Comics Extravaganza - Pow Bang Smash!

[Merus]

I am disturbed by BMO drawing 6 versions of itself on the page.

[Ben X]

That's ace! I especially like it because it's the same kind of thing I was going for with PAL's text adventure in TGP.

[Codicier]

So while helping my dad clean up his study I found this

 

 

Before I go any further I should point out I have hugely fond memories of Kenny Everett. , Flamboyant, slightly surreal, and high energy he was along with Monty Python one of the comedians most important in forming my teenage tastes in comedy.

 

However I have no strong memories of the book itself, at most they consist of a vague sense of boredom and confusion, but graphic novels certainly weren't as available then, so I probably took whatever I could get when it came to reading opportunitys.

So opening it up for the 1st time in 16+ years yesterday I can't say I  felt much anticipation, more of a vague sense of whether I was old enough “to get it” now.

 

Early impression were surprisingly good.

 

So you guys all remember the part in every superhero comic where the protagonist is going to school in a weird Dadaist landscape before getting into a fight with a bully then uses his super strength to tie his neck in a knot so he couldn't speak before tearing his leg off because he 'refuses to surrender'? 

Me neither, but that's what they went for here.

 

 

Obviously his punishment for this is extra homework, at which point the story then transitions to Kremmen daydreaming about becoming a space captain, which in turn is immediately followed by a flash forward to Kremmen becoming a space captain.

 

 

I actually like this framing quite a bit, overtly admitting “everything that follows is a psychotic teenage power fantasy” is actually quite refreshing.

 

It does a very effective job of paying tribute to early British Sci-fi spaceship design too. I Love the look of Troll 1. Its part Thunderbirds, part Dan Dare, and part Only Fools and Horses.

 

 

However that page was probably the last one before the whole experienced turned a more than a little sour for me. The risk any attempt at parody treads is that it can become a even worse version of what it was trying to mock, and sadly this is a line I think Kremmen crosses.

 

I'm going to get the worst of it out of the way here, and say that to someone living in 2014 Kremmen has some pretty horribly misogynistic, and at times vilely racist moments. 

 

I present at this time Exhibit A:

 

 

yeah      

 

Taking a moment to step back I think I'm not overreacting here but it's always hard to tell in these situations, what offends me may not offend others. 

But I think in the end nothing, not the whole “1977 was a different era”, or “it's a joke!” I think can in the end excuse this. Which leads me to the question “did Everett ok this?”, and were there similar moments in his TV show that I've just forgotten about?

 

I think i'm going to cleanse my pallet by reading some early  Love & Rockets which while riffing on some similar theme's is everything Kremmen is not.

 

sidenote: would people prefer me to put spoiler markers around those other images, i put them round that one image because frankly it's horrible but i'm not sure if i should do the others too to save space?

[Codicier]

 

So Marvel have announced there's gonna be a new Thor & that it's not a he but a she. i think overall I quite like the new Thor design. A nice earthy feel to the costume, main let down is that in the end her main armour is still basically "boobplate" (although you can argue its a tribute to the original Thor costume), feel like they could have gone whole hog and thrown in a chain mail vest for her.

Possibley open to acusations of being a publicity stunt but still a good thing all in all, wonder if it was successful they'd ever have the guts to make the change permanent.

[TheLastBaron]

It sucks that Esad Ribic isn't on it as his work in Thor God of Thunder was absolutely gorgeous, but at least Jason Aaron is writing it so it will probably be good.

[tegan]

I really like the design of lady Thor. Between her and Batgirl, I almost want to read upcoming superhero comics? This is a new experience for me.

 

 

Also, this got announced:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I mean, awesome. They're making a series out of one of the handful of good Tim Burton movies, and it's being written by Kate Leth, and it's "Nancy Drew-esque teen girl mysteries;" but why now? Why bring Edward Scissorhands back after 24 years of complete inactivity?

