re: Disney, Marvel Comics would barely be a blip on their balance sheet even run incredibly well. They're probably happy enough using it to farm IP.
Two or three indie publishers have opened up recently who seem to exist entirely to elicit movie interest. Predictably, this has not worked well.
Valiant is doing things well - good art, they keep trades in production and series on schedule, etc.. I just can't get people interested, unfortunately.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 19:30 (seven years ago) link
I'd advocate for most of the Valiant stuff. They seem to be on a similar schedule to some of the Image stuff where they run a title for a while and then it goes on hiatus, though.
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 4 January 2017 19:42 (seven years ago) link
Quite surprised they got off the ground again. I thought Jim Shooter's reputation would scare everyone away.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 4 January 2017 19:59 (seven years ago) link
What? Valiant is good now? dang i feel old
― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 20:03 (seven years ago) link
What's a good one to try?
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 4 January 2017 20:28 (seven years ago) link
Unity is their 'team' superhero book that involves all the main characters IIRC.I can't recommend anything in particular tbh, I just get to flip through every now and then and look at the art these days.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 20:32 (seven years ago) link
Don't start with Unity, it's several years into their continuity and it's really only there for a specific event so far
Archer & Armstrong was one of their early ones and is enjoyable, imo
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 4 January 2017 20:33 (seven years ago) link
Dr Aphra (Gillen book) is v likeable so far, by the way
http://i.imgur.com/7MWhDnE.jpg
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 4 January 2017 20:37 (seven years ago) link
v.definition of SERIOUS GRAPHIC LITERATURE but Sarah Laing's Mansfield and Me is gorgeous in a post-Fun Home way.
http://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/server5200/58zklai/products/1051/images/1506/Mansfield_and_Me_final_cover__50890.1467692638.1280.1280.jpg
― etc, Thursday, 5 January 2017 06:29 (seven years ago) link
i found a ten dollar first edition (in english) tpb copy of The Magicians Wife at the Strand yesterday; looking forward to trying that.giftmas scores include the Trondheim Mickey book, the english translated Mickey's Inferno and volume 6 (7? 31 to 32) of Walt and Skeezix.
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses), Friday, 6 January 2017 16:12 (seven years ago) link
Haven't read it yet but the Trondheim Mickey Mouse book is gorgeous and much nicer than I expected (oversized hardcover!).
― Dr. Shitfuck (Old Lunch), Friday, 6 January 2017 16:15 (seven years ago) link
The Magician's Wife is a masterpiece (Billy Budd KGB isn't quite as good, but still well worth seeking out)
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Friday, 6 January 2017 16:17 (seven years ago) link
I somehow failed to notice my public library's ebook offerings include trade paperbacks and graphic novels so... I can now borrow comics from the library without leaving my couch?
― mh 😏, Friday, 6 January 2017 16:54 (seven years ago) link
nice. my electronic options are kinda garbage locally, only about 100 books and most of them are kids series
― Nhex, Friday, 6 January 2017 19:55 (seven years ago) link
Speaking of Trondheim, I reread "Approximate Continuum Comics" recently and enjoyed it a lot more than I did when I first bought it. Kinda distraught at how much it has aged, though - lots of mentions of fax machines, Trondheim keeping a print magazine on computers because "it might teach me something interesting about my mac". This must feel like reading about pre-television days to someone even five years younger than me.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 9 January 2017 12:00 (seven years ago) link
No mention on here of Gerard Jones' arrest for child porn the other day?
http://www.comicsbeat.com/comics-author-and-historian-gerard-jones-arrested-on-charges-of-child-pornography/
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 9 January 2017 13:45 (seven years ago) link
Jesus. Not sure I've ever read anything of his though - total avoidance of Green Lantern pays off again.
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 9 January 2017 14:32 (seven years ago) link
Sad to say, his Comic Book Heroes book is almost certainly the best single volume history of American superhero comics.
