Tried the first omnibus of Valerian & Laureline (titled simply Valerian to tie in with the film), consisting of the first 3 volumes. Gave up just over half way through. I could see the improvements by the third episode and that is where many say it really begins but at the time I just couldn't hack it. I didn't hate it or anything but things about the style and the panel arrangements made it a bit offputting for me. Read the Tuomas guide and since his recommendation would require only a further 3 omnibuses, I think I'll buy those and try again later. This might be a bad idea to ignore all my warning signs but I'm just very intrigued by all this acclaim. I'm bad for buying comics in bulk and then realizing I just cant get very far with them. I try to block out my memory how much they cost.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 4 January 2019 19:06 (five years ago) link
Yeah, sadly Valerian & Laureline is your textbook example of "gets better as it progresses". It started out as an adventure comic for kids, which is obvious with the first two books. The political allegory and social commentary doesn't really kick in until the 1970s. Looking at what's included in the omnibuses, vol. 2 is already way better than vol. 1, and vol. 3 has what I would argue are the three best books in the entire series. So if you still don't like it after reading vol. 3, there's no point in buying any of the later ones, it doesn't get any better than that.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 8 January 2019 11:08 (five years ago) link
And you absolutely should not buy vols 6 & 7, the diminishing quality of both the art and especially the writing is just sad. Vol 5 is borderline, IMO only one of the three books included in it ("The Living Weapons") is good, and you really don't need to follow the longer story arc beyond "The Wrath of Hypsis", which provides a decent enough finale for the series. The actual series finale ("Memories from the Futures") is just embarrassingly bad.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 8 January 2019 11:14 (five years ago) link
Haha, looks like even Cinebook realised "Memories from the Futures" is bad, because it's not included in the omnibuses, the final omnibus ends with the penultimate book. Though to be fair, the penultimate book was originally supposed to be the final book, until Mezieres and Christin decided to do one more victory lap.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 8 January 2019 11:19 (five years ago) link
Love Tom King's stuff and Clay Mann's a good artist, I've been reading Heroes in Crisis.Anyone read #4? It's weird that... well... there's some strangely contextualized sexualized female shots in this? Maybe it's just me, but I'm talking about the full page Lois pin-up in the Superman shirt and panties saying "What do you want me to do?" to the reader and ESPECIALLY the Batgirl confession that has her pointing out her bullet wound in an almost fetishistic fashion.If this were an everyday teen manga I probably wouldn't even notice it but it's really odd in such a serious story, isn't it?
― Nhex, Friday, 11 January 2019 00:20 (five years ago) link
I saw a few articles in the comic/pop-culture press reporting on that (one included the full Batgirl page as part of the discussion). A particular panel of Poison Ivy was also being discussed in the same context (I won't mention the specific content of the panel, as it's spoiler-y).
My "takeaway" was that I've seen more sexualized art in comics; but I've also seen, er, less sexualized art. It didn't look like something I'd want to read, anyway.
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Friday, 11 January 2019 00:32 (five years ago) link
(for other reasons, artwork aside... but I also didn't care for the art.)
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Friday, 11 January 2019 00:33 (five years ago) link
I didn't completely see the furore about the Batgirl page - I didn't think it was any worse than the Poison Ivy or Black Canary ones - but the Lois page, which nowhere seems to making a big deal out of that I read, was just awful.
I've actually been nearly enjoying Heroes In Crisis at the plot level, but the execution is kind of off.
― Bimlo Horsewagon became Wheelbarrow Horseflesh (aldo), Friday, 11 January 2019 10:21 (five years ago) link
heroes in crisis feels a bit like a geoff johns joint tbh which is to say, i'm not liking it
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 11 January 2019 12:23 (five years ago) link
King's style has become too self-parodic and decompressed - like he's having his own "overindulgent mid-2000s Bendis" phase.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 11 January 2019 15:20 (five years ago) link
And I'm not sure having stabby psychopaths and Booster doing Robin Williams in Fisher King is really the greatest way of, er, "addressing mental health issues". (I mean, for comparison's sake, look how great Stan Lee - of all people! - is at portraying depression in FF 51.)
