Does anybody even read these anymore?
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Monday, 7 February 2022 00:26 (two years ago) link
I'm looking forward to issue #2 of Juni Ba's Monkey Meat this Wednesday.
― peace, man, Monday, 7 February 2022 02:02 (two years ago) link
I've been working my way through Swamp Thing and I've finally gotten to the more recent stuff. How long does it usually take for issues to be collected into a trade? The first half of the most recent run has been collected but not the second half. Trying to figure out if I should be patient or just find the individual issues. There's a new limited thing called Green Hell that I'll pick up at some point.
Apart from that I'm picking up random Alan Moore things. Got a Captain Britain omnibus that I'm pretty excited about. I've also been picking up the stray Hellblazer tpb.
― Cow_Art, Monday, 7 February 2022 03:30 (two years ago) link
Crisis Zone by Simon Hanselmann - Def the best thing done about the pandemic in any medium I've seen. Funny, disturbing and, in the end, quite touching.
Jim Starlin's Warlock - The page layouts in this are just off the charts. I've been watching a bunch of Cartoonist Kayfabe videos lately and I think they've helped me appreciate stuff that I might not vibe with 100% thematically more. Flipside is I've become much less indulgent of stuff where the craft's not there.
Currently reading Bobby London's 80's run on Popeye/Thimble Theater. Sometimes explicitly about capitalism and gentrification, sometimes loveably quaint with its 80's references, sometimes just kind of an unfunny legacy strip. Art always good tho. Also a reminder of all the weird characters in the Popeye universe, Alice the Goon and Eugene the Jeep!
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 7 February 2022 11:43 (two years ago) link
also spinning off last year's thread I'm in the market for some essential Rebellion releases breakdowns
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 7 February 2022 11:45 (two years ago) link
xxp
I thought the first issue of Green Hell was pretty fun! I haven't fully caught up with Ram V's Swamp Thing run - I get the issues in my pullbox but I've been too distracted by other things to read it. Will make a point to catch up before the series resumes in March (it was extended from a 10-issue run to 16).
In my experience, trades sometimes come out like 6 months after a comic comes out, although I feel like I've seen some shorter wait times recently.
― peace, man, Monday, 7 February 2022 11:49 (two years ago) link
I've been holed up inside at home during all my free time and reading as many comics as I've ever been tbh
Probably buying too much Marvel as usual
― Nhex, Monday, 7 February 2022 13:36 (two years ago) link
Is there a book of the Bobby London Popeye?(I’ve not heard of one, but I just can’t read a chunk of comics on a screen these days)
― bad luck banging, or Lorna Doone (sic), Monday, 7 February 2022 16:33 (two years ago) link
Yes, on IDW. Dunno if it's in print tho, bought the first volume some years ago.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 7 February 2022 16:37 (two years ago) link
I wanna give the strongest possible recommendation (and equally strong trigger warning) for Glenn Head's memoir Chartwell Manor from Fanta. Astonishingly naked biography, amazingly raw and powerful.
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Friday, 11 February 2022 19:35 (two years ago) link
Cliff Chiang's Catwoman series is pretty damn great
― Duane Barry, Friday, 11 February 2022 22:38 (two years ago) link
It is. I was impressed.
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 12 February 2022 00:19 (two years ago) link
Am enjoying the new Walter Mosely Thing mini too - can anyone recommend any of his novels?
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 15 February 2022 14:45 (two years ago) link
I've been liking it too - didn't know anything about him. My library has Maximum Fantastic Four, so I'll check that out.
― Nhex, Tuesday, 15 February 2022 14:56 (two years ago) link
"Devil in a Blue Dress" is a good starting point. The first Easy Rawlins book (and made into a movie with Denzel Washington), so if you like it, you have the rest of the series in order.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Tuesday, 15 February 2022 15:26 (two years ago) link
Fun rant on fascist supermen in GMo's Substack: https://grantmorrison.substack.com/p/162-superman-and-the-authority-annotations
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 16 February 2022 17:09 (two years ago) link
I learned it from watching you dad
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 16 February 2022 17:35 (two years ago) link
My library has Maximum Fantastic Four, so I'll check that out.
Not Mosely's fault particularly, but the repro/colouring on that really isn't very good at all. A more recent edition, shot directly from a pristine copy of FF1, is apparently the one to look out for:
https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/fantastic-four-no-1-panel-by-panel_9781419756153/
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 16 February 2022 17:44 (two years ago) link
xp that rant was fun!
interesting that Chip Kidd did his own dissection of FF#1 too. i'm not sure i'm THAT into the issue to read both of them, but i guess we'll see
― Nhex, Wednesday, 16 February 2022 18:15 (two years ago) link
I'll have to check out that Thing series, looks good. I'm really enjoying Tom King's Human Target as well, though I'm a bit ambivalent, given the poor reception his other recent comics got (at least in places I've looked). Let's hope this doesn't go off the rails!
― Duane Barry, Thursday, 17 February 2022 01:14 (two years ago) link
15/. For now, we’re retiring DRM-free downloads. Previous purchases with downloadable content will continue to be downloadable from https://t.co/09sMXawxXF, so no need to rush. Your DRM-free downloads can now be found here: https://t.co/LZqT0VbDRT— Comixology (@comiXology) February 11, 2022
so comixology have migrated everything to amazon and have stopped drm downloads (although that tweet seems to say two different things - "For now, we’re retiring DRM-free downloads" / "Your DRM-free downloads can now be found here:")
(all the links go to amazon.com and i was using comixology.co.uk so they are no use to me. and i don't think the uk is quite up to speed yet, even though the web link redirects to amazon)
so i'm sat here with a bunch of pre-christmas purchases that i can no longer download to my laptop / tablet.
amazon sales pages are terrible. the sandman sale for instance shows you about 10 titles at a time, mixed between sandman graphic novels, single issues, sandman mystery theatre, dead boy detective, petrifax, all jumble together.
― koogs, Friday, 18 February 2022 11:34 (two years ago) link
xp Duane - Rorschach and Strange Adventures (especially) were great imo
― Nhex, Friday, 18 February 2022 16:27 (two years ago) link
turns out there are comixology download links on amazon.com and my amazon.co.uk login works on there too. will download everything over the weekend.
the new android app crashes within 5 seconds of opening a book, can't get past the cover. good job amazon. all you had to do was nothing.
― koogs, Friday, 18 February 2022 17:27 (two years ago) link
A rundown of the Comixology complaints for those of you like me who didn't understand all the changes:https://www.polygon.com/22938958/comixology-app-changes-amazon
― Nhex, Saturday, 19 February 2022 17:16 (two years ago) link
Also lol'd at GM's (pretty good!) spin on Boo Radleys pop here: https://grantmorrison.substack.com/p/212-artboy. It's such a specific rhythm section sound you could literally date it by the year and month.
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 21 February 2022 14:52 (two years ago) link
There's a line in The Worst Person in the World about living before the internet, spending all your time going to physical stores, collecting comics and books to try to reattain the feeling you got in 20s... and continuing to do that that rest of your life even though you never got that feeling again. Spoken by a character in his 40s.
It cut deep.
― Nhex, Monday, 21 February 2022 20:48 (two years ago) link
Reminds me of the Seinfeld about how men wait until they feel happy and independent for the first time in their twenties, then never ever change their dress sense again
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 21 February 2022 20:57 (two years ago) link
ouch
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Monday, 21 February 2022 21:25 (two years ago) link
Otoh it’s very ok to do silly things that make you happy or slightly happier
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 21 February 2022 22:20 (two years ago) link
Like it’s possible to indulge in nostalgia without becoming a gamergater, a comic book guy, or Rob Lowe on the football pitch in St. Elmo’s fire
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 21 February 2022 22:22 (two years ago) link
spending all your time going to physical stores, collecting comics and books to try to reattain the feeling you got in 20s... and continuing to do that that rest of your life even though you never got that feeling again. Spoken by a character in his 40s.
― Nhex, Monday, February 21, 2022 8:48 PM (yesterday)
I got this feeling back by going to second hand book shops (usually charity shops like oxfam). I didn't think it would ever come back, but it's beautiful and I guess it might fade away in time too. I think part of the reason it went away is because comics that excite me are really hard to find and a lot of them are either on tiny print runs, not widely distributed or they don't actually make actual comic books, just comicky things on instagram, which I can barely look at now because my account has been broken for several months now (fuck you instagram).