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Monday, 9 January 2017 14:49 (seven years ago) link
fucking hell
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses), Monday, 9 January 2017 16:52 (seven years ago) link
I saw that Gerard Jones story yeah, and I def read that book a lot as a kid (can't remember if I actually owned it or just checked it out of the library multiple times)
― Οὖτις, Monday, 9 January 2017 16:58 (seven years ago) link
Apologies, I actually meant Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book by Jones, tho the earlier book is useful too.
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Monday, 9 January 2017 18:24 (seven years ago) link
I wrote a letter to GL: Mosaic as a kid and he personally replied to it in the comic. I was thrilled, but also deeply embarrassed that my nerd-dom had been certified in the public domain.
But yeah, that story is proper fucking hell
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 9 January 2017 19:11 (seven years ago) link
this Supergirl Silver Age Omnibus Volume 1 might be the greatest comic book collection I've ever read
― Οὖτις, Monday, 9 January 2017 23:31 (seven years ago) link
I'd like to hear more about it.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 10 January 2017 00:41 (seven years ago) link
artwork is all Jim Mooney (who adheres p closely to similar styles of Boring, Plastino, etc.) and stories are by Binder, Weisinger, Siegel, covers the first 30 issues or so of Supergirl. Non-stop nonsensical goofines: super-pets, seemingly endless iterations kryptonite, time travel, magic, proto-adolescent angst about getting adopted/going public/falling in love, ridiculous aliens/planets, Kandor, the Phantom Zone, Atlantis, etc. Every page features the use of super-powers in some deus ex machina way for either the most banal or the most fantastical purposes. Superman is like a really patronizing big brother who's always inconveniently off in another dimension or in another galaxy. It's just a joy to read.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 10 January 2017 16:48 (seven years ago) link
I probably need to check for overlap with Showcase Supergirl because that was incredible tbh.
― Horizontal Superman is invulnerable (aldo), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 23:34 (seven years ago) link
Never been a big Jim Mooney fan - always find his inking a bit 'soft' and his figure work a little static. Always thought it was a fanboy myth that he drew his figures 'nude' in pencil and then inked their clothing in afterwards, but apparently not, according to this interview:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lEWHfXUwUAwC&pg=PA27&dq=jim+mooney+interview+legion&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwji2PGUx7nRAhXDfhoKHfZbDdEQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q=jim%20mooney%20interview%20legion&f=false
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 07:23 (seven years ago) link
Link doesn't work.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 11 January 2017 07:43 (seven years ago) link
works fine here.
― new noise, Wednesday, 11 January 2017 08:02 (seven years ago) link
And for me, though you're not missing much, mostly "yeah I worked on that, then I worked on this, this guy was an asshole, this other guy was also an asshole". The line is at the bottom of page 6 if you get the link working.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 11 January 2017 08:11 (seven years ago) link
Sorry, I should've specified that the link does lead to an ebook, but I get a message that says the page in question is unavailable for viewing.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 11 January 2017 09:16 (seven years ago) link
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/134954755
Anyone read Hoshino's 2001 Nights? It sounds excellent. Science fiction writer Berit Ellingsen reviews it here.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 11 January 2017 21:46 (seven years ago) link
i own it; loved it as a college kid and haven't read it since... i should dig it out...
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 21:58 (seven years ago) link
I used to always say Bruce Jones was my favourite comics writer but I haven't read most of that stuff in a long time. A few of the Warren stories are really good, maybe some Twisted Tales and Alien Worlds. Rip In Time is fun. But I don't know how much of it would stand up. Some of his Hulk work was pretty good but I didn't get far into it, I know some people said it went great places.
Most of his other superhero work seems poorly received and I don't think it's what he'd like to be doing. I'd like to try some of his prose someday. He writes a lot of thriller novels but I'll stick with his horror.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 12 January 2017 23:01 (seven years ago) link
Going home from work I saw a guy in a One Punch Man car.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 13 January 2017 15:28 (seven years ago) link
Finally got around to reading McCloud's The Sculptor. You know, actually pretty good. Could've even been truly great if it had been pared down in page count, among other things (ironically the book is so obsessed with time but seems to drag out on and on). That said some of the layout work in it is pretty astounding, what I would expect from the author. Connected with it emotionally so it all worked for me.
