soup as I prefer Gilbert to Jaime.
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I see no reason a person can't start both (aside from cost). Palomar has a stronger start than the Locas stuff, but they'll both keep you entertained as you read. Although Palomar has Human Diasphora and X, which are both complex, textured and fantastic reads.
I did read the first trade of the new L&R series. It was interesting, but didn't quite grip me like the regular stuff did. Though I did like the unconventional nature of the superheroes. I like that Jaime draws his women plumper and more realistic, it adds charm to the book. I'm going to go out and say I didn't understand all of Gilbert's stuff, although that can also be said about Speak of the Devil.
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Gilbert does some great surreal stuff, and I liked that #1 focused on that rather than the usual Palomar/Luba stuff. (He keeps saying he's done with all that -- the Venus story at the end of vol 2 was supposed to serve as a coda -- but I'm betting we haven't seen the last of those characters even if they're not going to be a focus for awhile.)
I mentioned his contribution to Treehouse of Horror last year; it was an offbeat Homer-turns-into-a-giant-monster story that wasn't very Simpsons-y but WAS very Gilbert Hernandez-y. It was my favorite thing in the book.
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I tend to be a serious man when it comes to my readings.
I ended picking something up from image called Comic Book Tatoo. It's pretty much a collection of short comic stories. It's pretty fun and thick for 50 dollars, but I would only recommend it for the artists in the house.
Instead I will recommend for the serious types a couple of what I've read that are a bit older, but classic:
Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography is a good representation of a piece of history that remains controversial to this very day akin to the civil war types, minus an effective south. While people from Ontario are quick to call him a crazy and a traitor to confederation, he was against corporate arrogance and outright evil before globalization protests were in vogue.
Another close favorite is a piece of comic-strip journalism called "Palestine" by Joe Sacco. Guy goes visiting both the West Bank and Gaza Strip before Hamas came to power. Explains well why popular resistance and jew-destroying really doesn't need the cover of Islam to explain why (in their minds) they fight.
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I have a copy of Louis Riel and I have read Palestine. I can endorse the above. Palestine is a fairly thorough indictment of the slippery slope the Israelis put themselves on, written well before it was fashionable in the west to criticize the Israeli state.
Amusing note: Koipond - who is actually Métis - hates Louis Riel. :lol:
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I'd recommend Strangers in Paradise and ElfQuest, especially if the non-comic-reader is a girl. Strangers in Paradise is primarily a relationship drama/comedy with some action elements, centered mainly around the two female main characters. ElfQuest is a fantasy epic following a group of tree elves as they fight trolls, ride wolves, go on spirit journeys, and the like. Both series sort of require you to start from the beginning, but both have been handily collected in several different . . . uh, collections.
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ElfQuest is a fantasy epic following a group of tree elves as they fight trolls, ride wolves, go on spirit journeys, and have vaguely disturbing orgies.
To be fair, I think that Wendy and Richard Pini handled the scene much more maturely than, say, Jim Balent.
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100 bullets. Guy gives people the chance to get revenge for something going horrible in their life with no repercussions.
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I'm going to disagree on Strangers in Paradise. I like Strangers of Paradise, and I own the whole series in omnibus, but I wouldn't recommend it to most people. There's a lot to like about it, but at the end of the day, it was the guy's first comic, and it really shows. The storytelling oscillates wildly in tone and quality, and whole plot lines disappear without warning, never to be seen again. (What ever happened with that bomber?) When it's good, it's great, but when it's not great, it's really uneven. It's a great comic if you like to watch as a comics artist/writer figures out how to make comics - which is why I was delighted to finally pick up the Zot! omnibus, and why I have a soft spot for Megatokyo. But for somebody who doesn't already like comics and doesn't have an existing interest in the underlying craft, it's not a good choice.
I'm going to have to say that the best comic for people who don't read comics is still Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. I loaned it to my 7th grade English teacher, who was not a comics person; he kept it for two months, returned it, and asked if I had any other comics worth reading. You can't argue with results.
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100 bullets. Guy gives people the chance to get revenge for something going horrible in their life with no repercussions.
I liked it better when it was that series as opposed to GRAND CONSPIRACY. I mean, the GRAND CONSPIRACY was okay, but the book danced around explicitly explaining anything so much so that the whole second half of the series was pretty much made of nothing but dead bodies and innuendo.
Plus the ending was TERRIBLE [spoiler]"Rocks fall, everybody dies"? Are you kidding me? I mean, it was predictable I suppose, but when they had such good twists earlier, I was actually expecting to be surprised. And I LOVE "everybody dies" endings.[/spoiler]
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I read the first volume of Strangers in Paradise and nearly vomited from rage. A tired, boring revenge fantasy with unlikable protagonists and cliche writing. Though apparently the series turns into something about snipers and murder towards the end?
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I read the first volume of Strangers in Paradise and nearly vomited from rage. A tired, boring revenge fantasy with unlikable protagonists and cliche writing. Though apparently the series turns into something about snipers and murder towards the end?
Uhm, what?
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Not the first volume, the whole series.
I've flipped through some of the later issues at work, and they apparently involve things like people being assassinated while doing their daily routine.
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I'm going to have to say that the best comic for people who don't read comics is still Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics.
Hm. I dunno about the best period, but certainly the best book of its type. I've always been more of a fiction guy, but yeah, Understanding Comics is an incredibly informative work.
Hell, it's a good one just for helping you TALK to people who aren't interested in comics. There was a time when I felt it hard to quantify what comics could do that other media couldn't; after reading that book, I can explain it simply. (The two key things are control over time, both from the artist's end and the reader's, and the principle of the closure that occurs between panels.)
I read the first volume of Strangers in Paradise and nearly vomited from rage. A tired, boring revenge fantasy with unlikable protagonists and cliche writing. Though apparently the series turns into something about snipers and murder towards the end?
The reason for the "Uhm, what?" is that it doesn't sound like you're describing Strangers in Paradise. Are you sure you're talking about the same thing? I mean, Strangers has the silly mob angle and all, but it's predominantly over-the-top slice-of-life stuff. Love triangles and what-have-you.
I've flipped through some of the later issues at work, and they apparently involve things like people being assassinated while doing their daily routine.
...that sounds like it could be Strangers in Paradise. I've only read the first book myself.
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Hell, it's a good one just for helping you TALK to people who aren't interested in comics. There was a time when I felt it hard to quantify what comics could do that other media couldn't; after reading that book, I can explain it simply. (The two key things are control over time, both from the artist's end and the reader's, and the principle of the closure that occurs between panels.)
Really? Funny, I've never been terribly interested in closure - the two most important things in that book to me are time and pacing (like you said) and the stuff about varying degrees of detail abstraction in iconographic art.
(It's also the book that first taught me the word "juxtaposition".)
I read the first volume of Strangers in Paradise and nearly vomited from rage. A tired, boring revenge fantasy with unlikable protagonists and cliche writing. Though apparently the series turns into something about snipers and murder towards the end?
Did I mention how uneven it is? And the aborted storylines?
It seems terribly odd to me that you'd remember Strangers in Paradise like that - it's not exactly an action comic - but it's certainly plausible that it's Strangers in Paradise that you're talking about.
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There are maybe seven action scenes in the whole series. Honestly I thought you'd mistakenly typed strangers in paradise instead of 100 bullets. I'm really not even sure where revenge fantasy comes into the series, much less a sniper plot line.
Strangers in paradise kind of pissed me off because I really grew to love the characters and some of their arcs, but ultimately nothing in the plot of the story felt like it happened for a reason and nothing was ever resolved. Echo is holding up very well so far though.
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I've been picking up the latest volume of Age of Reptiles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Reptiles_%28comics%29), and it is fucking gorgeous.
First: I love dinosaurs. My love for dinosaurs has scarcely diminished since I was 4 years old.
Second: There are not enough comic books about dinosaurs.
Third: I love it when people can do an art-driven story and not make the characters talk too much.
Age of Reptiles is a goddamned beautiful book about dinosaurs, and it has no words. And it tells a clear story, with pathos and drama, without them. (I haven't delved too deeply to check on scientific accuracy -- if I'm not mistaken, it features dinosaur species that didn't actually coexist -- but The Journey does include fairly recent hypotheses such as T Rex being a scavenger.)
...I swear I've written about it before but I can't find it with a search. Anyway, it's a great damn book, and unlike anything else on the stands. Well worth buying.
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Hey, so is this the thread where I ask what Judge Dredd TPB is a good one to pick up? I haven't read british comics, but I did catch a few of the Progs on /co/ storytime, and it seemed like a dark and humourous read, with frequently bleak endings.
...which makes sense, considering it sprung up in the Maggie Thatcher era.
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Hey, so is this the thread where I ask what Judge Dredd TPB is a good one to pick up?
I've only read one actual Judge Dredd story. It's called "America", and seems to be a fan-favorite. It's a bit heavy-handed (one of the main characters is actually named "America"), but it was interesting enough to see a story where the focus is on "average" citizens and the effect the judges have on their lives. At least for somebody who's only really familiar with Judge Dredd through wikipedia summaries and the TOTALLY BRILLIANT movie.