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 18:56 (two years ago) link
My experience is you gotta go cold turkey for a while and then the enthusiasm resurfaces.
This does prevent me from being the Authorative Chronicler Of Culture During My Lifetime that 18 year old wanted me to be tho.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 10:39 (two years ago) link
But what is this being compared to? Does everyone still get excited about other shopping? I still get as much excitement looking for music and books as I ever did, and charity shops are more exciting because they're unpredictable. With comic shops I feel a cynicism that I don't even get when looking at the film sections of shops, because I dislike a lot of the publishers, Diamond and so much of the readers; film business is also stupid, largely shaped by even more stupid tastes so I don't know why it never put a cloud over film buying.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 15:05 (two years ago) link
Maybe it's because films are so ubiquitous, they never seemed that special. My first few visits to a comic shop were total ecstasy because newsagents only ever had a handful of them and book shops had a very small section at that time
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 15:08 (two years ago) link
the new comixology… everything.. sucks so incredibly bad
― mh, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 15:40 (two years ago) link
Breaking my nearly 100% lurker status to share some thoughts on comics I've read recently:
The Children of Mu-Town by Masumura Jushichi - a quiet tragedy about a gradually dying housing complex in Tokyo called Marigaoka. The story centers around two friends Juichi and Hajime, yakuza related maybe earlier twenty somethings trying to figure their shit out. Vivid spectacular art, a story centered around the brutality of neoliberalism (sorry) and gentrification, and writing that somehow manages to feel sparse and dense and confounding all at once.
Heaven No Hell by Michael Deforge - fantastic collection, my introduction to Michael Deforge, a writing style that reminds a lot of the best of James Tate. Hilarious and confident and a wonderful rendering of this burdensome world.
Magician A by Natsuko Ishitsuyo - six short stories that are interconnected in slight ways and are all about sex, but honestly saying that they're about sex seems shallow and nearly misleading. Sex here is adjacent to pleasure and more a method of maybe gaining some competitive edge in their worlds. Success, whatever that might mean, is the main drive of all the various protagonists, and they aim to achieve it with a casual ruthlessness and a resolve that suggests that makes it appear as though they will never reach resolution. It's not meant to be titillating, is weirdly funny, surreal, complex, unsettling and has haunted me since i read it.
― bridge of donkeys, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 15:49 (two years ago) link
Liked those first two, will check out the third!
Ant Colony is another DeFporge banger.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 15:51 (two years ago) link
Oh great, I will definitely seek out Ant Colony
― bridge of donkeys, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 16:30 (two years ago) link
even bad deforge is generally worth a read
i will check out Mu-Town
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 23 February 2022 20:35 (two years ago) link
I’m finally reading Tom Strong, which I always assumed was the dud of the ABC line and avoided, but it’s fun! Chris Sprouse’s work improved somewhat since his JLI work.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 26 February 2022 23:37 (two years ago) link
oh yeah, it totally ruled
― Nhex, Sunday, 27 February 2022 00:07 (two years ago) link
Yeah loved Tom Strong. As far as ABC duds go I remember losing my patience with Promethea's "magic: let me explain you it" thing but it's been ages since I read it.
― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 27 February 2022 10:56 (two years ago) link
https://www.tcj.com/this-town-is-big-enough-for-all-of-us-ralf-konig-on-lucky-luke/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=this-town-is-big-enough-for-all-of-us-ralf-konig-on-lucky-luke
Cool interview with Ralf Konig on his new Lucky Luke volume.
― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 27 February 2022 11:22 (two years ago) link
Really enjoying this collection of the Friday Foster newspaper strip from the early seventies - gorgeously groovy artwork from Jordi Longarón:
https://www.comicsbeat.com/friday-foster-editor-christopher-marlon-interview/
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 3 March 2022 09:36 (two years ago) link
that's on Hoopla - will check it out. I remember greatly enjoying the Pam Grier movie
― Nhex, Thursday, 3 March 2022 15:56 (two years ago) link
Figure this makes more sense on here than on the ILB what you reading thread:
Very close to finishing All The Marvels, an ex-ilxor's book of essays based around his reading, indeed, everything Marvel published since the first appearance of the Fantastic Four.
I suppose the point of the book is that the continuity modifies the reading experience, that having decades of writers and artists work on these properties makes new moments resonate in ways that would otherwise be impossible. Obv I'm not impervious to that, or I'd never have gotten into Marvel and DC in the first place, but on that level the book doesn't really convince me much that it's all worth it; the reboots and re-imaginings are described in ways where you can see how they would matter to the character, but not why they would "matter" in a larger sense outside of insular continuity porn.
Prob the weakest chapter is on the NORMAN OSBOURNE PRESIDETN era, partially because there's so much happening that the chapter has much more description than analysis, but then the analysis itself suffers majorly from this weird liberal amnesia - he views the whole thing as prophetic of Trump, when really it was writers reacting to and digesting the Bush era.
Much more enjoyable are the chapters where he focuses on a single character - Shang Chi, Black Panther - and just kinda guides you through what the best runs of it are, and usually the strenghts he pinpoints in those are unrelated to continuity. The chapter on Ms Marvel and Squirrel Girl is also v good.
I'd be totally up for further installments of just letting me know who his fav runs on Doctor Strange or Ghost Rider or whoever are.
― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 5 March 2022 15:01 (two years ago) link
That project reminds me of the Flaming Carrot’s origin story: “he read too many comic books in one sitting, and became simple”.
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 5 March 2022 16:27 (two years ago) link
haha, quoted in the first chapter!
― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 5 March 2022 16:59 (two years ago) link
Lol
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 5 March 2022 23:13 (two years ago) link
Ut!
― bad luck banging, or Lorna Doone (sic), Sunday, 6 March 2022 01:04 (two years ago) link
Has anyone read Island Book and/or its sequel by Evan Dahm?Kinda fascinating to me - definitely aimed at kids, kind of a moral adventure/fable fantasy that delves into different theologies and politics. It's good work, I think. The author also did another GN (for adults) called The Harrowing of Hell, a telling of Christ's descent into the underworld following his cruficixion, to give you where his head may be at.
― Nhex, Sunday, 6 March 2022 05:18 (two years ago) link
came across a long LOC from Ward Fowler in a 1985 comic.
― beepy fridges (sic), Thursday, 17 March 2022 00:20 (two years ago) link
Oh gawd. IIRC I had LOCs in an issue of Love and Rockets (terrible teenage rubbish from me but at least I was on the right side of history) and in an issue of Thriller by Robert Loren Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden (which history has p much forgotten, but was considered something of a big deal among my circle of London comic bk fans in the 1980s).
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 17 March 2022 01:47 (two years ago) link
tbf Thriller lasted about four issues before the creative team imploded or were driven off by editorial interference or w/e, so even a collection of the full 7 or 8 issues would only further impede historical recognition
― beepy fridges (sic), Thursday, 17 March 2022 02:21 (two years ago) link
*checks: seven issues with the creators, 12 in total.*
― beepy fridges (sic), Thursday, 17 March 2022 02:22 (two years ago) link
I had a letter printed in the Marvel UK punisher series, and in Justice League Europe ragging on Gerard Jones (!) so at least I was on the right side of history there too
It goes without saying that my entire head and torso would implode from embarrassment if I saw them again
I remember feeling v proud to be published though. I didn't realise until I worked in magazines two decades later, that basically no one writes letters and basically every one gets printed
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 17 March 2022 13:47 (two years ago) link
I had one in Yummy Fur, a few issues into the Ed sequence… I THINK that was all but there might be something horrid I have suppressed
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 17 March 2022 14:11 (two years ago) link
Oh I also had a letter in an early issue of Warrior where I think I said something like, this Alan Moore fellow seems quite promising ...
A friend once submitted a long, thoughtful letter to the American Marvel comic The Champions. it was printed, complete with his name and address, but severely cut down to read just "The Champions issue X was a masterpiece of comic book art!"
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 17 March 2022 15:56 (two years ago) link
lol the champions
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 17 March 2022 16:20 (two years ago) link
Micronauts #26 back in the day, had letter printed for a No-Prize (signed by Bill Mantlo).
A year or so later, I got a letter from an African kid/guy (who I assume got my address from that issue), which started out "Hey, let's be pen pals" and ended with "Can you send me $250?".
