nikasaur

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I just bought Rasl Vol 4 by Jeff Smith (Bone), and am looking forward to re-reading the first three in preparation over Christmas.

This turned out to not have such a great ending, but the telling of the story up to that point was fantastic. It felt like it could have done with going on for a bit longer and expanding its scope a little, though. The themes, settings and sequences tend to feel repetitious at points, at first to good effect but eventually a little frustrating. iirc there was a bit of a fizzle-out issue with Bone, too...

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Rasl never caught my attention the way Bone did for some reason. I keep forgetting to trade in my volume 1.

So one of my favourite comics, Rica'tte Kanji, is now available in its entirely for free legally online. It's a lesbian romance about a college student who moves from a small town to Tokyo and chooses to take the opportunity to start dating women, written as a deliberate response to most lesbian themes in manga at the time being depressing stories about "forbidden love" with downer endings. It's very amateurish and so light as to be almost insubstantial, but full of charm. I bought a paper copy years ago but I fully intend to buy the physical rerelease coming later this year. I originally found it during my first stay in a big city after coming out, so I may have an inordinate amount of fondness for it. You can either buy a DRM-free digital copy for five dollars or so or read it for free right here (just remember to flip to the end and then read right to left).

My favourite part so far is that the new intro immediately addresses the original printing's gratuitous use of Comic Sans.

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Nappi, please report back to us on how you find Watchmen, because as has been said it's definitely not a My First Comic Book choice so it'll be interesting to see how well it works in that situation.

We all suggested some introductory texts previously, right?

Like Argobot and Nachimir, I found the Watchmen highly enjoyable even without reading a bunch of "regular" superhero comics as a background material. I think I have gathered enough knowledge about the superhero culture through movies, cartoon series, books (especially The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay), etc., to be able to appreciate what Alan Moore was going for. Obviously, there is no way of telling which portion of the references I missed, but I don't think that is an issue.

I enjoyed the reading experience, although it took some time to adjust to actually studying the frames and not just reading the speech bubbles. For some reason I absolutely loved the coloring.

That said, the book didn't really get me excited about superhero comics. To be fair, I didn't expect it to. I just bought Building Stories, though.

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It was more the way Moore plays with the narrative and visual structures of comics in general that I thought might be too much for someone's first experience of the medium.

I just bought Building Stories, though.

Me too! Thirty bloody quid. Saving it for a rainy day.

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I knew what sort of package Building Stories was when I ordered it, but it turned out I had completely underestimated its size. When picked it up in the post office, I had to double-check that it was really my name in there.

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I knew what sort of package Building Stories was when I ordered it, but it turned out I had completely underestimated its size. When picked it up in the post office, I had to double-check that it was really my name in there.

Haha, I had the same experience. My parents grabbed it for Xmas, and it just barely fit in my suitcase to come back.

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On a whim I got The Mask Omnibus Vol. 1 & 2 and they are pretty great. While in the cartoon, the whole world has a bit cartoony look and the movie The Mask sticks out like a green thumb, in the comics the characters look "realistic" and don't seem to clash with The Mask or "Bighead's" look and antics at all. This version is much more violent and even when a good person wears the mask they mask will always take over and while they are doing want they want, the mask always twists it and they end up going to far and doing something relatively terrible.

Only the original series has The Mask in a Zoot suit, in the rest the look changes depending on who wears it, and I've yet to see it referred to as "Loki's mask", but I have seen scenes that inspired the movie and cartoon... Man, the movie would have been awesome if Walter was in it.

The one thing that surprised me the most is that

Stanley Ipkiss was dead at the first story line, it's her girlfriend that's alive during the whole comic series.

It's still in the middle of Vol. 2, but I've loved all of what I've read so far... there was a series in which The Mask meets and fights other Dark Horse heroes... And boy are they so 90's! I only recognized Barbwire though.

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Wasn't there one of those rare inter-company crossovers at one point where The Joker got hold of The Mask, or was that just some sort of brilliant fever dream I had?

I enjoyed the reading experience, although it took some time to adjust to actually studying the frames and not just reading the speech bubbles. For some reason I absolutely loved the coloring.

Did you read the regular printing, the original single issues, or the Absolute edition? I hear the Absolute edition is recoloured for the worse (ie: making "Tales of the Black Freighter" not look like it was poorly printed on cheap paper).

