Comics Extravaganza - Pow Bang Smash!

[stewmull]

So i started and finished the first book last night. It was surpirsing how similar it was to the films, like shockingly so.

 

I love the art style and the dialouge is great. Also I dont think i would want to see it in colour, I really like the black and white nature of it.

[Tanukitsune]

Well, I just read the whole of Terry Moore's Echo and I couldn't put it down... it was just amazing! I'm not sure but I think I saw characters from the end of Strangers in Paradise? I haven't read it a while, but I'm pretty sure one of those agents that only appeared for an issue was a friend of Katchoo.

 

I haven't read Rachel Rising, I wonder if all of his stories have some sort of connection?

[Patters]

Started reading Akira and I'm half way through the second volume, why did I wait so long?

[Burtis Le Pants]

I will echo the Saga love, that series is fantastic.

Both Fatale and the new Velvet series by Ed Brubaker are incredible comics that twist their particular genres in a fascinating way.

Jeff Lemire's Trillium is off to a strong start and his graphic novel The Underwater Welder last year was great.

Jonathan Hickman's series, in particular the Manhattan Projects, but also East of West are both worth a read and have very unique art/graphic design.

Pretty Deadly is only a couple of issues in, but I'm enjoying it, a quality western comic playing with female archetypal characters.

Morning Gories is a fantastic mystery story, set in a private school.

Finally Atomic Robo, consistently the funniest thing in comics.

[Tanukitsune]

So Comixology is having an essential graphic novel sale. Although it's 90% Batman graphic novels... Should I pick up the Long Halloween and The Killer Joke? Apart from the obvious ones (Sandman, V for Vendetta..), which ones do you think are actually worth picking up?

[Codicier]

I have recently visited my local library and having not headed in for a while, they had nicely refreshed the graphic novel section, So picked up and quickly devoured a couple of the new books

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterios_Polyp

&

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandville_(comics)

Quite enjoyed Grandville but I'm not sure it quite meets some of the hyped reviews I've seen of it but a good well paced page turner is never anything to feel to badly about having read.

Some of the hype for Asterios Polyp I think may however be justified, and I think I'll join the line of people who think it should be considered part of the modern comics canon.

Must admit though this is probably due to having some quite strong personal empathy towards the protagonist. Perhaps the only thing I'm not sure I liked was at the very end where it just seemed even though the story had been tied up, the author wanted to throw one more thing in as almost a personality test for his readers (do you think this final twist is silly? Yes: then your like the protagonist)

[Ben X]

Sigh, since I left London I haven't had a library with more than a shelf of graphic novels.

[Codicier]

Sigh, since I left London I haven't had a library with more than a shelf of graphic novels.

In the UK whether or not a library has a good collection of graphic novels is almost entirely dependent on whether it has a member of staff who is prepared to advocates for them. I know from my time working in libraries that their issue rate once they're on the shelves (and have enough presence to catch the eye) is pretty good, and libraries like things which have a good issue rate because a lot of what their funding depends on is the amount of customers they can prove they serve.

But because sadly there still exists a few specimens of certain kind of librarian who looks down on them with what borders on distain, you do need that one person to advocates of them strongly to get them on the shelves in the first place.

[elmuerte]

I went shopping today in the city where I work just before the xmas party. And about a half an hour before the event should have started I found a great comic book store. So I didn't have a lot of time to browse. Sadly they didn't have the missing hardcover of Storm. But I was able to browse the other editions of the new series, and now I'm sad I didn't fork over the 40 euros per copy for these special editions.

Either, I have to return to this place to check out other stuff I might like.

[tegan]

I read one of the comics I got for Christmas from SecretAsianMan, Osamu Tezuka's The Mysterious Underground Men.

 

 

 

 

It's a recreation of a work originally published in 1947, and it's pretty amazingly faithful. It might even be directly scanned from some old copy of the original. The book itself is an incredibly brisk read (I finished it in less than twenty minutes) and is about as ludicrous as something from 1947 ought to be (it opens with the protagonist's father dying in a plane crash and telling his son to avenge his death by inventing a safer means of travel, which turns out to be a rocket train that goes through the center of the earth). What's really interesting is that the back of the book includes about fourty pages of in-depth essays and an afterward from Tezuka himself originally written for a 1982 reprint. There's all kinds of fascinating stuff in there about various inspirations to Tezuka's artwork (a lot of really out there stuff like Blondie, Der Tunnel, and He Done Her Wrong) and about how the story served as the starting point for Tezuka's fascination with tragedy by ending the book with the death of a major character. Really neat stuff.

 

[TheLastBaron]

I read the first three issues of Coffin Hill and it's really weird. I can't tell if I think it's interesting or stupid, I guess I'll see in a couple weeks when issue #4 is out.

[Tanukitsune]

It seems like Comixology is one step closer to being the Steam of digital comics since it now has daily deals, today you can get an Adventure Time Graphic novel at a CRAZY cheap price!