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Thursday, 17 March 2022 17:00 (two years ago) link
Micronauts 26… that was during Broderick’s run iirc? I remain an unabashed fan of that series incl the ‘new voyages’
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 17 March 2022 17:42 (two years ago) link
I was printed in Mickey Mouse! At 13!
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Friday, 18 March 2022 00:52 (two years ago) link
Yes on Broderick, good memory!
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 18 March 2022 19:52 (two years ago) link
This publisher is new to mehttps://starfruitbooks.com/Hideshi Hino book I haven't read and I've never heard of Noroi Michiru
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 19 March 2022 19:04 (two years ago) link
I had a letter in Legion of Superheroes in, I don’t know, 1990-1992 timeframe? That’s the only one I think, though I sent a few to different comics over the years.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 22 March 2022 01:40 (two years ago) link
Inspired by that Douglas Wolk book, I'm reading Christopher Priest's run on Black Panther. Pretty fucking badass! Acknowledging the US govt (even with the fig leaf of "a rogue faction of") working with South American mercenaries to topple T'Challa in Wakanda, a govt spook saying "we could have given this to the Hand or Mossad", Black Panther making it clear he joined the Avengers because he saw them as a potential threat to his country (really annoying that the Coates run had him walk this back).
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 22 March 2022 11:29 (two years ago) link
Yeah, I reread it a few years ago, it still holds up! I held off the reread for a while because I thought I was missing an issue near the end, which I thought I must have somewhere around here, but of course it was Marvel sticking in a random two-parter from someone else just before the final arc.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 23 March 2022 12:06 (two years ago) link
I want to strongly recommend "The Days That Disappear" by French writer/artist Timothé Le Boucher. It's a sci-fi psychological romance thriller of sorts that... you know what, it would be best to just go in cold. It's not available in English to the best of my knowledge but there's a scanlation by the estimable phillywilly available online in two parts here:
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Days-That-Disappear/TPB-Part-1?id=181860https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Days-That-Disappear/TPB-Part-2?id=181861
The art, the concepts and the writing are remarkable. Moebius-level good imo.
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 23 March 2022 15:00 (two years ago) link
2-for-1 gift voucher sale at Fantagraphics this weekend: buy the upcoming Love & Rockets box set, get $400 in discounts off future purchases.
― beepy fridges (sic), Friday, 25 March 2022 23:56 (two years ago) link
So glad to hear they're finally reprinting Love & Rockets. The wait is over!
― When the Pain That You Feel is the Bite of an Eel, That's a Moray (Old Lunch), Saturday, 26 March 2022 00:41 (two years ago) link
tbf there will be pages and stories in this that have never been reprinted
― beepy fridges (sic), Saturday, 26 March 2022 01:16 (two years ago) link
Well of course there will be. Which was enough of a reason for me to order the forthcoming Woodring collection (of material I otherwise already own) but I own some of the L+R material in three different formats at this point, which seems like a sane place to stop.
― When the Pain That You Feel is the Bite of an Eel, That's a Moray (Old Lunch), Saturday, 26 March 2022 16:58 (two years ago) link
oof, $400 far too rich for my blood. if i ever get back to collecting L&R i'll probably stick to those small paperbacks
― Nhex, Sunday, 27 March 2022 17:13 (two years ago) link
Read a Lupin III collection. Very fond of Monkey Punch's facial expressions (closer to Mad magazine than anything in US superhero comics) and how his backgrounds bend and strech in this expressionistic manner. But boy are these stories rapey.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 28 March 2022 10:40 (two years ago) link
L&R collection looks amazing in theory, but I have never not hated the comic reading experience with big hardbacks
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 28 March 2022 11:35 (two years ago) link
I also put off buying their hardcover Eightball set because of $$$, even tho my original comics are long gone, so I'm glad to see they're going to bring out a cheaper paperback edition of that, and maybe they'll do something similar with L&R.
https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/the-complete-eightball-1-18-reprint
Facsimile editions of the L&R issues themselves probably still the best way to read this material imho, where the separate worlds are rubbing up against each other rather than kept apart.
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 28 March 2022 12:42 (two years ago) link
I don't know if I agree with that - having read the books in the giant hardcover collections I think made me appreciate it more than I would have in a drip feed. It's not the easiest to follow as it is with the massive number of characters and stories over decades
― Nhex, Monday, 28 March 2022 13:57 (two years ago) link
My problem with L&R remains that they are just too dense and rich to binge, but too complicated to read here-and-thee
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 28 March 2022 14:44 (two years ago) link
*there
Picked up the Sobek one shot by James Stokoe, gorgeous and grody as always. Love that croc.
Now I'm reading the second volume of the Misty reprints. First storyline, The Sentinels, features both interesting kitchen sink period detail (family squats in haunted high rise because all the Council could offer was for kids to be taken into care and parents to live in a bed & breakfast) and just an absurd amount of guilt/masochism.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 30 March 2022 10:21 (one year ago) link
I love the Chick tract with the Stewie Griffin cameo because it seems to think he's some sort of beloved character aimed specifically at children like Elmo pic.twitter.com/ozQGdSK39c— Zack Budryk (@BudrykZack) March 29, 2022
What happened to Jack Chick? The Chick I knew would make it clear BOTH families are going to hell, what is this weak boomer bullshit.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 30 March 2022 10:22 (one year ago) link
I binged the entirety of Love & Rockets during the first year of the pandemic when I had a broken leg and couldn't get around well. I've tried to reread it some and it reminds me too much of being miserable and on pain meds and I cannot go back to it. Gave the TPB's away to a friend because they bum me out.
Just finished the Captain Britain omnibus. Pretty good, but the coloring reproduction is awful. I'm impressed by how fast things move; those comics were pretty short.
― Cow_Art, Wednesday, 30 March 2022 11:32 (one year ago) link
The Moore/Davis Cap Britain stories were originally printed in black and white, so 'colouring reproduction' isn't quite accurate (sorry to be a pedant). I used to have a Marvel US trade paperback of those stories with equally lousy colouring, so I wonder if that's what they've used/referenced for this new hardcover (haven't seen inside it yet). The pages were also drawn for UK magazine format and don't squish down that well to US comic book page size. And I'm guessing that Marvel UK never took decent stats of the pages at the time. So short of an 'artist's edition' shot from the original artwork, I think repro on these stories is always going to be an issue.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 30 March 2022 12:25 (one year ago) link
The omnibus also collects before and after Moore’s run. I have the tpb of Claremont’s Captain Britain that came out around the time of the Excalibur comic so I can directly compare them. For the Claremont issues, it doesn’t appear that they have been recolored, but poorly copied. In the trade the colors are bright and vivid while in the omnibus they are washed out and muted.
― Cow_Art, Wednesday, 30 March 2022 13:22 (one year ago) link
that's disappointing to hear. I haven't read those stories yet but i guess i'll pass on this version, or maybe just go digital
― Nhex, Wednesday, 30 March 2022 13:25 (one year ago) link
It's funny, album collections of comics was always the way forward for me, the dream, based on the European model of constantly in-print books rather than ephemeral floppies with all their attendant collector scum hassles. But now that most of the major works of world comics are available in book form, there are so many issues and problems regarding reproduction (especially around colour) that the original floppies are starting to look much more attractive again. I guess reproduction from pristine comic books is still the way to go, but if it's not done with some care then the results can be just as disappointing as the digitally recoloured/redrawn muck.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 30 March 2022 13:30 (one year ago) link
Yes, e.g. it's super annoying that it's now impossible to read Miller's Daredevil run (or a lotta Marvel 80s runs) without the offensively crap 90s/early 00s colouring. I mean, I could go to a comic mart and spend £200 on the whole run, but... no
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 30 March 2022 14:05 (one year ago) link
eh, i'm not going to go back to those floppies for this. i've long settled for bad color repro in general, i guess
― Nhex, Wednesday, 30 March 2022 14:18 (one year ago) link
What is the logic behind the digital recoloring? It seems an unnecessary expense that is frowned upon, so why do it? Is there a practical reason for doing this?
― Cow_Art, Wednesday, 30 March 2022 14:41 (one year ago) link
Surely some dumbassed reason. It always seemed to me neatness and evenness of color was being prioritized over other considerations. A lot of the industry and fans are colorblind.