Alternate answer: The one where Dredd puts his fist through a zombie judge's face.
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I'm going to listen to you because your avatar appears to be Jinnai from El-Hazard.
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Jinnai is the number one villain.
Anyways, America is recommended for having sympathetic and tragically humanly-flawed characters in an interesting futuristic backdrop. You could probably pick a worse starting point for the series!
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I just found an enormous series of scans of all the major storylines, going back to the very first Judge Dredd comic, on /rs/.
That's worked fine for me so far.
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Link please? My collection of JD stuff just consisted of old single issues obtained totally at random.
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Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?
Could someone explain it to me? I mean, what I got out of it is that this, like other Gaiman yarns, is a story sbout stories. Specifically, the individual stories of all the people whom Batman's life has influenced from the Golden Age to today. Sorta like "The Wake" in Sandman.
I'm just wondering if I got it right.
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That's an element of it. In keeping with the "like other Gaiman yarns" description, it's more about the mythology of the character. It's an examination of what he means, why he exists, what he says about us.
It's also unfettered by canon. The funeral itself is like a dream, with the friends and foes filing in, and they change appearance throughout (the Joker will resemble the Robinson version in one panel, the Miller in another, the Sprang in another and the Timm in another). The stories they tell aren't bound by Batman continuity. The first is a '40's noir story with Catwoman; the second (my personal favorite) involves a very different take on the origin story and the rogues' gallery (and, it turns out, was conceived by Kurt Busiek on a car trip with Gaiman).
It does resemble The Wake, quite a lot. But where Morpheus was a character we'd followed for a few dozen issues, Batman is one of the deepest and most recognizable icons in American culture. And also just so happens to have the best rogues' gallery in comics. So there's a real richness of icons there to explore and play with.
All in all, like I said, my second-favorite comic of '09, after Crumb's Genesis. Which I'll get to at some point here.
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...So a few months back, I was in my local independent bookseller, and I ran across Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to Their Limits (http://books.google.com/books?id=vFZpxrsEPxYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=stretching+spiegelman&source=bl&ots=sgMas479xR&sig=gUuGi_ZiU4dgfdZCK0m2OzSCuvs&hl=en&ei=0vGqS5qSEKW4tgOxw-Qw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CAsQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=&f=false). I didn't even notice Spiegelman's name on the cover, I just flipped through the book and thought hey, this is pretty neat. And then my girlfriend got it for me for Christmas.
I started it today, and...wow.
Here's the thing: I've never actually read a Plastic Man comic before. I'm aware of him, I'm aware of Cole's work, but...I had no idea what I was missing out on.
It's just absolutely phenomenal stuff. The double-meaning in the book's title is apt: Plastic Man is like nothing I've ever seen before. It doesn't so much defy rules as live in a world where they haven't been invented yet. It freewheels between absurd whimsy and slapstick and completely shocking violence -- in one story, the villain, trying to escape, trips and LANDS WITH HIS HEAD IN A BEAR TRAP AND DIES. (It's page 12 in the link above.) There is absolutely nothing to foreshadow this; there is just a FUCKING BEAR TRAP ALL OF A SUDDEN. It's a real straight-up anything-can-happen book -- the closest analog I can think of is Tex Avery. (Spiegelman says it's like "Tex Avery on cocaine".)
Of course, Spiegelman's name is on the cover because a good big chunk of the book is a biography he's written -- and Cole is a fascinating character, right from the start. Early on, there's a story of how, at the age of 17, he biked from Pennsylvania to LA -- and there's a photocopy of his first published work, a piece he wrote about the journey that was published in Boys' Life.
I've read some very good comics histories over the past couple years, but none that used the artist's actual work so extensively. The Ten-Cent Plague, in particular, is a great book whose greatest weakness is its need to describe covers because it can't just print them (not sure whether that was due to rights issues or cost of printing, but at any rate there are many cases where it tells when it should show). Not only does Spiegelman use extensive excerpts of Cole's work, he discusses them with an artist's eye -- Cole's talent for layouts, the way Plastic Man draws your eye to create a sense of motion -- there are even diagrams.
And speaking of layouts, there's a reason Chip Kidd's name is on the cover too. He's the graphic designer who put it all together, Spiegelman's words and Cole's pictures. The whole thing is composed like a giant magazine article -- which it actually is, as it began life in The New Yorker. (Those of you familiar with Spiegelman will know that he is a major contributor to the magazine, and is married to Francoise Mouly, the editor and a supreme talent herself.) The book is absolutely flooded with incidental Cole work, sometimes just a few panels on a page and sometimes a complete, uncut story. (Interestingly -- well, if you're interested in things like paper stock, which you actually most likely are not --, the pages that reprint stories in longform are newsprint, while the rest of the book is glossy. Those of you familiar with reprints of old comics have most likely observed that the old 4-color printing process looks much better on the newsprint it's intended for than on glossy paper. McCloud discusses this a good bit in Understanding Comics, which we've already discussed in the thread.)
Anyway. I've never seen a book quite like this, and I've never read a comic quite like Plastic Man. I'm only a few chapters in, but it's already proven a deft combination -- Spiegelman makes for a great biographer AND a great art teacher, and is equally masterful at knowing when to step the hell back and let the man's work speak for itself. And Kidd puts the whole thing together, creating an eye-catching presentation that's easy to read, or, if you prefer, just glance at. (I prefer to read everything, even the incidental stuff -- and even on the thumbnails, the text is big enough to read.)
This book makes me want to go out and buy a bunch of Jack Cole stuff. In the span of an hour he has become one of my favorite artists, and I don't know how I managed to miss out all these years.
And this book is the best casual introduction I can see, as sadly there is no set of cheap Chronicles paperbacks for Plas -- just $50 hardback Archives. I'm seriously considering saving up, though -- I want to see more.
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Also: Spiegelman's book reprints Cole's infamous "Murder, Morphine and Me" in its entirety. I'd never read the story before (though I'd seen the infamous "woman about to get a syringe in the eye" panel that made it Exhibit A in the 1950's Senate hearings on comics), and it's an important piece of history, as well as a very neat contrast to the whimsy of the Plastic Man stories. It's got an afterschool-special quality to its message, and a predictable twist ending, but it's also got sympathetic characters, a breakneck pace, expressive art, and content that's graphic not just for violence's sake but to truly move the audience. It represents everything that thrilled young audiences of the time, and scared the old guard. It's just as powerful a representation of the no-rules nature of groundbreaking Golden Age comics as Plastic Man, with the same artist but an entirely different tone and genre.
Seriously, I love this book, and I've fallen in love with Cole. Give it a read if you can find it.
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I mentioned The Unwritten over in the funnybooks thread, but I'll give it a shout here as well.
The plot revolves around Tom Taylor, son of Wilson Taylor, an author who disappeared without a trace at the height of his career. Wilson wrote a series of books about a boy wizard called Tommy Taylor -- Tom Taylor is essentially the Christopher Robin to he father's Harry Potter. During a comic convention, it comes to light that Tom Taylor may not be Wilson's son at all. Mystery, conspiracy, meditations on society's need for literature, social satire, and violence follow.
By the end of the first volume, it is clear that [spoiler]something metaphysical is going on. Magic![/spoiler]
There are enough unanswered questions as of issue #12 that I pretty much cribbed Wikipedia for that description. It's hard to tell what kind of series this is going to turn into, but it's kept my attention so far. In spite of how I keep on returning to the mystery, each issue ends up revealing something -- this is not a static story. It has direction, or at least a very good facsimile of one.
Read it if:
You like Harry Potter and have a strong cynical streak.
Enjoy intertextual works that reward you for paying attention in English class.
Want a smart adventure/suspense comic without superheros.
One aspect bothers me. It occurs in issue #11. Here's the page in question. (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b167/unhelpful/unwritten_11_16.jpg)
[spoiler] The canker was created when Jud Suss, a pro-Jew novel, was turned into a a Nazi-financed movie. Did the transformation occur because Nazis are terrible people, or because the original text was modified? As a strong proponent of reader reaction theory of literature, where the author's intent is second or third place to what the reader gets out of the text, the latter option bothers me. Isn't this saying that if enough people interpret a work differently than the author intends, the book will turn into a giant cancer monster and go on a rampage? I'm not saying that the author is "dead," but books lose a lot of their potential if they're simply reduced to "this is what the author put in, so this is what you have to get out."
Let's say that I write a book that's intended as a satire of a topical social issue, but everybody takes the book at face value. They've all created that meaning based on their unique social contexts, and possibly my lack of skill as a writer. Does this make everybody who reads the book wrong? Is that book a cancer monster?
Second case: I write a book and it's not very good -- plot holes, typos, inconsistent characterization. Someone edits the work so that it stands up to what folks call storytelling these days. Is that book a cancer monster?
I want to believe the "Nazis turn books into book-monsters" answer, but I'm not sure that the text supports it.
[/spoiler]
OK. Here's a shorter bit on issue #12: It started out as a rehash of an idea I'd seen a few other places, and I wasn't expecting to enjoy it. The [spoiler]literary personification of the story's author[/spoiler] was creepy as all get-out though, and saved the issue.