[Twig]

Comixology is useless to me until a high quality color e-ink screen exists and I can put my Comixology purchases on the device that uses said screen. ):

[Tanukitsune]

What do you mean? They read great on my Droid and even on my iPod!

[Twig]

Last thing I want is to read on an LCD screen when I don't have to!

[Nappi]

I have a Kindle Paperwhite for novels and Nexus 7 for... well, I just really wanted a tablet. I would probably never read a novel on an LCD but I have read several comic books on my tablet and it has been very enjoyable. Even if the comics were black-and-white, I would still use Nexus 7 for them because zooming to panel in Kindle feels so unresponsive. Physical versions would of course be preferable but I usually can't be arsed to order them.

[Twig]

I'll probably give in some day and get a tablet. ):

[TheLastBaron]

I use a Nexus 7 for reading series' that I read in issues and for ones that I read in trades it depends on if they're something I want on my shelf. Short series' that are only a few trades I will probably buy in paper format, especially mini series' like Daytripper that fit in a single book. I'm reading both Trillium and The Wake digitally at the moment, but will probably buy them in paper once they're done. Single book titles like The Underwater Welder or Tale of Sand or Asterios Polyp I always get physical copies of so that if I want I can lend them to people.

[Tanukitsune]

Since I don't live and America and don't have a comic store handy, digital is my only option. :|

[Burtis Le Pants]

Since I don't live and America and don't have a comic store handy, digital is my only option. :|

Me too, I chose an ipad mini, perfect for a single comic book page and the games are far better than on android. So many board game ports too, which I am not able to get to the table frequently enough.

[Tanukitsune]

Wow, since I was a "bit" ill I spent the day reading the Batman graphic novels.

 

Batman: Year One, a perfect introduction to Batman. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, it's kinda weird, but it's also weird to see the influences in all the films... which is weird, since this was the least favorite of the lot I got. People say this was made when Frank Miller was sane, but he seems a bit "kooky" in this one.... It felt like a robo raptor was going to jump in at any moment.

 

Batman: The Long Halloween.... Wow, this is probably my favorite since it's a book about the World's Greatest Detective being the World's Greatest Detective. Geez, it had me guessing until the end. The artwork was awesome too!

 

Batman: The Killing Joke... Also, WOW! A short story, but what a story. It's Joker at his best and his worst! 

[Apelsin]

Got the third volume of Batgirl (Death of the family) from my parents for Christmas and finished it almost immediately. Overall I enjoy it quite a bit, the Joker is completely insane (although his new visage is slightly too grisly for my taste) and there are some nice moments. However, I feel that how the stories from the different series (Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl etc) are all interconnected results in some situations where I felt that the writers expected me to read the other books as well.  

[elmuerte]

There's going to be a spin-off of Storm focused on Roodhaar (Ember) set in the Deepworld. This sounds quite exciting.

[TheLastBaron]

I'm starting the Solo books DC did (each book is a collection of short stories by each issue's featured creator and sometimes other writers but they always do all the art). I'm still on the first one which is Tim Sale's and it's so good. I'm really looking forward to Darwyn Cooke's though, I think it's number 5.

[Burtis Le Pants]

I was wondering what people's preferences are when it comes to comics. Superhero, Real life, Sci Fi/Fantastical, Comedic, Serious, Indie, Manga, Graphic Novels, Monthly etc. I started a few years ago (circa 2010), my entry point being movies and a podcast I started listening to, they were superhero guys and I started with both DC and Marvel, picking up a number of titles each month based mainly on podcast recommendations as well as going back to a number of arcs relevant to whatever movies were coming out.

Even over the span of 1-2 years my interest waned as I became quickly fatigued by creative team switches and event fatigue from both publishers (and the new 52 pretty much killing any enjoyment I was getting from DC). This also aligned with my increasing indifference to superhero movies in general as the novelty wore off and the quality seemed to dip.

I found comics of interest elsewhere however (largely from image) that continued my enthusiasm for the media. I find that there seems to be far more author ownership and creative freedom outside of the established universes of DC and Marvel. I find I am far more invested as I know it is far less likely that the stories will be wiped away through retcon. I almost exclusively read non superhero comics (the only ones I enjoy now are ones that play with the tropes etc in interesting ways like Watchmen or Gail Simone's current series the Movement) and I am very glad that Marvel at least gives their writers the freedom to work with other publishers, as their works are some of my current favourites (Fatale, Manhattan Projects, Pretty Deadly, Morning Glories, Sex Criminals, Velvet, East of West). I have also found interest in a number of Graphic Novels (Building Stories, the Underwater Welder) and some indie comics writers (Michael Deforge, Tin Can Forest, Becky Cloonan).

I am wondering if this is a common progression and if there are any long term superhero fans, what keeps you interested in them over time (other than loyalty).