I've never got into torrenting but surely there's scans of original floppies for a lot of marvel comics runs?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 30 March 2022 18:40 (one year ago) link
I believe it's impossible to do modern hi-res reprints without recolouring (and sometimes even re-arting) the books
Having said that I don't understand why the recolouring is often so drastically different (e.g. Sandman, Flex Mentallo, Killing Joke) or why publishers don't realise that "modernised" colouring looks just as dated ten years after publication. The Sandman recolours are just dire to the point of being destructive
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 31 March 2022 11:06 (one year ago) link
Comics should be two colours: pop art primary or Vertigo sludge, there is no inbetween
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 31 March 2022 11:07 (one year ago) link
Honestly the coloring aesthetic that’s been in effect at the majors for the last couple of decades is the biggest thing that’s kept me away from 21st century superhero stuff. I cannot stand it.
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 31 March 2022 11:24 (one year ago) link
I understand not liking the recoloring of old books because of the way the art was constructed in the day, but how could you argue coloring is worse today? The tools and results (and even just printing) are so much better now?
― Nhex, Thursday, 31 March 2022 12:16 (one year ago) link
really depends on the colorist, I thinkI think colors are generally very good in most work, but there’s definitely a flatness or homogeneity. The baseline low bar is higher, but there’s not as much nuance, if that makes sense?
― mh, Thursday, 31 March 2022 13:14 (one year ago) link
I think good digital coloring is a real rarity. A lot of very talented artists ruin their drawings with digital color and since I've never used digital tools I can't say where people are going wrong. It's an unsettling thought to imagine not having traditional tools and wondering if I'd ever be able to make it look good. It's an uncomfortable subject when I think about critiques of artists because my honest feeling is that most artists are ruining their own work with digital.
Most common problem I see in mainstream comics is the colors fucking around with the ink lines or the sterility of the color sucking the life out the drawings.
Most old comics coloring was not good but I don't think it was ever as destructive.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 31 March 2022 13:21 (one year ago) link
Coloring is worse today, the superiority of modern tools is utterly irrelevant It’s competently shitty rather than boldly shitty; moreover, it’s intensely inimical to linework
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 31 March 2022 13:29 (one year ago) link
There are some amazing coloring done on some comics but there are also loads of just absolute dreck of everything either way too dark and/or all monotone color wise. I think some of the latter is people wanting everything to look like a first person shooter game or something.
― earlnash, Saturday, 2 April 2022 16:38 (one year ago) link
There's always going to be bad color work and bad color artists. But the floor has been raised immeasurably since we were children, and the best stuff out there now is a whole new level. Ya'll crazy! But I'll stop trolling now.
― Nhex, Saturday, 2 April 2022 20:42 (one year ago) link
Do you guys have more info on this Love & Rockets reprint you were discussing above? I read every Fantagraphics newsletter and email blast, and have not seen it mentioned. Thx
― ass time permits (morrisp), Sunday, 3 April 2022 01:55 (one year ago) link
Never mind, I found it buried in the “Coming Soon section” of the website.
― ass time permits (morrisp), Sunday, 3 April 2022 02:04 (one year ago) link
Chartwell Manor is indeed great, thanks for the rec Forks
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 4 April 2022 10:40 (one year ago) link
Not new, but I tried to get through Lynda Barry's Syllabus book (2014); Aimee Mann cited it recently as an inspiration for her diary comics on Instagram. I've tried to get into Barry before but her work doesn't click for me. I appreciate her passion, insight and very different way of looking at the world than I do, though. I just kept thinking... yeah, this sorta thing is why I didn't want to go to art school.
― Nhex, Sunday, 10 April 2022 19:09 (one year ago) link
Something I've come to appreciate about comics, which is not exactly unique to them is "inky" drawing styles (for lack of a better term). I'm thinking of stuff along the lines of Mort Meskin, Blutch, early Joe Kubert, sometimes Frank Robbins and even Bastien Vives at times. Has a slight bit of mess to it. I don't see as much of this in pulp magazine art as I thought I would. Most of it is in the 40s and 50s, so I used to chalk a lot of it down to the influence of the films and photography of the time. I'm not explaining this that well but anyone got more names that could fit into this? I used to follow a tumblr artist who had a lot of this quality but I can't remember the name.
Otomo talked about the manga that came before him had an oppressive darkness and it wasn't quite the same but I do generally like comics and art where the first thing you notice is the sheer amount of blackness on the page, but the lack of clean cut separation between darkness and light maybe makes it feel heavier?
Still want to get Don Simpson's Border Worlds and I found this great drawinghttps://78.media.tumblr.com/7e3854803e653aa0fa713a3a3d53db91/tumblr_p5i0fk1fcA1x6m6njo1_1280.jpgI wish he always drawn like that, I find some of his work a bit bare bones
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 24 April 2022 12:18 (one year ago) link
What sorts of manga was Otomo referring to?That Don Simpson drawing is pretty dope
― Nhex, Sunday, 24 April 2022 14:20 (one year ago) link
I think it was the sort of gekiga stuff that rarely gets reprinted outside japan.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 24 April 2022 14:50 (one year ago) link
My main memory of that era of manga and some of the stuff it influenced is there's a lot of wide shots with dark moody skies taking up a lot of space.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 24 April 2022 14:52 (one year ago) link
https://taniguchiscanlations.blogspot.com/2021/07/all-our-projects.html
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 27 April 2022 19:56 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IETY0NdSXY
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Friday, 6 May 2022 02:52 (one year ago) link
I binged American Splendor really hard about 7 years ago.
Currently reading Dark Horse EC comics reprints. They are good but you can only read so many at a time; the rhythm of the stories is very repetitive.
― Cow_Art, Friday, 6 May 2022 03:32 (one year ago) link
This two-part feature came across my feed, I thought it was somewhat interesting: https://www.comicsbeat.com/jla-avengers-1983-oral-history-part-1/
― Hops: Mosaic, Citra, Simcoe (morrisp), Friday, 6 May 2022 04:44 (one year ago) link
is anyone else doing craft-focused video comic book analysis besides Cartoonist Kayfabe? Rapidly losing my patience with Piskor
― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 7 May 2022 11:38 (one year ago) link
Factual Opinion's Comic Books Are Burning In Hell is audio only and Tucker seems to hate Kayfabe but it's the most similar thing I can think of
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 7 May 2022 21:14 (one year ago) link
Yeah I'm a regular listener. I think a lot of ppl in the comics world dislike Kayfabe, or Piskor at least. That dumb Maus thing did a lot of damage.
Was really thinking of video stuff specifically tho because audio or text is never going to be as good at actually showing you what it's describing.
― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 8 May 2022 13:42 (one year ago) link
I didn't expect to like it but I think the Comic Tropes sometimes does interesting videos and there is analysis but not the page by page kind of thing.
There isn't anything quite as alternative as I would like. Domingos Isabelinho had a rough enough time among Comics Journal community so I doubt he would get a warm reception on youtube. A shame his blog seems to be gone because there isn't anyone else much like him that I've seen.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 8 May 2022 19:29 (one year ago) link
Not to say Domingos' taste was much like mine, I very much like comics for their more shameless and trashy side but he covered a lot of comics nobody talks about.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 8 May 2022 19:34 (one year ago) link
Which is partly what I like about Kayfabe, the whole Outlaw Comix thing they push.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 8 May 2022 19:36 (one year ago) link
Was curious and read about the dumb Maus thing. Ugh. That’s pretty dumb!
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 8 May 2022 20:43 (one year ago) link
Wow, that sucks. Was not a fan of Red Room in the first place.
Has anyone else been reading Step By Bloody Step? New sci-fi fantasy limited series from Si Spurrier and Matías Bergara. On the rare instances when talking is used, it's in weird alien glyphs, rather than English or anything. It's a beautiful treasure.
― peace, man, Sunday, 8 May 2022 21:33 (one year ago) link
Liked this video, I still want big book compilations of the best Filipino comics from the Philippines and America, there's some really good artists who slightly predated the ones who went to america https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAYeYCMZUck
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 8 May 2022 22:14 (one year ago) link
I tried the first issue of Step by Step and enjoyed it, thanks for the recommend. I think I’ll pick up the trade though. The art’s gorgeous but I found myself wishing the storytelling/storyboarding was a little easier to follow.
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 8 May 2022 22:45 (one year ago) link
Yeah, I can agree with that a little, although I think that being difficult to follow is intentional to an extent.
