Aldo reads DC's New 52 (So you don't have to)

There is this
This is the thread where we kiss China Mieville's arse.

I thought Embassytown was Bas-Lag-lite, in a good way - mainly because I kind of expected it to be like The City And The City (which I still really liked).

I think my problem with Kraken is that I'd read UnLunDun first.

INC is still worth yer time, sir.

yeah, they've managed to barely miss a beat in the layoff. and Burnham's leapt into Top 5 G-Mo Collaborators Ever in, what, barely a year? maybe top 3.

! Considering that the ranks also include Steve Yeowell, Philip Bond, Richard Case, Chris Weston, Steve Parkhouse, Phil Jimenez, Sean Phillips, Cameron Stewart, JG Jones, J. H. Williams III and Frank Quitely, that's quite the claim.

Reading that list, I stand by it ALL THE MORE FIRMLY!

(Do you really think Sean Phillips' couple of issues of Invisibles are a high point in his cartooning?)

(Including Parkhouse makes me think he might be top-three-worthy too btw - it's amazing how HUGELY less funny the Dave issues by Anthony Williams were, sapping the life even out of the dialogue.)

(PPS I usually think A Glass Of Water is McKean's best comics ever - on the strength of that, I'd call him top 5. That's slightly more down to how very, very many of Morrison's collaborators have been basically insensitive to or failed to "get" his scripts - that merely by supporting the mood and intent of the piece, he vaults ahead almost everyone else.)

chris weston is terrible, richard case v mediocre - only worse artists morrison has had are those clowns who drew his jla issues

How soon we forget Chas Truog!

I suppose I might have read it as "Top 5 best artists who collaborated with G-Mo" rather than "Artists on the Top 5 best collaborations with G-Mo" or indeed "Top 5 best artists whose best work was collaborations with G-Mo", which appears to be the objection to Sean Phillips?

i had indeed forgotten chas truog, thanks so much for reminding me!

Truog was not actively destructive or working counter to Morrison's intent, which puts him above at least 60% of Morrison's DC artists. For something referring back to 1960s DC, he works OK to fine in a semi-evoking of that sub-Boring / Schaffenberger storytelling and rendering.

Case / Workman / Morrison is a fantastic gestalt on Doom Patrol, creating a tone that's greater than some of its parts. Case has never drawn a single readable comic outside of DP AFAIK.

get the feeling Morrison went into The Filth deliberately aiming for Weston's over-rendering to create that slightly disconnected, stiff and not-quite-realistic tone. would be interesting to know if he ASKED for that in scripts or just crossed his fingers and failed to ever think about it again, which seems to be his usual M.O.

"Top 5 artists at actually ~collaborating~ with G-Mo"

I don't see how anyone could call Chris Weston "terrible"... Sure, The Filth looked kinda ugly, but obviously that was deliberate. And Weston's first issue in The Invisibles, the one that introduced Jim Crow, was just a perfect fit; I can't imagine any other Invisibles artist getting the character and the mood of the story so well. I thought he handled the 1920s issues nicely too: they had the sort of curved, ornamental look that jived with the era they were set in. As great as Jimenez is, I don't think his streamlined mainstream style (not to mention Jill Thompson's expressionism, or Yeowell's more minimal style) would've been as good for those issues.

the Filth looks great wtf is wrong with you people.

Now Doom Patrol, there's a shitty looking comic

Doom Patrol looks perfect for the stories being told. I think The Filth does too.

CONTROVERSY!

Honestly, I wish Brendan McCarthy had drawn every issue of DOOM PATROL, but the art that's there matches well with the story. I also think that Weston is perfectly suited to THE FILTH. Sure, Frank Quitely might've done a "better" job, and it would have been finished sometime last year that way.

But what I really want is the last SEAGUY story...

everything chris weston does is fugly, deliberate or otherwise - stiff, over-rendered, grotesque (and not in a good basil wolverton way). every panel is crowded with superfluous detail that overwhelms the narrative - there's nothing to hold on to, no foreground/background, or sense or movement - it's like illustration, maybe, but it's not good comics, and it's so fucking literal-minded - there's no poetry or elegance to it.

i wish brendan drew more comics full stop!

On that last part we can agree.

Case / Workman / Morrison is a fantastic gestalt on Doom Patrol, creating a tone that's greater than some of its parts.

