sounds interesting but no pics.. eh
― Nhex, Sunday, 21 May 2017 18:38 (seven years ago) link
Do you mean preview pictures? There's supposed to be 178 pictures in the book but just not nearly enough to cover all that you'd want.
Drawn And Dangerous (the Italian comics book) didn't have enough images but it was a brilliant examination.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 21 May 2017 20:02 (seven years ago) link
this weekend i splurged on the JOJOVELLER art book and it's worth every penny
― just another (diamonddave85), Sunday, 21 May 2017 20:04 (seven years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/CyrCeh2.jpg
basically every page is jaw-dropping. i think i like steel ball run and jojolion the best, but there are some good jolyne ones too
― just another (diamonddave85), Sunday, 21 May 2017 20:07 (seven years ago) link
Finished the run of Chew. Fun book, good times.
― Nhex, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 17:12 (seven years ago) link
Astonishingly, Steve Ditko is working with IDW for Mr A collections to come out. I never thought he'd bother with anyone but Robin Snyder.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 21:27 (seven years ago) link
This is gonna one of those things we highly regret once it comes out, won't we
― Nhex, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 22:02 (seven years ago) link
Depends which end of the black and white card you're at
― twink peas it is happening again (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 23 May 2017 22:12 (seven years ago) link
Mr. A is terrible
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 22:15 (seven years ago) link
My friend and I used to try to use as many of his crazy initialized dialogue formulae
(DOWENOBU = "don't weep now, but")
In conversation as we could
― twink peas it is happening again (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 23 May 2017 22:16 (seven years ago) link
I had a couple of issues of Mr. A in my first collection back in the 80s. I remember them being really f-in weird and having all sorts of wild lettering.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 22:51 (seven years ago) link
The earliest Mr A stories are really well drawn and appealingly weird, like the thing that shouts out letters at people. A lot of the best stuff was splash images of criminals flailing around and sinking into the black side.
The Question was overall better though. The DC reprints of it look awful though.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 23:02 (seven years ago) link
Crackling Blazer is still the weirdest small press thing he ever done. "CABOO!"
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 23:07 (seven years ago) link
I agree that the early Mr A strips that appeared in Witzend and elsewhere are amongst Ditko's best-drawn comics, so to dismiss them as simply 'terrible' seems an inattentive judgement. I don't know of any comic book work (as opposed to newspaper strip work) prior to Mr A that had expressed so plainly a political viewpoint- and tbh, the 'A is A' 'philosophy' espoused isn't any cruder or lacking in nuance than the 'democratic vigilantism' of most mainstream superhero comics. There's something singular about Ditko's best 'political' comics - they're obviously very deeply felt, and that intensity radiates from the page - and in his desire to express his views, he seems to be grasping for a whole new form of comics, reaching its apogee with the utterly unhinged Avenging World comic (which I'm lucky enough to own a signed copy of, inherited from Martin Skidmore, who got a cover out of Ditko for his fanzine FA back in the day.)
Fantagraphics of course published two volumes of Ditko comics, including lots of Mr A, before they had a big fallen out with Sturdy Steve - I expect those volumes are pretty collectible now. It will be interesting to see if the hook-up with IDW lasts longer.
― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 24 May 2017 15:48 (seven years ago) link
I was never able to get the second Fantagraphics collection.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 24 May 2017 18:11 (seven years ago) link
Grrl Scouts are back!!! This totally took me by surprise, but I have a lot of nostalgia for the earlier series (they're some of the first comics I bought myself - the art really caught my eye), so I snapped the new issue up immediately. I've never really been convinced by Jim Mahfood as a writer, but who cares - it's delirious crazy fun, and of course the art is awesome.
― Duane Barry, Thursday, 25 May 2017 00:56 (seven years ago) link
Not quite comic-y, but I was in a London charity bookshop, flipping through Michael Cho's sketchbook of Toronto alleyways, and my old apartment in it. I was like, holy shit, Michael Cho drew my back deck and toilet window
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 27 May 2017 14:12 (seven years ago) link
And *found* my old... I meant
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 27 May 2017 14:13 (seven years ago) link
Amazon has some deal where if you buy a digital graphic novel you get one of a selection of Marvel tpbs free in digital, too. Also, I think I knew but forgot if you want a collection on comiXology, check on amazon because the kindle edition, which also gives it to you on comiXology, sometimes cost half the price (?!?)
