2012 what are you reading thread

damn, did not know that his original oil paintings were selling in the six figure range
i'm not gonna stan for his "fine art renditions" they're nice enough but more collector bait
they kept him in coin though so i'm all in favor
i'm a fan of rosa's (i think right) interp of the scrooge story: that every coin matters as a concrete reminder of his history/legacy, not as genuine filthy lucre

haven't read that book but if we're talking about thoughtless imperialism herge is about a billion times worse an offender than barks -- 'tintin au congo' is easily the most nauseating comic i've ever read.

also worth noting that barks worked for western publishing, not 'disney,' and received zero feedback or attention from the disney studio in 20+ years of drawing his comics.

Lucky for him in the long run.

interesting memoir by the dude who translated that book into english: http://nafsk.se/pipermail/dcml/1995-June/004368.html

Did anyone read a 1995 Paradox series called Family Man by Jerome Charyn & Joe Staton? Longshot, I know.

sorry. That was my comic dark age when I was far too poor to buy any comics.

i read family man when it came out, can't really remember a damm thing abt it, other than it was far less satisfying than the two graphic novels that charyn created with francois boucq (simply a much finer artist than joe 'functional' staton.) the magician's wife in particular is superb.

I know it has some fans on comic sites but I do not remember if anyone's discussed the Prophet "relaunch" of the last few months.
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/03/19/prophet-23-preview-brandon-graham-simon-roy-richard-ballerman/

It's been pretty good so far. I may have... more thoughts when I'm not in an 83 degree room.

completely missed it. Never read any Prophet whatsoever.

That's a plus! It's a "continuation" in the loosest, loosest use of the word. It's a whole new comic where the first issue is #21 and the character has the same name as an Image character from the 90s.

Oh, so it actually is (a new iteration of) the Prophet I'm thinking of:

http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/0/229/91590-18185-106491-1-prophet_large.jpg

aah. Read the word "Liefeld" in that link and quickly averted my eyes.

It's linked from the URL I posted, but this intro article to the first issue is a good summing-up:
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/01/17/prophet-comic-brandon-graham/

This basically came out of nowhere, as far as I can tell, and has been a lot of fun. Weird aliens with biological technology, a guy who has just come out of stasis and snaps into being a warrior of sorts, and some half-remembered quest.

IGNORE WORD LIEFELD HE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT

like, a lot less than he had to do with the Alan Moore Supreme issues, even

okay, I'll keep an open mind

If you buy this, Liefeld will not need to derive as much of his income from "drawing" things. Buy this.

reading my old issues of Matt Wagner's "Mage"

life is so much easier if u don't think abt rob liefeld at all

only comic i've read recently is a gn translated from the french by the UK publisher Self Made Hero, called sand castle by frederik peeters (art) and pieree oscar levy (story). it has a terrific idea - group of rather obnoxious ppl find themselves trapped on a beach where they all begin to age terrifying quickly - but doesn't quite deliver as a fully satisfying narrative. some of it aspires to the kind of social horror/bourgeoisie scolding of a michael haneke film, but is too slacky characterised and constructed to match haneke; other parts are airily metaphorical (there's an interlude where we're told a fairy story about a king who barricades himself against encroaching death). the 'shocking' element is its treatment of young sexuality, which is a v v tricky thing to make work in any artform, and doesn't work at all, here, when combined w/ semi-grotesque cartooning that again is p inconsistent, in terms of care and attention and finish, even panel-to-panel. i'm being quite harsh - its not w/out merit, and i wld be interested to see what other ppl think of it.

This basically came out of nowhere, as far as I can tell,

it's Brandon Graham

prophet looks v v moebiusy

likin' the look of it! and hey, that Supreme run was pretty nice.

I'd rather read more KING CITY or the second MULTIPLE WARHEADS volume (which I think is largely done, or was at Stumptown last year).

Just finished JOE THE BARBARIAN and am torn. On one hand, it's a fairly slight adventure yarn with very nice art. On the other hand, does it really need to be anything more than that?

I was kinda disappointed with Joe the Barbarian... Yeah, it was okay as an adventure yarn, but the main novelty (that the rooms in the house provided the settings for the fantasy world) didn't really work; the connection between the fantasy kingdom and the real world was mostly arbitrary. Also, some of the more dramatic moments came were also kinda random (why the heck did those kids set the dog to Joe's house?), and the final revelation (relating to the dead father) came totally out of blue, plus it had nothing to do with Joe's adventure, so it felt like the happy ending wasn't earned.

It's the first GM book I haven't INSTANTLY read. Was waiting for the paperback trade. Art is lovely though.

Yeah, the sam

Yeah, the same for me. Was really excited about it first, since the premise seemed like a surefire road to Morrison goodness, but in the end he didn't really get anything new out of a story that's been told a million times. Basically it felt like Morrison didn't have the time/inspiration/whatever to do this properly, so he just produced a half-assed script because he wanted to showcase Sean Murphy's art anyway. And the art is gorgeous, of course, but this could've sooo much better with better writing. Hopefully Morrison and Murphy will collaborate on something else in the future.

