2013 what are you reading thread

wow that site is really a goldmine

archive.org?

it's amazing. Some highlights:

-Tons of Robyn Hitchcock and Mountain Goats live shows
-Starlog/Omni
-HP Lovecraft audiobooks
-Scans of old Weird Tales issues

but i have only scratched the surface

oh and

-Dead shows
-I Remember Lemuria ebook

http://archive.org/search.php?query=charlton%20comics
http://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Dell%20Comics%22
http://archive.org/details/ace-comics
http://archive.org/search.php?query=quality%20comics%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts
http://archive.org/search.php?query=archie%20comics%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts
http://archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Aatariforcecomics&sort=-publicdate <-lol
http://archive.org/details/blazingcombat-warren
http://archive.org/details/warren-1984-magazine ("The title of the magazine was changed to 1994 starting with issue 11 in February, 1980 based on a request by the estate of George Orwell.")
http://archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Awarrenpublishingmisc&sort=-publicdate
http://archive.org/details/warren-vampirella
http://archive.org/details/comixinternational

also: http://archive.org/browse.php?field=subject&mediatype=texts&collection=webcomicuniverse

Well now SOME of those have gotta be technically not kosher? Like Atari Force is surely in copyright (though probly never to be reprinted for the same reasons as marvel micronauts/rom and shang-chi etc)

according to very reputable source http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/atariforce/

ATARI FORCE is an expired registered trademark of the original Atari, Inc. Copyright on ATARI FORCE material belongs to either Atari, Inc. (formerly known as Infogrames) or DC Comics, depending on which issue's indica you examine. This web site, its operators, and any content contained on this site relating to ATARI FORCE are not authorized by DC Comics or Atari.

or more to the point since it's a joint copyright of an unenforced property, nobody seems to care?

huh! I wonder if the same is true of ROM. (Josh Bayer and Jeffrey Lewis to thread...)

i think the spaceknight and dire wraith mythos in xmen kinda botches that

i mean the AF thing is definitely hinky, don't get me wrong. I just doubt that warner's lawyers are focused on shutting this down.

Still just reading quarter comics. I have a slim stack of current stuff that I'll get to in time I'm sure, but quarter comics have been much more fun.

I was scanning odd bits out of them. As much fun as it was turning up the weirdo panel or whatnot, taking photographs of them have proven to be much more fun.

http://intrapanel.tumblr.com/

Steranko NICK FURY and Starlin AVENGERS has been the order of the day recently.

it's nice that IDW did an all-in-one collection of Zaucer Of Zilk, but with dayglo colour on glossy paper and shrunk to half-size, I'm really struggling to get immersed in it :(

oh man Atari Force

I once had to collect the comics writer Mike Baron from the airport and take him to a convention I was helping to organise in London. At one point in town, we walked by a magazine exchange shop in central London that had some comics in the window. Baron was looking at the display and saying to me "I wonder if they've got any of my comics on show?" Eventually we spotted one - a late issue of Atari Force that he'd had written. He mumbled to me something like, "That was the worst thing I ever wrote!"

That's what Atari Force always makes me think of.

lol

much love in my house for Mike Baron for Nexus

Let us not forget Baron's batshit Punisher stuff in the 80s and early 90s, including the, er, questionably-tasteful story where Frank Castle became black for a few issues:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_POL186vJiGw/SnxMrfALhGI/AAAAAAAAAo4/TDiLWv1ahbQ/s320/punisher61.jpg

Warren and Gary Pleece's Montague Terrace was really enjoyable.

Baron is universally terrible outside of Nexus y/n?

huh that Pleece Force thing is published here but $39.99

nah

Baron is universally terrible outside of Nexus y/n?

him and Rude did a great Mister Miracle special/annual iirc.

that's all I got

some ppl repped for the badger, back in the day, but i've never read it myself

that rude mister miracle special was written by mark evanier

His Flash issues are great. And his Punisher stuff is basically the pure-brain-distillation of every 12-year-old boy in the 80s.

(In a good way.)

that rude mister miracle special was written by mark evanier

ah of course. was thinking I might be misremembering that

when I went back to those Badger issues recently they seemed pretty stupid

altho he is a good foil when he shows up in Nexus

i like the first 50 issues of badger okay
and his work on punisher more or less defined the character for better and worse

Hmm, I might check into that then -- that was during my hiatus from Marvel/DC. I'd assumed that Ennis was the one who really brought that character out.

Ennis did do big work with the character, but that was over a decade later - mid-'80s Punisher was the iconic version for years

I'm reading Ben Katchor's new collection Hand-Drying In America and other stories which is, unsurprisingly, pretty damn great. I got a chance to go to a reading he gave in Los Angeles last week so I got it signed (apologies for the good sized pic):

http://24.media.tumblr.com/304884df405113d7ea9b2ef83d4f3a7e/tumblr_mld7whRbrN1qbknquo1_500.jpg

IIRC Baron's 80s work on Punisher is formally pretty good (never read later stuff like the black Punisher story, that sounds pretty dodgy), but his right-wing politics are also quite obvious in the writing; though Punisher of course is a character who very much invites such politics.

