2012 what are you reading thread

It's in my Amazon cart but I haven't bought it yet.

current google search page with little nemo on it is unbelievably good

yeah that's gorgeous

wow, really good. scott mccloud would be proud

Not a comic, but has anyone checked out Steve Howe's Marvel Comics: The Untold Story? I'm about halfway through and it's a pretty satisfying read so far, referencing stuff like Stan Lee's screenplay with Alain Resnais that I totally forgot about.

yeah, def want to read this - the spurgeon/raphael stan lee biography also goes into detail about the resnais collaboration (iirc, there were in fact two unproduced screenplays in the end), and it also mentions stan's early 70s silver surfer screenplay, which apparently had a blaxploitation theme! the sad truth of stan's career is that w/out inspired collaborators like kirby and ditko, he simply wasn't a good enough writer to ever make it in the movies.

w/out a romita (& 4 years of ditko's momentum) he couldn't even make it in comics

wow, really good. scott mccloud would be proud

Scott McCloud ‏@scottmccloud
Talked to the Google Doodle team in advance about today's beautiful Winsor McCay webcomic. Fantastic to see it in action!

I think I chose the wrong book to start with houellebecq. I just finished the map and the territory in a few days - it wasn't boring - but I was expecting it to be much more brutal. the artspeak was not that good but he was probably mocking it most of the time I hope, and I wanted to know more about olga, william morris, jed's father, houellebecq himself, the novel should have been longer! the small amounts of caustic stuff made me laugh quite a lot, what should I read if I want houellebecq at his most unpleasant?

Whoa that Google Nemo thing is incredible.

Blog I follow reminded me of Giardino's 'Little Ego' which is awesome, he's great ...

Picked up some Dungeon and loving it, polished off Zenith and now on to the Parades.

w/out a romita (& 4 years of ditko's momentum) he couldn't even make it in comics

^^^

reading Superman: The Man of Tomorrow Archives Volume 1

good lord the one where he convinces Lois his "true identity" is Alfred E. Neuman

D. K. Goodwin's Team of Rivals

oh well, rong board

*tries to think of some comics Morbs would like*

morbz:

http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/image_cover/Golems_Mighty_Swing.jpg

http://www.monitorduty.com/imgs/oldimages/superkiss-thumb.jpg

Just picked up the last Ganges, which has been kicking around a while, but I loved - probably the most OTM thing I've read about insomnia. I've been dubious about his previous books, but the "weird" stuff seemed a lot more integrated into the story here (so not "weird" at all), which appealed to me as a straightforward-narrative fascist.

In terms of Dungeon reading order - it's not a huge deal either way, but I would recommend reading them in the order that they were published. This can get a little tricky though, because sometimes there was a long gap between the first story in an English volume and the second story. Here's the publication order as far as I can tell:

Zenith 1ab
Twilight 1a
Early Years 1a
Zenith 2a
Parade 1a
Twilight 1b
Early Years 1b
Monsters 1a
Parade 1b
Monsters 1b
(Bonus 1 not in English)
Zenith 2b
Twilight 2a
Parade 2a
Monsters 2a
Monsters 4ab
Early Years 2a
Monsters 2b
(Monsters story not in English)
Monsters 3a
(Bonus 2 not in English)
Monsters 3b
Parade 2b
Twilight 2b
(Monsters story not in English)
Early Years 2b
(Bonus 3 not in English)
Zenith 3a
(Bonus 4 not in English)
Twilight 3a
(Bonus 5 not in English)
(Parade story not in English)
(Monster story not in English)
Zenith 3b
(Monster story not in English)
(Early Years story not in English)
Twilight 3b

just got

The Mighty Thor Marvel Masterworks Vol 8 - the end of the Kirby run (1969) and oddly it seems most evident in the scripting/dialogue, the comic is way less wordy than previous years. weird. the Galactus origin story is fun.
Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man - this is awesome

I finally read Akira. Damn good, that.

the end of the Kirby run (1969) and oddly it seems most evident in the scripting/dialogue, the comic is way less wordy than previous years.

think it's a combination of things - the crucial switch to a much smaller original art size, jack being increasingly unhappy and unengaged, stan busy elsewhere, etc

Thanks for running order Kid - I'm reading the Dungeons in narrative running order, when I can get copies (they seem to be going OOP pretty quick, some orders of mine had to be refunded).

Reading the Walking Dead comic right now, it's really interesting comparing it to the show.

huh the art-size switch isn't mentioned in the intro, didn't know about that. innarestin

xp

someone mentioned Moto Hagio upthread, so i took out a short story collection... some beautiful drama in there.

trying bechdel's are you my mother... so grindingly frustratingly introspective but expertly done

Blimey, Are You My Mother is AWFUL! All that skill and time spent on an enterprise of embarrassing self-absorbed nitwittery

my brother just sent me The Transmutation of Ike Garuda. man I don't remember hearing anything about this when it came out, although I do have vague memories of Starstruck. looks pretty great so far.

I have read Bechdel's earlier stuff btw

yeah i gotta say i agree with morrison but all that skill!

