2014 what are you reading thread

crossed was just like diving into his own moral abyss like what horrific thing can he dream up next oh i know raping zombies raping ppl's faces to death that'll shock them.

I'm not sure if you've probably read Crossed? Sure, the zombies are there doing all the horrible things (though unless I totally misremember it, they don't actually rape any of the human characters in the comic, just each other), but considering what someone with the imagination of Ennis could've done with the concept, it's actually fairly subdued. Anyway, the whole point of the comic is that the absolute amorality/social nihilism the zombies represent is used as contrast to the very hard moral choices the human survivors have to make. So Crossed is all about morality and what makes us human, it's actually more serious and far less indulgent than many other Ennis comics (including The Boys).

i have read crossed

And yeah, obviously the zombie/human contrast is at the heart of most zombie apocalypse stories, but I think Crossed actually puts an interesting twist into it, because Ennis's zombies aren't mindless flesh-eaters, they still have their wits, they've just utterly amoral and totally hedonistic. So it doesn't become your typical survival of the fittest parable, where the zombies are equated with animals/nature, it's more about what morality means in a world where it's become almost extinct.

(xpost)

Sorry about the typo, I meant to write "properly read", not "probably read". Anyway, I don't want to sound condescending or anything, but if all you remember of the comic is "moral abyss" and "gross zombies", then you probably didn't quite get what it was all about.

lol just to be sure i opened up the first issue of the entire run and on the second to last page, just as i remembered it...

trigger warning

i mean, this certainly read for me at the time as just vileness for its own sake (which tbh i really shouldn't be complaining about since i've been enjoying my copy of fukitor) and not w/out a lot of nuance unless u have a specific semiotic reading of this panel that i am missing

I dunno, obviously Crossed is still quite extreme, but I think there is a fine line between illustrating your point and being indulgent. Yeah, I guess Ennis and Burrows could've toned that scene down, but like I said, they want to paint a picture of utter loss of morality. And that scene is limited to the one panel you posted. Compare it to Alan Moore's Neonomicon (also drawn by Burrows) which has a disgusting mass rape scene that goes on for several pages. Now, horrific violence and rape are part of both of these stories, you can't really tell them without it, but Ennis most certainly doesn't indulge on it the way Moore does. Of course your opinion may vary whether Crossed still shows too much of it, I can certainly understand that opinion... Ultimately it's a question of how much vileness you really need to show to get the "horror" part across... I know it's a fine line to walk, but I still feel Ennis and Burrows mostly stay on the "justified" side, rather than the "indulgent" side.

trigger warning

jesus christ sometimes I hate comics

I dunno, IMO The Boys is notably less sexist and homophobic than some of Ennis' earlier works, such as Preacher. It's true that the series starts pretty horrifically with Starlight, the main female protagonist, being forced to perform oral sex on one of the superhero villains, and at first it felt like Ennis was treating this mostly as ultra-black comedy to depict how horrible the superheroes are, and I was almost ready to quit reading there and then, but Ennis does actually take the rape issue seriously and, despite all the expectations, manages to make Starlight into a sympathetic three-dimensional character instead of just a throwaway victim, which I thought was actually quite impressive.

I'll go a step further and say I still have a lot of love for Preacher, even with its flaws

Vileness for its own sake, indulgence, lack of nuance -- I think those things are selling points for Ennis. Why question assumptions about race, gender, sexuality etc. when you can just flay a child in the back corner of a comics panel? He probably think he's very open-minded.

buncha comix just came in the mail for giftmas and such

Random issues of Nemo magazine
complete run of Manga Vizion
final book of dungeon (i am rereading the whole series)
the Don Rosa slipcase Uncle Scrooge books
the Richard Thompson art book
Won Ton Soup by stokoe

i will be buying Here shortly.

so idk who's been reading "the wicked & the divine" as uh religiously as i have, but the new issue of sex criminals includes an extended riff on a porn movie called 'the lick-ed and the divine' starring two wicdiv character lookalikes, had me roaring on the bus

Havent gotten the fukitor collection yet but now I kinda want it

in some ways it's better just bc it's so insane - it clearly understands that it is pulpy pornographic cartoon violence and it delivers gleeful thrills on every page. ennis takes himself too seriously and so his violence + grossness are such intense downers.