― mh, Saturday, 27 May 2017 21:11 (seven years ago) link
Surprise surprise, the Mr A collections are cancelled.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 30 May 2017 17:38 (seven years ago) link
lol
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 30 May 2017 21:32 (seven years ago) link
Just read the first volume of Clean Room by Gail Simone. Reallllllly good, nasty horror. I don't even want to spoil the premise, which is clear by the end of the first volume, but it's real good.
― Nhex, Friday, 16 June 2017 03:57 (six years ago) link
I thought it was really up and down in floppies, entertaining enough but the final act felt superfluous.
― Mud... Jam... Failure... (aldo), Friday, 16 June 2017 12:22 (six years ago) link
really up and down in floppies
*snort*
― cast your vote for fully automated gay space luxury communism (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 16 June 2017 12:28 (six years ago) link
not a fan of Simone's work.Something i read that i kinda love is "Delicious Dungeon" by Ryoko Kui, an RPG cooking manga about a group of adventurers who meet up with an oddball dwarf chef who shows them how to hunt for food inside a dungeon to better LEVEL UPthe recipes are meticulous (there are graphs showing fat/protein content) and it's all meganerdy fun.Scanlated online here: http://mangakakalot.com/manga/dungeon_meshi
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Sunday, 18 June 2017 16:32 (six years ago) link
first volume available in english nowhttps://www.amazon.com/Delicious-Dungeon-Vol-Ryoko-Kui/dp/0316471852
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Sunday, 18 June 2017 16:34 (six years ago) link
I just read the three hardcovers of Casanova and man my head hurts, from the last story especially. Anyone know where I could find a good plot summary or notes to what the hell I just read?
― Nhex, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 04:23 (six years ago) link
The newer ones that follow Luxuria/Gula/Avaritia?
If you want to start a thread, I'm game. I'm not sure there's a great rundown out there, although if you're really lost, it's nice to check a wiki-style site just as a cheat sheet of who the characters were originally before they get twisted through the space-time continuum.
What's been released of the third series is both more straightforward and more of a departure.
― mh, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 13:41 (six years ago) link
Sorry, *fourth* series. For some reason I keep thinking it's the third they're on.
yeah i just finished Avaritia
― Nhex, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 17:28 (six years ago) link
just read josh simmons 'furry trap' and it's immensely disturbing work, right up there with graham ingels and s. clay wilson as the most genuinely unsettling comics i've ever seen. it's cumulative as much as anything but even excerpts are unpleasant.http://68.media.tumblr.com/092c721ea67c070621ab373d996d3894/tumblr_inline_ne6kif2PEc1rb0pi4.png
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, 21 June 2017 19:41 (six years ago) link
checked some excerpts and it verges a bit into johnny ryan-style "macho male misanthropy is hilarious" styles for my liking. but persuade me i'm wrong!
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 22 June 2017 12:38 (six years ago) link
I haven't read his most recent work but that's essentially my take on him
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 22 June 2017 12:41 (six years ago) link
i understand the potential connect with Ryan (who I dig in a different way) but think Simmons work is drastically in a different vein. i don't think his stuff is misanthropic at all so much as it is an exploration of damage. It's painfully labored work and unpleasant to read but there's not really any irony or comedy at play that I can see.
http://www.tcj.com/one-more-lens-through-which-to-process-the-world-a-horror-filled-conversation-with-josh-simmons/
There’s an element of having your cake and eating it too with the violence in my stuff, I suppose: both indulging in it and commenting on it, or having some distance from it. Makes it harder to parse. I know I want the violence in my stories to have weight. I don’t want it to be violence for laughs, or to be numbing. I suppose that’s part of why people sometimes react so strongly to my stuff. Because it isn’t played for laughs, there isn’t an ironic distance. I work hard to make the characters feel believable and real. There’s humor in the stories, but it isn’t at the expense of the victim. What really perplexes me is when critics dismiss the work as a kind of calloused bro humor fuckery, when if anything the work is born out of hypersensitivity and vulnerability.
