Rolling SERIOUS GRAPHIC LITERATURE Thread for Comics in 2016

kids gonna have some issues

I just finished reading the first book of Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks (of Superhero Girl and Friends with Boys fame), and it was excellent! Kinda reminded me of Avatar the Last Airbender (the animated series, not the awful movie adaptation), in that it takes place in an Eastern Asian influenced fantasy world, and deals with the effects of colonialism and war in a thoughtful and multi-faceted way, while still being appropriate for kids. It's more low fantasy though, with no magical/supernatural elements in the story, at least not yet. Can't wait for the next book in the series to come out.

Also, I really like Hicks' artwork, it's so clean and flows so effortlessly:

http://www.trbimg.com/img-56fc2f2a/turbine/07-namelesscity-faitherinhicks-jk-15things-0404-j-20160330

yeah, that looks godo.

good, even.

Tuomas, have you read Carla Speed McNeil's Finder? I have no idea why that description reminded me of Finder, but it did, and it's good.

only just investigated the, er, archives at libgen.io, and hooooooly shit

how would one join?

Tuomas, have you read Carla Speed McNeil's Finder? I have no idea why that description reminded me of Finder, but it did, and it's good.

I actually have the first few Finder books in my shelf, and I tried to read it from the beginning, but it felt so dense and kinda hard to follow that I didn't manage to finish the first book. I should try it again one of these days.

Tuomas, you should read the "Talisman" arc sometime (it's been printed as a separate volume): it ties into some of the series' ongoing narratives, but it's compelling and accessible on its own. ("Mystery Date" and "Dream Sequence" also work without requiring too much prior knowledge.) I love Finder, but the first arc (Sin Eater) is probably the least inviting part of the series.

Shittiness

http://www.newsarama.com/29274-creator-darwyn-cooke-receiving-palliative-care-for-aggressive-cancer.html

that sucks.

That's terrible. Palliative usually = the prognosis is terminal, iirc.

aw man. those animated shows were so good. :(

I hadn't put his name together with his work, but I grew up on Batman: TAS, and his animation work holds up so well. Very, very sad.

That's awful. He's such great artist with a clear vision and imaginative sense of design, as retro as it may be. DC New Frontier and those Donald Westlake adaptations were a joy to read.

Very sad, really liked his work

Rest in peace, Darwyn

??

Yeah, the announcement of palliative care was very much a last minute thing. RIP

Or not? Some real confusion.

He's still alive AFAICT.

Now confirmed to have passed on by Mike Allred (although the confusion is not helped by him deleting the confirmation by Darwyn's wife Marsha - she apparently wants time to come to terms with it before it's announced.)

Sad news. Cooke's work is wonderful.

I went to one of Darwyn's lectures at TCAF about a decade ago, he seemed like a swell guy, very supportive of other artists, whether they were DC or D&Q, he wasn't snobby. He spoke about being relieved to get away from superhero stuff, that he'd been preparing something autobiographical - I wonder what happened with that?

I also remember his storytelling advice: "There's no scene that couldn't be improved by being set in an abandoned fairground" - legit the best writing advice I've ever heard.

He spoke about being relieved to get away from superhero stuff, that he'd been preparing something autobiographical - I wonder what happened with that?

He was seduced back with The Spirit offer and couldn't resist, sadly.

been busy buying and reading a bunch of stuff written by Ales Kot

I often forget how many years I spent reading Beano, Dandy, Beezer and Topper when I was little. I might be remembering wrong but it seems like so many of the plots were about getting food. Not sure I was ever an actual fan of many of the stories apart from maybe a few characters like Korky The Cat but I did read hundreds of them.
I always fucking hated Dennis The Menace, why did anyone like that stupid looking asshole? I wanted the other characters to murder him.

Dairy Queen had Dennis the Menace characters on their cups for a number of years so I have a tolerance

Different Dennis. Those Brits have zero respect for US IP, I tells ya.

IIRC the two Dennises were created independently of each other, they both debuted in the same year?

Yes, I keed, I keed. And not just the same year but the same week.

Is good, on Darwyn Cooke:

http://thewalrus.ca/capes-and-tights/

I guess any of the special free comics from free comic book day will all be gone? I wanted that Mignola/Corben short so I guess I'll have to wait til it's collected into a book?

not sure if anyone here works in your local comic shop

But generally in comic shops I'm guessing they give them all away pretty quickly

okay

If it's not some ridiculously limited edition thing, you should be able to find it for purchase online pretty easily and at a reasonable price.

I've come to accept that my expectation of free FCBD comics shouldn't extend past the actual date of FCBD.

Looks like Comixology/Amazon now has an unlimited subscription plan thing, with a handful of publishers contributing content.

The browsing is kind of half-assed on the web, which is true of most of the unlimited services (I've used Marvel Unlimited and some other service, maybe Scribd, for reading Valiant titles). It looks like some titles from Image/IDW/Valiant/Dark Horse/Fantagraphics (!)/Boom! Studios are on there now.

among other publishers, which I failed to notice on the first screen

on another note, going back to the conversation about the state of comic book retailers...

I had some errands to run near a comic/game store I don't usually frequent. Their comics section isn't bad these days! I have no idea why, but they decided to run with the business decision of stocking as many collections and graphic novels as possible, which is great. Unfortunately, when I got to the cash register, a gamer dude was breathlessly pontificating at the cashier about the balance of some game or another pending some new expansion. HE SMELLED SO BAD. Like, I usually brush off the stereotype of gamers as really awkward dudes who smell bad but GOOD GOD MAN

Probably v slow on the uptake here, but recently discovered the great comics of Kate Beaton, many of which are free to read here:

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php

i am off to look into that comixology subscription, would love a better option than torrenting for casual reading

I've read many entertaining anecdotes about bad comic shop experiences. Often about shop workers insulting customers.

Here's a favourite I remember

Customer: Do you have any Creepy issues from Warren?
Comic Store Guy: Creepy is from Dark Horse, idiot!

Any of you guys have any memorably bad experiences?

While the range of titles is deep, however, the amount you can read from each title is relatively thin. Many comics are limited to just the first volume. Anything beyond that, well, you can pick up the collections from Comixology.

Apparently the service plans to cycle through the content being offered, much like Netflix does, with new and old series and issues being added but with no specific window announced yet.

Jesus christ, the idea of a digital comic service that's run like Netflix makes me want to die. Read issues 1-5, 7, 15, and 32 this month and then maybe two months from now they'll swap those out with like half the issues that were missing.

lol that's how i read elf quest as a kid - i went to the library and took out whichever of those oversized hard covers they had available. iirc i read the last volume first and had no idea who any of the characters were.

for $6 a month you can read the first twenty pages and then random chapters in all our novels! how can you lose!

honestly that's how pretty much all of the subscription ones are run right now afaik, with Marvel being the one that seems to delete few while continually adding more

I would love, and probably pay extra for, a service that was just "here's every available comic we're able to offer from this publisher" for a premium price, with the acknowledgement that people are going to subscribe for a couple months to binge everything from several series. But that doesn't keep people hanging on to their subscriptions. It looks like their compromise is a scattering of content for $6 per month. Which is a nice deal, but it's obviously meant as a taster to get you to buy more titles.