― peace, man, Monday, 9 May 2022 01:19 (one year ago) link
Okay I completely missed a Nestor Redondo book from 2017 and it seems to have gone scarce but there's a Sanjulian book coming soon. I was never a great fan of Sanjulian but I really liked a book cover by him recently and maybe I should give him another look. These are both books by Manuel Auad and I have a few of his previous art books like the Alex Nino book. I find a lot of classic illustrators a little bland so I didn't go for a lot of the others. He made some Jordi Bernet books and I'd file him as another good noir artist but a lot of his cartoonier stuff I just didn't like
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 9 May 2022 02:16 (one year ago) link
Really wouldn't claim this for them, they cover so much Big Two stuff and when it's something outside that sensibility it tends to be entry level (Clowes, Hergé, Akira). Even with the b&w 80's stuff that used to get written up in Wizard and shit.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 9 May 2022 09:37 (one year ago) link
RAG, I don't know if you're on Facebook, but if you are it's worth friending/following the artist and comics historian David Roach. He's a massive expert on Filipino comics and often shares rare artwork etc.
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 9 May 2022 09:50 (one year ago) link
yeah agree on that
Quick recommendation: I randomly started reading an Image comedy/mystery series called "The Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton" and it's quite funny unusually well-plotted for a throwaway comic. (Proviso: I've only read two issues.)
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 9 May 2022 14:30 (one year ago) link
Daniel_Rf - I was just meaning the trashy mainstream styled independent comics. I don't watch their videos that regularly, or many other podcasts really.
Ward - I'm not on facebook but I couldn't find his page so I guess you need to join to see his image posts? I'm glad to see he's got a Luis Garcia art book out next month, I've been waiting for a book dedicated to him. Someone says the date keeps getting pushed back. Hope it comes out soon because there's so many books that just never came out: A Glenn Chadbourne book. I'm not sure Krenkel's Drawings Of Women ever came out (I don't think so). Kaluta's art book will probably never come out from the publisher who announced it. The Lale Westvind book has been pushed to august and I really hope it's going to come out then. I haven't been a regular comics buyer for several years and I forgot just how bad the delays can be. I passed up the book of Spanish comic art because I think I had already seen most of it.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 10 May 2022 00:28 (one year ago) link
I haven't been a regular comics buyer for several years and I forgot just how bad the delays can be.Comics printing and shipping delays are far, far worse during COVID, various supply chain collapses, and a war that impacts the production of paper and packing materials, than they were years ago.
― Yul Brynner film festival on Channel 48... (sic), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 01:49 (one year ago) link
Sorry if this has already been covered upthread, but why haven't the big comic companies tried to get back into grocery and drug stores? Why not bring back the spinner racks? There's a huge built in audience from the movies, why aren't they taking advantage of it?
― Cow_Art, Tuesday, 10 May 2022 01:52 (one year ago) link
I don't know about the Westvind and Luis Garcia books but a lot of the others I mentioned seem to have been abandoned during the process. That Kaluta book was promised for several years (went from Desperado to IDW) and then no word. I'm tempted to email Kaluta about it but I'm scared it will be the thousandth time for him.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 10 May 2022 01:58 (one year ago) link
xp because people buying periodicals is just, dead I could see the convenience store in my neighborhood that’s a block from the high school selling a few copies, but I also remember my middle school classmates giving me a great deal on comics they’d “already read” and it took me way too long to figure out they were just pocketing comics from the grocery store and making a quick buck (or less, this was when cover prices were $1.25 or less)the distribution chain broke a number of years ago and it’s not coming back. I haven’t seen more than a couple tabloid diet/celebrity things at grocery stores for years, and I don’t think the large commodity chains really have a full rack of magazines. comics are collections and/or niche
― mh, Tuesday, 10 May 2022 03:09 (one year ago) link
My toddler love magazines and comics and not-screen things, so do most other kids and teens I know.
Yes, it's about the collapse of the periodical and mag distribution industries (and the relentless optimisation of grocery store shelf space as family grocery stores and newsagents get smaller and smaller), but it's also about the way the floppy publishers stopped marketing/making comics for kids (or do a crap job of it).
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 10 May 2022 09:28 (one year ago) link
E.g. A manageable sum for a low-quality Marv Wolfman/Jim Aparo Batman comic vs. £4.99 for a part 1 of 6000 modern DC batcomic with characters being skinned alive in loving detail
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 10 May 2022 09:32 (one year ago) link
xp yeah, I didn’t mean to imply the demand isn’t there, but all of the progressive closing of the distribution chain and the business decision to get out of accepting returns probably burned a lot of bridges
― mh, Tuesday, 10 May 2022 14:58 (one year ago) link
wld love to see Cow_Art pitch Perlmutter on the concept of returns
― Yul Brynner film festival on Channel 48... (sic), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 15:36 (one year ago) link
I agree that the system is too fucked to be fixable at this point
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 10 May 2022 15:39 (one year ago) link
I just ordered some stuff from MyComicShop for the first time in years. How many of you still track stuff down at dedicated back issue sites/stores? There isn't that much I really crave badly, I mostly just hope for reprints or anthology pieces turning up on blogs.
I spent a huge chunk of my teenage years writing and rewriting checklists for things I lost interest in.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 10 May 2022 20:48 (one year ago) link
I read all the Swamp Things a while back, and I had to hunt down a lot of single issues.
― Cow_Art, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 00:16 (one year ago) link
a huge built in audience from the movies
I didn’t mean to imply the demand isn’t there,
It might be safe to just say it. Three of the top twenty graphic novels sold in mainstream outlets last year were Baby-Sitters Club books, and the top twenty include Attack On Titan, My Hero Academia, and Demon Slayer. Sales on those range from 313,000 to 150,000.
Marvel's top-selling title, on which the major plot thread of their Avengers films is based, ranked at #892, with 10k sold.
― Yul Brynner film festival on Channel 48... (sic), Wednesday, 11 May 2022 01:29 (one year ago) link
There's TONS of Marvel interest with the kids I work with and they all obviously see the movies, and given how graphic novels/comics/manga are super popular in with kids in general - maybe even more than before, because comics aren't really "uncool" anymore - can't help but feel Marvel and DC are really missing the boat. Walking Dead capitalized on it, right?
― Nhex, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 02:19 (one year ago) link
and given how graphic novels/comics/manga are super popular in with kids in general
I don't think you can bracket them like that - graphic novels (mostly YA stuff) are self contained stories, manga is serialized sure but usually has the advantage that you can start with a Volume 1. So both are easier to access than US superhero comics and both also provide better value for money. I don't think US comics are super popular with kids at all, in fact what I hear from art teachers and such is that manga is universally adored, western comics (not just DC and Marvel either) mostly ignored and the graphic novel stuff that's popular bases itself on manga, in style and storytelling.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 09:32 (one year ago) link
Yeah I think there's a reason everybody reads Watchmen first.
I mean obviously DC and Marvel have published many (or at least several) outright masterpieces that can be read as discrete stories and enjoyed by non-comics audiences (the Miller run on Daredevil springs to mind) but good luck finding them at a comic book store at an affordable price
A counter example might be Grant Morrison's JLA's run - it's incredible! But there's a lot of DC continuity tied into it, and I can't imagine a new fan being patient with Howard Porter's dreadful art
I did think those manga sized reprints published in the 2010s by Panini in the UK, of Claremont's X-Men run, were a pretty good attempt but they didn't seem to take off at all
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 12:54 (one year ago) link
I mean ultimately most of these comics and pieces of shit that you had to be young to enjoy and still be sentimental about. Like, I don't think David Tennant's Doctor Who ever resulted in a mass audience run on Castrovalva DVDs
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 12:56 (one year ago) link
*are pieces of shit
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 12:57 (one year ago) link
Growing up in Portugal my access to US superhero comics used to be these Brazilian paperbacks, kind of Archie digest format, and being used to that the first time I found out what US issues were like was a real "lol why the fuck would anyone bother?" moment.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 13:01 (one year ago) link
Now I'm remembering the last gasp of Marvel on the newsstand... via Archie Comics. I guess that Marvel Comics Digest lasted eight issues in 2017 before they canned the experiment.