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 11 January 2019 15:25 (five years ago) link
:)
To quote Alan Moore: “None of you understand. I'm not locked up in here with YOU. You're locked up in here with ME.” 🤣 https://t.co/8TCmKNJlkD— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 11, 2019
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 11 January 2019 17:32 (five years ago) link
beat me to it
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 11 January 2019 18:34 (five years ago) link
FWIW, Alan Moore said he was terrified that there were actually people out there who thought Rorschach was cool.— Elitist Dentist-Goer (@agraybee) January 11, 2019
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Friday, 11 January 2019 19:20 (five years ago) link
I guess we're only allowed to cheekily quote sympathetic fictional characters now
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 11 January 2019 19:26 (five years ago) link
Given the critical faculties of a public that is probably convinced that AOC will be donning a swirly-twirly mask any day now, I guess so.
― A Nugatory Excrescence (Old Lunch), Friday, 11 January 2019 19:37 (five years ago) link
Bought a two issue serialization of Kaluta's Carson Of Venus. Why bother serializing a reprint over two issues? For the variant covers probably. I think serializing reprints in floppies is madness in general.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 25 January 2019 20:42 (five years ago) link
I got a cut out hardcover of Annihilator by Grant Morrison and Frasier Irving last weekend. Irving's artwork is even better than the DC stuff he did with Morrison and some pages seem to be channeling some Bill Sienkiewicz during Elektra Assassin days. It's a fun read, pretty much Grant goes to Hollywood story and the multiverse reacts.
― earlnash, Saturday, 26 January 2019 20:36 (five years ago) link
I also happen to be re-reading Valis by PKD and Annihilator has two items both the "download into the mind" and "the creator god was insane, which is why the universe is f-ed up" sentiments pretty much straight from the book. It was a very PKD synchronicity.
― earlnash, Saturday, 26 January 2019 20:37 (five years ago) link
Irving's artwork is even better than the DC stuff he did with Morrison
disagree, the almost total absence of backgrounds especially makes panel-to-panel continuity a pain to try and infer
― sans lep (sic), Saturday, 26 January 2019 21:19 (five years ago) link
Irving's artwork is a bit different style, he seems to use a bunch more feathery detail work on everything. Some of the pages are also almost designed paintings with the text overlaid including the pages on the godworld and viewing the space station. Those were some of the pages that reminded me of Billy the Sink.
Can't remember if Irving colored his own artwork on the DC comics or not.
― earlnash, Saturday, 26 January 2019 21:40 (five years ago) link
I thought it was pretty fun and would read a sequel, if ever made.
― earlnash, Saturday, 26 January 2019 21:41 (five years ago) link
Need to track down the last 2 issues of Nameless, which I never got on my pull list. Did not see how that crazy story was going to wrap up in 2 issues at all, it seemed like it was setup to be a longer series to me on the first 4.
― earlnash, Saturday, 26 January 2019 21:43 (five years ago) link
I lost patience with Nameless, the body horror stuff was a bit offputting. IMO GM is much stronger at showing the horror/weirdness in the quotidian that going full oogum-boogum-horror.
I kinda hate Irving's art, I'm afraid. Klarion was fine but everything since has Bachalo-levels of unintelligibility to me, and I don't like the way he draws faces.
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 28 January 2019 13:24 (five years ago) link
*than going
I know this is not exactly the right thread for this - do we have a thread for superhero movies that don't have their own thread yet? - but the news that there's going to be a Birds of Prey movie with* Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn* Jurney Smollett-Bell as Black Canary* Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress* Rosie Perez as Renee Montoyahas brightened my day a bit
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 15:25 (five years ago) link
Formatting help you lieeeee
i'll put money on that movie never materialising
― maxwell’s silver hang suite (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 29 January 2019 15:28 (five years ago) link
You don't think they'll release the Birds of Prey movie they're shooting right now?
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 15:51 (five years ago) link
It's the next The Day the Clown Cried.
― See you later, I'm going to go take a look at this suicide robot. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 29 January 2019 15:58 (five years ago) link
I knew that would happen once I heard about the subplot with Jared Leto in a concentration camp.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 15:59 (five years ago) link
St Marks Place closing next monthhttps://www.facebook.com/stmarkscomicsny/posts/1981009038615305
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 31 January 2019 21:18 (five years ago) link
Huh... I lived in NYC at one point, but don’t remember a comic shop on St. Marks.