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Free Comic Book Day (http://www.freecomicbookday.com/) is tomorrow, May 1. For those who don't know, there's a selection of free comics that are given out as promos in the hopes of attracting new readers.
If you don't know where there's a comic store around, hit up comicshoplocator.com (http://comicshoplocator.com).
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And they're going to be giving away free MOUSE GUARD (http://www.freecomicbookday.com/comic_mouse.asp)!
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Arrrrgh
They're also giving away a Lady Gaga comic
Don't make me choose
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Some stores let you fill up on the promotional comics. Mine does, at least, unless they've changed from last year.
Anyone want me to pick anything up?
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I have to get up in... 5 hours to set up for FCBD.
fffffffffffffffffffff
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Some stores let you fill up on the promotional comics. Mine does, at least, unless they've changed from last year.
Anyone want me to pick anything up?
...could I request Mouse Guard & the Sonic comic, if I'm reading the site right?
The only comic book shop near me is very, very uncomfortable to be in.
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Going go meet KC Green in Dallas and get him to sign the comic he's giving away.
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...could I request Mouse Guard & the Sonic comic, if I'm reading the site right?
They didn't have Sonic, but the Mouse Guard/Fraggle comic is on my floor, waiting for a destination to be mailed.
The local store wasn't as into the event as they were last year. Instead of having the free books front and center in the main room, they were hidden in the side room used by the CCG and HeroClix crowd.
There weren't any sales or attempts to bring in new readers either. I guess that last year's push didn't have the returns that the store had hoped for.
Oh well. I picked up a DC Showcase Presents: The Elongated Man and a Nova glass that I had my eye on along with a big stack of free stuff.
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FCBD?!
MOTHERFUCKER. Here I am hanging out with my girlfriend this weekend.
::(:
Shit. If I'd had known, I'd have just stayed in Iowa and helped at my old job for shits and giggles.
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So has anyone else picked up Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour yet?
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I read it in Chapters today.
As fat as it is, very little happens.
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I got the first two books of Scott Pilgrim. I got to say, uh. I don't see the awesome.
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I read it in Chapters today.
As fat as it is, very little happens.
So, business as usual, then.
Edit: Actually read the damn thing. Ye gods, that was miserable.
I'm curious about the movie, whether it's possible to turn fifteen hundred pages of slow nonsense into an interesting two-hour film, but there is just no excuse for this series.
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Now that we've heard from the joyless miser faction on the forums, what are the opinions of people still capable of experiencing and expressing joy?
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whether it's possible to turn fifteen hundred pages of slow nonsense into an interesting two-hour film,
Not with Michael Cera, no.
But hey, at least there's a cool game coming out of all of this.
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Oh Michael Cera's not so bad. One of these days he'll get an actual role playing an actual character and YOU'LL SEE
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Michael Cera has been excellent in things that were good and uninteresting in things that were terrible. This is hardly as slight against him.
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Now that we've heard from the joyless miser faction on the forums, what are the opinions of people still capable of experiencing and expressing joy?
:jerks:
I enjoyed the series at the time, even if it wasn't the greatest thing ever.
The last one really wasn't as funny as I was hoping, but I don't regret reading it.
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It was an ending. It could've been more a million things but well, there was still a pretty decent amount of plot that he had to get out of the way. Which is why TA who hates all things good didn't enjoy it at all. I don't know what he does like but I'll make an educated guess for an example; If I started reading the Twilight series at Breaking Dawn I wouldn't appreciate it as much as he did after finishing the other books.
Anyway, it probably suffered a bit since he knew attention was getting drawn to it from the movie. Plus, like all the other books, needs more Kim Pine.
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What, exactly, makes you think I haven't read the previous five?
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Because a person that picks up the last book of a series and says he hates it is an asshole.
A person that reads six books in a series even though he hates it is probably a sociopath. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt.
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I always finish a series. If I start out liking it and tastes change or the books change or something, I always finish. A story is being told, and I need to finish it. If not I feel a terrible shame until I finally do.
So I've read a series I started out liking and then hated it two books in. I didn't like it, but I'm not a sociopath.
Well...
No. I'm not a sociopath.
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That's what Sociopaths aaaalways say.
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And that's just what a useless parasite would say.
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Scott Pilgrim has only had one really low point, the lesbian fanservice.
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You call that fanservice?
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Exactly how bad of a person am I for wanting to read it, but not wanting to pay for it?
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.846 Hitlertrinos
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You call that fanservice?
I call anything I wouldn't want someone I want to respect me see me looking at a fan service.
edit because that was weirdly worded: if seeing shit makes you check the doors to make sure no one will see you looking at it, I consider it fanservice.
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I think you may need to make your definition slightly narrower.
In the meantime, I'm going to read the whole of the boards and be slightly aroused and ashamed.
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Good God this whole board is just one enormous upskirt shot.
Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.
Oh good I made the same joke as Classic.
Wwwwwelp.
The Darwin Awards Dumbass Rocket Car Man (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y92NgQxg8BQ#ws)
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I call anything I wouldn't want someone I want to respect me see me looking at a fan service.
Poison River is pretty much just a long string of full frontal trannies.
Just what Luba fans had been clamoring for for 15 years!
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Generally I read something until it stops being good, unless it suddenly stops being good right before the finale or something (like Scott Pilgrim, which I will finish eventually even though I honestly don't like any of the characters anymore).
Usually that means I either read something to the end or drop it after only one or two volumes. I am okay with this system.I always finish a series. If I start out liking it and tastes change or the books change or something, I always finish. A story is being told, and I need to finish it. If not I feel a terrible shame until I finally do.
So I've read a series I started out liking and then hated it two books in. I didn't like it, but I'm not a sociopath.
Well...
No. I'm not a sociopath.
There's this annoying smartass guy who occasionally comes into the store and tries to sell anime to the employees (if he can't get trade credit). One day he tried to pawn off his Naruto manga collection. While talking about it, he said that it didn't get really good until somewhere around volume 47.
So, of course, I inquired as to why the hell someone would read 46 volumes of something they didn't like.
I just do not understand the idea of buying all this stuff if you're not enoying it.
I am really glad I'm over my shameless manga and anime addiction.
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I buy a lot of comics I don't really like all that much because I'm attached to characters that are being written poorly, or I like the author but he's not writing well in the particular book, or because the writing team has just changed and I'm still not sure how I feel about the new writing team. Thankfully I've managed to move away from buying books just because I've liked the character in the past. I still read a lot of shitty Bendis stuff just because I he's written some of my favorite comics though.
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I actually wish I still had a lingering Anime or Manga addiction, but the last time I saw anything I liked, it was Samurai Champloo, and even that was a lone bright spot after what had already been a drought of several years. Literally the only Japanese-origin fiction of any kind I still purchase is Blade of the Immortal. And that's about 75% for the flat out incredible artwork (I'll buy books with mediocre or even terrible stories if the art's good enough, but it takes a REALLY amazing story for me to put up with art I dislike - sorry Oda, you lose this round, at least at my house anyway).
I mean, okay, I haven't hung out with any otaku in real life since I left University, so I don't have folks to sift through Anime for me anymore (Sorry guys, but the Manga/Anime you love here are just kinda meh for me), but I still go to the comic store regularly and scan the Manga sections. But there's sweet fuck all that caters to my tastes so uh, oh well.
Saves money I suppose.
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At this point I just read Fullmetal Alchemist (only four volumes left yaaaaaay) and anything by Osamu Tezuka (oh god this addiction will last forever).
I'll admit, though, I have a bad habit of buying the biggest, nicest, most expensive versions of books that I want to read; even if I've never read the series and thus am not that sure that I'll enjoy them.
(http://pirate-king.com/wp-content/uploads/ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0740748475.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
(http://goofybeast.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/absolutesandman.jpg)
(http://www.mainlybooks.co.nz/-img-0316006688.jpg)
On a side note, I'm going to have to take a picture of the Tintin set at some point, because there don't seem to be any pictures that are of the actual thing and not the ugly mockup.
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I actually wish I still had a lingering Anime or Manga addiction, but the last time I saw anything I liked, it was Samurai Champloo, and even that was a lone bright spot after what had already been a drought of several years. Literally the only Japanese-origin fiction of any kind I still purchase is Blade of the Immortal. And that's about 75% for the flat out incredible artwork (I'll buy books with mediocre or even terrible stories if the art's good enough, but it takes a REALLY amazing story for me to put up with art I dislike - sorry Oda, you lose this round, at least at my house anyway).
I mean, okay, I haven't hung out with any otaku in real life since I left University, so I don't have folks to sift through Anime for me anymore (Sorry guys, but the Manga/Anime you love here are just kinda meh for me), but I still go to the comic store regularly and scan the Manga sections. But there's sweet fuck all that caters to my tastes so uh, oh well.
Saves money I suppose.
There's fuckall in terms of decent anime & manga out nowadays. Gurren Lagann is superb as an anime, but trips on it's face as a manga. Nearly every series I'm buying are because it's book 15 or 33 or 26 and I like it just enough to continue to spend a minor amount (woo woo online shopping freebies) to keep it up.
I can't think of the last thing I truely -enjoyed- that was made within the past few years.
