Topic: Funnybooks (Read 170153 times)

Lottel · « **Reply #2020 on:** June 22, 2012, 12:51:18 PM »

Libraries and borrowing CDs from friends? Granted that's only if you are just downloading-and-deleting.

What he's getting at is it's still piracy and still "taking" something and not paying for it. It all boils down to your definition of digital ownership and whether or not you can steal something that doesn't have physical form. I personally go with the "borrowing" form of piracy and buy what I can. Have I read a few comics without paying for them? Sure. But have I bought more comics because of the comics I read without paying for? Oh yes.

Does it make it right? That's a debate I'm pretty sure we've had like ten times on this forum already.

Royal☭ · « **Reply #2021 on:** June 22, 2012, 01:19:13 PM »

Actually, my larger is point is that piracy is something unheard of and actually challenges existing social and legal norms as far as markets, economics and sharing are concerned. When we try and ascribe the old terminology and way of thinking to actual, physical media to unlimited digital media the way we determine ethics and morals just kind of falls apart.

Bongo Bill · « **Reply #2022 on:** June 22, 2012, 05:08:19 PM »

I will say that I've bought more comics that I pirated first than that I didn't.

Thad · « **Reply #2023 on:** June 25, 2012, 09:45:13 AM »

We've been talking a bit about people leaving DC and Marvel to do creator-owned things. I'd observed that while there are some B- and C-list guys leaving DC and Marvel entirely (Roberson, Langridge) and some A-list guys doing creator-owned stuff in addition to their DC/Marvel work (Ellis, Bendis, Hickman, and really quite a lot of others), there are really only two A-list creators who have gone ENTIRELY creator-owned: Robert Kirkman and Mark Millar. (And Millar still publishes his creator-owned stuff through Marvel.)

Well, Brubaker may make it three. He's staying on Winter Soldier for now but ending his Cap run and not doing any other Marvel books, and he's certainly expressing distaste for the Kirby situation with Marvel and Moore situation with DC.

Thad · « **Reply #2024 on:** June 26, 2012, 07:49:15 AM »

DC editor/Lobo co-creator Roger Silfer is in critical condition after a hit-and-run. (Evanier had a post about it but it looks like his site's down, so I'll link Johnston too.)

He worked on some of the Sunbow toons, too, including Transformers and Jem.

Hoping this doesn't turn into fodder for the Obit thread but it's looking that way. Damn it.

Lottel · « **Reply #2025 on:** June 26, 2012, 10:58:59 PM »

Apparently, Spidey's getting a sidekick named Alpha.

Büge · « **Reply #2026 on:** June 27, 2012, 06:41:51 AM »

Quote

"Part of it is that Spider-Man is grown up," said Axel Alonso, editor-in-chief of Marvel Entertainment. "He's older, more seasoned, but young at heart. He's still a young man, but he's been around. It's interesting because it flips the paradigm. Teen hero Spider-Man is now responsible for this teen hero sidekick. He's responsible because one of his inventions caused this kid to get his powers. He's directly responsible for the responsibility this kid now has with his new powers. He feels he has a responsibility to make sure this kid walks the right path, which won't prove easy."

GOSH IT'S A GOOD THING HE'S NOT MARRIED AND A PARENT BECAUSE THIS IS TOTALLY UNLIKE A SITUATION A PARENT WOULD FACE

Thad · « **Reply #2027 on:** June 27, 2012, 11:11:57 AM »

Andy Maguire.

Get it?

GET IT?

Zaratustra · « **Reply #2028 on:** June 28, 2012, 09:08:20 AM »

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century 2009 is out. It's best described as "rushed" - nevermind that Kevin O'Neill's art has been getting progressively sketchier with each update, but the whole plot tries to do what the entire first series did in a single issue.

It's not like the protagonists -do- much, either. It feels a lot like the second volume: the League is passed from god-figure to god-figure, doing very little to fix things up while the big boys are busy. One new character does nothing but say "hey I have plans" OH WAIT COMIC'S OVER.

Overall, it's an ending, but honestly feels like the series should have ended with the second series. Maybe even the first series.

Thad · « **Reply #2029 on:** June 28, 2012, 09:16:32 AM »

...I love that it's 3 years late and still seems rushed.

Zaratustra · « **Reply #2030 on:** June 28, 2012, 09:33:00 AM »

Same as any other late project, I guess. It's not like people have been working on this for three years, trying to make it juuust perfect.

Royal☭ · « **Reply #2031 on:** June 28, 2012, 10:48:27 AM »

Man Alan Moore is too busy thinking up ways to have women get raped in his other books to worry about working on LoEG.

Niku · « **Reply #2032 on:** June 28, 2012, 04:30:09 PM »

how else will anyone realize how he feels about adaptations and sequels of his stories

Zaratustra · « **Reply #2033 on:** June 28, 2012, 06:18:25 PM »

I will say that the solution to kill the Moonchild is absolutely brilliant.