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Friday, 1 February 2019 05:11 (five years ago) link
Seriously?!? That place was my store for like six years. It's very much what I think of when I think of a comic book shop.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 1 February 2019 05:13 (five years ago) link
so... if i want to give less money to amazon but my LCS is a dumpster fire (I've ordered about a dozen books this year through them that just never showed up) what's a good slightly more ethical source of comix
― Nhex, Tuesday, 19 February 2019 06:35 (five years ago) link
buying direct from the artists, or from What Things Do, or Wow Cool, or Spit And A Half (though I think he's reducing his operations?), or Emerald Comics Distro, or direct from publishers, or from comic shops that do mail order, or etc etc etc
― steven, soda jerk (sic), Tuesday, 19 February 2019 08:04 (five years ago) link
Try doing that from Australia and you'll be bankrupt in a day.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Tuesday, 19 February 2019 21:20 (five years ago) link
I pretty much used to use my tax return to clear off my comics-ordering bill for the year, before postage went completely insane 5-6 years ago.
buying Australian comics direct from the artists has pretty much been the only option in Sydney since Land Beyond Beyond closed 20-odd years ago
― steven, soda jerk (sic), Tuesday, 19 February 2019 21:29 (five years ago) link
i looked at those but they're pretty specific to particular artists and labelslooking for more general stuff. maybe i'll just stick to midtowncomics
― Nhex, Wednesday, 20 February 2019 05:52 (five years ago) link
well you did just ask for more ethical sources of comics w/ no further guidelines! buying direct from the artists is usu. going to limit you to those artists’ comics, yeah
― steven, soda jerk (sic), Wednesday, 20 February 2019 07:12 (five years ago) link
closing entry on the ham fisher/al capp feud on TCJ comes with a solidly intriguing theory on the grit that caused the pearl:http://www.tcj.com/hubris-and-chutzpah-how-lil-abner-kayod-joe-palooka-and-both-their-creators-came-to-grief-part-9/
Was surprised to find this on spotify btw:https://folkways.si.edu/al-capp/an-interview-with/oral-history-biography/album/smithsonianhttps://open.spotify.com/album/1eWf9BydlQx4uTfH7WodAt?si=bDnVHUCFTCmyy9ga5bpoLA
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 21 February 2019 20:34 (five years ago) link
In December, Viz releases Junji Ito's adaptation of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human. I had no idea he had done such a thing.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 23 February 2019 21:59 (five years ago) link
Gahan Wilson is suffering from advanced dementia and needs help. His wife of many decades passed away Saturday and as a result he is going to be discharged from the assisted living facility where they lived. https://www.gofundme.com/gahan-wilson-team-effortSpeaking for myself, Wilson was the first invasion of my little mind by the Weird - my uncle gave my dad a copy of And Then We’ll Get Him for Xmas when I was 7 or 8 and I imbibed it utterly, terrified and transfixed by a world of bodily instability, disease and mutation which was also, apparently, funny??? God bless this man.
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Monday, 4 March 2019 17:36 (five years ago) link
that's hugely sad to hear
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 4 March 2019 19:53 (five years ago) link
I'm reading Uncomfortably Happily by Yeon-sik Hong. Comics artist couple move from Seoul to the sticks and deal with career and money worries, the cold, transportation. The protagonist is an archetypal Indie Comics Dude in a way - self loathing, neurotic, frequently a dick to his wife. But despite that I'm finding the narrative likeable and engaging - also fascinated by the author's choice of doing frequent musical numbers, which surely is not what the medium of comics is best suited to.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 5 March 2019 10:39 (five years ago) link
that's an interesting book but soooooooooooooooo long.but it's a biography so he's really gotta makes you feel their pain
― Nhex, Wednesday, 6 March 2019 00:54 (five years ago) link
Yeah, it's super long. I got through most of it at one sitting because I was waiting for something, otherwise I dunno if I would have had the patience.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 6 March 2019 11:01 (five years ago) link
That Kirkman related Die!Die!Die! was not very good at all. I liked some of Chris Burhams earlier comics but man this one is gory as he!!. It's definitely trying to go over the top like something written by Garth Ennis, Millar or Hickman have done but with even less nuance.