Also, now that you've read it once, read it again. There is a ton of stuff to pick up on (collected here if you'd rather not find them on your own. My favourites include:

  • realizing that Rorschach is the first character you see
  • the four-legged chicken and Heinz ketchup with 58 varieties in the restaurant
  • there are at least twice as many smiley faces with blood on them as you think there are. My favourite is the tiny bloody power outlet at the Gunga Diner after the space squid appears.
  • the "Who watches the Watchmen?" graffiti is never shown in full
  • one chapter's panel layouts are mirrored exactly. The first page is a reverse of the last, the second page is a reverse of the second-last, etc

You should also watch the incredible intro for the movie and admire that the music from the first film trailer is the slower, more cynical alternate B-side version of that song that Smashing Pumpkins wrote for the end credits of Batman and Robin. Briefly admit that this is probably the most clever thing Zack Snyder has ever done, and then ignore the movie for the rest of your life.

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Did you read the regular printing, the original single issues, or the Absolute edition? I hear the Absolute edition is recoloured for the worse (ie: making "Tales of the Black Freighter" not look like it was poorly printed on cheap paper).

Not the Absolute edition, but it says "Additional coloring & Digital Finishing 2005 by John Higgins". Whatever that means. The Black Freighter stuff is still distinguishable from the rest.

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Also, now that you've read it once, read it again. There is a ton of stuff to pick up on (collected here if you'd rather not find them on your own. My favourites include:

  • one chapter's panel layouts are mirrored exactly. The first page is a reverse of the last, the second page is a reverse of the second-last, etc

Which is apt, as it concerns

the symmetrically-faced Rorschach. The general subject matter of each page is mirrored too, iirc.

You should also watch the incredible intro for the movie and admire that the music from the first film trailer is the slower, more cynical alternate B-side version of that song that Smashing Pumpkins wrote for the end credits of Batman and Robin. Briefly admit that this is probably the most clever thing Zack Snyder has ever done, and then ignore the movie for the rest of your life.

I think that intro is a little over-rated - a montage of slow-mo clips to an on-the-nose song, which doesn't really set the scene very well for new viewers - but it's pretty much the best thing in the film. That thing about the trailer song choice is very clever, though, intentional or not! As with Sin City, I much preferred the trailer to the film.

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Building Stories

Some time ago I bought 'The Acme Novelty Library' by Chris Ware as a present (after someone here mentioned 'Building Stories' - thanks for that) and just judging by the few pages I read and by the details on the paper-cover-thing ('Printed in China, because it's cheaper' in tiny print, etc.) alone it is a fantastic (and big and pretty) book!

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For anyone that's read Building Stories, I recently discovered a podcast that discussed it during one of their recent episodes. They also posted an interesting overview on their blog, discussing the themes and connections throughout. Check it out if your interested (contains spoilers): http://comicsalternative.com/2013/01/29/episode-21-bonus/

I also recommend checking out their podcast for anyone interested in non-superhero related comics, good stuff! http://comicsalternative.com/

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I'm getting through Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco at roughly the same pace that I got through Palestine. Both are very much worth reading however they can leave you feeling a little flat after a chapter or two in trying to come to terms with these situations.

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For anyone that's read Building Stories, I recently discovered a podcast that discussed it during one of their recent episodes. They also posted an interesting overview on their blog, discussing the themes and connections throughout. Check it out if your interested (contains spoilers): http://comicsalterna...isode-21-bonus/

I also recommend checking out their podcast for anyone interested in non-superhero related comics, good stuff! http://comicsalternative.com/

Sweet, I'll come back to this once I've read it. Thanks, Sarge!

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Finished up Safe Area Gorazde. Harrowing, I don't know if the Bosnian war is necessarily a forgotten conflict but this book is a detailed account of the people who lived through it and the atrocities they witnessed. I was reading this one on public transport and not only did I have to hide some of the more graphic pages, I also had to hold back the tears.

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I was gifted Blankets for christmass and really enjoyed it. In a strange way it reminded me  a bit of The Sense of a Ending, with the way it reflected on the uncertainty and subjectivity of memory.

I'm thinking of giving Habibi a read next, anyone here read that one and can recomend it / warn me off it?

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O.K. I'm not used tot superhero comics, but I have to ask this... is it normal or bad that when I read a comic it's blatant to see the "clones"? 

 

I just read a comic where the "Joker clone" even uses the Joker gas that makes your face grin like the Joker forever and the Superman clone was even picked from a capsule and adopted from farmers!

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Anyone else read A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi?

 

I've just finished it and although I haven't quite finished processing why i like it fully, I know that I'm probably return to it again and again.

It's got a really compelling combination of strong autobiographic storytelling, forensic examination of a very specific period in the Manga industry's history, and a very humane look at the creative process.

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It's not really, a comic as in a usual comicbook american style, more manga-ish, but it's not Japanese so its missing some of that as well.

 

It is, however, AMAZING. It's hilarious and brilliantly written and I can see a really popular anime style show coming out of it if anyone in a studio catches on, so go read Paranatural from the beginning, it's free too! http://paranatural.net/chapter-one/

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I love Paranatural. It's fantastic. I would absolutely watch it in animated form, too, heh.

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