Actually, Mongrel, if you'll put up with artwork covering a bland or mediocre story, look up the manga series "Jing: King of Bandits", and it's sequel, "Jing: King of Bandits: Twilight Tales"
It takes just long enough to find itself and get moving that you start to wonder if it's really good, but I remember finding the artwork so outstanding (to me, at least) that I bought all the books I could the day I found it.
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Fortunately, the comics that are collected in nice hardcover editions are usually pretty good excellent:
(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/61wilep5cJL.jpg)
(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/15017.jpg)
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That Far Side set looks neat. If I were a bigger fan, I'd get it.
(also, in case anyone wanted to know, the C&H, Sandman, and Tintin sets I posted are all excellent)
There's fuckall in terms of decent anime & manga out nowadays.
[...]
I can't think of the last thing I truely -enjoyed- that was made within the past few years.
That's why most (http://www.abramsbooks.com/Books/The_Art_of_Osamu_Tezuka-9780810982499.html) of (http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/12-168/Lost-World-TPB) the (http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/12-169/Nextworld-Volume-1-TPB) manga (http://www.digitalmanga.com/books/466/) I (http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/11-526/Astro-Boy-Volume-1-TPB) read (http://www.viz.com/products/products.php?series_id=132) is (http://vertical-inc.com/books/apollo.html) at (http://vertical-inc.com/blackjack/index.html) least (http://vertical-inc.com/books/odetokirihito.html) twenty (http://vertical-inc.com/books/mw.html) years (http://vertical-inc.com/books/dororo.html) old (http://vertical-inc.com/books/buddha/buddha_top.html).
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At this point I just read Fullmetal Alchemist (only four volumes left yaaaaaay) and anything by Osamu Tezuka (oh god this addiction will last forever).
I'll admit, though, I have a bad habit of buying the biggest, nicest, most expensive versions of books that I want to read; even if I've never read the series and thus am not that sure that I'll enjoy them.
(http://pirate-king.com/wp-content/uploads/ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0740748475.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
(http://goofybeast.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/absolutesandman.jpg)
(http://www.mainlybooks.co.nz/-img-0316006688.jpg)
On a side note, I'm going to have to take a picture of the Tintin set at some point, because there don't seem to be any pictures that are of the actual thing and not the ugly mockup.
Heh, that's the same Tintin box set I bought after I let my brother take ownership of our original childhood collection.
I guess I'd buy nice box sets of Calvin & Hobbes or the Far Side, but I already have all the original books, so never mind.
I do mean to eventually pick up more Tezuka (with which I am familiar, but only actually own Swallowing The Earth) and every now and again I think about actually buying Lupin III manga (which I am somewhat aware of, but have never actually read), though the size of the latter daunts me a bit. I've never been a huge fan of these neverending series (though Lupin's more like a sitcom with a fuckton of episiodes, than any of the flavourless melodrama epics produced nowadays). As an added advantage, both old series are dirt cheap.
I've also kind of wanted to read that Aces in Heaven (or whatever it's called) 80's series about mercenary fighter pilots that Geo always loved, but as he's mentioned it's unavailable everywhere and they've never collected the original issues.
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Mongrel, the Far Side Collection has comics that aren't in any of the other books :D
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I've also kind of wanted to read that Aces in Heaven (or whatever it's called) 80's series about mercenary fighter pilots that Geo always loved, but as he's mentioned it's unavailable everywhere and they've never collected the original issues.
Area 88, and yeah, it's great. It was one of Viz's first titles and as a result it's been completely forgotten nowadays. I don't think they ever actually finished bringing the manga over, either, and a good chunk of the run was published in Animerica. It's basically impossible to get a hold of now.
I really wish they'd collect it and finish bringing it over, but that seems unlikely at this point.
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Mongrel, the Far Side Collection has comics that aren't in any of the other books :D
Are they the ones in the Ten-Year anniversary book? because if so, I've got 'em.
And if not it's okay. I don't think anything will ever beat 'Gary Larsen's childhood as depicted by Gary Larsen.'
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I do mean to eventually pick up more Tezuka (with which I am familiar, but only actually own Swallowing The Earth)
I have all of his cwork currently available in English (except for a few out of print books), if you need any recommendations! :cake:
(note: any request for Tezuka book recommendations will be met with a response of "ALL OF THEM")
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So hey, there's a new Darkwing Duck comic out. I don't know how far removed this is from posting about Sonic comics on here, but still, the book is pretty good! It's sort of a blend of The Incredibles, Office Space, and the slapstick of the TV show. All of the gags and fan-service (as well as the digs at other Disney media and corporate America) are great, but I'm more impressed that they added some genuine pathos to a cartoon duck in a ridiculous purple suit without getting in the way of the jokes. The latest issue (#3) was a tad more serious, explaining how DW's secret identity was compromised, leading to him hanging up his cape and working as a menial office drone at the beginning of this series. Highly recommended to fat neck-bearded cartoon fans, but it's still an enjoyable read without the nostalgia goggles.
Really, though, I just wanted an excuse to post this panel.
(http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/6729/gadgetlp.jpg)
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...OK that picture raises some serious questions.
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It sounds neat. I'm a huge fan of Ducktales, Carl Barks comics, etc; but I've never seen an episode of Darkwing Duck soooo :shrug:
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You don't really NEED to have seen the show to get it, but some of the jokes and reveals won't have the same impact without at least some passing familiarity with the series (there's one major reference to the pilot episode). The show is pretty youtubeable, if you care. You could basically watch the pilot then any episode after that. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHyBL_t_Rh0&feature=related)
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Re: Quesda-man Divorce comics:
(http://cdn.the-gutters.com/comics/73d9eca24f89ccfe63a36f3b3c1e2584b7117c96.jpg)
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New Concrete series! (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/11/24/paul-chadwick-concrete-stars-sand-harlan-ellison/)
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Yeah! I've been reading Concrete, but have been stuck because the shop doesn't carry book 5. Must read more.
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Dan Clowes's Wilson is fucking wonderful, maybe the best book of 2010.
The first thought I had when I started reading it was "This is like Peanuts with cursing." That's grossly reductive and doesn't sound like a compliment, so let me explain.
Each page is a self-contained strip. Usually they follow the gag format of somebody talking-talking-talking, then a silent "beat" panel, and then an ironic punchline.
But I get Schulz out of it for more reasons than just the rhythm. Wilson is a story of colorful characters facing the human condition, trying, and usually failing, to make sense of it. Peanuts, at its best, was bittersweet, and spoke to the everyday experience of things not quite going the way we wanted them to but hell, here we are, and let's make the best of it.
Wilson's got that same vibe. He's no Charlie Brown (though Chuck certainly had his dick moments); he's not a good guy but not actually evil either; his sin is a profound, pervasive self-centeredness. He's not the kind of guy you'd want to be around, but Clowes is a strong enough writer to make him sympathetic anyway, a flawed man who is nonetheless not so different from the rest of us, a guy who suffers tragedy and searches for meaning just like anybody else. He makes mistakes, he never really finds what he's looking for, but really, who does?
It's a hilarious and touching book, and all the stronger for Clowes's ability to make us give a fuck about a guy who doesn't give a fuck about anybody else. And his skill as a craftsman bears mentioning too -- a series of 75 single-page strips that form a satisfying narrative arc? They don't make 'em like that anymore. Wednesday Comics was a great example of what newspaper comics could be, and so is Wilson. Every page of this book could have been serialized, day by day or even week by week. It's a real shame newspaper comics aren't like that.
Clowes's artistic versatility also bears mention; he changes styles from one strip to the next, making the art fit the tone of each.
It's a great, great book from one of the best artists in the history of the medium. My highest recommendation. At $22 for 75 pages it may be a bit steep; I was planning on waiting for the paperback but got it on sale. It's worth keeping an eye on drawnandquarterly.com (http://drawnandquarterly.com) and see if it goes on sale again. It's also one of those books that belongs in a library, so it might be worth looking for it there.
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So I asked myself, "Does anybody REALLY need me to tell them that Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #1 is awesome and they should buy it?" And the answer is, the only people who would need me to tell them that are the people who need me to tell them that it exists and is available for sale.
Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #1 exists and is available for sale. It is awesome and you should buy it.
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Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #1 exists and is available for sale. It is awesome and you should buy it.
And it is absolutely baffling to me that my local retailer keeps it on the top shelf, with the Hellblazers, Northlanders, and other violent, "mature" comics. It says "Written by a six-year-old" ON THE COVER and we put it in the adult section. Meanwhile, Brightest Day is still presented as a regular book, despite the fact that it probably shouldn't be read by anyone kids.
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Odd.
I noticed that my guy had it in with the regular stuff and not in the kids' section, but I assumed that was a sales thing -- he mentioned Futurama started selling a lot better when he quit putting it with the all-ages books.
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My comic shop puts Axe Cop on the "Guaranteed or your money back" shelf, because they know what is up
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You know what? I haven't read a good comic in ages. Help me out here.
I'm thinking of ordering either Blacksad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacksad) or some new Tezuka manga, but suggestions are welcome.
