Comics Extravaganza - Pow Bang Smash!

[TheLastBaron]

So... they messed up Joker's face, won't let Batwoman get married and if memory serves me well in the latest reboot Starfire is sex craved maniac... And didn't Batman and Catwoman have wild sex on a roof recently and this somehow upset the fans? And this is from memory, I don't even dare to Google news about DC...

The Cat woman thing was in issue 1 so it was over two years ago, but yeah the quality of the majority of the books being put out by DC is pretty low. The Joker face thing I wouldn't put in the same bucket as the other things, I don't really care for it, but I wouldn't consider it a big editorial gaff like the others. There was the Harley Quinn taking a bath and about to electrocute herself fan art thing though.

[TheLastBaron]

No, even before, they drew Joker like that. And I don't mean that the skin is stretched, I mean his actual skull is a warped caricature. It makes him too grotesque, I feel.

Yeah I agree. I feel like a huge part of the Joker is that despite the makeup and green hair he still looks human and when you lose that he isn't very effective. It was a big part of The Killing Joke, if he didn't look like a normal human that book isn't as good.

[Roderick]

Exactly!! Damn, I couldn't put that into words earlier. Joker's whole thing is that he doesn't have supernatural powers, he's just a man that's a little crazier and less restrained than most. That's why he's dangerous and scary. But make him an outright monster, and he loses that.

[Tanukitsune]

Well, I read my first Gail Simone comic, Batgirl Vol 1: The Darkest Reflection and apart from a scene that existed only for the sake of conflict and drama 

so the detective hates Batgirl just because she froze when she had a gun pointed at her? She does know Batgirl isn't bullet-proof, right?

, I pretty muched loved it!

 

It even wrapped up so nicely that I don't have to buy the next volume because of a cliffhanger or some foreshadowing, but because it's just a damn good story! :3

 

This is probably my first DC comic in decades and I'm glad I bought it.

[Codicier]

Hi guys I was hoping I could get some recommendations from you fine folks. I'm looking to buy a graphic novel for my sister for Christmas, I bought the complete Bone collection a few years back and it was a success, and I'm hoping to repeat the trick. She's not a big comics fan but when she does take a liking to one it tend to be a big hit.

Specifically I'm looking for recommendations for either complete collections, or self contained graphic novels. I want her to be able to get the whole story from the book, and for it not to just the first in a long series.

Anya's Ghost

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1596435526

Is top of my list at the moment.

Also manga recommendations are fine. In particular I think some of the older stuff might appeal to her, but I don't really have any knowledge of books in the era myself.

So in summary I'm looking for a single book which tells a complete story, which is suitable for a female reader in her mid 20s. Cheers in advance for any of the help you can give.

[Ben X]

Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker. Very funny, has a female mid-20s protagonist, accessible for a comic book noob.

[Tanukitsune]

Hi guys I was hoping I could get some recommendations from you fine folks. I'm looking to buy a graphic novel for my sister for Christmas, I bought the complete Bone collection a few years back and it was a success, and I'm hoping to repeat the trick. She's not a big comics fan but when she does take a liking to one it tend to be a big hit.

Specifically I'm looking for recommendations for either complete collections, or self contained graphic novels. I want her to be able to get the whole story from the book, and for it not to just the first in a long series.

Anya's Ghost

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1596435526

Is top of my list at the moment.

Also manga recommendations are fine. In particular I think some of the older stuff might appeal to her, but I don't really have any knowledge of books in the era myself.

So in summary I'm looking for a single book which tells a complete story, which is suitable for a female reader in her mid 20s. Cheers in advance for any of the help you can give.

Maybe Raina Telgemeier's "Smile" or "Drama"?

 

I should really pick up Anya's Ghost, it's been on my wishlist forever... :|

[tegan]

If she liked Bone, my first recommendation would be the fairly recent hardcover edition of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki, which collects the whole series into a two-book set. I've only ever read the first two volumes (of seven) back when it was available as a set of paperbacks, but it's some really fantastic work. The story is significantly more fleshed-out than the movie adaptation, and every single panel looks like some amazing early 20th century European book illustration.

 

 

You mentioned complete collections, so you might also be interested in the boxed set of Herge's Tintin from a few years back or the new printing of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman in two omnibus volumes. 

 

Although I personally wasn't really a big fan of it, I know a lot of people who really loved Solanin by Inio Asanin. It's a very bittersweet story about a college graduate not being able to fit into post-student life. If you've ever read anything by Hope Larson or the non-Scott Pilgrim work of Bryan Lee O'Malley, it's very much in that same sort of vein. Fantagraphics also started publishing the work of Moto Hagio in English for the first time recently, which is all very influential early women's manga. Currently available are short story collection A Drunken Dream & Other Stories and a tragedy centered around a dead gay boy named Heart of Thomas.