This--Case on Doom Patrol is great, but I've never seen any other work by him. I think I've said before, though, that I may not be very objective on this: Morrison's DOOM PATROL is my favourite superhero comic ever, and the book that got me back into comics as an adult, and which provided a platonic comics ideal I've never quite been able to reach since

I'm curious to re-read the stories between the space story and issue 50 – I’m remember that as being Doom Patrol’s only wonky phase – so I wonder if they seem better/worse now.

Good news! The formerly-Vertigo parts of the New 52 need to go all Dark and Edge.

No, really. I'm not making this up.

Are they trimming the line up or just moving them to the ghetto?

They're calling the ghetto: The Dark and The Edge from what I can tell.*

* I am not making this up.

So Swamp Thing, Animal Man, I Vampire, and Justice League Dark get this tag? Is there going to be a Justice League Edge too?

Hex, too. Honestly I'm not too sure what else would get shoehorned into it.

I'm just finding it funny. "We don't know what made it work before so we're just going to TRY HARDER."

Know what would be edgy? A new SLASH MARAUD series.

The funny part of that is it would be one of their best books.

My god, the 90s are really coming back, aren't they?

Re: the "Dark and the Edge" thing...

You haven't been following this thread that closely, have you.

Aldo, I'd buy you a drink if you were on the right continent.

From what I've been able to glean, The Edge And The Dark (uuuughhh...) will be comprised of the following titles:

Swamp Thing
Animal Man
I, Vampire
Justice League Dark
Frankenstein
The Phantom Stranger
Sword Of Sorcery (Amethyst)
Suicide Squad
All-Star Western
Savage Hawkman
Deathstroke
Grifter
WildCATS
Team 7

So no real thematic cohesion or rational regrouping as much as, like, hey, let's just rebrand some random shit and see what happens. AKA DC's SOP over the past couple of years.

Why not just call it "Liefeld's Vertigostorm!!!"?

If you'd told me in the mid-'90s that Vertigo and early Image would someday be basically melded into a single comics line, I would've taken great strides to get you committed for the blatant insanity you were spewing.

I believe that it's also all the shit that will never, ever be in a big budget movie (Constantine excepted, for the lols).

I really don't understand what Team 7 is supposed to be at all, or why we need another team book.

I have no clue who Team 7 is.

I only know that the guy from I, Vampire is in it. Which is odd, because he left Justice League Dark because he didn't do teams.

Team 7 was yet another mid-'90s Image/Wildstorm thing. IDGI.

wait did I read that right there is a new Amethyst comic

> If you'd told me in the mid-'90s that Vertigo and early Image would someday be basically melded into a single comics line, I would've taken great strides to get you committed for the blatant insanity you were spewing.

That's the most OTM thing in the history of OTM things posted to this here board.

yep. New Amethyst and the original finally gets a showcase edition.

And yes, they're bringing AMETHYST back in an anthology title. I have little faith.

Wait, no faith. I have no faith in that title being any good.

negative faith.

anti-faith

The New 52: The Anti-Faith Equation

haha, perfect ^^^

I know no one actually cares but Team 7 was essentially the main genesis point for the Wildstorm superhero universe; they were essentially the "prequel" team that set the stage for all of the other books to launch (IIRC, half of them ended up in WildCATS, the other half ended up in or influencing Stormwatch and their kids ended up as Gen13). Basically, since the Wildstorm universe has now been folded into regular DC continuity, they're using them as a conceptual platform to explain the genesis of the Wildstormy bits of the DC universe and tying that origin story closer together by adding DC characters to the roster like Amanda Waller and Deathstroke.

haha every time I talk about the Wildstorm bits of this I feel like I have to preface it with "I know no one actually cares but..."

I am still pissed that they are publishing The Authority as Stormwatch BTW; BRING BACK FLINT, FAHRENHEIT, BATTALION, SYNERGY, HELLSTRIKE, FUJI, WINTER, SWIFT, etc etc etc

(I would consider buying Stormwatch if they introduced some of those characters into it)

I liked the Team 7 series but they were basically Chuck Dixon doing his soldier/punisher-style writing for a special ops/secret projects team in the 70s

Shakey Mo wins the thread.

CAN EVEN THE NEW GODS STOP THE ANTI-FAITH EQUATION? FIND OUT IN: THE BATTLE BEFORE INFINITY'S END!

Wait was that Lynch's old team, with the fathers of some of the current superheros?

yes

why comics suck in 2012
it's the liefeld man