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Thursday, 22 June 2017 13:54 (six years ago) link
hmm
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 22 June 2017 16:13 (six years ago) link
of course, he references Haneke (who i love) and Von Trier (who i hate) in the same paragraph so ymmv is about right.
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Thursday, 22 June 2017 16:53 (six years ago) link
Not a comics person, but I bought the first issue of the new Vader series today at Newbury Comics.
― the ghost of markers, Thursday, 22 June 2017 18:47 (six years ago) link
I read somewhere that the second one came out yesterday?
yep
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Thursday, 22 June 2017 18:58 (six years ago) link
Got it. Read it. Are all single issues of comics this quick to read?
― the ghost of markers, Saturday, 24 June 2017 01:32 (six years ago) link
most, sure. some are denser when it comes to dialogue or take some scrutiny to really dig into the art
― mh, Saturday, 24 June 2017 01:37 (six years ago) link
I guess I just didn’t know!
― the ghost of markers, Saturday, 24 June 2017 05:11 (six years ago) link
It's something that sticks out for me as someone who imprinted on comics of the 70s and 80s, that many comics of the last 20 years or so are just SUCH fast reads (speaking mainly of mainstream stuff here - alternative stuff still runs the gamut from ridiculously chewy to sinfully lazy). I'm just a lot more comfortable in that verbose, purple but genuinely bizarre world of the first wave of post-Stan hippies.
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 24 June 2017 13:17 (six years ago) link
When I started reading 50s-60s comics it was amazing how long they taken to read and loved seeing lots of small detailed panels but once the novelty wore off and it became apparent how redundant most of the text was, I much prefer minimal text and larger images. Can feel like a ripoff but I think it's better storytelling for the most part.
I bought Sandman Overture and decided immediately that I'd never read it. Looks like way too much work. I like manga for the lack of clutter but the artists I like are so few and far between, unfortunately. Shouldn't be surprising how much price tag and page count restriction shape the storytelling techniques.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 24 June 2017 14:02 (six years ago) link
Remember so many interesting looking alternative comics in expensive hardcover but not much actual content.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 24 June 2017 14:04 (six years ago) link
I think Warren Ellis gets some blame for his philosophical waxing about "cinematic" comics with the larger panel layouts, widescreen-emulating dual page spreads, but it didn't really become an issue for me until it turned into writers trying to pull off the same shtick without thinking it through, and handing it to artists who were in a deadline crunch.
The previous Vader book was denser, but I could see an argument for using the style with that character. You could do a hell of a lot with a guy who doesn't speak a whole lot moving through these low-dialogue scenarios just going crazy with throwing guys around, lightsaber action, etc. I'm not sure how well this current book is doing that.
― mh, Saturday, 24 June 2017 14:05 (six years ago) link
Manga is for sure the real influence, but there's a reason those volumes are so thick!
― mh, Saturday, 24 June 2017 14:06 (six years ago) link
The style really needs to merit the large panels. I prefer heavily illustrated comics, so bigger panels become more desirable for the images to achieve full effect.
Anyone seen Superani? It's a Korean collective of mostly very skilled artists, some of them do comics. I knew Jung Gi Kim and Woojin Oh but the rest aren't familiar. http://www.superani.com/index01.html
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 24 June 2017 14:19 (six years ago) link
I like the looser lines, don't know if that's a Korean thing, but I have heard that Korean artists are more anatomically realistic than Japanese generally.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 24 June 2017 14:23 (six years ago) link
I think Warren Ellis gets some blame for his philosophical waxing about "cinematic" comics with the larger panel layouts, widescreen-emulating dual page spreads,
― mh, Saturday, 24 June 2017 15:05
I remember some of this. My main objection at the time was mainstream comics culture's nauseating reverence for blockbuster films (which has probably gotten worse).
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 24 June 2017 14:26 (six years ago) link