2014 what are you reading thread

xpost You'd like to think there's room for that, but, yeah, I can imagine trying to do anything really different with the deeply entrenched Big Two properties is like hitting your head against a wall.

it wasn't anything all that different, I mean it would have totally flown on a different title, maybe even a different title in the bat group. Just wasn't a good tack to take for that particular book.

~lyfe~

~regretz~

yeah but that doesn't even seem to make business sense! look at the archie editorial policy and how well they're doing just trying off the wall shit to see how it impacts. You can keep canon for movies and "mainstream universe" titles but i imagine a creator driven beto wonder woman book would probably at least double in circulation and get a shit ton of press so why aren't DC aggressively fighting that direction rather than trying to reboot the reboot of their reboot? It's just dumb.

like, fuck, give this guy above me Swamp Thing for fucks sake! See what happens!

R.A.G, again, I also contributed to 1001 Comics To Read Before You Die so caveat emptor, but that book's coverage of 'foreign' comics is the best of any English language survey, imho. Funnily enough, some of the American comics choices in the UK/American edition were dropped from some of the European editions (so, surprise, the French version of 1001 Comics... has a lot more French comics to read before you die.)

I distinctly remember finding out that Beto was writing Birds of Prey when I saw his name on one of the covers, several issues into his run, and thinking, "surely, it isn't the Gilbert Hernandez I'm thinking of or I would've heard something about this."

Ward- That's odd. Another thing I though was a mistake was the UK edition having Dredd on the cover, I think it should have tried to attract a wider variety of people with a less genre-specific cover.

I heard Beto got shit from a lot of people for doing a DC title.

yeah but that doesn't even seem to make business sense! look at the archie editorial policy and how well they're doing just trying off the wall shit to see how it impacts. You can keep canon for movies and "mainstream universe" titles but i imagine a creator driven beto wonder woman book would probably at least double in circulation and get a shit ton of press so why aren't DC aggressively fighting that direction rather than trying to reboot the reboot of their reboot? It's just dumb.

― Look at this joke I've recognised, do you recognise it as well? (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, July 15, 2014 2:24 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It COULD have made good business sense if they'd played the angle up from their PR dept (whoa shit indie cartoonists writing bat books hey look entertainment weekly) but I don't think I appreciated at the time that titles didn't really get promoted unless they were already a hit; just like with the indie auteur things I did it would have been up to me to go line up interviews and stir up enthusiasm. Like, they did make a press release when me, Dylan, Beto, Anderson Gabrych were put on the titles but that was it, they then just waited for us to dry up and expire.

And if such a comic was a roaring success, they'd base a movie on it and all sorts of merchandise but not pay the creators properly (if at all).

Yeah, but I think most creators acknowledge that going into the deal these days.

yeah I wasn't worried abt that. Page rate was ok and they paid fast once you turned the work in. And there would be royalties if things went to trade (LOL they are never gonna collect these robins in a million years).

What about royalties from digital versions?

I didn't realise Gilbert Hernandez actually was doing a little Wonder Woman thing.

he's not that i'm aware of? i was just using that as an example. i wish he would.

http://comicsalliance.com/gilbert-hernandez-sensation-comics-featuring-wonder-woman-dc-digital-first/

Finger on the pulse, there, forks.

huh. well it makes sense.

kinda but still weird

Another DC imprint called Helix focused on science fiction, including a Lucius Shepard series called Vermillion (wonder if there is a prose version?), Some titles got carried over to Vertigo.

What about royalties from digital versions?

If Jon's issues were available digitally, DC would start paying out at 60,000 sales.

lol Transmetropolitan started on helix

yeah, i have those somewhere. with the exception of that and matt howarth's book i think i hated every helix comic i read

which reminds me, 2020 Visions was an awesome comic that was never collected by Vertigo, but has a b&w collection. I would almost recommend finding the original though.

Been looking at loads of Dave McKean covers, never released how much he resembled Vaughn Oliver and Quay Brothers.

Yeah he is almost a quay biter tbh

they're quay better

Dockwood - Jon McNaught - just caught up w/ this guy, gorgeous illustrative cartooning set in a small English town, equal parts Chris Ware and Phillip Larkin

So I just got in that mood, and re-read The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck for the umpteenth time. It really is one of the great novels of the nineties. Every time it returns to Scotland, it just gets me.

preach

I really should pick up that book

i probably already said this but ms. marvel and the wicked + the divine are both killing the shit out of everything rn and you should be reading them

adorable guest appearance (arc??) with wolverine in ms marvel this month

Journey Into Mystery aside, there's a combination of smugness and emo and try-hardiness about Gillen's comics that I find completely toxic. I totally get his appeal. But his characters are spanners.

I love Ms Marvel though!

i don't disagree with you about the tone but they do generally make for good readin' nonetheless

So guys, what was the last comic that really knocked your fucking socks off?

For me the best parts of Miura's Berserk did that. The second volume of Phoenix by Tezuka was close to that. Sadly both of them were last year I think.

last one that comes to mind was this:
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2014/01/exclusive-preview-what-we-need-to-know-by-willy-linthout/

i don't want to encourage that

?

lettering in those samples was unbearable

i like that lettering! and i like linthout's previous book a lot as well:
http://www.amazon.com/Years-Elephant-Willy-Linthout/dp/8492444304

smugness and emo and try-hardiness about Gillen's comics

haha i totally sense this arrogance/smugness in the writing but i'm sorta taking it as part of the conceit of having so many deity characters

Yeah, that's why he's great at writing Loki! But I find it tiring when every character is a variation on that theme.

The smugness is part of his trademark style tbh, going back to his game reviewing days

Game reviewing! I get it now. I don't like it. But I get it.

btw I don't mean that as a slam, I was very fond of his games journo work

should i read phonogram if enjoying w+d btw y/n

Yes! I didn't like it either so you probably will. The first series is better though than "Singles Club".

haha ok

just bought the whole young avengers run and am pretty gobsmacked at how great it is

a lot of it reminds me of buffy at its best

gieron & mckelvie's run, that is