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blacksad
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iZombie #12 is a fun little diversion with art by Gilbert Hernandez. It's a one-off that takes place prior to the rest of the series, so no knowledge of the prior 11 issues is necessary.
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Fear Itself: Deadpool is a Deadpool comic by the guy who writes Dr. McNinja.
If you need further explanation and/or do not think that sounds awesome, then I can only conclude you do not know who Deadpool and/or Dr. McNinja are.
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I doubt there's anybody reading the thread who doesn't know who Sergio Aragones is, but in the spirit of the thread's title, in brief: Sergio Aragones is one of the greatest cartoonists who has ever lived. He's best known for the little margin doodles in Mad Magazine, which he's been doing for nearly 50 years. He also draws and co-writes Groo, a Conan spoof featuring a simpleminded warrior who travels the world, gets in fights, and causes destruction and mayhem.
Bongo Comics has just put out the first issue of Sergio Aragones Funnies, which is a comic where Aragones pretty much does whatever the hell he wants. There are one-page gag strips, newspaper-style "Can you spot the difference?" puzzles, a short story sending up the Trojan Horse legend, and a personal anecdote of the time Aragones and his college buddies showed up as movie extras. More than anything it resembles his issue of Solo some years back.
And it's wonderful. Aragones doesn't just understand humor and pacing, he understands storytelling. It really is a great, accessible, all-ages book, and well worth buying.
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I've remarked, on reading the first two issues of Dark Horse Presents, that it didn't quite qualify as something I'd recommend in this thread.
#3 isn't perfect, but I think it's finally there.
It starts up with a story by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons about a future where SWAT vs. kidnappers is treated like a sporting event. It's formulaic but it works pretty well.
Then we've got the second chapter of 13, which feels more like it has a beginning, middle, and end than the first part. I'm starting to like this one. From there, we go to Finder, which is self-contained and which I'm beginning to quite like.
Concrete takes a break from the portents in the previous issue and tackles the ripped-from-the-headlines issue of police Taser brutality, and manages to avoid being preachy, taking sides, or peddling easy answers. (In fact, the answer it finally gives is comically absurd, throwing the complexity of the real-life issue into sharper relief -- it reminded me of the "prisoners in our own school" bit on Simpsons.) It's a wonderful little down-to-Earth, slice-of-life story where a superhero's just trying to help people in the everyday world.
And Chaykin's story is better this time around too, with far less misplaced boldface and a feeling that yeah, this IS actually building toward something.
The linchpin of the issue, though, is the first chapter of the new printing of Jim Steranko's Red Tide.
Now, this being the Comics for People Who Don't Read Comics thread, I'm going to take a moment to explain who Jim Steranko is. You may not know the name, but you know his work. Picture the X-Men logo for a second. See it? How quickly did it pop into your head?
That logo is Steranko's. He drew TWO ISSUES of X-Men, in 1968, and his work is still instantly identifiable with the property. Because he is, among other things, a consummate graphic designer.
He's also probably the biggest reason you know who Nick Fury is -- bigger than Kirby, Lee, Hitch, or even Samuel L Jackson.
In short, the guy did 29 comics for Marvel back in the 1960's and we're still talking about him.
Anyhow, Red Tide is NOT a Marvel work, and not a superhero work; it's pure noir detective story. I've never read the 1970's original, so this was new to me, but this is a preview of a new printing, and it's gorgeous.
The story's not really anything new, but it's not supposed to be; this one's all about the presentation. And it's striking: the book eschews grids and speech bubbles in favor of two panels and a text narration on each page. Strictly speaking, the text would tell the story if the images were removed, but that's not the point -- this isn't simply an illustrated novel; the beats and rhythms of the art juxtaposed with the text are absolutely essential to the flow of the narrative. And the art itself -- gorgeous, gorgeous stuff; the linework, colors, and layouts are masterful.
The chapter is followed with a three-page interview with Steranko. I find the interviewer a little too fawning, and Steranko spends too much time talking about how this is a TRUE graphic novel, and how he was doing them before Eisner. But once he starts getting into the nuts-and-bolts technique of it, it's a great read; he talks about colors and lightsourcing and how he really did do shit nobody else was doing (or, in some cases, has done since). Again, I haven't seen the original work so I don't know what the colors were like, but the new ones look fantastic, and maybe this really IS a case where a recolored version is superior to the original.
The back half of the book is a bit more of a mixed bag. Neil Adams's Blood still doesn't feel like it was written to be split up into 8-page chunks and just begins and ends completely abruptly. Corben's contribution feels similarly disjointed but at least looks pretty doing it. The gag strips, Indecisive Man and the final installment of Mr. Monster, aren't actually very funny but are pretty to look at.
Ultimately, it's $8 for 104 pages, which range in quality from middling to fucking amazing. For the most part it's approachable to people who haven't read the first couple of issues. Ultimately, I think it's pretty great and I want to see more comics like it.
And next month we'll see the return of Dorkin and Thompson's Beasts of Burden, a recent favorite of mine that mixes talking animals with eldritch horror. And soon after we'll be seeing new Hellboy/BPRD stories besides.
In short: great book; worth checking out.
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:mahboi: Before Jim Steranko became a comics artist he worked in a circus as an escape artist. In fact, he is the man Jack Kirby based Mr. Miracle on.
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Ha, yes, the Ferris Wheel Story (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=23371) is a must-read.
Actually, that reminds me of another Steranko work that most of the people reading this thread have probably seen: he storyboarded the Mister Miracle episode of JLU.
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According to Wikipedia (grain of salt), he developed the character design for a little old guy named Indiana Jones. Hell, the Wikipedia article also includes this gem:
By his account, he learned stage magic using paraphernalia from his father's stage magician act, and in his teens spent several summers working with circuses and carnivals, working his way up to sideshow performer as a fire-eater and in acts involving a bed of nails and sleight-of-hand. At school, he competed on the gymnastics team, on the rings and parallel bars, and later took up boxing and, under swordmaster Dan Phillips in New York City, fencing.[13] At 17, Steranko and another teenage boy were arrested for a string of burglaries and car thefts in Pennsylvania.[14]
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Dunno if he designed Indy himself, but he definitely did designs for the movie.
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From the Wiki
For the movie industry, Steranko has produced a number of posters for various films, and was a conceptual artist on Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), doing production designs for the film and designing the character of Indiana Jones.[40]"Raiders Of The Lost Ark". Empire. 2006-09-29. pp. 72–82.
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Wow, they finally reprinted Red Tide? I can finally GET a fucking copy?
I remember being promised a reprint of that in the early 90's.
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It's not on the stands yet, and I can't find a release date offhand, but given that they're actually previewing and promoting the thing I have to expect they at least INTEND to release it shortly.
I found a long-running thread on the subject at Marvel Masterworks Fansite (http://marvelmasterworksfansite.yuku.com/topic/14350/Steranko-s-RED-TIDE-status?page=1). The last page does a bit of comparison on the colors in the two versions. I can see the charm in each version, and anyway the comparison's pretty damn meaningless on a screen. Different coloring processes look different on different kinds of paper, which is kind of the point of recoloring books in the first place.
...oh also I forgot to mention during the "Steranko is a badass" portion of the conversation that, in the interview, he talks about being bullied on the way home from school, taking boxing lessons, and learning to fight dirty. Good times.
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Yeah, I'm a big fan of film-noir type hardboiled comics, for some reason.
No word of a lie, the first time I ever heard about Red Tide, I thought it sounded incredible. A real genre classic. Spent a good two or three years waiting for the imminent reprint that had been offhandedly mentioned in the same magazine that had reviewed it. I bugged people whenever I went to a new store, but no shop owner or comic junkie I talked to seemed to know anything. Couldn't even say it HADN'T come out.
Eventually (this was in the early 00's, I think) a couple of people seemed to vaguely recall that it had gone nowhere (or similar), so I finally gave up.
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Oh hey, speaking of Steranko, Robot 6 (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/09/your-wednesday-sequence-sterankos-frogs/) has a piece on him this week, focusing mostly on his "Frogs!" strip, which is kind of a pure-comics work where you can read the panels in any order.
EDIT: And dang, io9 (http://io9.com/5838628/comics-legend-jim-steranko-explains-how-he-helped-to-create-indiana-jones)'s just put up an article, too, mostly dealing with the Indiana Jones question. Apparently the fedora and belt were his idea, while the whip and the name came from other creators.
There's also a comparison of a Steranko painting to a shot from the final film.
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Seems like that DHP has everybody thinking about Steranko; Brian Cronin's got a feature up now on a '69 story called At the Stroke of Midnight (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/09/10/silver-age-september-jim-sterankos-at-the-stroke-of-midnight/).
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(http://i.imgur.com/9n1S1.png)
Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade is the best, you guys.
Comixology has the first issue for free, and the rest are 99 cents each. They have similar deals for Batman Adventures, Superman Adventures, and probably some other stuff to.
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Howard Cruse's Stuck Rubber Baby (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuck_Rubber_Baby) is one of those modern classics you hear about. It follows Toland Polk, a guy growing up in the Deep South in the 1960's who realizes he's gay -- and fights like hell to convince himself he's not before finally accepting it.