Shakey Mo, FWIW there's more on the art size change here:

http://www.artofthecomicbook.com/history/art-reduction.htm

btw Matt Fraction's Hawkeye is incredible

I read this review of it:

Hawkeye #2-3: I hate to use the term Mary Sue, but suddenly Hawkeye’s a down dude who lives in Brooklyn where he attends rooftop parties with his neighbors, he loves 1970 Dodge Challengers, and he’s as irresistible to women as billionaire playboy Tony Stark and famous lawyer Matt Murdock, so what else do you call it. How any of this squares with the basics of the character — why he suddenly lives in Brooklyn instead of wherever it is that the Avengers live, why he’s a super-cool dude instead of the ex-circus ex-con archer guy…I dunno, it feels like Matt Fraction poured a bunch of unrelated ideas into a Hawkeye-shaped vessel because that’s what was available. I’m not saying there’s some One True Hawkeye out there, I’m saying I don’t think Hawkeye, One True or otherwise, is anything but an extraordinarily flimsy frame on which to hang surface-cool writing like this. At least we’re past the Russian guy who said “bro” all the time from the first issue, Fraction’s worst writing since the cussing dwarf from Iron Man, but these issues also set up the distasteful idea that Hawkeye and the girl who took over for him in the Young Avengers want to fuck but think it’s a bad idea, so it’s hardly a step in the right direction.

It might be my least favorite Fraction in a while (when you consider the "quality" of Fear Itself and Thor that's something) but Aja is a wonderful storyteller. I think I'd like it more without scripting.

It's silly and a bit smug, and I suspect it'll have seriously diminishing returns -- but it's been super fun so far. Fun enough to buy and not CBR! I'm not sure I care even a tiny bit whether it fits into Hawkeye's "One True Continuity".

Did Iron Man get good again, ever? I dropped it after "World's Most Wanted"

The new adjectiveless series (are they going the way of Spiderman, or is Invincible Iron Man folding in to this?) will be written by Kieron Gillen, so should be fun - I've enjoyed the Iron Mans I've been reading recently, less punching and more corporate hi-jinks. But not enjoying enough to buy, in fairness.

No, it's just kind of stumbling along to a close.

Iron Man closed, now. They wrapped it up with a Mandarin arc that was somewhat based on the same plot as the (alternate) future annual where Mandarin had won.

Dan OTM about Hawkeye. I still miss the Brubaker/Fraction/Swierczynski Iron Fist arc. Picked up the issues of this recent crossover garbage when they went to Kun Lun out of nostalgia.

I was following Secret Avengers for the plot arc that's been following the series, but I think they have it mostly wrapped up now, uneventfully. Marvel is good at setting things up these days, not as great at knocking them down.

tbh the only Fraction series I keep thinking is essential is Casanova

I liked his Defenders, but it does seem oddly derivative of Morrison's Rock of Ages (there are far worse things to rip off, of course), and at the end you just think "was that all just a cover to send them on a time/space trip?"

I've never read Morrison's Rock of Ages! New recommendation, I guess

I lucked into a pack of the first six Defenders issues, all alternate covers, at Big Brain Comics in mpls for like $10 or something

xp oh man it's amazing, probably the best arc in his JLA run, which is saying something.

I've never read Morrison's Rock of Ages! New recommendation, I guess

Read the entire Morrison JLA run though, not just that one!

I lucked into a pack of the first six Defenders issues, all alternate covers,

.......alternate covers?

Yeah, shops get a different cover on one of ten copies or something, some sell them as collectibles.

Multiple Warhead, wow.

Warhead(s), natch.

Yeah, shops get a different cover on one of ten copies or something, some sell them as collectibles.

Yeah but surely not on the first six Defenders!


btw Grant’s run is:
JLA #1-15 (Rock Of Ages is 10-15),
- You can read JLA Secret Files & Origins #1 anywhere between #4 and #10, but it’s inessential.
- You can read JLA/Wildcats in the same area if you really feel you need to, but don't come crying to me afterwards.
- It’s totally worth reading Aztek #1-7 before JLA #1, and Aztek #8-10 before JLA #10

Prometheus #1
JLA #17-18
JLA #22-23

DC One Million
- Grant wrote DC1M 1-4 and JLA 1,000,000, but also ghosted/plotted a lot of the others. A decent spread covers
- Chronos #1,000,000
- DC One Million #1
- DC One Million #2
- Man Of Steel #1,000,000
- Superman #1,000,000
- Starman #1,000,000
- JLA #1,000,000
- DC One Million #3
- Flash #1,000,000
- Action Comics #1,000,000
- Adventures Of Superman #1,000,000
- Man Of Tomorrow #1,000,000
- Resurrection Man #1,000,000
- DC One Million #4
- Hitman #1,000,000 is hilarious but not part of the plot.

JLA #24-26
JLA #28-31
JLA #34
JLA #36-41

(#27 is by Mark Millar and is just about OK, #42 is by D Curtis Johnson and is quite good, #35 is by JM DeMatteis and is part of some crossover bollocks, the other fill-ins are by Mark Waid or Waid/Grayson and don’t impact your reading by omission. There are also three pages of Morrison in some New Gods Secret Files & Origins special or something which you can probably live without.)

MULTIPLE WARHEADS is really good.

Don't have the Oni Multiple Warheads, so theoretically waiting for the all-in-one but may change my mind if the shop has shelf copies

MULTIPLE WARHEADS is really good.

Car named "Lenin", cuz it ain't "Stalin".