― mh, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 19:26 (one year ago) link
Yup 100% the US floppy format kinda sucks ass and is so expensive. Only benefits are getting regular material every month (hopefully) in color and on nice paper compared to manga
I know we're likely sort of using "Big Two/Image/DH/etc." as shorthand for US comics en total, but that's really not true anymore. You have to include Scholastic as a major publisher and very representative of the industry at this point (as well as companies like First Second, Boom, etc.)
and yes, also 100% every series being discrete/being easy to pick up is a huge reason why these YA series and manga are doing well, i mean look at the Babysitter's Club series and flippin' jankass Dog Man. (lots of books also that aren't really manga style, closer to Cartoon Network/Disney TV, many current animators putting out GAs) there is ZERO reason American superhero comics can't be produced like this and DC is at least trying with their standalone YA books with Batgirl, Raven etc.
we have tons of checkouts in my school of the low-effort "ready to read" paperbacks in Marvel and DC, they love the MCU movies and cartoons, but sadly few decent comics actually aimed at the audience (age 5-11). (The Marvel Adventures stuff is clearly B and C-tier work, and DC seems content reprinting old Batman Adventures comics from 20 years ago.) Meanwhile these same kids are reading everything put out by Jennifer Holm and Raina Telgemeier while constantly asking me for manga like Jujutsu Kaisen and Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun which we're never going to buy for them (lol)
so - yeah, i get that it's not completely fair to bridge YA material with standard superhero comics, but trust me, the audience and interest is there. they are just completely blowing the opportunity on a massive scale OR choosing not to understand it
― Nhex, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 21:49 (one year ago) link
no idea what's in Marvel Adventures these days, but these digest collections c. 16 years ago were great* - about six bucks, fun all-ages superhero stories with jokes in. basically the only way that C21st superhero comics should even exist.
https://i.imgur.com/YcU3n6J.jpg
* I mean, eventually I bought one that wasn't primarily written by Jeff Parker and tapped out - probably the third one - but kids don't need them to be as funny as I did.
― Yul Brynner film festival on Channel 48... (sic), Thursday, 12 May 2022 00:37 (one year ago) link
lol ok, but tbf the Doctor Who 2000s reboot actually DID get me to watch a bunch of the old serials
Ha yeah I was quite happy to revisit Happiness Patrol and Paradise Towers but I didn't see a lot of Tumblrs posting Kandyman and Richard Briers gifs
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 12 May 2022 11:03 (one year ago) link
It's interesting how incomprehensible continuity is often brought up as the #1 reason the comics don't get more new readers but at this stage going to see a MCU movie w/o having seen the last thirty or so must be equally disorientating and yet ppl love it.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 12 May 2022 11:39 (one year ago) link
I dispute that a bit - the continuity is huge but the movies (or at lest the successful ones) usually work well as simplistic and discrete units -- like, no one who missed the first 45 minutes of Ragnorok is going to have trouble fingering out who the good and bad guys are, or whatever the MacGuffin is this time round.
But, like that's a way smaller measure of difficulty than DC's obsession with deep cut characters ("who are these yellow headed men and why are they suddenly in my Animal Man comic") or, like, trying to fathom the fuck of what happened in Secret Empire (I still don't get it), or why this Bendis can't ever start or finish a story etc.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 12 May 2022 12:04 (one year ago) link
Or, e.g. I loved the Hickman revival of X-Men but it just became a TOO MANY COMICS headache and who has time
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 12 May 2022 12:08 (one year ago) link
this is why I said "at this stage" - try going into Doc Strange 2 not having seen anything except Doc Strange 1.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 12 May 2022 12:09 (one year ago) link
agreed on the Hickman thing, i was really sad that it eventually just turned back into your standard overpublished morass
i had some big problems with Dr Strange 2 (mostly regarding how it followed up Wandavision) but at its core it's still a very watchable/fun theme park ride that people can just show up for and see CGI pew-pew and some funny jokes
― Nhex, Thursday, 12 May 2022 12:24 (one year ago) link
Lol, I was considering watching Doctor Strange 2, as I had finally caved to a years-long MCU apathy and watched Doctor Strange 1 a month ago and thought it wasn't bad. I guess that's a fool's errand, huh?
Also enjoyed House of X/Powers of X, but gave up after too many side-projects came out.
― peace, man, Thursday, 12 May 2022 12:27 (one year ago) link
That may have turned me off of superhero books altogether, although I make an exception for Swamp Thing.
― peace, man, Thursday, 12 May 2022 12:28 (one year ago) link
nah, go see it! it's totally fun. and if you haven't seen Wandavision it definitely won't bug you the way it did mei do think it's a little more restrained than the first Doctor Strange was, ironically, at least with the wacky VFX set pieces
― Nhex, Thursday, 12 May 2022 12:31 (one year ago) link
but at its core it's still a very watchable/fun theme park ride that people can just show up for and see CGI pew-pew and some funny jokes
Sure, but you can also pick up a continuity wank comic and enjoy it for the cool battles and grody art. A generation of X-Men fans happily read entirely incomprehensible comics for those reasons.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 12 May 2022 12:48 (one year ago) link
ha, fair enough!
― Nhex, Thursday, 12 May 2022 13:02 (one year ago) link
I haven't seen Doctor Strange 2 yet, but 'more restrained' is not what I'm looking for there!
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 12 May 2022 14:12 (one year ago) link
xp I remember starting to read Marvel comics, specifically the X-Men, during one of the worst on-boarding period (early 90s) and part of the draw was figuring out what the hell was going on, who these characters are, and why they're battling each other
There was a huge audience boost at the time! It's still really funny that they had a semblance of an entry point with X-Men #1, with Chris Claremont/Jim Lee and Claremont's overly verbose "this is who this character is, their powers, and what drives them" excessive text boxes, and managed to completely blow it up after six or seven issues.
― mh, Thursday, 12 May 2022 14:19 (one year ago) link
My initial experience with comics as a child was buying random issues off the spinner racks in 7-11, just plopping down in the middle of a story and forgetting about it again for several months before grabbing an issue and finding new incomprehensible action and drama.
When I was trying to seriously get back into comics a few years ago, I tried this tactic. I wanted to recapture the chaos. I would just walk into my LCS, grab a bunch of issues off the wall, semi-randomly. I was also storing them in accordion folders, as a little rebellion against bags and boards. After a while, I concluded that this was not a satisfying means of reading or storage for me and switched to bags and boards and pull-box.
― peace, man, Thursday, 12 May 2022 14:40 (one year ago) link
i feel like i'm unintentionally misleading a bit. DS2 is NOT more restrained in most ways! It's more like i feel there's nothing quite as cool looking as the "glass" effects in DS1, but there's PLENTY else to watch in it, especially going in as a horror or Sam Raimi fan
on occasion i do like to pick up random issues of stuff i've never read just to try, and it's just not really how comics are built nowadays
― Nhex, Thursday, 12 May 2022 14:49 (one year ago) link
Yeah, I really have to get in on a first issue or if something I missed has been getting a lot of hype, I'll go pick up a trade and start from there.
― peace, man, Thursday, 12 May 2022 14:51 (one year ago) link
at this stage going to see a MCU movie w/o having seen the last thirty or so must be equally disorientating
will report back in a week or three
like, no one who missed the first 45 minutes of Ragnorok is going to have trouble fingering out who the good and bad guys are, or whatever the MacGuffin is this time round.
fingering out your mum morelike tbf I was fairly bemused by the first 45 minutes of Ragnarok because I had no idea who was being introduced for the first time and who was from one or three or eight other films
― Yul Brynner film festival on Channel 48... (sic), Thursday, 12 May 2022 17:36 (one year ago) link
Beyond wanting decently scanned reprints of DC and Marvel (hopefully people are torrenting good scans), I'm kind of glad that people are looking to other things, but I bet Disney owns some of them too. I don't have high hopes for this Disney Must Pay thing, I'd rather people didn't work for them.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 12 May 2022 18:32 (one year ago) link
the whole point of Disney Must Pay is that the people didn't work for Disney. you're free to agitate instead on a case-by-case basis, hundreds and hundreds of times over, for eg Alan Dean Foster to not write the Alien novelisation in the first place because he will receive royalties for 40 years, and then Disney will buy 20th Century Fox, but it might be less practical than the current movement.