As you would expect from the setting, the story uses the Civil Rights Movement as a backdrop, but it's very much a story of Toland's own personal journey. This is used expertly in the early chapters, for an abrupt and shocking tonal shift -- the book cruises along for awhile as a comedy about this poor kid who just can't admit to himself that he's different. And then somebody dies.
People die in this book. Some die because they deliberately tweak the noses of people in power. Some die because they stand up for their rights. And some die because they're black and happen to be in the neighborhood when the Klan is looking for somebody to kill.
There are these moments that pull you out of Toland's story and into the broader historical context. And as the book slips back into Toland's own problems, it's different: it's not funny anymore that Toland is wrapped up in his own little world while history is happening around him; it's obnoxious. It's a character flaw.
But it's also relatable.
A guy at the tail end of his teens who's socially conscious but probably wouldn't show up at a rally if it weren't for his girlfriend? Yeah, I don't have to be gay to relate to that.
And it doesn't hurt that the seldom-seen bogeyman of the story is a showboating racist lawman who is inexplicably popular with the public. Yeah, that's a character who strikes a chord with me too.
Stuck Rubber Baby is a page-turner; I blew through it in a couple of days. It's a classic Hero's Journey story in a compelling setting, and its cast of characters is at once colorful and realistic. It's light on surprises -- nearly all of the plot twists are heavily telegraphed -- but the execution is lovely. The pace is tight, and the writing is snappy.
And the art is gorgeous.
You can see influences like Crumb, Kurtzman, Wolverton, and Elder in Cruse's caricature style -- big lips, big chins, big noses, big foreheads. His characters are funny and expressive. His layouts are impeccable; he controls the pace through tight grids for most of the story, and saves the splashy stuff for the places where it makes a real impact. And his inks, man -- nice clean lines, and some really distinctive stippling.
It's one of those books that belongs squarely on the shelf of a casual reader, in there with Maus and Ghost World. And there's a new edition out for a list price of $18.
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I'm working my way through Louis Riel and it's fantastic. Chester Brown is one of the greatest artists in the medium; he's got a real talent for visual storytelling, and I love his continuity tricks.
I'm an Ugly American so I don't know much about Canadian history; I came to this book as a fan of Brown rather than out of any specific interest in the subject matter. But it's an easily relatable story, and he tells it wonderfully.
It's currently a semifinalist in something called Canada Reads (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/11/chester-browns-louis-riel-among-canada-reads-semifinalists/). One of the commenters on that thread notes that Brown's latest work (Paying For It, about his experiences as a john and advocacy for sex workers' rights) might bias judges against him; we'll see.
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Louis Riel is a fantastic read. I picked it up from the library last year and I really enjoyed reading about history that I had previously ignored in high school. Amazing what you can learn when the material is presented in an appealing fashion, eh?
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The funny thing is that the only guy I know who doesn't like Louis Riel is Koipond. Who is actually Metis.
He's never given me a really focused explanation as to why... I asked him if it was accuracy and that wasn't it. I guess it just rubs him the wrong way. :dunno:
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Well, I don't see a release date, but I'm seeing reviews for Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes crop up on Robot 6 (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/11/robot-reviews-donald-duck-lost-in-the-andes/) and TCJ (http://www.tcj.com/reviews/donald-duck-lost-in-the-andes/). Looks great, and reasonably priced. Expect that means it'll be out in the next week or three.
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Very brief interview with Brown (http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/2011/11/10-for-the-top-10-chester-brown.html) as part of the Canada Reads competition. Short and sweet; it'll take you under two minutes to read.
(I particularly like the "guilty pleasure" question and his response to it -- this is clearly a canned question written by somebody who does not know who Chester Brown is.)
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The new Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes collection is one of the best comics you'll ever hope to spend $25 on. (Or, all right, like half that on Amazon, but usual plea to support your local comic shop (http://comicshoplocator.com/) or independent bookseller.)
Before I get into how great and important Carl Barks is, I'm going to address a common complaint: he's built up so much that newcomers often don't see what the big deal is when they read his books.
That's because Barks is oldschool. You won't find the wild experimentation of a Kirby or a Tezuka, or the challenging complexity of a Spiegelman or a Moore. Barks's layouts, designs, and stories are simple -- deceptively so.
Barks is a classicist, but he may very well be the best that ever was. There's a reason his name is treated with such awe and reverence by fans and pros. No tricks, no embellishments; dude just went out there to tell a story, make you laugh, and keep the whole thing self-contained while simultaneously, over the course of a 23-year run, building an entire world of memorable characters. And yeah, that he did the whole thing under Disney's name and his identity was unknown until he'd been doing it for 16 years did help build his mystique.
Anyhow. If you're reading this you're probably a Barks fan already, whether you know it or not. Most of us watched DuckTales growing up -- and that was an animated version of Barks's Uncle Scrooge stories.
That's not precisely what this book is -- as it says on the tin, this is Donald's book, and the nephews'. Scrooge appears as a minor character, but this book doesn't focus on him. That said, there are certainly elements of Barks's Uncle Scrooge work here: Donald and the nephews travel the world, have adventures, and find treasure and lost civilizations.
If you don't mind spoilers, Chris Sims has a fun rundown of one of the stories, The Golden Christmas Tree (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/12/06/bizarro-back-issues-donald-duck-and-the-tear-harvesting-christm/). It also demonstrates some of the best panels and sequences in the book -- the nephews' fight and Donald's rush at the witch's house with a battering ram both show a wonderful kineticism, and even people who don't know about Barks's animation background are bound to suspect it from looking at those. If this were animated, they'd be keyframes.
The book's split up into 32-page, 8-page, and single-page sections, and each length has its draw. Barks is great at everything from simple gags to complete three-act adventure stories.
And, given the aforementioned esteem for Barks, there's a whole lot of additional material discussing the stories and his influence. As Parish (http://www.gamespite.net/verbalspew2/2011/11/22/duck-tales/) noted, some of it is infuriating, pretentious horseshit (I'm paraphrasing); the passage that deconstructs Lost in the Andes as a critique of conformists and the South is utterly maddening. However, there's enough good shit in there that I won't quite agree with Parish that you shouldn't read it; just expect it to be a bit uneven.
As for the presentation, the reproduction is absolutely gorgeous, and the paper and coloring are just right. It's a hardback, which usually brings about my griping that you can't throw it in a backpack and carry it around, but I can't make that criticism this time; it's lightweight, there's no slipcase or dust jacket, and I'd be just as comfortable carrying it around as a TPB.
I love this thing. I like it so much I'm going to buy two more copies as Christmas presents. You should buy it too.
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You know, I'm pretty sure I have a tattered copy of the original Square Eggs story somewhere at my folks house (I used to have a stack of old Duck books... as far as I know they still exist).
It's prrrroooobably not the original and just a reprint from the 70's, but I wonder if those books are worth anything at all.
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...So a few months back, I was in my local independent bookseller, and I ran across Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to Their Limits (http://books.google.com/books?id=vFZpxrsEPxYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=stretching+spiegelman&source=bl&ots=sgMas479xR&sig=gUuGi_ZiU4dgfdZCK0m2OzSCuvs&hl=en&ei=0vGqS5qSEKW4tgOxw-Qw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CAsQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=&f=false). I didn't even notice Spiegelman's name on the cover, I just flipped through the book and thought hey, this is pretty neat. And then my girlfriend got it for me for Christmas.
I started it today, and...wow.
Here's the thing: I've never actually read a Plastic Man comic before. I'm aware of him, I'm aware of Cole's work, but...I had no idea what I was missing out on.
KC Carlson's review of The Quality Companion (http://comicsworthreading.com/2011/12/23/the-quality-companion/) got me thinking about this book again. A couple good links:
The original New Yorker article (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1999/04/19/1999_04_19_076_TNY_LIBRY_000018012?currentPage=all) that was the basis for the book -- a pretty good text piece, but the book is way better with all its accompanying material. (Talking about comics is way better when you have some of the actual comics in front of you.)
The book itself (http://product.half.ebay.com/_W0QQprZ1924913), $5.69 at half.com.
And a bunch of the old Quality stuff is public domain and available at digitalcomicmuseum.com (http://digitalcomicmuseum.com).
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Has anyone mentioned I Kill Giants (http://www.amazon.com/I-Kill-Giants-Joe-Kelly/dp/1607060922/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329537163&sr=8-1) yet? Warning: if you're a softie like me, it will probably make you tear up. I can't say much more without giving it away, but it's definitely a great book.
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Beasts of Burden is great, but damn is it dark. Out of the whole hardcover (http://amzn.com/1595825134) I got, only two of the stories don't end in tragedy. I mean, I get that it's a horror comic, but I actually had to stop reading a couple of times because it was too sad. ::(:
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Yeah, Beasts of Burden is a real favorite (and they've recently been showing up in 8-page stories in Dark Horse Presents); I've praised it in the past and linked the online version of their first appearance (http://www.darkhorse.com/Features/eComics/1090/Beasts-of-Burden) in the Free Comics thread. So here it is again for people who haven't been reading it.
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Hey, can we use this thread for newspaper comics?
