Comics Extravaganza - Pow Bang Smash!

[TheLastBaron]

Oh yeah I think going black and white is the right decision for this book.

I had just read the first issue of Twilight Children which is a new Vertigo series set in a tropical South American town written by Gilbert Hernandez drawn by Darwyn Cooke with Stewart on colors and visually it brought me back to Daytripper so the lack of color in Two Brothers was very striking, but Two Brothers isn't Daytripper.

I may be just weird, I'm used to seeing that past through B&W photography and that's how I see it.

I think I'm in the same boat, especially after having just rewatched the new remastered version of The Civil War PBS recently aired.

[marblize]

I just finished the Walking Dead compendium 1 and I'm amazed at how much I prefer the show. Shane and Michonne in particular jump to mind as being handled so much better.

 

Anyone giving Paper Girls a go?

[Twig]

Michonne I can see but man Shane in the show was such a terrible character and lasted way too long and is a significant reason why I just stopped watching. I mean he'd been dead for a while but it left a sour taste in my mouth, combined with all the other annoying characters.

[marblize]

I don't know, maybe it's because I saw the show first but he seems like an actual human in it, where in the comic he felt like a pretty lame throwaway plot point. And I thought he worked well as the devil on Rick's shoulder.

 

and yeah, michonne being a seductress and a horrific prolonged rape victim in the comic felt pretty shitty.

 

On to compendium 2! I suppose.

[Twig]

I also just hate the TV show. I think it's really bad!

 

So I'm biased.

[TheLastBaron]

Read Too Cool to be Forgotten again last night and yeah, it's really good and still gets me. Really looking forward to Alex Robinson's new book that comes out pretty soon. It'll be interesting to see the scope as it's going for a similar sort of thing as Box Office Poison, but it's half the length, though Too Cool did a lot in only 120 pages.

[Twig]

I bought the latest five hardcover Fable volumes as a present to myself. I've now finished volume seven. People in chat were talking about how it gets bad once the adversary stuff ends. I guess I'll see if I agree. I like the characters a lot, so it's entirely possible I will continue to enjoy the comic on that merit alone.

[TheLastBaron]

I didn't think it was bad after the main arc as much as it was a logical ending point (as in it was going to end there but kept going because the book was popular) and I didn't feel the need to stick with it because I felt satisfied. If you're still enjoying the stories and characters then you'll probably enjoy the next half of the series too.

[Tanukitsune]

Well, I just read the first twenty something issues of Saga.... and boy did I leave it at the worst moment possible. I'm kinda hooked! 

[Tanukitsune]

I really have to ask this, but what on Earth is this whole "Last Days of" and "Secret Wars" thing is?

 

I just finished the

Silk mini series and it ended.... with the WORLD ENDING!

, I'm kinda afraid of reading any other Marvel comic now.

[Mike Danger]

I really have to ask this, but what on Earth is this whole "Last Days of" and "Secret Wars" thing is?

 

I just finished the

Silk mini series and it ended.... with the WORLD ENDING!

, I'm kinda afraid of reading any other Marvel comic now.

 

Extremely brief synopsis of the run-up to Secret Wars/Secret Wars itself

The smartest guys in the world - Reed Richards, Dr. Strange, Tony Stark, etc. discover that the multiverse is tearing itself apart with different Earths literally smashing into each other. This in turn unleashes all kinds of nasties trying to hasten/prevent/survive the destruction of everything. They try to prevent this in a few different ways/try to prevent the rest of the superhero community from finding out and fail repeatedly. Ultimately, everyone ends up on "Battleworld", an amalgamation of several different Marvel universes smooshed together (so you have the 1992 X-Men hanging out at the mall, all the different Thors acting like a big police force, the Marvel Zombies trying to eat everyone, etc.)

 

My understanding is that Secret Wars was supposed to act as a sort of "soft reboot" for the Marvel universe and allow them to start over with a bunch of new stories that, while not being quite as bound to the status quo, still respect past events. (e.g. the new Iron Man title clearly has new changes to the established order of things, but it takes for granted that Tony Stark has been Iron Man for a while and presumably has done all the same stuff). Of course, the main Secret Wars title has been delayed, so we're now getting these new series without knowing exactly what happens in Secret Wars to cause all these changes. (My understanding is that the Last Days Of stuff is meant to be a wrap-up for the pre-Secret Wars ongoing titles - I've just been reading the main Secret Wars book because I was reading the Avengers/New Avengers stuff leading up to it.)

 

Edit: And don't be afraid! I've been reading the "new" Iron Man/Thor/Ms. Marvel and have enjoyed them! (Iron Man has a truly great visual gag in the first issue.) Can't wait for the new Black Widow title.

[JamesGoblin]

I just re-discovered an ancient French movie from 1981 that has special place in my heart. It was named by French cmic magazine & series, Metal Hurlant (Heavy Metal).

I remember wanting to see this one sooo much as a kid. The scene is early 80s Yugoslavia, communism and stuff, one or maybe two TV channels operating for 7-8 hours total daily, on average one movie per week (Sunday evening, and after that - Smurfs <3).

