General Comics Thread

[ronin356]

Welp, only couple more days until we get the first part of Groo vs Conan: http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/15-632/Groo-vs-Conan-1

I have to say I'm really interested on how they manage to do this, crossovers overall tend to be very prone to failure if they start to unfavour/overfavour too much either participant (like with Tarzan vs Predator, where Tarzan just kills dozens of Predators with his tiny knife).

What? When did this happen??

[TinyBird]

What? When did this happen??

Well, if you click on the link in that post, you'll see it's going to happen in the 18th of April. But it was announced officially about... year ago?

[Star Eater]

Reading The Maxx right now. Only good thing to come out of Image IMO. It's actually too good for them. Makes me want to make my own comic.

Also, on the opposite end of the spectrum, reading some Youngbloods, just to laugh at its writing and art. Its incredible how bad it is.

[TinyBird]

Only good thing to come out of Image IMO.

Well, depends on what you consider "coming out of Image"... Like if you only consider the series created in Image during the infamous Image time (the 90's) maybe then, but if you consider the series created on the individual studios and the stuff they have also published (but not necessarily created), then the list might get bit longer, after all they also have published, for example, Astro City, Groo, Bone, Invincible, Flaming Carrot Comics as well as other short comics (one of my favorites being "Vampire's Christmas" if for nothing else for the art) and Wildstorm has quite a few good titles (even though most of my favorites were done under DC). (And well, Battle Pope and Bomb Queen...)

[Star Eater]

Forgive me, yeah I mean the Image time.

Holy shit, Youngblood, I can't even begin to list the unintentional hilarity in this stuff. It's addictive.

[Star Eater]

Am I committing some kind of terrible comic crime by admitting I don't like Niel Gaiman at all? I just cannot get into any of his work and it's not for lack of trying on my part. My wife is a fan of his and I admit I liked the movie Stardust, but I found Mirrormask unwatchable.

I kept hearing how great Sandman was, my wife has a whole bunch of the comics and a trade paperback or two, I can't even make it through one issue without getting bored. Maybe I'm just thick? It's not like I'm a tights and capes addict either. I'm a fan of the brit comics, specifically 2000AD, which had plenty of esoteric 'out there' stuff in it. (Journal of Luke Kirby, Indigo Prime...etc)

But on the subject of 2000AD, I wish I could find a website for Kevin Walker. Have I totally missed it? He's such a great artist in my opinion, but has such little exposure considering the amount of work he's done.

[Elwell]

But on the subject of 2000AD, I wish I could find a website for Kevin Walker. Have I totally missed it? He's such a great artist in my opinion, but has such little exposure considering the amount of work he's done.

Kev has quite a bit of (mostly non-comics) work up on his Facebook page, but no, I don't think he has a site.
As for Neil Gaiman, a lot of people couldn't get into Mirrormask. Did you start on Sandman from the beginning, or try to jump in midstream?

[Flake]

2000AD had so much good stuff.

Considering the current Hollywood obsession with comic movies I'm surprised some of the 35 years of 2000AD back catalogue hasn't been snapped up. (No, the Stallone "Judge Dredd" movie doesn't count.)

I'd love to see Durham Red (hey, vampires are cool now), Rogue Trooper or (especially) Glimmer Rats..

Anyway, comics thread, here's the new Avengers trailer. You'll grumble about Joss Whedon, you'll hate Caps costume but you'll go to see it anyway.

[Star Eater]

@Elwell You guessed it right. I have not started Sandman from the beginning. Would that make a difference? I'll be the first to admit my ignorance on the series. Gaiman's obviously very gifted but I'm just not sure he's right for my taste. I also tried reading a once off of his, The Childrens Crusade. I had the same problem. But I'm open to any suggestions. I'm glad that I was not the only one that had a hard time with Mirrormask.

I'll look for that Facebook page. Would just love to know more about Kevins techniques and influences.

@Flake Buddy! The new Dredd film is out this year, in September. Simply titled 'Dredd'. Here is the wiki article

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

Dredd is being played by Karl Urban. (Eomer, Bones from Star Trek) principle shooting was done here in Cape Town. A buddy of mine was on the security team and for what its worth he told me that Karl, apart from being a helluva nice guy, also took the role very seriously. He did not see Karl remove the helmet once during any of the shoots. The film, from what I understand, looks to be more like a day in the life of Dredd, like a case file.

Still my dream role for Dredd would have been an 'Unforgiven' era Clint Eastwood...man that would have been awesome.

[TinyBird]

@Elwell You guessed it right. I have not started Sandman from the beginning. Would that make a difference?