<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/King-City-TP-Brandon-Graham/dp/160706510X/";>More (okay, not more) King City!</a>

Catching up on Morrison's ACTION and am now convinced that it could be a good comic if it were all actually on the page. I'm getting the exact same feeling reading that that I got when reading FINAL CRISIS, like I was reading every other panel of something that could be great.

BULLETPROOF COFFIN #2 was all kinds of crazy skull-munching action and dread. Last couple of THUNDERBOLTS have been good too. Hoping the book will continue to be good when it gets turned into DARK AVENGERS later this year.

Catching up on Morrison's ACTION and am now convinced that it could be a good comic if it were all actually on the page. I'm getting the exact same feeling reading that that I got when reading FINAL CRISIS, like I was reading every other panel of something that could be great.

yeah, this. at least in FC the time compression and fragmentation made sense. here it reduces a promising story to total rubbish. no character development, no sense of narrative flow, just this rush of half-developed happenings. especially disappointing after a very promising start.

also agree abt joe the barbarian being a minor disappointment. great set-up and wonderful art, but the real-world story wasn't anywhere near as well developed as its fantasy counterpart, so the whole thing kind of fell apart as it moved into the final act. also, it seems like grant set up a story wherein joe basically had to die, couldn't accept that, and lazily DEMed his way out. still nice to look at.

the plotting, monster designs and world-building on prophet have been fun, but i wish the art were more refined. or expressive or personal or just just something, anything but this formless, scrawly mess.

Farel Dalrymple's drawing the next two, then Graham the one after.

^JOY^

would love to see a dave cooper issue. also, they need to get him to do a backup story for adventure time. brandon graham too.

p.s. hey, are you reading adventure time?

nah but I'd never heard of the cartoon before ads for the comic turned up on the back of Snarked.

Cooper would be great, but he quit comics cold turkey a good nine or so years ago (apart from a dope Pip & Norton reunion with McInnes c. 2010)

Infinite Horizon a retelling of the Iliad set in the near future with Ulysses represented as a U.s. marine captain. Only just started it so can't really say much more. Looks ok so far.

Read #0 of Hoax Hunters last night which seems fun .

also Fables #115 which I guess I'm still interested in. seems to be more child centric than it was when I started. Or is it. does have several plots running at the same time still.

Cooper would be great, but he quit comics cold turkey a good nine or so years ago

Jesus, has it been that long? That dude was a titan. And if I'm recalling his TCJ interview correctly, he was (amazingly) self-taught. I just found a bunch of his stuff in my storage. It's on the docket.

Also found in storage and am currently reading The Infinity Gauntlet. Still holds up decently, but it's largely a nostalgia trip back to that summer when I first started collecting Marvel comics and, between buying that stuff and a ton of Marvel trading cards, slowly learned who that slew of mysterious characters were. What a fun and exciting time.

wow, i don't really follow comics culture too closely, never been a TCJ reader, so i didn't know that cooper had "officially" quit doing comics. just knew that weasel was the last comix-type thing i'd seen by him, and that was quite a while back. sad :(

I was a little wary when Weasel switched from a regular comic series to hardcover books of his illustration work, but I'm glad I kept buying it. That stuff was amazing.

I wish I could remember where I read about/saw this, but he basically lies face-down in this harness thing and does all of his work facing the ground. Which is apparently pretty great from an ergonomic standpoint. Always wanted to try that.

interview w/ macinnes someplace? i've read that, too, but like you, i can't remember where. it's an interesting idea and speaks of a fanatic's dedication.

He doesn't really, but he wants to. Drawing table visible in expanded photo here.

Likin' Prophet. Diggin' Roy. Dalrymple will be fun to see.

Wolverine and the X-Men also.

Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred is three issues in and can't be touched.

NO SPOILERS I HAVEN'T BEEN TO THE SHOP YET. #bulletproofcoffin

THE GRAND COSMIC JOKE GETS MORE TWISTED. ALL I'LL SAY. #bulletproofcoffin

(plus the double splash pages are awesome)

r baez. sadly, it's one of very few titles i'm happy to be reading at the moment, along w prophet, skeleton key and adventure time.

r baez otm, i mean. bulletproof coffin really is great.

Bulletproof Coffin is great, but Image's distribution in Ireland is shite (largely because no one here wants to read weirdo comics, I suspect), so nothing has appeared here since #1 of the new series. This is not unlike the first series, where the penultimate issue seemed to never arrive. Curse you, fickle fate.

I was thinking, though, that on the basis of the first issue the new BC is not unlike the promised prequels to Watchmen.

Image have the same distribution in Ireland as they do in the rest of the planet, if the issues aren't turned up it's probably because the shops just aren't ordering them (and possibly that Diamond are slacking)

Alison Bechdel's 'Are You My Mother?' is really quite dull. I loved 'Fun Home', but this is, though done with technical excellence, a glorified version of the art you see in community health organisations and psychiatric hospitals--therapeutic for the artist, and of little value for anyone else.

the new yorker excerpt kinda looked that way tbh
and all the people i know who think bechdel is a great comic artist tend not to be comic nerds
i liked fun home just fine, but i think stuck rubber baby and the photographer are about a dozen times better, just to pick two