 

Although I'm really tempted to recommend something by Osamu Tezuka because I'm a huge Tezuka nut, I'm having trouble thinking of a good introductory self-contained book.

[gregbrown]

Alan Moore's From Hell is a good complete graphic novel.

[Ben X]

Alan Moore's From Hell is a good complete graphic novel.

I was going to recommend that too (partly because it's the other massive slab of a comic on my shelf alongside Bone). It's excellent, but very dense so use your discretion as to whether your friend will get into it.

[Codicier]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I've had a look at them and will get some second opinions on them from the rest of my family on whether they think my sister would like them.

 

If she liked Bone, my first recommendation would be the fairly recent hardcover edition of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki, which collects the whole series into a two-book set. I've only ever read the first two volumes (of seven) back when it was available as a set of paperbacks, but it's some really fantastic work. The story is significantly more fleshed-out than the movie adaptation, and every single panel looks like some amazing early 20th century European book illustration.

 

 

I can't buy her that, I want it too much myself!  /drools

 

From Hell is a great book (i have a copy myself) but she doesn't really tend to go in for things as violent as it that book can in her general media consumption but it is a great example of a very nicely self contained story.

[Codicier]

Does anyone have any experience with Hope Larson's work, considering adding Mercury or A Wrinkle in Time to the shortlist.

[TheLastBaron]

Building Stories makes a great gift, but it's a very unconventional format and also costs like $50.

I haven't read the Wrinkle in Time comic, but I've heard it's excellent.

Asterios Polyp is good, and so is Tale of Sand, which was so popular last holiday season I couldn't get it for the longest time.

I really liked I Kill Giants, it kind of reminded me of Too Cool to be Forgotten which is great along with anything else by Jeff Robinson.

Essex County is the book I've probably bought the most for other people, it's my favorite graphic novel ever.

For a collected series I'll second Sandman, it's amazing.

[gregbrown]

Oh man, I totally forgot about Building Stories. Really something special. (Jimmy Corrigan would work too as something more conventional.)

[Twig]

I'd say Jimmy Corrigan is pretty unconventional. Does a lot if Playing with the Format, and such. Though maybe you meant compared to Building Stories which I've never read or heard of sooooo.

Anyway Jimmy Corrigan is great.

[tegan]

I'd say Jimmy Corrigan is pretty unconventional. Does a lot if Playing with the Format, and such. Though maybe you meant compared to Building Stories which I've never read or heard of sooooo.

 

Building Stories is like the logical endgame of Chris Ware's love of fucking weird format shit. This is it.

 

 

 

That's not a series or special edition extras or whatever. The contents of that entire table are the actual comic as it is meant to be read.

[Twig]

haha well okay then

[Trip Hazard]

self contained graphic novels. 

 

 

The Ballad of Halo Jones is pretty great. Too much invented speech (what's a proper linguistic term for that?) in the first part, which hampered the pace for me, but it gets better after that. 

[Ben X]

I'd deffo recommend Jimmy Corrigan.

 

Building Stores was also very good, though not as narratively showy as I was expecting - the "read in any order, lots of different bits and pieces" thing doesn't actually make much difference to the story, and outside of that it's no less experimental than JC.

[Apelsin]

Well, I read my first Gail Simone comic, Batgirl Vol 1: The Darkest Reflection and apart from a scene that existed only for the sake of conflict and drama 

so the detective hates Batgirl just because she froze when she had a gun pointed at her? She does know Batgirl isn't bullet-proof, right?

, I pretty muched loved it!

 

It even wrapped up so nicely that I don't have to buy the next volume because of a cliffhanger or some foreshadowing, but because it's just a damn good story! :3

 

This is probably my first DC comic in decades and I'm glad I bought it.

 

I reacted unfavourably to the scene you mention as well at first, but in the following volume you get to see why 

the detective dislikes her for "freezing"

[Tanukitsune]

Chew is on sale at Comixology, I should definitely be getting these, right? I've heard the premise and a lot of praise for this series.

[TheLastBaron]

Yes, yes you should.

[tegan]

Hey guys, remember that talent search that DC did? The one where their attempt at finding new and undiscovered artists backfired and ended up causing a huge scandal when they asked for submissions to include Harley Quinn naked and committing suicide? Well, the results are in, and they hired someone who had already worked for them! The whole thing was completely pointless!

 

Yaaaaaaay!

[tegan]

So has anyone else heard about Penny Arcade's latest entry in their continued efforts to swallow their own collective foot? They placed a job posting on LinkedIn with some choice quotes like

 

We are quite literally looking for a person that can do four jobs

 

and

potentially offensive environment

 

and

We’re terrible at work-life balance

 

and

Annual Salary: Negotiable, but you should know up front we’re not a terribly money-motivated group. We’re more likely to spend less money on salary and invest that on making your day-to-day life at work better.

 

 

 

OuO

[Tanukitsune]

I heard about it when every web-cartoonist started to make jokes about it.