― Yul Brynner film festival on Channel 48... (sic), Thursday, 12 May 2022 20:38 (one year ago) link
Of course there's many more issues than the royalties situation.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 12 May 2022 20:51 (one year ago) link
I got this little series Knighthawk in the mailhttps://www.comics.org/series/5322/covers/Because there was a Filipino special issue of Comic Book Artist in their Top Shelf era that cited Knighthawk as some of the most accomplished Xtreme 90s comics, a highlight for Nestor Infante and the picture shown looked pretty good. It is nice but Neal Adams really dominates the thing, sometimes it looks like he's doing most of the work.I forgotten how much adverts break up the mood of a comic when they keep interrupting the story.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 23 May 2022 18:00 (one year ago) link
This was the issue, really worth tracking down, it was probably my favorite of all the ones I readhttps://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/comic-book-artist-vol-2-4/209
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 23 May 2022 18:06 (one year ago) link
Neal Adams is the only one credited on first issue of Knighthawk.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 23 May 2022 18:08 (one year ago) link
Re: "is there a Gorilla on the cover?" It even features another variation of the gorilla robbing famous novels from a library in order to take over the world.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpLBzGfuk1sIt doesn't mention any of the possible racist undercurrents that have often been discussed around giant or humanoid ape stories. There are a bunch of french stories that predate Planet Of The Apes, including this onehttps://thebedlamfiles.com/fiction/balaoo/
Even after hearing some explanations, I'm still a bit mystified that gorillas were so popular with children. I don't remember kids ever being that excited about anything like that.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 29 May 2022 21:10 (one year ago) link
I own this history of comics hardcover and I remember a non-comics geek friend leafing through it and just being reduced to hysterics by an issue of Tales Of The Unexpected featuring a guy frantically gesturing at a green gorilla and the gorilla saying "no you fool, none but you can see me!".
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 30 May 2022 09:09 (one year ago) link
Sorry, I know, wrong medium but I Can't find any talk of Owen Kline's Funny Pages, I thought it might be well received on ilx. Has drawings by Johnny Ryan and a couple of others, feels much like a Zwigoff film. Really worth seeing.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 18 September 2022 23:29 (one year ago) link
Felt really bad for the Miles character throughout.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 18 September 2022 23:45 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXDeAcyt8Ng
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 18 September 2022 23:53 (one year ago) link
was hoping for a local theater release, but i guess it came and went
― Nhex, Monday, 19 September 2022 02:05 (one year ago) link
oh actually it's currently playing still. i might get lucky
― Nhex, Monday, 19 September 2022 02:07 (one year ago) link
Found this perplexing review on youtube: "A24 producing it just made it more pretentious, it did not add anything."
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 19 September 2022 14:35 (one year ago) link
I didn’t care much for it, though it is clearly a labor of love and has a great deal of fidelity. Without giving too much away, I felt like the amount of anxiety it made me carry didn’t equal the story’s extremely pfffft ending.
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Monday, 19 September 2022 20:07 (one year ago) link
I was a bit letdown by the ending but it felt like it made enough sense that I can't complain too much and a good bunch of my favorite films made me say "oh shit, that's it?"
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 18:46 (one year ago) link
i'm good at complaining
― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 21 September 2022 18:47 (one year ago) link
I generally don't care about references but it was still an odd novelty to have a scene in which people rip into some guy for copying Larry Marder's Beanworld
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 18:56 (one year ago) link
not just people: andy milonakis!
― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 21 September 2022 18:59 (one year ago) link
Finished Kerascoet and Hubert's Beauty. Good fun, including the Prince Valiant style character. Kerascoet has another book coming soon.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 5 November 2022 19:40 (one year ago) link
It's called The Court Charade and hopefully there will be a paper version, I only see a digital one for the end of this month
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 5 November 2022 19:52 (one year ago) link
Coddie was supposed to be cute?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 5 November 2022 22:33 (one year ago) link
English version hasn't been in print a long time? I really love this cover and hope new editions will include all the covershttps://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1456289940i/18214409._SX540_.gif
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 5 November 2022 23:00 (one year ago) link
―(forksclovetofu) (eight months ago)
???
I've been getting back into reading them recently (just found a better rotation of reading different things) but this might be the slimmest Rolling Comics thread. Is the business doing worse than even the last two years?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 5 November 2022 23:36 (one year ago) link
I've been reading, I just rarely post. Currently making my way through Hellblazer from 0 onwards. Mostly enjoying, only a few real dud issues. Nice to see something UK based. Some really creepy/grotesque demons to gawp at.
― salsa shark, Sunday, 6 November 2022 15:54 (one year ago) link
ILComics was to be fair always one of the smallest communities on here.
Also when it was at its most active it was a lot about following Big Two titles month to month - I never did this but yeah I think less ppl are doing so now.
Anyway, recent reads I've enjoyed: Chainsaw Man (still only up to vol.4), Orochi (by the guy who did The Drifting Classroom - mysterious woman in a sort of crypt keeper role witnessing the brutality of postwar Japan), Falconspeake (short vampire hunter thing, just a lot of fun) and Newburn (ex-cop private investigator working as a detective for all sections of organised crime in NYC).
― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 6 November 2022 16:42 (one year ago) link
what's Hellblazer 0? i think i have the first 200 as floppies somewhere, probably the thing i have most of (or maybe swamp thing)
― koogs, Sunday, 6 November 2022 16:55 (one year ago) link
the DC Infinite app has added a few runs of MAD magazine now
― mh, Sunday, 6 November 2022 22:21 (one year ago) link
I was curious about Hellblazer #0 too: a 2018 Halloween freebie reprint of #27 (1990, Gaiman & McKean), but with the cover of Warren Ellis’ first issue (#134, 1999) by Tim Bradstreet, instead of Dave McKean’s cover
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Sunday, 6 November 2022 23:17 (one year ago) link
i still read a ton, but more manga these daysalso all my library reads tend to be forgotten already by the time i get to themcurrent Marvel/DC is basically OK but nothing to shout about
Chainsaw Man is great! i read all the trades and started reading them contemporaneously on Shonen Jump, who post the last three chapters for free
In fact I liked Chainsaw Man so much I went out and got the first volume of the author's previous series, Fire Punch, which good god was fucking terrible edgelord shit
― Nhex, Monday, 7 November 2022 02:36 (one year ago) link
Yeah, it's really fucking funny as well is the thing. Obviously it jives with our zeitgeist - overworked gen z'ers in a cruel capitalist society. I love how the protagonist is such a loveable goofball - those early volumes where he says stuff "maybe one day, if I work really hard, I will be able to touch a boob"...that could very well feel icky in many other manga but here he's such an innocent kid that it just feels endearing. I also really love Power, whose behaviour is a very accurate depiction of cat.
He did a one shot story for the Shonen Jump app as well that from what I've heard is a lot more self-conciously artsy.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 7 November 2022 10:49 (one year ago) link
Goodbye Eri was awesome, hunt it down. He's done a lot of one-shots that have been recently/are being collected into trades for English publication r/n
I want to pick up more of Fujimoto's work but yeah FP really burned me (har-har) and I'm gonna wait a while. Or maybe just start paying for SJ, $2 a month is incredibly cheap
― Nhex, Monday, 7 November 2022 13:23 (one year ago) link
Sorry all I mean hellblazer 1, the Jamie Delano ones from the 80s, it has been a tiring week
― salsa shark, Monday, 7 November 2022 18:27 (one year ago) link
I'm just waiting to get the Tim Hensley version of Maggie, one of my favorite books.
― gjoon1, Tuesday, 8 November 2022 01:04 (one year ago) link
I wish I knew Maggie to appresh the Detention better! there's some wild-ass hensleying in it for sure tho
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Tuesday, 8 November 2022 05:09 (one year ago) link
RIP Kevin O'Neill. Need to read more of his non League stuff.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 8 November 2022 10:14 (one year ago) link
Shame to hear, RIP.
― Nhex, Tuesday, 8 November 2022 13:18 (one year ago) link
RIP Carlos Pacheco.
― Vernon Locke, Friday, 11 November 2022 21:57 (one year ago) link
O'Neill's "Nemesis the Warlock" was some mind warping strange comics to my teenage mind. That artwork kinda freaked some people out. I seemed to recall there being some issues with a US printer as the employees thought it was was obscene at one point in the 80s.
I'd say that series, Marshall Law and a graphic novel that he did with Pat Mills for DC called Metalzolic are worth searching out.
