2012 what are you reading thread

then you'll LOOOOOVE Are You My Mother?

xp

I've been reading King City but put it down for a bit. Probably picking it up this weekend.

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/05/07/preview-dungeon-quest-book-three-by-joe-daly/

xxxpost There's some good stuff here and there after Women but yeah it's pretty rough for the most part.

I avoided this problem entirely by just skipping Reads. at this point the only other volume I haven't read and am curious about is Minds.

In hindsight that is the way to go but at that point I had convinced myself I was going to read the whole thing (the actual breaking point was the first half of The Last Day, where the cumulative effect of Reads, Rick's Story, the goddamn Woody Allen character etc etc, caused me to say "fuck it" and skip to the end).

Minds was OK, though.

owenp, what 60s hulks? have always found the v early issues by lee and kirby p rough going (not helped by leaden dick ayers inking) but once the roy thomas/herb trimpe were established (i'm guessing late 60s) its a really consistent marvel comic bk w/ some near-classic issues ("Heaven is a Very Small Hulk"!) i esp like the way that thomas (and the ppl who followed him like steve englehart and len wein) couldn't just write 'The Hulk' in a caption - he always had to be 'the emerald man-beast' or 'the jade goliath' or whateves

or have i said too much abt dopey old marvel shit

No I am feeling yr prose on this, Ward. I need to get one of those Hulk Essentials one o' these days.

agree w Ward - Hulk doesn't get interesting til the late 60s/early 70s

I'd like to get another look at the issues John Severin inked.

i had a friend in high school who was a serious hulk nerd and he had (in reprint or original) basically every issue of the hulk and any appearance in marvel books. this was before there was a broader mass market audience for this stuff so as you might imagine he spent a lot of cash on it. i read most all of it and i found the hulk, more or less until peter david, to be kind of a not very good character

well, it is always difficult to write the adventures of an inarticulate monster-simpleton every month for years and years - didn't p david 'solve' that by turning hulk super-brainy? - but he can also function as the focal point around which an amusing supporting cast can orbit (a bit like tomb of dracula, maybe)? some writers solve it by being geniuses - eg steve gerber had v merry fun w/ the hulk in his defenders issues.

yeah WmC, trimpe/sev was well tasty - kirbyesque dynamism in the pencils, meticulous rendering in the inking. sev was also performing miracles over dick ayers on sgt fury round abt the same time.

think essential hulk #3 is the one to go for - hulk 118-142, and you even get captain marvel #20-21 - stunning gil kane/dan adkins artwork - and avengers #88 thrown in too. really gd clean repro on the black and white a/work (which i know is not to shakey's tastes, but sure suits severin's linework...)

yeah, i like the defenders run too

well, it is always difficult to write the adventures of an inarticulate monster-simpleton every month for years and years

convo reminds me of my wife's hatred of Man-Thing. Every time I get out the essential man thing phonebook she gets enraged.

"What's the deal with Man-Thing? Does he even have a mind?"

"No"

"That's fucking stupid!"

those with no mind BURN at your wife's touch

lol

I think the joy as a kid and even in hindsight on the old Hulk comics was really the solution to every problem was pretty much "HULK SMASH" and "LEAVE ME ALONE". And who in this world would not like to some points just do that. The setup of the Hulk series did lead it to get completely weird with his villans, as most of the time he would just wander into some alien invasion, circus, military test or criminal plot and just smash it up.

I always think one thing they screw up in the Hulk movies and TV is that he doesn't talk at all. I think that leaves out quite a bit of the fun you can do with the character.

Just finished Dan Epstein's Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s. Still working on Rob Kirkpatrick's 1969: The Year Everything Changed and Ed Sanders' Fug You: An Informal History of the Peace Eye Bookstore, the Fuck You Press, the Fugs, and Counterculture in the Lower East Side. Just started David Browne's Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970.

I might need to expand my window on the world.

Sorry! 1) Read thread title--check. 2) Read board name--oops.

I have to buy a new printer tonight (power outage/surge fried my current one) and am going to toss the Margaret DVD/Blu and a couple of strip collections and/or graphic novels into my Amazon cart while I'm splashing money around. Quick! Give me recommendations. I'm thinking about a Roy Crane volume...what else?

What would be the first Lynda Barry book I should get?

did u get the dungeon quest books already?

No -- remind me what they are again?

OK, looked upthread. Looks interesting, but I may hold off until next order.

Did you get Pogo yet?

Don't have Pogo. This may make me an apostate among comics literati, but...I don't really like Pogo.

Oh. (Insert sad face)

o shit, krazy & ignatz

there you go!

I think I want to get those directly from Fantagraphics -- they have the 1st and 3rd of the enormous bricks (600 pp) of complete Sundays for $57 each.

No Lynda Barry recs?

Freddie Stories is my favorite Lynda.

So many choices. Also, Hignite's Art of Jaime Hernandez is on sale for $16.

What would be the first Lynda Barry book I should get?

If you just want to investigate her, The! Greatest! Of! Marlys! is a splendid introductiony best-of. If you know her already but want a self-contained fulfilling read, One! Hundred! Demons! is a great option. If you know you love her and want to start a major collection, D&Q's Blabber Blabber Blabber: Volume 1 Of Everything is super-early stuff plus the first few years of strips, I believe - the Girls & Boys era.

Picture This and What It Is are kind of motivational speakers in book form to encourage you to use your creativity - not recommended if you're after narrative.

I used to read Ernie Pook's Comeek and loved it. Just don't have any of her books. I wound up not putting any Barry in my cart, since I plan on making a big Krazy & Ignatz order from Fantagraphics as well.

....because you want to save the money? Fanta don't carry other non-tiny publishers anymore, if that's what you were planning

Because the 1916-1924 and 1935-1944 hardcover collections are available for $57 each, and they're only available for crazy dollars on Amazon. I'll fill in 1925-1934 with the 2-year softcover collections probably.

marlys or 100demons is worth it, i will ride or die for barry 4eva
i would also do cruddy; she's a great writer

when you pick up Cruddy and begin to read Cruddy you will not be able to stop reading Cruddy until Cruddy is over. It's that intense.

i approve of this message

Because the 1916-1924 and 1935-1944 hardcover collections are available for $57 each, and they're only available for crazy dollars on Amazon. I'll fill in 1925-1934 with the 2-year softcover collections probably.

I meant why no Barry

in your cart

yeah why no Barry
in your cart
in your cart

i mean

Oh fluck fluck I'm buying so many comics today

No Barry because I pretty much hit the spending limit I had in my head. I should have put some Barry in the cart anyway, yeah.

100 demons was not my bag... too freeform mishmash

I can see by what you carry that you've not been to Barrytown

started dungeon quest

it's like a fucked up earthbound

xp wasn't that a Ben Folds Five song?