2012 what are you reading thread

returning to Palomar meant I liked the Beto parts more than I expected

Oh cool, I didn't realize! A return to Palomar is a good move for Beto. I find that I'm generally only really interested in his Palomar stuff or his experimental work (a la Fear Of Comics).

early L&R is mediocre but almost every great long-running comic starts off kind of weak, with precious few exceptions.

I'm a Hernandestan, so I think they went from good to great, and got the mediocre out of the way in 1970s pre-L&R juvenilia, sketchbooks and fanzine illos. Except for Mario, I think his work has always been mediocre.

http://archive.org/details/0476_Untitled_Milton_Caniff_01_45_26_20

Damn. That look's cool.

no sound as far as i can tell

Twitter friend of mine grabbed the first two of those Fantagraphics EC artist-themed volumes. Reading Kurtzman's now. Feeling inadequate.

huh, amazon doesn't have them out yet

He picked them up at SPX, where Fantagraphics was pre-selling them. The Kurtzman and Wood volumes will be out next month or so.

About to start latest volume of Lars Jansson's Moomin comic strip, which am much looking forward too

Kung Fu This is dead?

Got the Prophet TPB since there have been so many positive reviews of the series, so far I've read 4 issues of it, and I dunno... There are some cool scenes and settings, but the plot feels kinda flimsy (if the Earth Empire wants to rise again, why are they doing it via thousands of clones of the same person? isn't that kinda genetically unfeasible?); if I want to a read comic where people wander through alien landscapes and meet alien creatures with minimal plot, I'd rather read Moebius. Also, while the artist in the first three issues is not bad, in my opinion his rough and sketchy style isn't very good for this type of comic. Sketchy style can be good if you're depicting everyday objects and scenes, since people know how they're supposed to look like and can fill in the details in their minds, but when you're drawing otherworldly vision of things readers aren't familiar with, skipping the details isn't a good thing. (See the Worlds of Aldebaran series recently translated by Cinebook for an example of a comic where a detailed, rich art style works perfectly to emphasize the strangeness of extraterrestrial creatures and landscapes.) Thankfully issue #4 features a more detailed artist, but skimming through issue #5, looks like another sketchy artist is reeled in again.

I do think this series has a lot of potential, but I wonder if it gets any better after these initial issues?

Yup, I liked it but also felt a bit muted, same as you.

I'll third the "meh" reaction to Prophet. I read that first complete arc and nothing about it compelled me to read more. It felt like an undistinguished 70s/80s Heavy Metal wannabe.

I like Prophet a lot; definitely see the metal hurlant but somehow transcended the corny big titty stuff

Just got the first Vertical volume of Tezuka's Adolf. It's Tezuka at prime but how that hits you is dependent on how you like him.

Can't vouch for the translation but:
http://manga.animea.net/adolf-ni-tsugu-chapter-1-4.html

http://www.fantagraphics.com/browse-shop/ralph-azham-vol.-1-why-would-you-lie-to-someone-you-love-2.html
oboy oboy oboy, my fave comic writer/artist right now has newly translated work. just knocked out the first volume on contact. it's great.

I just found out Trondheim has a tumblr. Lots of good sketches and the like.

Adolf is great. It gets super-complicated to follow in the middle books though.

Incidentally, I don't say it enough, but those Phoenix books are just batshit odd and SO GOOD.

forks, should i read Dungeon? i love sfar but i've never seen it before...

I'm bot Forks, but emphatically YES! Dungeon is a blast.

Not forks, bot forks, same thing. :)

beep boop beep

exactly.

anyways FUCK YES to Dungeon; it's probably my favorite currently active book.
the difficulty is in figuring where to start; part of the appeal is that all the books inform one another, but often in oblique ways that can take a lot of reading to figure out. I would say start here:
http://www.amazon.com/Dungeon-Zenith-Set-Vols-1-3/dp/156163624X/

I bought a slew of Dungeon sight unseen, was very pleasantly surprised.

ok, i ordered that zenith set. if i like it, forks, i'll be relying on you to tell me what to get next.

I would tentatively offer the following order based on what's currently available:
Zenith 1-3
Early Years 1-2
Parade 1-2
Twilight 1-3
Monsters 1-4
Each book is two complete stories, so there's currently 28 dungeon stories translated in English

Yeah, Zenith was what I read first. Really great stuff.

Forks on point - I think that's a good order for reading them.

FWIW: Zenith is friendly funny stories about the golden days of the Dungeon, Early Years explores the idealistic youth of the Dungeonkeeper, Parade is more lighthearted stories in the golden days, Twilight is about what happens to Marvin and Herbert after the golden days and Monsters offers deeper backstory for everyone with a rotating cast of artists

i read only a single volume of Twilight, but it was pretty cool. i should hunt more of them down

Just got a copy of the city of ember: the graphic novel-- idk anything about the original source material but it looks like children protagonists in post-apoc setting?

thinking about checking this out too: http://www.215ink.com/catalog/transmeet.html

anyone know anything about any of their titles?

the dungeon volumes came in -- i'm looking forward to reading them this weekend!

yer gonna love em.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_(comics)
argh SEVEN unpublished-in-English stories and nothing new in about a year from NBM WTF WTF WTF

from the guy who does johnny hiro: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2144748693/alison-and-her-rainy-day-robot

Okay I just started reading about all of the changes to the Avengers and seeing Cannonball and Sunspot on the main roster is like WOW AWESOME

Gonna go bankrupt buying all of these comics

Got a link? I know nothing of this stuff

Just bought the first Dungeon Early Years on recommendation of this thread, and loving it after only 20 pages. Thanks guys!

Oops, starting in the wrong order, but enjoying it anyway!

As long as you read each arc in order you can enjoy each however you like. Some bits will resonate more of you know this or that, but hey, that's what re-reading is for.

each successive series directly informs the earlier works in really meaningful ways so the book really rewards rereading at intervals
you'll be pretty confused in twilight. ride it out. much is explained.
by the way, Ralph Azhum is unsurprisingly great

read vol 1 of zenith today. lots of fun. i feel like there are some moments that are super classic sfar (like a line or illustration that is completely weirdo in his style) and i wonder how closely they worked together on dungeon?

i assume really closely, bc that's how these things go, but did sfar share some of the writing?

yeah, sfar and trondheim co-write pretty much all of dungeon, sorry i didn't make that clear.
I see more trondheim touches honestly but together they're very voltron.

i can't believe i'm just finding out about these. i spent the last ~4 years wondering where all the new sfar in translation books were

http://www.tcj.com/reviews/dungeon-monstres-vol-4/
simply can't believe it's taken them over a year to get a new volume out in english grrrrrrrr