― Nhex, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 20:56 (seven years ago) link
Ed Piskor (with a light redraw) noticed something in Wilsonhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BPTIYbaD1js/
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:30 (seven years ago) link
The conceit of the Trondheim "Mickey's Craziest Adventure" is that it's a reprint collection of one-page-per-issue Paul Murry style Donald'n'Mickey adventure strips, complete with printing errors and water stains but that author and artist "found" an incomplete stack of old issues so we get installment 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14 and so on through "page 82". It's remarkably clever and fun.
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses), Thursday, 19 January 2017 20:05 (seven years ago) link
I just finished (and really enjoyed) Patience, which is Daniel Clowes in extended Death Ray/David Boring mode.
It's a lot more upbeat and sentimental than anything else Clowes has written - for me, a lot of the internal tension came from knowing his previous books rather than from the story itself, i.e. you keep waiting for something really nasty or depressing to happen, even though the story keeps not going that way.
ANYWAY some nerd must have read it on this thread surely
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 20:28 (seven years ago) link
that would be me. i thought it was the best thing he's done since velvet glove.
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses), Wednesday, 25 January 2017 20:34 (seven years ago) link
by far, really.
I didn't like it much.
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 21:04 (seven years ago) link
that surprises me. why?
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses), Wednesday, 25 January 2017 21:05 (seven years ago) link
I found it dull and far too long. There's a short story in the morass but as is it never grabbed me. Had to force myself to finish it.
I'm pretty hit or miss with Clowes in general. Respect him more than I've ever loved his stuff.
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 21:23 (seven years ago) link
Like A Velvet Glove and David Boring I think are great. Ghost World is okay. Those are the only ones I'd ever want to revisit.
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 21:28 (seven years ago) link
I've never read David Boring maybe I should give that one a shot. Everything else apart from LAVG I've thought varied from boring to actively irritating
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 21:42 (seven years ago) link
well, of his long pieces. There's a bunch of shorter bits in 8ball that I love to death (Sensual Santa, On Sports, Pussey! etc.) and LAVG is great.
I assume this goes here
Ice Haven is peak Clowes for me but I think Wilson is the only thing of his I've read since then.
― Transformed From The Norm By The Nuclear Goop (Old Lunch), Wednesday, January 25, 2017 1:28 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 21:50 (seven years ago) link
I read and enjoyed Patience a while ago - definitely one of the best things Clowes has done, though I thought the art was a little slapdash in places. He seems to be inking with a brush a lot more these days - I miss the sharpness and accuracy of his pen line.
Never really understood the love for Velvet Glove, which feels too much like refried David Lynch to me. Ghost World remains his masterpiece.
― Bongo Herbert (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 26 January 2017 07:13 (seven years ago) link
Not quite comics, but just watched Very Semi-Serious, the documentary about New Yorker cartoonists, which you'll enjoy if it's the sort of thing you enjoy - I did. Surprising number of LOLs, too, although me and my partner are both twee bastards.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 27 January 2017 11:03 (seven years ago) link
wouldn't mind hearing more about that trondheim. what's it called?
It's a new Lapinot (McConey) album, called Un Monde Un Peu Meilleur. Main plot is Lapinot and his buddy make the acquaintance of a guy who works as a test subject for competing pharmaceutical companies (which is illegal) and as a result of taking too many different meds can see people's auras. I really enjoyed it, especially the beautiful Paris backgrounds - Trondheim has the mix of fanciness and dirt of that city down to a t. It's also very Paris 2017, as at some point in the plot there's a punch-up including some Arab characters and this immediatley gets misconstrued as a terrorist attack - cue shock attack troops, news crews reporting false rumours, leftist protesters jeering at said news crews and some bigoted idiot showing up w/ a plan to lure them out with bacon perfumes.
― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 30 December 2017 12:18 (six years ago) link
the mcconeys are good! wish fanta had kept up with releasing them.
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Saturday, 30 December 2017 15:16 (six years ago) link
Rolling comic book thread 2018
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 1 January 2018 19:14 (six years ago) link