Also, there was some very bleak stuff there for a mainstream Marvel book (like the death of Microchip's son); if it weren't for the occasional appearances by characters like Daredevil, you could almost think Punisher wasn't part of the Marvel universe at all.

too bad this didn't get made

still looks good!

watching the wonder woman independent lens, it feels like something that was made by a non comic fan who had a point they wanted to make rather than explore the background of the character. interviews with gloria steinem, trina and the like; marston's ubermensch bondage themes utterly unconsidered, entirely retrofeminized understanding of the meaning behind his kink. the kind of documentary with way too much cut paper animation and little kids voicing word balloons. made it about fifteen minutes.

cover design on that Katchor looks terrible, at least at that cropping - v uncharacteristic!

I'd like to try Baron's Flash, but then I'm vaguely interested in reading p much the first ten years of that post-Crisis series. Seems like he came up with most of the character and pseudoscience stuff that the run rested on though? [before it became pseudomagic and The Flash Family]

But I bought idk 10-50 issues of Badger cheap years ago and struggled through five or six before running aground

that rude mister miracle special was written by mark evanier

Evanier and Rude did a Kirby Jimmy Olsen tribute in the same style about 12 years later if ppl don't know but would like to:

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Mister_Miracle_Special_Vol_1_1.jpg

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090106125911/marvel_dc/images/3/35/Legends_of_the_DC_Universe_Vol_1_14.jpg

it's not as glorious as the Mister Miracle but it's fun and pretty

"IIRC Baron's 80s work on Punisher is formally pretty good (never read later stuff like the black Punisher story, that sounds pretty dodgy), but his right-wing politics are also quite obvious in the writing; though Punisher of course is a character who very much invites such politics."

I don't doubt that Mike Baron's politics are pretty vitrolic in some of his interviews from the last decade or so, but I didn't really find it that overtly present in his 80s comic work. The guy could be pretty funny in quite a bit of his comics. I saw in an interview that he said he treated writing The Punisher like writing a TV procedural cop show and that is kind of how the comic reads. They hit upon alot of 80s crime drama tropes in that run and they hold up pretty decent for 80s code comics. Essential Punisher Vol. 2 and 3 is where the bulk of his Punisher stories are located.

I still think the Badger is a secret influence upon Deadpool, as least personality wise.

cover design on that Katchor looks terrible, at least at that cropping - v uncharacteristic!

That's a crop of the interior title page. The cover is more what you'd expect, and the book is huge - a hardcover roughly 12" x12" and 1" thick.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61EREiVkyrL.jpg

http://www.gearbits.com/images/thumbs-up.gif

Marshal Law Deluxe Edition has just turned up unexpectedly - I'd forgotten I'd even ordered it. I've got about half of Hand of Fire left to read then I'll get into it.

Yeah, I noticed it shipped earlier than the original release date was supposed to be. Can't wait to get my copy; I'm only familiar with the original mini and Takes Manhattan, the rest is completely new to me.

Does anyone know why it ended up being published by DC? Weren't the original comics by Marvel? I guess O'Neill and Mills own the rights to it, but I thought Top Shelf was gonna publish it? That would've made more sense than DC...

Original comics were by Marvel, Apocalypse, Dark Horse and Image.

I loved Baron's Flash run when I read it years ago - he did some great work establishing Wally as a jackass and then spent years developing him into a more sympathetic character.

I don't know what the story behind MARSHAL LAW's move from Top Shelf to DC is all about. Honestly, I don't know why DC would even want it. It's so utterly unlike what they do now (and so savagely parodic of their backbone material). When I heard (from Pat Mills at SDCC a couple years ago) that the book was going to DC, I didn't have any reaction because I was completely stunned. My guess is that it comes down to money, but that's just a guess.

Will be great to have all that between two covers (assuming THE MASK and the HELLRAISER material made it in as well.)

I'm sure the story of the publishing switch is pretty banal, otherwise it would have been talked about somewhere. I'm just glad it's getting reprinted as my original issues are in pretty rough shape.

Was Baron on Flash before or after Messner-Loebs? Bc I remember M-L's run being seen at the time as very depth-adding.

Our table at mocca was right next to that of Katchor's publisher, so I got to meet/talk with him for the first time. That was a serious thrill for me: he is all-time top 10 in my estimation. Could not afford the amazing looking new book but hopefully soon.

finally picked up Donald Duck: A Christmas in Shacktown

xp Yeah, I guess I conflated Baron and Messner-Loebs' Flash stories - Baron set the template for the post-Crisis Wally, Messner-Loebs added the extra dimensions.