 

...Unless it starts next year and this is a 25th anniversary thing and of course that's what it is and I'm just an idiot.

[TheLastBaron]

I was disappointed when I saw "sub cvr" and then Rausch and realized Gabriel Hardman was not doing interiors. Not a fan of Drew Rausch, though I guess I can see why they picked him I guess.

[Ben X]

"Nancy Drew-esque teen girl mysteries;"

 

I was with you until this. It seems like a really bad fit, I can't fathom how it would work.

[tegan]

Oh man, I guess Digital Manga Publishing is getting the entire library of Osamu Tezuka digitally published in English. On the one hand, that's incredible and I'll be buying an e-reader as soon as they start becoming available. On the other, that's an enormous job and DMP is a pretty small team. I'll admit I'm kind of skeptical.

[namman siggins]

Next week is going to be great for comic fans:

It Never Happened Again: Two Stories by Sam Alden

Youth Is Wasted by Noah Van Sciver

In Clothes Called Fat by Moyoco Anno

and this week I got:

Monster, Vol. 1: The Perfect Edition by Naoki Urasawa

[tegan]

Gigi D.G. answered some questions about Cucumber Quest (which you really should be reading, you know), and I'm super happy about this one:

 

Anonymous said:
Is there romance between Princess Piano and Princess Ametrine? Sorry if this is a spoiler-ish question, but certain pages have piqued my interest.

The details of Piano and Ametrine’s relationship will be explored later in the comic. Please be patient until then! If you want confirmation that Princess Piano is gay, she’s gay.

 

 

I mean, I thought it was obvious, but yay!

[Codicier]

Gigi D.G. answered some questions about Cucumber Quest (which you really should be reading, you know), and I'm super happy about this one:

 

 

 

I mean, I thought it was obvious, but yay!

 

Oh damn it don't link something with such a nice art style & colours on the 500th page, now I've got another webcomic to read all the way through!

[Tanukitsune]

Speaking of webcomics, while "blind grinding" I read Nimona, from one of the authors of Lumberjanes.... only to find out it's ending soon.

 

Out of curiousity I also started to read a comic called Crazy Sunshine, and it really confused me at the beginning, since it think it's a cheesecake comic just because one of the characters has large breasts, but it's too tame for that and sometimes the jokes don't even make sense, but once it started to get a better grasp on humor and the plot was better... it said it was going in hiatus probably forever.

 

As for the new Thor... I can only say the helmet looks ugly and as for the new Captain America.... What happens to Falcon's animal sidekick Redwing? How does this affect the Pet Avengers, the only super hero team I care about (apart from Power Pack)?

[Merus]

Gigi D.G. answered some questions about Cucumber Quest (which you really should be reading, you know)

Cucumber Quest is wavering over the drop line, for me. The art is gorgeous, but the pacing is pretty bad, and there was a period of about two weeks where I could swear the comic was being written while on drugs.

 

Paranatural, another comic that has gorgeous art and shitty pacing, has spent twice as many pages on this one storyline as it's spent on any of its other storylines, because it's clearly up to the point where the author's decided they need to do WORLD-BUILDING and they have to fill in all the WORLD-BUILDING and if it keeps trying to set up future storylines instead of focusing on the one it's supposed to be doing I'll drop it as well.

[tegan]

I've been wavering on Paranatural too. Nothing has made any goddamn sense since this fight scene started (are we still in a fight scene? I don't know) and it's gone from making fun of shonen anime bullshit to being shonen anime bullshit. I have more faith in CQ than that though.

 

Recently I dropped Blaster Nation. Weirdly, I don't know if I actually liked the comic anymore, I just couldn't stand all of the weird anti-feminist stuff that Brad posts outside of the comic itself, to the point that it was souring my perceptions.

[Twig]

I still like Paranatural! And Cucumber Quest!

 

Wait this isn't the webcomics thread.

[Codicier]

I still like Paranatural! And Cucumber Quest!