I would suggest it greatly, even though the art is not maybe... well, the best (and some of the earlier stories might not work as well, like the required tie-in with Justice League in one story), especially compared to the later books, the start explains much, something that's pretty required when we see the same strange characters often and return to them in later books, see how they have changed and moved on from the things they experienced in earlier books, and I wouldn't wonder if it's harder to get into the stories with only half of the story.

But, I might suggest this book that can work better on its own: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_San...Endless_Nights Some great artists in that, and the stories are short and more self-contained, even though again it helps if you know who the Endless are, but I don't think it's required for that.
Though personally I really liked Mirrormask, and I loved the Spawn story that Gaiman also wrote, so (but I don't really care for his books, for some reason, Coraline being the exception)...

Also on Sandman related note, you might enjoy this more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandman_Mystery_Theatre
This is the new version of the original Sandman comic that Gaiman's Sandman is based off/a new version of. The art is best on the first book (of the ones I've read) but they are basically crime/murder mysteries happening in the 30's, with the utter teeniest mystical twist on the character.

[Elwell]

Man, I really Loved Sandman Mystery Theatre, it's an unjustly forgotten book.

[TinyBird]

Hmm, talking about Sandman Mystery Theater made me remember couple other pretty underrated/unknown comics that I personally like a lot.

C. Scott Morse's Ancient Joe, which doesn't even have a proper Wikipedia page, but it's very calm and nice, even touching comic. I guess there was supposed to be a second part to the book, but I haven't heard about it. It tells about Ancient Joe, El Bizarron, who's some sort of ageless trickster from local folklore and who cheated money from the devil but now is afraid that his late wife is now held by the devil as revenge for his trick and hopes to find a way to check if it's true. It sounds like it could be your basic superhero fare, but it's done almost completely in wide panels which makes it really calm, and it has little to none stereotypical action. I would really recommend checking it out if you happen to see it somewhere.


Another would be bit more usual superhero comic, Marvel's Sleepwalker. But this too takes a bit different turn than superhero comics usually. It's about the Sleepwalker, an alien "police" from a "mind/dream dimension" who accidentally gets stuck inside a young guy's (Rick) mind and can only come out when Rick is sleeping, but because Sleepwalker also looks like an alien, the guy is desperate to stay awake so that he doesn't let what he sees as a monster that gives him nightmares loose to the real world, but at the same time Sleepwalker is frustrated when he can't help people and gets snatched back from capturing criminals when Rick awakes.
The dynamic is pretty interesting and the comic goes through more of the consequences and drama of what would happen when you had to stay awake/asleep for someone else to work.

[Star Eater]

Sleepwalker was great. Marvel does not seem as willing to invest in its fringe characters that much anymore. Last I heard, guys like Sleepy, Darkhawk and a few others had been relegated to whats called the League of Losers?

[Star Eater]

I'd like to highlight one of my favourite comics. Nemesis the Warlock in The Gothic Empire

Winner of the Eagle Award for best graphic novel. It concerns the planet of a group of shape shifting aliens called Goths, who have emulated their entire empire on what they perceive as the 'golden age' of the Victorian Empire here on Earth. Everything has a fantastic steampunk look to it.

Unfortunately the Goths are taken by complete surprise and astonishment when the ultra-xenophobic alien hating human empire (from its base on Earth now known as Termight) reaches out to conquer them. The Goths cannot understand why the human empire (basically referred to by the name of their policing/military force, The Terminators) see them as nothing more than filthy aliens and the goths overly long attempt to parley costs them dearly. Adding to the Gothic Empires growing problems are an underground radical youth movement known as the Young Goths who want to set about the wheels of change and force the ruling empire to adopt the modern technology of other star systems.

Nemesis attempts to convince the Goths military leaders to contact The Cabal (an alien alliance) for assistance against the Terminators, but the Goths refusal to class themselves as anything less than human hampers these efforts, moreso when Nemesis is framed for murder by his enemies.

Here are some sample pages. Unfortunately soon after this, Pat Mills took his anti-establishment anarchist stance to levels of parody and tired cliches, the writing took a down-turn as he sought to muddy up the lines between good and evil. It's a pity really. This was one of my first experiences with Nemesis with Mills at his best, so I was lucky.

[Psychotime]

Anyway, comics thread, here's the new Avengers trailer. You'll grumble about Joss Whedon, you'll hate Caps costume but you'll go to see it anyway.

The last Marvel movie I've seen was the Hulk reboot and nothing else. I doubt I'll bother with the Avengers.

[TinyBird]

The last Marvel movie I've seen was the Hulk reboot and nothing else.

