Comic Books / Graphic Novels thread

yeah, The Boys is another one I'm considering. I'm just a bit hesitant starting on a series and buying instalments as I go when I'm not sure about the whole thing. you don't wanna end up buying a couple and then have them just lying around when you're not interested in the rest of the series.

a little story about Preacher: I read one instalment of this during my uni days, when I was still religious & practicing. the book I read was the one on the Saint of Killers - you know, the one that has a scene where the Saint arrives in Hell, and Gabriel and the Devil are playing cards, and Hell freezes over and the Devil's furious and stuff. I thought that shit was so sacrilegious. I was kind of aghast lol. but captivated nonetheless, read the whole book.

also I heard a rumour that they were going to make a Preacher movie and Sam Jackson was gonna play the Saint. iirc. weird.

Hahaha. I'll enjoy seeing it when it comes out. I can see it being stuck in development hell, but it definitely has potential to make for a rad film.

Dunno if you've read Ed The Happy Clown by Chester brown (I would very much recommend Paying for it or Louis Reil over ETHC...) but its this crazy long running comic that Brown did when he was finding his feet as an artist/writer.

I read that someone bought writes to it for a film and found it fucken hilarious. Given that the story involves *spoilers, if you're interested*

I mean, if amy comic to film adaptation has any right in entering "development hell", I'm pretty shure it's going to be Ed the happy clown. What were they thinking!

Say what you will about the other new 52 titles, and the state of DC in general but I'm finding Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's current run on Batman to not be that bad. The third volume marks the return of the Joker and was overall a pretty good Joker story, and Capullo's artowrk is great.

I've also continued to expand my library of the essentials with

Batman: Under The Red Hood

Batman: Turning Points

Batman: Anarky

Also picked up a random Hellblazer one off, and vol. 1 of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip's Fatale, and loved it as much as his other works, I may go seek out the 2nd book this weekend.

I love Capullo's art, but I've never really warmed to Snyder's writing on Batman. My eyes tend to glaze over as those massive walls of text obscure the lush artwork.

I gave up on both Snyder's Batman and Swamp Thing. Thought they were pretty boring. They're in a box. I'll probably sell them to a shop at some point in the next year.

I still quite enjoy Swamp Thing. Was thinking of picking up the Justice League Dark TPs as it seems they are tying in with Swamp Thing next, and I quite Constantine as a character.

I think Justice League dark overall is a stronger book that doesn't try to be anything more than it is. I think the problem i have with the new swamp thing is it seems to follow in the footsteps of the alan moore run aesthetically and stylistically but missing a lot of the inventiveness and emotion in that original run. I feel like the new 52 thing as well as just the amount of times they already rebooted swamp thing fucked up his legacy as a character. It's weird to me that a character with such a rich history who's fought batman, saved a dying superman and travelled across the galaxy met Dark seid, basically been everywhere in the DC universe is now relegated back to just this dude who hangs out in a swamp and fights existential and real monsters. I don't understand it at all. Also the 'search for swamp thing' seemed to also reboot his relationship with constantine, and erasing that history as well just seems weird. Following a comic book character you once loved across all it's different iterations seems to only result in frustration.

The only graphic novel I've read is Blankets by Craig Thompson.

And lovely it was too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blankets_%28comics%29

Indeed it is.

  On 11/14/2013 at 10:20 AM, bitroast said:

i was totally just wanting to say that i finished Cerebus book 16 on saturday (ie. have now finished the Cerebus series).

it definitely has ups and downs (Minds and Latter Days in particular, more or less cross the borderline unreadable border and enter unreadable territory) but overall i think this is the work of a (troubled) genius. some of the books are definitely recommended to anyone with an interest or open mind to genre bending awesome beautiful batshit crazy comics (about a talking aardvark).

 

i now feel like a free man. even though i was reading other things as well, i was always coming back to cerebus and had the book in the series on the back burner as being the next comic i was going to read.

 

since saturday, have been slamming through chester brown's stuff.

louis reil is amazing.

the little man is interesting and definitely gets good toward the more later work (and its at least interesting to see his style develop).

and just now finished ed the unhappy clown. which i sort of really disliked and felt was juvenile, but maybe its a context thing? like, from when it came from. and also in regarding it as chester browns first work. the notes at the end definitely help build an appreciation for the work, even though i didn't find the comic to be that strong.