My life back then was basically waiting for Sundays. Now, there was a SF/comics TV show with intro made of scenes from Heavy Metal (Métal hurlant, the movie); Of course, I was clueless about the name, or even about it being a movie - in my child imagination, it was some kind of neverending cartoon series that I would be allowed to watch every day, not just on Sundays =)

Here's couple minutes of footage, kind of trailer:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2_gOpU0eWU

 

[TheLastBaron]

New series just started over at http://panelsyndicate.com by the same team as The Private Eye

[JamesGoblin]

<3

 

While I miss Stewart's color, the B&W really makes the comic and I think if it was in color it would have changed the atmosphere and the feel of the comic.

 

What I mean by that this is A. I think a visual love letter to comics of the past, especially to Latin American comic strips. The final panel reminds of the great Hugo Pratt. Hell, I could see it in Corto Maltese.

B. This comic takes place in during the Rubber Boom, it's golden years and I think it would have been weird for it to have been in color; we're moving into the past. I may be just weird, I'm used to seeing that past through B&W photography and that's how I see it. I know it's not, but my vision of it has been colored through what I've seen and how it's talked about.

EDIT:

Here's a Pratt as a reference 

 

 Ah, Corto...the color rarely does him justice, thou there are some exceptions.

 

My favorite (sorry for Serbian and the color) would be "The Lagoon of Mysteries" or whatever the original name is; Here's couple scenes, I'm sure you will remember:

 

[Ben X]

New series just started over at http://panelsyndicate.com by the same team as The Private Eye

 

Man, I am reading so much BKV at the moment. I just finished Ex Machina, am about to start on the new volume of Saga, and now this and the final ish of We Stand On Guard are out. I might have to re-read Y The Last Man and re-watch the scene in LOST where Charlie and Hurley argue about who would win in a race between The Flash and Superman.

[TheLastBaron]

There's also Paper Girls which I'll probably check out once there's a trade out.

[Ben X]

Dammit! Subscribed.

 

I really enjoyed Ex Machina but I felt like not being an American and even more specifically a New Yorker in 2005 hindered me from appreciating certain nuances. I thought I'd seen someone on here saying "fuck Ex Machina" recently, but I couldn't find it so maybe that was another forum. I did see a few people here really liked it though.

[namman siggins]

 Ah, Corto...the color rarely does him justice, thou there are some exceptions.

 

My favorite (sorry for Serbian and the color) would be "The Lagoon of Mysteries" or whatever the original name is; Here's couple scenes, I'm sure you will remember:

 

Oh! Oh! Beautiful!

 

Pratt is a master of visual storytelling. 

I really enjoy the comics did when he was in Argentina and post-Corto Maltese. 

I personally think this comic is his best work:

 

He was always spot on with military and native costuming and traditions. 

[JamesGoblin]

Oh! Oh! Beautiful!

Pratt is a master of visual storytelling.

I really enjoy the comics did when he was in Argentina and post-Corto Maltese.

I personally think this comic is his best work:

He was always spot on with military and native costuming and traditions.

Thanks for the recommendation, I was unaware of that one!?

 

Besides his graphical qualities (one can take lots of his images from comics and frame them straight onto the wall), what touched me here was the story beneath the images, the actual script - it's about us and our dreams and their, often brutal, clash with reality.

 

PS Sorry for late reply, Is there some kind of notification tool here, like "X quoted you" or "Y referred to you by @..." or "Z said something in your thread", anything alike? Or do we have to re-check it all manually on and on?

[elvaq]

Dammit! Subscribed.

 

I really enjoyed Ex Machina but I felt like not being an American and even more specifically a New Yorker in 2005 hindered me from appreciating certain nuances. I thought I'd seen someone on here saying "fuck Ex Machina" recently, but I couldn't find it so maybe that was another forum. I did see a few people here really liked it though.

 

Might have been me as I was on a tear recently about how poorly Ex Machina ended. Totally loved the first half of the series but thought it fell to pieces in the last third.

 

The Private Eye was really nice all throughout so I'm pretty keen on this new one. I feel like BKV's stuff doesn't work well in long-form (over 24 issue's, say) but he slays when stories are tighter and hold back more.

[TheLastBaron]

Yeah the ending of Ex Machina was really rough.

I also agree about BKV on longer stories, I think he's probably the best writer out there at single issues and actually writes issues unlike some people who very clearly write for trades (which is fine, but different).

[Ben X]

Might have been me as I was on a tear recently about how poorly Ex Machina ended. Totally loved the first half of the series but thought it fell to pieces in the last third.

 

Ha ha, I assumed it would be someone taking umbrance at the politics of it.

[dibs]

I got Nimona at the weekend and read it last night. It was all things great.

 

The printing was a little on the small side. A few times i had to squint a little to read some text.

[Ben X]

There's also Paper Girls which I'll probably check out once there's a trade out.

 

This is excellent, thanks for pointing it out! It's the Spielberg homage that Super 8 went for and missed.

[Codicier]

Ok so i was sorting some old spectrum games today when i randomly decided to open one of them & look inside the case

 

 

now i could be wrong but that looks like early Jamie Hewlett work to me, what do the readers think? is that his stuff?