Well I'd personally recommend checking out the X-Men:First Class movie too. Again I'm not really the best on judging movies, but to me it was definitely better than all the other X-Men movies combined and I loved the slightly retro feel they got to it.
And yeah I'm totally going to see the Avengers in theater. I liked Iron Man, and Captain America and the new Hulk were okay to me (and I haven't seen Thor) so I'm getting a positive vibe of it. Well, except that the actor for Hawkeye looks like one of my co-workers and it's kinda creepy.

The new Ghost Rider movie however... Yeaaah... It can't manage to be as bad as the first one, not even with Cage in it still, because I swear that most of that crap in the first one was because of the director so I'm hoping it's at least better paced/structured and has less stupid crap in it.

I'd like to highlight one of my favourite comics. Nemesis the Warlock in The Gothic Empire

I actually own bunch of the (original? other? sequel?) Nemesis comics translated in Finnish. Sadly they decided to stop translating the series and left the comic to the part where Nemesis' son comes along.

Anyway, here's another favorite of mine, a polar opposite of the others I mentioned, pure brainfart fun, just in case there's someone in the world who hasn't heard of Warren Ellis' "Nextwave". Another short series that pokes a lit of fun of other Marvel characters and all sorts of things while being hideously entertaining.

[Star Eater]

Er...are those mindless ones doing a dance fight?

The Vengeance of Thoth was when Nemesis' son attains so much power he kills his long suffering foster parents and seeks revenge on Torquemada and Nemesis for his mother (Nemesis wife' Chira's) death.

That was the last good book, I honestly would not recommend tracking down any of the other issues, even to read them in english, it would just be a disappointment.
Mills just kept pushing his own agenda into everyone of his characters and stories after that point, eventually railroading them completely. Slaine and the ABC Warriors included. (Still, I would recommend Slaine The Horned God and the ABC Warriors The Black Hole as well as Khronicles of Khaos if only for the stunning artwork)

ABC Warriors: Hellbringer, again with -beautiful- art by Kevin Walker is really ruined by Mills terrible writing. It's like watching an angel fall...but not to the same extent as Frank Millers latest Batman issues.

I own multiple copies of the early Nemesis works as well. Whenever I by chance come across another Gothic Empire copy I snap it up. Its like an OCD thing.

Here's one of my favourite Kevin Walker pieces of all time:

[Arshes Nei]

Dunno if anyone else saw this post, but GREAT storytelling!

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/0...per-deadlines/

[Star Eater]

That was well done indeed. Apart from the innovations of the pages, I also enjoyed the drawings themselves.

[TinyBird]

I just got Osamu Tezuka's Dororo collection in my hands: http://www.amazon.ca/Dororo-Osamu-Tezuka/dp/1935654322
And man, that book is thick! It collects the three previous books and it's basically thicker than my arm. And still really cheap, as this sort of more unknown old manga collection books tend to be (much like Cat Eyed Boy collections).

It's one of the more "lighter" Tezuka comics (at least if you compare to something like Ode to Kirihito) and the plot is mainly about how Hyakkimaru slays different demons and it has no real ending, but it's classic Tezuka goodness and I personally enjoy comics with no complicated plot and though it's no Hakaba No Kitaro, the demons are interesting too.
Also there's a guy riding giant sharks.

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Oh. Nemesis the Warlock was a comic. I only knew of the C64 tune sharing the name. Is that his mouth or baleens? Gills? If it's his mouth, that completely changes his character from cool squid thing to grinning idiot.

[TinyBird]

Oh. Nemesis the Warlock was a comic. I only knew of the C64 tune sharing the name. Is that his mouth or baleens? Gills? If it's his mouth, that completely changes his character from cool squid thing to grinning idiot.

I think that's a mouth. He breathes fire from it http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=reprint&...emesis2&Comic= and the similar female alien (Magna, Nemesis' other wife?) ate the little sidekick critter through that, so...

[Star Eater]

It's his mouth. Like a grill mixed with a bailleen type thing.
He is able to part it in the centre, but when you see him eat
he uses a feedbag like a horse. (Gothic Empire) The females
don't have that grill but can stretch their mouths to the same height.
Nemesis can actually change the expression of his grill to reflect his
mood. When it has the upside V shape near the bottom it normally
means he is upset or serious. Though not every artist abided by
this.

Magna was Nemesis' second wife...only for a short while. She
arranged for the murder of Chira his first wife. She uses her diabolical
charms to seduce Nemesis. (Magic-wise the females are the more powerful
of the species.) She accidently drops her psychic guard as they are about
to depart for their honeymoon and Nemesis discovers she arranged for
the murder of his first wife and runs her through with his sword. (Both
still in their wedding outfits when this happened they were married for
that long.)

