Rolling Comic Book thread 2017

Holy moly, just realized Hoopla has 28 volumes of Usagi Yojimbo. I know what I'll be reading all year now...

Katie Skelly's <i>My Favourite Vampire</i> : got into Skelly through the Factual Opinion and her defunct podcast. Felt a strong Osamu Tezuka influence in the art, while the story is some hallucinatory Jean Rollin thing. Thought I was very smart for noticing these influences, then a blurb on the back cover says basically the same thing.

Doesn't that confirm your smartness?

just got the complete scanlated hajimi no ippo... it's AMAZING and beautiful and then i got to book four and it got hella racist

Doesn't that confirm your smartness?

Hmm, it makes my insight less unique? Also my record o not converting simple HTML to BBcode...

I very reluctantly joined instagram because I've got so many bookmarks to people's instagram pages and there's a lot of stuff being posted there exclusively.

Place is joyless to be in for such a popular site. It really isn't a great way to view pictures but it'll be convenient to have the "following" list instead of a ton of bookmarks.
Just like tumblr, people post too much for me to want to go to the update dashboard. I don't think anyone has improved on deviantart's inbox and the way they divide and display content but ultimately I wish everyone used blogger for pictures (but in all these years I've never seen how they deliver subscribed content to you, I'll have to try that now).

Joann Sfar posts a hell of a lot of new little drawings. She's not a comic artist but Jessica Harper surprised me by being there.

This might be the first time I've seen a Marvel or DC artist getting their picture taken with the cast of a film adaptation.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaMCa2mFl9j/?taken-by=billsienkiewiczart

I'm doing a re-read of Wicked and Divine over the holidays, before the series starts heading to its endgame.

It's definitely in the "admire" rather than "enjoy" column. Does anyone else find that sometimes the dialogue is so allusive (to other events in the continuity, seen or unseen) that it becomes annoyingly difficult to follow? I found with the same with Phonogram - I think I'll like Gillen's hack-for-hire work a lot better than his indie work.

(I mean, "I think I like" not "I'll like")

def feel the same about gillen's work

thirded

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/inkbot-a-monthly-indie-comics-subscription-box#/

^ cool thing

seems like a very good idea but i feel like i'd need to know more about the curators

I can say I know Fantom Comics (a DC institution for deep geeks & neophyte-friendly too) is a delight, but yeah, not much about who on staff will be making selections

nice little page with their prospective first box https://www.inkbotcomics.com/featured-creators/

not to say there's not room for more in the market, but this really looks like "lets copy ShortBox, but be crappier"

I just got DC's collection of Viking Prince by Joe Kubert. It is recolored with solid filling but it's not too bright and all in all it looks pretty good.

Re: Steranko's politics on alt-right thread. Somehow comic creators being on social media is still very strange to me. You did used to hear weird things about them before internet was huge but I still cant wrap my head around all these guys being so accessible. I wonder what it would be like if I was a young fan today.

sounds like the bad side of it, but they also get unprecedented access to them compared to con meet-ups and letters pages

Maybe part of the strangeness is that aside from comics journal, comics coverage and interviews tended to be very shallow and uncontroversial.

But I actually haven't really seen many mainstream guys talking among themselves. John Byrne could be a bit nutty on his forum (is he still around?)

I read through the first four WicDiv trades recently and wasn't crazy about it either. I couldn't get interested in much of what happens after the first arc. McKelvie's art, though good, is a bit too clean and neat for my taste as well (most character faces are remarkably spotless, and he mostly draws teenagers...); I read a few reviews saying the third book suffers from guest artists, but I actually found them a welcome relief.

there is something about it that seems a little to sterile, but I want to catch up with the newer books when I get a chance

I somehow missed the news that DC had moved beyond furrowed brows and gravely-serious assertions that they'd totally look into these disturbing allegations that they'd already been aware of and ignoring for years to actually firing Eddie Berganza. Clearly, WB execs are the real heroes.

Been enjoying this blog a bit. From the guy who wrote the Regrettable Superheroes and Supervillains books.

What you make of his Gaiman assessment?

http://gone-and-forgotten.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/31-days-of-halloween-90-from-90s-part.html

eh. didn't like. far too reductive imo

Probably, I've found a few statements to be a bit reductive but I think mocking comedy is part of the design of his blog and books.