― earlnash, Saturday, 9 March 2019 18:02 (five years ago) link
Also kinda weird that it came out through Image the same time as Gillen/Hans' Die (which I'm liking so far!)
― Nhex, Saturday, 9 March 2019 18:37 (five years ago) link
Kirkman is not very good at all
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 9 March 2019 19:01 (five years ago) link
^^^
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 14 November 2019 12:11 (four years ago) link
btw Jon I read your ^^^ last night, then went to bed and you turned up as a "character" in the comic I read
― insecurity bear (sic), Friday, 15 November 2019 08:59 (four years ago) link
https://www.instagram.com/p/B40uSVDFAFO/
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 15 November 2019 16:13 (four years ago) link
Spurgeon was a nice refreshing voice amid the rest.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 15 November 2019 18:56 (four years ago) link
Xpost sic was this a comic you read while dreaming or are you referring to the issue of Fatale where Tom H and I get iced?
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Friday, 15 November 2019 19:34 (four years ago) link
gonna need an issue number here
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 15 November 2019 19:35 (four years ago) link
was this a comic you read while dreaming or are you referring to the issue of Fatale where Tom H and I get iced?
neither! Rookie Moves by N0vember G4rcia Spurgeon was a nice refreshing voice amid the rest.
gonna disagree with the implication I'm reading here: a major project of Tom's in his life and his work was to highlight and enhance the wide variety of interested, caring, and worthwhile voices that are talking about comics everywhere, all the time.
― insecurity bear (sic), Friday, 15 November 2019 20:09 (four years ago) link
Perhaps I'm just remembering a specific time when I was mostly around Comics Journal associated circles but I got the impression that he was a lot mellower and less deep into feuds than everyone else. Not to say there weren't a lot of good people, because there was and that community was important to me but that's just how I remember his place in it.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 15 November 2019 20:18 (four years ago) link
Top of the head, if I try and think of writers that Tom brought into the Journal, it's mild-mannered Chris Mautner, Bart Beaty writing about untranslated European albums, Ray Mescallado getting a monthly superhero column, gentleman Gil Roth... (while the feud-free Spurge himself was adding a Melody-Maker-style two-page spread of opening snark to every issue, and writing things like Shit List! and The Butt-Eye Address by "David Peters")
Agree that he didn't hold or build personal feuds in public, but this was more a function of him seeing disagreement and argument as valuable in discussion of art and labour.
― insecurity bear (sic), Friday, 15 November 2019 22:12 (four years ago) link
this gave me the inspiration to read Julia Wertz's memoir Drinking at the Movies, which was... sigh.
[...] there are several funny jokes in this, but Christ, the quality of artwork is just so bad.
I’ve never looked at old artwork and been like, this is fine. But luckily I’m also aware that it doesn’t actually matter at all. pic.twitter.com/TEQQTPuRsg— Julia Wertz (@Julia_Wertz) November 15, 2019
― insecurity bear (sic), Friday, 15 November 2019 23:07 (four years ago) link
that... is... some regression
― Nhex, Saturday, 16 November 2019 17:29 (four years ago) link
You’re gonna plotz if you ever find out about James Thurber
― insecurity bear (sic), Saturday, 16 November 2019 20:15 (four years ago) link
TCJ's Spurgeon obit is up
― Brakhage, Tuesday, 19 November 2019 01:30 (four years ago) link
how mad Dean must have been to work in the same office as a fat person 20 years ago
― insecurity bear (sic), Tuesday, 19 November 2019 02:09 (four years ago) link
Borrowed/read the three deluxe Wayward collections. As they advertise, mix of Buffy & Scooby gang with Japanese (and later Irish) mythology / monsters. Took some angles I wasn't expecting, which was cool. Liked the artwork a lot.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 6 December 2019 18:42 (four years ago) link
Don't know if I'll listen to these episodes but I love this podcasthttp://www.scottedelman.com/2019/07/19/mark-evanier/
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 15 December 2019 15:42 (four years ago) link
http://www.scottedelman.com/2019/11/15/paul-kirchner/http://www.scottedelman.com/2019/11/29/larry-lieber/
Had no idea Lieber was still around.
http://www.scottedelman.com/2019/07/05/lunch-in-l-a-with-comics-legend-gerry-conway-on-episode-99-of-eating-the-fantastic/Forgotten this one.
