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Author Topic: Funnybooks  (Read 170932 times)

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Thad

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #40 on: March 18, 2008, 08:12:54 PM »

Madman #7: another weird one.  Very cool, though; no dialogue, and it centers around Frank wandering around a barren planet, grieving for [spoiler]  Joe   [/spoiler].

The ending is unexpected, and I have very mixed feelings on it.  If it were anybody else, I would have thrown up my arms, bitched that he [spoiler]killed off two major characters in a contrivance to make the leads of his two different books hook up[/spoiler], and possibly just dropped the damn book right there.  But this, of course, is Allred, and he gets the benefit of the doubt.  It could be a standard superhero plot contrivance, but it could also be a realistic, human depiction of grief -- it is, after all, perfectly plausible that [spoiler]two people who were close and who just suffered the loss of their respective loves might fall into each other's arms[/spoiler].  If so, I would expect more pain is in store, as [spoiler]Frank is still clearly looking for Joe, as evidenced by the shot of It Girl with the red sand in her hair -- though of course the shot at the end, him kissing her after the sand is gone, shows he's accepting her for who she is[/spoiler].

This whole book's been about Frank trying to come to terms with the universe and his place in it; I get the impression that Allred's got a lot on his mind too.  His father recently passed away, which I'm sure plays into the themes of grief and loss, though this "existential quandary" stuff was part of the series before that, as have foreshadowings of [spoiler]Joe's death[/spoiler].

And of course it's a comic book, so it hardly bears mentioning that characters may not stay dead.

...Moving on.  Fantastic Four #555:

The bad: The "utopia without free will" idea is nothing new.  There's very little Ben and no Sue.

Other than that, not a bad read, though obviously a hell of a lot of setup involved.  I find it interesting that the first "off" thing that Ted says, the first thing that foreshadows him playing God with the natural order of things, is that it would be unethical to put deserts on New Earth.  Trust a kid from the desert to take umbrage at a line like that.

The art's the real highlight here; the shots of the unfinished New Earth by night are absolutely gorgeous.  Very Magrathea.

And of course Johnny gets a good chunk of the book, which is only fair since he was so scarce last month.  Bodes well for Ben and Sue getting more action next ish, I think.

As for the last page -- all right, moneyshot, a pic we were teased with months ago finally makes sense.  Of course, the [spoiler]anti-Cap who goes too far in his pursuit of justice[/spoiler] bit is old hat too, but I think they can put a fresh twist on it.

Anyway.  Not as good as last month, but still pretty cool.  Looking forward to more.
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Thad

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #41 on: March 23, 2008, 10:19:58 PM »

Thad reads Newsarama, posts a few good links:

Madman #7: [...]

The ending is unexpected, and I have very mixed feelings on it.  If it were anybody else, I would have thrown up my arms, bitched that he [spoiler]killed off two major characters in a contrivance to make the leads of his two different books hook up[/spoiler], and possibly just dropped the damn book right there.  But this, of course, is Allred, and he gets the benefit of the doubt.  It could be a standard superhero plot contrivance, but it could also be a realistic, human depiction of grief -- it is, after all, perfectly plausible that [spoiler]two people who were close and who just suffered the loss of their respective loves might fall into each other's arms[/spoiler].  If so, I would expect more pain is in store, as [spoiler]Frank is still clearly looking for Joe, as evidenced by the shot of It Girl with the red sand in her hair -- though of course the shot at the end, him kissing her after the sand is gone, shows he's accepting her for who she is[/spoiler].

Allred spells it out in an interview: [spoiler]Joe IS It Girl.  They've merged bodies.[/spoiler]

In other words...

...motherfucking Hedgehog Zero.

So that's at least TWO books I'm reading that are echoing Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic that Brent and I wrote when we were 12.

(Then again, he also did The Golden Plates, and I have heard Mormonism described as "a fanfic version of Christianity".)

...He also mentions 2001 as an influence for the issue, which of course makes for interesting timing.

Really looking forward to #9, which will be a single 22-page panel.

He also hints the movie might be going into production soon, so good for that.

Corben to adapt Lovecraft.
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Büge

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #42 on: March 24, 2008, 05:25:11 AM »

Corben to adapt Lovecraft.

Not sure if that will work. A lot of Lovecraft's stuff was fleshed out by other authors. It seems to me that he left a great deal of the visual imagery up to the reader. Whatever sort of Ineffable Crawling Terror they could imagine was better than anything he could write.
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Thad

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #43 on: March 24, 2008, 09:06:11 AM »

Fair.

But Corben.
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Mongrel

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #44 on: March 24, 2008, 03:00:00 PM »

Corben's good, but I have to agree with Buge. Nobody can really do Lovecraft illustration - that's the point.

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Thad

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #45 on: March 24, 2008, 09:46:04 PM »

I don't really think being faithful to the creepy-crawlies in your head is the POINT.  Any more than Corben's Hulk looking like the standard Hulk was the point.  I'm sure it won't match the pictures in my mind, but I'm equally sure it'll be effin' gorgeous.

Tangent: I read recently that Kevin Eastman had finally concluded selling his stake in TMNT to Laird, but reserved the rights to a few specific issues.  One of them was #33, by Corben -- a fitting one for Eastman to keep in his belt since he now owns Heavy Metal.
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Mongrel

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #46 on: March 25, 2008, 04:09:47 AM »

I don't really think being faithful to the creepy-crawlies in your head is the POINT.  Any more than Corben's Hulk looking like the standard Hulk was the point.  I'm sure it won't match the pictures in my mind, but I'm equally sure it'll be effin' gorgeous.

