Currently reading

[gun21]

Anybody reading any comics lately? Recommend something?

I'm getting caught up on Mike Allred's Madman. The book's pretty much a dose of Spider-Man and Peter Max. The original run is collected in 3 trades by Image, and the current run Madman Atomic Comics just finished up, with 2 trades printed, and one more collecting the final issues of the Run.

I have the original 3 trades, and have read the first two, and they're great so far.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I'm currently awiting on 5 volumes of Cable and Deadpool.
I haven't read them at all yet but based on the quotes from wikiquote they should be good

[Gibson Twist]

I'm reading a book called Likewise by Ariel Schrag, an autobiocomic about a young lesbian in high school. It plays the whiny bullshit of being in high school very well, and the art and the dialogue are rough, but it fits the story. I can't imagine this would appeal to many comic readers, but I'm enjoying it. Not loving it, but enjoying it.

Next time I get to the comic shop, though, I'm picking up the new David Mazzucchelli book, Asterios Polyp. I'm told it's fantastic and the art is amazing, even for Mazzucchelli.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Got and read the Killing Joke today, planning to read again later today. I was surprised that even on the first read through I found things in it that have influenced later Batman stuff in big ways, I'm usually oblivous to these subtleties on the first read.

[gun21]

Mirage studios reprinted 15 issues of the original Eastman and Laird run on Ninja Turtles.

The issues are 50 pages each, and in issue 8 a crossover with Cerebus the Aardvark in issue 8.

I've heard a lot about Cerebus over the years, some good things and bad. From the art side, it looks fantastic, but I've heard as soon as Dave Sim (Creator) got divorced, the book became a talking point where he spouted how women are dark voids that suck up creativity.

I think I'm going to pick it up though.

[Gibson Twist]

I've read most of Cerebus, which is saying a lot because it was a 300-issue series collected in phone book sized graphic novels. What I can say about it is that there are parts that are really enjoyable to read and parts that are confusing and clunky. Some of it made laugh a lot, mostly the High Society and Church & State arcs, and the Melmoth book is fantastic. The art is terrific, especially once Gerhard starts doing the backgrounds. But then there's the problems with the story. Dave Sim isn't a good writer. He does jokes and satire well, and his concepts for characters and theme are interesting, but when it comes to the actual composition of plot and script, he falls flat. He'll spend an entire 22-page issue dealing with an internal dialogue while the character sits in the chair...22 pages of this...and he will go on ad nauseum with a lot of confusing quasi-narrative while shooting through space for several chapters, all to set up the back story, but there are many points where huge events in the actual story are glanced over in a couple pages. He does that a lot, actually, and it gets confusing. I'm also of a mind that he changes his ideas of the direction of the story several times, changes the nature of a lot of characters more than once, and has a habit of stopping the story altogether for several chapters to tell some side story. This isn't to say that there isn't a lot to draw the reader, but his 300-issue story could have been a 200-issue story without losing much. Also, it's an anthropomorphic aardvark, the only anthropomorphic character in the story aside from two other aardvarks, and in the 200 chapters I read, there was never an explanation of why. That's not a big gripe, it's kind of whatever, but it's weird.

I don't recommend against reading Cerebus, but I never recommend that people do.

[youngcannibals]

I've read most of Cerebus...

My old roommate and I had read all of the "telephone books" that were published in the late 90's. At the time, I was blown away by the entire series (with the exception of some of the things that Gibson mentioned). By this point, I think Dave Sim was a little more than two-thirds of the way into his 300 page mini series. A few years ago, when I heard that issue 300 was coming out, I glanced through various graphic novels that I hadn't read yet. From what I could see, there wasn't a lot of character development by that point. It seemed that the last third of the series had run out of steam.

However, I thought the "Something fell" motive was interesting.

[stripedwine]

Apparently 100 Bullets is really good.

[monotar]

I'm reading The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, the first comic based on a Stephen King Book-series with the same name.

Also, i can recommend Bone, It's like Donald Mickey and Goofy in a fantasy setting, only it's not. It's with anthropomorphic bones instead.

[Warlin]

So I just put down the 9th Sandman book, and I'm pretty shocked.

Spoiler! :

HE DIES WHAT THE HELL HE DIES? ARGH NO.
At least they brought back the Corinthian~

It's going to drive me wild too because I have to wait at least two weeks before I'll have the money to order the last two.

[gun21]

So I just put down the 9th Sandman book, and I'm pretty shocked.

Spoiler! :

HE DIES WHAT THE HELL HE DIES? ARGH NO.
At least they brought back the Corinthian~

It's going to drive me wild too because I have to wait at least two weeks before I'll have the money to order the last two.

Endless Nights, the eleventh book, isn't really a necessary read. The tenth book, The Wake is where the series ended. Endless Nights is just a bunch of short stories that were written for the 20th anniversary.

Spoiler! :

Sure Morpheus dies. But not Dream.

Also, did you know the Kindly Ones was originally supposed to be drawn by Mike Mignola who created Hellboy?

[Warlin]

Spoiler! :

Sure Morpheus dies. But not Dream.

Spoiler! :

I can't possibly imagine icecream boy is going to grip and entice me as much as Morpheus. Though, I am near the end so I guess that's okay.

As for how the Kindly Ones was illustrated(by a multitude of different artists it appears), it was a real throw in style. I mean, there's been changes in the past but this one was very drastic. It actually worked quite well for how the story played out though. I was very pleased. I imagine if it was done by Mike Mignola though, it would have been a bit more tasteful.

[gun21]

Today my regular comic place went out of business and converted into a roleplaying game store. Since I'm not that huge of a nerd I stopped by for the last time and discovered the guys went nuts and had a 75% off sale and I got the following books for only $40.

Madman and the Atomics
Madman Atomic Comics vol. 1-2
Mice of Templar
Casanova vol.1
American Flagg
Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War.

I've got a lot of reading ahead of me.

[Sorrows Neptune]

Right now I'm reading the Blackest Night series. It's nice to start collecting an american comic-book series when you're such an anime/manga fan like myself.

[avian-reader]

Just read Goth. I enjoyed it a lot, although the ending was slightly confusing with the MC and some random stranger having a knife fight, and we never seem to find out how Morino got that scar. I'll have to look out for the novel.

I think the most twisted story was the second one, what with dressing up as dead people and this scene (warning: a lil bit of blood). I like how intricate the whole set up is, it's not just a corpse, it's almost artful in how it's arranged.

I get the impression Ninjies may have read this one, because there are some similarities in tones and ideas.