Comics Extravaganza - Pow Bang Smash!

[hedgefield]

​Not sure if mentioned, but Blankets is one of the few graphic novels I have but man it is good. And a TOME. Bad Machinery is also delightful, and you can find it for free on the webs too. And if you're ever in a comic book store of choice and they have Blacksad, don't pass it up. The way this guy draws antropomorphic noir animals is stunning.

 

[N1njaSquirrel]

I've been bringing manga up, 'cause that's mostly what I read now, but I dunno if we're in the minority or what. I've been considering making a separate manga thread, but I think it would still just be me talking about Osamu Tezuka English releases, old horror manga from the sixties, and Wandering Son.

 

...Speaking of which, I got my Wandering Son volume 6 today and am going to go read it right noooooow.

 

I'd have thought that there was enough posts and users who comment from the Anime thread to have a manga thread here too? idk. It's pretty much all I read too. That and my monthly Adventure Time/Bravest Warriors comics that come through the post. I guess there's no harm in it? If it bombs we can just rant on here.

 

Argh, I kinda hate that One Piece is still ongoing, because it's going to be impossible to catch up at this rate. :|

 

I'd say out of the "Big Three" shonen titles, One Piece is the best, and Is well worth the investment if you ever decide to read it. That it was so long for me made me go 'oh sweet, i still have loads more to read of this' rather than fear it's length. As long-running series goes, it's consistently good, funny and really interesting. Also as far as world-building and lore it's solid and believable, unlike Naruto where stuff gets conveniently forgotten all the time. It's a story about a journey, and every location is just as enjoyable as the next. I'm also keeping up to date with Naruto, but it's more of a chore than any actual enjoyment. I've gone this far, I might as well see it through. Hopefully it'll end soon.

 

And the less about bleach the better.

 

I'd also reccomend Yotsuba to all of you who haven't read it. It's lovely.

[N1njaSquirrel]

​Not sure if mentioned, but Blankets is one of the few graphic novels I have but man it is good. And a TOME. Bad Machinery is also delightful, and you can find it for free on the webs too. And if you're ever in a comic book store of choice and they have Blacksad, don't pass it up. The way this guy draws antropomorphic noir animals is stunning.

 

 

Damn this series looks amazing. Is this the first volume? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blacksad-Juanjo-Guarnido/dp/159582393X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391626865&sr=8-1&keywords=blacksad

 

Does it matter?

[Tanukitsune]

Well, that's the Blacksad the one I got Dark Horse, so I assume it's the first? it's brilliant either way. XP

 

I should really try to read Yotsuba, if only there was Comixology for manga, but since each manga had different distributors for each country, it would be a legal nightmare. I don't know why I was convinced there was a Yotsuba anime, does it have a lot of really well done "fanimations"? Because I've seen several animated "gifsets" from what looked like a show.

[tegan]

What sucks about Yotsuba is that the ADV translations for the first five volumes were perfect, and then the series got handed off to Yen Press and got retranslated by someone who sucked all the charm out of it. I still have my ADV editions.

 

I've been meaning to read Blacksad forever. I even checked it out at the library a while back, but never got a chance to even open it. It does sort of bother me how all the male characters are these great animal caricatures and all the female ones (that I've seen) are basically sexy women with car ears.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Crunchyroll has a manga section, but it's early days and no yotsuba (but there is Attack on Titan and Seven Sins, which is excellent. I also have a soft spot for Mystery Girlfriend X). There are apparantly big things in the works from various publishers, but nothing in english. I also know Viz-media have most jump stuff online, but it's US only. Grrrrrr...

 

Yotsuba is not an anime, and will (hopefully) never be an anime either. The mangaka was really dissapointed about his previous work's (Azumanga Daioh) anime adaption, and has apparently turned down numerous offers to make yotsuba into an anime. Which I hope above all hope is true, because I could never imagine it in anime form ever being good. Putting a voice to yotsuba would be hard. I feel like it's one of those shows which is so revered that no matter what the studio, the anime adaption would never sit right with the fans.

 

Also this:

[Gormongous]

What sucks about Yotsuba is that the ADV translations for the first five volumes were perfect, and then the series got handed off to Yen Press and got retranslated by someone who sucked all the charm out of it. I still have my ADV editions.

 

This happened with Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei when Del Rey handed it off to Kodansha, although anything's better than the quiet non-cancellation of the series after vol. 15 failed to make an appearance for several years.

[Tanukitsune]

So I should seek out the first five volumes of ADV and forget about the rest?

[tegan]

I'd recommend it.

 

Maaaaaan, volume 6 of Wandering Son is really strong compared to the last one. It works really well almost as a standalone thing, since the chapters it collects are mostly multi-chapter stories (there's three chapters of preparation for the school culture festival and two of the festival itself). Solid read.