I'd like to check out Cerebus some day. A friend of mine has a couple of volumes, I think. Not sure I could make it all the way through.

Ed the Happy Clown is sittin' on my shelf, unread as of this moment. It was an impulse buy and is not a high priority, but hopefully I'll get around to it.

Looking forward to the Planetary Omnibus in early 2014, and perhaps the Ex Machina collected volumes as well (couldn't really get into Y: The Last Man).

Just picked up the first trades of Sex and Nowhere Men, and the first two hardcovers of Mind MGMT. Comics is brilliant sometimes.

Currently reading Fatale part deux, after a tip (from this forum).

I absolutely friggin adore it.

^ I bought the first one but haven't started it yet

new sandman

pros: i'm tickled pink that no attempt is being made to tie this in to the rest of the DC universe (thus far). No teaming up with Superman or "The Endless vs Justice League" or dumb cashgrab stuff like that. Just trippy surreal sequences set in Gaiman's rich fantasy world. And the art is mad tasty.

cons: as much as I'm enjoying being back in this world, there is a certain sense of retreading old ground. It's not overwhelming or anything, just maybe a little too much "hey, here's merv pumpkinhead! Here's the corinthian! Remember these guys?". Butttt Gaiman seems like he's trying a new angle with the whole "let's do the last season of the 90s spiderman cartoon but with morpheus" thing

  On 11/26/2013 at 6:28 PM, Phoenix said:

Currently reading Fatale part deux, after a tip (from this forum).

 

I absolutely friggin adore it.

just started the 2nd one the other night, Brubaker and Phillips have yet to write something I haven't enjoyed

Read Jeff Lemire's Underwater Welder and mostly enjoyed it. All of his work is starting to feel a bit samey to me, though.

Also about halfway through Paul Pope's Battling Boy. Where was this when I was 13?

  Quote

^ I bought the first one but haven't started it yet

I wish to be tabula rasa like that..

  On 12/16/2013 at 7:00 AM, ghOsty said:

 

  On 11/26/2013 at 6:28 PM, Phoenix said:

Currently reading Fatale part deux, after a tip (from this forum).

 

I absolutely friggin adore it.

just started the 2nd one the other night, Brubaker and Phillips have yet to write something I haven't enjoyed

 

Seconded

I also got Criminal 1 & 2, and enjoyed them too. After Fatale 4, I'll cut back on the graphic novels, and read me some literature. Thing is with the graphic novels, I go through them way too fast, and then I want more. Books last longer.

  On 12/16/2013 at 8:01 PM, Phoenix said:

 

  Quote

^ I bought the first one but haven't started it yet

 

I wish to be tabula rasa like that..

 

 

  On 12/16/2013 at 7:00 AM, ghOsty said:

 

  On 11/26/2013 at 6:28 PM, Phoenix said:

Currently reading Fatale part deux, after a tip (from this forum).

 

I absolutely friggin adore it.

just started the 2nd one the other night, Brubaker and Phillips have yet to write something I haven't enjoyed

 

Seconded

 

I also got Criminal 1 & 2, and enjoyed them too. After Fatale 4, I'll cut back on the graphic novels, and read me some literature. Thing is with the graphic novels, I go through them way too fast, and then I want more. Books last longer.

 

I have that exact same problem... I need to find a good bick and stick with it for a while. I did read John Dies At The End between a few last month, but overall that was a pretty quick read.

Anyone heard about or read New School by Dash Shaw ? I was truly amazed about Bottomless Belly Button, but then read Body World which I didn't get into, but I'm still curious about this artist.

Took advantage of my girlfriend's 50% staff discount in the bookshop she works at and bought:

Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes

Swamp Thing Book 1

Neonomicon

The only classic graphic novels I've read are Preacher and Watchmen so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into these.

just got my copy of Rice Boy by evan dahm in the mail!

yay!

  On 1/4/2014 at 2:24 AM, Salvatorin said:

just got my copy of Rice Boy by evan dahm in the mail!

yay!

oooh, nice!

starting Miniature Jesus trade paperback

I'm about two-thirds through Craig Thompson's Habibi. It's fuckinglush:

Also just started reading Lucifer. Mike Carey is the best writer in mainstream comics.

Wow I've considered picking up Habibi a few times based on finding Blankets quite good (not too great, but good!). Glad to see that one is getting a watmm approval.