Yeah she ate poor Grobbedonk, which was a pity. But typical of 2000AD.
They have no problem killing off established characters.

Ro-Jaws was pretty hilarious, he missed his little pal Grobbedonk
too. (Was very fond of him.) He suggests he beomes Nemesis
new familiar as apparently Purity says he's always too
familiar with everyone...

Sorry, was a HUUUGE fan of the comics while they
were still good.

[Psychotime]

One Piece has now sold 100 million units in four years time.

One Piece cannot be defeated. Man, I am so out of the loop. I don't think I've kept up in the last two months.

[TinyBird]

Just read up on Thor:The Mighty Avenger miniseries (basically re-tells [again] Thor's origin on Earth, but differently than the other comics), written by Roger Langridge (and it shows, I might say) and honestly this is one of the most charming superhero comics I've read. It takes a very "un-epic" way of handling things, is pretty "subtly" humorous and oh the expressions Wilson draws on these characters, I love them.
It's more "real" or at least a step more down to earth, and less on the "epic catastrophe lots of dynamic posing blaargh blaargh moneyshot pompous dialog" stuff.

[TinyBird]

Also, in the recent comics Loki got turned back in to a child (a change I like much better than him squatting in a woman's body) and honestly this last part kinda blew my mind:


I can't help but feel that after some years the Tumblr reference will be horribly out-dated but honestly referencing real life things like that is not something I've really seen to be done so it came totally from the left field (well, kinda as he's been shown to know what memes are and get trolled in the internet before this, but..)

[Star Eater]

A friend of mine is moving house and gave me his comic collection
in a laundry basket. Been quite fun going through them.

He had quite a few marvel and DC issues from the early 90s...
I don't think I've ever seen so many reflective metal hologram
covers in one place at any time.

Some really interesting finds, Sleepwalker Issue 1, The excellent
DC mini-series Haywire, issue 1.
Also a whole lot of the Vertigo line's Preacher. I had never read
Preacher before and I'm really enjoying it so far. Got a fat pile
of them to go through.

[Psychotime]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...e-volume-sales

The lowest price of a One Piece volume is 410 yen (about US$5.10, tax included). As of February of 2012, the volumes of One Piece have brought in at least 112,126,800,000 yen (US$1,404,220,000) in revenue.

I don't know what to think of Kochikame being on that list. Sure, it may be close to Dragonball's numbers, but the thing you need to remember about it is that it's the longest running Japanese comic in history, having gone on since 1976, with currently 182 volumes compiled.

[Psychotime]

Just read Three Fingers, by Rich Koslowski.



It's a funny read, though the anachronisms are kinda infuriating, if you ask me.

It's supposed to be like a documentary in comics form about the American cartoon industry. Except the joke is that it's essentially in a Roger Rabbit type of world where "toons" are living beings coexisting with humans, and "toon films" were essentially the "race films" of the time.



...You can see why it grabbed my interest. I never even heard of it until today purely out of luck. I was at SCAD's sequential art building and I saw it sitting on a shelf.



One of the anachronisms I'm talking about (without going into spoilers) is the huge focus on Chuck Jones era characters, who apparently were around during the 30's , upwards.



I think it relies too much on common knowledge to the point that it doesn't care about creating annoying anachronisms, but the point of the story is for the audience to get all the references, so I guess I can't argue with it.

It was a really quick read, I had a laugh, and was actually creeped out by a few of the dark parts. Nothing more than that.

At least it's better than Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Kim Deitch, which was just plain offensive, particularly about Windsor McCay.

[Psychotime]

So I just read the Marvel Wonderful Wizard of Oz paperback, with pencils and inks by Skottie Young, who's great.

First things first:



The paperback print is ATROCIOUS. All of the originally bright colors are dull and washed out and the contrast is lowered. It ruins the clarity and it's a pain in the ass to look at! It literally irritates my eyes to read it! They obviously wanted to print this version as cheap as they could, probably to force people to have to get the hardcover.

Below is an unaltered scan from the paperback book I have in my hands, followed by a scan from the original issue that I found on the net. Notice the difference?



So, yeah. Don't buy the cheaply printed paper back.

Anyway, images!





I really don't like the way contemporary mainstream American comics do their text boxes and word balloons. They look way too artificial for my tastes. I think those types of things should LOOK like part of the actual artwork. There shouldn't be a single "type" of textbox across thousands of different books, and it's especially jarring for very stylized artists like Skottie Young.