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/11/doonesbury-pulled-over-rick-perrys-transvaginal-exams/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/11/doonesbury-pulled-over-rick-perrys-transvaginal-exams/)
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Garry Trudeau responds to the controversy (http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/doonesbury-creator-garry-trudeau-discusses-divisive-strips-about-abortion/2012/03/11/gIQAL7Is5R_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage)
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Not coincidentally, Doonesbury is the only newspaper strip I still read.
It's still got plenty of bland shit in there (I fucking hate the mailbag), but when Trudeau's on he's on.
Heh heh. Ten-Inch Shaming Wand.
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I've never read a book with Roger Langridge's name on it that I wouldn't recommend in this thread.
His latest: the new IDW Popeye series, drawn by Bruce Ozella.
Now, I'm most familiar with Popeye from the Fleischer shorts (which are amazing), and while I've got a nice hardbound copy of some of the original Segar strips I haven't done more than thumb through it yet. This series is based on the strips rather than the toons; spinach gets nary a mention and Olive's family (mainly brother Castor) plays a role.
But never mind all that; the book's got everything you could want: Bluto, Wimpy, and all the cartoon violence you could ask for. It's self-contained, it's genuinely funny, and, as Robot 6 recently put it, it offers a strong case for more Popeye comics (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/04/it-yis-what-it-yis-popeye-1-offers-a-strong-case-for-more-popeye-comics/).
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You know what I'm enjoying? Resident Alien, by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse.
It's another Police Procedural with a Twist. The setup is this: an alien ship has crash-landed; its owner is living incognito in a small town called Patience. His cover story is that he's a retired doctor named Harry Vanderspiegel. He's got mild psychic powers; he can pick up on people's emotions, and mentally fool them into thinking he looks human, but nonetheless he keeps to himself.
But then Patience's only doctor is murdered, and so the mayor comes and asks him to serve as town doctor until they can find a suitable replacement. Harry tries to refuse, but ultimately agrees to take the job, both because it would seem suspicious if he didn't and because it's the right thing to do. So now he's no longer a recluse, he's in town serving as doctor, and he's also helping to try to solve the murder.
The series debuted in Dark Horse Presents; that material is reprinted in issue #0 (https://digital.darkhorse.com//profile/1945.resident-alien-0/) (which I think is a great way of doing things; people who read it in the anthology can start at issue #1 without having to buy the same material again, while people who didn't read it in the anthology have a #0 they can pick up so they don't miss anything). There's a preview of the comic on that link, and you can download the full issue for $2.
Weirdly, the digital version of issue #1 (https://digital.darkhorse.com/profile/1946.resident-alien-1/) is $4, which is 50 cents more than the paper version. I think Dark Horse might drop the price later on; I suspect the idea is to give comic stores preferential treatment at release time and then drop the digital price once it's been on sale a couple weeks, but that's just a guess.
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Tor's got a preview of Hope Larson's upcoming adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time (http://www.tor.com/stories/2012/09/a-wrinkle-in-time-the-graphic-novel-comic-excerpt). It looks wonderful.
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AAAGGL WHAT HAPPENS NEEEEEEXT
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Snarked is over and I honestly could not have asked for a more satisfying ending. This is a great, great book and recommended for everybody.
Bit of background for those who don't know what it is: it's a Lewis Carroll pastiche, featuring a Walrus who acts like WC Fields and a Red Queen who bears a certain resemblance to Lucy van Pelt. It's written and drawn by Roger Langridge, who did the truly excellent Muppet Show Comic a few years back (whose final issues are just now being published due to the transition from Boom to Marvel). It's a great all-ages book; Langridge's art is really expressive and charming, and it's funny stuff. His words aren't half-bad either, and the book doesn't suffer from the decompression you see in most modern comics -- it typically takes me significantly longer to read one of his comics than your average DC/Marvel superhero book of the same page count.
If you missed the series, buy the trades.
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Tor's got a preview of Hope Larson's upcoming adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time (http://www.tor.com/stories/2012/09/a-wrinkle-in-time-the-graphic-novel-comic-excerpt). It looks wonderful.
And BoingBoing's got Chapter 2 (http://boingboing.net/2012/10/03/a-wrinkle-in-time-worthy-grap.html). Meg! Calvin! Charles Wallace! Sandy and Dennys! Go read.
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If you are not reading Dial H by China Mieville and Mateus Santolouco, you may be missing the best superhero comic currently being published. (Though I hear Daredevil's pretty great right now too.)
For those unfamiliar with the concept, Dial H for Hero is an old '60's comics series about a dial that allows its user to turn into a superhero -- a different one each time he dials.
In the new series, the dial is found by a schlubby guy, Nelson, who's trying to help his friend who's fallen in with some bad people. And, as you might expect, the highlight of the book is the sheer range of oddball characters Nelson turns himself into. Characters like Boy Chimney and Battle Snail.
I'm really enjoying the hell out of it and recommend it. It's technically a DC New 52 book, but as yet it has shown no sense of continuity with the other books. I do not think it is a coincidence that all my favorite DC books are the ones that are off in their own little corner not being shoved into some big editorial narrative. And presumably Mieville is a big enough name (and Dial H is a small enough one) that he can do whatever he wants.
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Since Animal Man started dragging its feet, Dial H has been my favorite monthly book. Maybe Animal Man's big crossover event will speed things up and have the thoughtful character moments that I so crave!
Adventure Time
All Star Western
Animal Man
Batman Inc.
Demon Knights
Dial H
Frankenstein
Trade Waiting
Unwritten
6th Gun
Have you read any of the previous iterations of Dial H? Are they worth tracking down to see what's being adapted?
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I thought JMS's one-off in The Brave and the Bold, which teamed Dial H with the Metal Men, was fantastic, but I haven't read the '60's or '80's iterations. I love the premise, though, and it sure SEEMS like it'd be right up my alley.
I think Animal Man really lost something when Travel Foreman left. He left for personal reasons -- his mother had just passed away and he couldn't deal with drawing creepy shit in a horror comic anymore -- and I can't blame him, but it's unfortunate he had to go so soon.
I'd love to see Lemire pencil it himself but he's still got a few issues of Sweet Tooth left. Have you been reading Sweet Tooth? Another of my favorites of the past few years. Post-apocalyptic book; everyone's dying of a plague and human/animal hybrid children are being born. At its core it's a story about two characters, Gus and Jeppard; Gus is a naive child who doesn't know anything about the world, and Jeppard is a bitter, jaded man who's lost everything and just does not give a fuck anymore. It goes about how you'd expect, with each learning from the other. And I love Lemire's art.
Haven't been reading All-Star Western (though I bought about the first 50 issues of the Palmiotti/Gray Jonah Hex) or Sixth Gun, but totally agree with everything else on your list. Great shit. Tough call as to whether I'd put Batman Inc on a "for people who don't read comics" list; it's a great book but SO reliant on existing continuity.
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Haven't been reading All-Star Western (though I bought about the first 50 issues of the Palmiotti/Gray Jonah Hex) or Sixth Gun, but totally agree with everything else on your list. Great shit. Tough call as to whether I'd put Batman Inc on a "for people who don't read comics" list; it's a great book but SO reliant on existing continuity.
Whoops! I just posted my entire list. It's interesting that I consider myself an avid comics fan (not that I'd win any contests for it), but pretty much every book on my list meets the "all right for non-comics reader" criteria. There's a slam on books that depend too much on continuity and shock somewhere in there, but it's all been said more eloquently elsewhere. Part of it, I think, is I want comics that I can share with people. My girlfriend has been working her way through my collection, after having only previously read Sandman and Transmetropolitan. I'd love to slip Morrison's Batman into the to-read pile eventually, but there's really no good starting point going back more than five years and several series.
I've read the first two trades of Sweet Tooth and enjoyed them both. I've put following it on hold for a while so a sufficient backlog builds up.
All-Star Western is a top-quality book. At first, I felt like it was a bait-and-hook Batman book in disguise, but even though so little of it is actually spent Out West, it feels like a Western.
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The Groupees Be Mine Bundle 5 (http://groupees.com/bm5) gets you the first trade of The Sixth Gun in PDF format(along with some pretty good to pretty terrible games) for a minimum of $5.
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Dial H #6 is the funniest "two superheroes sit around arguing while nothing happens" comic I've read in ages. It kinda reminds me of the Booster Gold episode of JLU.
So, okay. For those of you just joining us, Dial H is about a dial that gives the hero a different superhero identity every time he uses it. Some are cool, some are not, and all of them are pretty much Mieville and Santoluoco (and cover artist Brian Bolland) going nuts with crazy one-off ideas. (It kinda reminds me of X-Statix, except in that book new heroes showed up, died, and got replaced; in this one, new heroes show up for one issue and then go away.)
Anyway. This issue Nelson dials a racist stereotype Indian Chief character, and Roxy insists that he can't go out like that unless it's a real emergency, so mostly they just sit around in her apartment arguing while he watches emergencies happen on TV and then other people come to the rescue.
Maybe that sounds boring? I dunno. I love superhero stories that just go totally mundane. This was a legitimately funny example of that. I'm loving this series.