― earlnash, Friday, 11 November 2022 23:25 (one year ago) link
I never read Nemesis because it looked so creepy. I still find it creepy! But will give it a shot.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 12 November 2022 16:23 (one year ago) link
I’ve always felt like there’s a very “my brain does not want to look at that” quality to O’Neill’s art, which is probably why he’s so great!
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 12 November 2022 16:26 (one year ago) link
Not a printer - the CCA.
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Saturday, 12 November 2022 17:37 (one year ago) link
I need to get on Orochi soon
Kerascoet's Beauty is getting a paperback reprint this month
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 12 November 2022 20:39 (one year ago) link
For the single-digits number of people still following the big two:
Any thoughts on DC Universe Infinite Ultra, other than that name being a mouthful? They're claiming the yearly price is "introductory" and going to go up to an unspecified number at the end of the month. I'm not sure if I care about getting new comics sooner, but I'm wondering how expanded the Black Label/Vertigo selection is
― mh, Tuesday, 22 November 2022 17:14 (one year ago) link
Might be appealing for a one-off year’s payment based on what’s in the vertigo library.
Weirdly I am finally rediscovering the joys of paper collected editions. I’ve had Jason Aaron’s Avengers run on my iPad for years and never wanted to read it; but now I’m whizzing through it after taking the trades out of my local library
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 22 November 2022 19:49 (one year ago) link
i flip through the current books but it's impossible to care tbh
― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 22 November 2022 20:27 (one year ago) link
I got the Dorian Gray adaptation by Corominas today and it's pretty stunning, I haven't seen much else like it. I don't think it has ever been in english but I guess a familiarity with the source material will helphttps://www.danielmaghen-editions.com/catalogue/dorian-gray/
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 26 November 2022 18:41 (one year ago) link
Kentaro Miura - Giganto Maxia
Kaiju desert adventure with nice creature and setting designs. The main characters (an increasingly young looking girl who pisses on a wrestler to keep him energized) are insanely powerful so it feels like the opposite of the struggle in Berserk.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 3 December 2022 19:14 (one year ago) link
I found it a little slight and it seemed just open ended enough in case he managed to finish Berserk so who knows if there was grander plans.
I didn't think Japan (written by Buronsen) was especially good but I hadn't heard of King Of Wolves until today, has anyone read it?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 3 December 2022 19:32 (one year ago) link
Reading the first Nemesis The Warlock omnibus in honour of Kevin O'Neill. I love that the humans are the bad guys but not in an essentialist way - there are humans who join the good side but crucially they are not promoted to main character status for it. Also surely this is one of the main influences on Warhammer 40k?
The art is uniformly excellent, wild stuff - by O'Neill but also Bryan Talbot and Jesus Redondo, whom I'd never heard of but who def holds his own.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 5 December 2022 11:27 (one year ago) link
I know I'm late to this, but I've just noticed how much Martínez looks like his face has been drawn by Ken Reid in this picture
https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1606364688756899844/UAUvB9Wa?format=jpg&name=medium
― soref, Friday, 23 December 2022 19:46 (one year ago) link
really should be speech bubble next to him saying "ERK!!"
― soref, Friday, 23 December 2022 19:50 (one year ago) link
i am doing my yearly reread of Berserk in honor of the final miura volume being released. astonishing how quick he got so good and how incredibly complex and dark the story is.
― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Friday, 23 December 2022 21:24 (one year ago) link
exporting the ILB what did you read this year tradition because hell why not:
* - I really loved this
Grandville: L'integral, Bryan TalbotGil Jourdan - Premieres Aventures, M. TillieuxHyperthick #1-3, Steve Aylett*Crisis Zone, Simon Hanselmann*Warlock, Jim Starlin et alPopeye Vol.1: 1986-1989, Bobby LondonMickey Mouse: Race To Death Valley, Floyd GottfredsonThe Caterer, Steve Aylett*Red Flowers, Yoshiharu TsugeDancing Plague, Gareth Brookes*Black Panther, Vol.1, Christopher Priest, Mark Teixeira et alLupin III: Greatest Heists, Monkey PunchMiles Morales, Vol.1, Saladin Ahmed, Javier Garron et alSobek, James StokoeMisty, Vol.2-3, Malcolm Shaw et alMickey Mouse: The Man From Alcatraz, Romano Scarppa*Chartwell Manor, Glenn HeadThe Swamp, Yoshiharu TsugeBeta Ray Bill: Argent Star, Daniel Warren JohnsonGuardians Of The Galaxy, Vol.1, Al Ewing, Juann Cabal et al*Hellboy Vol.6, Mike Mignola, Scott Hampton et alPoussey: L'integrale, Peyo*The Thief Inoue Akizazu, Osamu TezukaApollo's Song, Osamu Tezuka*Red Seas, Vol.1, Ian Edginton, Steve Yeowell* The Good Asian, Vol.1&2, Pornsak Pichetshote, Alexandre Tefekghi et alThe Birth Of Kitaro, Shigeru Mizuki* Paralell Lives, Oliver SchrauwenConcrete Surfer, Pat Mills, Christine EllinghamThe Man Without Talent, Yoshiharu TsugeJudge Dredd: Complete Case Files Vol.1, Matt Wagner et alTMNT Adventures, Vol.2, Dean Clarrain, Ryan Brown et alSeven Soldiers Of Victory Vol.1-4, Grant Morrison et al*Chainsaw Man, Vol.1-6, Tatsuki FujimotoGood Night, Hem, JasonUmma's Table, Yeon-Sik HongJinty: Land Of No Tears/The Human Zoo, Pat Mills et alCaptain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, Dan Abnett, Tom Mandrake et alFalconspeare, Johnson-CadwellOrochi Vol.1-2, Kazuo Umezzo*I Want You, Lisa HanawaltKeeping Two, Jordan Crane*The Best Of 2000AD, variousSomething Is Killing The Children, James Tynion IV et al*Newburn, Vol.1, Chip Zdarsky, Jason PhillipsStages Of Rot, Linnea SterteReckless: Follow Me Down, Ed Brubaker, Sean PhillipsAbsolute Sandman, Vol.1, Neil Gaiman et al*Nemesis The Warlock, Vol.1, Pat Mills, Kevin O'Neill et al
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 28 December 2022 13:41 (one year ago) link
> *Nemesis The Warlock, Vol.1, Pat Mills, Kevin O'Neill et al
oh, i should've picked this up from home at christmas.
― koogs, Wednesday, 28 December 2022 16:55 (one year ago) link
and then sold it on amazon to some sucker
"1 Used from £190.00"
― koogs, Wednesday, 28 December 2022 17:03 (one year ago) link
points of overlap
*Crisis Zone, Simon HanselmannMickey Mouse: Race To Death Valley, Floyd GottfredsonSobek, James Stokoe*Chartwell Manor, Glenn HeadApollo's Song, Osamu Tezuka* Paralell Lives, Oliver Schrauwen*I Want You, Lisa Hanawalt*Newburn, Vol.1, Chip Zdarsky, Jason Phillips
― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 28 December 2022 18:34 (one year ago) link
Something I should say more often: nice drawings, shame about the faces
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 31 December 2022 20:43 (one year ago) link
Here are the TCJ Best of 2022 lists:
The Best Comics of 2002
My reaction is similar every year to the point where it's a ritual: I look forward eagerly to the lists; once I read them am horrified by the bulk of them*; find comfort in the lists of Jog, Tucker, Cynthia Rose**, Ristau, Nicholson***, one or two others; revert back to my default state of ruing the State of Modern Comics (TM) (or should that just be modern comics criticism).
*Giving the side-eye this year to any list featuring Jordan Crane. Great editor, good cartoonist, but some of the most bathetic scenarios known to mankind (which is saying a lot in indie comics).
**Had no idea there was a new version of Objectif Pub (a gorgeous 1980s compilation of ads drawn by cartoonists, mostly of the ligne claire/Atom Style a la Chaland, Benoit, Clerc etc.) - one of my most treasured, ah, objects.
***Even the good lists suffer from a fill-in-the-blanks predictability: here's RJ Casey with a New Yorker cartoon, here's the 2000AD entry for Jog; here's Tucker with the edgy DC genre entry.
Ah, I'm just being crabby.
― gjoon1, Sunday, 1 January 2023 13:14 (one year ago) link
Rolling Comic Books 2023
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 23 February 2023 21:30 (one year ago) link