Lol of course yr here :)

Meant to link this is previous post

http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2013/10/the-feminist-phantasmagoria-of-fukitor/

The TCJ review gave me pause initially, but ultimately it felt at odds with the bits I've seen.

from the aforementioned "ahem" forum: the complete Miss Don't Touch Me with at least two chapters of not-yet-released-in-America material
I have the first two US books (and will buy the others when they are released here) but getting them now on digital is a great giftmas treat.

Pretty sure that is the collection that just came out from nbm.

Well, the new book is the page count of the combined first two volumes. If the story is still going after that, why did NBM call it complete?

Wish NBM had wider distribution, I rarely see their books, even in specialist stores. Probably doesn't help that so much of their output has so much extreme content, even the stuff that looks all-ages friendly.

Wish nbm would do a completist Rick Geary compendium. There's soooo much magazine and anthology stuff that was never collected.

Wish NBM had wider distribution,

They have broader distribution than DC Comics to comic book stores, and the same UK bookstore distribution as Marvel, Archie, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, Legendary, Humanoids, Knockabout, Blank Slate, Panini and Toon Books, not to mention Bantam, Doubleday, National Geographic, Putnam and Moleskine notebooks.

Jon - They've got some Geary books coming. Just saw them in the upcoming section.

Sic - I'm a little surprised by that. I do see some and have bought a few in recent times, but somehow I never see Dungeon in Forbidden Planet or Waterstones.

okay, so wrt Miss Don't Touch Me: It seems their "complete" edition adds about 30 to 50 pages of new material. They are "sold out" of volume one and are selling volume two for $3 on their website and there is no volume three to be purchased. This is one of those cases where i feel well justified, having bought the first two volumes at retail, to download the unpublished finale. Very disappointing way to treat a reader/customer imo.

Wolf Hall by Mantel. Next: Wolf's Hour by McCammon.

got all excited for half a second about a graphic novel adaptation of wolf hall

seems like it would be well suited for an adaptation

meaning TV or film

was hella confused until i realized calstars doesn't know this is the comics thread

it's a new year, someone remember to put COMIX ED. in the next one

lol sorry dudes!

i was thinking if someone was doing robert r mccammon comic adaptations i was gonna hafta go get those.

they are doing a tv adap of wolf hall xp hbo iirc?

it's a new year, someone remember to put COMIX ED. in the next one

No!

ILC was here first, the ILB folks should put "BOOKS WITH JUST TEXT AND NO PICS ED." to their thread.

it's just too much to ask these "books" people to know what board they're on

But I enjoy our usual cycle of "mistaken post about Thomas Paine biography" followed by passive-aggressive rebuttal of comics' worth

ILC was here first, the ILB folks should put "BOOKS WITH JUST TEXT AND NO PICS ED." to their thread.

― Tuomas, Monday, 29 December 2014

That would probably rule out a lot of books, especially nonfiction.

sigh

"what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"

http://media.giphy.com/media/6ZHUmnZdVQB9K/giphy.gif

Been stuck at home sick for the past week so got into Blacksad and The Wake

I was really put off by the whole furry connotations of Blacksad but it is a gorgeous piece of work

The Wake begins as a stereotypical Eurocomix thing but keeps building the moral ambiguity and craft until by the fifth or sixth vol it's totally cranking

Wake is pretty good, yes

Going to start a "What are you Watching" on the I Love Game Casting board.

Curious what youse thought about the end of the Wake (potential spoiler - I thought it was a daft cop-out and waste of potential)

First seven-eight issues are terrific tho'

Oh it ends? I'm only up to ... no. 11. They just announced no. 17, so I didn't think it was wrapping up. (Are we talking about the same book? I'm talking about the French one, 'Sillage')

Haha, I'm thinking of some trashy Vertigo comic. Yours sounds better.

http://www.eurocomics.info/wake.html

Someone's gotta name the new 2015 thread and I'm not going to screw it up.

I'll screw it up then.
Rolling 2015 Reading Funnybooks Thread