Thad · « **Reply #2034 on:** July 01, 2012, 10:02:46 AM »

Haven't finished with it yet; having my usual mixed reaction so far.

Very first problem: a Kickstarter joke. Guys, if you're going to commit to this "2009" business so thoroughly that that's still going to be the title of the book even though you release it in 2012, mmmmaybe you shouldn't open your book with a joke about a trend that didn't really kick off until 2011. It may be a trivial difference in the scheme of things, but if you're going to truly evaluate trends of the modern century, the fact that two years is now a nontrivial amount of time in terms of technological shifts is pretty high up the list. (And yes, Kickstarter was founded in '08 and blah blah parallel universe, but I think my point stands.)

Anyhow. This one, at least, seems a little less Where's Waldo-y than the last one, so far. The references seem at least to be in service of the story, or quick one-offs that at least aren't too distracting. The jokes about President Bartlett and an agent who can solve any crisis are inoffensive but stale, not just because Alan Moore has been talking about those gags in the past four years' worth of interviews but because those shows have been off the fucking air since 2006 and 2010, respectively and this is the problem with delaying a book that far past its sell-by date. (So yeah, I guess I'm not satisfied by references that are up-to-the-minute OR references that would have been current 3 years ago. There's a problem right out the gate, isn't it?)

Once in awhile, though, something pretty smart squeezes through. Judi Dench's M as an elderly Emma Peel? That's fucking brilliant. A little overreliant on continuity, I suppose, but forgivable because it's (1) clever and (2) actually serves the story in a meaningful way rather than just being clever for its own sake.

Anyhow. Still a little ways to go yet but more thoughts as I get them.

Thad · « **Reply #2035 on:** July 02, 2012, 06:56:31 AM »

...Okay, haven't read the prose section yet but I finished the comic.

And...well, the references DO seem less overwhelming than last time, probably as much as anything because Moore and O'Neill know a lot more about 1969 pop culture than 2009 pop culture. There ARE still those irritating damn panels that are just, like, a shot of Mina and Orlando running away in the distance while we get a closeup of some damn group of people I don't recognize, but they seem like they're taking up less of the book.

And now and again a cameo actually serves a thematic purpose to the story -- Captain Jack and Doctors 1 and 10 in the corners of panels where Mina is asking Orlando how she deals with immortality.

Biggest gut punch, of course, is Platform 9 3/4 and Hogwarts. That's where this book manages to become genuinely fucking unsettling, and actually use our shared culture to DO it. I mean, LoEG is a book where we've seen Polyanna raped by the Invisible Man and Winnie-the-Pooh revealed as a horrifying creation of Dr. Moreau, but neither one of those packed the kind of power of comforting children's imagery corrupted that this sequence does. (Which is something, considering that I was in my late teens before I read any Harry Potter and my mid-twenties by the time the last book came out.)

Past that, it's all pretty much downhill; Zara, you nailed the point that everyone's pretty much going through the motions and not actually doing much of anything. But I think that's by design; Mina spells it out when she compares 1909 to 2009 and says that the people today don't have the same spirit. Mina, Lando, Allan, and the Moonchild all act out their roles because that's what they're supposed to do, but none of them really wants to be there and none of them really accomplishes much of anything. Welcome to the twenty-first century.

All in all, it's not very satisfying but it's thought-provoking, which probably applies to most of Moore's recent work.

And hey, did he go a whole issue without anybody getting raped? Or am I supposed to infer something horrifying from that panel where McGonagall's dress is torn?

Büge · « **Reply #2036 on:** July 06, 2012, 11:32:24 AM »

Quote from: http://www.newsarama.com/comics/amazing-spider-man-700-dan-slott.html

#700 is big. What I can clearly say is that in the 20-odd years I've been working in this industry, I have never done something as big to a character as what we're doing to Spider-Man in #700.

I'm very serious — after #700 comes out, I'm not doing interviews for a bit. I'm not sticking my head up out of the hole. People are going to be like, "What have you done?" and the message on my machine will just say, "Keep reading."

Taking all bets, taking all bets! Who will Spider-Man kill directly or through plot-contrived gross negligence? Let's take a look at the odds!

Mary-Jane, 1:2
J. Jonah Jameson, 1:50
Time-displaced Uncle Ben, 1:5
The Black Cat, 1:17
A clone of Gwen Stacy pregnant with his spider-babies, 1:1

Thad · « **Reply #2037 on:** July 06, 2012, 11:38:31 AM »

Spidey's getting an abortion!

Büge · « **Reply #2038 on:** July 06, 2012, 11:52:21 AM »

Ooooh, topical!

Mongrel · « **Reply #2039 on:** July 06, 2012, 12:10:09 PM »

Spidey goes back in time and accidentally kills Uncle Ben, so he then has to take his place Seymour Skinner-style.

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Author Topic: Funnybooks (Read 170153 times)