Well, I meant that you can't possibly be faithful to the crawlies in your head. But I'll happily agree that whatever Corben does will look great on it's own merits.
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Thad

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #47 on: March 26, 2008, 12:16:33 PM »

Funny story:

My comic shop was supposed to get 48 copies of All-Star Superman in today, and instead received a much lower number.  Like, 48 lower.

So please feel free to tell me how it is.  I expect it is good!

MEANWHILE: Authority Prime was basically a waste of money, despite a couple good bits like [spoiler]Jack turning Bisbee into a giant monster[/spoiler].

Wake me if Morrison's Authority ever gets a #3.  Because notwithstanding that, I've been reading this book about 6 years past its expiration date.
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Zaratustra

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #48 on: March 26, 2008, 05:37:36 PM »

All-Star Superman 10 is god.

Thad

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #49 on: March 26, 2008, 06:06:21 PM »

 :sadpanda:
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Thad

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #50 on: March 27, 2008, 12:17:49 AM »

...Still pretty strongly tempted to drop Black Panther, though I may stay through the new arc just to make sure.  I'll give Reggie one thing, he's done his homework (not like Panther has as massive a backstory as the average Marvel book), and he's doing a pretty solid job writing Killmonger.

Of course, as a Priest fan, I am obligated to mention that Hudlin has utterly ignored one of the biggest threads Priest left dangling at the end of his run, that Killmonger had successfully taken the Black Panther mantle from T'Challa and T'Challa had only gotten it back by default when Killmonger went into a coma upon consuming the Heart-Shaped Herb.  It'd sure be swell to see Hudlin finally deal with that continuity gap, but I doubt it'll happen.
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Thad

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #51 on: March 27, 2008, 11:53:33 PM »

Dear Geoff,

You are only 29 issues into this book.  Do you really feel that it is necessary to retell the Green Lantern's origin story EVERY YEAR?
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Zaratustra

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #52 on: March 27, 2008, 11:58:58 PM »

some people might forget

Thad

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #53 on: March 29, 2008, 11:47:42 PM »

Speak of the Devil is a book that starts out with many familiar Gilbert Hernandez trappings -- the slightly atypical suburban family, the rebellious teenage daughter, her weird friends -- and then rather abruptly takes a hard turn from realistic fiction to bloody psycho drama.  It's surreal even by his standards, and certainly doesn't move in the direction you expect when it starts out.

Good damn book though, and I get the impression it's one that'll stick with me for awhile.  Disturbing, and hard to figure out; somehow I doubt we'll get a Wizard of Oz dream ending that explains what was "real" and what wasn't.  I prefer Palomar, but this is good precisely BECAUSE it's such a departure from that.
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M.Nicolai

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #54 on: March 30, 2008, 07:58:45 AM »

Tangent: I read recently that Kevin Eastman had finally concluded selling his stake in TMNT to Laird, but reserved the rights to a few specific issues.  One of them was #33, by Corben -- a fitting one for Eastman to keep in his belt since he now owns Heavy Metal.

Do you remember where you read this? I'm fascinated by stories about Kevin Eastman losing all his turle money.
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Thad

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #55 on: March 30, 2008, 11:49:39 AM »

It's posted at ninjaturtles.com and also on Murphy's blog (the latter is more interesting because of the comment thread, which includes additional information such as Kevin keeping the rights to #33 and Bodycount).
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Ted Belmont

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #56 on: March 30, 2008, 07:07:27 PM »

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Thad

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #57 on: March 30, 2008, 11:50:33 PM »

Nrama interviews Millar; part 1, part 2.  1985 sounds intriguing as the anti-Marvels.  (Which reminds me, isn't the Marvels sequel finally supposed to be coming out this year?)  I could give a fuck about Wolverine but will probably give the first issue of Old Man Logan a shot just because it's Millar.  (Last book I bought with Wolverine's name in the title was Wolverine/Doop, which was an X-Statix tie-in by Darwyn Cooke, and which STILL doesn't stand out in my memory, except for Laura Allred's colors.  I really don't think there are any other colorists in the business whose work I actually recognize.)  The fact that these series both tie in with FF (and, tangentially, Kick-Ass) makes me a little nervous, but it sounds like he's handling it Seven Soldiers-style, and I'm down with that.
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Mongrel

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #58 on: April 02, 2008, 06:21:43 PM »

Hm. Kick-Ass #2 was much better than the first. Shaping up nicely.

Now, if I could just rid mysef of the nagging idea that writers like Millar are secretly, desperately hoping that stories like this will somewhere somewhow inspire the world's first honest-to-god real life costumed vigilante hero.
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Arc

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Re: Funnybooks
« Reply #59 on: April 03, 2008, 02:44:31 PM »

Picked up my fix of Millar today with Fantastic Four 555 & Kick-Ass 1 & 2.

555 moves quicker than 554, but feels slightly heavy on the dialogue all the same. Almost as if Bryan Hitch was asking to draw more frames than were needed. A sub-lot with Johnny was as superfluous as ever, but looked damned nice. The final frame is adorable, and will hopefully produce a figurine or two.

Kick-Ass? Homeboy needs body armor, gott damm. If Frank Miller was credited for this rather than Millar & Romita Jr., would you be able to tell the difference? The last pages of issue two have a nice production comparison, illustrating why Palmer & White shouldn't be left out of the limelight.
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