I never really got grip on the X-Men so I found this article fun, surprised how many of the basic concepts were unfamiliar to me despite knowing who all the characters are.
https://www.tor.com/2019/12/11/the-future-of-days-past-10-things-disney-could-learn-from-claremonts-run-on-x-men/
I appreciate that she noted the importance of the colours. In my continual assessment of why the characters/worlds appealed, I now think that the colour combinations were often stronger than the other design elements of the costumes.
Still would like to see more discerning reinventions of the stories. Couldn't Claremont do his own X-Men retelling from the beginning?
From hearing some talk up supposedly great unofficial fanfiction, do any of you know of particularly good DC and Marvel stuff online?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 15 December 2019 19:36 (four years ago) link
twenty minutes about dazzler. i never knew JR JR was such a jersey guy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvzCbPmj1AY
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Sunday, 15 December 2019 22:37 (four years ago) link
Video not available in UK? Sometimes it seems like there's no rhyme or reason to these youtube restrictions.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 15 December 2019 22:43 (four years ago) link
suprisingly deep coverage, good video!
― Nhex, Monday, 16 December 2019 23:51 (four years ago) link
i got a copy of Eleanor Davis' The Hard Tomorrow for the holidaze from my mom; it's breathtaking. What a talent.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 17 December 2019 20:52 (four years ago) link
SyFyWire have published a list of "the best indie comics of the decade" that consists of nine Image comics, one tumblr, one iOS app, and a DC book.
― insecurity bear (sic), Tuesday, 17 December 2019 21:35 (four years ago) link
Finishing the last LOEG volume- the points being made are very much not new to those who follow Moore's work, but its stylistic playfulness still is enough to keep me gripped. That bing said, really can' be bothered with those 3D glasses for more than a couple of pages.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 18 December 2019 12:38 (four years ago) link
I loved the earlier volumes of LOEG but haven't yet got to this one. Partly because I don't give much of a shit about the comic characters he's making use of in the same way I do C19th literary characters. Is it still doing the "lots of unpleasant sex is really hilarious" thing?
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Thursday, 19 December 2019 03:59 (four years ago) link
It's still horny, yeah. All the other valid criticisms of the series also still apply (fucking Gollywog STILL IN IT ffs, I know Moore means well but god does he refuse to read a room). Did you read The Black Dossier? That's still my favourite, and probably the best summation of the serie's thematic concerns. This one has a lot of super hero stuff but also a lot of characters from spy stuff and weird animal characters that don't come from comics.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 19 December 2019 11:01 (four years ago) link
I think this is the only volume I haven't read. Black Dossier is great--my one claim to fame is getting a credit for explaining references in Jess Nevins's book of annotations.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Saturday, 21 December 2019 00:57 (four years ago) link
controversial opinion: Moore does backmatter/prose breaks better than others and may be the best at it, but I keep getting more bored by these conceptual bits where he bounces between media and just wish he’d write a comic book
― mh, Saturday, 21 December 2019 02:20 (four years ago) link
Just read the Fantagraphics-published BEST OF WITZEND, which collects some of the worst-written comics I've ever had the bad luck to come across. Luckily it was from the library.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 00:30 (four years ago) link
Yeah, that was very much a regretful purchase.
― Doubling down on out of date information (aldo), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 08:13 (four years ago) link
Great art tho!
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 10:21 (four years ago) link
Oh aye, lovely to look at but it's a big bit of shelf (and cost) that could otherwise have been filled.
― Doubling down on out of date information (aldo), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 10:41 (four years ago) link
I mean, this splash page alone is worth 80 quid of anyone's money:
https://schulzlibrary.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/witzendmra.jpg?w=584
Also think it's interesting that Ditko was heavily involved with the editorial side on the early issues of WITZEND - he was obviously v sympathetic to Wood's desire to retain copyright/editorial independence, as well as being an admirer of Wood's incredible drawing skills.
It's not always about the writing.
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 10:55 (four years ago) link
I don't think a splash page with two ridiculously long speech bubbles is worth 80 quids, even if the layout is otherwise fine.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 11:09 (four years ago) link
he really went full Ditko, there
― mh, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 15:29 (four years ago) link
that splash is amazing - is it all Ditko?