MEANWHILE:
Sweet Tooth is all over but the crying. If you've been waiting for the trades, well, the last one should be out in just over a month, because there's only one issue left.
It's been a good ride. No big surprises, I don't suppose, certainly none in this issue's big climax. All the things that happened here were inevitable.
But it HAS been a great character piece. I've come to really like the cast. Gus's journey toward adulthood and Jeppard's toward redemption -- it's been satisfying. And I love Lemire's art. Hopefully he'll be drawing something else soon.
Not sure what he'll do with the final issue. But I'm hoping for a full-on "50 years later", something along those lines. I'd love to see Gus as an old man, looking at the new world he's helped build.
Maybe it won't be that. Maybe Lemire will surprise me. But again -- this series hasn't been about surprises.
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Not sure what he'll do with the final issue. But I'm hoping for a full-on "50 years later", something along those lines. I'd love to see Gus as an old man, looking at the new world he's helped build.
Maybe it won't be that. Maybe Lemire will surprise me. But again -- this series hasn't been about surprises.
And it was, in fact, exactly what I expected. And that's a good thing. It was a double-sized final issue that didn't feel decompressed -- as the years, decades, generations flew by, it felt like Lemire showed and told just enough -- some characters only got a sentence or two, but it was just right.
This was a damn fine series; one of the best I've read in the past decade. Jeff Lemire has become one of my favorites; I'll try anything with his name on it, as writer, artist, or especially both.
His next series -- aside from the, what, four or five DC superhero books he's doing now -- is called Trillium. I'm onboard, sight unseen.
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http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130315/roscoe-village/cps-bans-persepolis-at-lane-tech-protest-planned-for-friday (http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130315/roscoe-village/cps-bans-persepolis-at-lane-tech-protest-planned-for-friday)
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Via Robot 6 (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/03/chicago-public-schools-told-not-to-remove-persepolis/), the school system is now claiming this was a misunderstanding -- the CEO asked that the book be removed from the seventh grade curriculum, and somebody down the chain interpreted this as "remove the book entirely".
After directing principals to have seventh-grade teachers remove the book from their classroom, Byrd-Bennett said that “due to the powerful images of torture,” she has asked the Office of Teaching & Learning to develop guidelines so educators “can be trained to present this strong but important content.” The district will also decide whether, “after appropriate teacher training,” Persepolis should be included in the curriculum for grades eight through 10.
“These are not photos of torture. It’s a drawing and it’s one frame,” Satrapi told the newspaper. “I don’t think American kids of seventh grade have not seen any signs of violence. Seventh-graders have brains and they see all kinds of things on cinema and the Internet. It’s a black and white drawing and I’m not showing something extremely horrible. That’s a false argument. They have to give a better explanation.”A CPS spokeswoman told the newspaper the initial directive was sent by district staff following concerns raised by teachers at Austin-North Lawndale, but it didn’t reflect the intent of the administration.
It's not as bad as a full ban, but I'm still inclined to think it's bullshit. Satrapi's right: the notion that seventh graders have never heard cursing or seen violence before is fucking asinine.
(Not for nothin': the movie version of Persepolis -- which is pretty much a straight-across, word-for-word-and-panel-for-panel adaptation -- is PG-13. I know it varies state-by-state, but here in Arizona the typical age of a seventh grader is, yes, 13 years old.)
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4thletter is doing a guide to the DC Universe (http://4thletter.net/2013/03/guide-to-the-injustice-roster-explaining-comics-to-people-who-dont-read-comics-part-1/) for non-comics reading people who want to play Injustice, but don't necessarily want to wade through decades of continuity just to understand what the hell is going on.
In one of the weirdest comic book moments, a zombie Aquaman appeared during the big Green Lantern event Blackest Night to haunt Mera. Mera had been empowered by a Red Lantern ring, building on her intense rage. When Aquaman held up his zombie baby to taunt her, Mera vomited napalm blood onto them both while yelling, “I never wanted to have children!” At the end of the story, this mysterious force of white light resurrected a dozen dead DC characters for its own cryptic reasons. One of them was Aquaman. After that, Aquaman had the ability to control dead and decaying marine life.
(http://i.imgur.com/HouRh9G.jpg)
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But I'm preeeeetty confident Injustice is non-canon. Inasmuch as its premise involves Joker tricking Superman into murdering pregnant Lois (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/03/19/injustice-gods-among-us-comic-review-dc/).
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I read the Harley/Green Arrow episode and thought that the rest of the series would be at least that good.
Oh how wrong I was.
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But I'm preeeeetty confident Injustice is non-canon. Inasmuch as its premise involves Joker tricking Superman into murdering pregnant Lois (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/03/19/injustice-gods-among-us-comic-review-dc/).
Oh, it absolutely is. However, it's an alternate universe based on pre-Flashpoint continuity(so that should tell you how long it's been in development), even though the costumes are the New 52 versions(with a couple of exceptions). So this is intended as more of an amusing primer for folks who probably have a passing familiarity with DC, but who might not know anything about the DC version of Ares, or why Bane is a hulked-out guy in a luchador mask, and not a guy with a weird accent in a Darth Vader mask.
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Or why Green Lantern is a white guy?
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Or that, yeah.
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Also
Bane became a victim of one of comics’ most annoying tropes: rubber-banding. Rubber-banding is what happens when a character is developed in a new way and a new writer decides, “Fuck all that. I’m making him like he was during his Greatest Hits phase so we can tell the same stories all over again.” Other victims of this include Magneto, Riddler, Sandman, Two-Face and Deathstroke. Riddler’s pissed me off the most.
They need to stop doing this. Especially Geoff Johns and Brian Bendis.
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Hey, this comic actually sounds awesome. Not awesome in, like, an objective sense, but awesome in a "points for creativity" sense. If it was meant to be dead baby comedy or whatever real people are calling it these days then bravo.
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Part 2 (http://4thletter.net/2013/04/guide-to-the-injustice-roster-explaining-comics-to-people-who-dont-read-comics-part-2/): Black Adam, Catwoman, Cyborg, Deathstroke, and Doomsday.
So, Doomsday is in this game, but not Blue Beetle or Booster Gold. Not to be (http://i.imgur.com/sPlxCYy.gif), but COME ON.
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(http://i.imgur.com/HRztFzF.jpg)
Awww yisss
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Coming soon: Itty Bitty Hellboy (http://comicsbeat.com/its-here-preview-pages-for-itty-bitty-hellboy-1/). A Hellboy comic for kids.
Not a joke. Not a spoof. Not one of those winking ironic "kids' comics" that's actually a satire of kids' comics and is really intended for adults. An actual, honest-to-goodness Hellboy comic for kids, by Baltazar and Franco.
Do you have any idea how happy the very IDEA of this thing makes me?
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Welp, one of the comics I've been most looking forward to is out this week: Jeff Lemire's Trillium.
It's two stories in the pulp tradition: in one, The Soldier, a PTSD-suffering WWI vet searches for a lost Inca temple; in the other, The Scientist, one of the last survivors of the human race attempts to make inroads with an alien civilization, hoping to find a defense against a sentient virus.
It's a flipbook -- two front covers. Hold it one way and it's The Soldier; the other and it's The Scientist. And as you might expect, the two stories meet up in the middle.
(Seeing as you can't exactly duplicate this technique in a digital comic or a trade collection, it gives the individual issue something unique to set it apart.)
The conceit is a good one and it fits the premise of two worlds unexpectedly coming together well. But the work is good enough to stand on its own without the extra format tricks. I find Lemire at his best when he's creating his own worlds and writing, drawing, and coloring them himself -- he shares a color credit with Jose Villarubia, and the colors look fantastic; they're an improvement over Sweet Tooth, and I thought Sweet Tooth looked great.
This is cool stuff, and well worth checking out.
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Oh I'm a little late on this but Top Shelf's annual sale (http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/special-deals) is on. This year's highlight is probably the first book of March, written by Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, with art by Nate Powell. It's currently half off at $7.50, which is cheaper than the digital price.
Other titles to watch include The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire at $10 and Blankets by Craig Thompson for $20 (or $5 more for the hardcover).
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Sandman is the reason I wish Neil Gaiman wrote more comics.
And what I like about that sentence is that it can be applied just as easily to Sandman as a body of work or to the issue of the new prequel series that's just out last week.
Williams is the perfect artist for the story Gaiman's telling here. Fractals and layers and some very nice Kirby and Ditko homage stuff at the end.
Welcome back, Neil; we missed you.
And Mr. Williams, it's a shame about Batwoman but I will follow you wherever you go.
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30 years in, Love and Rockets continues to be one of the best goddamn comics there is or ever has been, period.
There's a whole lot more I could say about the latest issue -- and I'm only halfway through it! -- but man, mostly it's just fucking breathtaking that these two guys are still at the top of their fucking game.
There are plenty of creators who've been in the game for 3 decades -- or longer. There are a handful who did truly seminal work that has been canonized among the best the medium has to offer.
Of those, it's hard for me to point to many and say their latest work is as good as anything they've ever done -- Crumb and Aragones are the others I can think of off the top of my head, and they're the guys Los Bros were reading when they were kids.