 

Wait this isn't the webcomics thread.

 

I feel like were getting closer & closer to the stage where this is a distinction which won't matter as much (if at all), whether it's a ipad, a kindle or whatever it feels like i'm one of the few people i know who doesn't own any digital comics something which this sale on Young Avengers may well change.

 

It got me wondering if maybe one way of doing a 'book club for comics' could be to pick webcomics?

 

I mean the criterion collection film club idea works because they are universally accessible in a way which webcomics share.

 

That said i struggle to think of any webcomics i really hold in the same high regard as the best of print comics, I wonder if the episodic nature of most of them just makes the incentive to keep pushing out regular content to high for the creators to really do longer story arcs etc.

[namman siggins]

Boom! My copy of Youth is Wasted is coming in today! And tomorrow In Clothes Called Fat comes.

[Twig]

I read very few comics, whereas I read an egregiously large number of webcomics. Mostly because they're free, of course. They're also delivered in a very different format (generally one page at a time), as opposed to regular ol' comics' being full issues, etc.

 

I guess what I'm saying is that I think the distinction is worth keeping in mind. That said, I don't really care about separating all the comic types into different threads. I was just saying that 'cause I'd made a post in the actual Webcomics thread less than half a day prior.

[Tanukitsune]

Jesus, the sale at Comixology is crazy.... They have a ton of manga on sale... but there are just so many I don't even know where to start asking about them.

 

They also have Cartoon Network comics on sale, where the Power Puff Girls and Samurai Jack comics any good?

 

They also have an SDCC Image sale... I might get a vol of Saga, Rat Queen, Sex Criminals... and I don't know anything about the rest.

 

Comixology has some weird region locking, so I'm hoping I can buy the US only Cartoon Network comics, if you can see them it usually let's you buy them?

[N1njaSquirrel]

For what it's worth, Saga is fantastic. I got the first 2 volumes in a humble bundle sale a while back, and as soon as I read them, I bought the third volume. Now I'm getting the monthly issues. It's so, so, good.

[TheLastBaron]

So the epilogue/followup issue to last week's Life with Archie (the big one) is out, but I still haven't picked it up. Last week was the first time in a while that I went into a comic shop since I don't normally buy physical copies of singles, but man they had a great series of variant covers that were only available by getting physical copies from stores.  I don't know what I'm going to get, a lot of it depends on what's available, but I'm thinking Chiang is my favorite, though I like all of them except Ross.  Last week for the "big issue" I got the Ramon Perez cover and wouldn't have bought a different cover it if it was sold out and would have just gotten it online.  I think a lot of people probably went for the Francavilla cover because of the Afterlife with Archie vibe (which is funny because that series started because of a variant cover he did early on for Life with Archie). 

 

Here's all the covers for the two issues.  They're all really cool, though I think the Alex Ross one is kind of creepy. 

[namman siggins]

Finished Sciver's Youth is Wasted yesterday: bloody brilliant collection.

I'm glad I read it at this moment if my time, almost every story in that collection close to home.

[TheLastBaron]

So the next issue of Afterlife with Archie came out on Wednesday, but I put off reading it until today because I didn't want to read it right after Life with Archie 37. I liked the issue, but the main thing is it also includes a preview for the new Sabrina series. The art is not at all what I expected, it's kind of sketchy with a watercolor thing going on, but also its a lot less cartoony. It's like some Sean Phillips Matt Kindt hybrid. The story itself is what it claims to be, a straight up horror story with witches in a small Massachusetts town during the 50's. I don't know if I'll pick it up when it actually comes out as unlike Archie I don't really care that much about the cast of characters in Sabrina and the art doesn't do as much for me as Francavilla's does on Afterlife.

[Tanukitsune]

For those who care, Comixology is having a daily 45 cent sale for the 45th San Diego Comic Con, you missed out on Love & Rockets, but you can check the daily deal here.