[TheLastBaron]

I've been meaning to read Blacksad forever. I even checked it out at the library a while back, but never got a chance to even open it. It does sort of bother me how all the male characters are these great animal caricatures and all the female ones (that I've seen) are basically sexy women with car ears.

 

I big part of it is that they all have hair while all the male characters just have fur for the most part.  There are a couple female characters that don't just look like humans with cat ears, the first that comes to mind is this old lady, but for the most part they pretty much just look like humans with cat ears.

 

By the way that volume, the one just called "Blacksad" is a collection of the first three French volumes.  there's also the fourth one out called "A Silent Hell" and if I'm not mistaken the fifth volume was released in English a month or two ago.

[hedgefield]

Yep that's the Blacksad volume I have. It's three seperate stories bundled, there's no real 'origin story' or anything if I remember so you could dig in anywhere if you wanted.

And yeah, agreed on the sexy cat women. But the kooky weasel reporter sidekick makes up for it.

 

I never really got into using Comixology, is it any good? Reading longform comics on devices still feels a little weird to me.

[TheLastBaron]

I usually buy single issues digitally and read them on ComicRack, ogns and trades I'll buy physically if it's something I actually care enough about to have on my shelf. As far as Comixsology specifically I think it's fine, but I don't use any of the smart reading stuff so for me anything that shows me pages is going to have roughly the same functionality.

[Codicier]

I've been bringing manga up, 'cause that's mostly what I read now, but I dunno if we're in the minority or what. I've been considering making a separate manga thread, but I think it would still just be me talking about Osamu Tezuka English releases, old horror manga from the sixties, and Wandering Son.

I'm not sure whether I want a separate Manga thread or not. I mean atm I'm re-reading Nausicca and reeeealy want to have a long chat about some of the way the art work is constructed, and that sort of conversation needs room to breath.

Still splitting away from the main comic thread would mean maybe less opportunity for people to find stuff they considered reading before.

In the end, I think on balance I'm just about in favour of it. But I'll go along with whatever people feel works.

[tomobedlam]

  Just bought the first two trades of Saga, and man, what an awesome comic, and about to start reading Fatale, i´m a huge Brubaker fan and i can believe it took me this long to start reading it

[tegan]

A cute comic with lesbians.

[Tanukitsune]

A while ago Fred Perry, the creator of Gold Digger, gave away the first 199 issues of the comic and I finally read them all.

 

I think I really like them, but I hate that he keeps adding new characters and it feels like story arcs never end, they just merge. Apart from the generic blue haired character, I'm surprised I can actually kinda recognize that character that appeared 30 issues ago, but at same time... there is just so much to keep track of. ARG! Can you at least finally get done with Dreadwing? 

 

I really love the characters, and I'm surprised a comic that has reached so many issues which doing something to upset me or make me lose interest, the "drama/fun times" ratio is pretty good, it's never too silly and neither does it have to kill a character every issue to be "dramatic", which is really a commendable feat in my opinion.

 

Does anybody read that comic? Is it still any good? I hope so. :|

[Tanukitsune]

I just read the two volumes of Glory that the artist of "Wet Moon" worked on, foolishly expecting it to be like Wet Moon or at least a bit like She-Hulk, some smashing then some downtime with character development...

 

Boy, was I wrong. This comic is confusing, I'm not sure if it's badly written of if the writers are trolling us, not to mention it's incredibly violent.

 

As for the story, a teenage dreams of Glorianna a super hero and tries to find her, she does and...

 

For some reason, Glory insists that she must fight, even though she's never fought in her life, monsters from her planet come, claim Glory will kill her and that's she the only one who can stop her, she has a vision from the distant future when she dies and Glory decided to go kill his father, who is responsible for killing her mother, so she tries finding her sister, who in one issue is killing thugs and in the next issue is probably worse than a thug.

 

When they both find their father... they just eat waffles, no talking or development, just waffles, then they find out their mother is alive and Glory, punches her jaw off, this doesn't kill and they find out they have a new sister, Glory says all the blood she's shed is now on her mother's hands and her father reveals the real bad guy, they get a bunch of super heroes and fight it, many of Glory's friends die, and in a fit of blind "Hulk rage" she kill the new girl, who is somehow her best friend now? I'm pretty sure they haven't even spent a week together...

 

The best part is the finale where Glory makes a deal with the Gods to enter the afterlife while alive to see her friends, but she will no longer have an afterlife now, she will simply cease to exist when she dies...

 

So, she meets all her friends who are pretty happy even though she got them killed, even the girl that was ripped to shreds by her is OK with what she did, she tries to convince them to escape with her but they say the afterlife is too great to leave...

 

You heard me, she made the ultimate sacrifice, not only for nothing, but the comic has to rub it her wounds what a terrible mistake she made... except she doesn't seem to mind either.