― Dollarmite Is My Name (sic), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 17:24 (four years ago) link
Yep - he had a real golden period after he was newly liberated from Marvel - see also those amazing black and white strips for Warren he was doing at about the same time
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 18:02 (four years ago) link
Man. Wonder if he'd kept up a style like that through the '80s, his overtly ideological work might have caught on better under direct market distribution?
(I love the fact that his drawing and techniques changed so often, and that switching to doing his own lettering eventually let him integrate it so much better in the polemic work - Tuomas is right that even on paper those rant-balloons would be foreboding - but the inking and especially shading there show how drastically undermined as an artist he was at Marvel.)
― Dollarmite Is My Name (sic), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 20:15 (four years ago) link
Right at the end of the 60s Ditko got very ill and he when he came back - mainly at Charlton - his style had notably deteriorated, even on the creator-owned material, sadly.
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 21:21 (four years ago) link
This site has 'Collector's Edition', his best-known strip for Warren - again decent page rates, and the opportunity to stick it to Stan Lee, brought out the best in him
http://steveditkostuff.blogspot.com/2019/02/collector-edition-creepy-presents-steve.html
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 21:25 (four years ago) link
very good!
― Nhex, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 00:18 (four years ago) link
The Mr A stuff is terrible. Huge slabs of libertarian bullshit text taking up half the page.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 18 March 2020 00:36 (four years ago) link
Ah / aw. if I'd ever read that I'd forgotten it, but certainly tracks with what I've seen of his '70s and '80s WFH (though I think Shade was good? I bought the first few back when the Milligan series started. Notably created and head-written by Ditko, which no doubt makes a difference.).
Thanks for the Collectors Edition link. Goodwin's adherence to both 1970s prolix standards and Feldstein homage shows how well-planned the lettering placement really is on that Mr A splash, by contrast! Do you mean "stick it to Stan Lee" by putting in more careful work for better money, or that Danforth, with his mustache and grasping insensitivity about art, is intended as a Lee dis?
― Dollarmite Is My Name (sic), Thursday, 19 March 2020 08:00 (four years ago) link
I thought Gray Morrow's Witzend work was pretty good but there wasnt quite enough to be enticed to buy that. Not enough of the artists raised their game that much.
Is Silver Surfer: Black any good?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 20 March 2020 21:52 (four years ago) link
Huge slabs of libertarian bullshit text taking up half the page.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, March 18, 2020 12:36 AM
My comic collection: 98% good art with 90% slabs of bullshit text.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 20 March 2020 21:59 (four years ago) link
i like that we're so desperate to pretend we're not in the moment that we've gone back in time for this thread
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 20 March 2020 23:03 (four years ago) link
but yes, Surfer: Black is excellent. You're right to make the Ditko connection with Moore.
(though I think Shade was good? I bought the first few back when the Milligan series started. Notably created and head-written by Ditko, which no doubt makes a difference.)
Oh yes, there are still plenty of highlights post-sixties - Avenging World (his densest, most intense tract where the word/text balloons REALLY go wild), the 'Killjoy' back-up strips in Charlton's E-Man, Stalker (a nice four-issue fantasy series inked by Wally Wood et al), Shade for certain, lots of things. But always the drawing is looser, cruder, than before, the panels larger and less detailed. I almost hate to invoke the phrase 'folk art' but there is a kind of individualistic intensity to Ditko's most engaged work that to seems to me beyond good and evil, left and right, just a unique personal iconography and mode of expression.
Do you mean "stick it to Stan Lee" by putting in more careful work for better money, or that Danforth, with his mustache and grasping insensitivity about art, is intended as a Lee dis?
Mostly the former, although Archie Goodwin wrote a number of variations on the grasping insensitive-exploited artist theme for Warren, and yes, the model is definitely EC. Goodwin and Warren used EC artists on Creepy and Eerie whenever the could, plus Ditko, Colan, Adams etc from the post-EC generation.
― Ward Fowler, Saturday, 21 March 2020 10:59 (four years ago) link
I think he was still doing some of his best work for Charlton in the early 70s.
Of his later creator owned stuff I prefer the loopiest things like Crackling Blazer, Missing Man and Mr Quiver. The drawing was a bit more oomph when he did humor. Then there was that ink wash thing he did for Strange Avenging Tales.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 21 March 2020 13:19 (four years ago) link