But the thing that caught me was about Gaiman as one of those people who always talks about the power and magic of stories, which I've never found as profound or interesting as its supposed to be.

Bradbury was one of the only writers I can think of who rhapsodized about that AND was great

And even then not always successful

"Highly literate writer without ultimately much to say" is mean but probably accurate.

The stuff about Gaiman as originator-of-grimdark is nonsense though.

http://gone-and-forgotten.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/continuity-comics-part-one.html
http://gone-and-forgotten.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/continuity-comics-part-two.html
http://gone-and-forgotten.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/continuity-comics-part-3-cover-story.html

This is funny. For the Batman Odyssey fans.

dang, i need to read that whole website now.

sorry nope, the trash '90s will not be redeemed

He's not trying to redeem it, he's mostly making fun of it.

The dialogue quotes are funny (although not quite as good as "what an octopus of a thing").
I knew Neal Adams had his own ideas about evolution but I didn't know about his expanding earth theory.

This is what appeals to me about those Continuity comics...

Knighthawk showcases the one thing Continuity was doing which made it resemble the comics of the Golden Age – it had the same reckless, breathlessly piled-on, anything-goes invention of the old comics of the 30s and 40s, when nothing was too ridiculous to fly. Please to keep in mind that almost all of the comics released back then were meant for eight-year olds and were terrible to boot.

I like that more than most other modern approaches to superheroes.

Remember, when designing an ensemble cast or team, you want a variety of body shapes and fashion sensibilities. Ideally, each character should be immediately recognizable even in silhouette. pic.twitter.com/8e4JwEghZY

— Kurt Busiek Resists (@KurtBusiek) December 19, 2017

i would buy a CHICKEN one-shot

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/22/travel/ariell-johnson-amalgam-comics-philadelphia.html

In the comic shop yesterday I realized a little bit of body odor can actually smell pretty good.

That interview seems badly chopped down. Wasn't sure precisely what her shop's arrangement is with comic creators.

Read the first volume of Kaijumax, what a really fucked up prison story. I regret it.

That history of Continuity is hilarious. Thanks for the link!

belated christmas tidings
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/judge-dredd-comics

yessss

Those Continuity comics articles helped me realise what I'm looking for is comics written by Jaden and Willow Smith with a good artist.

http://www.wearecomplicated.net/2017/12/alternative-manga-gekiga-recommendations.html

Re: hardcover talk from a few months ago. Yes, it is insane that Yoe books are considered the cheap-ass option, I've been buying a few and they add up to a lot.
Who insists that everything be in hardcover? Are these people carrying these through lengthy travels and hoping they'll outlive their own greatgreatgreat grandchildren?
Why not make them 20% hardcover 80% paperback?

I've been trying to make a habit of frequenting the art & photography section of waterstones and the hardcover domination is even worse there. Everything good is between 25-60 pounds. I bought a very nice David Jones book today, I was expecting it to cost 20 or 25 pounds but it was 40. How is anyone supposed to make a habit of buying these books without resorting to Amazon? It's fucking crazy.

weight=importance

"Those Continuity comics articles helped me realise what I'm looking for is comics written by Jaden and Willow Smith with a good artist."

Image has put out some pretty wacky scifi comics over the past few years.

I initially was kind of intrigued but

is Ales Kot’a writing kind of derivative and boring?

Ales Kot’s, that is

Agree. He has the same effect on me as Warren Ellis. I dig the fruitiness but find reading him a struggle.

I'm undecided on Ales Kot. He's definitely heavily-referential wrt works/creators that are not often referenced in mainstream comics, which can be cool in moderation but which has limited mileage if you aren't bringing enough of yourself to the table to offset it (see also: Marguerite Bennett's Marvel work, which repeatedly pulls me out of the story with all the fourth wall-breaking 'guys, I just alluded to another work of classical literature!' on every other page).

I think Ellis does some good straightforward plot work now, not just the mad doctor giggling as he throws out *real truth* or things he finds intriguing at the page. I think he’s kind of deep into the stage where he wants to make things screen-worthy

Kot was kind of fun in a way where I didn’t mind the lack of plot coherence or point but now it’s a slog through having half an idea and throwing interesting things he’s read in a haphazard way on the page and what should be interesting is just a boring exercise. There’s not a “do you see?!?” point, even