 

*groan* It's the finale that really gets me... It's so stupid and illogical it's infuriating. I don't know how the person who recommended me would like this, then again, she was a fan of Wet Moon and Ross Campbell too. *shrugs*

[Tanukitsune]

Wow, I don't know if I should post this in the comic thread, but John Campbell of Pictures for Sad Children.... probably needs help... badly?

 

The other day he attacked online another cartoonist for no apparent reason and took down his comic and now... 

 

Well... He did this.

 

While most are incredibly upset by this, cartoonist close enough to him are pretty sure he's... unstable and needs help. He thinks everybody is the enemy and well... I'm kinda worried for him. 

 

I really don't know what is going on, some cartoonists are acting like he might do something stupid if they don't get to talk to him soon, some think he's just an awful person for burning the books that have been payed for.

[Gormongous]

Wow, I don't know if I should post this in the comic thread, but John Campbell of Pictures for Sad Children.... probably needs help... badly?

 

The other day he attacked online another cartoonist for no apparent reason and took down his comic and now... 

 

Well... He did this.

 

While most are incredibly upset by this, cartoonist close enough to him are pretty sure he's... unstable and needs help. He thinks everybody is the enemy and well... I'm kinda worried for him. 

 

I really don't know what is going on, some cartoonists are acting like he might do something stupid if they don't get to talk to him soon, some think he's just an awful person for burning the books that have been payed for.

 

That is... wow. It is someone having an extremely drastic mental breakdown and processing it as a moral stance on privilege. It is tough to read that post and thereby watch someone gut himself for ever even daring to try and be happy when there is unhappiness anywhere in the world. I hope he gets help...

[namman siggins]

https://www.fantagraphics.com/browse-shop/nijigahara-holograph-pre-order-5.html

 

Coming out this week! From mangaka master Inio Asano:

Even as butterflies ominously proliferate in town, the rumor of a mysterious creature lurking in the tunnel behind the school spreads among the children. When the body of Arié Kimura's mother is found by this tunnel's entrance, next to apparently human traces, the legend seems to be confirmed. Is the end of the world coming? In order to appease the wrath of the beast, the children decide to offer it a sacrifice: The unfortunate Arié, whom they believe to be the cause of the curse, is shoved into a well that leads to the Nijigahara tunnel — an act that in turns pushes Komatsuzaki, the budding thug who has carried a torch for Arié for a while already, entirely over the edge.

But this is only the beginning of the complex, challenging, obliquely told Nijigahara Holograph, which takes place in two separate timelines and involves the suicidal Suzuki; Higure, his stalkerish would-be girlfriend; their teacher Miss Sakaki, whose heavily bandaged face remains a mystery; and many more — brothers, sisters, parents, co-workers, teachers, aggressors and victims who are all inextricably linked to one another and all will eventually — ten years later — have to live with what they’ve done or suffered through.

[tegan]

Oh man, I thought I had missed it! I wasn't huge on Solanin, but I saw enough brilliance in it that I've been interested to see what Asano would turn out next.

[namman siggins]

It's definitely one of her best works and one of her more surreal/horror works too.

I highly recommend checking out Oyasumi Punpun & Umibe no Onnanoko.

[Codicier]

Just finished Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko.

 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2692798-strange-and-stranger

 

Before reading this I had no idea that Ditko was a such a devoted and hardcore Ayn Rand follower, let alone the self destructive nature that devotion had on his life and career.

 

Its such a shame to see the path he took from someone who's early ink work and composition are so intricate, dynamic, and show such commitment and passion, to someone who so slavishly follows Rand's creed that he would end his working life producing pages who's pencilling looked like something a bad highschool art student would have been ashamed of just because he was determined to give as little effort as possible to the publishers he saw as looters..

 

Recommend, if depressing reading.

 

Adding this to avoid double positing although it's a slightly different subject.

 

Watched a episode of What Do Artists Do All Day? on Frank Quietly today during my break.  A solid look at both Quietly's production methodology and his influences (which include talking about the way he feels the city backgrounds are drawn with the same attention to detail as foregrounds in Akira) .

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03v2vcb

[NotDorner]

This is probably nothing new to yall, but hes my favorite degen in the comics world, so I feel I must:

 

Garth Ennis is known as the wacky, wanabee tarantino of the comics world, but some of his stuff is actually really powerful imo, particularly his shorts about ww2 which all offer unique perspectives. Some of his earlier stuff about ireland is very interesting as well, and you cant miss PREACHER, as nutty as it is.

 

I also really liked his punisher reboot, the first arc is very well done, art as well as story.

 

Oh and if you want to feel dirty and disturbed for at least a day or two, check out CROSSED. *shiver*. I still get nightmares about that shit. Not for the faint of heart.

[namman siggins]

Just got done with Nijigahara Holograph, wow... A somber and elliptical story with even somber characters. I loved it.

Did a new post on Typex's Rembrandt

http://the9thblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/rembrandt-typex.html?m=0